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Just a quick note. In preparation for writing an article about how to evaluate a new detergent, I spent a little time with Sun Sunsational Scents and also Method Dish Soap. Because time is short, I won't go into details (though I hope to post some in another article).

Along the way, I seem to have found a lead on a nealry ghost-free bubble juice made with detergents that I can get locally: Dawn Pro with a little bit of Sun as a ghost buster.

Sun[]

Sun on its own (at least the version that I used) does not work very well. At 5:1 (water:detergent) it is something like Dawn Pro at 18:1. Even with the potency difference considered, it does not work well on its own. The bubbles are short-lived and the film touchy. Baking powder was essential to get it to work at all. With a small wand (dimestore bubble wand), it was not bad in a 4:1 mix with guar. But for anything else it was useless ON ITS OWN. However, when I added the 4:1 Sun/guar mix to a Dawn Pro/guar mix, I got a nice mix that is almost ghost-free. Not quite Charmy vapor pops but still pretty nice. This definitely merits exploration.

20130910_DawnSun_Hybrid_Many_from_One_Dip_Nearly_Ghostless_Pop

20130910 DawnSun Hybrid Many from One Dip Nearly Ghostless Pop

 

Method Dish Soap[]

20130910 method bp from same dip 1 CROP

3 to 4 foot bubble made with Method Dish Soap and guar gum

I made a guar-based juice (standard amounts) with 500 ml water and 25 grams Method. Without baking powder, the juice barely worked and the color profile looked like Dawn Pro at about 35:1. With added baking powder, the mix became quite friendly and looked like Dawn Pro at 28:1 or so.

I didn't have a similar Dawn Pro juice to compare to, but I would say that it worked quite nicely. Definitely a usable detergent if Dawn isn't available. More exploration definitely worthwhile.

See Dawn Pro Dilution Evaluation to get a sense of what I mean. I'd say that you need about 1.3 as much Method as Dawn when substituting.

Method Dish Soap shows the same ghosting as Dawn which leads me to believe that Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is the culprit.

2013 09 11 Dawn Pro/Sun Hybrid Follow-up[]

Brief session to see what Dawn Pro/Sun ratio is needed to kill the ghosts and to see if the mix could create real giants. A 1:1 mix of Dawn Pro and Sun was somewhat more ghostless than a 2:1 (DP to Sun) ratio. Both worked great with guar to create some pretty long tubes from a single-strand of soda-washed twine and some giant/super-giants with a 100-inch topstring (webfoot microfiber top and single strand soda-washed twine bottom).

20130911 dawnsun1to1 tube
20130911 dawnsun1to1 giant
 
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