Slowly expanding

[TheFinz]

Trying to increase my available options for flavors by a couple every month.  I added marshmallow and blue raspberry to the fold this week.  I ran into free shipping issues on ecigexpress and decided to purchase from Bull City vapors instead, as it was cheaper and on the east coast.  REALLY glad I did!  I ordered on Friday at like 2:30 PM, the package was in my mailbox by 1 PM on Monday.  And I even had a little handwritten thank you for your order with my name.  Small things can make a big difference.  I'll definitely be ordering flavors from them again.  Likely they'll be my go to place moving forward. 

[TheFinz]

Oh and my half gallon of VG/Nic premix should be on my doorstep tomorrow.  XD.  Should have enough to get through the next 8 months minimum.

[VapeMama]

I use Wizard Labs for my flavors and nic. The shipping can be steep if I don't reach the free shipping minimum, but they have a variety of flavor vendors to choose from, I like that. I usually end up paying the shopping because I'm at the point where I'm replenishing flavors, not stocking up anymore. I get my PG and VG from Amazon. I mix my own basses as hubby and I vape different nic levels.

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[VapeMama]

Of course I pay the "shopping"! I meant the SHIPPING. I really detest AUTOCORRECT!

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[TheFinz]

Yeah I was looking over wizard lab, thanks for pointing it out.  The prices at Bull City are a bit cheaper and the shipping was free.  Not sure if there was a minimum on it, but ecigxpress won't ship 500ml bottles for free, where Bull City will.  And I was trying to get a big bottle of Dx TFA Banana Cream as it's a primary flavor in my usual ADV.   

I make max VG liquids so I'm only buying VG, (I don't like throat hit anymore) any PG comes from the flavors themselves.  Also, I didn't want to store straight Nicotine due to the youngins in the house (yes the stuff is away in a safe place, and I def prefer safe to sorry) nor did I have any inclination to handle it directly. So I order it premixed into my VG.  I order the Nic ratio little high as it'll get diluted in the mixing, but it usually comes out somewhere close to 6% (maybe as high as 7) which is where I prefer it for now.  It's not a perfect scenario, but it's close enough for me to suffice.  I did mix Blue Raspberry, with a small touch of marshmallow, and a couple of drops of Super Sweet last night. I'm gonna give it a few days to settle and then give it a whirl.  

My wife quit smoking cold turkey when I moved to vaping.  She hasn't had a cigarette in 19 months now.  She was a bear to live with for about a good six weeks tho. xD

Edited June 6, 2017 by TheFinz

[VapeMama]

Gotta protect those little ones for sure in this big ole scary world. We only have 4 legged youngins sounds here. Everything is tucked away where they can't get their paws on it!!

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[Walt]

I guess I've become a vape snob to recent.  I haven't found an off the shelf juice I really like for quite some time.  Why did they put that in there?  Really?  Mods and tanks are getting the same way.  Most hit me as "ho hum, no thanks".  I guess in a way it's a good thing.  I'm buying a lot less. 

[Edna]

I haven't bought anything in quite awhile (juice wise) and I've been using wizard labs as well.  I can't say I'm becoming a vape snob but it's like home cooking it's always better homemade  compared to store bought. Truthfully though, I am considering getting a mini fridge for my craft room for my VG and flavors  to free up fridge space in the kitchen It's canning season and I have no room in there.

[Earthling789]

2 hours ago, Edna said:

I haven't bought anything in quite awhile (juice wise) and I've been using wizard labs as well.  I can't say I'm becoming a vape snob but it's like home cooking it's always better homemade  compared to store bought. Truthfully though, I am considering getting a mini fridge for my craft room for my VG and flavors  to free up fridge space in the kitchen It's canning season and I have no room in there.

I've not bought a commercial juice in about two years... although I've had several given to me   I just put another order in with Wizard Labs AND Heartland Vapes... Heartland's Nicotine is cheaper, and so are most of their flavors (and they offer 16oz flavors, too), but they don't carry some of the flavors I regularly use, and Wizard does... That's my first flavor and Nicotine order in over a year!  The only other things I've bought for mixing in the last year was some PG and VG gallons... because they were on sale... and a few plastic graduated cylinders and beakers to see if I liked them as well as glass ones... which I do!  VG doesn't adhere to the sides of the cylinder, so less time is spent mixing and cleaning, lol

+1 on the mini-fridge!  I have one in my office (the 3' tall, efficiency-apartment-size ones), and it is used only for my vape stuff and a few cans of cola in the door.  I store my bulk VG and Nicotine in the chest-freezer, and bulk PG in the mini-fridge... trying to only keep a gallon of over-stock on hand, as I don't use that much PG these days.  PG doesn't go bad as fast as VG, so there's no need to freeze it (IMO), because it has a room-temp shelf-life of at least 5-yrs, 10-yrs if kept cool and dark... and I've been using about a gallon every 2-years.  I use about 3 gallons of VG in the same time-period?

I keep all my mixed juices and all my in-use PG/VG/Nicotine/Flavors in the mini-fridge.  All of my mixing equipment is in the cabinet above the mini-fridge.  It's all out of sight, but easy to get to if I want to mix a batch of something...  

We're in need of more room in the house, so I'm in the process of moving my office out of the bedroom it is currently occupying, into an external 14x28 building I bought recently.  It has a high-barn roof, 12x12 loft storage, and is un-finished inside...  I'm planning to add a small bedroom and bath under the loft area, and turning the rest into a LR/office area with a wet-bar (for mixing drinks or mixing juices), etc.  It can be my office... man-cave... guest-house... or for entertaining friends/family without having anyone tracking through the main house... at least that's the plan!  

[Edna]

@Earthling789  sounds like quite the project .  Have fun. I'm repurposing 2 sheds into a chicken coop/goat area and another huge shed into a bunkhouse type quarters for visitor overflow. It's quite a undertaking but fun.

[Bebop]

Lol.  I bought a mini fridge couple months ago and it's working out great.  It's dedicated to vg, pg, and flavors. It's off the beaten path so nobody's gonna mistakenly get in to it.  

[cany]

Is it better  store pg/vg/ flavors in a frige?  all mine are in a dark cool closet as well as all my mixed stuff

 

 

Edited June 9, 2017 by cany

[Walt]

3 minutes ago, cany said:

Is it better  store pg/vg/ flavors in a frige?  all mine are in a dark cool closet as well as all my mixed stuff

 

 

I don't know Cany.  I just store all of my small quantity juice supplies in the mini fridge.  Gallons go in the freezer.  Just easier to store in one place for the stuff I am currently using.  Still have room for a dozen cans of pop and a dozen cans of carbonated water, so I'm good to go!  Keeps it in the same room as the work table as well.  I don't think it can hurt anything. 

[cany]

I always tought it was best to keep the stuff in a cool dark place not like a frige

 

[Walt]

3 minutes ago, cany said:

I always tought it was best to keep the stuff in a cool dark place not like a frige

 

Maybe somebody else will chime in with more info.  I'm just guessing.  I hope it's ok because it sure is convenient. 

[gadget]

I found this article that seems to explain different aspects of e liquid storage in great detail.

 

https://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/2015/10/how-store-e-liquid.html

 

 

Sent from a galaxy far far away

 

 

 

 

[Walt]

3 minutes ago, gadget said:

I found this article that seems to explain different aspects of e liquid storage in great detail.

 

https://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/2015/10/how-store-e-liquid.html

 

 

Sent from a galaxy far far away

 

 

 

 

Good catch!  And I get to keep my mini fridge!  The warm up before mixing I definitely caught on to.  VG just doesn't play well chilled. 

[cany]

7 hours ago, gadget said:

I found this article that seems to explain different aspects of e liquid storage in great detail.

 

https://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/2015/10/how-store-e-liquid.html

 

 

Sent from a galaxy far far away

 

 

 

 

Thanks

[Earthling789]

11 hours ago, Walt said:

Good catch!  And I get to keep my mini fridge!  The warm up before mixing I definitely caught on to.  VG just doesn't play well chilled. 

AMEN!  This is why I keep my "in-use" bottle of VG and VG-based Nicotine in the fridge, rather than the freezer.  It is a little easier to work with when chilled, rather than frozen, lol...  I try to keep at least 120ml of my Nicotine base, and a liter of pure VG in the fridge at all times.  It keeps just fine, and is easier to work with if I don't have time to "thaw it out" before I start mixing.

I measure my bulk-purchased Nicotine base (VG) into 60ml and 120ml bottles.  There's always a little air-gap from the shoulder to the neck of the bottle, so I top that off with pure VG to prevent oxygen degradation, and it only takes 2-5ml of VG to top them off.  Measuring VG when mixing 1000ml batches is never precise, so an extra ml here or there doesn't affect the overall mixture in the end... and when using glass graduated cylinders, there is always a couple of ML that just WON'T come out of the cylinder, anyway, lol.  Special note to those of you using graduated cylinders... I've found that VG doesn't adhere to the plastic cylinders nearly as bad as the glass ones, and there is less chance of breaking plastic during washing or if you knock it over... they are also CHEAPER!

A 60ml bottle of my Nicotine base is enough to mix 1000ml of my juices or 500ml of my fiance's flavors, so if I'm making a large batch of one flavor (ADV), then I know I can just dump the contents of my 60ml bottle into the batch, and I don't have to worry about sucking it into a syringe, or pouring "cold molasses" into a graduated cylinder  

If I know I'm going to mix juices this evening, I'll set out my VG and Nicotine base a few hours before-hand, so they'll have time to reach room-temp before I start mixing... it saves a lot of hassle!  Another thing I've learned is to use a syringe without attached needle (wide opening) for mixing small batches, or pouring into a graduated cylinder for large batches, makes handling thick VG MUCH easier!  Those medicine-dispensing syringes with the wide-mouth-cone-ends are fantastic for measuring VG for small batches... they measure up to 10ml or 20ml, and some have "stops" where you can pre-select 2.5/5.0/7.5/10/15/20ml so you don't get too little or too much.

[cany]

  I gotta say Ive got mixes that been sitting in my dark closet for almost a year and they still taste awesome

[Walt]

Good to know@cany. I've got a lot of store bought liquids that are headed that way.


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[cany]

12 minutes ago, Walt said:

Good to know@cany. I've got a lot of store bought liquids that are headed that way.


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I might add these are my mixes not store bought.... When I first started DIY I never herd of keeping then in a frige just a dark place out of the sun