Hello Fellow ELR Members,
I’m Pete, new to making my own juices. a few questions, any help would be greatly appreciated.
When steeping, I read a few articles saying you can let the bottle sit in warm water, let it cool, shake it, put in warm water again, let it cool, then shake and it is quicker and effective like letting sit for time in dark cabinet. (have tried this and not sure im getting full flavor) Also saw about using a slow cooker, does this work better? Asking because Im like a kid on Christmas eve and not a fan of waiting lol.
What wattage do most of you vape at? I have a Fuchai 200w Temp control unit with a Crown tank .25 coil. I usually vape at between 45 and 50. What is best for taste?
Also Drops per ML. Why are there so different variations to drops per ml? thought 20 drops was = to 1 ml?
Welcome to ELR, Pete. Ill take a shot at your questions.
Curing: I mix, shake and put it in a cool dark place for a month minimum, most of what i make are custards and creams which require long curing times. In the beginning i tried all kinds of quick curing methods and while it worked decently, in some cases, nothing was as good as letting the liquid sit.
Heat can destroy some of the chemicals used in our flavorings, especially fruits. While a quick heating to make the liquid less viscous in order to homogenize it properly i dont recommend it unless you know how the chemicals will react.
Wattage/TC: This is different for every vaper, it is something you will have to determine for yourself, sorry.
Drops/ML: Terrible means of working with flavorings as they comes in all different kinds of bottles so a drop is dependent on the tip, volume or a scale is best. A scale that many of us use is the LB-501, it goes down to .01g and is relatively inexpensive on Amazon.
The more experience you gain, the larger amounts you can make and the less you’ll have to worry about waiting. You’ll have plenty to vape on once you have some regulars.
I’m the same as you with wattage. Usually around 40-50W.
Feel free to ask what you need, we are happy to help. We have some great reading for new mixers too, check out the pinned threads in the beginner section of the forum. Ive been mixing for a few years and even i learned some stuff from them.
Thank you Ms JoJo!!! Appreciate it, and glad to see im not alone on the 40-50w. I know people that vape at 80 and higher, and I am not a fan!!
PS, My best friends father is a huge radio disc jockey all over country and his radio name is JoJo Morales lol… Know this is irrelevant to vaping just caught my attention and thought it was cool hahaha
Already did my friend! most reading I’ve done since elementary school and being forced to do book reports hahaha. Im referring to the cliff notes of the actual books of course those 30 pages are brutal!
As stated previously, after a bit, (if you mix just a couple things a week) you’ll soon find yourself with tons of steeping (and steeped) juice just from it sitting in a darkened space. In the mean time mix a couple things that doesn’t take a long time to naturally steep, or continue playing around with things you think might speed the process. Your going to hear pro’s and cons on “speed steeping” or “seed steeping”, some people swear by it others call it a hoax. While I don’t speed steep, I do some seed steeping, and it might just be that since I’m adding fresh juice to well steeped juice it may just “seem” to steep faster… it really doesn’t matter, I still let my seeded mixes sit prior to vaping them.
I vape at lower watts… normally mid 20’s
Get a scale, imho it’s probably one of the best things I did. I only mixed without one for a very short period and am glad I didn’t hem or haw on if I should get one or not. While I do have things setup for drops to be 20 = 1ml I’ve never had to use drops as a unit of measure. Some recipes will state to add a drop of something for every 10 or 15 ml of juice so I do that… or think out that 2 drops will normally be about 0.05g or there abouts, I play that by ear.
There are a few reasons (I believe):
First the flavor your using is being diluted in a much larger volume that it is originally in while at the same time the flavors are being (basically) absorbed by that mixture (the pg/vg) so the flavoring becomes milder.
Secondly the flavor becomes weaker over time itself… think of it like a bag of chips. When you first open the bag they taste fresh and crispy, but can quickly become stale over a short period of time. The vessel your juice is in may absorb flavor and/or light may cause the flavoring to separate from the mix in gas form so when the vessel is used over time (filling your tank) it may assist in causing the volatile flavors to dissipate.
Also the flavors act on your pallate and it may become “use to” the flavor, so your just not tasting that flavor as much as you were when you first started vaping it. And just to toss this out there… some flavors just seem to fade, What was once a good strong juice can just become a boring tasteless mix… yeah, didn’t answer your question, but there are a lot of factors that “might” cause what your talking about.
whats up pete,when I first started I used plastic bottles weighted them out got my crock pot of hot water put on low up to 125 for 2 hrs. my juice turned on me after 2 hrs shake it well put under cool running water repeat.now with glass bottles your juice will not turn.i have no idea why but this is what I use and then leave in a dark place (cabinet) is what I use and it’s full I now mix 60mls I began with 15 and 30 when I got the recipe down right buy you some more vg pg and then flavorings but start out slow maybe 15ml and keep notes on your recipe page any adjustments make notes good luck let me now how you are doing
It also depends on flavors used. For example, IMO creams take a solid month to mature correctly. If it is a fruit, more than likely it can be a shake and vape. Now when it comes to doing there is no wrong or right way to do things. The only way to do things is to be comfortable with it. The goal is to make a juice you like and stay off analogs. Good luck in your adventures.
I have some liquid NETS that seriously take 6 months to mature just 1 flavoring. Then another month to use as a juice. Gives you an idea of different strokes for different folks.
