Under the hood, tCheck is a photo spectrometer. It works by shining various wavelengths (colors) of light through your infusions. The darker the infusion, the more potent it is. The difficulty is that cannabinoids such as THC and CBD are not visible to the naked eye. You can only “see” them under ultraviolet light.
While the tCheck tray may look fairly simple, there is a fair bit of complexity in it. In fact, the tray design is patented and the tray performs several functions:
- It focuses the UV light sources through the oil and onto the detector
- It creates a known thickness of oil every time, no matter how much oil you put into the well area
Because of these functions, there were some requirements that had to be considered when designing the tray:
- It must be washable and reusable – I’m sure that you can appreciate not having to purchase more stuff that goes into landfills.
- It must be cost effective – a tray made of quartz would have been super expensive (Google quartz cuvette and you’ll see what I mean).
- It must stand up to daily kitchen use – withstand falling/dropping without breaking.
- It must be UV transparent – this was quite difficult as most acrylics are UV stabilized, meaning that they don’t yellow in the sun which means that they have UV blockers.
As a result, we created the tray you have that uses a special formulation of plastic. Because of this special plastic, extra care must be taken when handling, using, and cleaning it.
This is by no means an exhaustive list but here are a few things that we know that will absolutely not damage the tray:
- Ethanol (drinking alcohol)
- Isopropyl alcohol (not for consumption – we use it for cleaning)
- MCT coconut oil (food grade)
- Olive oil / EVOO
- Butter / Ghee
- Sesame oil and Grapeseed oil*
- Vegetable glycerin*
- Water
- Dawn dish washing detergent
* tCheck does not test infusions based on this material but these oils / solvents have been shown to not damage the tray.
If you have any questions regarding the tray or would like to share your experience, please reach out to support@tcheck.me.
