Yes I second (or third) water and vinegar. LOTS OF WATER. The truth is and most people don't really think of it, what is
bubble fluid? What is Soap?
The active ingredient in dish soap is the same thing in
bubble solution (at least the same kind of chemical), it's called a SUFRACTANT.
What is a Surfactant?
Surfactants are compounds that lower the surface tension between two liquids or between a liquid and a solid. Surfactants may act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents, and dispersants.
The ones used in
bubble solution and dish soap (think you can do a sink of dishes with a few drops of a good soap) work down to EXTREMELY BLOODY small amounts.
I've been to people's houses where I put water in a clean glass out of the cupboard and it's now full of soapwater. Think they rinsed the glass (albeit roughly) and there was still enough soap coating the glass to make soap water. This is why when you are making beer or wine (or getting growlers from a craft beer place like I do) you NEVER EVER use soap to clean them... NEVER. NEVER EVER! They will use Sterisan instead. Because you would have to rinse out the container about 50 times with distilled water and some sort of
solvent in order to get rid of the traces of surfactant left which will do awful things to your beer.
Since so much surfactant is run though the
bubble machine, you need a LOT of water to rinse it away.
From the Chauvet
bubble machine manual:
After every 40 hours of continuous operation or when the machine will be idle for a long
time it is recommended to rinse the
bubble wands and fluid tank with warm water to
prevent a build-up of residue which could reduce performance
In reality if you keep them rinsed, plain distilled water should be all you need to use.