Bad nic? gone off ?

[SteveF]

When started mixing I used my first small batch of 72 nicotine up fairly quickly and bought some more from a different supplier. The first batch was clear and the second had a slightly pinkish tint to it, being a newb I thought very little of the colour difference as it happens with a lot of products.

Anyway I've had a touch of the vapers tongue and changed to some readymade juices in order to kick start the taste buds and to be honest they have kicked my butt. Ok they were 12mg and I've been mixing 9mg with a few 12mg and 15mg for non sub-ohming but  I have even been using a few old 18mg juices in the goblin.

So 20 mins after using some week old 12mg Harvest Berry & Koolada I rewicked and opened up a month old bottle of Lairy's Sweet Vanilla Scream in 10mg.  And I had a good blast on the same dripper with a 1 ohm parallel, blooming delicious.
 But I've just spent twenty minutes with a spin on and I don't feel as if I'm going need another vape soon.

Now none of the juices from the second batch of nic have done this to me, in fact I've been puffing away in huge clouds of vapour like a nutter on subtanks and drippers totally unsatisfied. I've gone through silly amounts of juice over the last week, I filled my subtanks for the second time today, dripped my way through 5ml of 14mg in my lunch break and changed out the batteries in my D2 and evic when I got home.
I've even upped the nic percentage in some of the newer juices thinking that between work and looking after my father who is in the early stages of dementure was just stressing me out. Even (stupidly) dripping away at 14mg with pairs of claptons or big Ni200 coils has been totally free of nic-sickness.
I've just been OMG my nicotine resistance has gone through the roof and by the time I finally put my feet up I could kill for a stinkie.

So I'm thinking either the 72 nic wasn't 72 or something is not right as my newer batches of juice have no hit and the flavour is way off ( perhaps its not vapers tongue?)
Worse still there is  still 350ml of kreeds that has been steeping for weeks made with it.

[Perpetua]

I'd doubt very much that your nic has gone off so quickly SteveF . . . . you'd notice the smell and a likely change of colour where the nicotine has oxidized. Pink Nic is quite normal depending on whom you've bought from and where it's been sourced.

Don't know if you can see the colour of this, in RL and on my monitor it has a pinky tone . . . . .






It's more likely there's some inaccuracy somewhere - you'll need a nicotine testing kit to be certain.

[SteveF]

thanks for the reasurance regarding the colour,
yes thats roughly the colour mine is, sort of a straw-pink

leaves me in a quandry, my measuring has been spot on and if anything with being a novice I've erred on the safe side and rounded down to first decimal ie 3.75ml > 3.7ml. I've used the calculator every time, no guessing even if I do know the quantity of nic to make 30ml of 3/6/9/12mg.

oh well......I'm going to reorder from my original supplier for confidence and make a big xmas batch of custard when my Capella GB flavours arrive. otherwise it vape...vape..vape only 350ml to go.

Are nic testing kits available? I've looked and they all seem to be out of stock

[Perpetua]

Nov 4, 2015 21:31:47 GMT SteveF said:

Are nic testing kits available? I've looked and they all seem to be out of stock

They are:

www.puffin-eliquid.com/e-liquid-nicotine-testing-kit.html

Although whether there's some less costly about - have you looked on Ebay or Amazon Steve?

[SteveF]

Nov 4, 2015 21:40:32 GMT Perpetua said:

Nov 4, 2015 21:31:47 GMT SteveF said:

Are nic testing kits available? I've looked and they all seem to be out of stock

They are:

www.puffin-eliquid.com/e-liquid-nicotine-testing-kit.html

Although whether there's some less costly about - have you looked on Ebay or Amazon Steve?

out of stock, I'll take a good look at the weekend, thanks

[Perpetua]

Nov 4, 2015 21:54:07 GMT SteveF said:

Nov 4, 2015 21:40:32 GMT Perpetua said:

They are:

www.puffin-eliquid.com/e-liquid-nicotine-testing-kit.html

Although whether there's some less costly about - have you looked on Ebay or Amazon Steve?

out of stock, I'll take a good look at the weekend, thanks

Drat so it is, should have scrolled down further . . . . I'll tag our very knowledgeable Chemist *-SARIN-* - if anyone knows where best to look he will.

I have found this in the meantime:

forum.totallywicked-eliquid.com/mixing-discussions/nicotine-strength-test/

[smifee]

I got this one oxfordchemserve.com/e-cigarette-refill-nicotine-quantitative-test-kit/

One supplier's 72mg came out at 65mg. The 3 other suppliers all came within a few decimal points of 72.

[SteveF]

thanks ????
Oxford are out of stock too, I'll check out the separate indicators

[*-SARIN-*]

Perpetua Sorry i'm away from home but the prices of the kits in this thread are about the going rate. However their accuracy is not exactly great and rely on colour matching with a chart rather than giving a quantitative result (very much like testing water in aquariums), i would be rather inclined to say that the strength of the nic base from suppliers will be pretty much spot on and a different result using one of these kits should not indicate that the supplier has ripped you off. Bear in mind that you only have to test the nic base once and as long as you accuracy in your mixing is good you should get the required strength. People's idea of accuracy vary hugely though

NB. Both the chemicals in the test kits are relatively cheap and you could buy a lot more of them individually from a chemical company for the same price. You are paying for the handy bottles and result chart. A lab would use HPLC to determine an extremely accurate concentration.

This is quite an interesting read on the accuracy of nic testing kits.....

www.madvapes.com/blog/testing-the-accuracy-of-nicotine-concentration

[Perpetua]

Much obliged to you *-SARIN-* . . . . thank you for the expert insight.