Lowtemp Osprey vs. Mini Osprey - Which is Right for Your Solventless Lab?
Making great ice water hash requires high quality inputs, skill, and equipment that keep up with the pace of your operation. We launched the OG Osprey in 2017 which has become an icon and a true staple of solventless processing across the US. Chances are if you’ve smoked rosin or bubble hash in any legal state (or not), the likelihood it was washed in an Osprey is pretty darn high. By popular demand, we then released the Mini Osprey in 2024 after years of R&D which became an immediate fan favorite with the boutique hashmaking community over the past year. Now, with both of them available, we get some version of this question every single day:
“Which would be better for my lab? The Osprey or the Mini Osprey? And why?”
In this article, I’ll walk you through step-by-step how to evaluate which are the most important factors to weigh and ultimately decide which machine, or, machines, will help your lab reach its solventless processing goals.
Osprey vs. Mini Osprey Cheat Sheet
Okay, while we strongly suggest you get through the entire article because let’s face it, if you’re seriously considering investing in even a Mini Osprey it’s worth knowing all the facts, but here’s the cheat sheet to get to a decision fast between our two models and their ecosystems.
Is this you?
- You plan to wash no more 3,000 - 5,000 fresh frozen grams of any strain at any given time
- You’re going to be running the whole show by yourself
- If you have a grow, it’s no more than 6-8 lights, or you just get your material in small batches
- Maybe you are already handwashing or know your way around solventless
- You have 100 sq ft of lab space or less to work with
- Are operating as a caregiver, in a legacy capacity, or have strict, low limit processing caps as a licensed business
If we read your tarot cards right, then the Mini Osprey or our Mini Lab Starter Bundle is perfect for you which is centered around our Mini Osprey.
Or, how about these factors?
- Plan to scale your business as time goes on even if you’re starting small and want to produce multiple solventless SKUs such as rosin cartridges and not just live rosin
- You’re going to be washing batches of variable sizes anywhere from 3,000 - 20,000+ or more fresh frozen grams per strain
- You’re planning to have more than two employees in your lab, including yourself
- If you have a grow, it’s at least 5,000 sq ft of canopy space or much larger, or you actively source material from multiple gardens
- You’re already handwashing, or have in the past, or are familiar with commercial hash washing equipment in general
- You have at least 100-250+ sq ft of lab space to work with
- Are operating as a high volume legacy producer or have medium to uncapped processing limits as a licensed business
If this sounds more like your ideal solventless extraction business, then the full sized Osprey and its ecosystem including the Nest and Autosieve or our Turnkey Solventless Lab Bundle is what you need to succeed.
One of the easiest ways to determine which Lowtemp hash washer you need is by projected employee count, not necessarily starting budget or even throughput (we’ll get to that in a moment), which often fluctuates and grows over time. If you’re planning to do this all solo, then the Mini Osprey should be the core of your lab. If you’re going to be assisted or have 2-3 employees running solventless processing, then the full sized 75 gallon Osprey is the right move. If you’re going to be running a high volume lab of 4+ employees, then two Ospreys is typically where we suggest starting.
Correctly Determining Hash Washing Labor and Future Throughput
Although budget might be the first thing you think of when it comes to selecting your Lowtemp hash washing solution, we actually typically start with talking about the future. While budget is a critical factor that we’ll get to in the next section, your ideal expenditure today might not be aligned with your lab’s growth goals further down the line. How much hash do you need to wash now, but more importantly, how much do you think you’ll need to wash in 12, 24, or 36 months?
If the answer is you are launching what will become a commercial sized lab but are starting small, chances are you need to be thinking bigger, not smaller. If you’re envisioning an operation where you never wash more than a few thousand fresh frozen grams at a time and truly are going for small batch, artisan releases, then the equation changes back to smaller wash volume needed in your equipment.
What you also need to think carefully about before getting your heart set on either model is how many employees you think you’ll have. This is one of the simplest ways to narrow down which unit will legitimately be the right one for your lab: if you’re going to be doing everything on your own, the Mini Osprey is always going to be your sharpest tool. If you envision having 2 or more employees, including yourself, you’ll make out much better long term with the full sized Osprey even if you aren’t doing large washes most days a week. A single employee cannot effectively run multiple Mini Ospreys, but they can run a full sized Osprey.
One of the biggest mistakes we see new operators of all sizes make (and even some veteran ones) is to pinch CapEx pennies early on only to cough up OpEx dollars later because they undersized their washer. It takes the same amount of time to wash 9,000 fresh frozen grams in a Mini Osprey that it does to wash 21,000 in the 75 gallon Osprey, so if you are going to be running larger batches of material, you’ll end up spending a lot more on labor in the long run doing it in multiple Mini Ospreys.
Budgeting for Your Hash Lab
Superstar hashmaking dreams can quickly come into contact with the realities of the investments required to get a solventless lab going, which thankfully are still a far cry short of what hydrocarbon setups require with C1D1 booths, ethanol extraction, or virtually any other type of cannabis or hemp processing.
That’s why we’ve made this part of the Osprey vs. Mini Osprey selection process exceedingly simple: if you’re looking at a $20,000 spend or ideally less, the Mini Lab Bundle is the fastest and most affordable way to get a small lab up and running ASAP. It comes with all the equipment you need to start making just about any solventless SKU imaginable in small spaces that can be installed anywhere. To get the full rundown of how to set up our perfect version of a home hash washing lab, check out our blog on that very topic here.
If you need to outfit a commercial lab with more than one person working however, you need to plan for a larger investment, which for a turnkey lab package centered around our Osprey will run anywhere from about $70,000 - $80,000+ all in. Thankfully, we offer financing as well so you can get what you need from the start with a payment plan instead of having to scratch and claw for equipment in the future as your brand starts to take off. This 3-4x increase in cost might seem high at first, but when you start exploring the details, this is a small price to pay for what you get. The additional wash capacity, freeze dryer shelf space, RO water filtration, and every other need is met from the moment your pallets show up.
Another question I get all the time when our customers begin crunching budget numbers is, “I think I’m just going to run 3 Minis instead of an Osprey. How much does that cost?” The answer is that while on paper 3-4 Mini Ospreys cost less than a full sized Osprey and have comparable throughput, like we talked about in the last section, there are no savings to be had, just more labor and more steps involved since each will need to be filled, washed in, drained, and cleaned.
The Lowtemp Ecosystem Factor
Buying the right sized equipment from the jump with intent to scale is always smart even if it means stretching your CapEx budget, but you also need to take into account what we call the “ecosystem factor” for your hash washer decision. One of the biggest reasons top hash makers everywhere, big and small, trust Lowtemp is for our ecosystem of complementary products that help supercharge your efficiency in the lab. This is important to consider when weighing which of our models is best for your business, because both offer their own suite of water recirculation and hash sieving accessories, but with key differences.
The 75 Gallon Osprey Product Ecosystem
Our full sized Osprey has by far the most robust ecosystem of any other solution on the market because it allows you to customize your setup to your exact needs and automate just about everything from washing process, to water management all the way to sieving and more. The Osprey’s Nest and Autosieve addons reduce water consumption, improve manual water management overall, and most importantly eliminates the need for bubble bags all together when combined. This is the highest volume setup we offer and the vast majority of our customers end up getting the trifecta whether it’s day one or after they quickly realize they could use the labor savings. For commercial labs
The Mini Osprey Product Ecosystem
Well, the good news is that if you’ve self sorted into the Mini Osprey product suite, our matching ecosystem is built with the same modular/scalable upgrades, just in smaller form factors. The Mini Osprey also has its own Nest and water recycle kit that sits as a separate, standalone vessel, as well as a matching Mini Autosieve that completely removes the need for manual separation with bubble bags. The main difference between the fully loaded Mini Osprey ecosystem and the full sized Osprey versions is reduced processing volume, but they’re engineered to match exactly what you need for the Mini Osprey’s outputs.
Mini Osprey + Mini Nest + Mini AutoSieve
Final Thoughts and Considerations
There are all kinds of other critical considerations when it comes to outfitting a solventless processing lab, such as packaging automation, freeze dryer shelf space, rosin presses, and more, all of which we offer industry leading solutions for. It all starts with the heart of your lab, which is which hash washer you elect to use. This will end up being your workhorse. Thankfully both our Osprey and Mini Osprey models are built to clean up easily and require very little maintenance.
Contact us today to talk with me about your project – we can walk through every aspect of your operation together to get you exactly what you need.