Percentages vs. weight vs. drops

Has anyone out there ever compared drops to ml. If you have what are your findings because I have and the standard 20 drops per ml is not even close to being 1ml. If I’m dripping with bull city like tips on my bottles I’m getting between 40&43 drops per ml, if I’m using Capella’s bottles it’s more like 35-37 drops per ml and it if it’s the twist conical top it’s 37 drops per ml. And to make it a little more accurate I drip from a lure lock syringe and when it is filled to 1 ml and I drip it out till it’s empty it takes 38-39 drops to empty. Am I missing something or is the internet and industry standard 20 drops wrong.

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It’s going to vary like you stated depending on drip tip so therefore I won’t do it like that cause it’s to much to remember. It’s not really very accurate as I’m sure you know! weight is the best way to do mixes for sure! I even find volume is also kinda inaccurate and a pain the a$$. Lol

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You’re not missing a thing. You are perceptive enough to have noted something often overlooked. All drops are not created equal. How much liquid gathers prior to falling off of a “straw” is a composite of many factors. That’s why the drop method is the least accurate of any.

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20 drops per ml sounds way off , but like you have shown different tips different amount of drops this is why drop compared to weight is inaccurate imo

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Weight is the only way I mix. Using volume to mix is too much work to clean up, and drops as a measurement is kind of a joke Imo, weight is accurate enough and fast with little to no cleanup afterward.

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Ok now I have heard weight is better but for me it seems like weight would be a lot more work to keep track of and a little less accurate. Me I like the volume method it just seems easier to me. Especially when I watch videos of people using the weight method and they go over a little, cause once you do there’s no getting it back out unless it’s the first thing in the bottle. Because once it mixed with the other ingredients it’s done.

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I must note there are people that still use drops…,but those who are successful use the same dispenseing tool. Whether it be Pipette or syringe or other it will be the same tool.

Is it perfectly accurate. No I don’t think so…but for brands like cap and tpa it’s close enough. Start using brand like FA or mf and no…not accurate enough.

Do I do drops when adding to a final mix. Yes. But I’m not trying to be accurate just consistent with my inaccuracy and trying something. Like I always have acouple 30mls of simple custard and fresh03 ice cream base just sitting. I’ll often vape half and then add a fruit later. For example I added 11 drops of shisha orange inw and 5 drops of tangerine flv to the icecream and it was good. Now when I go back to recreate I’ll do 1% tangerine flv and 2% orange shisha inw.

At then end of the day I mix by weight.

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I may give weight a try one day but until I am a little more confident in all this stuff I’m sticking to volume my buddy @GalacticResidue can attest for me I’m asking for his help a couple times a month.:sunglasses:

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Once you do you’ll be like “why wasn’t I doing this all along” lol it’s a lot easier then u think homie! You ever have questions you kno I’ll help you out! :+1:

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I’m just wondering why you think mixing by weight seems more difficult? I know I started mixing by volume and that lasted all of about a week. And most of that was because I was waiting on my scale.
The intent of my question is nothing more than possibly being able to dispel some of your uneasiness about mixing by weight.

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I’ve noticed in my mixing (by weight) that drops range between .01 and .05g. They are wildly all over the place. And this is from a single bottle of flavor.

So you are correct in your findings.

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I think it’s mostly me trying to get used to the different weights in the flavors cause 1ml of tfa vbic might be .25 grams and fw vbic might be .22 grams and it’s that difference that makes me think there is more to keep up with. I know if I would have started with weight I would probably feel that way about the volume method. I don’t know I think that’s the main thing for me cause I feel like I know what 1 ml of tfa vbic will do for me and I’m not sure if I want to change yet.

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Well the ELR calculator has an option to use manufacture specific weight and as long as your scale has a tare or zero button you litaraly just go down the list and add each thing then zero the scale after let me look for one of my recipes that has the same percentage of two different flavors and you will see it adjusts for the specific weight. If you try it once I promise you will never go back!

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look at the apple pie and the fuji apple they are both at the same percentage same volume but the weights are different.

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That makes sense, and like most all of you have said if I try it I’ll never go back to volume. And just because I trust in this community I’m going to give weight a try. But believe it or not my main concern on this thread was to make the ones using drops aware of the inaccuracies because I was unaware of the fact that I was still in the stone age and drops are the prehistoric age lol. Thanks everyone I know if I have any questions that I can come back here and have them answered.

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do you have a scale, if you are going to pick one up make sure it does grams.

This is the scale I use, it comes with 2 trays as well a larger one and a smaller one, the small one I use to catch any drips as I’m mixing, the larger one I use to put all the flavors in for the recipe I’m making.
AMIR 500g/0.01g Digital Kitchen Scale, High-precision Pocket Food Scale, Multifunctional Pro Scale with Back-Lit LCD Display, Tare, PCS Features, Stainless Steel https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HCKQG7G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_1FvHzbWP3Z0NA

No I don’t have one, if that one works then that’s what I’ll go with. Will it do 240ml mixes at a time and what I mean is is it accurate when things get that heavy which isn’t really heavy. Because when I make my wife’s Pina colada that’s how much I make at a time.

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well i haven noticed any inaccuracies with it, but it does max out at around 480g so as long as you are using labware you should be fine.

Yeah I should be fine then cause I wouldn’t think 240ml would weight 480grams that’s 2grams per ml. Thanks you and everyone else who have helped me make a change I wasn’t planning on lol. :sunglasses:

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