Cleaning and storage

E-liquids Beginners
1

I’ve been wanting to get into diy but I’ve been hesitant. I have some questions I hope can get answered.

  1. Do you guys clean or boil your unicorn bottles when you get them in?
  2. If you mix by weight do you clean the container you used to mix after every juice making session? If so how do you clean and store it?
  3. If I use pipettes instead of syringes to make my e liquid would I clean and boil the pipettes after every use? And also where would I store the pipettes?
2 Likes
2
  1. With plastic bottles I’ll soak in hot water and soap, the rinse and air dry. With glass I’ll boil and air dry.
  2. I mix straight into the bottle so no extra cleaning there.
  3. You can rinse the pipettes in hot water and air dry after each mixing session. When they are totally dry you can place them in a ziplock bag i.e.
6 Likes
3

It’s good to ask questions :slight_smile: so here is what I do. I don’t clean my unicorn or other plastic bottles when I receive them. I personally don’t think there is much to worry about as long as they don’t smell and I have never had an issue. I do mix by weight and it is the easiest and best way to mix in my opinion. I normally mix in the same bottle the liquid will be stored in. I mix into a 30ml bottle and use that same bottle to drip the liquid or fill my tank. If I am making bigger quantities like 120 or 250 i have plastic bottles with tips that make it easy to pour into a 30 or 50 ml bottle to carry around. Basicly I don’t mix in a glass or plastic container and then transfer it into another container. I don’t see a need to do it that way it just adds more steps to mixing. The only reason to maybe mix in a beaker or something like that is if you have a mag mixer and plan to heat/stir your liquid before you put it away. As far as pippettes for flavors I know some people say they are cheap enough for one time use and toss. I personally feel a little bad wasting all that plastic so I try to reuse as much as possible. My own method is if I have a flavor that doesn’t have a drip tip on the bottle and I have to use pippettes I keep the same pippettes for the same flavor so for example if I am using capella golden pineapple flavor I have a pippette in a ziplock bag labeled cap golden pineapple and I use it and put it back in the ziplock. That pippette is only used for that flavor and I label every ziplock with its flavor so that I can reuse the pippette for as long as it will hold up. Hope this helps

5 Likes
4

Thanks so much to everybody for helping me out! (: Also how do you guys step your liquids after they’re mixed?

5
  1. I use 99.9% glass bottles. I have 4 chubby gorilla bottles that I only use if there is a need like if I’m going to be traveling. Personally I wash everything before first use. You never know how “clean” the warehouse is.

2 I mix by weight I drop straight from the bottle to the 15ml/30ml bottle. No beakers here because I like having the option of picking between 20 recipies at one time. So no clean up.

  1. What’s a pipette? J/k. The only thing I measure by volumn is nicotine. For which I double measure. Weight and volumn. When I’m done I wash the syringe with warm tap water…then warm soapy tap water then rinse 5 times with distilled water. Then air dry.
1 Like
6

I shake them well and put them in a drawer. The next day I shake them again, but then I’ll let them sit for 14-30 days at least.

7
  1. Milton sterilising fluid, then air dry
  2. Same as @anon60225325 :+1:
  3. I buy plastic disposable pipettes for the odd occasion I need them (pretty cheap on Amazon and EBay)

My liquids all steep one month plus (this gets easier to do when you’ve found recipes you like and can mix regularly) :+1: :smiley:

Edited because I’ve lost the ability to spell tonight :laughing:

2 Likes
8

My personal habits, YMMV:

  1. I don’t clean my new bottles. I’ve never experienced any negative side effects like bad flavor so I don’t see the point. I’m not obsessed with clean-room-level purity.
  2. I don’t mix by weight, I find volume mixing works fine without investing in a scale.
  3. I literally wipe my pipettes off with a paper towel and stick them in a labeled ziploc bag. I discard my pipettes and ziploc bags and replace them every few months or when the bag starts getting wet inside.
9

I wash my gear like anything else I cook with. Wash with hot water and dish soap. Rinse with hot water. Air dry or towel dry if in a hurry. I mix in a beaker because I use a monster hand blender to mix it / foam it (lol). I mix by weight and only use a pipette on nicotine as everything else has dropper bottles. I reuse the pipette after rinsing it. I also give my mixes a half hour bath in an ultrasonic cleaner while still in the beaker. I then pour the mix into a 120ml bottle. Shelf time steeping totally depends on when the last batch runs out. I like fruits.

1 Like
10

I don’t wash the bottles when I get them, but do use an alcohol wash before reuse. I mix by volume with syringes into the bottles I’m going to steep them in, doesn’t take that long and less space used in the land fill.

11

I used to boil water and use soap but I’ve found hot tap water works fine I just run my bottles under it rinsing them out several times then I soak them in a tuberware of hot water may change out the water a few times. Same thing goes for my tanks.

Pipettes when I do need to use those since I do typically mix by weight but when I use them I’ll toss them out they’re cheap. I did use to clean them shake them well and lay them out on a clean paper towel then shake again the next day.

I have a drying rack now

SandiBlu’s Baby Bottle Grass Drying Rack / BPA-Free / Air-Dry Your Baby Gear / Vibrant Green Imitation ‘Grass’ Blades / Unique 3-Piece Design Makes Cleaning it a Breeze / Perfect Gift for Mom / Lifetime Warranty

this thing holds all my stuff after it’s been rinsed and soaked.

As for the new bottles I’ve washed them all some i’ve used straight away. Most of the time I’ll wash them. That goes for Glass and Plastic but I tend to use a lot of glass.

4 Likes
12

Everyone has their own system, but when I mix by weight, all of my flavors are in bottles with needle tips, so I can just squeeze and watch the scale, then cap, and move on. I don’t mix in a beaker, just the bottle(s) I will be using, so beyond the one syringe for my NIC, there is no clean up. For the NIC syringe, I don’t boil, just flush thoroughly with hot water, blow all the water out, and store it for use.

1 Like
13

put your nic in a dripper bottle man. I have 60 and 120ml bottles from GBO with yorker tops so I can take 120ml from the freezer, bring to room temp and pour it right into a yorker bottle. I just need to get some PET drippers for all my RFSC so I can quit using so many pipettes.

1 Like
14

Where did you get that thing? Love it! I have a drying “pad” I guess I would call it but obviously bottles and such won’t balance on their top on a pad.

3 Likes
15

Amazon !!!

1 Like
16

Thank you @Amy2!!!

1 Like
17

No problem !

18

Amy, you are a freakin’ Guru.

Just in case this helps anyone, I noticed on some of my Amber bottles if I used dish soap, the smell/taste would end up in the rubber or not fully rinse away, but I finally found a soap that is residue free. Palmolive Fusion which uses lime/baking soda has been awesome so far, and no scent or taste leftover, and rinses away squeaky clean.

5 Likes
19

I’ve thought long and hard about this, and have no clue why I stick to my one last syringe LOL…

4 Likes
20

I apologize up front for my GQ (Geek Quotient) but I got one and it is da-bomb! IMHO a must have for the practical DYI enthusiast. Bottles dry great and FAST! Doin the happy dance. Thanks again!

3 Likes