Wondering what the right type of bag you need for your rosin heat press?
We’ve put together a comprehensive guide to help you make the right decision when it comes to buying the right bag for you. This includes the type of bags, why you need one as part of the extraction process, and ultimately how to make the right choice for the type of press you own.
Last updated – July 2021 with new products, prices and pressing information
Choosing the best rosin bag for your pressing requirements
What exactly are rosin press bags?
Put simply, they are an essential part of rosin pressing, or removing the cannabinoid oils from the cannabis plant.
They are bags, similar in some ways to tea bags or coffee filters, that act as filters to keep plant material from getting into the oil that is removed. Rosin bags are typically made from nylon mesh that is sewed together to create a rectangular bag. And if you’ve found the right rosin press from our guide, then you’ll need to seriously consider the types of bags that will go with your new pressing unit.
They can come in a variety of sizes and micron units, which measures how fine the grate in the bag is. To use a rosin press bag, you first have to turn it inside out, then you simply break whatever material you’re using down, put it inside the bag, and fold over the bag to keep everything inside.
Factors to Consider Before Buying Rosin Press Bags
- Micron units: Rosin press bags usually come in a range of 25-180 micron units. The lower units are better for pressing fine material, like dry sift or bubble hash. Higher units are used to press cannabis flower or trim. The unit will also affect how well your rosin is filtered and the yield of your final result. Lower units filter better, but usually result in lower yields, while higher units have higher yields but don’t filter as well.
- Size of the bag: You’ll want to make sure you buy a size that is compatible with your rosin press plate. If you have a 2”x5” plate, you won’t want to buy a bag with a width of 3” because it won’t fit. Also keep the size in mind when filling the bags, as you don’t want to overfill a small bag. This could result in blowouts if you’re not careful.
- Material: You can buy press bags that are made from silk or use metal screens, but it’s generally agreed that nylon is the best material, as silk can be less durable and metal screens can result in lower quality rosin that contains a lot of leftover plant material. You’ll also want to see if the bag is made from 100% nylon, since those bags are going to be higher quality that ones made with other materials mixed with the nylon.
- Dyes: I’d say I’m not alone in preferring my bags to be dye free, since I’ll be ingesting the oil I press out of them. You don’t want any dye leaching into your product, as that’s going to be harmful to you or anyone else who ends up using the rosin.
- Solvent-Resistance: Do you want to be able to wash and reuse your bags? I personally wash them with rubbing alcohol, so I need a bag that is solvent resistant. If you don’t care about reusing bags, then this isn’t going to be a big deal to you.
- Pressure tolerance: If you prefer to use higher amounts of pressure when pressing your rosin, you’ll want a bag that can withstand that pressure. Be sure to check the product specs to see what kinds of pressure they’re able to handle, otherwise you might experience blowouts.
- Heat tolerance: You’ll want to check the temperatures a bag can handle as well. If you’re using a method of pressing that involves higher temperatures, you want bags that can be used with those higher temperatures. Again, using a higher temperature than a bag can handle may result in blowouts.
Products – My Favourite Rosin Bags For Pressing
My overall favourite based on quality and price:
Premium Nylon Tea Filter Press Screen Bags (The Press Club)
The Press Club offers the industry’s most trusted rosin filter bags backed by a bullet-proof Zero Blowout Guarantee. Made with un-dyed, food-grade nylon and sewn together with proprietary stitch work, the pink thread signifies each bag’s innovative construction and rock solid seams. This gives you peace of mind that the filters will hold up under the pressure of solventless extraction.
Performance under pressure is matched by the superior heat resistance of The Press Club’s rosin filter bags, which are able to withstand temperatures well above those used in pressing rosin. Thanks to the high quality materials used, the nylon won’t transfer into your product.
The Press Club bags are pre-flipped with the seams on the inside, saving you that extra step of flipping the bags inside out. Quality, durability, and ease of use comes standard with all of The Press Club’s products. To top it off, The Press Club is a small family business making their rosin filter bags in the USA.
Available in a full spectrum of pore sizes ranging from 5-220 microns, you can use The Press Club rosin bags to press rosin regardless of the starting material. For pressing flower, the 120 and 90 micron filter are recommended. Bubble hash is best pressed in the 25-37 micron range while dry sift works best with 37-75 micron bags. Double bagging with a 160 micron bag on the outside gives the filters extra structure and stability to manage the massive flows of rosin common with pressing bubble hash and dry sift.
Even the toughest bags will underperform if they’re over filled. Avoid over packing the rosin bags, as too much source material stuffed into a filter bag will create the perfect environment for blowouts. That said, The Press Club rosin bags give you the best protection against blowouts, hands down.
Rosin filter bags are used for rosin extraction, to hold cannabis and filter the freshly pressed rosin as it is extracted from the material. Rosin bags provide a barrier through which rosin passes, removing impurities such as plant particles and excess fats and lipids.
Rosin bags also help maintain accurate pressure on the source material during, as pressure is increased during the extraction. Rosin bags are packed with either cannabis flowers, dry sift, or hash, and placed between heated rosin plates for solventless extraction.
The best material is food-grade and heat- resistant, allows for flex under pressure, and is pliable enough to easily work with. Although there are nylon, silk, and metal bags available, only nylon provides the optimum performance.
Filling rosin bags properly is a key requirement for getting the most from your extraction.
The bags should be packed tightly enough to reduce gaps or air pockets within the source material, but not so tightly that they will burst under pressure. Allow for a bit of excess material at the top of the bag after filling, which you can fold over to keep the material securely inside the bag while pressing.
Warming up the material between the plates before applying pressure, and increasing pressure slowly and gradually during extraction are both important steps to reducing the chances of a blowout occurring. Even the strongest bags will burst if placed under a high amount of pressure right away.
The bags should gradually get more and more pressure which allows the rosin to flow out evenly and steadily. If pressure is applied all at once, the immediate and abundant flow of rosin will break the seams. The Press Club bags are the most resistant to blowouts than any other bags on the market.
Pros:
- Premium-grade nylon that’s heat and pressure resistant well beyond the requirements of solventless extraction.
- Pre-flipped inside out to save you time and labor costs.
- The pink thread signifying the proprietary stitch work that forms the backbone of The Press Club rosin bags’ durability.
- Small business and made in the USA, offering superior solventless accessories at a competitive price.
Cons:
- Not the lowest price point in the market, but still offering massive value for the level of quality you receive.
- Only available in the USA
Nylon Rosin Press Filter Bags 2”x4.5” (Squish Strong)
The Squish Strong’s rosin press bags are made with 100% nylon. They are double stitched, which is Squish Strong’s way of preventing blowouts. They are able to withstand temperatures of up to 300 F and “extreme pressure”, according to product specs. These bags are also compatible with any type of press you may have and the company doesn’t try to say that they “work better” with any one specific product.
Pros
- Double stitching. Each bag is stitched twice, making the bags stronger as a way to prevent blowouts.
- Durable enough for multiple pressings. Assuming the bags don’t blowout or rip in anyway, you can clean and reuse them for pressing more than once.
Cons
- Five of the bags I used from the 20-pack had a blowout. This resulted in quite a bit of oil being polluted with plant material. Packing less material didn’t seem to affect the chance of a blowout.
- Stitching soaks up oil. Even without blowouts, some of the oil was lost due to the stitching absorbing a higher amount of it compared to other bags.
- Not actually able to withstand “extreme pressure”. I have a 20-ton press and these bags definitely couldn’t handle that at full pressure. In fact, anything over 10 resulted in ripping or blowouts.
120 Micron Rosin Press Screen Bags (Squish Bags)
These bags are also available in 37 and 90 micron sizes. They are free of all chemicals and dyes, which makes them safe to use as filtration tools. Each bag can hold 15-25g of material and if you have less than that, it’s safe to cut and fold to size without worrying about it damaging the bags. The Squish Bag’s rosin press bags work best with pressures of 1,000-1,500psi and temperatures between 180° and 240° F.
Pros
- Holds a lot of material. You can pack in quite a bit of material into these bags without them ripping or tearing. I wouldn’t overdo it, but I had no problem with putting 15g into the bags.
- Safe to cut. The bags are easy to trim when using smaller amounts of material. They don’t tear when cutting and this doesn’t seem to result in a higher amount of blowouts.
Cons
- The 120 micron bags feel almost like sandpaper, definitely not as soft as some of the other bags used.
- 120 microns is probably a bit too high for me. The filtration is not great at all, resulting in a lot of plant material getting into my pressed oil. If I used these again, I would test them with one of the lower micron sizes.
- Lower temperature limit. These bags work best with temperatures under 240° F, which isn’t as high as some other bags. If you want to be able to use temperatures over that, these may not be the best bags for you
Rosin Press Filter Bag – Screens for Solventless Oil Extractions in Rosin Tech
(Agar Industries)
Agar Industries is another company that flips their bags inside out for you. Their bags are made with food grade nylon and are dye free, making them safe to use for rosin extraction. They are washable and reusable and also contain a strong stitching design to help prevent blowouts. Agar Industries says to use these with their Agar Pre Press to achieve the best rosin pressing results.
Pros
- Inside out. Again, it’s a great time saver that these bags are already flipped inside out. I also don’t have to worry about damaging the bags while flipping them myself.
- Filters well. The end product that made it out of the bag was high quality, with very little plant material still inside.
Cons
- Absorbs oil. These bags hold in A LOT of the oil pressed. It sticks in the stitching, as well as the mesh itself, which isn’t great at all for yield. If you don’t fold the bags over, oil doesn’t get stuck in the folds, but then you increase the chance of having a blowout.
- I had a lot of them. The bags don’t seem able to handle high amounts of pressure or temperature. If it was just one or the other, that wouldn’t be too bad, but I personally don’t like to press at both low temperatures and with low pressure combined.
- Can’t hold a lot of material. Not the worst by itself, but using less material in the bags also results in oil being lost in the extra space inside the bag. The fact you can’t fill the bag entirely also means you have to use more bags to press the same amount of material that other products can do with one bag.
Conclusion
The clear winner is The Press Club’s bags. All have their own good points, but I feel The Press Club creates bags that have all the pros of the other bags wrapped up into one high quality rosin press bag.
They can be used with flower, bubble hash, and sift. You can press at higher temperatures without worrying about the bags bursting open and they can also withstand high amounts of pressure, making them perfect for anyone, regardless of the temperatures or pressure you use.
I was pleased with the quality of the rosin I receive from these bags. It had virtually no plant material left inside. The bags also didn’t absorb as much material as some of the other bags I tried, so even though the lower micron units tend to result in lower yields, the lower yield wasn’t because all my oil was being trapped inside the bag itself. Overall, I’d say these bags are great for anyone who is pressing rosin, whether you’re a first timer or an old pro, due to how many great qualities they have.
