Steeping Times and an Ultrasonic Cleaner Part III

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Kumatesh

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I own the same model and because it does not have a heater it is mostly ineffective I use it to clean attomizers and drip tips now just get a crock pot it's cheaper and it works.

I was never able to get color change with it no matter how many cycles I ran

It gets up to about 110 from the agitation. is that not enough to be even a bit effective?
 

dannyv45

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I own the same model and because it does not have a heater it is mostly ineffective I use it to clean attomizers and drip tips now just get a crock pot it's cheaper and it works.

I was never able to get color change with it no matter how many cycles I ran

Are you sure it was working. Just the action of the UC waves will heat the water even without a heater. If your water was not getting hot then you may have a problem with the unit.
 

dannyv45

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It gets up to about 110 from the agitation. is that not enough to be even a bit effective?

My UC gets to 150F and works very well. To test if your UC is working correctly float a peice of tin foil on the water and run it for about 15 - 20 seconds. Remove the tin foil and see if there are pin holes in it. If there are it's working. If not there's a problem. Also look at the top of the water while it's running and see if there are ripples on the surface of the water. If not that can also indicate a problem.
 
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SlickWilly

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It gets up to about 110 from the agitation. is that not enough to be even a bit effective?

You want to run it with the water right around 150F, have you tried putting the hottest water you can get out of the faucet to start with and see if it gets hotter after the UC runs a while?
 

disco180

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the foil must be submerged in water for the holes to appear....I have my CP and UC side by side and will run them both tonight same juice and will report back tomorrow just to see if this UC is inferior or not. I am going to do 4 hours in both....

This is not to compare UC to CP but more of testing this black hills gold UC
 

dannyv45

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I put in a piece of foil but no holes appeared even after about a minute; however, if I put the foil on the bottom, holes start forming almost immediately. You can feel the water vibrate if you put your finger in but it's very difficult to see any motion on the surface.

Seems that your UC may be very low power or it's on it's way out. So at the very least it will likely take far longer then normal to steep in what your using. You may want to consider replacing the UC or switching to the crock pot method.
 

rowdyplace

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Kutamesh - Another thought is to check the UC. Cut a piece of regular kitchen aluminum foil about 4 inches square. Somehow tape it vertical into the UC water and turn it on.

In a very few minutes, the foil should start "pitting" - little tiny holes showing up. After a longer period, the foil will be severely damaged. If the foil is unchanged after a few minutes, you possibly have a faulty UC.

This whole evaluation should not take more than 5 minutes...

edited to insert word "possibly"...
 
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rowdyplace

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Whiplash

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Have been using a Hornady 2L U. C. for a couple of years now with varying results. My juice needed more time if I got sidetracked and the water cooled between 30 min. cycles. This led me to believe that the heat is as necessary as the agitation. The only addition to my current setup is a 4 hour shut-off timer.


Stirrer.jpg
 
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westhc

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I purchased the BlackHillsGoldSource ultrasonic cleaner (50W 42khz) and I don't seem to be getting the results many of you are getting. I put a bottle of freshly mixed juice in there (glass 15ml bottle) and even after 5 30m cycles, there is only slight discoloration.

I see that you guys can chuck your bottles in for 30m-1hr and have it turn that nice yellow color.

Am I doing something wrong or is this device just not up to par?

I have this model BlackHillsGoldSource Model 890 Professional Ultrasonic Cleaner - 30 Minute Timer - Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner, Eyeglass Cleaner, Dentures Cleaner and Other Household Sonic Cleaning - 600ml, 50 Watt, 42khz - Digital Timer with 18 Cycles to 30 Minutes
which I think is the same as yours.

It works fine for me. I start it out with hot water at about 150 degrees and the agitation keeps it at that temperature throughout the cycles - as long as I don't forget to go back after a 30-40 minutes and start it again. If I do forget I just replace the cooler water with hot. It will not heat cold water up to that temp.

Do check your unit out as suggested.
 

disco180

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Ok so here is pre-steeped fresh mixed juice:

Pre-steeped.jpg


Then 4 hours: Black Hills UC on left, CP on right

Steeped.jpg

As you can see its the same result as far as color goes, I started off with extra hot water in the UC and 30min on the timer....You don't have to let the timer run out to start another cycle...when it gets to about a 10 min or so just hit the timer button and put it back to 30min and the UC never stops.

the only difference in these mixes after steeping was that the CP mix smelled better out of the heat...it took about 4 hours for the UC mix to smell like the CP mix

Oh well my final result suggest that the Black Hills Gold UC works as everyone else says with comparable results to a CP
 

ronchinoy

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What is confusing about this complete Ultra Sonic game is that nobody is talking watts.
Im sorry not read all the 170 pages. On a tight time budget.

The key here is what is the watts ratting for the UC. The links I followed showed total watts. This could include the heater watts also. Or total load watts.

I have spent the last 2 months testing speed steeping. Some juices you can vape right after mixing. Some need 4-5 weeks. Some will only cure on the 30th day no matter what you do.

Here is a video of my UC machine its got 2 drivers. And the combined wattage is 100 Watts so that is 50 watts per side. This machine was purchased to clean automotive parts.

I heat the water to 90c put the thin wall glass jars in and run it for 15 Min.

Methods tested
a. UC with Heat 4x15 min cycles per day.
b. Microwave 950 watts. Run for 10 min at 10% power. What ever it takes to make sure that the juice temp does not cross 80c. What your max temp is depends on what your flavors are. High Volatile flavors do not use too much heat. VG starts to get thin at 50-60c this is the best. And safest.
c. Putting the glass jars in the sun for what I call sun charging. WHy ?. Grand ma used this method to make pickles and that is what we are doing.

I have found that there is no method or process that I can come up with which will make my juices steep in 2 days. At best if a flavor takes 30 days to mature doing nothing. Then this complete circus will help you get it down to about 20 days. THis is best case scenario.
Then again I am working with high VG juices this may be the reason.

The only thing that I have not tried is using a magnetic stirrer. Warm up the juice and stir or agitate it. But if you think about it really hard there is nothing that can agitate it better than a microwave.
What your Ultra Sonic cleaner is doing is a tiny tiny fraction of what the microwave does.
All Microwaves allow you to set the % power so you can control it.
On very high power ultrasonic machines. Or when using a very thick oil base it can generate heat.

I dont think the Ultra Sonic helps much with steeping. But when it comes to cleaning your tanks and gear sure works a treat.

To see what is going on inside your juice. Shake it. Then put it in. Look at the bubbles. How they move.
I like to follow a bubble sometimes as it moves around the bottle. Most just go straight up. Sometimes they go up then down then side ways.
Here is a short video of mine. Ill add pictures of the setup. It allows me to do 3 x 250 Ml bottles at a time or 2 x larger bottles at a time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5nAq1ZL_4I&list=UUkCJtHprijz8ZwhdzEZWa6g

Ps: Tip for those using Ultra Sonic. The shape of your bottle is critical. If you use a container with a wide mouth. The Vibrations radiate outwards.
Where as if you use a bell mouth shape for the top half of the bottle. Then what happens is the vibrations hit the top of the bottle and bounce back.
Yes I spent hours studying bubble movement based on container shape. :facepalm:
 
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