Looking for any additives that cut throat irritation

[cassandraschild]

As the title says, vaping tends to give me throat irritation, that eventually starts to feel like strep throat. I hydrate, I've tried adding 5-10% DW to DIY liquids, I've tried lowering my nicotine down to 1 mg, I've tried using nicotine from multiple sources, cut all PG.

Anyone know of any additives that I can add to DIY or store liquids that will help me cut down the throat irritation I get?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Shadav]

i could be wrong but it could also be the nic levels?
also is the nic you're getting pg or vg based?
I see you cut pg, that is usually the problem, most are allergic to it....sometimes, not always vg will irritate me as well, have to find a good balance somewhere around 70/30 vg/pg to 80/20 anything less or higher and it starts really irritating...
again though, it might possibly be the nic levels themselves....try a lower nic and somewhere around the 70-80% vg????
other than that, sorry i'm not of much help

 

[cassandraschild]

Im not sure how much lower to go than 1% nic, but I could try .5% and see if maybe the 100% VG ive been using might be an issue also. The funny thing is this wasnt an issue when I first started vaping in 2011 using my old Ego. Ive also tried messing with as many settings as possible, lowering and upping wattage, and have even been trying TC. My current Nic is from Nude Nicotine, the Smooth Salts, and 100% VG.

 

[Shadav]

hahaha yeah at first i didn't have any issues with pg or vg....but over time pg started hurting and then high vg would sometimes irritate...
lol well ok i donno bout nic level then either
what are smooth salts?? i'm a bit out of the loop

 

[man00ver]

The funny thing is this wasnt an issue when I first started vaping in 2011 using my old Ego.

I wonder if it could be related to direct-lung hits. Maybe dial down your airflow and try only mouth-to-lung for a while to see if things improve.

It could also relate to the types of flavors you're vaping. Any major changes there?

For additives, the only things that come to mind are TFA Smooth and FA MTS Vape Wizard, but those are more about smoothing out sharp flavors than addressing throat-hit.

 

[IDJoel]

I have not heard any additives discussed in regards to throat irritation either. But I was kind of thinking along the same lines as @man00ver in that I was wondering if you might be sub-ohming/cloud chasing (especially if you chain vape)? I was wondering if changing your build set-up to more of a tootle puffer output might help? It would decrease your overall exposure to the vapor and that might decrease your irritation. You might need to actually increase your nicotine to offset the intake of less vapor while still satisfying your cravings. Just a thought.

The other thing I thought of, as I read your OP, was a post made recently by @MacTechVpr where he mentioned pH balancing as a DIY aid. I tried reading the linked thread but was rather quickly over my head with the chemistry and left me with way more questions than answers. But I know enough to know that too much base, or acid, can be an irritant. I don't know if this might be some part of your matter. Hopefully Mac, or someone else that has a solid understanding of this, might be willing to give some simple tips.

 

[Wheelin247]

TFA has an additive called smooth. I have a few flavors that have a "bite" to them in the throat. I put a few drops of that in and it cuts that bite out of the juice. You may want to look into getting you a small bottle of that. It only takes a couple drops (depending on what size your finished bottle of juice is. If you google TFA diy flavor percentages, go to the e-liquid-recipes::dot::com they will have the starting percentage on there. You only want to use 2 drops per 5 ml. Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bwh79]

Im not sure how much lower to go than 1% nic, but I could try .5% and see

Do you really mean 1% or do you mean 1mg/ml? Because those aren't the same thing. 1% is 10mg/ml, and 1mg/ml would be 0.1% or 1/10 of 1%. 100% pure nicotine weighs 1.01g -- or 1010mg -- per milliliter.

If you really mean 1% (10mg/ml), then you can go plenty lower than that, still. I vape 3 or 6mg/ml (.3-.6%) and I've even heard of folks going down as low as 1.5mg/ml or .15%.

 

[Izan]

@IDJoel, Think you may be spot on.

I tend to like hotter and smoother vapes with low throat hit if possible, a lot of airflow is also a plus. Right now I've been vaping between 80-100 watts.

Cheers
I

 

[MacTechVpr]

:…The other thing I thought of, as I read your OP, was a post made recently by @MacTechVpr where he mentioned pH balancing as a DIY aid. I tried reading the linked thread but was rather quickly over my head with the chemistry and left me with way more questions than answers. But I know enough to know that too much base, or acid, can be an irritant. I don't know if this might be some part of your matter. Hopefully Mac, or someone else that has a solid understanding of this, might be willing to give some simple tips.

Thx for the nod ID. It's such a complex problem and I hate to rec additives for premix. As I mentioned elsewhere these may help with excessive dryness but mute certain flavorings or accent notes. So it's good to read up. If you're mixing or just have to save that fav juice, I like the bread-and-butter ACV solution for tab's as @Slots suggests here…The Flavor Apprentice Flavoring Thread | Post #7071 | E-Cigarette Forum on @glassmanoak's great thread. These may help corral juices a bit to far to the base (alkaline, acrid) side like tab's.

Often tho I gotta say most of the devices and prebuilt coils today are designed for hot flash vaporization. Often we start building ourselves and find the missing density even if not the best wind. So a lot of this is by design in favor of production and at the expense of flavor. An example, the latest versions of the RBA for the Kanger Sub's.

I've found the universal additive that fixes a host of ills is simply…vegetable glycerin. Upping the % slightly can reduce the impact of your working nic level. A measured amount in the dripper or down the chimney (a drop or two) can salvage a failing vape in a pinch. A little VG dilution in a partially vaped tank the same. I use it to clear the juice in a cotton install and help extend it a bit. In all these cases the effect is to reduce the dryness or throat hit resulting from a variety of causes. So I carry around a bottle of low water% VG all the time (along with a needle-nose 8ml of distilled water to clear gunk on coils). We're talkin' triage here as well as routine maintenance to extend our good working installs.

For those interested in finding that balance, hit my blog page and note the main threads I post on. It can really help to find that baseline center that works for you. I mention this as all too often it may not be the juice or mix at all but the design or config of hardware that's really not the best it could be for us. Finding that happy center that works for us always and the tools to get there is really the name of the game.

Good luck.

 

[retired1]

Part of the issue I believe comes from our devices being more effective than they were a few short years ago.

Juices that I cheerfully vaped all day long using my SVD and Protank became unduly harsh on newer equipment. Yes, I still vape 24mg juice, and on today's mods and rebuildables, I find it extremely harsh even at lower power settings.

I've seen excellent comments regarding Nude Nicotine's various nicotine salt bases, which can go a long way to reducing the harshness and throat hit on higher strength e-liquids. I'll most likely be trying their "Smooth" line very soon to see if this reduces that irritating harshness I've been experiencing over the past year.

 

[cassandraschild]

Do you really mean 1% or do you mean 1mg/ml? Because those aren't the same thing. 1% is 10mg/ml, and 1mg/ml would be 0.1% or 1/10 of 1%. 100% pure nicotine weighs 1.01g -- or 1010mg -- per milliliter..

I use the old Ejuice me up app, I have 100% VG Nic base, Smooth Salts from NN. In Ejuice me up, I set it to nicotine strenth 1 mg Nic for 10 ML of liquid. Is that the equivalent of 10% now a days, in the way things are measured? The reason I ask is because I'm looking at a bottle of Milkman I bought that says 3 MG nic for a 30 mL bottle.

 

[cassandraschild]

I wonder if it could be related to direct-lung hits. Maybe dial down your airflow and try only mouth-to-lung for a while to see if things improve.
It could also relate to the types of flavors you're vaping. Any major changes there?
For additives, the only things that come to mind are TFA Smooth and FA MTS Vape Wizard, but those are more about smoothing out sharp flavors than addressing throat-hit.

I can try more mouth to lung. I smoke that way, but I find it hard to do mouth to lung with vaping.

I havent really changed flavor profiles or anything like that. All I have changed is lowering Nicotine. I'll try TFA smooth and see if it helps.

 

[Capt.shay]

Yes, I still vape 24mg juice, and on today's mods and rebuildables

If I did that my eyes would bleed.
And I use to hand roll 40 non filters a day.

You have to seriously consider that as your culprit. Try titrating down 1mg/ml at a time over several week at each individual drop. I moved form 18 (24 in the beginning) down to 3 with newer equipment and found that I did not miss the extra at all by taking it down slowly.

 

[MacTechVpr]

If I did that my eyes would bleed.
And I use to hand roll 40 non filters a day.

 

[440BB]

I can try more mouth to lung. I smoke that way, but I find it hard to do mouth to lung with vaping.

I haven't really changed flavor profiles or anything like that. All I have changed is lowering Nicotine. I'll try TFA smooth and see if it helps.

I have had similar irritation in the past, about two years into vaping. For me it was the type and quantity of flavoring that was the culprit. I now use a light menthol/mint and not much else, particularly in the winter months.

It might be worth a trial using only unflavored liquid for a week or so to find out. In my case, after a couple of days my irritation settled down and I continue to successfully vape with reduced flavorings - half or less of what I used to use. The funny thing is that my taste buds adjusted so well that I now cut premixed eliquid in half and it still tastes pretty strong.

Good luck sorting this out!

 

[sofarsogood]

I suspect the issue is too much heat which will be a combination of vapor density and temp of the coil. Vape on an N mini at 10 watts and may be that problem will go away.

 

[MacTechVpr]

I suspect the issue is too much heat which will be a combination of vapor density and temp of the coil. Vape on an N mini at 10 watts and may be that problem will go away.

True that. Not enough juice flow for watts applied will make for a harsh dry vape. Hard to say without the setup. No performance complaint. But playing with watts is an easy test.

G'luck.

 

[cassandraschild]

My setup: Currently I'm using a dripper, as none of my tanks could handle 100% VG. KGD wicks, SS coils (spaced that I made, alien, clapton that were premade). I've been running doubles between .2-.45 ohms, but I'm testing a 1.0 ohm single coil right now. I've been mostly using TC since this new attempt, temps between 270-450 F (as in ive tried all of these different temps). The lowest watts my Alien 220 will do in TC is 15, so I'm trying that currently, but was previously using between 40-65 watts on TC.

 

[sofarsogood]

I got out my N mini recently for the first time in 2 years and it was much more mellow vapor than my rda. Recently I've lowered temp from 400 to 300-320 F. I don't use the N mini any more because I can't rebuild it and it's a bit tall for pocket carry. I've got some 30 gauge stainless on order to see if I can use it in place of 28 gauge and may be get the vapor I want with less heat.