4 months in and its still yucky

[Hershey Suffolk]

Hey guys,
I've been researching through the forum, blogs and various videos on diy e-juice making and after 4 months of experimenting I'm still making juice that smells good, but has no taste other than the sweetner added to it.

I'm not sure what I'm missing or doing wrong.

Here's my setup:

1 gallon VG and PG. ECX LLC
1000ml NIC VG base. 100mg/ml
All from Ecigxpress.

Most of my flavors came from TFA
Except bubblegum from LorAnns

ISONIC Digital Ultrasonic Cleaner w/heater

Bipee Magnetic stirrer.

AWS Digital scale.

1 oz. Cobalt blue glass bottles with droppers.

I'm following 1 ingredient recipes using the Steam Engine Calculator.. I've tried doing various 10ml experiments measuring with a digital scale. Converting ml to grams to be more accurate. Here's an example of my recipe:

NIC .3 × 1.24= .37
Watermelon 2.0 × 1.03= 2.06
Sweetner .4
VG 4.85 × 1.26= 6.11
PG 2.45 × 1.03= 2.52

I've tried:
Flavor at 5 to 20%
VG to PG 50/50, 30/70, 70/30
NIC at 3% and no NIC

I've tried 6 (30) minute cycles with the Ultrasonic Cleaner with and without heat.

I've tried only using the magnetic stirrer.

And then finishing both by letting everything steep for at least 2 weeks in blue glass bottles in a drawer.

Nothing seems to be working. Some I can smell the flavor, others I cant. All of them have no taste. Except for a little sweet taste coming from the spit back.

What am I missing or doing wrong?
Could my VG or PG be a bad batch?

Thanks in advance for everyones input.

 

[MMcQ]

tbh I've had a lot of success just doing a drop per ml with my flavorings regardless of brand. Figured I'd start low and then work up if needed. Never had a juice that I couldn't tell had some sort of flavor in it. Making 20 mg nic juice they seemed good and I've gotten away with less flavoring with lower nic. I guess I've just got sensitive taste buds. Don't know what to tell you but have you tried unflavored to verify that there's absolutely no flavor change?
*edit try taking out the sweetener so that you have less variables to consider.

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

Hi MMcQ,

No I haven't tried using no sweetner. It was the only thing I got right...lol but I was gonna try just vg and pg and see if that's the only taste Im getting. I kinda wonder if somehow one or both are drowning out the other flavors.

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

MMcQ
Also, I was wondering if maybe it's the flavoring I'm using. I heard so many good things about TFA. Funny thing is that I tried 20% of bubblegum from LorAnns and it was overwelming. I just knew that wasn't right.

 

[MMcQ]

Hi MMcQ,

No I haven't tried using no sweetner. It was the only thing I got right...lol but I was gonna try just vg and pg and see if that's the only taste Im getting. I kinda wonder if somehow one or both are drowning out the other flavors.

I should mention that although I have some cotton candy liquid that I was planning on using, it always seemed to make the finished product taste of the sweetener. Now that I think of it that really might be the problem. Hope this helps.

 

[MMcQ]

MMcQ
Also, I was wondering if maybe it's the flavoring I'm using. I heard so many good things about TFA. Funny thing is that I tried 20% of bubblegum from LorAnns and it was overwelming. I just knew that wasn't right.

I just recently got my loranns flavoring and I'll definitely say that using a drop per ml for coconut worked out really well. I had TFA fruit punch that I used the same but found out recently (when i was running out) that I needed even less than a drop per ml to produce a satisfactory vape. It really is a matter of taste which is quite subjective, but I feel that flavoring can always be added later on if it's not quite up to par.

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

I just recently got my loranns flavoring and I'll definitely say that using a drop per ml for coconut worked out really well. I had TFA fruit punch that I used the same but found out recently (when i was running out) that I needed even less than a drop per ml to produce a satisfactory vape. It really is a matter of taste which is quite subjective, but I feel that flavoring can always be added later on if it's not quite up to par.

I'm definitely going to try adding a drop per ml and see if that does the trick. Thanks again for your input.

 

[brianc11111]

have you tried measuring by weight or volume?
i know ejuicemeup calculator defaults for 20 drops per ml and
bottle tips vary from 20 to 60 per ml..

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

have you tried measuring by weight or volume?
i know ejuicemeup calculator defaults for 20 drops per ml and
bottle tips vary from 20 to 60 per ml..

I'm not sure if I understand your question correctly. I've been using the Steam Engine Calculator to calculate all the measurements and then I would make the conversion from ml to grams and add the ingredients using a digital scale.

 

[Whitaker2472]

How are you converting. Alot of flavors are 1.036 grams or right around there. Maybe try different calculator too

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

How are you converting. Alot of flavors are 1.036 grams or right around there. Maybe try different calculator too

Since most flavors are pg based. I use a conversion of 1.03. For the pg base. I also use 1.03. For the vg. I use a conversion of 1.26. And the same for the nic which is also vg based.

I'm not sure if anyone else is using a different set of numbers. I heard good things about the Steam Engine Calculator. I will try a different calculator and see if I get something different. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Alter]

These are the numbers I'm using in my ejuicemeup. Just clarifying that Hershey's numbers are correct and you might have to redo all your formulas since your changing the default to add the weights.
Weight of PG: 1.038 grams per ml
Weight of VG: 1.26 grams per ml
Weight of Pure Nicotine: 1.01 grams per ml
Weight of 100mg in PG: 1.0352 grams per ml
Weight of 100mg in VG: 1.235 grams per ml

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

These are the numbers I'm using in my ejuicemeup. Just clarifying that Hershey's numbers are correct and you might have to redo all your formulas since your changing the default to add the weights.
Weight of PG: 1.038 grams per ml
Weight of VG: 1.26 grams per ml
Weight of Pure Nicotine: 1.01 grams per ml
Weight of 100mg in PG: 1.0352 grams per ml
Weight of 100mg in VG: 1.235 grams per ml

Those numbers are spot on for what I use as my conversion from ml to gram.

 

[herb]

I couldn't make a satisfactory juice until i decided to forget trying to come up with stuff on my own and follow a proven highly rated recipe . It took over a year and a half but some of the recipes at the below link put me over the top.

I only made recipes that has numerous five stars and lots of great reviews .


Clone Recipes | Homemade E-juice Recipes


If you expect to make great recipes out of one or two flavors your going to be disappointed .

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

Guys,
I read somewhere in here that someone was saying that not all vg and pg are the same. Though i never really thought about it until now. Im wondering if it's possible that maybe I have a bad batch of vg or pg. Seeing how I ordered such a large amount my first time (1 gallon of each ). And somehow it's tainting my mixes.

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

I couldn't make a satisfactory juice until i decided to forget trying to come up with stuff on my own and follow a proven highly rated recipe . It took over a year and a half but some of the recipes at the below link put me over the top.

I only made recipes that has numerous five stars and lots of great reviews .


Clone Recipes | Homemade E-juice Recipes


If you expect to make great recipes out of one or two flavors your going to be disappointed .

Thanks for the links. I will check them out.

The funny thing is that I ordered 20 different flavorings from TFA and started mixing recipes from ..................... Some were between 3 to 5 stars, but only choosing the ones that had the most reviews. My mixes smelled good, but had no taste. So my friend said, just start off mastering 1 flavor. Seemed simple and logical enough. But...again, they smelled good, but no taste.

Everything I make, smells good, but has no taste to it when I vape it. Even after long steeps...still no taste.

 

[Alter]

I thought its really hard to go wrong on the VG and PG, its the nic that can be different from vendor to vendor. All I can say about nic vendors is to read reviews and there are plenty of forum posts about nic qualities. I have PG and VG from 2 different vendors, 1 is a Canadian vendor(Hydavape) and the other is a US vendor (Essential Depot) and both are clear and exactly what they are suppose to be. My nic was also from Hydavape.
I have several flavors from different companies but haven't dwelled into making clone formulas but working on making my tobac vapes the best they can be. I just mix standalones then blend together. I've had some single flavors that smell good, taste fine as a drop on the back of the hand then once its in the atty it goes flat, I just mark it in my calc, not use that flavor and consider it a loss. I have cola, grape, cotton candy and watermelon that taste like crap when vaped as a single standalone but blended into a 6% Hangsen tobac like Desert Ship the flavor pops out and it becomes an amazing vape. A lot of my standalones are 5% but some are adjusted to suit my taste.
I'm not much help since I've never recreated a clone or internet formula but vape 2 or 3 ingredient tobacco based vapes so both my wife and I vape happily enjoying my KISS method of DIY mixing for almost a year now

 

[vlodato]

Just a tip I diy"d with ecig express nic for over a year. Thier nicotine imo is God awful and is so peppery it kills flavor. I switched to nude nic and my juice is 100% better. I get a lot of stuff from them but I'll never order nic from them again.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

I thought its really hard to go wrong on the VG and PG, its the nic that can be different from vendor to vendor. All I can say about nic vendors is to read reviews and there are plenty of forum posts about nic qualities. I have PG and VG from 2 different vendors, 1 is a Canadian vendor(Hydavape) and the other is a US vendor (Essential Depot) and both are clear and exactly what they are suppose to be. My nic was also from Hydavape.
I have several flavors from different companies but haven't dwelled into making clone formulas but working on making my tobac vapes the best they can be. I just mix standalones then blend together. I've had some single flavors that smell good, taste fine as a drop on the back of the hand then once its in the atty it goes flat, I just mark it in my calc, not use that flavor and consider it a loss. I have cola, grape, cotton candy and watermelon that taste like crap when vaped as a single standalone but blended into a 6% Hangsen tobac like Desert Ship the flavor pops out and it becomes an amazing vape. A lot of my standalones are 5% but some are adjusted to suit my taste.
I'm not much help since I've never recreated a clone or internet formula but vape 2 or 3 ingredient tobacco based vapes so both my wife and I vape happily enjoying my KISS method of DIY mixing for almost a year now

I appreciate your input. Unfortunately, I haven't made it to cloning recipes yet. I'm still trying to master a single flavor..lol

Ive been making my flavor account for 20% of the total recipe. Im considering trying a different flavor supplier. Along with the other suggestions I've received.

 

[Hershey Suffolk]

Just a tip I diy"d with ecig express nic for over a year. Thier nicotine imo is God awful and is so peppery it kills flavor. I switched to nude nic and my juice is 100% better. I get a lot of stuff from them but I'll never order nic from them again.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

Since my recipes have not worked out. I stopped adding nic...figured I was just wasting it. But when I get these issues worked out and start adding nic again. I will see if the nic is horrible.