This post goes over how to use the 20-Gallon Bubble Magic Machine to extract bubble hash from dried or fresh cannabis. With a few small modifications this setup can pump out high quality bubble hash to be pressed into delicious hash rosin. I personally do not like the 5-gallon version of these machines as they are too small. At that scale you may as well just hand paddle the material. I don’t like over filling these machines. at most I run 250g dry material or 500g fresh frozen at a time.
Items Needed:
- 20-Gallon Bubble Magic Machine
Large 5-gallon 220 micron wash bag - 20-Gallon All Mesh Filter Bags (45u and 160u are most important, 73u and 120u are nice to have)
- 5-gallon filter bags can be used but 20 gallon are much faster to work with
- 1″ ID Braided Vinyl Tubing
- 1″ PVC barbed elbow
- 1″ PVC barb to thread
- 1″ Ball Valve
- 1 3/4″ Hose Clamps
- Closed Cell Neoprene Rubber w/ Adhesive (or closed cell foam + sheathing tape)
Recirculation Setup:
- 32 Gallon Brute
- 20 Gallon Brute with bottom cut or drilled out
- 1/3 HP pump
- Remainder of 1″ ID tubing from above
- 2″ ABS P Trap
- 2″ ABS Pipe (2′ length)
Clean Cold Water Tank:
Tools Needed:
- Flat Head Screwdriver
- Drill
Overview
20-Gallon Machine Modifications
It is important to slightly modify the Bubble Magic Machine to get it ready for hash production. The first thing to do is replace the crappy corrugated tubing that comes with the machine with 1″ ID vinyl. This will help your yield by keeping hash from collecting in the hose. It’s also much more sanitary as with the clear hose you will be able to see if there’s anything growing in there.

You may need to soak the vinyl tubing to get it on there. 1 1/4″ ID tubing will fit but 1″ provides a better seal and is easier to route out of the machine in my experience.

The PVC elbow keeps the vinyl tubing from kinking at the bottom of the machine. Note that I used clear tubing, in retrospect I would have used braided tubing (to keep it from compressing in on itself). The material list above has been corrected accordingly.


Insulating the 20-gallon Bubble Hash Machine
To prevent the machine from having excessive condensation, and to extend the time your ice lasts, it is important in insulate the machine. I really like the combo of closed cell foam + sheathing tape. The foam is easy to clean and never really seems to get dirty. It does not hold moisture like the cloth encased neoprene covers that some companies sell for this purpose. You could also do a bead of silicone to hold it in place instead of the tape.

Machine Run Cycles
I typically run my agitation cycles as follows:
Fresh Frozen – 5 min, 5 min, 5 min
Dried Material – 10min, 10 min, 15min
Remember to soak dry material well before running. I recommend soaking for a minimum of 1 hour. If you are running outdoor material that colours up the water (with dust, ash, PM etc) you should dump the soaking water.
Some people soak fresh frozen but it is my experience that you should not soak fresh frozen material. The flowers are already fully saturated, there is no need to soak. And as soon as you put the fresh frozen material in water you start a clock for chlorophyll bleeding. This is also why I run shorter wash cycles for fresh frozen. With FF you really need a strain that gives up its trichome heads easily without having to beat the material up (thin necks as my friend calls em). Strains that require extended wash cycles should be run as dry material.
Operation of the Bubble Wash Machine
It is advisable to have the washing machine raised so that you can use gravity to drain out the trichome slurry. Do not run trichome rich water through a water pump as the impeller will damage the trichome glands. The exception to this is pneumatic pumps that are typically only seen in commercial hash labs.
In my home setup I run the washing machine on top of my actual washing machine. I have a 32 gallon collection bin with a 20 gallon bin that has the bottom cut out. The mesh bags are draped over the 20 gallon bin which I put a couple of blocks on to keep it suspended up. after draining I have a 1/3 HP water pump with a 1″ tube for recirculating water back into the washing machine.
Layer the machine as follows:
ICE > 220 Wash bag with Weed/Ice/Weed/Ice layered > ICE






Rinsing and Collection of Bubble Hash
I use my DWC Nutrient Mixing Tank as a holding tank for my cold filtered rinse water. This is also the water I use to fill up the washing machine.


Recirculation and Straining Setup
Setup the recirculation as follows. Note that this is a second 1/3 HP pump, and not the same one used for the rinse water.
32 Gallon Brute > 1/3 HP pump > 20 Gallon Brute (bottom cut out) > 45u bag > 160u bag (you may add more bags if you want to collect a narrower fraction)

Slipping the tubing through a PVC P-trap allows you to easily ‘clip’ the recirculation water line to the machine.


Note the mirror on top of the machine. this lets me see what is going on inside and how much more water I need to add.

Both of the 1/3 HP pumps are controlled by these on/off switches. Without this you would have to unplug the pumps to turn them off, which is not convenient.

Drying of Bubble Hash
There are two options for drying your bubble hash. By far the best option is using a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer (see link for full guides on how to use one). This will get you beautiful light, clear, blonde hash rosin with consistency. Freeze Dryers are expensive so if that isn’t an option you can still make very high quality hash by air drying.

My preference for air drying hash is to just do it in the fridge. This is a low humidity cold environment where hash will dry quickly, decreasing the chances of pathogen growth. To air dry in the fridge collect onto 25u screens. Press out as much water as possible and leave uncovered on a plate in the fridge for 1-3 days to dry. Ideally use a dedicated garage/beer fridge to minimize cross contamination of the hash.
Pressing Bubble into Hash Rosin
The bubble hash you get can be smoked or turned into a dabbing grade concentrate by pressing it into hash rosin.

Quality of Bubble Hash from Bubble Magic Machine
Overall the quality of the bubble hash from one of these can be quite good when run properly.

The bubble magic machine can’t rival hand-washing or commercial top-down agitators like the Hashtek system. This is because the fast-spinning bottom based impeller shoots trichomes into the slurry and can damage them in the process. I tend to find tiny bits of plant matter contaminating the hash with bottom based hash agitators. Top down agitation by comparison allows the trichomes to safely settle to the bottom.

Happy Hashing!