How To Test The Potency of Your Cannabis At Home With The tCheck
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links where I may earn commission from qualifying purchases. Information presented on this post is intended as a personal and professional representation of my views on food, nutrition, and cannabis. This post is designed for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for informed and personalized medical advice or care. Please consult your physician or health care provider before making cannabis infusions.
What is the tCheck Cannabis Potency Tester?
If you've been following me for some time, you might already know that I’m what some people like to call a home infusionist. I’ve been making homemade cannabis infusions for a few years now and I guess you could say I know what I’m doing! From cannabis oils, butters, topicals, and of course, cannabis edibles, i’ve done it all! Now being a home infusionist has its pros and cons, but one of the things that I’m always focused on is ensuring that my homemade edibles and oils have the perfect potency so that I can dose accurately with confidence. Knowing your potency so that you can dose accurately is very important, especially if you practice mindful and conscious consumption. I always preach that it’s important to know why you are consuming cannabis, sent an intention, and ensure that you are consuming in a way that honours that.
So how do I test the potency of my homemade oils and edibles? Simply with the tCheck Cannabis Potency Tester! I’ve been using the tCheck for the past 3 years and it’s my go-to-device for testing all my homemade creations. The tCheck is a sleek and super smart cannabis potency tester device that can test the potency of various form so cannabis for THC and CBD amounts. From concentrates, to dried flower, alcohol tinctures, infused oils, the options are endless! In the post, I’m going to walk you through how I test my cannabis in the comfort of my own home!
Note: I am affiliated with tCheck and this post is sponsored, I ALWAYS speak truthfully about any product that I am affiliated with. After all, I wouldn't be affiliated with a brand if I did not truly believe in them or use their products frequently! If you're interested in getting a tCheck, be sure to use my code CANNABINISTA for $25 off your first potency testing kit!
tCheck Product Features Review
Price
The tCheck THC & CBD Potency Tester starts at $299 USD. There are three different bundles that they offer on their website. The Infusion Essentials package contains the Potency Tester device, a plastic petri dish, 3 AAA batteries, and a dropper tube. This tester can test for cannabis infused butters, oils, coconut oils, and alcohol tinctures. tCheck also has a Potency Testing Plus kit for $399 USD which is a step up from the Essentials kit. Not only does this kid include all the accessory tools you’ll need to preform accurate testing, it can also test for cannabis flower and concentrates. This is going to be great for you if you grow your own cannabis at home, or you’re looking to check the potency of the herb that you’re getting. Personally I would recommend the Potency Testing Plus bundle because it can test for more forms of cannabis and it comes with all the tools you need so you don’t need to make a trip out to the store to grab extra supplies. The Potency Testing Plus kit comes with the enhanced tCheck potency tester, a plastic petri dish, dropped tubes, reagent, syringes, stirring sticks, filters, spoons, sample containers, and 5 AAA batteries. Lastly, tCheck has an awesome bundle for $629 USD with the LEVO II (cannabis infusion machine) where you can save some dough if you buy the two together. Be sure to use my code CANNABINISTA for $25 off any of the tCheck kits and device!
I think the price is quite reasonable for the tCheck because if you were to send your oils and cannabis to third party testing labs, it would easily cost you a few hundred bucks each time and you give up your privacy by sending it externally. With the tCheck, you can discreetly test your cannabis at home whenever you want within a matter of minutes!
Design
The design of the tCheck is super sleek and compact. It’s very lightweight and small, so you can easily store it in your home or in your kitchen. The tCheck comes in 4 different colours: blue, green, white, and black. The design is very intuitive to use, and it makes testing for cannabis potency at home super easy and fun! Everytime I use my tCheck, I feel like a scientist! Aside from the hardware, the tCheck also has a mobile app that you will need to use to set up the testing, see the results of your test, and log your test results.
Testing Capabilities
Each tCheck device is calibrated at their factory using industry calibrated spectrometer standards. tCheck states that their accuracy is +/0 10% of full scale. Regardless, the tCheck has been a great way for me to gain confidence in my cannabis creations and it gives me a peace of mind. In my early days of making cannabis infusions, I was always worried that I would make my edibles too potent or not potent enough. I was only using manual online calculators and those never factored in potential heat degradation of cannabinoids. Another reason why I trust in the tCheck’s accuracy is because I personally tested cannabis products that I knew were tested my labs, and the results were very close. I tested a cannabis flower recently and tCheck said it was 22% THC, and I knew for certain (based on lab results) that the cannabis was 25% THC. Being only 3% off is not bad at all for a home potency tester!
Cleaning
Because the liquid that the tCheck tests is all placed inside the petri dish, it is extremely easy to clean and it never gets the actual potency tester device dirty. After you finish using your tCheck device, simply clean the external parts and you can wipe the device itself with a microfiber cloth if you wish.
How to Test The Potency of Your Cannabis with the TCheck
As mentioned earlier, the tCheck can test for the THC and CBD of cannabis flower, oils, and concentrates. In this article, I’m going to explain step by step how to test for cannabis flower. If you are testing cannabis oil, skip steps 1-3 and start with step 4. Directly add cannabis oil to the petri dish for testing.
Step 1: Weigh out 100-200mg of dried cannabis flower. This is going to be your sample flower for testing. I like to remove the stems to ensure that it does not alter with the test however it is not necessary.
Step 2: Break up the cannabis flower into small pieces and pace into the sample container. You can use the stirring stick that comes with the Potency Testing Plus Kit to breakup the cannabis so that the trichomes don’t stick to your fingers.
Step 3: Add 10ml of reagent that comes with the Potency Testing Plus Kit into the sample container. Seal the cap back onto the sample container and shake for 5 minutes.
Step 4: After shaking the container for 5 minute, open the sample container and draw out 1ml of liquid with a new syringe. Add 2-3 drops of the tincture onto the petri dish. Remove any bubbles from the petri dish.
Step 5: Turn on the tCheck device and open up the tCheck mobile app. Follow the instructions prompted on the mobile app to being your testing. The app will advise you to allow the device to calibrate, select the type of cannabis you are testing, and input some information about the sample cannabis.
Step 6: When prompted by the app, insert the petri dish into the tCheck potency tester and allow the device to do the testing!
Step 7: Once the test is complete, the THC/CBD results will show up on the mobile app. You will have the option to log this result to your tracker so that you can refer to it in the future. Remove the ptri dish from the tCheck potency tester and hand wash with soap.
Why You Need the tCheck Cannabis Potency Tester
The tCheck has honestly changed the game for me and has completely improved the homemade oils and edibles that I make. I’m much more confident in my dosages now and it helps ensure that every cannabis experience I have is exactly what I want or expect to have. If you’re still debating about the tCheck potency tester, here are 2 reasons why you should get one:
If you make homemade oils or edibles, the tCheck will be able to tell you the potency of your infusions so that you know how much of the oil or butter to put into each edible. For example, if my tCheck tells me that my cannabutter is 5mg of THC per ml, and I’m looking to make each edible 10mg, I would simply use 2ml of butter in each edible.
If you grow your own cannabis at home or you want to double check the potency of the cannabis you get from another provider. One summer I grew my own cannabis and I had no way of knowing what the potency was (other than smoking it and taking a wild guess LOL). I didn’t want to send my cannabis to a testing lab, so I used my tCheck instead! I tested multiple nugs and the tCheck told me that my flower was around 16% THC (yes very low but I’m still very proud of myself!). Having this knowledge provided me with confidence to share my flower with friends, and also safely consume whether it was in a joint or when I turned it into oils and butters.
The tCheck is like another kitchen device to me. I always use it whenever I’m finished making cannabis oils and butters and I take the THC/CBD information and put it on a label maker so I can keep track of all my creations! Trust me if you are serious about making high quality infusions at home, you need to get yourself a tCheck! Use my code CANNABINISTA for $25 off any of the tCheck kits and device!
