Homemade E-juice less harsh on coils and cotton?

[lostbladder]

Recently, due to laws in my state prohibiting the purchase of e-juice with “characterizing flavor” I have been mixing my own. Been buying a base solution of PG/VG with 6 nicotine and flavoring separate to mix in from a company whose purpose is just that.

I have noticed something a bit odd. My coils do not get junked up and my cotton does not deteriorate anymore. I could quite literally not clean my coils or change my cotton for weeks without noticing a difference. I actually have to remind myself to replace cotton just because I feel it to be hygienic. If anything, given the bulk I am buying in, I am actually vaping more frequently now than ever, but my cotton doesn’t get squishy and my coils don’t go black.

Is this something well known? Is this a sign of quality for juice or lack of?

 

[Richard Winter]

Recently, due to laws in my state prohibiting the purchase of e-juice with “characterizing flavor” I have been mixing my own. Been buying a base solution of PG/VG with 6 nicotine and flavoring separate to mix in from a company whose purpose is just that.

I have noticed something a bit odd. My coils do not get junked up and my cotton does not deteriorate anymore. I could quite literally not clean my coils or change my cotton for weeks without noticing a difference. I actually have to remind myself to replace cotton just because I feel it to be hygienic. If anything, given the bulk I am buying in, I am actually vaping more frequently now than ever, but my cotton doesn’t get squishy and my coils don’t go black.

Is this something well known? Is this a sign of quality for juice or lack of?

Definitely that.
I've been mixing over 5 hrs but every now and again I treat myself to a store bought juice just for a change.
Whenever I use that juice, my coils gunk up within days.
I believe it's all the sweetners they add to the juice that causes the problem.
I never use sweetners etc in my mixes, just pg vg nic and flavour concentrates. My coils and wick last ages.

 

[Aerodan]

Totally! Even the unflavored store bought keeps my coils cleaner for a long time. Plus I like the taste of vape with no added sweetener, it doesn’t get in the way of scotch

 

[stols001]

Yup.

Anna

 

[Coyote628]

I'm a sweet junkie and my latest mix, chocolate peppermint patty is a real hit. But....its very dark and as I said, I like sweet, so after 3 days of vaping this wonderful concoction that's very reminiscent of junior mints, my wicks look a little rough already. I knew it would be like this and accepted the inevitable. But who could refuse a junior mint? They're chocolate, they're peppermint, they're delicious!

 

[vaper1960]

It's mostly the sweetener (as several have said) but it also depends on the flavors. Chocolate and coffee are hard on coils/wicks (but sometimes you pay that price if you want to use those flavors) I try to wait until I know I need to re-wick soon (or replace the coil) and use those flavors then. I made the mistake of vaping a chocolate/coffee juice with a fairly new "drop-in' coil in my little MTL tank... clogged the coil very quickly. With a RTA or RDA, you can usually get away with just removing the wick, doing a "dry-burn" and putting in a new wick. Really sweet juices may build up on the coil where you are better off just replacing the coil. Sometimes I can get a few extra days buy vaping plain unflavored but that doesn't always work.

 

[sonicbomb]

DIY rules, it makes sense that being in control makes for a better product suited to your needs.
The rule of thumb with commercial juices seems to be to flavour them to oblivion, which is just one of the reasons I don't use them. This makes sense as if you are paying a premium for something you want it to taste strong, maybe? In fact I find that most commercial juices are so strongly flavored that in some cases they taste soapy, which is just plain nasty. It's possible this excess of flavoring as well as the sweeteners contributes to early coil gunking.

This is just my opinion, but the entire concept of premium flavors is a little ridiculous.

 

[zoiDman]

...

Is this something well known? Is this a sign of quality for juice or lack of?

Quality of Ingredients May play a role in your Coils not Junking Up so fast.

But a More Likely reason is that you are Using Lower flavoring and sweetener Percentages than what is found in Many Retail e-Liquids.

 

[vaper1960]

I agree with everything sad so far... and DIY is so fun and you make what you like (most of us agree... less flavor and less sweet) I'm not that old (60) but this is still one of my favorite songs:

 

[DaveP]

Totally! Even the unflavored store bought keeps my coils cleaner for a long time. Plus I like the taste of vape with no added sweetener, it doesn’t get in the way of scotch

Yep, flavorings are the culprit. Less is more until you find out the flavor strength you like. Add too much and you'll end up cutting it down with PG and VG and adding more nic. It's easy to find yourself with several bottles of something you don't like.

I do 30ml bottles if it's my first mix on a new flavor. Those I flavor lightly. It's easier to add flavor than to dilute a bad mix.

Unflavored PG/VG with nic is a must for mixing up test small batches.

 

[MacTechVpr]

To research and teach rebuilding with strain, I crafted a dense flavoring profile modeled in a style popularized by Bill's Magic Vapor on The Flavor Apprentice Flavoring Thread and deriving a collection of universally loved shake-n-vape recipes. The premier concoction in my line-up using this approach features no sweeteners and quality ingredients from top makers. That's the ticket!

If you live in the S FL area you might like joining a study group to learn rebuilding. Participants gain access to the recipe line.

Good luck all.

 

[Shadav]

most store bought juice has quite a bit of sweetener in it

rule of thumb... typically the sweeter the juice or the dark colored the juice, the quicker it's going to gunk up your coils

when you diy, you usually aren't adding sweeteners or if you do it's very little (which you can add after you mix if you find the juice to not be sweet enough to your taste, just add a drop or two and shake, then try again) I don't use sweeteners in my diy but occasionally after mixing something I may decide it needs a touch

 

[Fstop]

Recently, due to laws in my state prohibiting the purchase of e-juice with “characterizing flavor” I have been mixing my own. Been buying a base solution of PG/VG with 6 nicotine and flavoring separate to mix in from a company whose purpose is just that.

I have noticed something a bit odd. My coils do not get junked up and my cotton does not deteriorate anymore. I could quite literally not clean my coils or change my cotton for weeks without noticing a difference. I actually have to remind myself to replace cotton just because I feel it to be hygienic. If anything, given the bulk I am buying in, I am actually vaping more frequently now than ever, but my cotton doesn’t get squishy and my coils don’t go black.

Is this something well known? Is this a sign of quality for juice or lack of?

Like Removing Clog from the drain

 

[Mordacai]

Using Sucralose as a sweetener really does a number on coils and wicking, but it is one of the best sweeteners for giving you a more sugar like experience.

And this was learned from my foray into DIY, and I have used it at the same level as Ethyl Maltol (1%).

Got another adjusted batch steeping, dropped the Sucralose to 0.25%. Hopefully this will be a better level of sweetness than 1% not turn the coil / wicking black within a day.

I think that I'll stick to Ethyl Maltol at 1% though, as coil gunking was very low.

 

[Beamslider]

Commerical ejuice is usually highly sweetened and the percentage of flavors are usually high. Originally they were mostly designed for low volume devices and probably needed the large amount of flavor for them.

I mix my own and don't use sweetener as a lot of the flavors are already on the sweet side. Most of the mixes I use are between 2.5 to 4% flavor.

I vape them in a Zeus X mesh RTA and burn off and re-wick about every two to three weeks. The mesh strip isn't junked up and the wick is usually still clean. Flavor does get heavier after a few days usage but probably because some of it has concentrated in the wick.

 

[stols001]

The big win (if you want highly flavored juice) is an RTA that you can rewick less strain on coils and certainly drop in coils.

I do whatever I want with sweetener and I often will prefer a drop of sucralose per 20 ml than that much ethyl maltol which I do use but more for mouth feel.

I'm sorry 1 drop per 30 ml of Sucralose is NOT a lot but you can really taste it.

Anna

 

[Mordacai]

That's why I'm thinking about 0.25% of Sucralose is more than enough for the sweetness @stols001, I'll report back when I get round to that batch.

But I have heard folks mentioning Xylitol, as that seems another option over Sucralose.

 

[stols001]

Supposed to be sweeter. I think I had someone send me some once but IDK I did not try it.

Sometimes the best is the enemy of the good.
Anna

 

[DamienLee]

That's why I'm thinking about 0.25% of Sucralose is more than enough for the sweetness @stols001, I'll report back when I get round to that batch.

But I have heard folks mentioning Xylitol, as that seems another option over Sucralose.

I'm lucky and I don't like the sweet taste at all .. No requirements, no problem with that)

 

[Mordacai]

I've not got a sweet tooth myself @DamienLee, but it's nice to have a hint of sweetness with certain flavour types like fruits.

But Sucralose is off the menu for me though, as it just goes through coils and wicking.