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*WARNING* check your bags!

tester

Member
I strongly suggest every bag owner to check their bags because the size of the openings on the sieves can be way different than the seller claims.


This means you might be flushing your hash down the drain, smoking leafy hash or simply a different quality you might wanted to smoke.

When I used my bags for the first time I left the water in a bucked after the procedure. I noticed that there was still a lot of residues collected on the bottom of the bucket even after it was screened with the 25 micron bag. So I checked the bags with a cheap microscope and compared the size of the openings on the sieves with a millimeter scale. I noticed it was way off so bought a stage micrometer and measured the holes on the screens.

4 bags costs more than 100$ so I wouldn't say it's cheap. The seller told me it must be the the manufacturer's fault, and sent a new set of bags from the new batch a couple month later, but these were still off the scale.

2 sets of bags + pressing screen + some sieves straight from the manufacturer.
picture.php


Stage micrometer:
picture.php


25um bag is 86um in reality:
picture.php


25um bag is 70um (from the new batch):
picture.php


25um pressing screen is 74.5um
picture.php


75um bag is 81um
picture.php


75um bag is 89um (new batch)
picture.php


110um bag is 132um
picture.php


220um bag is 174um
picture.php


220um bag is 313um
picture.php


This is a printing sieve straight from a manufacturer. I bought it as a 31 micron sieve, and it's also written on the screen itself so there is no doubt about that.
picture.php


This means the measuring method works and exact.

First I used a millimeter scale printed on paper so the measurements are not precise, but the scales are visually comparable, so you can see what happens to a sativa or indica gland.

picture.php


Residue at the bottom of the bucket after the "25" micron sieve and some settling and siphoning:
picture.php


Leafy shit:
picture.php


So anyone who has a 80 micron bag instead of 25 micron might be pouring the best quality hash down the drain while his hash is made up mostly from powdered leaves.

I used ImageJ (opensource freeware) to process the images and make the measurements:
http://rsbweb.nih.gov/ij/

Anyone can check the bags with a cheap microscope or with a decent camera, some microscopes with a known field of view can be used without buying a stage micrometer (costs couple of dollars)

Measuring the usual way:
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bioslabs/methods/microscopy/measuring.html

These bags are still sold on the web, the seller told me he sells 1 set per day. I won't say what brand is this, so everyone will have to check his own. Either way these bags could be sold under an other name, so it's better to check your own.
 

BigSteve

Active member
This happened to me a couple years ago. Ever since then I make sure nobody around me orders generic crap.

I did a couple runs because I thought I must of made a mistake.
 

gaiusmarius

me
Veteran
wow interesting, i wouldn't be able to control myself and tell which companies bags they are. but yeah people should check theirs, specially if they see residue in the water after the 25 bag. you should have nothing but colored water left. have also read some bags sieves will stretch with time. i will check my bubbleman bags one of these days, just to be sure, but they still worked as efficiently as ever last time i used them. i guess that's one of the things you are paying for in the end, reliable workmanship and durable quality material.
 

tester

Member
What about the original Bubble bags. What do those measure at ???

Send me a set of Bubblebags and I will measure it for you :)
Or you can measure it for yourself, I guess it would be cheaper to buy a microscope for yourself than buying a set of bags for me, but it's in your hands man:)

If I write the brand I'm sure some people would come forward claiming they never had any problems and I'm just a hater, just because I used some crappy weed etc.
The company also can set up an other webshop under a different name and sell these same shitty bags.
Other companies might also selling low quality bags like this so it's better to check as much as we can.
Batches can also be different, so a group of people might be ok while others who bought a different batch might be cheated while they using the very same brand of bags.
So these are the reasons behind the decision why I won't say the brand of these bags.
 

Hammerhead

Disabled Farmer
ICMag Donor
Veteran
lol I dont think so yo can buy your own like I did. I just dont have a way to measure them. Im not going to waste money on a scope. You know you have a bad set so what are you going to do. Get a good set of Bubble bags and measure them. If the bags you measured are Bubble bags then you should let us know about that.
 
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tester

Member
lol I dont think so yo can buy your own like I did. I just dont have a way to measure them. Im not going to waste money on a scope. You know you have a bad set so what are you going to do. Get a good set of Bubble bags and measure them
I don't need bags anymore because I got some screens.
BTW I got the screens for free, wrote an email to a local company who was working with sieves (cutting, framing, printing) and they sent a couple of leftovers that were too small for them to use.
Every piece were bigger than the one on the bags.
 

tester

Member
you buy cheap you get cheap, simple as that......

Price alone doesn't guarantee better quality, especially in this cannabussines.
Lot's of stuff sold for much more than they actually worth, while one can buy the same or even better quality from shops that are not related with cannabis (like growshops etc.)
 

Vorsprung

Active member
lol I dont think so yo can buy your own like I did. I just dont have a way to measure them. Im not going to waste money on a scope. You know you have a bad set so what are you going to do. Get a good set of Bubble bags and measure them. If the bags you measured are Bubble bags then you should let us know about that.


definitely not name brand Bubble Bags - they're legitimate micron sizes.

the mfg on Alibaba that has the canvas-looking outside with PVC coated inside has the meshes all wrong. Many, many ebay sellers selling sets from this exact manufacturer.

another things is the thickness of the filament itself. thin filament, even if micron spacing is correct, will wear and stretch. You want nice, thick filament. the 220u and 160u bags should feel 'stiff' when you squeeze the mesh not thin and silky. The 220 bag from the alibaba mfg was closer to 450 micron with a super soft filament that felt supple like a 73u or 25u bag should. Would get a hole first use, not to mention be completely useless anyways.

To compare, here is Bubble Bag 220u vs. these Ebay bag 220u. Notice the real "Bubble Bags" have filament that is nearly equal in thickness to the size of the micron hole, where as the Ebay shit is about 1/3 the thickness of the hole (i.e. much thinner, weaker, etc.. not to mention the hole isn't even the right size):

Bubble Bag 220u:
3p0QQ.jpg


Ebay Bag 220u:
7KdVm.jpg




HERE are the bags you DEFINITELY want to avoid:

It's the bags that look like these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/5-Gallon-8-Bag-...673?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c5d9f3801

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-5-gal-5-Bag...613?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a7123305

and this is the mfg on Alibaba:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/227698337/bubble_bag.html


I'm sure there are many, many other brands that are wrong. But this is one that I know for sure. These are cheap for a very good reason - they're shit. For reference, the mfg sells these for $2.50/bag for the 5 gallon bags (or $12.00 for a 5 bag set) to get an idea of the markup those Ebay sellers have in them. This does not mean all bags besides Bubble Bags are bad...but I wanted you guys looking for a 'deal' to definitely avoid the above said bags.
 
G

Guest3498

Buy bubblabag brand and don't worry about this sort of thing, you get what you pay for
 
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