How much does DIY liquid cost?

[retiredguy]

Got talking to a lad in the pub last night who makes his own juice.
He had a Red Astaire type blend on the go which was pretty good.
He reckoned it costs him around £4 to make 100 mls.
My favourite juice I pay £22 for 100 mls posted and £11-50 for 100 mls posted for my (LiQuid) ADV.
Is that £4 for 100 mls DIY about right do you think?
If so any links to where I could maybe buy the necessary to make a nice cool 18 nic menthol juice would be much appreciated.

 

[Pittard9]

Got talking to a lad in the pub last night who makes his own juice.
He had a Red Astaire type blend on the go which was pretty good.
He reckoned it costs him around £4 to make 100 mls.
My favourite juice I pay £22 for 100 mls posted and £11-50 for 100 mls posted for my (LiQuid) ADV.
Is that £4 for 100 mls DIY about right do you think?
If so any links to where I could maybe buy the necessary to make a nice cool 18 nic menthol juice would be much appreciated.

I would say not for me but it all depends on the concentrates used as they range in price and where you buy your nic, VG and PG. I think Huggett made a post about all the supplies needed and best places to buy recently.

I reckon my mixes come out to about 70-75p per 10ml but I use multiple concentrates to try to get it similar to premium juices that I like.

 

[jaimunki]

The initial outlay is high, for the Nic/flavourings/bottles/syringes etc. But the per ml is low...

But if you take a £20 kit with 50ml Nic @7.2, 100ml each of pg/vg, your looking at 250ml for £20. Assuming a near 60/40 mix at 1.4, your looking 8p/ml, 80p/10ml.

Yes I'm using loose mixing, but you can see how it works out. Of course, bigger quantities bring that per ml price down...

 

[Ment]

Got talking to a lad in the pub last night who makes his own juice.
He had a Red Astaire type blend on the go which was pretty good.
He reckoned it costs him around £4 to make 100 mls.
My favourite juice I pay £22 for 100 mls posted and £11-50 for 100 mls posted for my (LiQuid) ADV.
Is that £4 for 100 mls DIY about right do you think?
If so any links to where I could maybe buy the necessary to make a nice cool 18 nic menthol juice would be much appreciated.

That's what my mixes cost at 6mg with 20% flavouring bought in bulk, so it's feasible unless it's genuine Red Astaire concentrate, which is relatively expensive.

 

[grinnell27]

I got to start mixing my own! I will only make 0mg nix though if I do that. Seen a few guides and mixing calculators but I get confused

 

[bellyman]

5 litres of PG, 5 litres of VG for around £50 delivered. A litre of nicotine is around £25 and thats used in tiny amounts. Flavouring is about £2.50 per 10ml.
DIY makes financial sense if you can find an ADV

 

[lushpos]

5 litres of PG, 5 litres of VG for around £50 delivered. A litre of nicotine is around £25 and thats used in tiny amounts. Flavouring is about £2.50 per 10ml.
DIY makes financial sense if you can find an ADV

Crikey where have you found a litre of Nicotine for £25?? Cheapest I've found after lots of searching and reading reviews is 500ml for £28

To OP - DIY is far cheaper once you have made the initial outlay as everyone else has said, I don't have an ADV as I like variety so it's a little more expensive for me with all the boxes of concentrates I have but it's still far cheaper than pre-mix and all the pitfalls of not liking it, at least with DIY you can make up small samples and tweak until it's right.

 

[andipandi]

Ball park figure for me is around £5.50 - £7.20 per 100ml, depends on the cost of the flavour, I mix at 3mg nic. What isn't factored in is the cock up's and thrown aways. Probably around 1-1.5litres since January, some of that is flavours I used to like but don't anymore, some is mixing 100ml batches of juice that seemed to go off in the bottle or were just plain vile. I had a load of well steeped citrus juices that gave me an immediate sore throat. I've deliberately tried to over estimate what I've binned, I've a horrid feeling it aint far off though. Most of the binned is from my early days of DIY although I threw some rancid butterscotch and Caramel away just recently, I seem to have gone off of sweet.

 

[scrumpox]

If the question is "how much do the ingredients in this 10ml bottle cost?" then yeah, you can mix your own for 40p per 10mls
Obviously the big variables will be the percentage of flavouring and nicotine in that 10mls ... the diluents cost pennies.

If the question is "does DIY cost a lot less than buying premade juices?" then the true cost comparisons are more complex, you need a spreadsheet to keep control of it all. Which is why I have a spreadsheet.
I've been making my own juices as a hobby for a few days short of 12 months now and have spent a total of £955.56 - that's everything for DIY ... nicotine, diluents, flavourings, syringes, bottles, digital scales, etc
I still have £465.97 of that in unused stock of nic, diluents and unused flavourings, and I have 1,258mls of ready to vape juice on hand.
Compared to the average price I paid for premade juices, I've saved £607.90 in cash terms. But the real savings are well over £1,500 when you include the stock on hand and the juice I have yet to make.

In terms of stock that I've used it has on average cost me 89p for each 10mls that I've vaped. That includes finished juice that I've wasted.
An accountant would tell you that the real cost of each 10mls, including all the wastage and the balance of unused stock remaining, is £1.73

What's not on my spreadsheet is the little bit of pocket money I've made from selling juice. You ain't seen me, right?

So yeah, DIY costs less than buying premade juice ... a lot less.