How long will Nicotine base last?

[Magius]

Hi all,
Well, I've decided to try some DIY juice, but I don't know how much base to get at one time.
How long do nicotine bases last in storage? Does this stuff have an expiration, or an infinite shelf life?
I figure 150ml of 100mg base will dilute down to roughly 500ml of 24mg, which would last me over 5 months. I've kept had any vendor made juice that long. Is that okay, or should I be looking at a lower strength base or smaller volumes of 100mg, which I would use up faster?

Thanks for any input.
~M

 

[Levitas]

Not exactly sure, based off of experience. However, I have read that nic-base will generally be good for up to one year, and perhaps longer if you store it in the freezer.

6 months shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Kazou]

My order for 100mg nic is in the mail and should be here today . I plan to split it into multiple 30ml glass bottle at full strength and keep them in the freezer until needed. Apparently, stronger nic base last longer and the combination of cold, no air and no light should keep it for a long time from what I have read. Then I will cut it down as needed from the base before mixing.

 

[martinc]

Not sure if a freezer is best,but cool dark area would work too...like a drawer.

 

[markfm]

Nic base stores fine if kept in a cool dark place, half year is no problem. Unless you're doing an apocalypse buy, picking some up every handful of months isn't too bad -- vendors who sell nic frequently will have fresh stock, I let them do the rotation work for me.

Contact with air will cause nic to break down a bit (not too bad, but some), that's the classic amber color that appears over time. To avoid/minimize that, stay with just one bottle as your current nic working base, don't take a little out of each bottle in rotation.

Check unit prices, you may do better buying at, say, 60 mg/ml strength, or 36 (which is strong enough to make up to 29 mg/ml eliquid using 20% flavoring, at the high end of flavor %).

Since I've gradually reduced my strength over time, nowadays I just buy 36 mg/ml, pick it up whenever I need it from one of the vendors that does very frequent sales. 120 ml of 36 mg/ml for $14 is 309 mg/$, a price point that works for me (ordering some more today -- I've got a decent amount, but it's about time for a new buy).

(I'm lazy, as well as cheap. Using the VG nic base gets me to a nominal 27% VG just from the nic base portion of my 10 mg/ml eliquid, so I don't have to bother adding any plain VG to my all day vape )

I started with some 100 mg/ml, quickly switched to 60 due to both cost (bang for the buck) and ease of use (the higher the strength, the higher the precision needed, and it is just a PITA when making smaller test batches; for those who say you can cut it, I do that by buying lower concentration right from the get-go). I'll still get a bit of 60 from time to time, but that is for some special stuff, trying to help someone needing high test 36 mg/ml eliquid.

 

[zoiDman]

My order for 100mg nic is in the mail and should be here today . I plan to split it into multiple 30ml glass bottle at full strength and keep them in the freezer until needed. Apparently, stronger nic base last longer and the combination of cold, no air and no light should keep it for a long time from what I have read. Then I will cut it down as needed from the base before mixing.

I would suggest storing e-Liquids / Nicotine Base in Glass Bottles.

 

[AzPlumber]

Split large quantities into smaller size colored glass bottles. Keep one out for mixing and freeze the rest, it will keep much longer.

 

[billo]

Here is some actual scientific data:

Nicotine Concentration Over Time / Mad Vapes Blog

They only measured for 4 months--I wish they'd have kept going--but the data shows NO degredation in a refrigerator, but a lot if you keep the bottle open in a room.

This is for raw nicotine juice. Perhaps flavored liquid would degrade faster ? No data, and very hard to measure, since it's subjective.