2013 Uncle Bubble Montage
A giant bubble made with a 100" top-string tri-string wand and Uncle Bubble Ultra Concentrate. Temperature and humidity: 58F/90%
Uncle Bubble Ultra Concentrate Demo Review Giants with Tristring Keith Johnson BubbleArtist.com
Uncle Bubble Low Humidity Test
Uncle Bubble's UltraBubble Concentrate (UBC) is a commercial bubble concentrate that seems to have first appeared on the U.S. market in 2013. It makes a versatile bubble juice that can be used for everything from small bubbles/bubble sculpture to KIB to giant bubbles. It has received glowing reviews on SBF, the Soap Bubble Fanciers Yahoo Group (RIP) including this positive mention by Tom Noddy, one of the world's great bubble performers.
UBC is a bubble concentrate to which you add water. The recommended concentrate is 9:1. One 12.8oz bottle of solution makes 1 gallon (128 fluid ounces) of bubble juic.
The bubble juice has received excellent reviews on SBF by people using it for both small bubbles and giant bubbles.
IMPORTANT NOTE! Uncle Bubble UltraBubble Concentrate seems to be a different formulation from some of the other Uncle Bubble bubble juice that you might encounter (such as the juice that comes with some of their bubble makers).
This Bubble Artist's Amazing Bubble Skills Will Blow You Away!-0
Uncle Bubble's Ultra Bubble Concentrate was used in this video, but a UV dye was added for use with blacklight effects.
Keith's Notes[]
2016. Keith Johnson notes: Numerous professional bubble performers use Ultra Bubble Concentrate as their indoor bubble show solution -- for everything from sculpture work to KIB. These performers include Tom Noddy, Keith Johnson, Cirque du Soleil (LOVE show in Las Vegas), Su Chung Tai (whose work bacn be seen in this video) and others who prefer to remain anonymous.
2018. Keith Johnson notes: The use of this solution has continued to grow amongst bubble performers that perform indoors. For the past several years, the lowest online price has been at www.partysuppliesdelivered.com. Note: for some reason they call it "12OZ UNBELIEVABLE BUBBLE CONCENTRATE REFILL" but the product is actually 12.8 ounce bottles of Uncle Bubble UltraBubble Concentrate)
Notes[]
Dilution[]
Super giant created with Uncle Bubble and a 100-inch top-string tristring.
Standard Dilution. 9 parts water per 1 part concentrate is recommended by the manufacturer. The resulting film has a film thickness (evidenced by its color profile) similar to what one gets with a pH-adjusted (range: 7.2-7.8) Dawn Pro solution somewhere in the range of 16:1 to 18:1. When diluted with tap water whose pH was 9.1, the resulting solution had a pH of 7.9/8.0.
Uncle Bubble at 14-to-1. Notice the shift in colors compared to the standard dilution (seen above).
Uncle Bubble diluted to 16:1 with some added BLM to improve the friendliness lost with the extra dilution.
Extra-Dilute Solutions (updated March 20, 2015). Uncle Bubble can be diluted with extra water to good effect. At 11:1, the solution is nearly as friendly as at 9:1 and the color profile is very close to 9:1. We have diluted at 14:1 and 16:1 to good effect (see photos) but feel that a little extra polymer (such as BLM) is beneficial as some friendliness is lost.
Dilution Exploration Notes: Based on the color profile of UB when diluted 9:1, I decided to try it diluted at 11:1. I was surprised to find that the film became only slightly thicker without losing much bubble friendliness. This made me realize that the dilution could be pushed quite a bit more. At 14-to-1 the film became noticeably thicker (somewhere along the lines of Dawn Pro at 20-to-1) but the solution became a bit less bubble friendly and some size potential was lost. The addition of a little additional PEO (via a little BLM) improved the friendliness quite a bit. It makes me think that further exploration would be in order. Let us know, if you try it out. This dilution should have improved longevity in dry conditions. A little pH-adjustment might be beneficial but hasn't been tested. See the Color Studies below.
Color Stability[]
Diluted at 9:1, the first to the last bubbles of a multi-bubble tri-string dip have some color. One does not see the nearly transparent bubbles at the end of a multi-bubble dip that some solutions show when the dilution is near the Critical Dilution
Ghosts[]
Uncle Bubble Ultra Concentrate creates bubbles with ghostless pops very similar to those created by Charmy Dish Detergent (Japanese dishwashing liquid)
Color Studies[]
Below are some color studies that examine the film thickness of bubbles created with Uncle Bubble. See: Color Profile. Also see: Color and Film Thickness.
See Also[]
Click here to see all articles, photos and blog entries related to Uncle Bubble products.