I did not realize the plastic bottle may "leech" (or discolor the nic), now, while I have not taken them out of my freezer (I'm scared to look). If has changed color, do I just chuck it or what? I plan on buying a few 500ml glass bottles since I have learned of this and may need to buy new nic.
Basic question still being, what's my safe bet if the nic has discolored?
Secondary question, I usually buy Wizard Labs, has anyone experienced "cleaner" tasting nic?
Thanks.
What kind of plastic is it, is it completely clear like a soda bottle?
Just to disseminate some information here, with regards to nicotine discoloration there are a few things that could be going on, specifically regarding time, temperature, and bottle conditions. I'll cover a couple things on plastic leachables, as well.
The first thing you have to look at is storage temperature. The higher the temperature, the more likely oxidation is to happen. Keeping it in the freezer will slow oxidation, but will not stop it completely unless you're storing it at below -80 C. When I worked in biotech, we kept all of our animal-derived substances, patient biopsies, and patient cell cultures in storage at -80 and they were considered good for at least 2 years from date put into storage.
In addition to this, plastics leaching will increase at higher temps, but the lower the temp the less likely anything will leach out. If you're keeping things frozen, leaching is not your problem. "Leachables" are considered compounds that leach from elastomeric, plastic compounds or coatings of the container & closure system as a result of direct contact with the formulation during the shelf-life of the product. Studies on these are usually done over months and years. If you're storing something for a few days to a couple weeks, especially in cold or frozen storage, it is extremely unlikely that anything from the plastic will leach into the contents, the energy just isn't there to allow that to happen.
As far as plastic, HDPE and LDPE (High Density PolyEthylene and Low Density PolyEthylene, respectively) are both very poor oxidation barriers, meaning over time (like months - years) they will let a lot of oxygen through the bottle. PET (PolyEthylene Terephthalate) is the preferred packaging type for foods and most non-volatile pharmaceutical components. You can usually tell what type of plastic it is by clarity. If it's a clear, non-colored bottle, PET will be completely clear, like a soda bottle. HDPE and LDPE will both be translucent, but not absolutely clear. If you're storing something in plastic, PET is the way to go.
As far as freezing, I would highly discourage freezing anything in glass. Use PET bottles for freezer storage, always. In addition to that, don't freeze large batches. You're going to use nicotine every time you want to mix something. Taking that big bottle out, thawing it, using a small amount, and then re-freezing is only going to promote oxidation and make it "go bad" sooner. Divide it into a few smaller bottles (100 mL or even 50 or 30) and freeze those. Date all of them, too, so you know which ones went into storage first. Then, when you have to use something, you only have to thaw out a small bottle instead of a huge one and potentially exposing your entire inventory of nic.
this is all really helpful, thanks! but, can you explain why storing in glass is not a good idea? i would have thought that would be the way to go..
A couple of reasons:
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Glass is sensitive to pressure and will crack. Some people might disagree with me here with regards to PG-based nicotine, because unlike water PG does not increase in volume when it freezes. When water freezes and expands, it causes a pressure differential between the inside and outside of the bottle (lots of pressure inside from the air being compressed by expanding water vs. standard room pressure outside) and if there is too much of a differential, the bottle shatters. That being said, however, PG does decrease slightly in volume when it solidifies, and although it's not nearly as much of a concern as it would with water, a differential is still created, this time with a lower pressure inside than the outside, and there's still that chance, albeit tiny, that the glass could shatter. Plastic does not shatter in this way and will stretch first before shattering even under extreme pressure differentials, so this is a concern you can put to rest entirely by using plastic.
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When we deal with nicotine we just want to take any precaution we can with handling it. 100 mg could kill you if you ingested enough of it, or got a lot of it on you somehow. On the off-chance you dropped a bottle, if it was glass, and it breaks, boom you've got nicotine everywhere. If it's plastic, it'll more likely than not just bounce onto the floor and make a loud sound, maybe a dent, but won't break.
Check out this mini-study done by MadVapes.com
Short version: Keep your bulk nic liquid in a sealed bottle in the fridge, and it's good for a long time.
look on the bottom for the recycle code. The number will tell you what type of plastic to google. Else, but the glass bottles from myfreedomsmokes. they are having a sale right now 1 liter 100mg liquid for 50bucks. That bottle comes in plastic though, so buy a glass bottle to transfer it into. That said, be super careful with the transfer. The fumes off 100mg liquid will be significant, esp if the transfer is slow (like through a funnel).