Frustrated by DIY

[odin]

Lots of good info here, cheers for all your posts I decided to mix a stronger batch at 30%, whack it on the garage shelve and forget about it for 4 weeks. Mixing and forgetting is HARD! lol..

 

[sheff]

I've been on Vapetvlive for a bit and they recommended 70 pg 30 vg then mix in the flavors. Seems like that was a big help for me, the flavor came out a lot better than premixing PG nic juice with vg (cutting 36 mg to 18 mg first). Cutting the mix before makes keeping the nic level and the flavoring the same. Now I am cutting my nic juice as I mix instead of mixing it all together before. Works pretty good with the 1 or 2 mixes I've done since.

 

[bliss56]

This is all great information! I am having a problem though, all of my juices taste really sweet. I think the pg is too sweet to start with. I add flavors, sometimes doubling the amount recommended, and still seem to taste mostly the PG base. All my stuff is from good sources: gourmetvapor, mfs, etc. Anyone else find the base to be sweet and a way to get over this? I've ordered some different PG to try but already diluted 250 ml of nic juice with the PG I have.

For my next batch of nic juice, I think I will dilute as I go along instead of making a base nic level. Thanks for the suggestions and I'm looking forward to some kind of solution to this sweetness thing. I'm also using FA and PA flavorings.[/QUOTE

I'm a a loss on how to take sweet away from a pre-mixed juice but when making your own try switching the pg/vg percentages. For example if a recipe calls for 50% pg and 20% vg, use 50% vg and 20% pg. Just a thought.

 

[mwa102464]

This is all great information! I am having a problem though, all of my juices taste really sweet. I think the pg is too sweet to start with. I add flavors, sometimes doubling the amount recommended, and still seem to taste mostly the PG base. All my stuff is from good sources: gourmetvapor, mfs, etc. Anyone else find the base to be sweet and a way to get over this? I've ordered some different PG to try but already diluted 250 ml of nic juice with the PG I have.

For my next batch of nic juice, I think I will dilute as I go along instead of making a base nic level. Thanks for the suggestions and I'm looking forward to some kind of solution to this sweetness thing. I'm also using FA and PA flavorings.[/QUOTE

I'm a a loss on how to take sweet away from a pre-mixed juice but when making your own try switching the pg/vg percentages. For example if a recipe calls for 50% pg and 20% vg, use 50% vg and 20% pg. Just a thought.

Try ordering your Nic in a VG Base and dilute with PG, just what I do and my DIY turns out so much better for me.!

 

[keelalagirl55]

Flavour Arts Bitter Wizard calms the sweet in the juice....

 

[pixiedust]

Try ordering your Nic in a VG Base and dilute with PG, just what I do and my DIY turns out so much better for me.!

I initially ordered nic in VG, but how do you get around ending up with really thick juice, the most you can dilute that would be to around 55/45 right? After I figured that out, I ordered nic in PG to mix with it so I can end up with 80/20.

 

[QuikWgn]

You can thin VG with a max of 10% distilled water.

 

[zoiDman]

You can thin VG with a max of 10% distilled water.

Why 10% max? What happens if you use more?

 

[QuikWgn]

My guess would be the atomizer really doesn't like water like most electrical components. That is the guideline I have always heard from vendors about thinning VG.

 

[aprioristic]

Why 10% max? What happens if you use more?

Viscosity of Aqueous Glycerine Solutions

10% is purely arbitrary, just like how people try to stay below 20% flavoring. I actually try to stay below 15%, but I wouldn't hesitate to use much higher if it was warranted.

I'm not 100% on the science but it seems like VG is a lot more gunky and I use as little as possible. The real problem with atties seems like the VG not the water.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/ikenvape/142394-equipment-longevity-vg-liquids.html

 

[zoiDman]

The reason I asked is that I use 20% water to 80% vg and am having good results with my DIY mixes and atty wicking.

How did I determine that 20% is the magic number?

Because 10% wasn't enough and 30% seemed like too much. So 20% is what I use because it simplifies the math. Maybe 17.4738% is better but .174738 is an awkward number to work with.

One thing that I think is comical is when members tell people to only use a certain percentage of flavor without mentioning what brand of flavor they are referring to. There is a huge difference between say Lorann's and Flavourart. And there is variations of intensity between individual flavors for a given brand. Not to mention personal taste in how strong people like there juice.

The only number that I stick with is not using more than 10% of Any flavor on a 1st Time recipe workup. The reason is at 10% it is hard to make a juice with too much flavor that tastes bad. And I think it is easier to add flavor to a bland mix than it is to try to tone down an over flavored mix.

 

[QuikWgn]

I make test bottles of every new flavor I get that are identical so I can compare the taste, strength, and sweetness of each flavor individually and keep these as reference samples. 3ml batch of zero nic 50pg/50vg blend and add 30% flavor by volume. For me its all about the flavor. I then test vape this to determine the base flavors inherent character. Even from the same vendor the taste and sweetness of flavors vary widely. I keep a notebook and an excel file with all my data in it.

This way I know when I go to blend a flavor of say strawberry/banana, that if the strawberry is weak but sweet, at 50% of each flavor the strawberry might not be as strong as i would like. So for example I might use 60% strawberry to 40% banana and only half as much sweetner as I would normally use. It may seem like a lot of work, but its better than making junk and it only takes less than 1ml of flavoring. It won't be that time consuming with say 10 or 15 common flavors you like. For me, it took about 7 or 8 nights to catalog the 100+ flavors I have and about $30 for 100 3ml bottles.

If you want to make your test batches at 10% instead go for it. I use mine at 30% because I like a lot of flavor and at high voltage it seems to take a higher percentage for the flavor to come through.

 

[chainvapor]

I have about 20 Capella's Flavorings and 10 Perfumers Apprentice Flavoring and 10 LorAnn Flavorings and I am in the same boat. I am going back to buying pre-made juice because I am sick of making my own just to be disappointed in the end result. Don't get me wrong, I have about 4 or 5 recipes that are very good, but that is all. Out of 100's of recipes I have tried, 4 or 5 just does not make it worth my time. I will be getting rid of all my DIY stuff in the near future (well most of it anyway) and just go back to juices from my favorite vendors.

CV

 

[deback]

You're giving up on DIY'ing without trying FlavourArt flavorings (the best of all flavorings)? You've tried the worst; why not give the best a try?

 

[mary_d]

You're giving up on DIY'ing without trying FlavourArt flavorings (the best of all flavorings)? You've tried the worst; why not give the best a try?

I agree with deback on this one you should try at least a couple Flavourart flavoring before you give it all up. Heck tell me what you like and I will send you enough to mix up something.

 

[chainvapor]

I have used Flavorart Also. I have about 6 of their flavors. I actually like them the least out of what I have. Capella is the best flavoring to me. It seems to have the best flavor by itself without having to add other ingredients to tweak it. But the mixes I have still just do not compare with Tasty Vapor or Ms T's Bakery flavors I have tried. Of course, my DIY mixes definitely kick the crap out of Chinese juices, but that is about all.

CV

 

[undertheradar]

I like all of my DIY attempts, except when I use menthol and use too much. I sometimes add just a touch of Tobacco Absolute to tobacco flavors for authenticity. I also add a trace of perique black from flavourart sometimes. I find that I'm paying about 15 cents per ml of finished 24mg/ml juice (I paid $166.00 for 500 ml of 100mg/ml unflavored nic juice from www.myfreedomsmokes.com ). I shoot for about 50/50 VG/PG final mix. I probably vape flue cured or whiskey 80% of the time, and fruits and chocolate the rest of the time.

I'll never pay 50 cents a mil (or more) again for juices mixed by strangers. Patience in steeping is the name of the game for me. Quality Flavourart flavors make all the difference.

 

[Annie Miller]

Don't know if this was mentioned already, but when I get a new flavoring I will taste a drop of it before using it. it dose not give an accurate measure of what it will taste like in a recipe, but it dose give me a good idea as to what percentage to use it in my recipes

I will then mix the flavor up in a juice by its self to give me a better idea of what it will mix well with

I use allot of LorAnn flavorings mostly because I grew up with those little 1 dram bottles in my kitchen

 

[slumdog]

I am a new DIYer but I find I can get good repeatability in a 5ml test bottle with a 1ml syringe. If I am careful I can do a 2% addition (0.1ml) of flavor with a 1ml syringe. None of my recopies so far use that little of flavor.

If you are not already, try mixing just the flavors together. They are cheap. Then you will be adding more volume to your blank juice. Try your flavor mix with no nic PG/VG then when you get something that works add it to your expensive ejuice.

All these comments have been great.

Are you making up your own creations or following others?

+1................ this is the best way to learn, my first diy attempts were vomit at best, so i played around for awhile now there very vapeable and liked by a couple of my friends....but its just the single fruit flavors and some chocolate mint and some tootsie roll but other than that im still learning .......diy has a huge curve to the learning process,,,,no one can teach you, you have to figure out what you think is good thats why juice calcs have variable fields lol but really just keep trying with the cheap easy to get componants.........you will get it lol.........also if you find it has too much flavor put a couple drops of a well shook whatever % pg vg mix you make beforehand ,, and vice versa with the flavor, if not enough just add a few drops

 

[maltose66]

Have anyone used any of the recipes that come with Scubabatdan's ejuice calculator? He is on v14 now and makes mixing a dream. The recipes have been submitted by ECF members.

Thanks again Scubabatdan for all the hard work.

Malt