Gadgets I do NOT recommend:
The following items I wanted to put on a separate page in case anyone is looking specifically for them.
I got drawn to them because someone I thought I could trust linked me to them, talked extensively, positively, gushingly “this is all I use now and I just bought a second one” etc. about them.
This person showed how to make the medicines using all kinds of other, very difficult and messy ways to put it together and talked up how difficult and messy they were, but “if you can’t get this all-in-one, you can do it this way” garbage.
The affiliate link I used to purchase this brought this person income. Which I don’t fault anyone for doing that, but are their reviews sincere when they’re trying to sell something?
So there you have it.
I was new. I was hurting. I wanted cannabis to work for me after I had studied around a lot about it. And I plunked down cash for these machines.
I started with the cheaper entry level Ardent Nova and faithfully made the potions exactly as the instructions said.
I bought the “good” CBD hemp (also linked and recommended by this person).
I bought the MCT oil (did not know at the time how dangerous THAT was).
I bought the lecithin (yikes, don’t EVER add that stuff to your medicines or take it!).
And started “low and slow” to take the finished product, the medicine. And nothing much happened. I thought it was me, that cannabis medicine did not work for me even when I gulped it.
I made more. I made alcohol tinctures with what I had decarbed in the unit. Those did not work.
Months later, after waiting for the Thanksgiving sale, and reading the rave reviews of IT on this person’s site, as well as her assistant’s rave reviews, I bought the Levo-II. And it burned my very expensive plant material. It literally was black when I opened the lid to put the oil in.
And at the same time, I bought a testing kit to test the cannabinoids in both my raw plant materials and my finished product—and I gulped when I saw the results.
The gadget decarbed plant and the medicine I made with in their units showed the THC and CBD in the finished oils were hardly present, maybe 10%.
The Nova’s website says they have run all these tests and their unit infuses up to 90% or more of the plant into the oil using their gadget.
Not so! I went researching for correct temps to properly both decarb and infuse the plants. I got information from cannabis chefs, and from cannabis scientists.
So I then invested in a couple of tiny oven thermometers and put them in both the Nova and later the Levo.
I then got the temperature probe device with my current decarb box I use and left the probe in the Nova. I got the same reading as the little oven thermometers—and worse, I saw during the infusion cycle, which needs AT LEAST two hours to infuse after it reaches the correct temp, that the cycle was hitting the highest temp it would get (which was too low to begin with) for only 15 MINUTES. Yee-gads.
The Nova temperature was too cool to infuse even basil into olive oil let alone cannabis plant. I emailed their tech support and told them the temp I had registered and they said that was the correct temp they had the machine set for and it was working properly.
Any medicines made with the Nova tested so weak there was hardly 10% of the plant material in them. No wonder those medicines I thought I made didn’t work. They were just pretty much a bottle of oil at the end. I got rid of the Nova. It was just under a year I had it and they would not take a return. Then offered to give me $25 off their new and improved design but told me the temp settings were the same as the original one I had.
And now I had the Levo. Gosh I was excited. The LED panel and design seemed exactly what I wanted, I could adjust the temps correctly and the TIME to do each. There were youtubes about hacks to use a screen inside for a stronger brew, ya-da ya-da ya-da.
So I set it and put some plant in—and the unit burnt it black. The kitchen smelled like burned fur.
So I got out my trusty temperature gauges, all of them. And discovered that no matter WHAT temp I would set the LED screen to, the Levo would run up to about 325 or so (when the highest temp for anything should only be 280 for hemp, 240-250 max for marijuana). And it would not budge the temp. Even if I set the temperature of the unit to infuse at 180, it would run past 250. Just nuts.
So I let Levo tech know and they exchanged it for another one for me (no hassle, they were very nice about it all).
Well, the 2nd one did the SAME THING. I returned it. I wasn’t going to ruin any more really expensive plant.
So I had the decarb box with temp probe from MagicalButter.
I experimented testing the temps of my kitchen oven (fluctuated too wildly to properly decarb the plant without losing all the cannabinoids).
I experimented testing an air fryer (also was unstable with the temps and the air blowing around kept blowing the foil off the infusion cup after the decarb).
I experimented with my toaster oven and bingo. It kept stable temps over and over again. Magicalbutter said using a toaster oven was just perfect.
So I learned to set the correct temp for both type cannabis plants. They each use different temperature settings for the decarb part.
And I tested plant and finished product multiple times with my test kit for cannabinoids and have always gotten the max out of them.
I never tested the MagicallButter infuser part because it needed minimum at least 8 ounces of oil and 8 grams or more of plant material to use. I wanted to be able to make only 1 or 2 oz. versions of things, especially when I was testing to see what final medicines would work or not. But I suspect it does the same thing as the Nova and Levo. There just is no way to control the making of the medicine properly with “gadgets of all-in-ones”.
Even though these “all-in-one” gadget’s websites make it look all kind of easy to make your medicine, and it “looks right” at the end, and they claim they’ve done all kinds of potency tests otherwise, they did not work for me. And they cost $250 to $400 or more. Don’t be tempted!
So use the equipment I specify for you. Even with all the tools you would otherwise need, and that most already have in their kitchens, you can get what you need for less than the all-in-ones. The decarb box with temp probe about $50. A new toaster oven might run about $80-100. Much less than the “gadgets”!
And at least you will have consistent-every-time medicine if you follow the same directions each time and store it properly.
