For quite some time -- ever since I heard about a couple of seasoned giant bubble experts saying that they think that 20 to 30 to 1 is the best water to detergent ratio -- I have been curious about very dilute mixes. When I first started making giant bubbles just about one year ago, I found solutions at 12-to-1 harder to work with than at 8-to-1 and 10-to-1. Nowadays, I find that most of my solutions are around 11-to-1 or 12-to-1. It is quite possible that the less dilute solutions weren't really any easier to work with and that my impression was based on normal session-to-session variability. I know now that from session to session the same solution can be harder or easier to work with based on mysterious environmental factors other than humidity, temperature and wind conditions.
Anyway, a week or two ago, I first started working with a 16-to-1 HEC-based solution that I like a lot as it is easy to mix up without preparing a concentrate and is very forgiving even when other solutions don't seem to work very well (such as the other day when there was just 35% humidity). A few people have tried this solution on dry days and noticed the same improvement. There has been the suggestion that the reason for this solution outperforming the PEO-based solutions under the same circumstances is simply because the increased amount of water. That maby be, but so far I haven't had much luck with 20-to-1 or 16-to-1 PEO-based solutions. It is quite possible that it is due to funny atmospheric conditions, but it also seems like the PEO-based solutions are a bit pickier about dilution.
My first experiments used .005% and .008% PEO concentrations, but they didn't work very well. The film often popped before the wand could be open. This morning I had a few minutes and the conditions were nice: 65F, 70% humidity (rare here when it isn't raining) and a very mild breeze. Unfortunately, because I only had a few minutes, I didn't bring a known control solution to try (in order to know if it was one of those days when nothing works).
This brief session involved 2 solutions and two loops. One loop is my trusty triple-strand bamboo yarn loop and the other uses SecureLine (made by Lehigh) 3/16" diamond-braid cotton cord. I have made a few identical Lehigh loops to use for testing and I wanted to compare one to the bamboo which I know pretty well. All loops have a 32-inch top string.
Below are videos of the three combinations that I tried. I'll fill in the details later, after I get feedback from some associates .
Trial A[]
This is a 20-to-1 (tap water to Dawn Pro) solution with .008% PEO (supplied by a 0.79% PEO solution where J-Lube provides the PEO) mixed with a bit of my 16-to-1 HEC mix (that also has baking soda and citric acid). This was actually the last trial of the session. It was done to see if adding the HEC-mix would help or hurt. Given how 'poppy' the results were with the PEO solution, I thought that it couldn't hurt. The loop is one made from the Lehigh cotton cord. thumb|640px|left
Trial B[]
This is a 20-to-1 (tap water to Dawn Pro) solution with .008% PEO (supplied by a 0.79% PEO solution where J-Lube provides the PEO). The loop uses a triple-strand homemade cord made from 100% bamboo yarn. thumb|640px|left
Trial C[]
This is a 20-to-1 (tap water to Dawn Pro) solution with .008% PEO (supplied by a 0.79% PEO solution where J-Lube provides the PEO). The loop is one made from the Lehigh cotton cord. thumb|640px|left
My impression in the field was that the little bit of HEC-mix improved things a bit. I had fewer premature pops. None of the mixes did particularly well. Since I did not have time to use a 'control' solution whose behavior I know well, I can't say if these are just poorly-behaved solutions or if this was one of those days where things are 'poppy' in spite of conditions that look good on paper. My inclination is that these are poorly behaved solutions.
Despite the 70% humidity when these were done, the behavior was not much different than on March 29 when the humidity was only 35%. On March 29, the solution was .005% PEO. For today's test, the amount was bumped up to .008%.
NOTE: A few days later, I added some baking soda and citric acid to the PEO solution during an evening session with a pair of Dip Stix and the performance seemed to improve immensely. It still wasn't a great solution but it was much better than without the baking soda/citric acid. See this blog post for more.
An upcoming post will have video of my April 5 trial that uses a variant of this solution plus baking soda/citric acid which seems to have improved things quite a bit.