Can I microwave my ejuice to speed up steeping?

[Bigdaddi]

I sure will

I've got a little problem though,, I ran out of one of the flavors used in my recipe and almost out of juice as well,, so I'll probably replace it with another flavor although I'm not very optimistic about the outcome as I didn't like the single flavor of the replacement that much. Let's see how that goes!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just got back home. It's almost 3:00 am and I feel too tired to stay up for another 30 minutes to get a new batch mixed and nuked. Will proceed with doing so tomorrow. Good night everyone


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bigdaddi]

@VapeLuvr hello!

Can't find your question about whether to add the nicotine before or after steeping but here's a discussion I found about this a while ago (and kept reference of the URL):

Can you steep flavor mixes first and then add Nicotine? • r/DIY_eJuice

To me, that discussion isn't decisive enough; I've stumbled across other discussions where the fact of whether or not the nicotine plays a role in steeping was debated. Interestingly though, I also came across a discussion where a chemist was able to confirm, using lab equipment, that the nicotine lost only 10% of its strength when exposed to really high temperature (I guess 400F but can't recall clearly, and can't find the reference at the moment to check and confirm), which if turned out to be the case really, then I wouldn't mind at all losing 10% strength IF that's ONLY what I would lose, without jeopardizing the flavor or most importantly my health considering any other harmful factor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bigdaddi]

Hi all, does anyone know (or know someone who might know) what the temperature is for VG and PG (each separately) to reach a smoking point i.e. to start evaporating slowly?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hightech Redneck]

Testing my Google fu (since I don't remember the threads it was in).

PG boils at 188°C (370°F) while VG boils at 290°C (554°F). Thus, vaping at 100% VG involves higher coil temperatures (water does not mitigate temps since it evaporates early)

 

[Bigdaddi]

Testing my Google fu (since I don't remember the threads it was in).

PG boils at 188°C (370°F) while VG boils at 290°C (554°F). Thus, vaping at 100% VG involves higher coil temperatures (water does not mitigate temps since it evaporates early)

Many thanks for that! Your Google fu is awesome

Just like with water however, u don't need to reach a boiling point to start getting little water vapor out of your water while heating up. I'm actually after that particular figure where VG/PG starts evaporating just a little bit while heating up, do you know what I mean?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hightech Redneck]

Farsalinos did a video a few years back, may give you some insight. Can't seen to find the vaporization temperature anywhere, maybe due to most are not using a pure vg or pg.

 

[man00ver]

I'm actually after that particular figure where VG/PG starts evaporating just a little bit while heating up, do you know what I mean?

It's pretty hard to get glycerin evaporating. It doesn't reach equilibrium vapor pressure until about 50C (122F), and then it will scale up as seen on this chart:

Glycerol (data page) - Wikipedia

So, depending on what "evaporating just a little bit" means, it could take a fair amount of heat, for glycerin. PG is a much different substance, having a positive vapor pressure at just above freezing, as you can see here:

http://coupp-docdb.fnal.gov/cgi-bin...45&version=4&filename=GlycolVaporPressure.pdf

Not a simple answer, I guess. Hopefully you can find some use for the information.

 

[IDJoel]

Just like with water however, u don't need to reach a boiling point to start getting little water vapor out of your water while heating up. I'm actually after that particular figure where VG/PG starts evaporating just a little bit while heating up, do you know what I mean?

I think you are over-thinking/miss-thinking this. The common definition of "boiling point" is: The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid[1][2] and the liquid changes into a vapor. (source:Wiki)

Any liquid changing from liquid to vapor has reached boiling point.

When you watch a pot of water heat, and steam begins to rise, that steam has come from water (fluid)that has reached its boiling point. You are right, in that the entire mass has yet to reach the critical temperature (212F in the case of water... at sea level), but the fluid closest to the heat has and that is what is creating the wisps of steam/vapor without a full rolling boil. Truthfully, the remaining liquid in the pan, even at a full rolling boil, is just under the "boiling point," or it would all flash to a vapor and your pan would be empty (and you would have some explaining to do to your spouse). Think about the "violence" that occurs if you drop water into hot frying oil; this is the action of water trying to go instantaneously to vapor.

PG Boiling Point:

(source: Wiki)
VG Boiling Point:

(source: Wiki)

 

[man00ver]

Any liquid changing from liquid to vapor has reached boiling point.

Actually, evaporation is when liquid becomes vapor without boiling. They are different types of vaporization.

Evaporation - Wikipedia <--see first two sentences.

 

[IDJoel]

Actually, evaporation is when liquid becomes vapor without boiling. They are different types of vaporization.

Evaporation - Wikipedia <--see first two sentences.

I stand corrected! How can @Bigdaddi apply that to his quest? (Honest question; not intended to be argumentative... I am out of my depth. )

 

[ChelsB]

So much information to be learned. Glad there's more than one of us (me) trying to figure it out !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[man00ver]

I stand corrected! How can @Bigdaddi apply that to his quest? (Honest question; not intended to be argumentative... I am out of my depth. )

Now that I don't know, because I'm not sure what he's looking for. We're microwaving e-liquids on this thread (well, I don't expect I'll be doing that really), so I could surmise he's wondering how much of the diluents might be lost during medium- or long-term exposure to heat below boiling point. The answer is: some, and it's hard to say how much, but it will almost certainly be more PG than VG.

Of course, if you're doing short MW bursts with the cap on, this isn't much of a concern, so @Bigdaddi might be thinking about another method. Don't mess up the kitchen, Bigdaddi...samurai wives are dangerously unpredictable when that happens.

 

[IDJoel]

so I could surmise he's wondering how much of the diluents might be lost during medium- or long-term exposure to heat below boiling point.

I may be totally reading this wrong, but if I am correctly reading his earlier posts (and links), he is wanting to know when he might see visible wisps of vapor/smoke (? I hope not; smoke is a whole different creature than vapor) from his microwaving. (I am not sure how he expects to do this with "cap on.")

And that very well could be my problem with this (and my high school education) is the lack of definition. Too many variables. When I got on the short bus I knew exactly where to sit. Put me on the downtown transit and I was lost.

 

[ChelsB]

I wonder if some flavors would do better than others when nuked? (Say menthols as opposed to creamy custards) I'm willing to bet @Bigdaddi will help us find out![emoji4]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[IDJoel]

My hypothesis is that "lighter; more floral/aromatic" flavors like fruits and citrus (yeah; I know... citrus is a "fruit") will be more compromised with ANY heat; than say a custard, tobacco, or even possibly bakery.

This has been my experience with even more gentle heat applications (like a crock pot; coffee cup warmer).

My limited experience has lead me to s l o w patient waiting (in a dark cupboard) is best (most consistent/dependable?) for me. Flavors/compounds blend, unwanted volatiles dissipate, and desired volatiles linger longer(est?). Any efforts to "hurry" the process has only hurt my results.

I respect any other options to the contrary. My results speak only to me.

 

[Bigdaddi]

Hi all!

Many thanks for the wonderful contributions!

@IDJoel As a matter of fact I loved all the questions and assumptions, and found none argumentative at all (to me), as they really help with lighting up the dark spots in my mind about this to start thinking over all the factors that need to be considered.

@man00ver, Yes, all questions I asked are related to figuring out the best practice for using the MW method with optimum safe results.

@Hightech Redneck, I'll watch the video shortly. Many thanks for that.

@All, please accept my apologies for not being able to respond quicker than some of you might've hoped. I noticed that I asked questions without explaining what I'm getting at, and I do apologize again for that.

I'll find the best time soon hopefully to break down what I'm trying to figure out, but in a nut shell for the sake of brainstorming together, the key factors I'm thinking of (in no specific order for now):-
- PG/VG + Really high temperature = Carcinogens
- Best temperature for quick steeping (or to help with that) = 150F (safe temperature)
- Boiling point of VG/PG vs. heat point causing carcinogens
- PG/VG evaporation point vs. heat point causing carcinogens
- To shake or not to shake the mix considering the fact that it's a mix of both VG and PG (with different ratios) that have different figures of temperature points mentioned above. On that, the videos I previously shared said shake, while Visus' MW method (URL shared earlier) said not to shake. Interesting, right?

I think there's more but I cannot recall them at the moment. The above should shed more light however on what's been going on in my head.

So I ran out of juice yesterday, as well as one of the flavors I use in my ADV recipe. I ended up replacing it with another flavor I have hoping it would taste good although I didn't like that replacement as a single recipe that much, and just finished the MW method using the latest adjusted I made to the process (posted earlier), and now the bottle is sitting with the cap loosened in a cool dark place. The recipe is tobacco based.

I mixed peanut butter, butterscotch, and graham cracker about 3 weeks ago, each as a single recipe, and tried the peanut butter and graham cracker, but I can't imagine vaping more than 2-3 mls max. before switching back to tobacco flavors. To me, I just enjoy vaping the most when I'm vaping tobacco flavors, and according to many feedback from different people that are way more experienced than me (with years worth of experience and reputed to have a very decent level of wisdom about DIY e-liquid, tobacco flavors are probably the ones with the longest steeping time required, and so the challenge to get this right using the MW method is very interesting to me, yet my only pain point here to test results in terms of taste is that I don't have a fully steeped tobacco recipe using natural steeping (time) to use as a baseline for proper judgement on the outcome and overall quality of the taste of a mix that's been steeped using any of the speed steeping methods whether MW or otherwise (like the milk frother method which I'm also really interested in as well).



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bigdaddi]

Hi All! Been a while

So! Got news for you! A bummer for me really, and not a surprise for most of you, but unless I'm doing something wrong (which I keep asking myself the ingenious "what if" question about), I can definitely confirm that MW steeping doesn't do full steeping (and looking at myself in the mirror with a dumb smile on my face saying"you don't saaaay!") [emoji51] I still have hope that I'm wrong though!

How I know? Well, I mentioned before that I never got a chance to fully steep that certain recipe I've tested MW steeping on. If you remember, I was also excited about the feedback I got from a friend ending up with fixing him 30ml of that recipe, MW steeped as well.

Just today, I met the same good friend of mine who happened to have about 5ml of that juice on him. So I tasted it, and oh boy! it was on a whole different level! That's like what two weeks later? Either I miss that juice so much since I haven't mixed it for a while now, or those two weeks really made a difference which I think is the case because my friend is happier with what's left of it!

Next challenge:- MW vs. Crock-pot! Yes, I borrowed one, in an attempt to challenge the odds of the MW method while I still have a chance, before the ninja awakens and puts me in the MW, if you know what I mean [emoji51]

Will keep you posted! Maybe next time with more meaningful updates!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bigdaddi]

Hi all,

After several different attempts and comparisons between the MW method and the crock pot one, I can confirm that the MW method is really close to getting the full taste out of the steeped juice, however not exactly as the crock pot , not to mention safety when it comes to exposing the juice to temperature vs. carcinogens (considering "controlled" temperature).

Thought I'd share this with you since I haven't posted about this for a while as I was testing through the past period.

Will keep testing and playing around with some ideas and will let you know if something new comes up about this from my side.

In case any of you have tested lately, please share your thoughts and comments about the MW method, as well as how you do it Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[go_player]

I stand corrected! How can @Bigdaddi apply that to his quest? (Honest question; not intended to be argumentative... I am out of my depth. )

And then there's sublimation, where water can go straight from frozen to gaseous. But we're talking about slow processes here. I'm inclined to think that when you see liquids that are stable at room temperature giving off visible vapor some part of them is likely at their boiling point.

Personally, I think that while it might make sense to heat VG enough that it is easier to shake, it is likely not a very good idea to heat juice much beyond that, or even to heat it to that point for very long.