New(ish) Vaper - Questions...

[Reti]

Hi all,
I've been vaping on and off for years. I used to have one of those vape pens and recently I've been using disposable ones like the Hayati Pro. I decided to make the leap and buy a proper one. I went for the Geekvape Aegis X with Zeus tank. It comes with 0.15ohm and 0.20ohm coils.

My question is:
Looking at nicotine calculators, it says to make a 100ml shortfil have enough nicotine for me I'd need to put in like 8 nicotine shots. That's adding like 80ml to the bottle. Surely the flavour will be massively diluted? How do I do this?
I'm a heavy smoker. 20+ a day so I'm told I'd need like 16mg strength. The disposables I've been using have 20mg strength.
How does this work? I've ordered a 100ml shortfil and x10 18mg nicotine shot bottles. They should arrive tomorrow.

Also, I've been looking at making my own eliquid.
Do I literally just buy a bottle of Vegetable Glycerine and a bottle of propylene glycol, flavour concentrate and nicotine and then mix it 70VG to 30 PG, with 20% concentrate + whatever nicotine strength I need?

Thanks in advance

 

[Lisa Bolton]

Being on disposables and previous heavy smoker I would have suggested an MTL kit. You could use high nicotine and still feel like you are getting enough to satisfy cravings. Shortfills, once you start adding lots of nicotine, you will be diluting the flavour, unless you use the amount of bottles in either 18mg or NIC salts in exactly the same flavour. You'll be going through more juice with a sub ohm tank so you could possibly over NIC yourself. Up to you, let us know how you get on.

 

[MrDJ]

Hi @Reti and welcome to the planet.

the bad news first. there is no way you can make a shortfill up to 16mg and not even 12mg using nic shots.
shortfill were invented back in the day to get around the tpd law as zero nicotine can be supplied in any size bottle while tpd tested bottles with pre mixed nicotine can be no larger than 10ml in size in the UK.
Shortfills were designed for 3mg and at a push max 6mg but then that will also dilute the flavor.
the geegvape x is a great kit with the zeus tank but designed for direct to lung sub ohm vaping so low nicotine at high wattage average around 50watts. i dont think anyone out there can vape high nic at that wattage. 16mg or even 12mg is more suited for a mouth to lung kit at very low wattage so you can inhale much higher nicotine around the 10-15watt range.
Right, the not so bad news.
since the law change stronger nicotine (usually 72%) can now not be bought by the general public. you are suposed to hold a trade licence to be able to buy it. but its still out there but it cannot be discussed on a public forum like here.

The good news.
Loads of member on here mix their own juice.
over 4 years ago i tried and failed. buying over 50 single concentrates,syringes,pipettes,loads of vg/pg nothing compared to whats out there. they were vapable but nothing special. what really helped was a cheap set of scales which made mixing much easier but still didnt help the taste for me anyway.

for a new mixer its made easier for us now as loads of places sell one shots which are 250ml in size and come with 50ml of concentrate pre mixed. then you just add the nic shots and the bottle of vg in the kit. only problem is going back to the begining they only make upto 3mg strength.

Long story short stick around ask lots of questions and someone may be able to advise on the strong stuff but only by private message and not in a general post.

have a look through post 6 here which has everything diy POTV Vendors & Recommended E Liquid Suppliers

 

[Mutley1]

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[MrDJ]

hi others have already mention shortie will be too diluted, but if you search google for longfills you will find 60ml longfills & make the upto 14mg in strengh

https://www.eliquidflavourconcentrates.co.uk/longfills/drop-shot-longfills

good shout @Mutley1
i had no idea you could make 12mg freebase or 14mg salts out of them.

 

[ZenAnarchi]

As @Mutley1 correctly pointed out, you’re looking for longfills Dinner Lady does a range as do several others. I can also highly recommend Manabush’s 12mg juices…it’s 10ml in a 30ml bottle. They have them for much of the range

 

[MrDJ]

As @Mutley1 correctly pointed out, you’re looking for longfills Dinner Lady does a range as do several others. I can also highly recommend Manabush’s 12mg juices…it’s 10ml in a 30ml bottle. They have them for much of the range

thats one thing sorted then but still think hes going to struggle on high nic with low ohm coil at 30-50watts using the geekvape zeus.
he was watching this post for over an hour but didnt refresh the page so didnt see any replies.
im guessing he just needs a mouth to lung tank to go on the x and at low wattage batteries will last for days.

 

[Reti]

Thanks all for your replies. Much appreciated.

So I was thinking, and please correct me (I'm relying on it as a relative beginner), but what about adding a flavour concentrate that matches the original shortfall flavour? That will surely help with the dilution problem from the nicotine? Plus if I get a nicotine in 70|30 VG?

Not sure how much I can say here, but a quick Google search led me to a chemicals company based in the EU which sells 72mg nicotine suspended in VG that appears to sell to the public. That will very easily allow me to have a high nicotine content no?

Thanks for the advice on the long shot as well. I'll keep thinking, asking questions and reading.
But how does my idea sound of a concentrate top up to help with the dilution?

 

[Reti]

What do you think the problem with mixing your own was? I don't believe that the ones who make and sell the pre-made liquids have a secret, so what was it that you think made your own mixes not as good? Any theories?

 

[Crispycritters]

What do you think the problem with mixing your own was? I don't believe that the ones who make and sell the pre-made liquids have a secret, so what was it that you think made your own mixes not as good? Any theories?

Experience and extensive trial and error.

I did try making my own juice for a while. I like blackcurrant flavours and assumed all I had to do was buy a Blackcurrant flavouring and, once I found out what ratio of blackcurrant to add to VG/PG, would end up with a juicy, refreshing blackcurrant flavour juice, just like the stuff I was buying at my local shop.

the results were pretty awful... It was definitely blackcurrant flavoured, but it was so dry I had to drink water constantly and the flavour definitely had something 'missing', quite frankly it had a lot of something missing.

I tried mixing from recipes - one I tried was Peach Custard. 'Common Sense' tells me this recipe would be Custard and Peach Flavourings. The recipe had Custard AND equal amounts of Bavarian Cream - it did include Peach flavouring - but it was equal amounts of two different types of Peach flavours and, for some reason I couldn't fathom equal amounts of Strawberry flavour, and Vanilla... i can't remember the entire recipe, but it included 8 different flavourings - six of which i wouldn't have expected to be part of a peach custard juice. Yet, after 6 weeks steeping time, this juice was excellent - and it improved with age.

Sadly I never managed to make a fruit flavoured vape that even came close to the 'professional' store bought juices - and following other people's recipes seldom worked for me. Some I could vape - but I never found one I would buy from a shop if any of my favourites were available.

Making good juice requires knowledge and skill. Sadly I don't have either.