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One year into mixing - my lessons

jerryprague

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After a good year of mixing, these are my best tips.

. Using weight instead of measuring liquid is far easier and more accurate.
. Koolada is magical I use it as often as I can
. The base is the bulk of any mixture and usually is a pain to put into the bottle. Basically once the flavors and nicotine are in, I just pour in the base (glycerin/PG) into the bottle using one of those bottles they use to put ketchup or mustard in that you can find in some restaurants, with the pointy tip. Very cheap to buy on ebay. Since I go through 100ml a week, I have to mix at least two 50ml bottles a week and this saves time and mess
. Don't overbuy in the beginning. And really look at the reviews before buying. For example, theater butter popcorn looked magical I bought 120ml of concentrated flavor which turned out to be fairly evil tasting, I should have read the reviews first.

But do mix things yourself. Cost of 50ml for me is about $2 to mix myself. I think it's what about $10 or $15 bucks if you buy it premade these days? Plus, you're the boss of what goes into it.
 

hellcatrydr

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
The number one lesson I've learned through DIY is....
Never EVER add nicotine until you're ready to vape your juice... that definitely includes steeping.

No nic juice lasts a long long time. Once nic is added, the juice begins to oxidize in earnest.

It absolutely stuns me that this isn't a more well known (and discussed) DIY premise.
 

Pastorfuzz

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Member For 4 Years
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The number one lesson I've learned through DIY is....
Never EVER add nicotine until you're ready to vape your juice... that definitely includes steeping.

No nic juice lasts a long long time. Once nic is added, the juice begins to oxidize in earnest.

It absolutely stuns me that this isn't a more well known (and discussed) DIY premise.
So you are saying, wait until the juice has steeped then add nic? That does make sense. Never heard of that before. Thanks for the tip!
 

hellcatrydr

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
So you are saying, wait until the juice has steeped then add nic? That does make sense. Never heard of that before. Thanks for the tip!

Yes... and even after steeping.
I mix my ADVs with no nic 500 ml at a time, enough to last a few months.

Then, I just fill my 60 ml daily-use bottle and add 3 mls of nic. (100mg)
That lasts about 4 days and it stays much much cleaner than if I add the nic when I mix.

The difference iz bigly! :)
 

jwill

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The number one lesson I've learned through DIY is....
Never EVER add nicotine until you're ready to vape your juice... that definitely includes steeping.

No nic juice lasts a long long time. Once nic is added, the juice begins to oxidize in earnest.

It absolutely stuns me that this isn't a more well known (and discussed) DIY premise.

Super practical info dude. Good looking out.
 

jwill

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After a good year of mixing, these are my best tips.

. Using weight instead of measuring liquid is far easier and more accurate.
. Koolada is magical I use it as often as I can
. The base is the bulk of any mixture and usually is a pain to put into the bottle. Basically once the flavors and nicotine are in, I just pour in the base (glycerin/PG) into the bottle using one of those bottles they use to put ketchup or mustard in that you can find in some restaurants, with the pointy tip. Very cheap to buy on ebay. Since I go through 100ml a week, I have to mix at least two 50ml bottles a week and this saves time and mess
. Don't overbuy in the beginning. And really look at the reviews before buying. For example, theater butter popcorn looked magical I bought 120ml of concentrated flavor which turned out to be fairly evil tasting, I should have read the reviews first.

But do mix things yourself. Cost of 50ml for me is about $2 to mix myself. I think it's what about $10 or $15 bucks if you buy it premade these days? Plus, you're the boss of what goes into it.


Weighing mixes is the best.
 

zephyr

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The number one lesson I've learned through DIY is....
Never EVER add nicotine until you're ready to vape your juice... that definitely includes steeping.

No nic juice lasts a long long time. Once nic is added, the juice begins to oxidize in earnest.

It absolutely stuns me that this isn't a more well known (and discussed) DIY premise.


Well...I made several bottles a while back with no nicotine to steep for three months (butterscotches mostly) - as an experiment...

They tasted unsteeped. I added nicotine to them in despair and two weeks later, they're delicious


I used to air out my custard and caramel concentrates, too, but I get better results mixing it all up together

I don't leave mixes unvaped for very long, though - only make batches that I'll vape within a month or two


I add nicotine first, now - in case I make a mistake in measuring - gives me a chance to correct it before ruining 120mL of eliquid

So I do nic, flavorings, then gloop in VG- seems easiest and least wasteful way I've tried so far, to each their own
 

fozzy71

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Member For 4 Years
Don't overbuy in the beginning.

this, this and this. I will end up throwing out a lot of money in concentrates before I use all of what I have.

Never EVER add nicotine until you're ready to vape your juice... that definitely includes steeping.

never done this, never will. After 2 yrs of DIY I just mix 2 or 3 x 100ml every 2 - 4 weeks so I end up vaping nic'd juice that has been steeped 2 - 3 months and it is almost always great. I generally have 8 - 12 x 100ml bottles steeping in addition to the 4 - 6 x 100ml bottles I am vaping. I don't even mix smaller than 100ml now, even if it is a new recipe. I have occasionally had to throw out stuff I don't like, got bored of or stuff that has over-steeped but at $2 or $3 per 100ml of DIY I don't even blink when washing it down the drain.

Nic is actually the cheapest part of the mix besides the vg/pg if you are sub ohming and using 3 - 6mg freebase nic. flavor concentrates cost way more per ml than nic does for me at 4.5mg nic. I vape 4.5ml of nic per 100ml of juice, and 5 - 10ml of super concentrates. Nic cost me $50 or so per liter. RF super concentrates cost me $5 per 30ml, cheaper stuff like TFA is $4 per 30ml or $8 per 120ml or $30 per 480ml. If you buy in 30ml bottles like most do that is $123 per liter for concentrates and most people mix at around 20% flavoring = way more $ per mix on concentrates than nic (which brings us back to the first quote of don't buy what you won't use).
 

hellcatrydr

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Member For 4 Years
See there ya have the rich diversity of opinions that all forums are known for. ;)

I like to vape clear juice. ...that is the same clarity as originally mixed.
And I don't want ANY nicotine "taste" in my juice. :blech: no "infusion" is necessary imo
because I pay top dollar for nicotine that has no detectable flavor...
or color FTM.
But that's just me I guess.

Looks like some folks don't mind that oxidized nic smell/taste of 2 month old juice... I guess. o_O
 

SteveS45

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I had a bottle of Zero called Bake Sale which adding a few ML's of Nicotine improved the flavor and I only use NicSelect which is odorless and tasteless. Adding Nicotine to short fills requires time to infuse or the nicotine is not mixed and you will get Hot Spots.
 

zephyr

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See there ya have the rich diversity of opinions that all forums are known for. ;)

I like to vape clear juice. ...that is the same clarity as originally mixed.
And I don't want ANY nicotine "taste" in my juice. :blech: no "infusion" is necessary imo
because I pay top dollar for nicotine that has no detectable flavor...
or color FTM.
But that's just me I guess.

Looks like some folks don't mind that oxidized nic smell/taste of 2 month old juice... I guess. o_O

I cant smell or taste my nic (salts) at 3mg or 4mg with no flavoring...even at 30mg it smells faintly like tobacco, not bad at all :cheers:
 

Rooster Cogburn

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The reason I vape is for the nicotine. So I want to smell it, taste it, see it, feel its effects. I know my juice is steeped when it darkens. Tastes much better than before it darkens. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
 

jerryprague

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Meh, I stopped getting into the fine points, if it takes decent, I'm happy. Often if I have a few bottles with only a little left and need a few to mix up a new batch, I put them all together and call it 'all sorts'. Usually doesn't taste all that bad.
 

jerryprague

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this, this and this. I will end up throwing out a lot of money in concentrates before I use all of what I have.



never done this, never will. After 2 yrs of DIY I just mix 2 or 3 x 100ml every 2 - 4 weeks so I end up vaping nic'd juice that has been steeped 2 - 3 months and it is almost always great. I generally have 8 - 12 x 100ml bottles steeping in addition to the 4 - 6 x 100ml bottles I am vaping. I don't even mix smaller than 100ml now, even if it is a new recipe. I have occasionally had to throw out stuff I don't like, got bored of or stuff that has over-steeped but at $2 or $3 per 100ml of DIY I don't even blink when washing it down the drain.

Nic is actually the cheapest part of the mix besides the vg/pg if you are sub ohming and using 3 - 6mg freebase nic. flavor concentrates cost way more per ml than nic does for me at 4.5mg nic. I vape 4.5ml of nic per 100ml of juice, and 5 - 10ml of super concentrates. Nic cost me $50 or so per liter. RF super concentrates cost me $5 per 30ml, cheaper stuff like TFA is $4 per 30ml or $8 per 120ml or $30 per 480ml. If you buy in 30ml bottles like most do that is $123 per liter for concentrates and most people mix at around 20% flavoring = way more $ per mix on concentrates than nic (which brings us back to the first quote of don't buy what you won't use).

20% really that much? Most recipes I see are in the 5 to 10 percent flavoring range, occassionally 15%.
 

SteveS45

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I put them all together and call it 'all sorts'. Usually doesn't taste all that bad.

Many people do that with combining failures and come up with kick ass recipes but since they did not keep notes they wind up kicking themselves in the ass~!
 

SteveS45

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I do tank mixes and sometimes I wish I kept notes because my Mood Mixes can be killer~!
 

fozzy71

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20% really that much? Most recipes I see are in the 5 to 10 percent flavoring range, occassionally 15%.
When i started DIY about 2 yrs ago all of the tfa/cap/fw recipes I started mixing first (popular recipes on ELR) were in the 15 - 20% and higher range. Now that I only mix with RF SC my recipes are usually in the 5 to 8% range, sometimes a bit lower or higher depending on the number of ingredients.
 

Rooster Cogburn

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When I moved from a Sigelei zmax with Protank 1.8-2.4 ohm coils to Smoant Battlestar with Uwell crown .5 ohm coil my recipes were all cut from the 20% range to 10% and under for obvious reasons.
 

SteveS45

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When I moved from a Sigelei zmax with Protank 1.8-2.4 ohm coils to Smoant Battlestar with Uwell crown .5 ohm coil my recipes were all cut from the 20% range to 10% and under for obvious reasons.

I have never changed my recipes to suit the tank I do it with power or temperature. Just my opinion based on my vaping styles. YMMV
 

Rooster Cogburn

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I have never changed my recipes to suit the tank I do it with power or temperature. Just my opinion based on my vaping styles. YMMV
I changed the nic % and the flavoring % when I went from 1+ohm vaping to subohm vaping. So it wasn’t just too suit the tank, it was to compensate for the increase in vapor subohm coils provide.
 

Count Vapula

Member For 4 Years
The number one lesson I've learned through DIY is....
Never EVER add nicotine until you're ready to vape your juice... that definitely includes steeping.

No nic juice lasts a long long time. Once nic is added, the juice begins to oxidize in earnest.

It absolutely stuns me that this isn't a more well known (and discussed) DIY premise.
I've never done that before, even in my bulk 1:5 bottles used as base (creams, tobacco etc)

Although I have a new gig, and will be shipping 0mg. Then they are adding nic per 8oz to match customer orders. Was concerned my usual process would get jacked up ... but this sets me at ease Thx!!

Edit:

Seeing contrary results. Guess I need to experiment too!

My top tip is about steeping too. Test or investigate which flavors age well. Mix up a 1:5 ratio glass bottle (preferably, dark glass) booze bottles work well. Use that mix at 5x in your recipe with the notes that are better fresh and bright. Fruits mainly.

Then you get the deep steep benefits of rich creams or tobaccos and the clean top notes all together. Yes, strawberry and cream, I'm looking at you.

Cheers!
 
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