Weird dark juice layering

[Asty]

Hello! I've recently noticed that when there's little juice left in my tank it kind of turns very dark. I didn't pay close attention at first but noticed it today and it really bugged me. I filled it up with fresh liquid (Menthol PG 18mg) just to check since the juice itself is yellow and the tank is salad green. I thought it's just the color of the tank making it seem this way but no — the dark bits of liquid are actually different (darker) color than the rest of freshly filled liquid (both from the same bottle).

The dark bottom layer sort of stays there, if I shake it I can see it moving but eventually it moves down where it was.

Is this normal? Could be because I didn't clean the tank for a while? Really no idea.

Included pics for better reference

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27690385/IMAG0614.jpg

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/27690385/IMAG0613.jpg

Thanks!

 

[Ryedan]

It's normal Asty. It happens in all top coil clearomizers and I've noticed it to a lesser degree in my stainless steel wicked RBA too. Most people think what's happening is the silica wicks in the clearos are filtering out some of the juice components like flavorings. The rest of the juice moves through and gets vaped. Some people discard juice when it gets too dark. I've never found this to affect flavor and ignore it for the most part, though I will discard juice from the end of a tank when it gets really dark.

 

[Ryedan]

One more thing - no idea why yours is not mixing. Mine does mix when I swirl and shake the tank around for a minute.

And welcome to ECF!

 

[cherrycakes]

dude, clean that stuff outta there. ewww

 

[Asty]

Thanks a lot for a rather quick reply. I'm not worried now

 

[zyglrox]

NVM. I learned something here. ^_^

 

[cherrycakes]

yea just when you've finished all the liquid clean the tank out
it's just old liquid, it gets darker and thicker over time. seems to clog up wicks in my experience
I'm .... retentive and have to clean mine like every other tank

 

[cherrycakes]

if that's a stardust, eh they're a pain in the .... to clean. I just kind of put water in mine and swish it around for a while.
It's way easier to clean fully with a replaceable coil but I don't think yours is like that?

 

[Asty]

I'm using EGO CE4 V2. I haven't bothered to try and disassemble the tank yet (although I will try since I have a bunch of unused ones now) and will see what happens. Thanks for the vid!

 

[Schnarph]

Same thing happens to me. It's not friendly to anything you try to put it in when it gets too dark, you will know it when you see it. It might not taste bad, but it clogs up whatever I try to put it in, it kills cartos too. I second the opinion that the wicks can't pull all the juice in, it didn't taste burnt to me. I only tried to re-use it once, waste of time. Dump it, and be glad if you don't clog the wick and coils permanently. I have no idea why I put this junk in the same bottle, I have no use for it. However, I do like putting my trash in the same place, once the bottle of poop is full I plan to throw it out all at once. I don't know what your clearo/carto/tank cleaning schedule is, but come up with one. You can wait for BO to take a bath if that's your thing, but you can't wait for liquid to make a smell. BTW, some liquids will do this darkening thing before others. YMMV.

Edit: I type slow. Cleaning? Poor nearly boiling water in it, dump it out. Rinse and repeat until it smells and looks clear. This can take a while, I put mine in a tall shot glass or pill bottle to make it easier. If your coil/head is removable, remove it after a few rinses and but it back in the glass/bottle with the tank for a few more cycles. Once you are happy with that, pull it out and let it cool enough to sling out all the water you can. Then leave it all submersed in PGA for as long as you have time, from 30 minutes to whenever. I re-use my PGA for this method, it doesn't show any signs of getting dirty. That will kill the old flavors and cooties. Once you take out of the PGA, sling the PGA out and wrap the head in a paper towel if you can, and stuff some towel in the tank if you can fit any in there. Should be ready in a day, if not sooner. This is why I own more than one tank/clearo/thingy, and a few heads to swap out. If this seems too extreme, it's just what I came up with, and I don't have much experience at all. I've watched some you-tube vids, and was not impressed. I do know what it takes to sanitize beer brewing supplies, and I don't have to inhale that stuff, so I take extra caution with e-liquid tanks. It only takes a few minutes of work and is cheaper than buying a new clearo/tank by far. The only heads/coils/wicks I lost were to that dark and concentrated juice phenomenon. I have my own crazy method for cleaning cartos which makes them like new, but you didn't ask for that, or my clearo cleaning regimen for that matter. Sorry for TMI, maybe it helped.

 

[cherrycakes]

yea that's why I dont like thick dark juices, they seem to clog up more easily.

 

[Ryedan]

yea that's why I dont like thick dark juices, they seem to clog up more easily.

Very good point cherrycakes and I totally agree. I think of it as 'clean burn juice performance'. I DIY my juice and I can tell you from experience you don't have to add much of a bad 'clean burn' flavoring to juice to make it clog things up real quick. I use both carts and clearos (which are mostly VN's now). Anything that I make that will clog things up go into the clearos because I can dry burn them after every couple of tank fulls if needed and that keeps them clean. I've never tried cleaning carts. Just didn't seem to be worth it if I couldn't dry burn.

 

[Asty]

Thanks everyone for your input!

 

[Schnarph]

Very good point cherrycakes and I totally agree. I think of it as 'clean burn juice performance'. I DIY my juice and I can tell you from experience you don't have to add much of a bad 'clean burn' flavoring to juice to make it clog things up real quick. I use both carts and clearos (which are mostly VN's now). Anything that I make that will clog things up go into the clearos because I can dry burn them after every couple of tank fulls if needed and that keeps them clean. I've never tried cleaning carts. Just didn't seem to be worth it if I couldn't dry burn.

Sure, Boge carts are only a buck a piece. Not all juices that start out dark clog a cart as fast as others(say that 10 times real fast). I clean my carts out white as new. Combination of the Kennysmancaves method(you-tube) and PBusardo's(also, you-tube), using a syringe to push/pull nearly boiling water in and out of the cart a dozen times or as long as it seems necessary(clean water goes in, bad goes down the drain). Kenny doesn't use near boiling water, PBusardo doesn't force water through the cart. This is followed by using the same syringe to push/pull as much air through the cart as possible, followed by PBusardo's method of stuffing with paper towel to dry. After a few days, it goes into a sealed can on top of a layer of paper towel, with bunch of saved up silica packets on the bottom. I leave them in there until I need a cart. Takes just a few minutes for a five pack of carts, the rest is drying time. Sounds kinda crazy when I type it all out, but it works really well and the water is nearly free, heating one coffee pot of water is no biggie.

Dang it, now I've gone too far. Sorry, it's late, 2 hours of sleep over 48 hours, didn't know what I was thinking. TMI, I know. If I had a handheld steam cleaner, this would have been a 3 sentence post.

 

[Ryedan]

You make some great points Schnarph! Might just try this with the next few carts I go through and see what happens. Can't lose anything and I might get at least double the life out of a few cartos

 

[Schnarph]

You make some great points Schnarph! Might just try this with the next few carts I go through and see what happens. Can't lose anything and I might get at least double the life out of a few cartos

If it helps, I'm happy to oblige. Keep in mind that even on the first use, if you go too far, the cart is done for. If you've been using carts far a while, you will know when you to stop before it's too late. It mostly depends on the juice of course. YMMV goes for this as much as anything. Like you said, nothing to lose (but a few minutes).

edit: Ryedan, if this works out for you, please post your results!

extra edit: Kenny's method
PBusardo's Method
Put those two together and you have my method.

 

[White Rabbit]

OK, I read all of this post and my question is: What makes a DYI juice which initially is almost clear to turn dark? I DYI at 50/50 PG/VG and use 2% tobacco absolute which is the only ingrediant that I can think of that would turn an other wise clear juice darker. In the original mixing bottle, kept closed and in the dark it turns darker every day steeping. I normally use it up within two weeks. The darker juice does not seem to clog my cartos or tanks and tastes even better when dark. I know steeping helps tobacco juice, but I can't figure out the darkening process.

 

[VClouds]

OK, I read all of this post and my question is: What makes a DYI juice which initially is almost clear to turn dark? I DYI at 50/50 PG/VG and use 2% tobacco absolute which is the only ingrediant that I can think of that would turn an other wise clear juice darker. In the original mixing bottle, kept closed and in the dark it turns darker every day steeping. I normally use it up within two weeks. The darker juice does not seem to clog my cartos or tanks and tastes even better when dark. I know steeping helps tobacco juice, but I can't figure out the darkening process.

Took me a while to work this out myself. My daily vape is a DIY with 50/50 pg/vg and DK Tobacco flavoring at about 10%, I have been dropping the nic level from 48mg (what I used to quit analogs 2 years ago) down to my current level of 18mg.

I found out early on that this mix required steeping to taste right in my eGo-T tank system. In the beginning I tried everything I could think of (or was suggested in the forum here) to speed up the process. From shaking the bottles several times a day to hot water baths. I would mix 2 bottles and set one aside to steep over time and the other I tried to help along as much as I could. Even went as far as using a sonic cleaner with hot water 5 or 6 times a day. Nothing worked, both bottles darkened at the same rate and it still took 10 to 12 days to steep.

Then I did notice something changing gradually, as I reduced the nic level the steep time increased ever so slightly. At 46mg steep time was 7-10 days, now at 18mg my steep time is 12-16 days. My general conclusion to all this testing and tracking is that the majority of steeping is actually a chemical reaction between the the nicotine and the flavoring agent in the mix. To back this theory up I check some of my desert vapes and a few fruit flavors and all showed very different steep times to come to full flavor, some in as little as 2 or 3 days.

General conclusion on steep times, totally depends on the flavor + nic level + vg/pg (mix viscosity) to produce a fully mature flavor of e-liquid.

Along with this I am currently trying to track vg/pg ratios against coil resistance + power levels to figure out if some e=liquids are more prone to burning than others. If anybody know a good source of information (or thread) on this please post it here.

Hope the steeping information is helpful to some