AllGoodThings
Member
Like many of you, I'm doing my best to prepare for future scarcity, and have stocked up on oils from a few quality domestic sources in order to prepare for the times ahead. I've bought most everything in MCT due to it being fully saturated and thus less likely to oxidize. I store everything upright in a temperature controlled environment, totally protected from all light. One unfortunate issue I faced was that one of the best sources here is very generous in how he fills his vials, and this means that even when stored perfectly vertical, the oil makes contact with the stopper. Over time, the benzyl benzoate will cause a breakdown of the butyl rubber, eventually compromising the seal and ruining the contents of the vial. Ideally, you want as little dead space/air in the vial as possible, but you don't want the oil making contact with the stopper, even when using PTFE, Flurotec or other Teflon type coated stoppers. While these stopper are far, far superior to plain butyl and silicon stoppers, it's still not ideal for them to be in contact with the oil.
Here is an example of one of the generously filled vials;
(note that I am not criticizing the source, and I am not saying this would be an issue for normal, shorter term storage, I'm just trying to get every last bit of longevity I can out of my stash)
I purchased 150 sealed, sterile vials with Flurotec stoppers. These are usually quite expensive, but I found a good deal on some that had expired last year. For me, this is not an issue. You may have higher standards and want to purchase in date vials.
These particular vials ended up being perfect, as while they were advertised as 10ml, they easily held the full contents of the other vials, with just enough room to spare to allow for space between the oil and stoppers. They were slightly taller than the old vials. I used 10cc syringes from Exel, which hold right around 12cc and ended up being perfect. I sterilized all surfaces with alcohol, used a 23g needle to vent, a 16g to withdraw from the old vial, and a 20g to fill the new vials, also with a 23g to vent. I replaced the needles whenever they started to struggle to penetrate the stoppers, which was about every 7 or 8 vials I'd guess. I penetrated the stoppers of the new vials at about a 45° angle, and after injecting all the oil, I removed the vent needle, raised the needle with the syringe to the top area of the vial, and sucked 12cc of air out, creating a vacuum within the vial to help minimize oxidation. If I was going this with Chinese or questionable oils, I'd have used a 0.22um PTFE filter, but I didn't feel it necessary with clean, domestic oil. After the contents were all transferred, I was able to carefully salvage the original labels. I also used vial seals to ensure that the stoppers don't allow any gasses in. Stoppers do well with self healing, especially after just a couple of punctures from relatively narrow needles, but it's an extra measure of insurance.
This was definitely a tedious and time consuming process, but it's valuable insurance for the future, in my opinion. I did Primo and Mast E today, and sadly (happily?) have a long way to go before I get through the bulk of what I need to get done. In addition to all my vials from this source, I'm also going to be doing this with any vials using silicon stoppers, as they're fairly poor at preventing outgassing when compared to butyl rubber.
Just figured I'd share my little OCD project. I'm totally open to advice, criticism, tips, info, etc... So feel free to let me know anything that could be useful.
Here is an example of one of the generously filled vials;
(note that I am not criticizing the source, and I am not saying this would be an issue for normal, shorter term storage, I'm just trying to get every last bit of longevity I can out of my stash)
I purchased 150 sealed, sterile vials with Flurotec stoppers. These are usually quite expensive, but I found a good deal on some that had expired last year. For me, this is not an issue. You may have higher standards and want to purchase in date vials.
These particular vials ended up being perfect, as while they were advertised as 10ml, they easily held the full contents of the other vials, with just enough room to spare to allow for space between the oil and stoppers. They were slightly taller than the old vials. I used 10cc syringes from Exel, which hold right around 12cc and ended up being perfect. I sterilized all surfaces with alcohol, used a 23g needle to vent, a 16g to withdraw from the old vial, and a 20g to fill the new vials, also with a 23g to vent. I replaced the needles whenever they started to struggle to penetrate the stoppers, which was about every 7 or 8 vials I'd guess. I penetrated the stoppers of the new vials at about a 45° angle, and after injecting all the oil, I removed the vent needle, raised the needle with the syringe to the top area of the vial, and sucked 12cc of air out, creating a vacuum within the vial to help minimize oxidation. If I was going this with Chinese or questionable oils, I'd have used a 0.22um PTFE filter, but I didn't feel it necessary with clean, domestic oil. After the contents were all transferred, I was able to carefully salvage the original labels. I also used vial seals to ensure that the stoppers don't allow any gasses in. Stoppers do well with self healing, especially after just a couple of punctures from relatively narrow needles, but it's an extra measure of insurance.
This was definitely a tedious and time consuming process, but it's valuable insurance for the future, in my opinion. I did Primo and Mast E today, and sadly (happily?) have a long way to go before I get through the bulk of what I need to get done. In addition to all my vials from this source, I'm also going to be doing this with any vials using silicon stoppers, as they're fairly poor at preventing outgassing when compared to butyl rubber.
Just figured I'd share my little OCD project. I'm totally open to advice, criticism, tips, info, etc... So feel free to let me know anything that could be useful.
