As thousands of YouTube videos illustrate, the process of extracting rosin at home can be messy and inefficient. That’s why the good folks at Walmart—yes, that Walmart—want to spare cannabis lovers from using hair straighteners and other ad hoc tools.
Alongside its virtual aisles of firearms and Febreze, the world’s largest retailer just added a rosin press. It doesn’t seem too shy about it, either. On its website (the press is only available online) Walmart describes the Rosineer RNR-MV1 as a “dab machine.”
Walmart’s product page describes the $299 rosin press as “especially suitable for flowers or buds.” (Walmart.com)
The $299 price tag—free shipping!—includes a “dabber tool” and silicone container to carry and handle your, ahem, plant extracts. As the description reads: “Hair straightener or flat iron is hard to get enough wax and waste your buds [sic].”
None of the YouTube videos about DIY rosin-pressing feature someone making rosin for their violin strings.
Walmart’s desire to jump on board was fed by the fact that Amazon carries the same item, according to Bob Lee, a spokesman for the machine’s Bellevue, WA-based manufacturer, Rosineer.
“Walmart wants to compete with Amazon in any way, so they started to carry the rosin press late last year,” Lee told Leafly. It appears to have gone unreported until Herb reporter Brittney Sanger spotted it this month. Walmart didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Though it’s a far cry from a head shop, the Bentonville, AR-based retailer already carries High Times, CBD hemp oil, books on cooking with cannabis and starting a cannabis business, as well as the all-important cannabis-patterned panties. The rosin press might mark a new chapter, though. Selling magazines and t-shirts with cannabis leaves is one thing. But it’s another to stock a tool whose use among non-cannabis consumers is probably negligible. How much lavender oil is really necessary for one’s homemade shampoo stash?
Let’s put it this way: None of the YouTube videos about DIY rosin-pressing feature someone making rosin for their violin strings.
From the looks of it, the Rosineer is a tool for the serious cannabis hobbyist. Clocking in at a hefty 31 pounds of stainless steel and iron, this rig heats up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit by way of dual temperature controls for each of the pressing surfaces. A handle allows the user to manually apply pressure of up to 150 pounds per square inch. Anyone who’s been singed by a hair straightener will appreciate the beefy steel cover that insulates the machine’s heated parts. At about 15 inches tall, it’s a bit bigger than a drip coffee maker, though looks more suited to the garage than the kitchen.
The same press is available at Amazon for the same price—but you’ll have to add $20.27 for shipping (womp womp). On Amazon, the Rosineer has a three-and-a-half star rating from 16 reviewers (more than half of whom gave it five stars). You can also find it on Ebay and other online stores, as well as on Rosineer’s website.
In this video from the manufacturer’s YouTube page, it looks pretty easy to use, too.
Editor’s note: We bought one. Walmart told us it’s expected to arrive at Leafly World Headquarters on July 19. Stay tuned.
Free shipping isn’t the fastest, unfortunately. (Walmart.com)
UPDATE, 7/10/2017: Just in time for the 7/10 holiday, we’ve started getting this error message on the rosin press product page. Anyone else? (Looks like a more expensive version is still available.)
(Walmart.com)
