I’m brand new to mixing my own juices, I have built coils in the past on RDA’s but just recently got a berserker 1.5 MTL RTA. I’ve mixed a few juices, specifically various Capella ones, and I have a question.
I mixed harvest berry at 6%, sweet guava at 7% and vanilla custard at 7% (all separately)
The flavors are extremely muted, if there at all. I suspect this is because this is an MTL tank with a tiny coil and barely any airflow, not exactly conducive to wholloping flavor.
So, should I be mixing these at much higher percentages? Reviews say that the flavors start to get funky at high percentages, but does the same hold true for a true tight MTL tank?
Most single flavors will be very underwhelming.
Also, that's a LOT of Sweet Guava. In my MTL recipes I have it at like 4% and it's plenty strong. You may have muted it by using too much flavoring.
Yes the same holds true for MTL.
No don't go doubling % or anything like that. You are sure to end up with something bad that way.
Also, if you are just coming from commercial liquid you may find that everything tastes "muted" unless you use some sweetener, because most commercial liquids are loaded with sweeteners.
Look at this excellent post on developing pod recipes (same applies to MTL RTA's).
Then, look at the manufacturer's mixing recommendations for each flavor, as well as the notes for each flavor on ATF and/or ELR.
Lastly, once you find the sweet spot for each flavor, keep your mixes simple.
It really depends on the flavor, in my experience. Most recipes I find are for sub-ohm devices, so when I mix them for MTL RTAs or pods, I do 1.5x the total flavoring to start with and go from there. Some I have to turn up, some turn down, and sometimes they just don't work in low-power devices at all.
I've never noticed anything getting funky, so I'm not sure if I just haven't used any flavors that do that, or if the funkiness is really just a matter of how much hits your tongue (meaning low-power devices require higher percentages to get weird), or something else, but I generally do 1.5x flavoring for MTL.
The other thing to consider is whether or not you put any nic in them. If you use 0 nic, flavorings can taste "flat". That said, your percentages are kinda high and could be contributing to the muting, as well.
I use salt nic, pretty high levels, been a pack a day smoker for a while
Just had my five year vapeaversary this week after 23 years of two packs/ day. 90% MTL and four years of DIY. I could never get into the salts. Too potent.
You may want to try Flavour Art Forest Fruit. It's a nice mixed berry without tasting like medicine. It would pair well with the Harvest Berry to brighten it up a little.
I had similar issues with mtl, unfortunately not all recipes will translate. You will see a lot of people recommend going 25% higher on flavoring and that’s usually a reasonable place to start, but the unfortunate truth is you will have to tinker more than you would mixing DTL. The ratios won’t always hold true, especially on strong flavors like cactus.
All the flavors has some decent mtl/pod recipes. I really like word to your momma. If you do native god at 1.25 strength it’s also delicious in a mtl tank.
Maybe try some juice from somewhere like blue dot vapor. Their nic salts hold up really well in a mtl tank. Anything with menthol, southern star, the thai sticky rice. That’ll at least prove to you something delicious can be made for your tank without loads of sweetener.
I gave up on Mtl though, I don’t have time to mess much with mixes and after another redditor helped me get my rebuilding right, I’ve been mixing DTL recipes for my gear rta at 35 watts and I’m just absolutely floored by how good my vapor tastes.
If you have any questions I’d be happy to help. I can go back through what I mixed and find some success stories at least.
Awesome thanks for the advice. I actually just mixed an all VG juice other than the flavoring, and it improved a bit. I think I have a sensitivity to PG and it was muting the flavor, I’m sure partially because I’m coughing every time I hit it. Now with the VG it seems to be improving a bit
Have you tried commercial juices in that Berserker?
I had the V1 Berserker and was never impressed with the flavour I got from it, can't speak on the V1.5 though.
FWIW in my Kayfun Lite clone I mix with pretty regular percentages and stick to simple recipes and they taste pretty good...but I have been vaping like this for a while so could have just adjusted to the lower flavour levels.
Nowadays I vape only MTL and I have tried many flavors (I own more than 150 flavor concentrates). What I found is that complex flavors don't work very well in MTL. Try to stick to combinations of 1-2 base flavors. Mixing too much flavors causes them to mute, for example vanilla custard is a complex flavor by itself. Don't add anything more to it. The flavor that I vape almost exclusively and would recommend is 2% FA Shade with 2 weeks steep.
Complex flavours work just fine in MTL equipment. What doesn't work well in MTL equipment is the sort of underflavoured recipes (in MTL terms) that people have developed for DL equipment. The requirements are different, and often the balances of flavourings needed will be different as well. We had plenty of wonderful 10-flavour recipes going before subohm became a mainstream thing.
Can you share some recipe for MTL then ? Because in my experience, adding too much flavors causes what OP describes as muted. I'm pretty sure that if he adds just one of the three concentrates the flavor will be much more pronounced
There are plenty of them out there, and every time they're posted here they get yelled down by idiots who have no idea what they're doing. Look at ELR for, say, clones of Five Pawns liquids. Or take the time to use ANY complex recipe you've ever come across, increase most of the flavourings by 50%, and adjust the balances of the lowest-concentration flavourings. Something like Darren Cole's Lemon Tart remix (a 10-flavoring recipe) is another example. Again, the power and heat are different from DL, and the balance of flavourings will generally need to be adjusted - in much the same way that people lowered the flavourings and changed the balances of existing flavour combinations when DL started to be a thing. Basically, take all of the advice you've ever heard here and turn it upside-down. MTL is different. Treat it differently. You need more flavouring, not less, and you need to make the recipe for MTL.
I use the 1.5 exclusively. I've found using one flavor or two is best. I usually use a flavor that is strong on it's own like inw cactus at 3% or so. You will not have amazing mouth watering flavors from this device because of its nature being a mtl. But it does a good job considering its pros vs cons. The only negative I've found as a mtl is that the coils gunk up quickly because of the small chamber I guess? Dont worry about complicated coils, single wire spaced is all you need at about 5-6 wraps depending on material used.