NY- 60 years of nicotine in deep freeze

Trying to taste last night’s mix, but cannot because of dinner and the fact it’s kinda muted my taste-buds.

If my grandmother was alive, she’d know exactly what crap would successfully neutralize my mouth ready for vaping again :smirk:

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OK, here’s the deal. If you did have air, argon, and NIC in a bottle, and shook it up before using (as you should to prevent hotspots), you WOULD reinject the oxygen back into the NIC, and then the oxygen would rise to the top, with the Argon beneath it, and then the NIC.

Unless you completely remove ALL the air every time you removed NIC (by re-injecting more Argon), you wouldn’t totally be able to keep your bottles air free.

How much effort you put in, and your tolerance in doing so, will dictate how hard, or easy you make this. NIC will DEGRADE, even in cryo temps, with no light or heat, so all we’re doing here is MAXIMIZING our shelf life, and MINIMIZING oxidation.

Leaving for work, so I’ll try and keep this short. I like to keep things SIMPLE, as life is too damned hectic already, so I don’t get insane about my NIC, BUT, I do have a process.

Deep storage, Working storage I treat differently. All deep storage is in 500ml bottles, all Argon gassed, taped, in bags, in ultra low temp freezer. When I run out of working storage, I open a NEW 500ml bottle from deep storage, and break down into 60ml or 120ml glass bottles, and RE-Argon every one after breaking down. I then leave all but ONE bottle in the deep freeze, moving only ONE working bottle into the standard freezer. As I use that up (sometimes goes pretty quick), I do NOT re-Argon the working bottle as I use it down. Just not worth the effort.

This means that ALL of my deep storage, stays ultra low temp, AND, completely on gas. Only my working bottle is exposed to any air/heat freeze/thaw cycles. ALL of the remaining, stays undistirbed. Space determined as to how much of my Salts goes into the deep freeze, vs. regular freezer.

You don’t have to drive yourself crazy, but you should protect, and extend that which you paid for. Having Deep Storage, and Working Storage, can make things easier for you. The pure Argon is cheap enough, and you get many shots out of one can, so the cost is negligible. Nothing lasts forever, but you can do it smartly.

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See, toldya :slight_smile:

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The problem with NOT shaking your “working” bottle is you can get hotspots. Higher (or) lower than expected NIC levels, so shaking before using SHOULD be done.

VG get’s ultra thick, and PG gets thicker in the freezer (surprisingly thick at -30F).

The whole reason we even use a freezer is we want to SLOW the chemical reaction (aka oxidation, and nic depletion). Both will occur, no matter what you do, BUT, you can slow it, and minimize it. The colder you go, the more the reaction(s) slow down as well.

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Ahhhhhh right :slight_smile:

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Though the air bubbles would still work their way to the top even at -30°F, it would just take so looooonnng to happen there’d be oxidization occurring the whole time the bubbles are slooooooowly rising to the surface.

Which would be, bad.

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Well, if you are using PG based NIC, they would. VG on the other hand, they might get trapped in the NIC, and therefore oxidize. If you are PG sensitive, and have to use 100% VG NIC, it would complicate things for you. I much prefer 100% PG NIC, for ease of use, and the LACK of a need to force my NIC to endure repeated freeze/thaw cycles, just to shake up before using.

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Yeah, my working bottle is only 30ml, my working storage is at -5c and only a small bottle at any given time. My deep storage is -18c and I just put the bottle straight from supplier in there unopened.

I get my nic in 125ml bottles so there is never too much in working storage at one time, I squeeze the air out when I refill my working bottle.

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Are they glass bottles @Ianc13 ??

I’ve been reading up a LOT lately (LOL), on the effects of high NIC strength in plastic bottles, and most things I read are bad. High level NIC breaking down the plastic, the plastic allowing atmosphere penetration into the bottle/NIC, plastic leaching into the NIC, etc.

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I got PG base.

I’ve never seen the option at all for VG at local sites and the general preference seems to be for 100PG base so we’re almost excusively talking about that.

Pity, I would order VG base if I had the option - at least to try it out: especially for salts, which I use in much higher quantities than freebase and there’s not a lot of wiggle-room for VG/PG on a juice that’s 50mg/mL when 50% of your mix is already 100% PG right off the bat because that’s all 100PG base :angry:

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No actually, but I do have some glass bottles I can use.

Ahhhhh, never stop learning mate, knowledge is power and you can answer our questions easier… :grin:

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I had that discussion in another thread - about plastic bottles being frozen - and the general consensus was that the HDPE bottles we get our nic in (vapoureyes uses them at least, dunno bout other vendors) are alright to freeze, but that glass is better nod

I’ll have to get some before I start freezing.

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Well, don’t listen to me, I’m no chemical engineer, but, hehe, I like to protect my investment, and stay safe at the same time.

Let’s be honest, having to WORRY about all this crap, can be a PITA. Freezers, breaking down, Glass, Argon, blah, blah, blah. Whata PITA.

It’s all up to the individual as to how MUCH effort is made. I’m sure plenty of people still just leave their NIC sitting out, never freeze, in plastic, and no one’s dying from it, hehe.

I’m watching my Deep Freeze vs. Working Freeze temps right now, and MIGHT (not sure) just pick up a second ultra low temp freezer, but not sure yet.

https://www.wayfair.com/appliances/pdp/edgestar-11-cu-ft-freestanding-mini-fridge-with-freezer-eget1039.html

https://www.lowes.com/pd/EdgeStar-19-in-Wide-1-1-cu-ft-ENERGY-STAR-Rated-Medical-Freezer-with-Integrated-Lock-White/1001298866

I’ve read that -20F is getting into the sweet spot, wherein you REALLY start to slow the chemical reaction(s). Not 100% sold on it yet, but I’m mulling it over.

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That’s true D’man. It is a PITA and others seem to not worry. It’s all comparative too. I have enough nic to last me around 18 months, by then I should be nic free. With my vaping style and strength that is a whole 750mls.

You on the other hand mix for others so have much more demand, therefore much more stock of nic. With your current situation you need to not only store a lot of nic, but also keep it as good as possible.

That medical freezer looks like a good second one. I would get it if I was you.

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Herein lies the quandary …

Low temp, or Super low temp …

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Considering how the value of nicotine is only going to rise under these conditions, every time I will open a nic bottle I’ll just add more argon. The shit is cheap, issue solved.

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-36 degrees Fahrenheit

There comes a point, however, where even antifreeze can’t protect from a freeze. At -36 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s -38 degrees Celsius ), antifreeze and coolant will start to solidify, making it very difficult for your engine to turn over.Feb 1, 2019

This is for the anti freeze you put in your car. PG , about a decade ago replaced the the alcohol in antifreeze because the sweet taste attracted dogs and other animals causing alcohol poisoning.

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I have some all VG 10%nicotine (1 liter) that I divided up into 120ml glass Boston rounds and store in my residential freezer. Speaking from personal experience, it is a true PIA to thaw it to the point is is not too viscous to shake. The thing is that every time you thaw and refreeze the nic, it is really not good for it, there is a certain amount of thermal shock involved that degrades the product. That said there is also a good amount of condensation involved that wreaks havoc with the bottle labeling and perhaps can induce unwanted water into the bottle. I have decided to save my VG nic until last and just leave it in the deep freeze until I really need to use it. PG is much easier to work with cold and I can shake, extract a desired quantity, and replace it in the freezer in a couple of minutes.

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One thing to consider, although it is problematic if you have freezer space restrictions is that the more concentrated your nic base is the faster it degrades over time. {i.e., a 10% nicotine solution will degrade at a slower rate then a 25% nicotine solution, stored in the same climatic conditions} If you don’t need higher concentrations to mix your fav %'s then it makes sense at a longevity viewpoint to store say like 48mg/ml base over 100mg/ml or especially 250mg/ml. I am uncertain if this is widely known, but just throwing it out there.

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Ok, let’s throw another wrench into the works. A rep from one of the nic vendors wrote, on these forums, not to shake nic, ever. Hmmm?

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