And the disadvantage of the punch ball and hose is that it is NOT reliable, consistent and dependable to the individual who is learning this from scratch.
Jacked and Squidippy and lots of other bees, myself included, have done, and do the synth, using a hose method. I have many more of those reactions under my belt than I have wet refluxes. I mastered hose methods, and mastered the push-pull. I learned with experience how to do them successfully, and how to get good yields.
I'm not saying these methods do not work. They do if done properly. They have to be done properly. Each one has a different envelope of success and none of them have as big an envelope for success as the wet reflux. Do these methods correctly and you make good stuff. Get outside that envelope and your yield goes south.
You will have to learn hands on the signs and signals and keys that tell you the reaction is in that envelope of success. You will have failures. Everyone does. Get ready for them. You will have close ones that fail, that would not have failed had you done a wet reflux. You will learn over time how to succeed consistently. I did. I know cooks who still use a hose and rubber glove, a hose and punch ball, or a hose and muffler jar. They make meth. Some of them make good meth.
BUT..and my point is not to belittle anyone, or be snide and cutting, nor to sound like I have some special privilege to sneer. I don't. I followed Jacked's advice to learn this synth, and if you want to know who to be honored to have post in your thread, be honored that he takes the time. I'm verbose as hell and spout off at the least opportunity. He's tight with his words. But he KNOWS.
My comments aren't made to be hateful, but to make a point. My point is if you are new to doing this, for your own sake take the damn time and make the effort to acquire or make a condenser, get an actual flask, get a good lab-quality hotplate or a variable temperature deep fat fryer ($25.00) and avoid the learning curve. I want to make the point in a way that convinces you the method is not just better by a little bit, but that you are the only fool you get to blame for not doing the synth this way from the start. I say fool, because that is how I felt when I finally ran one 36 hours. I felt like a damn fool for not doing what the chemists had suggested politely for years. My suggestion, accordingly, is not as polite as the one I was given, and didn't take. I made it that way trying to get you to take it NOW instead of forty reactions down the road.
I was advised to get a flask, get a condenser, do a long wet relux. I knew they knew what they were talking about, and rememeber thinking I'd like to do that, but I'm ghetto...Even after I got a flask, a condenser, and an oil bath...I balked at the long time, and the extra water. I made six different excuses for not doing a wet reflux. I made good dope. As good as it gets. What was this noise about long refluxes?
I may be and old dog, but I learn new tricks. If You can get me to do them once. I did not need a second long reflux to convince me what a stupid fool I had been for so long, disregarding the advice the chemists had given since the start: "do a long wet reflux."
I can tell you all day that you will be better off using a condenser, and you will think its a matter of degree, and say "so what?"" Fifty reactions later, if you do one with a flask and condenser, let it reflux, and discover like I did that you should have taken the advice the chemists gave you back then. You will then go kick yourself in your own dumb ass for not listening. That is exactly what I did. Don't make my mistakes. If I can make you listen by being a little snide, all the better. I made my point. The wet reflux will answer all the other questions for me.
Maybe, just maybe, if some bee had been a little more like Placebo and sneered and grumped a little more, and made the point to me so that it stung just enough to make me take it... I would have gotten the flask, condenser, oil bath, and run it for two days then.
I don't give a damn if you ever succeed with a hose and a balloon, learn the push-pull, figure out the two, four, or six hour cook, or use a muffler jar for anything. I will give any newbee who cares to listen an earful of how to save time, save money, avoid failure and make dope as good as it gets from the start: do a long wet reflux. The surest, easiest, fastest way to get from pseudo to meth is by the road the chemists take. That is the main road, the interstate. Its not a secret, scenic, clandestine shortcut with good truckstops. Take the interstate. Get a flask and condenser and do a long wet reflux. Its boring but you get to the distination of high yields and damn good dope quicker and with far less hassle that you ever would on the other road. If this post sounds a little snide and stinging, so be it. If it convinces you to do the long wet reflux, it is worth the time it took to piss you off. I know it is worth your time to do a long wet reflux, particularlyif you are learning how to do this.
Notice that NO ONE tells you NOT to do a long wet reflux. WHY IS THAT? Think about it.
You know the answer.