Steeping techniques please

[Cote]

Been vaping for a couple months - and no cigs since. But I am still new to steeping. I rarely like anything straight out of a new bottle. Just purchased a whole bunch of Halo and Maple Leaf Vapors ejuices. My steeping has been:

1. open bottle and squeeze air in and out 10 times
2. Heat bottle in my heating pad til very hot but not unhandlable (?)
3. open bottle and squeeze air in and out 10 times
4. Cap bottle and shake it till it cools down (about 15 to 20 minutes)
5. open bottle and squeeze air in and out 10 times

Sometimes I do this twice but some flavours still have a chemical after taste.

Any better way? Beside sitting it aside for weeks in a dark place with the cap off?


Any suggestions?

I've tried the bottle in hot water - messy and the label rubs off. I am using Halo tritons and innokin itaste 134 with halo tanks (for triton) and kanger for itaste134. I like the caramel, maple and chocolate flavors (MLV) and Tribecca and Mystic (Halo).


Please state your steeping techniques.

 

[GOTFrog]

I put them in a ziplock bag and put then in hottap water till it cools then shake em up and let them sit a few weeks.

The chemical after taste might be the juice burning, I was having that problem when I started and drop volt and it went away.

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Tapatalk

 

[Heavyrocker]

I never could figure out ''steeping''....it tastes the same too me,i let it sit for 2 years ,maybe i would be able to tell.

 

[retired1]

There's no need to leave the caps off longer than a day or so. You leave the cap off for those juices that have ethyl alcohol in them (used for extraction). This allows the alcohol to evaporate.

Generally, letting it sit for a week or so in a cool, dark place is sufficient for steeping. Halo tends to do well with a week or two of steeping.

 

[Battlelance]

Spot on retired. When I DIY, all juice goes into a hot water bath until water cools. Then they get a good shake. If the flavouring uses alcohol, the cap comes off for 48 hours. Reshake and sit on the shelf for a week. Then I'm good to go.

Tobaccos are the only exception, same process as above but they sit for a few weeks.

 

[MadHacker]

I let all my juices sit for at least a month.
I don't touch them.
I put a hook on the outside of my dryer, and hang them off it in a bag...
so it gets some heat... and a gentle shake for many hours a week, each time my wife does laundry.

time is the best way to let them steep.

 

[Alter]

I read somewhere that heat breaks down the nicotein so I don't heat steep at all. I rigged up a ultrasonic toothbrush with some wires hanging down, built a lego stand and use that to steep my juices. Its real neat to shake the bottle and watch what the ultrasonic does to the bubbles inside the jug. Other than that they have a nice cool closet in the basement they sit undisturbed with a occassional shaking for about a week or 2, since Canada Post is so slow to get packages delivered I have a added bonus of 10 days in the mail steep time.

 

[Battlelance]

I read somewhere that heat breaks down the nicotein so I don't heat steep at all.

There is some heat degradation, but nothing substantial as long as you don't exceed roughly 120F.

Madvapes did some testing, and the degradation is negligible, even on the base they left in a window sill.

 

[Alter]

I use to heat steep in a coffee pot. I built a little corral and sat then in bout 1/2 inch water and my maker held @160 degrees for several hours at a time, then I read about heat steeping and nic breakdown and haven't heat steeped since. But still no matter if its a little breakdown or a lot it still breaking down.
I wouldn't recommend heat steeping and stick with the good ol on a dark place method.

 

[Battlelance]

I use to heat steep in a coffee pot. I built a little corral and sat then in bout 1/2 inch water and my maker held @160 degrees for several hours at a time, then I read about heat steeping and nic breakdown and haven't heat steeped since. But still no matter if its a little breakdown or a lot it still breaking down.
I wouldn't recommend heat steeping and stick with the good ol on a dark place method.

160 is too hot from what I understand the point of heating the liquid is to reduce the viscosity of the liquid allowing the ingredients to blend.

But regardless, simply sitting your juice in a bottle in a dark place also leads to nicotine degradation, at roughly the same pace as mildly heating the juice. After all, we're only talking ~3mg/ml over a 4 month span as per MadVape's test.

Seems the only way to avoid degradation would be to store your juice in the refrigerator, making the juice so viscous (especially in VG) that steeping becomes a moot point unless steeped before storage - then you're back to square 1.

I've done a test where I mix up some DIY tobacco, cap open steep v.s. cap closed steep. I left my cap closed, in a cool dark place for 1 month, and from what I could taste it tasted and smelled like the day I mixed it.

Anyway, I'm no chemist, and the beauty of vaping is discovering what works for you.

 

[MadHacker]

if 160 is to hot... I'm assuming Fahrenheit? 71 deg. Celsius
what is the ideal temperature for steeping?

 

[Battlelance]

if 160 is to hot... I'm assuming Fahrenheit? 71 deg. Celsius
what is the ideal temperature for steeping?

I use hot water from the tamp which comes out at around 120F. There are a few posts in the DIY section and from what I can tell it is generally accepted as the max for steeping. The heat its self doesn't steep the juice (agitation, oxidation,etc.). All you want is to warm the liquid enough to thin the liquid so everything blends together nicely - the rest of the work is done by letting it sit there for a while with the odd shake. But again, this is just one method of many.

 

[BuzzKilla]

my steeping techniques.

-get order in
-vape bottles in preference of taste
-keep vaping until im down to the last bottle
-make new order (6-8 bottles), & remember not to order bottles that i dont like the taste of.
-repeat

for my tastebuds, steeping has never made a juice taste better.
if it was meant to be steeped, that should have been done before i received my package...
Just my

 

[aggo]

Depends on the flavour. Some of them are fine fresh out of the mailbox. Contact the vendor to ask what their steeping recommendations are for individual juices.

 

[MadHacker]

Depends on the flavour. Some of them are fine fresh out of the mailbox....

well there is fine out of the mailbox... then there is excellent after 2 months of steeping...
are there any liquids that get worse with steeping?

 

[retired1]

Not sure if I'd call it worse, but my Unicorn Blood is almost too sweet after two months.

 

[SuperLamer]

my steeping techniques.

-get order in
-vape bottles in preference of taste
-keep vaping until im down to the last bottle
-make new order (6-8 bottles), & remember not to order bottles that i dont like the taste of.
-repeat

for my tastebuds, steeping has never made a juice taste better.
if it was meant to be steeped, that should have been done before i received my package...
Just my

This is teh lolz.

 

[Battlelance]

Just my

Rounded to the nearest 0.05 right?

A good point, not all juices need steeping. There hasn't been a tobacco yet that I've tried that didn't need steeping, but some fruit flavours I make, I simply warm bath it, shake, cool and vape.

 

[Toronnah]

Personally, I would avoid heating in a cheap plastic bottle.

It's likely to offgas into your juice, potentially ruin the taste and leave undesired chemicals in your juice.

If you need to heat, decant to a glass container first.

 

[retired1]

ejuice bottles tend to be made of the higher quality plastics that don't off gas harmful chemicals like BPA.