E-liquid Shelf Life?

[Catwhisperer]

Hi guys,

Can anyone comment on the "shelf life" of e-liquid?
The liquid I have is over a year old and I'm wondering what happens when it "ages" like that. Comments appreciated!

Jenny

 

[wv2win]

The suppliers/manufacturers in China claim 2 years.

 

[Sun Vaporer]

Hi Jenny,

The general agreement is two years if properly stored. Some use the fridge, others like myself--a dark, cool, dry place. I think there is some agreement on the forum that if it is unflavored, then the fridge, and if it is flavored, then in a dark, cool, dry place.

Since I lost 400 dollars worth in the fridge as it all turned to a rancid taste, I do not employ the fridge, but use the dark, cool, dry method. I have e-liquid that is a year and a half old that tastes as good as the day I got it.


Hope that helps,


Sun

 

[stormlover]

Hi Jenny,

The general agreement is two years if properly stored. Some use the fridge, others like myself--a dark, cool, dry place. I think there is some agreement on the forum that if it is unflavored, then the fridge, and if it is flavored, then in a dark, cool, dry place.

Since I lost 400 dollars worth in the fridge as it all turned to a rancid taste, I do not employ the fridge, but use the dark, cool, dry method. I have e-liquid that is a year and a half old that tastes as good as the day I got it.


Hope that helps,


Sun

OH RATS! I put the VG juice (banana) I got from Vermont Vapors in the fridge on Friday night because the bottle said to do that. If I took it out now and kept it in a cupboard, do you think it'll go rancid more quickly because I once had it refrigerated?

Dang. Wish I had known this.

 

[River]

OH RATS! I put the VG juice (banana) I got from Vermont Vapors in the fridge on Friday night because the bottle said to do that. If I took it out now and kept it in a cupboard, do you think it'll go rancid more quickly because I once had it refrigerated?

Dang. Wish I had known this.

I would not sweat it, I kept mine in the fridge for a few months before reading about suns problem and moving it out and nothing was wrong with it.

I'm thinking that moving the juice from a cold to warm environment many many times over the course of weeks or months allows condensation to form inside the bottle and the added moisture is what ruins juices.

 

[doots]

I am using just cool dark location. hope to get 2 years from it.

 

[stormlover]

Thanks, River! I was thinking after I posted that it was shipped from a cold place (Vermont) to a cold place (Michigan) and none of my samples I got a few weeks ago and have kept in the warm house have changed. I think I'll keep the 30ml brown dropper bottle in the cupboard and put my daily carry-around supply in one of the small 3ml bottles that I already have.

As for lasting two years, I doubt this lovely banana bottle is going to LAST two years. I've discovered lots of flavors seem to mix well with banana: choco-mint, cherry, menthol, mint, mocha, etc. If I keep getting the sample flavors and mixing, this might just kick the analog habit's ....! We'll see how that goes.

Thanks again!

 

[Sun Vaporer]

OH RATS! I put the VG juice (banana) I got from Vermont Vapors in the fridge on Friday night because the bottle said to do that. If I took it out now and kept it in a cupboard, do you think it'll go rancid more quickly because I once had it refrigerated?

Dang. Wish I had known this.

Storm--Mine was in the fridge for three months before it went rancid, so I do not think you will have an issue at all if you get it out now.


Sun

 

[Catwhisperer]

Thanks for the good news, everybody! I HAVE kept these in a dark cool place and they still taste fine to me. Perhaps I was looking for an excuse to buy new ones

Incidentally, Banana is one of my favorites too-banana, cantelope, marlboro, and coffee. I cannot stand cinnamon though.. what a disappointment!

Jenny

 

[AlexTM]

The general agreement is two years if properly stored. Some use the fridge, others like myself--a dark, cool, dry place. I think there is some agreement on the forum that if it is unflavored, then the fridge, and if it is flavored, then in a dark, cool, dry place.

Where did you find that consensus? I don't think there is any difference between flavoured and unflavoured, unless a liquid is flavoured with something particularly delicate.

AFAIR, dark is more important than cold, and while fridge works fine, the potential problem is condensation. If you keep taking out the liquid and putting it back in, that's not such a good idea. If it remains cool, fridge would be fine. Just take out the a few ml of the liquids you currently use.

OH RATS! I put the VG juice (banana) I got from Vermont Vapors in the fridge on Friday night because the bottle said to do that. If I took it out now and kept it in a cupboard, do you think it'll go rancid more quickly because I once had it refrigerated?

Extremely unlikely. A few days are not much of a problem in any case (unless maybe in the tropics).

 

[wv2win]

Whether it is true or not, I don't know, but most on here claim that "air and light" are the biggest problem. I vacuum seal mine and never have had a problem since I started doing that about 6 months ago.

 

[Lab]

the thing with the 2 yrs is not that in 2 yrs it is bad..

all products have expire date on them because it is required..

now i do not know actually break down life of nicotine.. so the 2 yr expire might have been tested out and that basically is saying that in 2 years there is a noticeable break down of it that it has to be listed as expired.. not that it is bad but that the concentration is going to become weaker..

or it is just the fact that.. that is all the time that the product was tested for.. you will see on newer products to hit the market they will have 6 month expire date.. a few months later they will have 1 yr expire date.. not because they changed the product they now have just had longer time of testing to give it the new date..

most meds they cut off at 1 year.. not because they have gone bad but since after a yr they think you should buy a new batch..

i have a bottle of pg at my house that says expires in 1981.. it looks smells and same thickness as a new bottle..


lol.. also if you have a 2 yr supply you need to relax.. take it easy and put that money towards a trip to a tropical island..

 

[Sun Vaporer]

Where did you find that consensus? I don't think there is any difference between flavoured and unflavoured, unless a liquid is flavoured with something particularly delicate.

Alex --this topic has been beat to death and if you where around when many of us worked with Kurt, or resident Chemist here on the forum, you would know that that was what was found by him and there is no reason to dispute it.


Sun

 

[AlexTM]

Well, I was not around for many discussions, obviously. But I did find this sticky here: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/myfreedomsmokes/43742-smoke-juice-storage-tips.html

And there is some concern in that thread, by Kurt, about long-term freezing of flavoured liquid because the flavour may break down. (12th posting there.) But unless I missed it, fridge, according to this thread, and others, seems to be fine.

I may of course easily have missed a thread where this is discussed in more depth. Searching for "liquid" and "fridge" gives you 180 results. So maybe you could point me to it? Thanks.

 

[Kilroy]

I don't think that anyone really knows. I have a bottle in my hand that says that it expires in September of 2011. It was produced in October 2009. I think that it is an arbitrary date. I do know that as good as it tastes, September 2011 won't be a problem for me. It will be looong gone.

 

[miss MiA]

In the smoke juice storage thread Alex linked, the 'conclusion' for the unflavored high nic they were using was to keep it in the freezer. Well, I mean that's what Kurt & others were doing near what is currently the end of the thread. (So yes, only referring to unflavored there. Haven't visited the issue of flavored storage tips yet, but was thinking I'd probably avoid fridge myself, just because moisture does seem so likely. From what I recall some ECF 'experts' on storage theory do think it's different with flavored than unflavored, and that flavored definitely won't last as long overall regardless.)

As far as how the two-year expiration was determined, it was either in that juice storage thread linked or another in-depth one where I read that actually, two years is just the longest point at which it (in this case, unflavored) had been tested so far -- and there had been no change in it at that point. So unflavored probably can last even longer, maybe quite a bit longer.