I’ve been using just vegetable glycerin and flavoring and it comes out ok. Do I need the pg additive
No, VG will work fine. That being said, if you find your flavors seem a little muted at times, you could try using a PG/VG blend instead of straight VG. All comes down to personal preference.
As a note, PG is often said to carry flavor better than VG, however you generally get better cloud production with high VG juices.
Where is the best place to find the PG/VG blend at? Some flavors are muted quite a bit
Just order PG. You blend it on your end. I usually order mine from Amazon, unless I'm also ordering flavors and need a free shipping bump.
Most fellow vapers here are telling you that you don't need PG because flavors and nicotine are usually PG based.
However, it depends what ratio you plan your juice to be.
I personally use PG to achieve a blend around 50/50, max 70/30, because of the flavor, the throat hit, and the coil lifespan.
Using just VG is rather thick and is rough on coils but it would work in a pinch. I prefer thinner juices, so 70-30 or 60-40 is what I’m looking for because of the added flavor production and coil lifespan.
Gotcha. So do I need to add pg?
Not really. I've been "Max Vg'ing" for over 3 years now. Never a problem with coils or flavor. You'll want to get your nicotine in PG though. Easier to work with and avoid hotspots. So most my mixes are 85% to 90% VG. But that doesn't play a factor in recipe development. That's just my personal average. I used to do 80/20 but just got tired of adding PG in. I haven't noticed a difference nor have the people I allegedly sell juice to.
I use mostly VG in my mixes too - the only PG I add (apart from what the flavour is suspended in) is the nicotine.
I’m rather lazy and buy nic shots in 10ml bottles, making it easy to mix 60ml at a time. I recently started buying the nic shots at a 30/70 ratio and that extra bit of PG helps a bit with the flavour IMO.
Doesn’t seem to affect the consistency of the mix too much.
I’m by no means competent with mixing but for the few recipes I throw together I’m quite happy with the results!
One thing to keep in mind: Many tanks aren't designed to run max VG. Pods, far fewer.
Within my RTA collection, only one can run max VG. The others are designed around 70/30 ratio.
But if your tank works, go for it.
Is that down to wicking?
Down to tank mostly. Some tanks don't have enough space for high VG liquid to reach the wicks at a high enough flow rate or to allow air to flow through the thicker liquid.
Wicking can help alleviate some issues with most tanks, but sometimes it's just the tank.
Depends on what device you're mixing for. RDAs and RTAs work fine without PG, though the flavors may come across a little dry and muted. If you're using factory-made coil heads, OTOH, those are generally designed for a 70/30 or lower VG/PG ratio and may not wick properly with higher VG juice.
I definitely go with 70 VG and 30 PG, unless I’m making juice for my MTL tanks, in that case 50/50. As most have said, most flavourings are PG based, so if u use eliquid recipies, the website calculates it for you as to what you need to add-sometimes it’s only a tiny amount of PG, but I reckon it makes the world of difference-well worth buying even a 500ml bottle as you go through far less of it than VG (unless ur making juice for MTL or pod) or you could try a premixed 70/30 or 50/50-aka it’s already blended and u just need to add your flavour, but with doing that, the calculation isn’t perfect & doesn’t take account of the PG in your flavourings. I recommend buying ur PG/VG from a supplier like Bull city-vape retailers as there is VG/PG out there that is from questionable sources-cheap stuff isn’t always necessarily the best.