Me and the family (1 year old, wife, dog) are about to head out on a year long road trip in our RV across the US. Been vaping for almost two years and been building coils and using rta's and rda's for about two months. Now I'm on do making my own juice!
I wanted to get some advise on safe storage as well as long term storing of ejuice liquids (nicotine storing being my biggest concern). Although my RV has heating and cooling I know there will be times when things break, have no electricity or other problems while on the road. I'm wondering if it is worth the hassle as well as space used up to try this endeavor on the road. Or should I just batch some flavors before we leave and then use them on the road and switch to premium liquid once again.
Any help or tips for doing this safely on the road with my little ones or advice to not do it at all will be welcome. Thanks!
If I was you I'd pick a few things you can tolerate as ADVs and mix large quantities of them. Keeping them in a cool dark place should keep them from getting too steeped (if such a thing even exists) during the trip. You should be able to figure how much total you need based on how much you use a day. If you decide to bring the ingredients, keep everything in a cool dark place, and nic in the freezer, or at least fridge if you can. Since you will have pets and a small child around you should consider a locking container for storage, and if you will be keeping nic in the fridge, and the fridge is accessible to them, probably another locking container for it as well, selected to fit in the fridge/freezer easily.
If you do bring your mixing supplies...
Pack ejuice bottles/flavours in ziplock bags and put a paper towel in the bag too. Thermal changes can cause leaks in bottles that would otherwise be considered 'sealed', but the paper towel will catch it and at least make cleanup easier. It's better if bottles are kept upright, but that's not always possible. If you find your paper towels are wet, check the bottles for loose caps, replace the towels, carry on.
Only bring flavours you know for sure you will use, not your entire inventory. When on the road, it's less likely you'll have time to experiment with flavour anyway.
Only bring enough nicotine base to cover your trip. If you run out, buy some premium e-juice.
If you have kids, make damn sure they can't get at your mixing stuff. A lockbox might help there.
Have a good trip!
I should mention that I use around 5-10ml of juice a day.
Dude just make a couple liters of all day vape flavors you never grow tired of! I feel like that'd be easier than actually trying to mix on the road.
At 10ml a day 1liter of juice would last you 100 days.
That's what I was thinking. I only have just over a month before we leave so I should start batching! Thanks for the advice.
If space is an issue you could always just premix some concentrates with PG and nic. Since VG is pretty easy to come by you could just buy that and combine as needed.
Mixing that up would be relatively easy. I wouldn't want to have my full mixing kit with me on the road, that's for sure.
You'll be good man. Keep your nic in the freezer. Yeah you might end up loosing a little by the end but overall it should last a long time.
Flavors you should keep refrigerated but if you can't than you should be fine.
For a long time I didn't keep my nic in the fridge and it was slightly harsher but it was fine.
I'd bring it along who knows what kind of inspiration you'll get along your travels.
Also, what liter containers would you suggest?
The quart sized ones that Essential Depot ships VG/PG in would be suitable, plus they're "free" when you buy your base liquid. ;)
Do you recommend ED for a source for base liquids? Amazon not a good place to get em or any other brands you prefer?
IIRC, they don't sell nicotine bases, but their VG and PG are fine products. I've gone through about a gallon of their VG so far and have no complaints. They also sell through Amazon, though I don't think there's much of a price difference.
Their PG and VG are of the highest quality(I really like the Palm based VG over Soy) and prices are good, excellent if you have Amazon Prime for free shipping(which is the expensive part). Their GLYcubes are also great, 4 gallons of PG/VG in any combination you choose (4 bottles VG, 1 PG 3 VG, 2 each PG/VG, etc) and last FOREVER for personal DIY.
a dark cooler with the nic concentrate in a ziplock should suffice. keeping it out of the sun and in a dark cool place is about as much as u can do. if you wouldnt leave a dog alone in there, i wouldn't leave the ejuice in there either and take it with you, somewhere more cool
Just a thought but how about a combination of both, batch mix zero nic and buy nic shots on your travels.
The zero nic juice won't go bad and the nic shots will generally be fresh. You may need to plan ahead and bulk buy a few if you're heading into the sticks but you won't have to worry about oxidisation.
My wife and I went on a 5 month road trip and I was faced with the same dilemma. Traveled all the way from San Diego, down to the Keys, Up to the Carolina's and back over to the West Coast. Going on the road for 12 months for a vaper is not easy. For a starter your ADV may become your-not-so-ADV. A couple of things I learned while on a road trip:
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Mix a few 1 liter or 500ml bottles of your ADV – will become handy
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Take just enough (6-12) of your favorite flavors to mix while on the road. You’ll be surprised at how creative you get with all that time on your hands.
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If you’re traveling by RV rest assured there's enough shaking going on in there to thoroughly mix whatever you’re stocking.
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Try to take only plastic bottles for juice and flavors, glass needs to be wrapped and can break.
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Take enough nicotine (You will most probably not be able to buy from retail stores. If you do they will sell at 1000% markup)
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Take enough PG and VG to last you say 4 months. You can always order ahead and have it shipped to your next destination. Amazon is great for PG and VG. (One time I ran out of PG and a local vapery in the Smokey mountains charged me something like 10 bucks for a measly 30ml !)
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Now that you’re mixing your own juice you’ve become accustomed to the radical cost savings. Buying premium juice on the road, especially over a 12 month period, is gonna cost ya.
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I imagine you’ll be camped out most of the time so regulating the temperature of your Nicotine shouldn’t be a problem as you’ll have the fridge when stopped. When on the road just put it in a cooler box with ice packs – it’ll do just fine.
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Pack your juice in cooler box when on the road. No need to bother with zip log bags as the pressure and temp doesn’t fluctuate that much (its not like you’re traveling by airplane where atmospheric pressures fluctuate radically)
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When camped out I normally left mine under the sink where the temp doesn’t fluctuate as much, plus no sunlight.
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I tried to stop by at least 1 vape shop at each city visited while traveling. Was good to hang out with them, have a vape and try their interesting house blends. At the same time I managed to buy all kinds of sh*tty vapes at local vape shops so keep that in mind – you’re going to be tempted.
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Make sure you have ample wire for coils and enough cotton. If you have replacement glass for tanks take it with as one of them is sure to break. I made up a fishing tackle box where I stored all my wire, spare nuts, replacement glass, wicking materials and tools. That way its all in one place, easy to store and easy to get to.
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Take all your batteries. It’s a good idea to buy some fresh batteries before you leave. I probably had at least 1 ½ dozen batteries which was good for me and my wife. Much vaping is done when driving long distance and a bad battery is the last thing you want.
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Take a few battery chargers with you as one of them will more than likely break. Also make sure you have a battery charger that plugs into a cigarette lighter for charging while driving those long distances.
Have fun, there's nothing like a road trip, especially in this country.
All fantastic tips thank you. The problem I currently have is that I still have not even batched my first home brew so I have no idea what my ADV even is yet! But I have all my supplies in the post and will be able to batch some sample flavors by next week. Thanks again!
The fridge/freezer space is VERY limited and I would rather have it for food and breast milk than ejuice ingredients. So using that is really not possible.
I am a lazy diyer. I've had a bottle of nic sitting in my closet for almost a year (stayed between 50&80 F) and it was still fine. I would be on the batch side of the argument. Maybe just buy vg/pg by the quart and dump them into a bowl while you're mixing and fill the finished juices back into the quart vg/pg bottles. The hardest part would be filling your dripper bottles from them so get a small funnel or something you can use on the road.
I would be comfortable leaving these bottles in a cupboard (maybe above the "master" bed). If your kids are curious creatures then get a cheap lockbox, but I mean , well you know them make your own decision on that. If your more worried about keeping cool, maybe get one of those mini ice chest lunchbox things and two mini icepacks. Put the box in the underneath storage (kids can't get them there anyways) and put one ice pack in there and swap them out every day or whatever. If you did this just be sure you have enough in your dropper bottle above deck for driving or whatever when you can't get to the source.
I would be more worried about them leaking than going bad, but what do I know. Have LOTS of paper towels lol.
HAVE FUN! sounds awesome
Woke up to some great advice. Thank you reddit! I think I have figured out my best plan of action. Batching a liter (or two) of my favorite flavors then bringing a few concentrates of flavor/pg/nic which I can easily store safely and won't take up much room. Then when we are camped out in a civilized area I can pick up a quart of VG and batch more.
I have a feeling I may be vaping much less while on the road as well. So for my next question! I have two of my favorite ADV's right here. I also blend them from time to time and it's the best. I wanted to know if anyone has vaped these and could help me pick out some good flavor concentrates to start with my first batch to come up with something similar. Thanks again reddit!
https://www.ejuices.com/products/barista-brew-co-salted-caramel-macchiato
https://www.misthub.com/products/transistor-hunnid-k-e-juice