Welcome!! This is a tricky question best answered by more searching and reading. Not only are the recommended flavor percentages different between brands, but they can vary between flavors of a given brand. Read all of the beginner threads and resources if you haven’t already, then search the flavor you wish to SF test specifically, both on the flavor pages and threads in the forums. You’ll find that particular flavor’s recommended median starting percentage and notes on how people felt about many aspects of it. Start there and make your own notes about how you perceive the flavor subjectively. Practically everything about flavor is subjective, and you’ll see similar statements A LOT around here! So, just use other people’s recommendations as a starting point.
Lots of mixers who do SF test will test 2 or 3 percentages per flavor, like .5, 1, 2.5% for the stronger, more concentrated flavors, or 3, 5 or 10% for the weak flavors. Lots of mixers do less work, lots do more work, you’ll find the way that fits your lifestyle best. Most will agree that SF testing is the best key to unlock the higher levels of recipe creation. Most importantly…Have a good time and enjoy yourself! And, don’t let a crappy mix get you down. Learn from it!
Like both @Plunderdrum and @JMak642 said is good info… Plunderdrum talking about specifically testing SF’s and JMak642 stating they just make recipes created by others. For myself I mostly use(d) recipes others had already created and that gave me a couple of things… first it provided me with learning the many basic things of mixing up a recipe i.e. getting over the fear or apprehension of mixing, using scales, purchasing ingredients etc. Then it also gave me juice that is/was vapable. It also provided a building block to expand on items that were already tried and true while learning about ingredients.
Being nervous is quite understandable when thinking about jumping down the rabbit hole. What helped me with the decision was knowing that others had made the plunge. If they could, I could too. And I think you have made the most important steps already; research and reaching out to a known community of mixers.
Not at first. Lol. I admit my first few mixes were just horrible. What actually helped me out was mixing other peoples’ recipes, then modifying them to suit my tastes. That helped me learn about profiles and layering in ways that no YouTube video ever could. Even now after years of mixing there have been recipes and profiles that I struggle with. Tobacco comes to mind. But eventually you develop recipes that are better than what you would normally buy because they are tailored to suit your preferences. I will often say that comparing a well crafted DIY recipe to a bottle from a B&M is like comparing filet mignon to McDonald’s hamburger.
Disposable pipettes and a good digital scale are musts. Measuring by volume is highly inaccurate and syringes can and will clog up when drawing anything with citric acid in it…Not to mention if you intend to reuse them, they are a pain in the ass to clean. (Yes, other DIYers, I had to resort to reusing syringes. Don’t blame me for running out of pipettes.) Be prepared to fail quite a bit. It takes time to get a recipe right. There’s a lot of fine tuning and a lot of waiting on steeping mixes to test. But on the plus side, you get a kid-at-Christmas level of excitement when you are nearing the end of a steep cycle and you get to vape plenty of liquid. And always buy more VG than PG. Personally I order with a 4 to 1 rule in mind. If I order a pint of PG, I also order a gallon of VG.
That is kinda a loaded question. Do you like creams and custards? Or fruits? In any case there is a list floating around here some where with the majority of must have flavors. I could go digging for it if you want. As for recipes, well, if you decide to go through with DIYing I recommend loading the flavors you buy into your stash and then using the “what can I make” feature to search for recipes that look interesting.
Lol. Ok. How are you accurate with measuring by volumn when trying to add 0.03-0.04? Do you use the proper syringe for that? Does the majority of volumn mixers use the proper gear? Personally under the use case secenrio they don’t thus being the same accuracy or less then when measuring by volumn. Just a food for thought.
Yes I do agree that when using all the proper gear both measuring by volumn and by weight can be extremely accurate.
However, considering the vast majority of community (use case) mixing by weight would be more accurate when repeatability comes into play tied with the work that goes into mixing 15 recipes in a mix session. Again…we are talking about use case and the world we live in
I do agree that the vast majority of mixers who step up to higher volumn mixing would benefit to mix by volumn when mixing 200ml and up.
Fair enough. I forgot to mention that measuring by volume can still be useful as a double check on measuring by weight. I often measure out via syringe or pipette and verify by weight. Especially when mixing for others.
Part of this discussion stems from statements I made regarding VG and differing thicknesses/ weights I experienced. A lot of this has been “reinterpreted” and taken out of the context of that particular discussion. So lets do the simple math. Lets take a 100 ml quantity at 70% VG.
By volume: 70% = 70 ml by volume. Period. Does not change.
By specific gravity using the calculator. 70% = 70 ml= 70 x 1.261 = 88.27 grams.
But what if the VG does not weigh 1.261 grams and you find that it is 10%off? 10% x .1.26 = .126 so your VG weighs 1.386 grams per ml.
70 x 1.386 = 97.02 grams yet your calculator calls for 88.27 grams. Your 100 ml quantity will be off by 8.75 grams which will be 6.31 ml difference in volume.
I mix flavorings by weight. I weigh VG by volume and then either use weight or volume because THEN they are the SAME. I have had up to approximately 10% difference in the weight of VG products.
Every time. A 1ml syringe will measure out down to .01ml, and I use it for Mix Mint (Ina) and also a couple others.
If they’re as anal as I am about accuracy, and consistency, yes. But again, I’ve already conceded that I’m in the minority. Even among syringe users.
It’s also why I dedicate 1 syringe to one flavor (no clean up). And so far, the only one I’ve had to replace (in two years) has been the 1ml I use with mix mint. That’s the only one I’ve had issue with deterioration with so far (and I have several citrus flavors). Quality of plunger, or brand may be coming into effect there though, so I haven’t, and won’t say anything definitively.
Not exactly but that would work fine. As @Sprkslfly pointed out a 1 ml syringe is very accurate. The point that I’m making is that we are using weight to determine volume and if the 1.261 specific gravity per ml used by the calculator is off, then so is the quantity. The 10% figure I used was for simplicity in demonstrating how far off a 100 ml mix could be due to differences.
Nowadays, after discovering some several ml differences using weight, I have carefully marked containers for volume which I use in connection with mixing equipment few have.
What woke me from this terrible flu going around were statements that mixing by volume is inaccurate and “bad information.” No even when using a scale we are using weight to measure volume.
Edit; I measure 1 ml then weigh it. Then 10 ml and weigh it to determine what my VG actually weighs. Then can mix by weight or volume. 70% VG is always 70 mls in a 100 ml mix.
I just remembered something I wanted to bring up in my original reply. Breathing. Breathing is only required when your e-liquid contains flavorings that are diluted in alcohol. Otherwise it is optional. However for most flavors I wouldn’t recommend it. Some flavors, such as most strawberries for example, are highly volatile. In other words the flavor isn’t tightly locked in place by the PG, thus breathing will cause them to lose intensity. In most cases you get a good portion of the benefits of breathing during the measuring process, ie drawing a flavor, putting it in the bottle, moving on to the next. Most videos I have viewed have said that breathing is a must which simply isn’t true and can lead you to using more of certain flavors when compared to not breathing.
I absolutely agree with everything you said bar this, I would say > IF you think breathing is necessary then it is only required when your e-liquid contains flavorings that are diluted in alcohol.
I do not breath anything, ever due to
I arrived there after a conversation I had with @Walt_RealFlavors who recommended that mixes be mixed and capped immediately after mixing (not an exact quote) .
I guess the breathing debate will continue along the lines of mixing by volume, heating mixes, storing flavours we all do it our own way and there is nothing wrong with that. I would suggest that the bottle breathers try capping a bottle immediately after mixing and breathing the same mix as you normally would to see if there is a difference.
Yes it is a no brainer yet just the other day I saw advice being handed out to a new mixer breath every mix for a minimum of 12 hours (it wasn’t here) SMH.
I have tried this experiment a few times in the past. I found that with breathing I had to use about 20% more (say 7% instead of 5%) when using strawberry flavorings and about 10% more when using certain bananas. Some pastries held up pretty well, others started to taste off. Might have been my imagination, but they started tasting…well…fake and almost plastic like.
Opinions do vary on this subject. The most anal retentive among us will want the specific gravity. Others will go by 1 gm = 1 ml. IMO it doesn’t matter. You will always get the same results if you stick with either method. It’s a matter of consistency. The biggest difference (from the mixer’s standpoint) is with specific gravity, you have to get this information from somewhere. So either you simply trust whatever you find from the manufacturer, or you weigh each flavor and enter your findings. Either way, has it helped in any way to get the most accurate wt/gm? Not for you.
Bottom line - the easiest method of mixing by weight which is 100% repeatable is valuing all flavors as 1gm/ml IMO. It’s consistent and easy. Sure, this is a topic of contention, but I’ve yet to see a solid argument against it for the DIY hobbyist.
Because it’s putting out incorrect information.