Noob diy mixer here.
i have been mixing my own for nearly a month now. I have basically been mixing up recipes I found here and highly-rated recipes on ELR. Obviously have caught a serious dose of the fever because my flavour stash now has 73 concentrates including the ones that will arrive today. :-)
My initial impression of the flavourse I mixed was that they were a bit bland and flavourless compared to the commercial juices I have, although perhaps that's because the commercial juices are very heavy on the coolant and sweetener which hit in the mouth rather than the nose and I am by no means a super taster.
However. My initial impressions were all based on using a tank atomiser with non-rebuildable coils. (mostly Vapresso GT cores). But yesterday my Topside Dual squonk mod and Hellvape Passage RDA arrived along with some claptons coils. With that setup, all my mixes that I have tried to date have seemed much more flavourful - in fact one went right over into being a bit overpowering with flavour.
That got me to thinking that maybe most of the mixers here use rebuildables and have set their concentrations for that hardware and that if I want to mix for my non-rebuildables or Caliburn I should be upping the concentrations in the recipes a bit?
Am I way off-base here? If I am not off-base, how much should I be increasing the concentrations by?
Couple of things to unpack here.
Yes, of course many of us are mixing with rebuildables. Recipe development can involve a lot of trial and error. Chucking a $3-5 coil head in the trash every time a mix goes sideways would get expensive quick. Less than a penny's worth of cotton though? No big deal.
Additionally, commercial juice that's browbeating you with sweetener tends to flatten your ability to taste anything else. It's not much different from drinking a cup of coffee while you're eating pancakes. If you use a little bit of sugar in the coffee it doesn't even register on your palate over the sweetness of the syrup on your pancakes.
A third point, you're using a tank with coils that adhere to the same inherent limitations as the Smok Baby beast coils. The upper limit for their performance has never been much higher than "adequate". Moving to a well designed RDA or RTA is night and day against the GT core coils.
None of that is to say you should just add more flavoring to your juice to try to compensate for inadequate equipment. You're far more likely to throw a recipe out of balance than you are to "fix" it for the equipment.
As to pod devices, the most critical thing to success with pod recipes is keep the recipe simple. One or two major notes, maybe 1 accent. The more nuance you're expecting, the more you'll be let down.
Many thanks! Rather than go ham on the concentrations, I should be simplifying the recipe for anything I will be using in the pod device (which I will continue to use simply because it is more discreet and pocketable.) That's good advice!
As to the commericial juice wrecking my flavour sense, suspicions about that already and now I have third-party confirmation - thanks! The good news is that while my strawnana custard and a couple of others I have not yet tried steep, I am getting rid of the last of the commercial juice and then that problem goes away.
To your other point, what stock coild would you recommend as being better than the GT coils? I do think I will continue to have a small stock tank atomiser somewhere in the mix and should probably make it a good one.
I've not been blown away by any of them outside of the mesh pro, I've heard approximately equivalent endorsement for the falcon king but haven't used it myself. If you want something a step less rowdy the fireluke mesh (or fireluke mesh 2, they're cross compatible if I recall correctly) has lower power demands.
I'd recommend stepping over to an RTA though, if you're already building for an RDA the effort level is nearly identical. The intake and gear are supposed to be good for single coils, I am still a big fan of the Serpent SMM, and the serpent Elevate is really just a top airflow version of that deck, so it should bear similar performance. If you prefer dual coils the kylin 2, mage 2, mage 2019, and rebirth are all very good options.
I am by no means as experienced as foment_life, but I agree with his suggestion for pods. Simple recipes (3-4 flavors max including sweetener) work best. Also, adjust the pg/vg ratio to make the flavor a bit more intense. For the Caliburn specifically I enjoy 55vg and 45pg. I don’t up my flavor %, but I know some mixers do. Also as a new DIYer (6 months now maybe), you’ll start to taste a ton more after a month or two. Commercial juice killed my sense of flavor due to the sweetener.
To further expand on what I was saying last night, I don't mean you can only use a couple of concentrates, but that you shouldn't be trying to accomplish a really complex profile.
FA red touch and INW shisha strawberry, working together in tandem to make a syrupy strawberry? That's 1 'note'. So something that needs 3 strawberries and 3 creams to build a two note recipe makes plenty of sense. Trying to make a strawberry shortcake with ice cream? Even if it were 3 flavorings, it won't come through without getting muddled.
Actually, the GT Mesh coils are not bad.
Topside dual is a pretty powerful mod, I have one, and will push the Passage RDA hard, I think it's dual coil but I don't have one. Rebuilding an RDA will almost always give you great flavor and RDAs make testing flavors a cinch. It's almost a necessity.
> But yesterday my Topside Dual squonk mod and Hellvape Passage RDA arrived along with some claptons coils.
> Am I way off-base here?
Not off base. An RDA with Clapton coils increases flavor intensity and shines a light on nuances in a recipe. Air flow, coil surface area, temperature -- these all play a part in the flavor experience.
The best flavor experiences I've had so far with my Smok Novo are very simple 2-3 flavor recipes. Overly complicated recipes don't really shine in my Pod device.
This is just my experience so YMMV.
Just wanted to say the Hellvape Passage RDA is fucking awesome. I got it about a month ago to replace my old RDA and I love everything about it, it's perfect imo.
I also switch between my RDA and tank (also Vaporesso GT Cores), but I don't have specific recipes for each or anything like that. You of course get a greater concentration flavor with RDA's (and you coil type in the RDA can affect that too), but tanks just give you a "different spectrum" of flavors imo. It actually makes it more interesting when I switch from my RDA to my tank, because the juice is the same and I like it the same in both devices, but with my tank I might taste a bit more strawberry for example, so I get less bored of vaping the same juice by switching back and forth.
Interesting. I do the same thing. Swapping between vapes I mean.
Yeah I don't take the RDA out really so when I leave the house I take the tank cause it's easier/less messy. Especially because I don't have a squonk box (yet). How is the Passage with squonking?
I'm liking it a lot, but haven't had it long and have nothing to compare it with. Having just under 10ml of juice in the squonk tank is kinda nice, but it chews through the juice too. :-)
Being dual coil it needs dual battery and a dual battery squonker is big and heavy. I think I'll probably not take it out much. Haven't had any issues with leaking/messiness though.
Not knowing which recipes you actually tried, its kind of hard to say.
Nowadays, with modern stock coil tanks, you shouldnt need to change any recipes.
Pods like the Caliburn are a different breed entirely. Sometimes certain profiles just do not convey to the pod device (low powered, non-flavor focused). Sometimes you need to bump the percentages up for those.
I will say, that you need to pay attention when mixing recipes on ELR.
Thanks!
So far I have mixed:
Grack Juice
https://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/3319933/Grack%20Juice%20adapted%20from%20Philosaphucker
(without the dragonfruit because I couldn't get it at the time.)
Apple Buttah
https://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/3354175/DIYorDIE%20Apple%20Buttah%20%28original%29
Apple Addict
https://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/1009048/apple%20addict
Pink Lemonade
https://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/2761379/Best%20Damn%20Pink%20Lemonade%20by%20Vurve
Your point about ELR recipes is well-taken (and not the first time I have seen it.) I do usually only use recipes that are recommended elsewhere by more authoritative sources or have extensive reviews and nots on ELR rather than something that looks like someone has thrown any old thing together and made it public.
I do find a significant difference between my stock coils and the RDA. But some coils are better than others, as well.
RDA will always make a difference. No matter what it is you are using. I assumed you meant an RTA. But thats not a factor of the recipe.
What tank is it you are using? I saw the coils listed.
The cool thing about DIY is that you can do what you like. If some of your tank mixes are tasting weak and/or bland why don't you try upping the %'s a little. Maybe try 10% at first - or go crazy and try 20%. The worst that can happen is that you don't like the results, so only mix in small batches to minimise wastage. Experimenting is part of the fun. Only thing I would suggest is check your TFA concentrates on their ingredients page, and avoid increasing flavours that contain ethyl maltol (which can have a muting effect on juices).