Storing Frags

This is not the usual keep frags out of sunlight, in a cool place if possible, or at at least a place where the temperature does not vary greatly question.

In part it is a check to see if I am imagining this.

Does anyone else notice that frags--and I guess I am talking mostly about decants here--stored on their sides, even if the vial has a tightly screwed on non-atomizer cap (but also with atomizer caps) tend to evaporate faster than frags stored upright?

I seem to find vials that have been on their sides empty a lot but not those that are upright. It may simply be that I am less careful withh mostly empty containers. Or I am imagining this and all of my frag decants, at least the ones I like tend to get low!

The Knize said:

This is not the usual keep frags out of sunlight, in a cool place if possible, or at at least a place where the temperature does not vary greatly question.

In part it is a check to see if I am imagining this.

Does anyone else notice that frags--and I guess I am talking mostly about decants here--stored on their sides, even if the vial has a tightly screwed on non-atomizer cap (but also with atomizer caps) tend to evaporate faster than frags stored upright?

I seem to find vials that have been on their sides empty a lot but not those that are upright. It may simply be that I am less careful withh mostly empty containers. Or I am imagining this and all of my frag decants, at least the ones I like tend to get low!

Click to expand...

I would say that you are not imagining things. If you consider that due to handling the top may no longer be perfectly tight, or that the sealing surface may be damaged or slightly imperfect. Combine that with the rather slow rate of evaporation that would take place in an upright position. Now consider that the bottle is laying on it's side, and a tiny amount of liquid may directly leak out. Not enough to make a puddle but enough that what has leaked may be able to evaporate quickly enough to avoid a telltale puddle.

Further consider that alcohol vaporizes at a rather low temperature and would tend to pressurize the container slightly (extremely slightly, at normal storage temperatures) this would contribute to normal evaporation, but would greatly contribute to direct liquid leakage. If you open a new two liter bottle of soda that has been disturbed recently, you will likely get a rapid rise in foam all the way up to the lid, if you do not quickly re-tighten the cap, you will get your hands all wet and sticky. A venting of the soda that is not enough to fully depressurize the bottle, will allow enough liquid to escape in this manner to annoy you, and make a mess.

By the way you are asking the question you do not seem to be implying that this magic is happening overnight, but rather over perhaps several months. When you look at it that way, it wouldn't take much of a leak to drain the whole vial, whereas the evaporation rate through the same opening would take considerably longer. So I would say, Yes, it quite possible, if not probable that it would become empty much faster when laid on it's side.

I may be completely wrong, but the reasoning seems sound.

YMMV

Your reasoning sounds plausible to me, Bob. I haven't seen that personally, but all of my decant bottles are stored upright except a couple I have in my Dopp kit. I'll have to check those now. The sample bottles and tubes I have are on their sides, but they are in plastic ziplock bags, so maybe that helps fend off evaporation, and I don't open them frequently, so perhaps they aren't as likely to lose the seal on the tube or sprayer.