Need a better calculator than Juice-me Up

[John Phoenix]

juice-me up is o.k. but it's very broken. It expects you to know the ratio percentages you need to input before you calculate and adjust accordingly. It doesn't work.

Example. I have 60 mg Nic in a 100 % PG solution, and flavorings also in PG. Now I need to use these BUT I want my product to be 100 % VG - That is to say, not adding any extra PG, just keeping the PG in the pre-mixed juices and adding only VG. The calculator has no clue how to account for this so when you try to calculate it, it says you need to add more PG. I'm supposed to know the total amount of PG used in my nic and my flavorings and adjust for that but thats not possible. All I know is that they are mixed in a 100% PG base.

I run into the same problem trying to mix juice with 36 % nic target using 70 % PG and 30 % Vg ratios and 15 % flavoring.

In this case I should have more than enough PG because I'm telling it I want the end product to have 70 % total. Yet, I get an error that says it needs more PG.

I have looked at a bunch of juice calculators and they all work the same way. Only way around this is to lie to the calculator and tell it I am using a VG base instead of PG. That will only work sometimes.

What I need is a better calculator that will account for all possibilities correctly. Any ideas on a better calculator?

 

[swedishfish]

You are starting with 60 and you're going to use all VG to mix, correct? So the only thing you really want to know is how much base and how much flavoring it takes to get to 36mg 15% flavor.

So if you were making 30 ml, you'd use 18 ml of nicotine base, 7.5 of your base (vg) and 4.5 ml of flavor.

I don't know what ratio of pg/vg that'll give you but if your just wanting to get to 36, that should work. Or did I miss something?

 

[swedishfish]

I do know what your saying though because I've run into that when your trying to get a target PG/VG. I don't think it's the calculator, that's accurate.

Maybe try different starting amounts of nicotine. Do you find the same thing when you use 100 mg/ml nic? Or 48?

 

[Spazmelda]

I think (if I understand correctly, which I may not) that it's because what you are wanting to do is impossible.

If you have your nic in PG at 60 mg/ml, your target is 36 mg/ml, and you want to add (for example) 15% flavoring, which is in PG, then it will be impossible to have a juice that is only 70% PG. The lowest you will be able to go for PG will be about 75%.

So, as a work around to this... you could keep changing the % of PG/VG in your final until you hit one that's 'possible' (in the example above 75/25). If you don't care too much about what final percentage of PG/VG is, it will work this way. If you must have exactly 70/30, then you will either have to get some higher nic concentration (100 mg/ml), reduce the amount of flavorings, or get some nicotine in VG or a PG/VG blend.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/169390-ejuice-calculator-roundup.html

 

[Spazmelda]

deleted because it came out snarky and I didn't mean it to be.

 

[John Phoenix]

I think the problem is the calculator isn't designed to do what I want it to - even though it seems it should.

It's hard to explain. I mix small amounts, never over 10 ml's. The nic to pg ratio is a given. The falvorings are unknown even though I tell it they are mixed with 100 % PG as a base and I want a total of say 15 % flavoring. Many times I don't see why the calculator cannot just tell me how much more of an ingredient I need to add before it throws an error. I have solved the problem by changing the pg/vg ratios but then based on experience I say to heck with this thats not gonna be right and manually add several more drops of Vg or whatever.. not understanding why the program would have kicked it out. I can always add manually to raise a percentage.. the calculator should know this.

I have never tried other liquid nic besides 60 ml. I feel if I use a lesser ratio I will have to add more to make my target nic strength and i'd don't want to do that - if anything I sould try 100% nic, so I use even less of a nic solution.

I will find a better example than the one I gave above and post it to better illistrate my fruistration.

Thanks Cool Breeze for the link.

Spazmelda, no worries.

swedishfish I don't have anything mixed in Vg as a base.. just a big bottle of VG. I was trying to make only the added liquid to be 100% VG and hoping the calculator would ignore the fact that the flavoring and nic base has PG in it. This would get the over all to as close to 100% VG as possible. I'm trying to simulate this because I don't have anything mixed with VG - for it to tell me I always need to add Pg would screw up what I was trying to do. Best thing I can do it lie about the base. that only solves the first problem. It wont solve the other problem trying to get to 36 ml with certain ratios - I think too that it has problems because I mix in small amounts.

 

[Randyrtx]

It's not broken, it just can't do the impossible. In short, you can't achieve the high VG percentage you want using the 100% PG Nic Base.

For your example using a 100% PG, 60mg nic base with 15% flavoring with a 36mg target, the final ratio comes out as 75% PG, 25% VG. The ingredient totals add up to this; 60% nic base + 15% flavoring (both PG based, 60+15=75%), and 25% VG.

For other mixes, simply "tweak" the target PG/VG percentages until you get a zero amount for PG in the result.

You can also get the result you are looking for by "lying" to the calculator about both the nic base and the PG/VG ratio of the flavoring. (you might have to update to the latest version if you don't see an option for setting the flavoring PG/VG ratio).

ETA: Even if you take the flavoring completely out of the equation, the highest ratio you can get with a 36mg target strength is 60%PG/40%VG. Your best bet, ultimately, is to use a 100% VG nic base.

 

[Spazmelda]

^ What Randy said up there.

It doesn't matter what calculator you use, it's not going to allow you to produce a juice that's lower than 75% PG with the ingredients you are using (that's what I said above that came out snarky, but I don't mean it to be. I'm just stating that it's impossible to do). If you do somehow find a calculator that allows you to do that, it's not going to change the fact that you can't actually make a juice with those particular ingredients and that flavor concentration that's more than 25% VG.

Maybe you are saying that you want a calculator that will let you just enter what you used and then tell you what PG/VG ratio it turns out to be? If that's the case, I might be able to come up with a spreadsheet that will do that for you. I think it's just easier to change the PG% fields in the ingredients section of ejuice me up until you get one that brings your PG volume to exactly zero, as Randy suggested.