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In this video we're back to one of my favorite projects that I started playing with more than 10 years ago: making giant bubbles. After experimenting with many of my own mixtures, I've found the best consistency in results comes from a variation of a recipe found on the Soap Bubble Wiki, "Mike's Gooey Mix". That is the baseline mixture used for the tests in this video. The original recipe can be found on this page: https://soapbubble.fandom.com/wiki/Recipes
My modification of this recipe is as follows:
- 4 cups (950 mL) Dawn Platinum
- 8g J-Lube
- 14g Baking Powder
- 4.25 gal (16 L) Hot Water
Here is an affiliate link for giant bubble supplies (I will earn a small commission from sales made through this link): https://www.amazon.com/shop/nighthawkinlight/list/1SCW3PPJQ8DHF?ref_=aip_sf_list_spv_ons_mixed_d
For non-US detergent brands that may be substituted for Dawn Platinum see this section of the Soap Bubble Wiki: https://soapbubble.fandom.com/wiki/Detergent#Outside_the_USA
By my experimentation the most important part of the bubble mix is to achieve a proper pH balance. The above recipe includes exactly enough baking powder to neutralize the alkalinity of the detergent and bring the solution to 7-7.5 pH when using the fairly alkaline ground water in my area. If your water source is on the acidic side or if you need to switch in a different detergent you will benefit from buying pH test strips to adjust how much baking powder is needed to reach 7-7.5 pH.
Some commercial giant bubble concentrates are also available for purchase through the affiliate link above. I have not tested them, but I suspect they will give fairly good results in most circumstances.
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