RezBlock /Cranberry Extract

[darkrom]

The thing is I'd only replace the water when it doesn't look clear. Impossible to tell on rezblock. A week of regular water and it was still not "dirty" and then a quick iso rinse and it was sparkling. Add rezblock and now its the first resin I can't get out...the irony is not lost on me.

I was doing really well with just bottled water (fiji baby!) and nothing else. It'd last a week before it was IMO time to be changed. Then I switched to rezblock thinking "if I can go a week with water this resin blocking stuff should make it last longer" HELL NO.

I really don't see the advantage in my case to using it anymore. If I use the rest I'll wash it out after use, but then again what is the point? If I dump out regular water after every day I'll never see resin either.

 

[jackmormon]

Hey Darkrom,

I think I had the same thing happen over the weekend in my Syn showerhead piece. I had left water in there for a week and the Rezblock eventually coagulated into resiny slime chunks that separated from the dirty water. ISO wouldn't even touch it alone. I panicked! Anyway, it was totally easy to remedy. I just did a 10 minute soak with a fairly heavy concentration of PBW. The chunks of pink slime washed right out. A quick ISO shake after that and it was as good as new. You should be able to find PBW locally if you have any home brewing supply shops in your area.

 

[darkrom]

I don't know of any home brewing shops in the area. What is the full name of PBW? I can call around. I hate having my glass so dirty.

 

[Roger D]

Got NACE for the 1st time. 3 bottles, I open one, it smells like old red wine with a bit of rot.. It's much more dark and rancid than the powdered extract I'm used to, who smells much better and fresh.. I put some in my bub to try and the pull taste something I don't like. I dump it then I open another bottle, same batch, same kind of odor, maybe lighter or I'm getting used to. Maybe I got some crappy ass bottles, maybe they got some heat in the mail or something like that.. Not convinced.

 

[Enchantre]

PBW is the name. You can order it off Amazon. Get the small container, in case you hate it too.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Got NACE for the 1st time. 3 bottles, I open one, it smells like old red wine with a bit of rot.. It's much more dark and rancid than the powdered extract I'm used to, who smells much better and fresh.. I put some in my bub to try and the pull taste something I don't like. I dump it then I open another bottle, same batch, same kind of odor, maybe lighter or I'm getting used to. Maybe I got some crappy ass bottles, maybe they got some heat in the mail or something like that.. Not convinced.

def. a bad batch. i hate cranberry and i can drop mine straight on my tongue. no rancid flavor.
sorry for your luck. what supplier?

 

[John Lewus]

I was doing really well with just bottled water (fiji baby!) and nothing else. It'd last a week before it was IMO time to be changed. Then I switched to rezblock thinking "if I can go a week with water this resin blocking stuff should make it last longer" HELL NO.

I really don't see the advantage in my case to using it anymore. If I use the rest I'll wash it out after use, but then again what is the point? If I dump out regular water after every day I'll never see resin either.

That is expensive water to use. I hate to think how much your car costs to wash I go back and forth on Rezblock/NACE myself and whether it is worth it to use. It does help keep my glass cleaner with just a wash if I use every day but it only helps keep the pieces clean where the Rezblock actually touches. It does not help at all where the vapor first enters your glass. This is a bigger problem on my hydratubes because I can never get the bottom part clean if I let it go and Rezblock does not touch it. It is not really an issue with my Mobius 60t because of the design.

I still use it because I like the color and it changes the surface texture of the water just enough to make bubbles stack more soapy like. However, I had been soaking my pieces in a tub of Simply Green each night. I always rinse really well in the morning and my glass is clean and nearly spotless once I get home. It has been 3 weeks since my last PBW wash so this method was worked really good for me for both efficiency, cost, and cleanliness. Check the PBW thread for more discussion on PBW vs SG.

 

[Roger D]

def. a bad batch. i hate cranberry and i can drop mine straight on my tongue. no rancid flavor.
sorry for your luck. what supplier?

4allvitamins, I sent em a message

It also seems like the pink is gone

 

[nopartofme]

I don't know of any home brewing shops in the area. What is the full name of PBW? I can call around. I hate having my glass so dirty.

It stands for Powdered Brewery Wash. The container should say Five Star PBW, Five Star being the manufacturer.

 

[darkrom]

That is expensive water to use. I hate to think how much your car costs to wash I go back and forth on Rezblock/NACE myself and whether it is worth it to use. It does help keep my glass cleaner with just a wash if I use every day but it only helps keep the pieces clean where the Rezblock actually touches. It does not help at all where the vapor first enters your glass. This is a bigger problem on my hydratubes because I can never get the bottom part clean if I let it go and Rezblock does not touch it. It is not really an issue with my Mobius 60t because of the design.

I still use it because I like the color and it changes the surface texture of the water just enough to make bubbles stack more soapy like. However, I had been soaking my pieces in a tub of Simply Green each night. I always rinse really well in the morning and my glass is clean and nearly spotless once I get home. It has been 3 weeks since my last PBW wash so this method was worked really good for me for both efficiency, cost, and cleanliness. Check the PBW thread for more discussion on PBW vs SG.

LOL I use fiji because I like to drink it when I have it around. That and both of my pieces use pretty low levels of water.

Anyway I got the PBW locally, bought the 1lb and love this stuff. Really not too sold on rezblock, crazy about PBW besides how shitty it makes my hands feel after. I'll probably still iso clean my pieces after using PBW, but this stuff is a keeper for sure. I'll feel comfortable trying rezblock again now that I have something that can remove the little eco system it created in my glass.

 

[t-dub]

DR . . . easy with the PBW on the skin . . . please. Here is my thread on the subject: PBW & the Chemistry of Clean . . .

 

[darkrom]

I'll check that thread. I got LOTS of it all over my skin. Short version, how bad is that? I'll read the whole thread when I get home, hard to get much concentration at work.

Basically it is an irritant but nothing too bad should happen from skin contact? Drying and cracking/blisters etc worse case? I know to wear gloves next time, but if I stay up on my iso washes that could be quite a while.

 

[Roger D]

I asked around to smell check the nace and apparently I may have been false alarmed by my overwhelming smell sense. Maybe the other extract seems to smell better/ more neutral cause I'm just used to it. I was expecting something purer with less odor and taste, maybe it's just more natural.

Do you guys really don't smell anything ? It definitely smells, and you can feel it when you pull through water with some in it. It's not a strong smell but it doesn't smell bad or good either.

Darkrom, the damage you already caused may be light, but just put gloves. Always

 

[t-dub]

Roger, cranberry is sour so maybe the NACE is more concentrated?

DR- I have terrible psoriasis so I have to be really careful, please just limit your exposure because its the smart thing to do, and we care

 

[b0]

Roger, I can smell it but after a couple hits the taste/smell is totally gone. The truth is that I'm really happy with it and will order a couple bottles more soon.

 

[SSVUN~YAH]

I have had good success with NACE but have never used rezblock. After ten days of unused with a strong pink color (ie 5 drops or more per cup) will create mold fo sho! I went on vacation and forgot to clean one a/c, it was sludgy nastiness when I returned, the infamous alibaba honeycomb ac and it took one 24 hour pbw wash cured that pretty easy. However, the same thing happened in my tree perc/showerhead a/c but the mold was centered in a high part of the tree and is still there after two pbw soaks, an iso soak and a few rinses. Other than that I have fantastic results with all my other pieces involving a 24 hour pbw soak and rinse....

 

[darkrom]

Gloves from now on. Check. I don't plan on using PBW on a regular basis. This whole experience makes me want to change my water more often and iso more often, even if it is not needed. Better to do a little maintenance often than bust my ass cleaning with chemicals once in a while.

PBW is my emergency go to now, and now I know to wear gloves.

My hands feel just fine today luckily, but yeah gloves next time for sure.


Also, probably won't be using rezblock more than once in a while for novelty. I'm not sure what it is really supposed to do for me, because I get LESS resin without it, just mineral build up which is easier to wash out than the rezblock build up. I hate wasting it, so maybe I'll use it on days I plan on changing the water anyway. I'm hoping for more of a 2-3 day water cycle for now, and if I use rezblock (for whatever reason) I'll just change the water at the end of the day.

 

[Roger D]

After that mitigated first impression I must say nace is much better than the extract I previously sourced.

Function wise it seems to do an even better job, I can't see a trace of resin, it doesn't affect the taste as much as I previously thought.

Edit : The dropper is really convenient to use, that small bottle is definitely a must to have around for any clean glass amateur.

 

[Frederick McGuire]

Interesting development:

I remember posting a while back that my NACE mixture turned yellow in my DG fritter tube after a night if a few dabs.
I figured dabs might just "stale up" the water quicker or something, and didn't think much of it.

Then I gave NACE a prolonged test of a few weeks using only my matrix clear (very happy with those results ), and pretty much the characteristics of the NACE was that it would start to pick up a bit of a smell of the bud that was going through it, and the water went from a clear light red, to a slightly cloudy light pink over the course of a few days (changing NACE every 3-4 days)

So on Thursday night, I switched back to the DG fritter tube, all is working well
I go back to it last (Friday) night, and the water is yellow again
It doesn't smell bad at all, there's nothing growing in there or anything, it all seemed fine enough that I had no issues just continuing to use it, but I find it kinda odd...

There are 2 factors I'm thinking might be contributing to this, I'm wondering if someone else might have a better idea whats going on...
1 - the fritter offers more diffusion, so the NACE might be oxidising or something, causing it to turn yellow? (Having said that, the matrix offers quite a fair bit of diffusion too, and it didn't get yellow after 3-4days use)
2 - the fritter has a smaller volume of water (I'm guessing like 1/3 ish of what would go in the matrix clear), so maybe its just going stale quicker.

Those 2 factors could also feed into each other leading to a kind of combined 3rd factor, almost all of the water in the fritter gets diffused each hit, compared to approx 1/2 of the water in the matrix...

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[that herb guy]

2 - the fritter has a smaller volume of water (I'm guessing like 1/3 ish of what would go in the matrix clear), so maybe its just going stale quicker.

Anyone got any ideas?

That's probably your issue IMO. Have you tried a stronger ratio to see if that slows the yellowing? Might be worth a shot to see if a stronger mix might last a little longer (at least up to the 3-4 days with the other pieces).

 

[Frederick McGuire]

I changed out the water last night.

I had been using my Gnome with the fritter, but last night, I switched to my LSV.
The extra airflow of the LSV meant the NACE + slightly stale water stacked too much

I still used my regular ratio (about 3 drops in the fritter tube), I figure if a stronger solution would slow the yellowing, I'd rather just switch water more often with this piece.
The fritter stacks like crazy anyway, I might have to change the water more often just to keep it stacking at the right level

I've left it at my buddies place right now, but when I left at the end of the night, the water was still pink, so we'll see if it's gone yellow tonight

 

[SSVUN~YAH]

Fmac- I've had similar results using the alibaba honeycomb ac with a jhook. After about 5 bowl packs 25-30 rips on my VG coil the water turns yellow. Doesn't do that with any other piece nearly as soon...

 

[Alan]

I use 3 to 4 drops in my DG frit. I am finding that the quality of the water makes a huge difference. I always use distilled water and never get any biological growth. This water has been sitting for about 2 weeks. The only thing that has happened is that the resin has formed into a single ball that is free to float around like a jelly fish. So much less work to keep my glassware clean now.

 

[SD_haze]

I use 3 to 4 drops in my DG frit. I am finding that the quality of the water makes a huge difference. I always use distilled water and never get any biological growth. This water has been sitting for about 2 weeks. The only thing that has happened is that the resin has formed into a single ball that is free to float around like a jelly fish. So much less work to keep my glassware clean now.

Wow, I am speechless at that jellyfish in there!

 

[Quetzalcoatl]

That looks moderately unhealthy, Alan... you sure it's just reclaim? I wouldn't want to vape through my glass if it had a floater like that in it! PBW and a couple of ISO rinses afterwards would be my standard op.