What's the best way to sterilize glass jars for long-term nicotine storage?
- Thread starter DC2
- Start date
- th_trl_thread_readers 0
- Status
That's one of the things I was wondering... when boiling them should I be using distilled water.
I kind of figured boiling them in regular water might leave some residue.
And then I started wondering if I was over-thinking it.
When I sterilize jars for canning vegetables I just boil them in tap water for ten minutes. Alternately, I've used the hottest setting on my dishwasher
Sterilize would be wet (autoclave, boiling, etc.) or dry heat (in the oven), either may sacrifice some jars.
I'm guessing that sanitation would be good enough which opens the options up.
How to Brew - By John Palmer - Sanitizing Your Equipment (for the heat cycle temperatures and times)
For beer bottles I use the oven because it's very simple. IMO beer is much more susceptible than nic liquid would be and I've had a few low alcohol batches get contaminated when using sanitizers, not a problem since going to the oven.
I've lost more canning jars designed to be heat sterilized to boiling water than I have beer bottles which aren't to the oven. The key is to heat the oven up slow and let it cool naturally with the door closed.
I'm guessing that sanitation would be good enough which opens the options up.
How to Brew - By John Palmer - Sanitizing Your Equipment (for the heat cycle temperatures and times)
For beer bottles I use the oven because it's very simple. IMO beer is much more susceptible than nic liquid would be and I've had a few low alcohol batches get contaminated when using sanitizers, not a problem since going to the oven.
I've lost more canning jars designed to be heat sterilized to boiling water than I have beer bottles which aren't to the oven. The key is to heat the oven up slow and let it cool naturally with the door closed.
You can boil them.....or Pressure cook them.
I use glass mason jars all the time, and I pressure cook them (with contents inside) to sterilize. I Pressure cook at 15PSI, but if you are sterilizing empty jars, just use 5-10PSI.
Boiling should be fine though
Two hours is way more then you need to boil the bottles, even baby bottles didn't get that much boiling back in the days when it was thought that boiling to 'sterilize' the bottles were needed. 20 minutes is more then enough once the boil states meaning the water is over 212 degrees (if you live at a high altitude you are going to have to adjust as water boils at a much cooler temp.))
True, without special equipment you can't really sterilize bottles at home and of course since they are open to air once removed from the boiling water and are no longer sterile as they are immediately in contact with airborne particulate matter, viruses, bacteria etc. plus you air dry them where the water left behind provides a nice warm surface for something to grow or dry then with something unless your gloved and using sterile towels going to transfer something.
Yes, boiling will remove any bad stuff in/on the bottles but will not be providing a 'sterile' storage environment. Running water itself is a purifying action as it moves bacteria etc off in the direction of the water. Why surgeons rinse their hands and arms so long after washing and let the water run from fingertips to elbows so the 'germs' move off their hands, wrists and arms - before they put on sterile gloves.
You're essentially reaching 'sanitation' when you boil although the bottle do reach 'sterilization' the fact that they just can't stay that way once removed from the water. Any home dishwasher as long as you're not also washing greasy or food covered dishes with your bottles and use a heater drying cycle gets your bottle sanitized just fine for storage of e-juice. Of course running a dishwasher practically empty except for 10 bottles or so is a real waste of the electricity. The only time I used the dishwasher is when I really needed the bottles dried faster than air drying. I always use dry bottles as I did not want to add water from droplets left behind from rinsing, moisture form the drying process and so on.
Using hot soapy water and the mechanism, rinsing them well, soaking in a bleach bath NOT STRAIGHT BLEAch but a few tablespoons in a quart of water) for 15 minutes and rising VERY well, again, achieves the same purpose. Washing the bottles and soaking in vodka will also make the bottles and utensils as clean as you can get without an autoclave for preparation, handling and storage of the e-juice. This is why I love the glassware as you can reuse and get rid of previous flavors with washing (plastic often holds the flavor) and you can get then genuinely clean. Clean and sanitized is what you want to store e-juice in. Cold sterilization methods also work if you decide to re-use plastic bottles but glass does just clean up better and flavor and odor don't leech into glass.
Remember Nicotine is a toxin and it not only kills things (like insects and why its used as an insecticide) it also has a great ability to render the ability of e-juice as a growth medium to pretty low.
Except for long termed sealed storage by boiling food for example in jars to a heat that kills all the 'germs' and essentially sterilizes the food inside you won't get that to happen to e-juice unless you take the same steps and 'can' your e-juice.
As important as getting your bottle clean and sanitized for putting e-juice in - respect your utensils the same way. I know people that jump through hoops to get bottles and tops completely sanitized and use the same dropper or pipette or syringe batch after batch after batch, often designating one to each flavor they use so not to cross mix flavors and assume since they have designated the pipette to one flavor and store it in a sealed plastic bag it stays 'clean'.. Not all flavors have preservatives that limit bacterial grown and many often contain things that are 'yummy' to bacteria (like sugars). When made they are sealed sterile containers by either a heat or cold processes, but once opened (unless preserved) need cold storage to inhibit growth of stuff,, so think of those droppers with the inside coated with sugar flavoring sitting around in warm plastic bags week after week batch after batch. Glass droppers, or even polycarbonate plastic ones do well to the same procedures as your bottles but most pipettes (unless you find glass ones) are meant to be disposable and the flimsy plastic does not do well with hot hot water, so cold sanitation is the way. Vodka is very good for pipettes because (unless you have flavored vodka) it has no real flavor or odor. Yes, flavor and 'perfume' from the flavor will leech into the most common type of plastic used in the pipettes meant to be disposed of and even into the plastic of syringes so you probably still want to mark them in somewhat and designated them.
For droppers, simply remove the bulb and run swish around in ht soapy water then rinse for 4 minutes under hot running water so the water runs through them. Squish the water in an out of the rubber bulb. You can boil glass or hard poly carbonate droppers but the rubber bulb will wear out quickly id boiled a lot. Rubber also does poorly will bleach baths - even in very diluted bleach, nice vodka soak for both is good, then let dry completely making sure no liquid is up in that rubber bulb.
Although plastic syringes were meant to be disposable you can buy then sterilized in separate packages (but they are no longer sterilized as soon as opened and touched by a non sterilized surface or hand or liquid)or just 'clean' in a box or individually. Although disposable if using hem for injections into people they clean up really well for measuring devices, Don;'t clean then by sucking up water and squirting it out - pull the plunger out and wash the syringe completely doing the running underwater thing. Soak these in bleach bath of vodka and then replace the plunger long enough to plunge it up and down a few times and get the liquid out - then air dry with the plunger out of the syringe.
Pipettes are probably the hardest to clean because they are the hardest to dry and because you cannot run water through them but only suck it up and squirt it out. You just have to inspect the inside closely to make sure it really looks like there is no residue in there.
Never store utensils or containers in other containers unless you are absolutely sure they are completely dry. Being in the air drying is a much better place then in a container 'sweating' out their last bit of moisture. Better to lay the parts and utensils on a clean dry paper towel and lay a clean dry one over then to keep out dust and other particles floating around in the air. Some people like to use lingerie laundry bags (soft net bag used for containing delicates in the laundry tub when washing) for drying and storage of utensils. They are usually the right size to hold everything and the net allows air to circulate and the utensils and containers to breathe. and containers so that they can be very dry but not liable to have pet hair in them,
Not really mentioned here are plastic bottles. Like any container they have to be sanitized even before first use but you will quickly learn they don't dry very quickly. The 'softer' plastics that enable the bottle to be squeezed (even the heavier feeling plastic bottle - fi it can be squeezed consider it 'soft' plastic) are porous enough that they can have flavors and smells leech into them meaning that washing and reusing with different flavor doesn't always - mostly work well. My tendency is to toss plastic bottles after one use so glass ends up being cheaper in the long run, plus the neck shape of the glass ones is usually easier to fill.
True, without special equipment you can't really sterilize bottles at home and of course since they are open to air once removed from the boiling water and are no longer sterile as they are immediately in contact with airborne particulate matter, viruses, bacteria etc. plus you air dry them where the water left behind provides a nice warm surface for something to grow or dry then with something unless your gloved and using sterile towels going to transfer something.
Yes, boiling will remove any bad stuff in/on the bottles but will not be providing a 'sterile' storage environment. Running water itself is a purifying action as it moves bacteria etc off in the direction of the water. Why surgeons rinse their hands and arms so long after washing and let the water run from fingertips to elbows so the 'germs' move off their hands, wrists and arms - before they put on sterile gloves.
You're essentially reaching 'sanitation' when you boil although the bottle do reach 'sterilization' the fact that they just can't stay that way once removed from the water. Any home dishwasher as long as you're not also washing greasy or food covered dishes with your bottles and use a heater drying cycle gets your bottle sanitized just fine for storage of e-juice. Of course running a dishwasher practically empty except for 10 bottles or so is a real waste of the electricity. The only time I used the dishwasher is when I really needed the bottles dried faster than air drying. I always use dry bottles as I did not want to add water from droplets left behind from rinsing, moisture form the drying process and so on.
Using hot soapy water and the mechanism, rinsing them well, soaking in a bleach bath NOT STRAIGHT BLEAch but a few tablespoons in a quart of water) for 15 minutes and rising VERY well, again, achieves the same purpose. Washing the bottles and soaking in vodka will also make the bottles and utensils as clean as you can get without an autoclave for preparation, handling and storage of the e-juice. This is why I love the glassware as you can reuse and get rid of previous flavors with washing (plastic often holds the flavor) and you can get then genuinely clean. Clean and sanitized is what you want to store e-juice in. Cold sterilization methods also work if you decide to re-use plastic bottles but glass does just clean up better and flavor and odor don't leech into glass.
Remember Nicotine is a toxin and it not only kills things (like insects and why its used as an insecticide) it also has a great ability to render the ability of e-juice as a growth medium to pretty low.
Except for long termed sealed storage by boiling food for example in jars to a heat that kills all the 'germs' and essentially sterilizes the food inside you won't get that to happen to e-juice unless you take the same steps and 'can' your e-juice.
As important as getting your bottle clean and sanitized for putting e-juice in - respect your utensils the same way. I know people that jump through hoops to get bottles and tops completely sanitized and use the same dropper or pipette or syringe batch after batch after batch, often designating one to each flavor they use so not to cross mix flavors and assume since they have designated the pipette to one flavor and store it in a sealed plastic bag it stays 'clean'.. Not all flavors have preservatives that limit bacterial grown and many often contain things that are 'yummy' to bacteria (like sugars). When made they are sealed sterile containers by either a heat or cold processes, but once opened (unless preserved) need cold storage to inhibit growth of stuff,, so think of those droppers with the inside coated with sugar flavoring sitting around in warm plastic bags week after week batch after batch. Glass droppers, or even polycarbonate plastic ones do well to the same procedures as your bottles but most pipettes (unless you find glass ones) are meant to be disposable and the flimsy plastic does not do well with hot hot water, so cold sanitation is the way. Vodka is very good for pipettes because (unless you have flavored vodka) it has no real flavor or odor. Yes, flavor and 'perfume' from the flavor will leech into the most common type of plastic used in the pipettes meant to be disposed of and even into the plastic of syringes so you probably still want to mark them in somewhat and designated them.
For droppers, simply remove the bulb and run swish around in ht soapy water then rinse for 4 minutes under hot running water so the water runs through them. Squish the water in an out of the rubber bulb. You can boil glass or hard poly carbonate droppers but the rubber bulb will wear out quickly id boiled a lot. Rubber also does poorly will bleach baths - even in very diluted bleach, nice vodka soak for both is good, then let dry completely making sure no liquid is up in that rubber bulb.
Although plastic syringes were meant to be disposable you can buy then sterilized in separate packages (but they are no longer sterilized as soon as opened and touched by a non sterilized surface or hand or liquid)or just 'clean' in a box or individually. Although disposable if using hem for injections into people they clean up really well for measuring devices, Don;'t clean then by sucking up water and squirting it out - pull the plunger out and wash the syringe completely doing the running underwater thing. Soak these in bleach bath of vodka and then replace the plunger long enough to plunge it up and down a few times and get the liquid out - then air dry with the plunger out of the syringe.
Pipettes are probably the hardest to clean because they are the hardest to dry and because you cannot run water through them but only suck it up and squirt it out. You just have to inspect the inside closely to make sure it really looks like there is no residue in there.
Never store utensils or containers in other containers unless you are absolutely sure they are completely dry. Being in the air drying is a much better place then in a container 'sweating' out their last bit of moisture. Better to lay the parts and utensils on a clean dry paper towel and lay a clean dry one over then to keep out dust and other particles floating around in the air. Some people like to use lingerie laundry bags (soft net bag used for containing delicates in the laundry tub when washing) for drying and storage of utensils. They are usually the right size to hold everything and the net allows air to circulate and the utensils and containers to breathe. and containers so that they can be very dry but not liable to have pet hair in them,
Not really mentioned here are plastic bottles. Like any container they have to be sanitized even before first use but you will quickly learn they don't dry very quickly. The 'softer' plastics that enable the bottle to be squeezed (even the heavier feeling plastic bottle - fi it can be squeezed consider it 'soft' plastic) are porous enough that they can have flavors and smells leech into them meaning that washing and reusing with different flavor doesn't always - mostly work well. My tendency is to toss plastic bottles after one use so glass ends up being cheaper in the long run, plus the neck shape of the glass ones is usually easier to fill.
That is what I was going to say. Also the old fashion way of sterilizing baby bottles in just a 5 or 10 minute boil. Both PG and nicotine resist bacteria growth and freezing itself is a way to preserve. I don't think you need to sterilize your jars before you add nic and freeze.
- Status
Similar threads
