NOOB DIY Ejuice problems...Please help..

[Scottsevenn777]

So
I am using the following and doing the following. Please tell me what I am doing wrong.
I use
Essential Depot VG USP food grade 99.7%
No Name USP food grade PG 99.99 %
60mg Nicotine in 100% PG from MFS
I have been looking carefully on this forum for recipes that have the most positive feedback and it is time consuming. No easy way to look up recipes with a rating system. Anyway I use the exact Manufacturer of flavor. I very carefully use a syringe to measure the exact amounts using a juice calculator. I steep in a crock pot overnight putting the bottles in a water filled bowl and then placing the bowl in the water filled crock pot on low.
Bare with me as I try to describe the juice. It has a crispy almost carbonated texture. Store bought has a smooth thick texture. The flavor is tangy and has a cheap feel to it. Kind of like the one time I bought cheap eliquid from Wh**e La**l Juice company only worse.
Also the nicotine has no throat feel to it. Though I do feel this nicotine in my system. FYI i use 3mg.
I have copied several of the recipes that had the best feedback here and elsewhere meticulously following the directions. I have like 45 flavors. I was really wanting to get into this big time as I can barely afford my 20ml a day hobby. And it just would be so cool to get it right.
What am I doing wrong?
Is it just that the big guys can get better flavors?
Am I heating it to much? Not enough?
Please help

 

[issy]

Try making unflavored first, and see if that's a problem. It might be your base or pg. head over to the diy forum...it's a subforum under general eliquid discussion! lots of info there.

 

[kaahn]

What calculator are you using? Did you enter the exact weights of each ingredient? Each ingredient has a specific gravity and must be calculated or it will throw your recipe off. Should be somewhere under your settings tab. Search specific gravity under search tab (top right hand corner)and you should find each measurement for each ingredient here on this forum. Also some juice just has to steep. Set the juice back, make sure you shake it every day and revisit it in a week and see it the taste changes.

 

[Elizabeth Baldwin]

Start with testing your base. Try it 50/50 PG/VG and with nicotine. If it is not good then take away the nicotine. Use process of elimination to determine the bad ingredient. If your base has a harsh ingredient then no amount of flavoring will help. If it's not the base then try a different brand of flavoring.

Btw, what brand of flavorings are you using?

 

[Cloudd]

Store made juices sometimes have citric acid, usually also have sucralose. Cirtic acid gives the bitter orange skin taste and slight sour, some throat hit too. Sucralose is an artificial sweetener, ten times sweeter than aspartame if not mistaken. Two drop in a 30ml diy bottle would have some noticeable change.

Maybe try steeping it after you heat it? It does the trick. Cream flavours takes longer than fruit flavours tho.

 

[Train2]

And show us the actual weights or mls you've used in a recipe or two - perhaps there is something odd in the percentages after all.

Also - what happens if you don't crockpot it? Some blends should be decent right away without steeping, and if your mix has a weird TEXTURE, that makes me suspect the heating...?

 

[sparkky1]

I agree with the above, for one you should be mixing lower ratios to start with and try adding just 2 - 3 flavors at first and I will say you shouldn't have to be above 20 % flavoring for a recipe to have a good taste, you can always add a few drops more but harder to take away, starting ratios is were I would start, forget about steeping at this point, mix two or three different recipes and shake / taste them as you mix, some of the internet recipes are ridiculously high on flavor ratios, the creams may need a week or two to develop but should at least have a decent flavor to start with but make other / "fruity" non bakery recipes as I said and you can come back to them a few days later and so on always making more as one gets low and you wont need to worry about speed steeping.

 

[sacullen]

Sounds like a clone recipe? Which one? Knowing what juice you're making is important. If it IS a clone, I'll just say that out of about 40 different attempts at various clones, I've only come across one that was spot-on.

I just look for recipes with flavor profiles that match my taste and go from there. Some of them need a few minor adjustments, some are terrible, and some are really good just as they are.

I'm also a fan of simply using time for my primary aging factor. Just something I learned while aging beer. I'll hold a bottle of freshly made juice under hot water for about 30 seconds, but then shaking, breathing, and sitting is how I age.

 

[Kprthevapr]

Why are you putting it in a crock pot?
I don't see the logic in that

 

[Canadian_Vaper]

Stick it in a drawer and let it steep for a week...

Not sure about this crock pot method but it's possible you cooked the juice.

 

[beckdg]

Why are you putting it in a crock pot?
I don't see the logic in that

It's a speed steeping technique.

Tapatyped

 

[Kprthevapr]

Some flavors change with too much heat. Leave a bottle in a hot car for a day.
I would be patient and try no heat. Takes a lil longer, but it might be the trick.

 

[DingerCPA]

Hey Scott! Welcome.

You don't mention the flavorings you're using or what you're trying to make. I have a lot of TFA (The Flavor Apprentice) flavorings, and there's a whole thread dedicated to that brand.

I use MFS nic (mine's 100%VG), and I have used Essential Depot VG (and PG)

What are you trying to mix? What are your flavor percentages? There are a number of sites with all kinds of recipes, including the TFA thread. I've been mixing for about a year now. I've tried a couple of recipes that I didn't care for, but I'd made a small batch, so I wasn't too disappointed when I pitched them.

I don't heat steep - most of the recipes I've tried are pretty good to go at the time of mixing. There are a couple of tobacco mixes that I've let sit (I have only made three or four tobacco mixes - they're just not my faves)

I'm really simplistic in my mixing. I may use 20-30% flavorings, add my nic, and then top with whatever PG/VG base I want to finish the juice with.

DIY can be fun - perhaps don't overthink it?

 

[Completely Average]

I've found that when starting DIY it's far better to start with the basics before getting into complex recipes. Just mix up a few small bottles of single flavors and make sure you can get them right first. That also helps in learning the different flavorings because different flavors and different flavoring companies produce different results. You'll have a hard time trying to figure out what is wrong with your 5 flavor recipe if it's a single flavor that isn't producing the results you were expecting. It's far easier to make little 10ml samplers of each individual flavor so you know what you're getting and then start mixing the complex recipes once you have the flavors you like.

And always remember, taste is very subjective. Just because 20 people here like a recipe that doesn't mean you're going to like it as well. I see loads of people highly recommend Capella's Custard saying it's the best custard out there, but my personal opinion of it is that it's not very good and requires far too much flavoring to get anything out of it. To me it takes 15-20% flavoring and ends up like a light Jello Vanilla Pudding rather than having the complex flavor of a custard. I prefer FlavourArt where I can use just 5% flavoring and end up with a rich vanilla custard complete with light hint of lemon and brown sugar which you would normally find in a custard. Likewise I find that most "cherry" flavors taste more like the so-called cherry flavoring added to cough syrup rather than a natural cherry flavor. I've only found one cherry that I like out of the half dozen I've tried.

This again goes back to mixing and testing single flavor mixes first. Learn what flavors you like and what companies produce the best flavors for you. Don't go with what you read on this forum, taste is very subjective and you simply may not like what most people recommend. It's easier to take a recipe and alter it using the flavors you prefer than it is to mix it as it's written and like it if you don't like the specific flavors going in to it.


Also, I personally am against using heat to speed steep eliquid. Heating nicotine causes it to break down, and that may be contributing to your experience with a lack of feeling the nicotine. Using a crock pot you can expect to loose about 1-2mg/ml of nicotine every 4 hours of heating. If you're going to use a crock pot to speed steep it you may want to mix the juice at 4-5mg/ml nicotine so that you'll have a 3mg nicotine juice after speed steeping.

 

[papergoblin]

Almost every diy I have done and tried to "speed heat" has always been harsh. Heating can cause the nic to be off.

Did you test the nic to make sure it is right level. Every now and then people have bought a labeled nic level say 36mg but when tested it was actually 50 for example.

One thing , too much flavoring can have less taste than too little. It basically overloads your senses so they shut down. Mix your flavor without nic, shake it up and taste a drop on tongue if it seems good, get a dripper and try it. If it is good still, then add nic and let it steep at least an hour.

 

[jlb]

I would also leave out the speed steeping on a couple of batches. Throw it in a dark place and shake it well a couple of times a day fo a few days. If it seems to have any kind of perfume smell to it, take you cap off and leave it off a little while and that should "air" it out. I also mix at 3mg myself. Had to go up to around 6mg for anykind of throat hit. Good luck! Definitely a lot of trial and error to diy.

 

[bigrf85]

not sure if this is it but could be they used a bifferent mg/ml for their nic extract i know i use 100mg/ml and only need .9ml for a 30ml bottle to get 3mg in the end