So, in my shithole of a country, I finally found a vendor who sells liquid nicotine (he's probably breaking the law by doing so).
Anyway, the website only has either 100% VG or 100% PG nic.
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I'm looking to buy in bulk, so factors to consider are:
Long-term storage.
Ease in mixing.
Safety and quality.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was told when starting to use PG. Less chance of separation and hot spots from it not being mixed properly
VG is much more viscous so its more likely to have "hot spots" that have more/less nic than the listed concentration per ML
Edit: for storage try to find a bunch of small glass bottles and have a small funnel. Fill the glass bottles with your mixed nic and store them in a freezer
Edit: viscous, not density. Changed that
meh, that's the consensus. I don't really see this to be true from experience though.
I started with 70vg/30pg nic for this reason and switched to 100% vg nic about a year ago. I haven't experienced any "hot spots" in any mix and I've run through around 5 120ml bottles of it in that time.
I shake the nic the same as I did with the blend before use and use as I did before. No differences other than a smoother vape and thicker clouds.
I've personally used both, I prefer the PG simply because I use syringes to move it from nic bottle to my mix bottle and with the lower viscosity its easier
Both seemed to preform the same, but if I'm given the option of both for roughly the same price, given my personal means of mixing, I'll always go with PG
If you're making high-nic mixes for pods and can only get 100mg/mL as the highest concentration, go for 100% VG. Otherwise, trying to make something like a 24mg/mL final mixture will require 24% of your entire bottle to be nicotine, leaving just 26% for flavoring (for some "pod" mixes, that's cutting it damn close) and PG. If you wanted higher than 24mg/mL final mixing, then it will severely limit which recipes you can even make (45mg/mL will leave just 5% for flavorings).
If your'e primarily mixing something like 70/30 juice for a sub-ohm device, then either VG or PG-based nic will be fine.
Either way, store most of it in the freezer (in an amber glass bottle, if you can) with a small working bottle stored in a cool, dark cupboard somewhere, shake it like crazy before mixing with it, and keep all of it far out of the reach of kids and pets.
Describe bulk? 1 l, 10 l, 100 l? For long- storage, smaller brown glass bottles with airtight lids, argon wine preserver to remove air. Store the bottles in ziplocks in the freezer, keep one working bottle at your workstation (cool, dry, no sunlight).
PG or VG depends on how high you will be mixing and for what kind of device (RDA, RTA, subohm, pod ratios). If it‘s freebase at 3 mg or 6 mg, PG is fine. If it‘s a smooth or hit salt and you want 25 mg/ml or higher for a Pod, you‘ll want VG. VG is Fine to work with, I‘ve never had a Hotspot, it just needs a vigorous shake.
A simple example. Your bulk nicotine is 100 mg/ml PG-based. You want to mix a 100 ml bottle of 50/50 juice for a pod at 50 mg/ml.
You would need 50 ml of your nicotine base in PG.
Then assume flavors (also PG) make up another 18%, 18 ml.
That would give you a total of 68% PG and leave room for only 32% VG, thus resulting in a harsh, runny mess. You would need VG-based nicotine to mix higher strength juice at a proper ratio.
There are calculators pinned to the sidebar to make calculations easier and accurate, please use them and please read the information offered on this site. If you need further help, you’re welcome to join our friendly discord. Stay safe;)).
BTW, which country are you located in?
I meant bulk as in personal usage.
I'm thinking somewhere around 1 Litre.
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I have a RTA box mod. I usually vape 70-30 mixes.
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India. They implemented a vape and accessories ban across the country last year - supposedly due of Big Tobacco lobbying.
1 litre is nowhere near bulk. What strength do you vape?
Definitely PG base. Then you can buy pure VG to get it the viscosity you want. And to a lesser extent, some PG.
Keep in mind, that generally for subohm/higher wattage, higher VG levels are generally preferred, very common mix is 30/70 PG/VG respectively.
A more even 50/50 or 40/60 PG/VG mix is used for pods. But 30/70 can be used too, it's really preference. Wicking, coils and device play a roll too.
If you're using a pod device that doesn't wick well with 30/70 PG/VG. 40/60 may work better.
I'm probably reiterating things you already know, but I suggest PG base for nic
good point. If you go max vg it only really works well in sub ohm devices. I went strictly VG and alcohol based flavorings a while ago and have never looked back. PG is just gross to me, makes the flavors taste different in my experience.
Contrary to the apparently popular opinion, I have always used and not entirely hated working with VG nicotine.
It can suck when you're trying to warm it up to working temperature but there's a very easy way around it. Just put as much as you think you'll need for a week into a 30ml dropper and leave it out and freeze the rest.
Then you'll have the option to make max VG liquid if you want to or need to for some reason. you won't have that luxury with PG based nic as far as I'm aware
I've also never had a problem with hot spots because I shake the working nicotine before each use.
Other than those issues, VG nicotine is fine to work with. with PG i had slight over-pouring (dripping) issues due to the viscosity.
VG is harder to squeeze out of the bottle but I’ve been told that it stores better. But who really knows. Gather peoples opinions then make a decision which suits you. There is no clear cut right or wrong answer.