New guy with questions! Ultrasonic cleaner used for steeping

[xxfastfingersxx]

Hey guys

As the title says "New guy with question". So a little background on my "Vaping Career" so to speak. I first started vaping 2 years ago when i realized i was blowing £250-£300 out of my wage on fags. So 6:30AM the next day in my local petrol station I bought my first electric cigarette. Looking back it was a right piece of poo. But it got me off the fags. Since then i upgraded to bigger and better mods, now im rocking a Wismec Reuleax RX2/3 with a Griffin RTDA and i'm bloody loving it. I also have a Smok 40watt mini which i use as the "stealth" vape or "Ninja", you know for them moments when some tosser in your office is offended that your vaping with-in 30 meters of them. Anyway.........

So I've recently made my own e liquid using DarkStar ingredients, actually it was 48 hours ago roughly. I've only made 2 x 30ml jars for the moment as ive only got candy apple flavoring to mess with and wanted to test before made a liter or so. 1 of which i've been bathing in a cup of warm water, heated by a plug-in air wick candle warmer for 2 hours at a time, giving it a good shake (the e liquid that is)every time im passing it. Now I've just wrote what i've done for the last 2 night makes me think "this is what a mental ill person might do". Anyway, so far it isnt actually doing anything that I can describe other than adding to my electric bill. Like most people new to making E juice I am one hell of an impatient sod so I would like some advice on a ultrasonic cleaner used for steeping. I read somewhere in the depths of this forum that some of you guys are using the James Products Ultrasonic 7000S with good results. I think its £32 on amazon which I thinks a fair price to pay. So here are my questions
1. Does this US unit heat the water as well as clean jewelry (steep e juice)?
2. Does it really need to have a heater?
3. Is there another unit for around the same sort of dollar out there that would be better?

All the best

FF

 

[crustyfolker]

All i am going to say is lose the impatient stance its the best thing to do. i have been vaping for 2 years have quite a collection of mods and other gear and have been making my own juice about a year and a half now. what i do is make my juice once a month but have a 2 month supply so i never run out.
some juice takes upto 8 weeks to steep you just can't do much about it other than wait.
You where spending upto £300 a month on ciggies which you can now spend on stocking up on nicotine before May bites and only 10ml bottles at 20mg strength become normal, also buy your VG/PG in large sizes just to save in the long run they won't be affected in may though so no big issue with those , flavours going to push you here in the direction of Chefs flavours, they have a huge selection .
Also go here and use the calculator and also some recipe help.
https://e-liquid-recipes.com/

eventually you will save loads of money you can now as you don't need to spend all the cash you spent on ciggies. £300 spent this month would mean no spending for the next few months. buy Nicotine from darkstar by the litre and break it down into 100ml bottles and freeze it, that way it will be ok to use for 5 years maybe longer.
go to either Lubrisolve, darrant chemicals or lucemill for VG and PG they also supply Nicotine.
All you need then is a notebook to write down what you mix so you don't lose something you create by forgetting how you did it. Bottles labels and funnels a mixing beaker and some syringes of different sizes. Start mixing small amounts till you know whats good then go large.
Fruit flavours usually steep the fastest, custards and creamy stuff usually takes a lot longer, but almost everything gets better the longer you leave it.
Hope this info helps but remember be patient its the only way to get good juice. shake it daily store it in a room temperature to much heat can havean adverse affect on nicotine to cold and it maywell take longer to blend together. Its like booze you can't make booze overnight it has to brew.
If you can go a month on the higher end of sub ohm ie use a 1.0 ohm coil then that will save on how much juice you use while your home made steeps costing you less giving you more to pump into making your own.

good luck with it all. @xxfastfingersxx

 

[Mr Numpty]

1. Does this US unit heat the water as well as clean jewelry (steep e juice)?
2. Does it really need to have a heater?
3. Is there another unit for around the same sort of dollar out there that would be better?

1. It doesn't have an inbuilt heater, no.
2. No, you can add warm water to it and its ultrasonic agitation will heat it even further.
3. There are plenty of others, but many here have been pleased with that model. Not me mind you, mine broke on its first use, but that can happen with any gadget.

 

[xxfastfingersxx]

cheers guys for the advice. I will take it on-board and defo stock pile the nicotine. I know its early days with my e juice but rather enjoy messing about with it all.

I've ordered the cleaner now and will be with me tomorrow. If it doesn't do anything for the steeping, then ive got myself a nice little coil/tank cleaner. £32 isnt much end of the day.

Because Im only using candy apple for this first experiment, I wrote to DarkStar for advice on steeping time. His reply was 3-4 days which i dont think is too bad at all. Especially when i read some people have to take weeks / months to get the results they want.

Anyway, I will report back with my progress.

 

[EmbraSewerRat]

As the others have said sparky, you'll need to get some patience off fast tech or ebay, depending on delivery...

I've tried the US ripening method a couple of times and it hasnae really made much of a difference, at best a week saved on a 3 month custard ripening.
But it could be worth your time if it's fruit or menthol juices yir making.

It takes 12 years to get an adequate Malt, but wait another few years and get a damned good one!!

 

[Greebo]

Fruits & mints are usually just shake n vape. I'd suggest making something you can vape straight away while your other mixes are steeping.

 

[scrumpox]

Warming up a high VG mix, especially in this weather, helps with the mixing process. My ultrasonic also heats up the water and I have noticed that juices will darken after a few cycles. Thorough mixing and some darkening is not the same thing as flavour maturation over time, or steeping. I've read some reports of juice mixers who swear that it does speed up steeping time but I remain highly sceptical.
Patience is a good thing in DIY, forward planning also helps, as @crustyfolker said.

 

[xxfastfingersxx]

@EmbraSewerRat Any links for that mate? lol

@Greebo That's what i'm aiming for, a apple and lime or apple and pineapple. something along those lines. The candy apple Im using ATM has a really strong smell of nail polish remover (well for the first 24 hours). As I've just got in from work I've got one 30ml still in the cupboard and one 30ml in the candle bath thingy. I did notice the smell has diminished and actually could smell a hint of apple. But as its only 48 hours since mixing, its still early days.

@scrumpox There seems to be a lot of people on the internet who swear by the ultrasonic steeping method, this is one of the reasons I have bought one. By trade im and engineer so messing with things is in my nature.

For the past 3/4 months I've been vaping Buddha Vapes - Apple berry blast which i really like. Not too sweet and not too bland. Hence the apple, pinapple or lime combo.

 

[Pinkmonkeys]

M

 

[Mr Numpty]

Warming up a high VG mix, especially in this weather, helps with the mixing process. My ultrasonic also heats up the water and I have noticed that juices will darken after a few cycles. Thorough mixing and some darkening is not the same thing as flavour maturation over time, or steeping. I've read some reports of juice mixers who swear that it does speed up steeping time but I remain highly sceptical.
Patience is a good thing in DIY, forward planning also helps, as @crustyfolker said.

I have seldom used the ultrasound for steeping experiments. When I have shaken my juices by hand to where they were full of tiny bubbles, I've noticed the ultrasound immediately disperses them. I then imagined that the agitating effect of the ultrasonic waves would mix juices very thoroughly but my experiment of putting freshly made, unshaken juices in for 10 minutes saw them come out in the same state they went in.
I just use the cleaner for cleaning now.