Bottle Question

[englishmick]

I ordered a liter of nic after the latest FDA scare came out, it's due to arrive this week. I wanted to put it in the freezer in two 1/2 liter amber Boston bottles. I only have one spare at the moment. I looked around and nobody seems to sell single bottles in the larger sizes. Only cartons of 12.

I'm OK anyway. I have plenty of 1/4 liter bottles so I can use a couple of those instead.

But for future needs, does anyone know of a source for the larger bottles in small quantities? ​

 

[BrotherBob]

Might like to read:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-s...mful-over-long-periods-of-time-in-the-freezer

 

[englishmick]

Yeah, I'm up on that stuff. Already got a bunch of nic in the freezer. Some of it is 4 years old and good as new. I'm just out of 16oz bottles. At some point I picked up 6 of them but I only have 1 that's currently empty.

 

[IDJoel]

But for future needs, does anyone know of a source for the larger bottles in small quantities?

Glass Bottle Outlet sells single units of the 16oz. bostons:
16 oz. Amber Boston Round with Black Poly Cone Cap (28/400)

I have no idea what freight might look like; but you atr not having to buy case lots.

 

[Eskie]

Did you check the old standby for stuff like that at Amazon?

 

[score69]

I've honestly still have all of my nic base in the HDPE containers I purchased it in. I've stored pre-made base like this for 4 years and it's still perfectly fine.

At some point, I may bottle it off into glass, but for now, it's just in the freezer until I get around to it. I've got 2 more liters coming this week and it will go in the freezer in the original packaging for now as well. I just vacuum seal the 1/2L and 1L containers of it in Food Saver plastic and add it to the chest freezer. Figure the vacuum sealing may help protect it a bit more, if nothing else it will contain any leaks if the plastic containers get damaged.

I'll bottle it off at some point, but I want to bottle it in smaller size bottles that I can use quickly once I open them. Don't want to rebottle it multiple times, larger bottles to smaller, etc. It will take me a LOT of smaller bottles to repackage 11L + of nic concentrate. For now, I just rebottle the liter I'm currently working on and leave the rest in the original HDPE containers.

That's just me though. I'm fine with the HDPE packaging for a few years at least until I decide to get around to it.

 

[uthinkofsomething]

@score69 I've been curious about this as Im going to buy some nic for storage myself. I see a lot of people talking about storage and they seem to be using glass pretty much exclusively.

 

[score69]

@score69 I've been curious about this as Im going to buy some nic for storage myself. I see a lot of people talking about storage and they seem to be using glass pretty much exclusively.

Yes, glass is going to be the gold standard as far as being inert an unlikely to react, allow oxygen to pass through it, etc. I would agree this would be the best inexpensive way for us to store nic long term.

That said, the biggest enemy to degradation is oxygen, heat and light, all of which will speed oxidation. HDPE is pretty darn inert as well. I'm sure it's somewhat more permeable to oxygen, but not sure it's significant. The biggest concern I would have with HDPE is that over a decade or more, it could start to degrade and become brittle. Especially at colder temps like this.

The best thing to do when you receive your nic is to get it in the freezer, regardless of whether you rebottle it or not. Keeping it in the freezer will pretty much solve any short term stability issues. I may rebottle mine in glass, but personally, I'm comfortable waiting several years to do this. If you are only stocking up 4-5 years worth of nic, I probably wouldn't even bother rebottling it myself.

The biggest advantage I see to rebottling it is when I crack open a liter to start to use it. As you use it, the bottle will have more room for oxygen inside, more oxygen to react. It's best to fill bottles to the top when breaking up a liter to reduce oxygen in the bottle.

So my unopened liters stay that way, for now at least. Once I open a liter, I do break it down into smaller bottles so that I'm not continuously exposing the entire liter to oxygen each time I open/use it. Personally, I break a liter into three 250ml and 2 x 125ml bottles. I 'work' from a 125ml bottle, storing it in the fridge. The other 125ml and 250's stay in the freezer. Once I go through both of the 125ml bottles, I break the next 250ml bottle into the empty 125's.

So I leave new liters unopened, and break down a new liter as above. Seems to work for me. In a few years, I may rebottle the HDPE liters into glass 1L bottles.

 

[papergoblin]

I don't store nic but I do make wine sometimes. Bottle head space is a huge deal due to oxygen and of course there are times when re-bottling is needed. I wonder if wine making supply companies might have some things that would help with storage of nic.

Wine and nic have the same basic requirements to prevent spoilage and/or oxidation. One of the biggies is transfer, you want the least amount of air bubbles as possible to keep from pulling oxygen in. Not saying it would make a difference but just throwing it out there for ideas of transferring or re-bottling.

For example if you know anyone that drinks pop top beer (like Sam Adams), you could buy StarSan to sanitize the bottles and just a capper and caps. Then they have all kids of siphons, bottles and such.

 

[englishmick]

There's a thread here by @Rossum that describes a long running experiment into nic storage. Some in plastic, some in glass, in the freezer, at room temp, etc.

documented here

edit: or maybe it's all in glass, just different storage temps.

 

[DaveP]

I have a liter stored in 4oz bottles and a liter stored in 8oz bottles. They are all in a single box about 12"x7"x5". I wrapped them individually in paper towels inside zip locks for leak protection. That's not much room in the freezer for a supply that should last me 18 years at my current 3ml nic strength vaping about 10ml/day.

 

[Rossum]

There's a thread here by @Rossum that describes a long running experiment into nic storage. Some in plastic, some in glass, in the freezer, at room temp, etc.

documented here

edit: or maybe it's all in glass, just different storage temps.

Summary: Glass seems to be marginally better than PET (#1) plastic (the only kind of plastic I've tried), but temperature is far more important than the type of bottle it's in.

 

[DaveP]

Summary: Glass seems to be marginally better than PET (#1) plastic (the only kind of plastic I've tried), but temperature is far more important than the type of bottle it's in.

I've used Boston Rounds with polycone caps for both my nic freezes. It's a thick glass that should be good for the purpose. While washing new bottles I once dropped an empty one in our porcelain kitchen sink. It bounced around like a ball for a few seconds and wasn't harmed. I examined it under a bright light and couldn't see chips, cracks, or suspect spots on it. It looked like all the other ones. I was duly impressed that it passed the torture test.