I'm a speed steep NON-believer. Time is the best steeping method from my experience.
However, I ~blend~ big batches (in place of shaking) and seem to get pretty good results on large batches (~500ml) using medium RPM. I try to avoid a full on, top-to-bottom, flavor killing, oxygenating vortex. Instead I shoot for a slight funnel, 10-15min absolute max, rubber plugged. I usually measure and warm the VG under hot tap water in a plugged flask. I do all of this so I don't have to make and shake 5x 100ml bottles individually.
Anyone use a mag stir? What method (quantity, duration, any detail) has provided the best results? Equipment? Stir bar preference?
If you haven't noticed I'm a bit obsessed with details. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have a stir plate for yeast.
Never used it for juice, honestly seems like overkill to me. Fun to watch though for sure.
No.
If I had one, I'd only use it for 0nic batches. And even then... it's tough to think of a bottle I'd mix in that would work with a decent stir bar, and being a cleaning lady isn't how I want to spend my mixing time.
I can relate to the cleaning lady part. Lucky for me i have one of those. No, not really, it's my wife, and she helps because she doesn't want to see me smoke heh.
EDIT: So do you make large batches, and if so do you just shake larger bottles? Do you decant to smaller bottles?
Regarding Stir Bars, I actually did an "unscientific" comparison of a couple manufacturers a few years back that you might find interesting.
Other than that, you seem to have the gist of it: avoid oxygenation and don't overheat. If you're following those two steps, you don't have to worry about duration as much. Magnetic stirrers are a great low-effort way to homogenize larger batches of eliquid.
Will check that out! Thank you!
On duration, it seems to me I do get different results, say between 10-30min, and between say 30-60min. Would you suggest an optimal duration or does that vary?
Generally speaking, you want to mix until the visible striation within the eliquid is gone (if you look carefully, you can see "strands" of pg/flavor in the vg) and it is fully homogenized, however long that takes. As long as you're not whipping air into the mixture or overheating it, mixing longer than needed shouldn't be an issue or cause undue harm to the flavor.
I mix 500 ml bottles too, but I generally just shake them less then I shake myself after taking a whizz. If I owned a magnetic stirrer, I’d probably use it twice (while laughing maniacally coz nerd), and never be assed to do it again. Time is like money- I don’t have any.
You don't have inconsistent flavor between tanks/drips? When I started making ~500ml batches I started having that problem. Shake the hell out of it, steep for 30 days (longer if tobaccos, custards or creams), and flavor was all over the place. Kind of like when I shake after a whizz heh.
Nah, I don’t have a problem with inconsistency, but I batch 2 500ml bottles at a time so that I never have to wait for a steep. Just out of curiosity, do you mix at max VG? I could see that having an impact on large batch steep times.
70VG/30PG and max VG. I have only one exception, an MTL tobacco recipe I mix has somewhere between 50-60% PG, depends on the device it's going in.
Do you just decant from the 500ml to smaller bottles? I ask because a friend has a syrup pump in a gallon I made for him and goes directly from pump to RDA.
I have one and use it for anything larger than 30 ml , I mix in beakers and use refrigerated base fluids so they are a bit thick, so I plop the magnet down turn it on and let it go for 10 minutes or more.
I have a mini fridge for my flavors and bases, except I don't put my VG in there. I keep VG room temp for obvious reasons. I keep it set on 60F. I mention all of this because I had that problem too -- < 60F and my PG solutions became just viscous enough it impeded proper blending by shaking. Like, I had to shake A LOT longer.
I'm too poor for a magnetic stirrer, I built a bottle turner out of K'NEX and it works really well.
If it works that's all that matters honestly. I did lament over prices for years before buying one. I also didn't want something that looked like lab equipment and took up a lot of space. I bought the cheapest one on Amazon that looked like it might be decent. Confirmed to be decent.
I'm having a hard time picturing this but it sounds awesome. Mind sharing some pics?
Before I outsourced my mixing/bottling I used a mag stirrer for big batches, ~1000ml. Low heat at about 110F, leave it on capped for a few hours. No real vortex or anything, just to get the stuff fully mixed.
I have a cheapo ikea coffee frother that i use to mix <500ml (rarely mix any more at one time)
I made one a while ago.
Basically just pulled fan out of old laptop, removed blades and glued hdd rare-earth magnet onto centre, placed plastic container upsidedown over everything with juice bottle on top of that, put small piece of wire in bottle to act as stir bar, burnt out fan motor and gave up.
I tried it, but it didn't work for me. The liquid was too thick for the stirrer to get any momentum and when you pushed it too far it would kick out of position.
I have used my hotplate magnetic mixer for about 4 years now for almost every batch I've ever made. Best results are between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius. The key is really just to make sure you aren't spinning it high enough for a funnel to appear. I usually let the batches mix for 30 minutes to an hour depending on the size of the batch. I've only ever had good reviews from people I've given a bottle out to, which usually ends up with them asking me to be their sole supplier, so I don't think they're just blowing smoke up my ass about it.
I've tried hand shaking bottles before, and I have no clue how people put up with it because it never seems to fully mix the ingredients. Even a little bit of separation means it's going to be extremely inconsistent throughout the life of the bottle.
I don't buy into the accelerated steeping myths regarding the heat mixing though. I only use the hotplate because the heat will thin out the ingredients making them mix better.
I have been considering buying some corked beakers to see if it makes a difference, but just haven't put an order in for then yet. I'd be curious if anyone with mag mixers has tried a comparison between open graduated cylinders and corked ones.
I wouldn't say it's "science" with such a small sample to draw conclusions from, but I did make the same recipe back-to-back in the same beaker under same conditions, one capped and one without. No one including myself could tell the difference. I cap it mostly just to keep out any particulates my small HEPA filter might have missed. It's a $65 home depot special with UV light. I don't have a lab or anything like that, I just have pets. ;)
I used a magnetic stirrer back when I was doing 250-500ml batches, and it worked well enough. Now I’m just a lazy bastard and mix 5L at a time in a 5 gallon bucket. Use a paint stirrer in a cordless drill on lowish speed to mix. I mix maybe twice a year now 😀👍
That is bad ass. One day I hope to find my ADV worthy of 5L! 😁 How do you decant to smaller bottles from the 5 gallon bucket?
If you use e-liquid recipes, punch in my username. Most of my finalized recipes are public there.
As for the bucket, I installed a tap system on the bottom of it. Similar to the orange coolers you see on the sidelines of sporting events. Had I thought about it a bit longer initially, I would have just used one of those 😜. From there I break it down in to 4 1L storage bottles, to go in the refrigerator, and 4 250ml bottles for use.
Got tired of mixing all the time, so this way I’ve got falling stored for personal use/small time sales.