Best way to preserve older e-liquids......

[Less_is_More]

Hi,

I'm an old member (8 years), but had to sign up again for some reason.

I visited one of my sons, who is now vaping (yay!), and tasted some delicious flavors from a company in his area, that is now out of business. (Usually I stick to my standard mix, from my standard supplier.) I loved the flavor and he was able to pick up over 60 of bottles of juice that had been manufactured around 4/2017, although some are as late as 9/2017. He bought them from a friend who got a great deal when the company closed and passed on a better deal to us. Less than one dollar a bottle, but it's the flavors that are zowie!

I have no idea how these bottles have been stored, but they live in a warmer area of the country, although they do have air conditioning.

What is the very best way I can store these in order to preserve the flavor. They are in brown dropper bottles, with the lids shrink wrap sealed. I've always stored my e-juice and flavorings in the refrigerator, so is that the right thing to extend the flavor on the new/old bottles? What about freezing....or in the freezer, as PG doesn't freeze. These are about 50/50 PG/VG. I'm not as worried about nicotine degradation, as I am about the flavors. I can always toss some of my own current nic into them.

This is a large quantity and I'd love to get the most out of them, so any advice would be much appreciated. I'm reading things that are older and don't know if the research/knowledge about storage has changed.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Anise]

I was told not to put them in the freezer. It appeared the best choice was a cool dark area. People seemed divided about the refrigerator.

 

[Less_is_More]

I was told not to put them in the freezer. It appeared the best choice was a cool dark area. People seemed divided about the refrigerator.

Yup, that's the same info I keep seeing and apparently there is still no agreement. Like I said, I've always kept my juices and flavorings in the fridge and nothing seems to happen. I do go through it faster though and don't over buy. This was a rare exception and too good to pass up.

Thank you for the quick response Anise. I appreciate it.

 

[stols001]

Honestly I store unused flavors and juices in the fridge, and I have had ZERO problems doing that with any of my flavors or juices. I am talking long term storage though and frankly there is no "cool dark place" that I can find other than my refrigerator since I live in Tucson and even our A/C is mostly set to about 80 degrees. So I use the fridge and haven't had any issues whatsoever. I would think the freezer would be bad for lots of reasons, but so far so good with my mini fridge now entirely almost taken over with e-supplies. Etc.

Anna

 

[Beamslider]

I would think that the refrigerator would be good for a year or 2. If trying to stretch it past that the freezer. Depends on what you mean by long time storage. The colder the longer it will store

 

[Less_is_More]

Thanks for all the tips. I've always been a fridge person anyway, so maybe I'll split the bottles and put some in the fridge and some in the freezer. My problem is the quantity and the already-old age of them. It will take me over a year, possibly two, to vape all of what I received. I'm happy to have this problem with such tasty juice at garage sale prices! I guess I can risk freezing some of it. Thanks again for your advice and opinions.

To stols001 - Yikes! Setting a thermostat at 80 degrees? Not sure how one handles that kind of heat. I set mine at 73 and barely get by. lol

 

[stols001]

LOL I wouldn't mind it HIGHER actually. Fortunately my enjoyment of heat is compensated against the husband's desire to be like, thrifty. I wander around in over 100 degree heat with jeans on, actually.

But I'm from that hardy Aussie convict stock. If you could not manage the heat, you were sort of genetically removed from the gene pool and etc. LOL.

Anna

 

[BrotherBob]

I guess I can risk freezing some of it.

Welcome and glad you joined.
Hope your plan works out.

 

[Less_is_More]

Thanks again to all who replied.

@stols001 - lol So you thrive in the heat? (Survival of the fittest!) I have a friend like that, who never perspires and thinks temps in the upper 80's are divine. I wilt in the upper 80's and no longer go outside in the 90's+. (COPD doesn't help.) But.......when it's winter and the windchills are -35, I did alright. I even walked on mornings when windchills were -75. Ah, to be young again and tolerate extremes.

I figure I make up for my excesses in summer thermostat settings, during the winter, when I keep it near 60 degrees. My husband passed away, so I'm in control of the thermostat now. Sure doesn't outweigh the loss.

Losing him moved me to vaping over 8 years ago. He had lung cancer and had quit smoking over 23 years before he was diagnosed. I figure I'd do what I could to insure my kids had at least one parent around. I do have to visit my oldest son during specific seasons though, because he has no A/C. He used to live in Yuma, so knows all about the heat. He always wears jeans too! Gotta love your hale and hearty spirit!

 

[RumbleFish]

Fridge is good. Like Anna, I've been storing my ejuice in my fridge door for years w/ no ill effect.

My condolences on the passing of your husband. I lost both parents to Cancers, it's brutal.

 

[Less_is_More]

Fridge is good. Like Anna, I've been storing my ejuice in my fridge door for years w/ no ill effect.

My condolences on the passing of your husband. I lost both parents to Cancers, it's brutal.

Thanks for the response and condolences. I always feel funny mentioning it, because it's been over 10 years, but so much tied into our lives together --- like thermostat wars. lol

I'm so sorry for the loss of your parents to the beast too. I also lost both of mine to cancer and it's been so long, that I'm now older than my Mom was when she passed. Our oncologist wore a big pin that said "Cancer Sucks." I agree.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear others have stored juice in the fridge, as that's what I've done for years. I just want to slow down the degradation of the flavors, as they're already "old." I'm going to chance putting some in the freezer, to see if I can extend the expiration longer that way. Never had this problem before, as I buy what I need and use it in a timely manner. I don't care if I lose the pittance I paid for them, but I do mind losing the simply wonderful flavors I discovered! I had settled into a flavor rut, but had my taste buds sparked with my son introducing me to other makers. I feel like a brand new vaper again.

 

[CaveFurby]

I do this too. One of my favorite recipes, Mango Crack, starts to lose its 'Brightness' around a month on. I make say 120 ml and keep that in the fridge and dispense from that. It remains fresh tasting for months, altho I vape it up pretty fast. If you have a juice that starts to lose its potency after awhile, thats a great way to slow that down.

 

[NicotineRush]

80?
AC? What's that?

 

[stols001]

It's not even a swamp cooler, LOL, it's a brand new state of the art system etc.

When the temperature OUTSIDE is like 127 degrees it actually uses a lot of energy to get down to 80, plus you just get used to it.

Heck, though, 81? That's WAY too hot. We do turn it down at night, though, if there's one thing I've learned it's that I need my A/C in order to sleep. I went to visit my little bro in Philly one summer and he was in one of them row homes without A/C and OMG my son wound out sleeping in the bathtub and I was JEALOUS. So, I lay down beside him and let my tired, reddened cheek rest against the sticky tile and thought a lot about that penguin documentary.

I believe I MAY have rented a hotel room for the next day, I can't remember, but I DO KNOW that trip my (at the time public mental health) psychiatrist got really annoyed at me because I kept calling and saying "I need you to raise medication X, I am not sleeping," and finally he told me it was my LAST CALL so I went for the gusto and demanded like 30 mg of ER ambien. Even the pharmacist was like, "Is your doctor trying to kill you?"
But I was like, "Nope, and also please FILL that, I need it so I don't a) kill people and b) can return home not by route of your busy urban ER, I don't have insurance and it wouldn't go well." LOL.

Anna

 

[Flavored]

Those brown glass bottles sealed up are magnificent for juice storage. I keep mine in a shoe box in the closet and have recently opened some that was over 3 years old and it was like it just came out of the mail box.

 

[Less_is_More]

@Sugar Daddy! That's fantastic to hear!! I wondered if the sealed brown stopper bottles made a difference. Thank you so much for giving me hope of salvaging these yummy flavors. (Gee, you'd think this was a life or death matter!) Clearly, my world is pretty small and thankfully quiet these days.

@CosmicGopher - Thanks a bunch too! You're talking my talk about slowing things down. That's why I wonder if the freezer might be even more helpful. I haven't even unwrapped all the bottles yet, as my son individually wrapped them in newspaper and labeled each group in each plastic bag. He was a real sweetie to go to all that effort for old Mom.

@NicotineRush - 80? A/C? I know nothing! If you don't know 80 degrees, I want to live there! (Unless it's Alaska, then no deal.)

@stols001 - Haha! You crack me up. Maybe you're too young to remember the days before most of us had central air or ANY air conditioning. Thank goodness I was only a kid being miserable then. We were one of the first houses on the block to get window a/c units. Before that, we had these mongo fans on stands that would be in the door or hall window blowing out. It was the concept of today's whole house fans, to draw the air though.

You're right. It's next to impossible to get temps down low when the outside temperature is that freaking high, even with the latest and greatest A/C. (Thanks for making me feel better about mowing the lawn today when it was 95.) 127 degrees??

I have to drop mine to 68 degrees during the mid-evening hours, in order to cool off the second story for sleeping purposes. I keep all the bedroom doors closed too. I always told my kids to go with science. Heat rises, cool air falls, and money doesn't grow on trees, so keep the bedroom doors closed, the basement door closed, and stop running up my electric bill! One trick I discovered, when we had a slightly smaller unit and I was slightly larger, was to use freezable medical type bags (like for sprains, etc.) and wrap it in a small towel and tuck it behind your neck in bed. Keeps you cool almost all night.

That's so strange about your brother's house. My late-husband grew up in row houses outside Philly. Actually in Amish land.

BTW - If you haven't hit menopause, get used to the feelings you had when you called your doc. I thought I was going crazy for two years before they discovered I was in full blown menopause at 34. Aren't I special? Yeah, we found Ambien and Lunesta had a limited span of time where it worked, so I could see you asking for elephantine mgs. I've been on everything from soup to nuts to get my days and nights back in order. Maybe I was destined to be a night owl.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

@Sugar Daddy! That's fantastic to hear!! I wondered if the sealed brown stopper bottles made a difference. Thank you so much for giving me hope of salvaging these yummy flavors. (Gee, you'd think this was a life or death matter!) Clearly, my world is pretty small and thankfully quiet these days.

@CosmicGopher - Thanks a bunch too! You're talking my talk about slowing things down. That's why I wonder if the freezer might be even more helpful. I haven't even unwrapped all the bottles yet, as my son individually wrapped them in newspaper and labeled each group in each plastic bag. He was a real sweetie to go to all that effort for old Mom.

@NicotineRush - 80? A/C? I know nothing! If you don't know 80 degrees, I want to live there! (Unless it's Alaska, then no deal.)

@stols001 - Haha! You crack me up. Maybe you're too young to remember the days before most of us had central air or ANY air conditioning. Thank goodness I was only a kid being miserable then. We were one of the first houses on the block to get window a/c units. Before that, we had these mongo fans on stands that would be in the door or hall window blowing out. It was the concept of today's whole house fans, to draw the air though.

You're right. It's next to impossible to get temps down low when the outside temperature is that freaking high, even with the latest and greatest A/C. (Thanks for making me feel better about mowing the lawn today when it was 95.) 127 degrees??

I have to drop mine to 68 degrees during the mid-evening hours, in order to cool off the second story for sleeping purposes. I keep all the bedroom doors closed too. I always told my kids to go with science. Heat rises, cool air falls, and money doesn't grow on trees, so keep the bedroom doors closed, the basement door closed, and stop running up my electric bill! One trick I discovered, when we had a slightly smaller unit and I was slightly larger, was to use freezable medical type bags (like for sprains, etc.) and wrap it in a small towel and tuck it behind your neck in bed. Keeps you cool almost all night.

That's so strange about your brother's house. My late-husband grew up in row houses outside Philly. Actually in Amish land.

BTW - If you haven't hit menopause, get used to the feelings you had when you called your doc. I thought I was going crazy for two years before they discovered I was in full blown menopause at 34. Aren't I special? Yeah, we found Ambien and Lunesta had a limited span of time where it worked, so I could see you asking for elephantine mgs. I've been on everything from soup to nuts to get my days and nights back in order. Maybe I was destined to be a night owl.

I have always kept my flavors and mixes in the fridge.....nic in freezer, but I hesitate at the freezing of already made ejuice....reason is that even tho the pg/vg does not freeze the flavorings might. And if/when they do, any water content will separate from the mix and then when defrosted the juice flavor may suffer. I would try a small bottle(in glass) to test this. That way you will know for sure if the freezer would be a good alternative. Just a suggestion, but I would try that before committing all of the stash I had.....

just my 2 pennies.

 

[Rossum]

. I went to visit my little bro in Philly one summer and he was in one of them row homes without A/C

Lived in one during my youth from 1967 to 1972. Still remember how much I hated it, and one of the reasons was all the sleepless nights during the summers. Urban heat island effect..

 

[Rossum]

This is a large quantity and I'd love to get the most out of them, so any advice would be much appreciated. I'm reading things that are older and don't know if the research/knowledge about storage has changed.

I'm concur with most of the other folks here; I would store this juice in the fridge. I might also replace the dropper tops with polycone caps. Dropper tops are notoriously permeable, whereas phenolic polycone caps seal very well.

 

[NicotineRush]

@NicotineRush - 80? A/C? I know nothing! If you don't know 80 degrees, I want to live there! (Unless it's Alaska, then no deal.)

LOL. I think you missed my point. I live 'off grid' in Central Florida and for most of the year it's way ABOVE 80 in my camper! (no AC) EVERYTHING is kept in the refer/freezer.