A controlled experiment with pluid. Other types of liquid that do this and why?

[paulishuku]

Ok so here's the deal. I had an extra acrylic tank for this specific reason. I had asked in a different thread if pluid can be used in the aga-t. They said no due to it being acrylic and it even says it can't on the manufacturers website. So this is in no way a knock against pluid because I knew this would happen. I just wanted to see what it did and how long it took.

So I got the pluid today and put 1.5 ml in my extra tank on the aga-t and let it sit. After only 20 minutes there was etching. After 45 minutes it started to crack. After an hour the crack was half way down the tank and that's when I decided to stop because I didn't want pluid everywhere.

So that begs the question what is in this liquid and why does it react this way to plastics? What other juices do this? Is there a specific ingredient causing this chemical reaction?


On a side note I have dripped the pluid and it is amazingly tasty and vapes extremely well. I can see what the hype is about and will use a lot once I get a glass tank.

 

[SkinniePost]

If you know what material the tank is made out of, then you can look up a chart of chemical resistances for that plastic. When a manufacturer chooses the type of plastic they want to use for something, they need to make sure it will be able to hold certain chemicals or products. These resistance charts should be easy to find on the internet, and then at least a handful of possible chemicals can be found that might be causing the reaction?

 

[papercrow]

Ah crap. Just ordered some Pluid and I don't have a metal tank for my vivi. Gonna have to shell out the big bucks at the B&M.

 

[DizGrizz]

It is mostly the citrus and cinnamon flavors that are known to do this. It does not happen with polypropylene tanks but they are a kind of foggy transparent so some manufacturer stick with the less desirable polycarbonate and acrylic plastics 'cause they're crystal clear. Of course, glass is the real way to go.

 

[DizGrizz]

Or, it could be the highly radioactive isotopes in the Pluid...nah, that couldn't be it.

 

[Baditude]

Polycarbonate plastic and acrylic plastic are particularly vulnerable to break down when in contact with certain flavors. There is a current and continuing list of known flavors in this link: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tanks/219179-lets-make-list-juices-flavors-crack-tanks-ce2s-clearos-29.html#post7203876

Pyrex glass is the preferred material to use with these flavors. Polypropylene is another plastic that is immune to the effects of these flavors, but is frosted in appearance.

An inexpensive and good quality pyrex tank can be gotten as cheap as $20 at : IBTanked - Get Tanked With Us!

I just did a complete review of these tanks in the tank review sub-forum: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tank-reviews/349222-ibtanked-pyrex-glass-tanks.html

 

[asha23]

Wow. And you inhale that? Nuts.

 

[SkinniePost]

Wow. And you inhale that? Nuts.

Pretty crazy eh... I avoid any flavors that can do that to plastic. Probably the reaction with the plastic is caused by a lingering amount of solvent used in the extraction of the flavors in question. Not sure, but I am thinking about getting a sheet of acrylic to test liquids on... Hit the sheet with a few drops and let them sit for while, then wipe them off and see if there was any solvents in the liquid that reacted with the plastic. I found out that benzene use to be used in flavor extraction, but I belief it has been phased out because of health concerns... Benzene is a solvent that reacts with both types of plastic in question. It actually was used for years in the process of decaffeinating coffee, crazy.

It would be great if someone with a chemistry background could look into this, and find out for sure what is in the flavorings that can corrode plastic...

 

[Baditude]

I avoid any flavors that can do that to plastic.

It would be great if someone with a chemistry background could look into this, and find out for sure what is in the flavorings that can corrode plastic...

The flavors are safe for human use. Just use glass or polypropylene containers with them.

If you study the list of flavors that were in the link I provided in my previous post, you'll notice a pattern of cinnamon being a main culprit. Cinnamon is in some of the cola and rootbeer flavors believe it or not. The other flavors are some of the citris flavors.

One of the older threads did contain a link that explained scientifically why the specific plastics that are vulnerable to caustic juices, and might be found using the search function. But that is not my issue, I use pyrex in all of my tanks now and no longer need to check the list for potential problems.

 

[d9mel]

I formed two massive cracks in my aga-t tank in about 10 minutes, and etched a vivi nova tank with a DIY mix containing a triacetin based flavor. Not saying that's the culprit, I just had a similar experience. I have lost tanks to banana juice but they tend to start as fine webbed fractures Needless to say my glass tank got shipped today.

 

[Fisty]

Clove and cinnamon crack tanks, anise might as well being a similar strong spice? But even if the anise doesn't do it Pluid contains a lot of citrus flavor, you don't notice it as primary 'cause the anise is so unbelievably strong, but if you took the anise away you'd have a quite strong citrus juice remaining.