2 vs V4 Rosin Press: Which Lowtemp Press Should You Buy?

If you are weighing the V2 vs V4 rosin press, the honest answer is that this is not much of a coin flip anymore. The V2 is the press that built the modern solventless industry and it earned every bit of that reputation. The V4 is what a decade of watching those presses run taught us to build instead.

Here is what changed, what it costs, and why most labs pressing today should be pressing on a V4.

The Short Answer

The V4 is the press to buy. Our flagship and our premier commercial rosin press: 30 to 50% faster through the full cycle, rosin off the plates up to 20°F cooler, a Duplex 2205 stainless frame, and headroom to scale to four presses under one operator. In the same 4x7 hand pump configuration it is $300 more than a V2. That is the whole price of admission to the current generation.

The V2 is the legacy option, and still a good press. It is the dependable workhorse thousands of labs run every day, and at $3,495 the least expensive way into a Lowtemp. If budget is the binding constraint, buy it and press with confidence, knowing it is the generation the V4 replaced.

If you already own a V2, upgrade. The V4 Upgrade Kit starts at $2,795 and keeps your pump and controller.

Everything below is the proof.

What the V2 Got Right

Give the V2 rosin press its due. It was the backbone of solventless labs for the better part of a decade, and thousands are still pressing every day. It earned that on reliability and modularity, not novelty.

The fundamentals were sound: food grade anodized 6061 aluminum plates in 3x5 or 4x7, a powder coated steel housing, force up to 20 tons, a lifetime warranty, and the current LT4 controller still drops right in.

None of that was the problem. Ten years of V2s showed us where the real limits sat, and it was somewhere nobody was looking: how far rosin travels before it is off the heat, and how many times an operator pumps to get it there.

What Changed on the V4

Free Flow: Four Sided Rosin Evacuation

On a traditional press, parchment is folded to channel rosin out the front while the sides stay blocked. It was the standard for years. But rosin in the center of the bag travels the full distance to the plate edge, sitting on a heated surface the whole way.

The V4 opens four sides of the platen. Rosin takes the shortest path out instead of one long one.

In practice: a 3x6 bag expands to roughly 3.5 by 6.5 inches under pressure. On the V4, the gap from the edge of a fully expanded bag to the plate edge is about an eighth to a quarter of an inch. Rosin is off the heat almost immediately. That is the whole mechanism, and it produces rosin up to 20°F cooler off the plate. Twenty degrees is a difference experienced pressers already know how to taste. Our guide on why heat and pressure control matter covers why.

A Short Stroke 10 Ton Cylinder

This is the spec that confuses people, so here it is plainly. The V2 offers force up to 20 tons. The V4 uses a short stroke 10 ton cylinder. The newer press has less tonnage, and that is an upgrade.

The short stroke cylinder moves roughly double the ram travel per stroke, so you reach full pressure in about half the pumping. On a 4x7 plate, 10 tons is 20,000 pounds of force across 28 square inches, which is far more platen pressure than rosin extraction needs. Ten tons is the sweet spot for virtually every hashmaker and operator, and our rosin press pressure guide walks through finding your number.

Raw tonnage was never the limiting factor. Pump strokes and heat exposure were.

Duplex 2205 Stainless Steel

The V2 uses a powder coated steel frame. In labs that clean with isopropyl every shift, surface rust can start at the bolts where solution settles, and a chipped coating can let rust seed underneath.

The V4 removes the problem instead of managing it. The frame is solid Duplex 2205 stainless, an alloy that costs over 8 times more per pound than the steel normally used in rosin presses. There is no coating to chip. We weld it in house, and we allow no carbon steel anywhere in the facility so nothing can impregnate iron into the frame. For any lab moving toward GMP, a sanitary frame stops being a preference.

One Fold Instead of Many

Directional folding is a real labor line. Fold too tight and you rupture parchment and lose yield. Training a new presser takes time, and inconsistent folds press inconsistently.

The V4 takes a single fold in half. That is the whole technique. We also make a pre-folded parchment with a positioning fold built in. Less folding also means slightly better yields by a few percentage points, because less rosin gets trapped against a restrictive fold. Our parchment folding guide shows what the V2 method requires by comparison.

V2 vs V4: The Full Comparison

Look at the last two rows. A 4x7 V4 with a hand pump is $3,995 against $3,695 for the same V2. Three hundred dollars separates the two presses at the entry configuration.

Throughput, Honestly

The V4 makes the full pressing process 30 to 50% faster than the V2 once you count all three savings together: half the pump strokes, no directional folding, and four sided evacuation reaching the endpoint sooner.

Run the arithmetic. Say a V2 cycle takes 4 minutes and you press 50 bags, so 200 minutes on the plates. Apply the same 30 to 50% and that window fits 65 to 75 bags. Fifteen to twenty five more presses a day, same operator, same bench. Put your own cycle time in and the ratio holds.

Then there is the ceiling, the part most comparisons miss. The V2 scales to a 2 press Medusa. The V4 scales to 4. That is not a marketing claim, it is how the two are configured and sold. One operator on one pump runs twice the presses, and the short stroke cylinder carries into every press.

If you want to put real numbers against your own material and price, run our Rosin Profit Calculator before you spec anything.

Configuration Options

Both presses are specified the same three ways, and the V4 goes further on two of them.

Plate size. The 4x7 is the commercial standard and the foundation of every Medusa configuration, with no penalty for running small batches on it. The 3x5 is the space and budget option. Read our capacity figures as ceilings rather than typical loads: up to 60g of flower on a 4x7 assumes a pre press, and up to 150g of hash means multiple bags stacked in one cycle. The V4 has more clearance between the plates, so it takes more stacked bags.

Medusa count. The V2 offers 1 or 2 presses. The V4 offers 1, 2, 3 or 4. A Medusa manifold for 3 to 4 presses is $1,150, and you can add presses later rather than buying the ceiling up front.

Pump. Hand or electric across every configuration. The difference is feel: the hand pump gives direct tactile feedback as pressure builds, the electric does it at the push of a button. Neither is more accurate.

That is 8 configurations for the V2 and 16 for the V4, from $3,495 to $19,000, with financing across the range.

If You Already Own a V2

Nobody gets left behind. The V4 is backwards compatible with your existing pumps, connectors, and LT2 or LT3 controllers, so stepping up does not mean rebuying a system.

The path most labs should take. The V4 Upgrade Kit is $2,995 for a 4x7 or $2,795 for a 3x5: the stainless press with platens installed, the 10 ton cylinder, and heating elements and thermocouple pre-installed. You keep your controller, pump, sensor and hoses. It is the cheapest route to the current generation.

Run both for a while. Not ready to retire the V2? Put the V4 at the front of the line and keep the V2 behind it for a second pressing on warm bags. The V4 takes the quality critical first press where speed and temperature decide the grade; the V2 chases the last of the yield.

The holding position. If neither fits this quarter, put an LT4 controller on your V2 for $399. It will not make a V2 press like a V4, but it will keep it pressing consistently until you upgrade.

Which Press Belongs in Your Lab

A commercial lab with a production schedule. A multi press V4 Medusa. The 4 press ceiling, one operator, and 30 to 50% faster cycles compound across every shift of every week. Our guide on scaling up your solventless production covers the labor side.

A boutique brand pressing for shelf. The 4x7 V4 at $3,995. You compete on flavor and color, and 20°F cooler off the plate is the margin that decides both. The $300 premium over the V2 is recovered in a single batch.

Home and caregiver pressing. Reach for the 4x7 V4 if you can, because you will not outgrow it. If $3,495 is a hard ceiling, the 3x5 V2 is the most press per dollar anywhere and will serve you for years. Our beginner’s guide to choosing a rosin press sizes that decision.

Browse the full lineup in rosin presses.

Where Rosin Pressing Goes Next

The last decade of press development chased tonnage. The next one will not, because tonnage stopped being the constraint long ago. What limits quality is how long rosin sits on a hot plate, and the only real levers there are platen geometry and evacuation speed.

Two other things are hardening at once. Sanitary materials are becoming table stakes as licensed labs move toward GMP, which makes a coated frame a harder sell every year. And controllers are becoming the record of the press rather than just its setting, so an SOP survives a shift change.

The V4 was built for all three. That is what makes it the future of rosin pressing rather than a faster version of the past. The V2 was built for the decade we just left, and it served that decade extremely well.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the V2 and the V4 rosin press?

The V4 uses a Free Flow four sided open platen, a short stroke 10 ton cylinder, and a Duplex 2205 stainless frame. The V2 uses a directional fold, force up to 20 tons, and a powder coated steel frame. In practice the V4 presses 30 to 50% faster, runs up to 20°F cooler off the plate, and scales to 4 presses on a Medusa instead of 2. The V4 is the current generation. The V2 is the one it replaced.

Why does the V4 have a 10 ton cylinder when the V2 has 20 tons?

Because pump strokes were the real bottleneck, not force. The short stroke 10 ton cylinder moves about double the travel per stroke, so you reach full pressure in half the pumping. On a 4x7 plate, 10 tons is 20,000 pounds across 28 square inches, well beyond what rosin extraction requires.

Is the V4 worth it if I already own a V2?

Yes, and the upgrade kit is why. It starts at $2,795 and keeps your existing pump and controller, so you are buying the press and the cylinder rather than a whole new system. Set that against 30 to 50% faster cycles, cooler rosin and a stainless frame, and it is a short payback for any lab pressing on a schedule.

Is the Lowtemp V2 being discontinued?

No. The V2 is still in active production, sold in eight configurations, and supported everywhere it is running. It is now the legacy option in the lineup rather than the flagship. The V4 is the press we build for labs buying today.

Should I get the 3x5 or the 4x7?

The 4x7 for anything commercial, since it is the foundation of every Medusa configuration and there is no downside to running small batches on it. Buy the 3x5 only when bench space or budget makes it necessary, because the 4x7 is the size you will not outgrow.

Ready to Press Faster?

The V4 is where rosin pressing is going, and at $300 over a V2 there is very little standing between your lab and the current generation. If the V2 is what your budget allows today, we stand behind it completely, and the upgrade kit will be waiting.

Our team presses rosin every day and can spec a configuration against your real volume. Talk to a solventless expert, or run the Rosin Profit Calculator and see the math yourself.