New Calculator to try

[OlderNDirt]

YES; that is how you go about it. NO it doesn't cost average; it will apply only the most recent purchase price entered to the entire quantity on hand.

Thanks for confirming how that works! Also, as I am seeing it, when a bottle is used up one can go in and check the "Deactivate(hide)" that ingredient leaving the newest still available in inventory. While I am not sure how much variance in price there might be buying the same size/flavor, but since I originally purchased a 9ml bottle to try a flavor and since I liked it, followed that with a 30ml bottle. The price per ml dropped from .17 to .13, but probably not that much considering how much goes into a 30ml or even 60ml batch. At least for now, will probably enter as a second ingredient.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! For me, I only find it a benefit to save as separate recipes if I see myself wanting to go back to the previous versions for any reason.

I figure if I mix a recipe and feel a need for adjustment, I will make a note of it. If it turns out bad enough, I can't imagine going back to that recipe and if it is good enough, I won't want to change anything. My palate and taste buds just aren't good enough to distinguish minor adjustments......at this time, anyway. Perhaps as I get more experience, that may all change.

 

[IDJoel]

Thanks for confirming how that works!

Happy to help! (I hope I am helping and not confusing further! )

Also, as I am seeing it, when a bottle is used up one can go in and check the "Deactivate(hide)" that ingredient leaving the newest still available in inventory.

Again... absolutely correct. Just keep in mind, if you are going to have multiple listings for the same flavor/manufacturer, you will have to manually change your recipes (that use that flavor) to "use" the correct one (use bottle B vs. bottle A) and may show as "unable to make" due to insufficient inventory until you change the ingredient to a fuller bottle.

but probably not that much considering how much goes into a 30ml or even 60ml batch.

I started out manually cost averaging when I first started re-ordering the same flavors as there could be a substantial cost difference (50% less or more), but when I saw it was only resulting in a 5 cent difference in the cost of the actual 30mL recipe, I quit worrying about it. Am I accurate? Not particularly. Does it affect the quality of my mixes? Not one iota. Is it good enough for me? Definitely.

I figure if I mix a recipe and feel a need for adjustment, I will make a note of it. If it turns out bad enough, I can't imagine going back to that recipe and if it is good enough, I won't want to change anything. My palate and taste buds just aren't good enough to distinguish minor adjustments......at this time, anyway. Perhaps as I get more experience, that may all change.

Sounds like you are thinking good thoughts. I only have a couple of recipes that I have various versions (the rest, like you, I simply make changes and notes within the same recipe). These are ones that I like as-is, but I wanted to play with and see if I could use as a "base" in creating something else, or wanted to start doing substantial tweaks but still wanted to be able to return to the original recipe from time to time.

 

[OlderNDirt]

Happy to help! (I hope I am helping and not confusing further! )

Not confusing at all! I prefer to call it brainstorming!

Again... absolutely correct. Just keep in mind, if you are going to have multiple listings for the same flavor/manufacturer, you will have to manually change your recipes (that use that flavor) to "use" the correct one (use bottle B vs. bottle A) and may show as "unable to make" due to insufficient inventory until you change the ingredient to a fuller bottle.

I hadn't thought about that! I have yet to come to the last drop out of a flavor bottle. I guess one could always change to the full bottle in the calculator, but use the last bit from the first bottle in the mix resulting in an understatement of the volume left in the new bottle. Comes down to how important complete accuracy in inventory volume is to you and I would like to think I am capable of recognizing when I am running out of a flavor when mixing.

I saw it was only resulting in a 5 cent difference in the cost of the actual 30mL recipe

While I as a retired accountant have been engrained with total accuracy, the minimal variances in price and volume are not worth the added efforts. So staying with my preferred K.I.S.S principal, just go into the existing flavor entry, plug in the new purchase information, click "add to inventory", and call that good and don't let it bug you.

Thanks for the info and help!

 

[IDJoel]

Not confusing at all! I prefer to call it brainstorming!

Outstanding! I love it.

just go into the existing flavor entry, plug in the new purchase information, click "add to inventory", and call that good and don't let it bug you.

Yep. That's where I am at too. And the added bonus is it negates the worries of whether to keep multiple bottles for the same thing listed separately. I just add the newest purchase, update the price, and call it good. If I am making a recipe and the ingredient inventory says I have 30.67mL on hand, and my working sample bottle only has a dribble left in it, I know I am looking for either a 30mL bottle, or possibly 2 15's. I usually try to mark the top cap of my working bottle with a "D" for duplicate so I know by sight that I have another bottle on hand. But even that has kind of fallen by the wayside as the calculator displaying the on-hands right on the main screen makes it so simple to see in an instant.

I am glad you found your own way that's gonna work for you. It was fun "brainstorming" with you my friend.

 

[OlderNDirt]

@IDJoel

I'm always glad to have your help and some friendly banter as well. As with all things vaping, it's all good..... some are just better then others.

 

[Maxwinder]

Hi HotRod!

I'm a new mixer and thank you for this tool, it has been great for me to keep track of things!

One part I try to watch closely is the total flavor, but I seem to have broken something. Even after saving it shows 17.2% in the "Notes/results/warnings" section and the actual total is 19.2% if I hit "Flavor %". Not sure if you have seen this before?

Thanks again!
Max

 

[IDJoel]

Hi HotRod!

I'm a new mixer and thank you for this tool, it has been great for me to keep track of things!

One part I try to watch closely is the total flavor, but I seem to have broken something. Even after saving it shows 17.2% in the "Notes/results/warnings" section and the actual total is 19.2% if I hit "Flavor %". Not sure if you have seen this before?

Thanks again!
Max

Any chance you can post a screen shot?

 

[HotRod19579]

Hi HotRod!

I'm a new mixer and thank you for this tool, it has been great for me to keep track of things!

One part I try to watch closely is the total flavor, but I seem to have broken something. Even after saving it shows 17.2% in the "Notes/results/warnings" section and the actual total is 19.2% if I hit "Flavor %". Not sure if you have seen this before?

Thanks again!
Max

Yes, a screenshot would help


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CrazyChef]

I am familiar with "that" site in general but I have never used the actual calculator. Does it offer a means to export your stash? Can you create a file to use in a spreadsheet like Excel or OpenOffice?

Did we ever find a way to do this? I have an ELR Flavor Stash of over 200 flavors and this would be fantastic.

 

[amoret]

I'm confused (not unusual for me) by having a nicotine ingredient change PG/VG percentages when it's used in a recipe. I make up a base nicotine ingredient using the Dilute Nicotine option, and use that as my Nicotine ingredient in recipes.

Then I work backwards using the basic calculator for nic/pg/vg after combining several ingredients using my nic base as fluid 1 and the amount of flavoring as fluid 2, so I can then plug in the nicotine level I'm going to come out to, and not have to fidget the Nic level up or down. This works better for me than adding the 100 mg nicotine separately for each recipe.

But right now as soon as I add another ingredient the PG/VG levels of the nicotine ingredient change.
I have screenshots below, including a basic test recipe using 1 pure PG flavor ingredient, and the PG % still goes down, so it's not adjusting for other ingredients.

Test single flavor - Flavor states 100% PG in ingredient screen

As a Nicotine Ingredient

 

[Hoggy]

I'm confused (not unusual for me) by having a nicotine ingredient change PG/VG percentages when it's used in a recipe. I make up a base nicotine ingredient using the Dilute Nicotine option, and use that as my Nicotine ingredient in recipes.

Then I work backwards using the basic calculator for nic/pg/vg after combining several ingredients using my nic base as fluid 1 and the amount of flavoring as fluid 2, so I can then plug in the nicotine level I'm going to come out to, and not have to fidget the Nic level up or down. This works better for me than adding the 100 mg nicotine separately for each recipe.

But right now as soon as I add another ingredient the PG/VG levels of the nicotine ingredient change.
I have screenshots below, including a basic test recipe using 1 pure PG flavor ingredient, and the PG % still goes down, so it's not adjusting for other ingredients.

Test single flavor - Flavor states 100% PG in ingredient screen

As a Nicotine Ingredient

If I correctly understand what the heck you're doing , then that certainly seems like an extremely painful way to go about it..
What I do is simply create the nicotine ingredient as mixed.. Say 2mg/ml 80pg/20vg. Then in the recipe's target nicotine, I just put '2' in there and let it display the warnings.

As far as the pg/vg percentage changes go, you may have volume calculation turned on (on the main page of the Options). But if you simply put in '2' as the target nicotine level (as in the above case), it will list nothing for amount of pg&vg to add. It'll just show the amount of your base to add. I don't consider super-accurate nic level to be of rocket-science importance.
(I also use a pre-mixed base for mixes under ~50ml)

 

[IDJoel]

Did we ever find a way to do this? I have an ELR Flavor Stash of over 200 flavors and this would be fantastic.

Only via the way HotRod replied immediately below the post you just quoted. Copying your individual recipes will add any ingredients attached to those recipes that have not been previously added. The problem is the other forum doesn't offer any export options for your flavor list.

 

[IDJoel]

But right now as soon as I add another ingredient the PG/VG levels of the nicotine ingredient change.

You are all good. You are just misunderstanding what it is telling you. The PG% and VG% columns are telling you how much of the overall recipe that ingredient is contributing to that component (PG or VG) and should always add up to the percent you specified in the recipe.

Here are three examples based on your sample screen shot. I created a nic "ingredient" to match your 20mg/60P/40V so you can see the similarities in numbers. I am specifying a 60P/40V ratio for my example. I am not sure why your PG/VG ratio does not equal 100% (64%+35%=99) unless you are adding water or alcohol as an additional dilutant/carrier and just didn't include the ingredient. Anyhow; here is the first example:
Lets start with an Unflavored recipe to get a baseline. I am using the same recipe size (30mL) and target nicotine strength (18mg) as you used in your example:

Look at the nicotine line: though we are using a 60%P/40%V blend, because the nicotine is a little higher (20mg/mL) than our target (18mg/mL), we can only use 27mL (90%) and have to dilute it, or we will go over our target nicotine strength. Now we simply add 1.8mL (6%) of PG and 1.2mL (4%) of VG and we have our final 3mL of total volume and our nicotine is where we want it at 18mg/mL. All is good.

Let's add a flavor and see what changes:

Look at the nicotine line. Nothing has changed. What has? The PG we have to add is now down to 2% because it is getting 4% of the extra PG our recipe needs from the PG that is in our added flavor. But, if we add up all our PG percentages, we still get 60%. And, if we add up all our VG percentages, we still have 40%. All is still right with the world.

Now, just for giggles, let's add one more ingredient:

Now we have hit a wall. Notice the Notes Bar has turned red (previously blue) and the message in the Warning and Errors box? Because we are using a nicotine base that is too close to what we want our finished results to be, we do not have room for 7% of PG-based flavors. If we add up all our PG percentages, we get 61%. And, if we add up all our VG percentages, we have 39%. Now we can no longer reach our desired 60P/40V ratio. We have three ways we can fix this:

• Don't exceed 6% of PG-based flavoring (though we could still use up to 3% VG-based flavoring).
• Change the ratio to a higher PG percentage.
• Alter our nicotine base by either going to a higher starting nicotine percentage (which will then use less in our recipe and require a larger addition of PG and VG to get proper dilution); or altering the starting PG/VG ratio to 55P/45V or even 50P/50V.

Tip: Whenever you are unsure how much room for flavors you are going to have with a proposed mix; create a quick Unflavored recipe (like I did in the first example) and the amount of PG that is required will show you room available for PG flavors, and the amount of VG to be added indicates how much VG flavoring you can add (if you use VG flavor concentrates).

But, to wrap this up, if you look at all three examples; The nicotine line never changes.

I hope this helps!

 

[CrazyChef]

Only via the way HotRod replied immediately below the post you just quoted. Copying your individual recipes will add any ingredients attached to those recipes that have not been previously added. The problem is the other forum doesn't offer any export options for your flavor list.

Actually, that's pretty easy, now that I think about it. Just make a new recipe using every ingredient I have, then export that recipe. Cool, thanks!

 

[Maxwinder]

Yes, a screenshot would help

HI There,
This is the "Flavor %" window on the left side of screenshot and on the right side of the screenshot the "results" panel in the bottom center next to the notes section.
I hope this helps,

Max

 

[amoret]

If I correctly understand what the heck you're doing , then that certainly seems like an extremely painful way to go about it..
What I do is simply create the nicotine ingredient as mixed.. Say 2mg/ml 80pg/20vg. Then in the recipe's target nicotine, I just put '2' in there and let it display the warnings.

As far as the pg/vg percentage changes go, you may have volume calculation turned on (on the main page of the Options). But if you simply put in '2' as the target nicotine level (as in the above case), it will list nothing for amount of pg&vg to add. It'll just show the amount of your base to add. I don't consider super-accurate nic level to be of rocket-science importance.
(I also use a pre-mixed base for mixes under ~50ml)

I don't normally go into a great deal of worry about what the nic level is - I make my base to get close to what I want. This just confused me when the pg/vg changed.

I mostly just have an aversion to warnings on the screen.

You are all good. You are just misunderstanding what it is telling you. The PG% and VG% columns are telling you how much of the overall recipe that ingredient is contributing to that component (PG or VG) and should always add up to the percent you specified in the recipe.

Here are three examples based on your sample screen shot. I created a nic "ingredient" to match your 20mg/60P/40V so you can see the similarities in numbers. I am specifying a 60P/40V ratio for my example. I am not sure why your PG/VG ratio does not equal 100% (64%+35%=99) unless you are adding water or alcohol as an additional dilutant/carrier and just didn't include the ingredient. Anyhow; here is the first example:
Lets start with an Unflavored recipe to get a baseline. I am using the same recipe size (30mL) and target nicotine strength (18mg) as you used in your example:
View attachment 633867

Look at the nicotine line: though we are using a 60%P/40%V blend, because the nicotine is a little higher (20mg/mL) than our target (18mg/mL), we can only use 27mL (90%) and have to dilute it, or we will go over our target nicotine strength. Now we simply add 1.8mL (6%) of PG and 1.2mL (4%) of VG and we have our final 3mL of total volume and our nicotine is where we want it at 18mg/mL. All is good.

Let's add a flavor and see what changes:
View attachment 633869
Look at the nicotine line. Nothing has changed. What has? The PG we have to add is now down to 2% because it is getting 4% of the extra PG our recipe needs from the PG that is in our added flavor. But, if we add up all our PG percentages, we still get 60%. And, if we add up all our VG percentages, we still have 40%. All is still right with the world.

Now, just for giggles, let's add one more ingredient:
View attachment 633871
Now we have hit a wall. Notice the Notes Bar has turned red (previously blue) and the message in the Warning and Errors box? Because we are using a nicotine base that is too close to what we want our finished results to be, we do not have room for 7% of PG-based flavors. If we add up all our PG percentages, we get 61%. And, if we add up all our VG percentages, we have 39%. Now we can no longer reach our desired 60P/40V ratio. We have three ways we can fix this:

• Don't exceed 6% of PG-based flavoring (though we could still use up to 3% VG-based flavoring).
• Change the ratio to a higher PG percentage.
• Alter our nicotine base by either going to a higher starting nicotine percentage (which will then use less in our recipe and require a larger addition of PG and VG to get proper dilution); or altering the starting PG/VG ratio to 55P/45V or even 50P/50V.

Tip: Whenever you are unsure how much room for flavors you are going to have with a proposed mix; create a quick Unflavored recipe (like I did in the first example) and the amount of PG that is required will show you room available for PG flavors, and the amount of VG to be added indicates how much VG flavoring you can add (if you use VG flavor concentrates).

But, to wrap this up, if you look at all three examples; The nicotine line never changes.

I hope this helps!

Thanks - it does make sense now. I used to do tech support and I don't know how many times I asked people to read the whole screen, and then I don't do it myself.

Mostly I just use my prepared base and get close enough that I don't need to add PG or VG, since with my base in a dispenser (ketchup style) bottle all I need are my scale, the base, and the flavors. Very easy on my wonky hands.

 

[amoret]

Now I need to get mixing. Through the oddities of our local post office (only open 2 hours/day and no street delivery) I ended up getting all of my pending mixing supplies at once. I got my new Inawera flavors from Poland that seem to have been in customs for 4 weeks, a bigger holder for my flavorings and the replacement to my trusty label printer.

 

[Hoggy]

I mostly just have an aversion to warnings on the screen.

Yeah, they got to me too for a while. I would do the fidgeting thing.. Until I finally became like: ehh..

 

[Liazard]

So I'm trying to use Juice Calculator to consistently flavor an unflavored premixed e-liquid. It's 50/50 VG/PG with 18 mg/L nic and I want to add 3% of a flavor concentrate. I tried adding the premix in the app as a new ingredient but found I can't remove the VG and PG lines in the ingredients rows and they can't be set to zero. Is this possible? Wanting to do it by weight. Is it easier to just do the calculation manually, for example 10 g of liquid would get 0.3 g of flavor concentrate?

 

[Hoggy]

We were just talking about that, Liazard.

If you don't have an aversion to seeing the warnings and don't mind a little imprecision in the nic level, the way I would do it is to make the pre-mix a nicotine ingredient at 50/50 18mg, setting proper weight (or just hitting 'calculate based on pg/vg ratio').. Then in the recipe, simply put in '18' as the target nicotine level.
It'll show warnings, but the only thing it'll show to add is the pre-mix - with 0 for the pg/vg.

If you DO have an aversion to seeing the warnings, then one possible way to do it may be the painful way that Amoret seemed to be talking about doing it, in post 2950. I found it difficult to comprehend though, but maybe that's just because I have a disability that severely impacts my cognition and memory (which, as it just so happens, the nicotine helps with a bit ).

However, this is requested so often that maybe Hotrod can implement something to deal with it - so as to avoid the warnings. ... Like perhaps not requiring the pg & vg - as I also use this app to mix other liquids and powders (such as diluting essential oils with carrier oils). And maybe put an info box somewhere that displays the max possible nicotine level... Or something..