I tried NET previously before this new attempt. It came out with good flavor, but a coil and wick clogger after a few mls of juice. I am no NET expert… Nobody on ELR is by any means. I am learning the process as I go through each step and the outcome still hasn’t been achieved. One thing I do know is that it can’t be rushed. The extraction is simple and straight forward. You will get good flavor 90% of the time. Once that is achieved, It’s a cleaning process to make your NET Coil/Lung friendly. Do I trust a Vendor to properly clean my NET… NO. Don’t confuse good flavor with a clean NET. These waxes and oils reformed after the 18th day of my reduction and transfer process at room temp…
After another filter step I had a Crystal clear NET (Shown a little further above). If you rush through your process you could be vaping more than good flavor. I’ve seen post of some NETs taking 6 months to develop. The hard part is being patient as your NET develops.
I’ve achieved great flavor in the 3 day process I tried. This was my 1st attempt at NET, it came out great, and I can see where it would only get better over a longer period of time. I filtered the NET as much as possible with what I had, ordered the Whatman filters yesterday off Amazon, and will do a final filter once they arrive. I agree this is all about patience and it totally pays off in the end. Vaping the NET alone I found (as @Jimk said), I’ll go through about 10ml on a dripper before having to replace the cotton and coil clean. Mixing the NET with other flavors,…only makes them better! My next attempt will be quart sized/big gulp style!!
Vendor NET liquid pricing can be a bit steep; now that I’ve done a few of my own NET creations, I can understand why the price point is where it’s located.
I purchased and vaped vendor NET liquids to be able to see and taste the real deal. I’ll just be spending money on supplies to make my own NET from now on; it’s not that hard…just time consuming. Ya gotta be patient.
I’ve overlooked this topic for a while and was so engrossed catching up I was vaping a dry tank and got a very bad dry hit I was just having a taste of my American Spirit cold extracted N.E.T which tasted pretty good btw until it was finished without me realising it. Unscrewed the tank to see if I had any gunk but the cotton is still white.
I have done cold and heat extraction and although the heat extraction method gives you a much darker liquid, it is also killing the coils a lot faster.
In a way, that speaks volumes about your filtering techniques. However, it’s also my thinking that more of the natural sugars (dextrose) from the tobacco is extracted when using a heated maceration method.
I have had the same results as you, when speaking of cold vs heated extractions. I prefer the flavor of the vape with the heated extraction a bit more; quite a bit bolder flavor…that’s for me. Now, I just need to work on my winterization and filtering processes. Ordering some 2.5 micron filters for my final filtering process is on my short list.
I’m experimenting with the ratio of tobacco and PGA to see if the flavour gets bolder by just using more tobacco, l really like the clean product you get with cold extraction.
The other thing I’ve noticed is that there is also a difference in colour when you do cold extraction with PG/VG instead of PGA. The PG/VG method also results in a darker liquid. Don’t ask me why.
I found not a great amount of Nic makes it over. I know what a sickening feeling it is to have a nicotine high after speed vaping a mix. I have speed vaped my NET liquids and have never experienced a bad nicotine high. Thus, I feel the Nic content is fairly low in my NET juices.
So yes, I have had to bump up the nicotine in my NET juices.
Another question wonder if distilling that stuff instead of filtration would work. Would be a lot less messy I think . cheaper in the long run too. But I’m not sure how it might affect the flavor.
I love doing NET, but I need to step up my game with the filtering process and buy a good filter system with some 2.5micron filters, before I get back into doing a lot of NET.
I have’t tried for our purposes yet. But I have a friend that uses steam distillation to make amazing essential oils. I would assume that the processes would yeild a similar result.
filtering can be a pita. standard coffee filters are about 20 micron but going smaller than that you will need a pump to get the glycerine through @Jimk
So far, I’ve let gravity do the work, but it takes an overnight stint. I simply need low micron filters to catch more of the icky stuff that kills my coils and cotton. The flavor from NET is wonderful…getting there is the challenge.
I had one 100 ml batch of PG based NET take 4 days to gravity filter…lol. That inspired me to come up with a vacuum filter set up. It works great. The one thing I have to keep an eye on, is making sure the 1.5 micron filter paper is ‘sealed’ to the Buchner funnel. If it’s not, the NET will seep around the edge of the filter paper, bypassing it.
So far, the best remedy I’ve found for that, is using a bead (so to speak) of VG around the inside edge of the Buchner funnel, then putting the filter paper in, and pressing the filter paper into the VG with my finger. That seems to help.
I’m still trying to brainstorm some sort of holder that holds the filter paper firmly, around the edge. I might need to contact MacGyver. Finding out what works is half the fun!
Thank you so much for letting me know that! I’ve been wondering about that issue! I could see it in my head…NET bypassing the filter around the edges in the funnel!
Please keep us informed as to how you make that process better!
I’n not sure of the diameter of your funnel, but how about a large stainless steel ring? Ive seen them in all sizes, and it should be heavy enough to be able to just drop it in there
I was just having a taste of my American Spirit cold extracted N.E.T which tasted pretty good btw until it was finished without me realising it. Unscrewed the tank to see if I had any gunk but the cotton is still white.
