PG/VG key learnings and calculators

[paddymx]

Yesterday I said I was confused and needed to take a break. After the break, confusion solved, I THINK!

Source of confusion:

I was referencing two different ejuice calculators.
First was the ejuice calculator from : eJuice Recipe Calculator
Second was the ejuice calculator from: eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator

These calculators appear to have different approaches. First was the ejuice calculator from : eJuice Recipe Calculator, which appears to use a premixed liquid with nicotine

View attachment 105644

You will note is says nicotine base = 36mg. This happens to be the strength of my liquid nicotine. The term nicotine base is important here. I couldn't determine if this was the mg strength of the nicotine liquid or the strength of the premixed liquid shown in the image below.

View attachment 105647

Here it says pg/vg with nicotine. This implies that it is a premixed liquid. This was the root of my confusion. My confusion, brick wall, was that I wanted to know how to create my own PREMIXED pg/vg with nicotine as this calculator was using. I just couldn't find a reference.


Where the Second was the ejuice calculator (below) from: eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator, which appears to use a ejuice nicotine liquid (image 1) and non-nicotine liquid added ( image 2).

View attachment 105648
You will note it contains pg/vg %'s, but here it implies the pg/vg base of the liquid nicotine. Took me awhile(several hours) to understand that this was not the same thing as the pg/vg ratio used in the entire juice blend as shown in image 2 below. Didn't understand that nicotine was "blended/diluted" with either pg,vg or a mixture of both.

View attachment 105649

As shown above, these are all three components ( nicotine, raw pg and raw vg). Bingo, NOW I UNDERSTAND!

Bottom line:

If you are using a premixed nicotine base liquid, use the calculator from eJuice Recipe Calculator to create your "blend". They also have mg strengths.


On the other hand, if you are going to use raw nicotine liquid, raw pg and raw vg use the calculator from eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator.

Key learnings:

Nicotine liquid is "blended/diluted" with either pg,vg or a mixture of both. This is not to be confused with the pg:vg ratio of the your blend itself. This may not sound like a big deal to most, but, as a newbie trying to understand all this vaping stuff, it was a stumbling block for me. After all, the fun of this stuff is the ability to create your own flavors. I think I will enjoy "this thing of ours" a whole lot more now. If I'm wrong, please correct me. Otherwise this may be of some help to other newbies.


NOTE TO MODERATORS:
As a newbie, I could be completely off base here. If my assumptions are wrong here, PLEASE REMOVE THIS POST! I would not want to pass along wrong information especially considering the risks of nicotine.

Patrick

 

[salemgold]

I think that you are still confused lol I use the eJuice Recipe Calculator and it is not referencing premixed juice. Nicotine base is your nicotine in PG or VG, whichever the case may be for you.

 

[paddymx]

Your right. Upon review I see the numbers don't add up. Even thought the mg, target strength and amount are the same in both examples, the drops and %'s don't add up. Damn, thought I had it. Back to the drawing board.

 

[donnah]

I was confused too at first. I didn't understand that nic has to come in a base of PG or VG.

I order my nic in a base of PG. I use 36mg/ml in PG because 1) I use more PG (70%) than I do VG (30%) and this way I won't have to add so much pure PG and 2) 36mg/ml isn't scary to work with. In the beginning I ordered 100mg/ml because I would try to make recipes to taste and then add the nic later.. using 100mg nic didn't dilute the mix too much. I found that I began to dread mixing, I put it off till I totally ran out and HAD to mix because I didn't want to mess with the 100mg nic.

But now I just use a basic calculator, mix my nic, pg and vg to the desired percentage (70/30 pg/vg and 12mg) and then parcel it out to a smaller bottle and add a few drops of my desired flavor. with flavoring, I don't do percentages anymore. I've found that less is really more and a few drops will do it for me. I'm not a gormet cook and I'm not a gormet juice mixer LOL.

 

[paddymx]

View attachment 105670
View attachment 105671

For some reason, all I see is the text"ATTACH=CONFIG]105671[/ATTACH" during reply input, but when I preview I see the images. Any reason why??

Anyway, now the numbers match. I see now what you were saying. On my bottom image I corrected the pv/gv ratio to 80/20. So what that means to me is that the top calculator defaults to a pg/cv ratio of 80/20 and the pg/cv without nicotine is the combination of both as determined by your 80/20 ratio.

If this is true, how does the user know how many drops of each to use?

Whereas the bottom calculator shows how many drops of each to use. Am I still missing something??

Any help with the image thing would also be appreciated...

 

[paddymx]

donnah, TNX

Please see my second reply to salemgold. Does that make any sense(sp). Please also note my image issue, any ideas? Does it have something to do with a "reply". I see images in "sandbox".

 

[ebbrey]

i fiddled around with different calculators, but didnt like any of them. So ended up making my own to count for water in my ag/vg bases. So i always get the % vg i want and i feel its more accurate than some of the other calculators ive found. And when you have a calc in excel and make a kickass recipe. You just copy it, name it and you have it forever until you loose the file

 

[the_vape_nerd]

I don't understand really what all the fuss is about. The breaktru calculator takes all of this and does it for you. All you have to do is understand the inputs.

If you want a 50/50 you just put that in on the bottom portion of the caculator. As long as you are starting out at the top with the proper strength and blend, the program does the rest.

 

[ebbrey]

ye breaktru works if your VG is 100% vg and no water or other dilluant.