Solventless dabs are all the rage – and rightfully so.

After the vape-cart scare of 2019, cannabis users nationwide have been growing more conscious of what goes into their lungs and how their cannabis concentrates are produced.

Rosin Presses are a great way to produce solventless concentrates at home. No dangerous chemicals or crazy off-gassing requirements are needed with a rosin press.

Amazon Sells Rosin Presses? Really?

They’ll be selling weed someday, right?

A *Rosin Press* is nothing more than a “press” with perfectly flat, heated plates. You can literally buy a hydraulic press from Harbor Freight and install some PID & Coil heated plates (also available on Amazon). I’m not very handy – so I opted for an all-in-one solution.

This 12 Ton Dabpress was $599 on Amazon (Prime) and also required an additional $139 pump.

You can also purchase directly from Dabpress with a 5% discount code

12 Ton Rosin Press by DabPress

I opted for the Dabpress brand because several users in the 420vapezone and Reddit communities recommended it highly. Dabpress utilizes Chinese manufacturing to lower the costs and they leverage Amazon’s distribution and warehousing to make their products accessible. Dabpress has several rosin presses available on Amazon as well as their website.

Why 12 Ton? I went for the 12 Ton mostly for the larger 4×7 plates. As a home grower, I fully expect to be squishing ounces and ounces and ounces – right? The smaller presses come with 3×5 plates and I was concerned those plates wouldn’t be as capable of massive squishes.

In retrospect – I’d go for the smaller 6-ton press over the larger 12-ton, but we’ll go over that later.

Rosin Press Features

12 Ton Jack & Separate Hand Pump – This is a POWERFUL press. The large plates are capable of squishing large rectangular press bags without the need for bottle-tech. With great power comes great responsibility though. This 12-ton press makes it easy to over squish or squish too fast because there is so much power.

The hand-pump connects to the bottle jack via a thick rubber hose and can be placed or mounted within a few feet of the press. At the time, this appealed to me more than the all-in-one units where the pump is directly on the jack. I didn’t like the thought of HAVING to put one hand on the top of the press while pushing down on the pump. I like the luxury and ease of pumping with the separate pump – but it makes the press far less portable. In retrospect, I think I’d prefer portability.

4 x 7″ Heated Plates – This is generously large compared to the 3×5″ plates of the smaller presses.
Plates this large are capable of squishing multiple bottle-tech pucks next to each other or large rectangular pre-pressed bags. This was incredibly appealing to me, and it still is, but this much real estate is a luxury – not a requirement. I LOVE the size, but 3×5″ would be fine for 99% of my squishes. I also wish parchment paper were available in 7″ rolls

Dual PID heating – Some cheaper presses have 2 heated plates, but only one controller and thermostat. Dual PID means both plates will be accurately heated AND you’ll be able to customize the temperatures independently – which is actually pretty helpful.

Drip-Tech Support Frame – Driptech is a squishing method where the entire rosin press is tilted 90 degrees and the rosin drips directly off the plates and onto a silicon mat or underlying parchment.
I personally haven’t found this to be extremely valuable; however, I have not yet adventured into homegrown hash rosin.

Heavy-Duty Aluminum Press Frame – While researching this press I found a few vocal people expressing concerns over the long-term strength of aluminum – which is a relatively soft metal. However, upon further research, Aluminum alloys come in many different alloys and some are as strong as steel. Aluminum is 1/3 the weight – and that makes this press strong AND portable.

It’s worth noting that the PID controller box is also only connected via wires, and it also plugs into the wall. You need 3 arms to carry this press around.

Shipping from Amazon

Amazon can be a hit or a miss when it comes to their fulfillment – thankfully the shipment of the 12-ton Dabpress was smooth and extremely well packaged. The pump is sold and shipped separately from the press itself. The press and the PID controller came in a box within a box, extremely well padded and packaged.

I LOVE that in 2021 we can get rosin presses delivered in 2 days thanks to Amazon Prime.

You can also purchase directly from Dabpress with a 5% discount code

How big do you need? How many tons is enough?

This is really going to come down to what your maximum squish size will be. If you’re growing your own, you’ll likely be squishing ounces at a time – not grams – and a 4 ton just won’t cut it.

Four and Six Ton presses are for at-home enthusiasts who have access to quality flowers and would like to convert them into rosin, or hash rosin. Larger presses are capable of pressing larger amounts in a single squish while having enough power to use rectangular-shaped prepress molds.

Presses with less power need to keep a small squish footprint in order to minimize the pressure distribution and maximize the pressure to the puck. This is why the bottle-tech method is popular and recommended for most home users.

4-ton vs 6-ton vs 10-ton vs 12-ton

The Dabpress comes in multiple sizes and pump varieties, ranging from a super small 4-ton press to larger 20-ton presses.

The 4-ton Dabpress is a small press good for squishing single nugs and bagged grams or 8ths. It’s capable of squishing up to 7 or 10 grams using the bottle-tech method. Both plates are heated by a single PID controller with only one plate having the thermostat. This is a budget press at $369 and I think it’s worth spending the upgrade to the 6 ton.

The 6-ton Dabpress has a perfect blend of power and portability. It has the same plates as the 4-ton, but it’s heated by dual PID controllers. Six tons is enough power to squish 12 or 14 grams at a time – if you can manage to cram it in between the plates in a bottle-tech style press bag.
This press is perfect for at-home growers looking to dabble in rosin as well as growers wanting to turn their crops into dabs. The 6-ton is currently $429 shipped. No additional pumps or anything needed.

The 10-ton Dabpress at $469 does NOT include a pump, which will set you back another $139.
Ten tons is very capable, but with only a 3×5 plate you don’t have a lot of real estate to play with.
I think the 12-ton upgrade is probably worth it.

NEW! 12-ton all-in-one version – There’s now a 12-ton version with dual PID and the larger 4×7″ plates, but with the all-in-one pump/jack instead of the separate hand pump. That’s a really good value at $549.

12-ton Dabpress (pump sold separately) – similar to the 10-ton version but with a more powerful jack and larger plates. This is the press I have and it’s currently $599 and the pump will be an additional $139. Considering it’s the same press as the cheaper 12-ton press, it’s hard to justify the additional cost of having a separate pump.

The separate pump is easier to pump, but it’s considerably more cumbersome to move and it changes the footprint considerably.

Can a rosin press have too much power?

My first rosin press was a wimpy little 1-ton electric press. It couldn’t squish anything over 2g without cutting into yields. More power equals more potential, but it also means more responsibility.

More powerful presses make it easier to apply too much pressure or apply pressure too quickly – both of which will completely ruin your product. Do I blame the large press? No of course not – all of my rosin squishing errors are my fault.

Consider a large press like a super fast muscle car. You can certainly learn to drive with one, but expect to burn through a few sets of tires and a clutch as you learn to manage the power.

Smaller presses will be easier to achieve good results without all the room for overdoing it.