Steeping...What is the Purpose?

[Mohamed]

Thanks all for the advice. Some of those sampler's I don't necessarily like I'll put back in drawer for a while. So far I think vanilla and vanilla tobacco, and vanilla coffee seem to be my favorites. Anything with vanilla in it for some reason tastes good and I don't think about real cigs as much with those. Some of the regular tobacco flavor causes to me to think...damn this just doesn't taste right. Wish I had a normal cig instead of this chemical tasting thing. So at any rate vanilla anything seems to keep my mind off of it but haven't tried too many flavors yet. I have another 10 sampler coming soon.

Does the vanilla stuff need much steeping or is it more as one poster said the fruitier kind that need that process for the flavors to come out?

 

[Rickajho]

Does the vanilla stuff need much steeping or is it more as one poster said the fruitier kind that need that process for the flavors to come out?

From my experience it's a little broader than that. I find it's more likely that if one liquid from a particular place needs days (or weeks) of steeping, they all benefit from (need) about the same amount of time. It's pretty typical for the average liquids vendor to get their flavoring components from the same place. Someone mentioned that they get an "alcohol" thing coming off their MBV liquids. I don't sense that with MBV stuff, but I do get it from almost every liquid I get from a different place. For us, it takes about the same amount of time for that alcohol smell to dissipate from everything we get from the same places.

Some flavorings use alcohol as the carrier, it can be nasty, and this is one where leaving the cap off and "breathing" does help. I actually "breathe" the bottles on those by squeezing and releasing - working air in and out of any air space that might be available to hurry the process along. (And I usually don't reorder from places when I have an "alcohol" issue. That one place? For me it took 4 to 6 weeks to drive the alcohol off. But since they quit selling that line of liquids anyway I'm not naming names.)

On a more pleasant note, I pretty much find that all my liquids from The Vapor Room follow the same curve: No "alcohol" problem going on here, but if it's a fruit or a tobacco from TVR they all start out a little weak and the flavors taste a bit "raw" on day one. By day three they have mellowed out and balanced. At day seven the flavor intensity is much stronger and... for TVR stuff that's about as good as they are going to get.

Overall these are reasons why it's never a good idea to place whopper size orders from a place you have never tried before. 'Cause if there is something you find unpleasant with that first bottle you try from your VaperzRUs order, there is a chance it's gonna be a repeat performance with the other 29 bottles in that order from the same place. Stick with sample sized bottles on first time orders, and try to keep it down to a half dozen samples or less.

P.S. About the vanilla: Experience tells us that vanilla is one of those overpowering flavorings. Overdone, it can simply overwhelm everything else in a liquid. You might just be experiencing that difference between your liquids that have vanilla, and the ones that don't. It is something to pay attention to and consider when ordering. In general, adding extra vanilla flavor if you have that option? Bad idea...

 

[Rickajho]

If I tried my new e-liquid, but it needed to steep more, would it be OK to just leave it in the tank? Would it steep inside the tank?

Sure, that will work once it's stuck there. Carto tank? This is why it's not a good idea to test new flavors in a carto tank. You could always empty what's in the tank, but you are still stuck with whatever flavor transferred to the carto. Clearos are a little easier to empty and clean with less loss of liquids. But if you have multiple devices anyway, just leave it be and steep it in the tank.

 

[sam12six]

See, this whole concept of steeping pisses me off. If it needs steeping, ejuice companies should be steeping it before selling. Sure, that would mean they'd need more inventory space, but that's part of business. Imagine ordering 40 year old scotch and the packaging says "Before use, let sit for 40 years" - I think that would annoy people.

Anyway, it's a rant over a little thing, but I can't stand the idea that someone sells something then recommends you probably shouldn't use it for a couple of weeks.

 

[Rickajho]

People have suggested one week to one month or longer. Is there a point in time where you can pretty much say "This is as good as it's going to get"?

Even the worst stuff I've run across never changed much beyond a month. And those have usually been the ones that have a strong smell of alcohol off the bottle. Those seem to be the hardest to "fix" trying to drive the alcohol out of the liquid.

 

[Rickajho]

See, this whole concept of steeping pisses me off. If it needs steeping, ejuice companies should be steeping it before selling. Sure, that would mean they'd need more inventory space, but that's part of business. Imagine ordering 40 year old scotch and the packaging says "Before use, let sit for 40 years" - I think that would annoy people.

Anyway, it's a rant over a little thing, but I can't stand the idea that someone sells something then recommends you probably shouldn't use it for a couple of weeks.

I hear what you are saying, but at the other end of the spectrum is not knowing just how old that bottle of sitting in inventory with cob webs on it mystery liquid really is. Any needed steeping is a small price to pay in order to know that bottle was only put together the day it was shipped. If the place isn't mixing as it's ordered you will never know just how old it really is either.

 

[Mohamed]

Some flavorings use alcohol as the carrier, it can be nasty, and this is one where leaving the cap off and "breathing" does help.

I tried some grape 3ml sample just now that's maybe only 2 days old depending on how long it was in mailbox . Does the alcohol cause some numbness to the tongue. None of the other samplers have caused a numbness to the tongue...maybe I overfilled cartomizer and got some juice on my tongue either that or it's the alcohol.

Is it the alcohol causing that or would the alcohol just cause a hot burning flavor when vaped?

 

[Jo Patterson]

See, this whole concept of steeping pisses me off. If it needs steeping, ejuice companies should be steeping it before selling. Sure, that would mean they'd need more inventory space, but that's part of business. Imagine ordering 40 year old scotch and the packaging says "Before use, let sit for 40 years" - I think that would annoy people.

Anyway, it's a rant over a little thing, but I can't stand the idea that someone sells something then recommends you probably shouldn't use it for a couple of weeks.

You have it backwards. The appropriate example would be that you are the kind of person who buys 1 bottle of 40 year old scotch.
I would be the person who buys 20 bottles of brand new raw scotch made yesterday - store it in my basement and open a bottle every 5 years to play with it .... or perhaps someone might buy the raw scotch just to get drunk and not care about the flavor.

But if you buy the raw scotch because you want to save money (it being 500 % cheaper since it ages in my basement and not their warehouse ) and then whine and complain because it wasn't aged, don't expect much sympathy .... go find the expensive places that sell the pre-aged scotch and pay 500 % more.

Same for the e-juice - most are designed for people like me - because cheapy folks like me seem to be the largest market, the other factor is that the demand is so huge that they have to sell it as fast as they make it - if you don't like that, then don't buy it.
Go find the stores that don't have that demand, and buy their juice.

 

[Voxx]

Daavy--where did you get the ultrasonic and which model is it? Could you report back on how well it works?

 

[Jim Diamond]

ive made a few batches of my own juice... right off, it just doesnt taste right.. given a few days, even with the cap on.. the flavor starts to improve.... but being the impatient person i am... i ordered a heated ultrasonic cleaner for $80... will be here tomorrow...

Where did you find the heated one for $80?

I've been looking on Amazon. It seems like most of these cleaners have a maximum length cycle of 8 minutes (480 seconds). This doesn't seem like very long for steeping purposes. Any thoughts? JD

 

[Rickajho]

Where did you find the heated one for $80?

I've been looking on Amazon. It seems like most of these cleaners have a maximum length cycle of 8 minutes (480 seconds). This doesn't seem like very long for steeping purposes. Any thoughts? JD

We are dealing with a "not used for intended purpose" thing here. If that's their maximum duty cycle you have to respect it or burn the things out. Gotta be better than nothing? Right? I know one post mentioned getting a really cheap ultrasonic for like five bucks and said they were running it for four hours. At that rate I wouldn't expect it to last more than... four hours.

I've been eying the front loading washer. Not in it - on top of it. I'm wondering what kind of CPS I get off that thing when it goes into high speed spin. It's enough to generate air bubbles in a bottle of liquid soap that was sitting on top of it. Hmmm... A true dual purpose appliance - the wash and steep cycle.

 

[Daavy]

Where did you find the heated one for $80?

I've been looking on Amazon. It seems like most of these cleaners have a maximum length cycle of 8 minutes (480 seconds). This doesn't seem like very long for steeping purposes. Any thoughts? JD

Amazon.com: KENDAL 170 WATT 2 LITER (0.53 Gallon) DIGITAL ULTRASONIC CLEANER with HEATER: Home & Kitchen

thats the one i got... works very well... not only for mixing ejuice... but for cleaning eye glasses, rings, atomizers, and tank parts too!

im going to have to come up with a system to label my bottles before i put them in the tank so i dont forget which is which... i have a dymo handheld labeler that is nice but it uses some heat transfer system and it doesnt really hold up in the UC bath.

yeah, 8 minutes at a time is a little annoying.. but its ok, last night i was "cooking" and would hit the button to restart it when it was needed.

 

[e30ernest]

Interesting... This is the first I've heard of this. I usually just buy my juices over the counter and vape them right away. I'll try this with my next purchase to see how they vape after.

Does steeping have an effect on menthol flavors? I'm not sure if menthol tends to evaporate quickly if left in an opened bottle?

 

[Daavy]

most OTC are fine right away, but if you give it some time, they still will get better... even if left capped. i think steeping makes the vape a little smoother, flavors seem to mellow a little. pretty much for DIY ejuice mixing its essential whichever way you do it. it just takes longer... like i said, im impatient.

 

[bharris]

Amazon.com: KENDAL 170 WATT 2 LITER (0.53 Gallon) DIGITAL ULTRASONIC CLEANER with HEATER: Home & Kitchen

thats the one i got... works very well... not only for mixing ejuice... but for cleaning eye glasses, rings, atomizers, and tank parts too!

im going to have to come up with a system to label my bottles before i put them in the tank so i dont forget which is which... i have a dymo handheld labeler that is nice but it uses some heat transfer system and it doesnt really hold up in the UC bath.

yeah, 8 minutes at a time is a little annoying.. but its ok, last night i was "cooking" and would hit the button to restart it when it was needed.

Try putting the bottles in a heavy duty ziplock bag or empty pill bottle.

 

[Daavy]

Try putting the bottles in a heavy duty ziplock bag or empty pill bottle.

the ziploc bag trick worked perfectly.