Oil Container Selection is a Matter of Money and Viscosity

Whether you’re using super thick budder or oils with a much lower viscosity, finding the right oil container is imperative. With thicker, higher viscosity cannabis concentrates, you can find a lot more wiggle room with what you use for storage but thin oils need extra care. Selecting the wrong kind of concentrate container for your oil isn’t just a messy mistake but a wasteful one. And the last thing you or your wallet want is an oil spill.

UPDATE: A Note About Custom Dab Containers

We wanted to add a note about the importance of custom dab containers. Most dab containers are ideal for custom printing so that you can take advantage of a simple, yet effective branding technique. Since it’s important to get your brand out to potential customers (as well as reinforce it with existing ones), custom dab containers remain a cost-effective method of strengthening your brand. If you were planning on customizing your dab containers, you’ll want to discuss your plans with a sales rep or knowledgeable associate that can explain how the type of oil container you choose works under the stresses of custom printing and which printing type is your best choice.

Selecting the Best Model of Concentrate Container

There are a surprisingly wide range of dab containers from which to choose and most of your selection hinges on what kind of concentrate you’re storing. There are even thin, plastic shatter containers loaded with mini sheets of parchment paper if you’re specifically using shatter wax. But today, we’re aiming our focus at the more slippery side of concentrates. You could always buy pre-filled vape cartridges if you’re strictly using a vape pen but eventually you’ll still probably find yourself using one of the following oil and dab containers.

1. Concentrate Puck

A fairly common oil container, the concentrate puck is prized for its diversity of material and shallow presentation which allows for easy access with a dab tool, dropper or syringe. Despite a simple design that gets a lot of love, the puck can still present problems when trying to get the last drops of the thinnest oils. Pucks make great wax containers for thicker, stickier extracts, especially if coated with non-stick silicone.

2. Oil Concentrate Vial

An oil concentrate vial is ideal for tinctures and CBD oil since they’re usually capped off with a dropper. A lot of the oils that find their way into vials are of higher quantities and lesser monetary value than the type of concentrates you’d buy in a puck. But CBD oil is still precious and you don’t want to waste any. Vials often suffer from similar trappings to the puck in that they aren’t always very conducive in allowing you to collect the last drops left in the vial.

3. Syringe

Using a syringe as an oil container can actually be fairly useful since the concentrate is already loaded and ready for measured distribution. Many fans of Rick Simpson Oil love the syringe for its ease of use since they can take their medication straight from the syringe. Dabbers also like the utility of a syringe since it can be used to directly apply a dab to a waiting nail. For some people, a stigma surrounds the syringe due to its association to hard intravenous drug use. However, syringes are commonly used for non-intravenous purposes. Perhaps you’ve even used one to clean your mouth following wisdom tooth removal procedures. The syringe may not be strictly a concentrate container but, when used for storage and application, your loss of oil will be negligible.

Material Issue

The material of an oil container is possibly just as important as the model of the container itself. Even materials that seem conducive to handling waxes and oils aren’t always a safe bet. For example, you could easily make the mistake of using wax paper to handle your concentrates when parchment paper isn’t available. However, this is a terrible mistake that could cost you your entire concentrate stash since the wax of wax paper actually sticks to your concentrates. This wax contamination can make your dabs difficult to light and may ruin them altogether. For similar reasons, you’ll typically only find oil and wax containers in the following three materials.

1. Silicone

Silicone concentrate containers are great for oils and possibly even better for tenaciously sticky waxes. Silicone is a type of non-stick rubber so is a naturally ideal choice for lining an oil slick container. In some cases, you’ll find silicone dab containers that are completely comprised of the material. In other cases, you can find glass wax container models that feature a fitted silicone lining. Silicone containers are also highly popular due to their premium insulation. Many concentrates are very sensitive to temperature and even body heat can affect them. Using silicone dab containers can protect your waxes and oils from the adverse results of environmental temperature. They’re also rugged to the point of near indestructibility. As a side note, silicone containers can also come in a wide variety of colors because, let’s be real, style counts.

2. Plastic/Acrylic

In most cases, plastic oil containers are specifically created from acrylic. A major benefit that an acrylic concentrate container is going to have over a silicone container is presentation; especially in regards to dispensary marketing. Plastic containers allow for full visibility of a display product. They’re also typically the most affordable of the materials used in oil container manufacturing. The downside to plastic containers, especially when used as wax containers, is the tendency for thicker viscosity concentrates to stick to the surface and leave a residue.

3. Glass

Glass concentrate containers are fairly similar to acrylic containers in their appeal for display purposes. They’re a bit better than their plastic counterparts when it comes to scraping away the last bit of wax but they’re not exactly non-stick like silicone containers. However, if you’re using glass material for an oil container, you may not need to worry so much since the oil won't have the same tenacity as waxier concentrates. I’d be tempted to close by saying, syringes aside, a silicone oil container with a puck design is clearly the best option for storing cannabis oil but it’s really going to come down to personal preference and the viscosity of the concentrate. Again, the primary objective is to conserve as much oil as possible from storage to use. With that in mind, even the worst container situation can be surmounted with ingenuity and persistence. But it’s up to you to decide the most important factor for you: time, money or oil.