no nic

[Seruza]

Greetings. I'm looking for someone with no nic mixing experience.
I just started vaping, love it! I know I will vapor til death due us part, and research shows that DiY is very cost effective. Further research shows for me I want as high a VG base as possible with as little as PG as possible. Going down the rabbit hole even further, I've heard mention that high VG bases mute most flavors.

I ordered a startup kit from the DIY Flavor Shack (silver kit) and here's what I am thinking for my first go of mixing.
10% Flavor
10% Thinner
80% VG

On the Thinner, obviously I am looking for a target viscosity while still maintaing flavor profile and TH. So far, from my reading and understanding of the information shared here, my options for thinning are water, preferably distilled, saline solution(food grade), PG, PGA, or vodka.

Since I want as little PG as possible, that is obviously the first to go as a thinner. Not sure on the saline solution as I think the jury is still deciding.. In my eyes that leaves distilled water, PGA, and vodka. Vodka is just a mix of water and a base distilliate. I want a little bit of a throat hit, so I think I would have to do vodka or a PGA/DW mix.

I am very open to suggestions..

 

[Hoosier]

I think many of us have no-nic mixing experience. Just means one less component in the mix...

Kurt's rule of thumb on VG is flavoring+distilled water = 20-22%. So if your flavoring you are using in your hypothetical mix works at 10% then your formula is good.

Going with alcohol as a thinner requires quite a bit less to get the same viscosity compared to water as a thinner.

I'll let the VG heavy folks jump in now. I like PG for the throat hit and don't have any issues with it so don't do much all VG based mixing.

 

[The Yeti]

Will RO filtered water work the same as distilled? I've got the filter in my kitchen, so that would be easier for me than buying distilled.

 

[Hoosier]

Never tried RO. I typically have a jug, or two, of distilled water for reasons other than vaping.

It would be better than tap though.

 

[buffaloguy]

Distilled is used (for the most part) as it erases the trace minerals that can build up and corrode coils in atomizers. Plus other things that can be in plain old tap water like flouride and chlorine may not be great to vape. However even chlorine will dissipate out of plain tap water if left open and exposed to open air for 24 hours, but the flouride and other chems and minerals will still be present. Distilled is a good bet for vaping and a gallon is like dirt cheap.

As far as percentages on high vg juice both I and Kurt have been in agreement for a long time. Its best to be in the ballpark of 80%VG/20% everything else.

I have been vaping more non nic juice as of late. However I do miss a bit of the throat hit the nic base provides. I find tho that If I spend half a day with non nic juice exclusively.... I dont mind missing the throat hit. It seems you kind of adjust to it after awhile and vape more for the enjoyment of the flavors than anything else. I am playing around with high proof vodka but nic does do a better job for throat hit imo.

In absence of nic, alc is likely the way to go. You may want to consider some kind of spicy flavoring tho like tpa jalapeno. Im not brave enuff to go that route however.

 

[eikon]

TFA Jalapeno does do a good trick, but, it has a fatal flaw, it is a good flavoring! It does actually live up to it's name, it has the flavor of grilled chiles, that works amazingly well, if you are going for a strawberry stuffed grilled jalapeno (one of the best things at the 2012 Oxnard Strawberry fest) If I were not a chili head from SoCal, I'd go with .125% - .5% FW Capsicum Heat, no flavor, just the effect...

Alcohol does give some TH, but is lost is in even the most basic of steeping processes. Distilled H2O works best as a thinner, it does not burn off as fast as hooch, and RO still has plenty of crap in it that will clog your atty.

 

[Kevin Brown]

every juice should begin with saline

-- @ 5 drops per 30ml you cannot tell its there except for the great nasal comfort

 

[r77r7r]

every juice should begin with saline

-- @ 5 drops per 30ml you cannot tell its there except for the great nasal comfort

Saline? Weird, but my nose tells me to ask more about this. Anyone have any input on saline??

 

[The Yeti]

...and RO still has plenty of crap in it that will clog your atty.

Hmmm...my RO filter claims to remove 99.999999999999% (or something like that) of impurities....I've always considered it very clean water. I got one back when I was into saltwater aquariums and wanted the cleanest water possible.

Are you sure about this??

 

[r77r7r]

Yeah, we used RO instead of distilled in the printing industry- pretty pure stuff.

 

[patkin]

What is RO and what kind/brand of saline? I have a cold I guess and all my juices are making me cough maybe diluting with those would let me still vape easier. I'm currently diluting with 30% DW and its not messin with my atty but am always open to learning new things.

Edit: I should probably clarify as this is not something I would normally do. I measure out my usual, already made juice, then dilute it with 30% DW. I cuts both nic which started at 18mg and flavor which was pretty strong to start and its the only way I can vape at all right now. Also, I use Boge cartos without a tank.

Oh, duh... reverse osmosis ... got it but what kind of saline?... the kind you buy to snort or the the eye wash kind? Isn't the whole point of saline salt? And wouldn't that kill an atty?

 

[Seruza]

Not sure on the saline. I read it in another thread (sorry couldnt find or remember where) where they said someone else had mentioned it to get that salty taste for a salty pretzel or something like that. They also mentioned that a saline solution is used not only in nebulizers but for inhalers as well, so at some level it should be ok.

I'm definitely going to look more into this if not just for general purpose. If I can find the thread, I'll post a link here.

 

[Seruza]

Try HERE:

I think this might help about the saline.

 

[michaelsil1]

TFA Jalapeno does do a good trick, but, it has a fatal flaw, it is a good flavoring! It does actually live up to it's name, it has the flavor of grilled chiles, that works amazingly well, if you are going for a strawberry stuffed grilled jalapeno (one of the best things at the 2012 Oxnard Strawberry fest) If I were not a chili head from SoCal,

.

Sorry for the thread jack, but Strawberry and Jalapeno???

 

[Seruza]

lol Michaelsil1. I thought the same thing.

 

[steve41337]

In reply to The Yeti . . . "Will RO filtered water work the same as distilled? I've got the filter in my kitchen, so that would be easier for me than buying distilled."


Technically speaking distilled water is defined as having 10 ppm or less of Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and depending how much TDS is in your raw tap water your RO could be producing an equivalent to distilled water; or maybe not. RO units start with an efficiency of about 95% but slowly degrade over time and it's recommended you replace your RO membrane when performance falls below 80%. If you just replaced your RO membrane you can expect to get 95% efficiency for a short period of time; and if your raw water has a TDS reading less than 200 ppm you could expect your RO water to contain less than 10 ppm TDS (5% of 200 equals 10) which means your RO water would technically qualify as distilled or "purified water". A more reasonable assumption of RO efficiency is 80% since performance decreases more slowly at 80% and lower; in which case the same raw water with 200 ppm of TDS would yield RO purified water with 40 ppm of TDS. My opinion is you can use your RO water in place of distilled water regardless of your raw water TDS and current membrane efficiency because even a few drops of flavorings spike up the TDS reading of an e-liquid anyway (but I would prefer not to use raw tap water unless it had a relatively low TDS reading). BTW anyone with an RO unit should buy an electronic TDS meter (only about $20 online) to determine when it's time to replace the RO membrane (replace your membrane when the RO water TDS reading exceeds 20% of your raw water TDS reading). Hope this information helps.