Product Review: LEVO Oil Infuser

The LEVO oil infuser is a new product that’s elegant, quiet, and lets you infuse cannabis or other herbs into any vegetable oil or melted butter (and even alcohol if you set the temperature appropriately) for culinary purposes. Even though it lets you take complete control of all the time and temperature settings for your infusion, it’s easy to both use and clean, and costs $199 (plus tax and shipping). Let’s find out how well it works.

First Impressions

The LEVO looks like nothing so much as a coffee maker, especially in the black color scheme (they also have copper and stainless finishes for the same price).

Everything on the LEVO is controlled by a touch keypad on the front, which is composed of buttons with icons (it is possible to mix up the icons a bit when you’re new and excited and the light isn’t bright and you’re over 60, however). And when LEVO says “everything”, they actually mean “yes, even just to open this thing up you’re going to have to plug it in, turn it on, and hit the unlock button first”. This is quite deliberate, and part of the thinking behind this is to “protect the children” so that parents don’t have to worry about their kids accidentally opening the top up and getting access to what’s inside (all heating, stirring, and infusing goes on pause as soon as the top is unlocked for safety as well).

What’s inside is basically a high-class miniature sous vide machine with a laboratory-type magnetic stirrer for circulating liquid. But unlike general-purpose sous vide controllers, which are meant to control the temperature of water being circulated around food to cook it, the LEVO circulates your liquid of choice (generally vegetable oil or alcohol) through your herbs to fully infuse it. You set the time and temperature, and the LEVO does the rest, turning the heat and stirring off when it’s all done, and you dispense it when you’re ready. Everything that touches your food is either stainless steel or silicone.

Christina Bellman, the CEO and inventor of LEVO, told me “I’ve always been passionate about natural foods and remedies, as avoiding chemicals and processed ingredients has helped me control severe migraines that I’ve had since I was a teenager. I believe in helping others help themselves by making it easy to access natural, wholesome medicine at home. Our bodies are incredible, with the proper fuel! I continue to be fascinated with and inspired by those who have even more serious conditions and are able to heal naturally. The personal stories from our customers have made this experience particularly rewarding.”

The LEVO people were nice enough to send me a sample unit for this review, and it was one of the first off the production line. The unit defaults to a setting of 150ºF for 30 minutes, and just a few keypresses changes that to anything up to 200ºF for 10 hours. Another key combination changes the readout to Celsius. The LEVO only takes between 20 and 45 minutes to get up to maximum temperature, depending on how full the reservoir is and what liquid you’re heating.

After beginning testing, unfortunately, I ran into a problem for which I am going to accept part of the blame. In the process of first opening the unit, you must remove a plastic bag fastened around the reservoir. During this operation, I managed somehow to pull a silicone hose off the bottom of the reservoir, leaving it trapped inside the unit. Unfortunately, it was not clear to me that there was a hose that belonged on the reservoir rather than in the dispensing spout, and after my first test run all the water leaked out and damaged the internal electronics. So if you get a LEVO, make sure you hold the Dispense button down constantly during any operations involving inserting or removing the resrvoir.

In any case, we discussed this at length with LEVO, and they are now circulating more new information to their customers to help them avoid a similar problem, and they provided superb “above and beyond” customer service by immediately sending out a new unit. Problem solved!

Bubble, Bubble, But Really No Trouble

The new LEVO couldn’t have come at a better time, because Felicity had just about run out of her favorite Bubblegum capsules. This strain has been getting hard to come by around our parts, but a friend of mine managed to run into some (in the form of bubble hash) from a good dispensary somewhat south of here, so I took the opportunity to try whipping up a batch of infused coconut oil using the LEVO.

Normally with concentrates, I process everything by hand because the quantities involved are so small. Using a single gram of hash (equivalent to about 1/8 ounce of cannabis) usually leads to me using around 6 tablespoons of coconut oil for the strength Felicity prefers. I was concerned when I realized I’d have to make that gram stretch over a full 5 ounces, which is almost twice as much oil, but it’s the minimum quantity of liquid you can process in the LEVO due to the length of the heat sensor. Still, it’s the lowest usable minimum quantity we’ve ever seen from any similar product.

Concentrate container emptying into LEVO pod

As I happily discovered after using one to decarb the bubble hash, an industry-standard silicone concentrate container fits exactly in the pod! The hash was a bit sticky from decarb, but curled up nicely at the bottom of the pod. Then I carefully poured in a measured 5 ounces of coconut oil. I saw something in their online guide about using a temperature between 160ºF and 175º, so I shrugged my shoulders, set the LEVO for 168º and 4 hours, and started it up. And here was the biggest difference between the LEVO and the Magical Butter Machine: the LEVO is almost completely silent. Even though the stirrer is running constantly, it’s very quiet due to the magnetic technology.

I opened the lid after 3 hours and was surprised to see that the oil in the reservoir was much darker in color than the oil I had been draining. A moment’s thought made the reason obvious: the small amount of oil I was releasing through the tube was still mostly in the tube. This means that if you’re doing any kind of testing to see how time affects potency, you’ll get more accurate readings by opening the lid and taking your sample directly from the reservoir, rather than draining a bit every hour using the “dispense” button.

Before
After

This is also when I found out that the LEVO was designed so that when you open the lid during the infusion cycle, it automatically goes right back to infusion when you close the lid again (kind of like a washing machine). I did run into one odd thing at this point: the oil surrounding and behind the pod was much darker than the rest of the oil in the reservoir, something that shouldn’t be the case in a product with a magnetic stirrer. However, when I opened the LEVO again at the end (see below), all the oil seemed fairly uniform, and that’s been my experience every other time I’ve used it as well.

I admit it: after 4 hours I wimped out on the whole low-temperature thing and cranked it up to 195ºF for another two hours. Yes, I was testing the LEVO, but I really wanted to make sure my wife’s medicine was strong enough! In any case, the experiment was a success: the batch actually turned out much stronger than we anticipated, and we’ll have to dilute it before loading the oil into capsules.

We found that bubble hash (and probably also kief) does not work perfectly cleanly in the LEVO, because it’s small enough to get out of the tiny holes in the pod and mix with the oil. However, the good news is that the particles did not “bunch up” enough to interfere with using an oral syringe, so for all normal intents and purposes, there’s no real downside. Using concentrates this way is a good and often more economical method of getting higher dosages per drop, milliliter, or capsule than with bud, and we’re happy to report that it works quite well in the LEVO. And we’re calling this batch “Double Bubble”, because it’s not only Bubblegum strain, but it’s bubble hash!

Cooking With Gas Cannabis

Now was the time to test the LEVO with actual bud. I happened to have handy 1/8 ounce (3.5 grams) of Platinum Kush which tested at over 25% THC. After decarboxylation, this came to just around 3 grams, which I decided to process at 120ºF. Since LEVO recommends a coarse grind, I dug out my old-school Sweetleaf pin-style grinder, which I call “Jack the Ripper” because it basically rips apart the nugs rather than slicing them. Two or three twists per nug and I was all done.

And here’s where I encountered my first head-scratching moment. One of the big advantages of the LEVO is its ability to process smaller quantities of liquid, down to a mere 5 ounces (150 ml). But as soon as I started putting the ground bud into the pod, I saw that while the cannabis fit in the pod with plenty of room to spare, the narrow design of the pod meant that the level of bud was going to be much higher than the level of 5 ounces of oil I had used previously. I could have pushed the mass down, but I didn’t know how much I could safely compress the bud without affecting the way the oil circulated through it.

So, taking the same advice as I have been giving people for years, I figured that the way to make sure the mixture was as strong as possible was to fill the reservoir with just enough oil to completely saturate the cannabis. Then I cranked up the LEVO to 120ºF for 8 hours and let ‘er rip (which it does very quietly, as I mentioned above).

Afterwards, when I dispensed all the finished oil from the LEVO, I discovered that the total quantity of oil I had needed to use was a full 10 ounces (300 ml). Plugging the numbers into a spreadsheet I made with my potency formula showed that even with perfect decarboxylation and extraction, a finished capsule made from this stuff would yield less than 0.5 mg of THC…far too weak even for me.

But then I realized that the LEVO was intended to infuse edible oil in sufficient quantities for eating or cooking, not necessarily “take just a few drops of this oil and stuff it into a tiny capsule”. My spreadsheet also showed that a tablespoon of this oil should probably contain somewhere between 6 and 9 mg. of THC, so Felicity and I sat down to some salad with dressing made from apple cider vinegar and one very carefully measured tablespoon of infused oil, and by golly it worked just fine. So, no harm no foul for LEVO, but I was still thinking about how I could make the oil stronger without resorting to concentrates. If I put more bud in the pod, I’d have to use more oil, which would dilute it further and basically get me right back where I started.

Stronger, Must Go Stronger…

That’s when I remembered something that Doc Brown repeatedly told Marty in Back to the Future III: “You’re just not thinking fourth-dimensionally!” And that’s the secret, based largely on yet another feature of the LEVO.

Because of the design of the LEVO and their insistence on keeping all your herbs in this pod, the pure finished product is available as soon as infusion is finished, without the necessity of straining it. I hadn’t realized until now how important and ground-breaking this was, because I had gotten used to setting up and working with a funnel, strainer, and nitrile gloves, then waiting anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours before I could actually do anything with my oil or tincture. Since the oil from the LEVO comes out so cleanly, you can simply leave it in the reservoir, put a new batch of decarbed bud in the pod, run the infusion cycle again, and double the strength! And no more worries about knocking over my glitchy funnel-and-strainer setup…I’ve spilled precious finished oil with that combination more times than I’d like to remember.

Olivia Harris, LEVO’s Chief Creative Officer (and co-holder of some awesome initials) told me they’re working on releasing a double-size pod this fall that will let you use larger quantities of bud, but they also recommend filling both the pod and the reservoir for best results, and say that the current pod should be able to hold up to ¼ ounce of decarbed ground bud:

The new pod is 2x larger, and will be engineered to not interfere with the magnetic stirrer. We also have a custom Herb Pod Press coming (think of a perfectly sized plunger to get out every drop from the herb pod) and a silicone storage tray with a lid for preserving your infusions in the fridge and freezer. Those should be here and for sale by fall!

However, if you prefer your finished product stronger before then, just remember time loops and Doc Brown’s advice!

The Proof Of the Pudding Is…Mushrooms?

Giddy (OK, and high) from the salad dressing experiment, I came with another idea, this one based solely on color. All the infused coconut oil we made with the LEVO came out a beautiful golden…gold, to the point where I actually got confused and assumed it was olive oil (I told you I was high). So I got the bright idea to saute some portobella mushrooms in the batch I had made with the Platinum Kush bud. The other smart thing I did that night was giving the larger plate to Felicity, because she said she was in some pain and needed a higher dose than usual. That only turned out smart because she got way too high and I didn’t. But they even tasted like they were sauteed in olive oil…OK, infused olive oil.

Just to round out the testing, I decided to try making AVB tincture, so I dumped approximately 4 grams of that into the pod and pushed it down with my thumb. Then I added just enough Everclear to wet the top of the AVB, set the LEVO to 8 hours at 150ºF  (at least 10ºF lower than the boiling point of alcohol, as LEVO recommends), and came back much later.

Once more, I ended up with about 10 ounces of tincture, but I knew those proportions wouldn’t be strong enough. So after scratching my head again for a few moments, I took the black LEVO outside to the warm California sun, propped open the top slightly, and about two hours later the solar energy had done its work and about half the alcohol had evaporated. What was left filled several dropper bottles, worked just as well as our last batch of tincture, and had been made with very little effort out of stuff that most people throw away!

The Bottom Line

All this math and logistics aside, the important things to remember about the LEVO are that it works both quietly and very well; that the finished product works, looks, and tastes amazing; and that it has uses far beyond cannabis. Next chance we get, for instance, we’re planning to infuse some vodka with chai spices (and try the same thing with caraway seeds to attempt an ersatz version of aquavit). Throw some hot peppers in the pod, pour in your favorite vegetable oil, and you can make your own oriental-style hot oil…your imagination is the only limit!

Pros: Quiet, efficient, easy to use, no straining necessary, very controllable, stealthy on your counter, child locks, reasonably priced.
Cons: Limited capacity for bud (at launch time), you will likely not hear the feeble beeps when it’s done.

Buy LEVO here: https://www.levooil.com/products/levo-oil-infuser

Psst! If you’re ordering the LEVO alone (they have another, already-discounted offer which includes a tCheck but does not qualify for this), we’ve managed to get you a deal where you’ll get 10% off if you use the code “BEYONDCHRONIC” at checkout. Enjoy!

http://BeyondChronic.com

Old Hippie is a father of two boys and thankfully living in California where all this kind of thing is legal. He started smoking marijuana in 1967 in high school, experimented with mind-expanding drugs of all kinds, and then straightened out 15 or so years later to become an airplane pilot. After being diagnosed with depression in 2000, he lost his job and most of the following decade to prescription medications (such as antidepressants) which sapped his energy and will. Finally, a chance conversation with a friend led to a doctor’s recommendation for medical marijuana (MMJ). This changed his entire life, health, and outlook for the better. BeyondChronic.com is his continuing story. It’s also his way to provide experienced advice on using medical marijuana effectively and responsibly, as well as advocacy, activism, and support for others. Old Hippie teaches about safe use of cannabis edibles, Canna Caps, vaporizers, dosing, and even microdosing.

31 comments

Thanks for the great review as always! It looks like the updated version will be the cats meow. I’ve been watching this and the tcheck for awhile now. Will you be reviewing that soon as well?

Thank you! And by “reviewing the tCheck”, did you mean this? In any case, the tCheck is undergoing some serious revisions so I will be revisiting it, and when I get the new version I will be posting all sorts of test results from the MBM, LEVO, and extracting by hand. Nugs and hugs!

Haha! I thought I vaguely remembered something like that lol…
Thank you for the link, it was a good reread, and I look forward to the update!

i have a comment about the magical butter machine mentioned here. i used it successfully, the product was excellent, but it only lasted about a year or ten batches. that’s a cost for the machine alone of about $30 per use. not really economical. a friend bought hers about the same time and it too conked out at about the one year mark. a year is not an adequate lifespan for a product of this kind.

What about smells generated? I live in PA no ‘green’ products were made legal, just ointments, creams, tinctures, etc.,…however, anyone who has ever tried to ‘heat up’ cannabis knows it’s scent permeates the air forever! [Might be nice to help out Paul H above with manufacturer of magic butter machine–if I’d paid what they cost and that was it’s lifespan? I’d have lost it!!! These r & d and manufacturers of these products have to make them just like any other specialized ‘gourmet’ cooking item. The costs are way high enough that such a ‘guarantee for quality and dependability’ in their products SHOULD BE HIGHEST PRIORITY, especially when used for one’s health care. It might be a pertinent addition to many of these companies’ mission statements. This is no longer an industry for a ‘niche’, illegal group of people.

What about smells generated? I live in PA no ‘green’ products were made legal, just ointments, creams, tinctures, etc…however, anyone who has ever tried to ‘heat up’ cannabis knows its scent permeates the air forever!

We didn’t notice any smell from the LEVO itself, but we only heated decarboxylated or preprocessed cannabis in it anyway. That’s where the main smell would come from, but the LEVO has a big silicone gasket that would tend to keep the smells in.

As far as your other point, if a product dies after its warranty is up, it doesn’t matter what industry it’s in…you’re generally out of luck. Sometimes things happen, but if large numbers of things happen, the word usually gets out. The Magical Butter company seems to have a good online reputation for both its products and standing behind its warranty though.

Thanks for clarifying smell and manufacturing/quality issue, too! Thanks for your help!

You’re welcome! Bear in mind that the usual decarb methods definitely do cause noticeable smells, but it’s usually possible to work around that (by decarbing in a Mason jar, making popcorn at the same time, etc). Stay safe and nugs and hugs!

Just wondering how much it smelled when using bud ?? I would love to make my own oils but I live in an apartment and a strong smell is not going to be ok.

Please read the other comments above. We decarbed separately and that’s what causes most of the smell. We haven’t tried infusing the oil without decarbing, but you could ask the LEVO people about the smell in that case.

Thank you, I thought i was crazy. I’ve waited for months got it to arrive only to be completely frustrated by the machine. After reading your review, I’m gonna give it little more time. I love my t check and would never part with it, but this levo…..

Right away I started having problems with the mixer, after just a couple of batches it started making a loud grinding noise like gears grinding or something. I call LEVO about it they said it was a common problem and to pause the cook and recenter the mixer that the mixer was getting out of center. I made a video and recording and sent it to LEVO Operations lead Sarah Ingram, she agreed that the machine was defective and promised to send me a new one. I tried different things like making sure it was on a level surface, it didn’t help, eventually the mixer motor stoped working at all. I did various things to verify the motor wasn’t working like putting water in the tank with a small piece of cork and letting it warm up and when I would open the lid the water should be spinning and it was not and the mixer magnet would be in the exact position it was prior to starting the machine. What it amounts to is it;s just a cheep undependable machine and a waist of money. They still haven’t sent a replacement machine.

My new machine is extremely noisey,if i remove the magnet it is silent,have only used it two times due to noise.Purchased direct from Levo on 9/25/17,sent several e mails from their sight with no reply as of yet,am going to call direct this week.

I made a tincture, putting the VG thru 3 cycles 10 hours each using fresh decarbed bud each time. I should have stopped at the second cycle because I got a medium buzz from .03 mil. I got greedy, and, put the same VG thru a third cycle thinking I would get a stronger tincture. WRONG. VERY WRONG. Now I am going to make a tincture out of Everclear, purge the finished product and mix it into my very weak VG tincture. Can I hear from peeps who have mixed the two tincture together as to what to do and what not to do? I don’t want to waste anymore bud and could use all the input not to screw it up. Thanks.

Law of diminishing returns? In any case, please don’t vape anything with alcohol in it! Mixing the two should theoretically improve the VG tincture, and I don’t know for sure how compatible the two solvents are, but the result should work no matter how weird it tastes.

Hi, I just used my Levo for the first time. It’s processing now, I’m using everclear for 8 hours as you suggested. My question is, when this batch is done for the 8 hours, could I infuse it for another 8 hours with fresh bud to make it stronger? I have a super high tolerance & am just trying to figure out how to medicate myself properly. I’m wondering the same thing about making butter in it. Any suggestions would be appreciated for this REALLY new (yet 62 year old) participator in the cannabis world.

I have a new LEVO and have run a session but got nothing in return. I still have a cannister of oil and a tin of cannabis that has been saturating for days. Nothing is coming from the drip command. I wrote to Support and they suggested pressing the dispense button. Well I did that and nothing came out. I have run it again at 175* for two hours. Nothing drips from the chamber. I contacted Customer Support again, no response. I wrote again asking how I go about returning a defective infuser. No answer so far. I know it is holiday and perhaps that is to blame for the ignorance, but now I’m stuck. Any suggestions?

Levo leaks oil everywhere and I had the same experience as you did Old Hippie Levo’s electronic components were ruined on the first use. The customer service was horrible. Levo refused to replace the unit even though many customers have experienced the same problem. It took me a month of frustrating calls to receive approval for an RMA. The replacement unit leaks oil for hours after each use, making a huge mess! Levo instructed me to put the oil maker upside down in a sink for 8 hours after each cycle. Are you kidding me? Levo’s shell is plastic- when you turn it upside down oil staining happens instantaneously all over the exterior of the machine. Thumbs down if you are thinking about buying a Levo, I give it zero stars because the user experience is terrible and customer service is poor.

Instead of leaving it outside to evaporate, could one run the alcohol for longer in the Levo? Or is running it for more than 8 hours too long?

Hello!
have you explored any ABV oil Levo adventures yet?
thinking on the “grind”/fineness Dilemma you mentioned too- have you considered placing the finer products such as concentrates, ABV, what have you in a reusable muslin/cotton teabag/herb bag? Then, placing that *bag* in the pod?
Just a thought-

thank you for sharing your experience- we have learned much from (both of) you.

No customer service. If you didn’t buy this unit from them and is more than a year old. they will not service. so Don”t buy it. I bought from a third party. it broke within two weeks They refused to repair it What a shitty Company. Do nt Buy not madw Well. Just say No to Levo Oil Infuser.

I just bought a Levo and was trying to make a batch of vapable oil for my wife who prefers to smoke it then eat it I have vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG) how much VG should I use and how much PG on what temperature for how long also if you could tell me a good amount of cycles that would be greatly appreciated

Your article says you can make an alcohol infusion with the Levo but there webiste says not to use grain alcohol. what has been your experience in using alcohol in the unit? What temp would you use?

There’s a possibility of pressurizing the container so with warmed ethanol, all you’d need would be a single spark and boom, so no, it’s not a good idea.

Leave a Reply

*