Whats going on VU. New member here and looking for advice. I recently got into DIY and have made delicious juices. I got the flavors exactly how I want it to taste, however, the hit is so harsh. Ive tried steeping, one it helped with, the other it made worse, and another lost flavor as i steeped so i may need to try a different steep method, but i would still say the flavor percentages are where i want them to be. Just to give you a run down of one juice i made, i am vaping 3mg nic (vg based), 75vg/25pg, 8% pineapple, 11% mango, 11% peach. All tfa flavors and i used the recommended percentage chart for tfa as a reference point...is there anything i can do to make it smoother, store bought juice doesnt do this to me. Thanks
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DIY help...harsh juice
- Thread starter unregulatedvaper
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Nicvape.com
Here's a test for you. Vape plain PG/VG (no nic) base. Then vape PG/VG/nic base. That'll tell you if it's your nicotine or if you have a problem with your VG/PG mix. My moneys on the base + nic giving you the nasty throat hit, but I'm wrong a lot 
I will try lowering them down to half of what they are now. That will bring me back to my 80/20 if i do it that way too. What steeping method works best for you...if you even steep. Its gone good and bad for me so i guess thats why theres debate on whether to steep or not. I also read that i could be letting too much air and light be getting into my bottles?
Very true. I read that as 3 separate liquids, but if it's a single juice we may have a winner.
Fruits rarely need a steep. On my juices that need one, I use an ultrasonic cleaner and then time.
You really don't need to steep to tell if the juice is any good. A good juice may improve with steeping, but it should still be vapeable right away. A bad juice will never improve with steeping - it will always be bad! (Make sense?). I do often make up something and taste it the next day. Overnight tends to be all you need to have some flavors calm down and blend together.
That said I do heat steep custards and some tobaccos, simply because I know how good they'd be in a month, and I'm too impatient to wait!
That said I do heat steep custards and some tobaccos, simply because I know how good they'd be in a month, and I'm too impatient to wait!
I am going to build a magnetic stirrer with some old PC fans. I read that fruits dont need it but coffee and tobacco flavors do. I made a sour skittles batch too and it was good, not harsh, but something about it gave me the urge to cough.. i let it steep, came back and it was 10x worse. I get that its a trial and error test, it just sucks because the batches ive made taste so good but is uncomfortable to vape
If you liked the original taste, I would really give that base, base + nic test a shot
RocketPuppy
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This sounds like a nic problem.
Before you buy anything for steeping, first see if it's necessary. Make one batch and then put it in two bottles. Vape one the next day and throw the other in a crock pot for a few hours or a few hot baths with lots o shaking. Both Amanda and I did a steep test long ago between the different ways to steep...crock pot/IC/and I also did it with my magnetic stirrer, and guess what? The difference wasn't noticeable. It was a blind test, so we didn't know which method was used until after.
I will try just the base w/o nic and with nic tomorrow w/o flavor. Im hoping its not something acidic with the amout of fruit flavoring because it would be a shame to bump down now that ive tasted its full potential
Make it w/o nic?
It is 3 separate liquids, pineapple, mango, and peach
Those % charts are for single-flavor mixes (and still just a guide as so many are all over the map). But you need to reduce each % when you combine. I would cut them in half and see where that lands you.
Also, you list your ratio as 75/25 but with 30% flavoring - you've got at least 30% PG. If you're not "counting that" in your blend ratio, what you're really ending up with is 45/55
Idk how im ending up with 45/55, i use an ejuice calculator, pick what i want the base to be, what my nic base will be, and what my flavor base is and it wont even tell me volumes unless all numbers are green, thats why i had to bump down to 75/25, because i had numbers in the red at 80/20. For the most part, my base is all vg. My nic is vg base, so i end up adding like .2ml of pg at the end because my flavors took up the pg percentage
TFA Pineapple is a pretty harsh flavoring. When I didn't do well with that one, I asked around. Seems that 1-2% was all I needed for that one. Harsh flavor, but good in mixes at low %.
Cloud79
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I've been dealing with sort of the same problem lately. Tried upping my percentages to 10 or more and that made things worse for me. Using tfa or cap flavoring. 2%-8% is what seems to work best. What got me was that my nicotine/vg base was bad though too, but yet still made harsh juice even with a fresh new batch of nicotine until I dropped them back down below 10%. The flavorings count as pg also since they're mixed into pg for the most part.
CurlyxCracker
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I'm willing to bet small sums of money nicotine is your culprit
At 3mg nic, it seems to me hard to believe nic could be the problem! I would give myself a hernia trying to get fixed at 3mg on my little protanks. But I know, I know--everyone's different
While we're talking about nic, do people consider the MFS (myfreedomsmokes.com) nic a harsh nic? (This is the only one I've ever used and harshness hasn't been a big problem to me--at least compared to the vendor juices I vaped before I started DIY).
A consideration for burning throat hit: I had a key lime flavor that seems to have gone south on me over about four months kept in a hot (but not sunny) environment. It started out delicious and ended up down the sink because it was practically burning a hole in my throat. I decided that the key lime flavoring had gone 'bad", you know, "turned", the way anything organic will over time. I think maybe any juice with citric acid in it has the pot
ential for this to happen to it. It's weird because I know citric acid is sometimes used as a preservative. I really don't understand the chemistry of it, but I do recall reading that plain citric acid in water solutions will definitely spoil over about a week in warm weather. Pineapple and mango flavors may have citric acid components, maybe even peach.
While we're talking about nic, do people consider the MFS (myfreedomsmokes.com) nic a harsh nic? (This is the only one I've ever used and harshness hasn't been a big problem to me--at least compared to the vendor juices I vaped before I started DIY).
A consideration for burning throat hit: I had a key lime flavor that seems to have gone south on me over about four months kept in a hot (but not sunny) environment. It started out delicious and ended up down the sink because it was practically burning a hole in my throat. I decided that the key lime flavoring had gone 'bad", you know, "turned", the way anything organic will over time. I think maybe any juice with citric acid in it has the pot
ential for this to happen to it. It's weird because I know citric acid is sometimes used as a preservative. I really don't understand the chemistry of it, but I do recall reading that plain citric acid in water solutions will definitely spoil over about a week in warm weather. Pineapple and mango flavors may have citric acid components, maybe even peach.
Same deal with me also...
Cloud79
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I buy from mfs for nicotine and have had some issues with the harshness and I keep my juices around 6 or 7mg. Also, pineapple and mango are both considered non citrus fruits just fyi. My harsh juices came from using bad nicotine and then using too much flavor content. 10% or higher.At 3mg nic, it seems to me hard to believe nic could be the problem! I would give myself a hernia trying to get fixed at 3mg on my little protanks. But I know, I know--everyone's different
While we're talking about nic, do people consider the MFS (myfreedomsmokes.com) nic a harsh nic? (This is the only one I've ever used and harshness hasn't been a big problem to me--at least compared to the vendor juices I vaped before I started DIY).
A consideration for burning throat hit: I had a key lime flavor that seems to have gone south on me over about four months kept in a hot (but not sunny) environment. It started out delicious and ended up down the sink because it was practically burning a hole in my throat. I decided that the key lime flavoring had gone 'bad", you know, "turned", the way anything organic will over time. I think maybe any juice with citric acid in it has the pot
ential for this to happen to it. It's weird because I know citric acid is sometimes used as a preservative. I really don't understand the chemistry of it, but I do recall reading that plain citric acid in water solutions will definitely spoil over about a week in warm weather. Pineapple and mango flavors may have citric acid components, maybe even peach.
RocketPuppy
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She's not saying they're citrus fruits. She's saying they contain citric acid.
Im going to try to make a batch today with 4% pineapple and 6% mango and 6% peach. I have a feeling it will be disappointing after trying out theflavor. It will get better hopefully
neverbeentovegas
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I'd say pretty certainly you're problem is over-flavoring. Try your first mix at 10% max total flavoring. You'd be surprised how much flavor is in that. Do a small batch test. If you don't like that increase to 15% total. Keep your ratios similar if you're liking the taste combo you currently have. Both TFA Pineapple and Peach where very strong flavors to me. Mango might be the same, I've never used it. You could also try a semi neutral flavor like marshmallow to "blend" those flavors together.
Best to try out single flavors first to rule out whether or not one of them is causing the harshness (assuming you've ruled out the nic base). Once you can find the culprit you should be good to go!
So i just made a vg/pg/nic mix and i got the harshness, this is a brand new bottle from nicvape with no air, light, or heat exposure...is this just not a good brand...can i tone the harsh hit down at all before resorting to 0 nic?
no.. and i'd talk to nicvape on that too..
I can not use their pg or nic.. but the flavors they have are good..
i am allergic to pg, so.. (but the vg nic i have does me the same way)
You have a hard time vaping their nic too?
Dang, thats what im using...who did u switch to?
I buy pure and mix down.. private company..
If the nic is really harsh, you can try to see if they'll replace it. If not, a really good bargain at the moment is the throat-hit nic from Vaperstek. Their premium nic is the smoothest nic I've tasted, but I've heard very good things about their cheaper nic (and apparently it's much smoother than other nics people have tried):
http://www.vaperstek.org/
You can buy small bottles too.
http://www.vaperstek.org/
You can buy small bottles too.
@AmandaD does Vapors Tek offer free shipping at a certain level and if not does Bull City ever carry the throat hit nic?
+1 on vaperstek.
Less nic flavor than commercial juices and really smooth. Their nic is cheap enough, I would spend the extra couple bucks and pass on the throat hit since you are trying to get rid of harshness.
Maybe once you get your mix figured out and its not harsh you can venture out to the throat hit. For now eliminate that variable and use the smoothest nic commercially available (imo) so you can rule that out and work on the pg/vg ratio and flavor %.
I don't really like straight fruit juices, harsh to me. But you can't vape custards all the time or your palette stops tasting anything from them. So I have a couple different fruit mixes but all of them have a little cream to tone it down and smooth things out. As mentioned, marshmallow say if you are not looking for a cream flavor to it but try a sweet or bavarian cream in a test batch at a low percentage, you may like it.
Less nic flavor than commercial juices and really smooth. Their nic is cheap enough, I would spend the extra couple bucks and pass on the throat hit since you are trying to get rid of harshness.
Maybe once you get your mix figured out and its not harsh you can venture out to the throat hit. For now eliminate that variable and use the smoothest nic commercially available (imo) so you can rule that out and work on the pg/vg ratio and flavor %.
I don't really like straight fruit juices, harsh to me. But you can't vape custards all the time or your palette stops tasting anything from them. So I have a couple different fruit mixes but all of them have a little cream to tone it down and smooth things out. As mentioned, marshmallow say if you are not looking for a cream flavor to it but try a sweet or bavarian cream in a test batch at a low percentage, you may like it.
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Its not that im not used to nic, but i feel like at 3%, i shouldnt have to feel harshness. Throat hit yes, but a pure garbage harshness that is effecting my juice at .3ml/5ml is a bit insane. Im going to order from vaperstek. The 125ml bottle for starters.
Let us know how it works out! You can't go wrong with the VT nic though.