Concentrate Percentages

Hey Everyone, I thought a good first thread on this DIY Juice forum would be one about how much / what percentage of specific concentrates work for you.

Here's what I've tried so far:

Perfumer's Apprentice Mary Jane: Perfect at 10%

Vape King's IMix concentrates:

Lemon, Caramel, and Apple all at 15% (Will do a higher concentrate amount next as they need a bit more umph - especially the lemon and apple but haven't vaped the caramel by itself just yet.)

Raspberry at 20% - will try 25% next. Really nice vape just not as stong in flavour as Vape King's Raspberry doubler.

Now it's your turn! :-D

 

Can anyone give me a rough estimate of how much it costs to DIY juice, as a comparison to buying a doubler ? Thanks.

 

Very very rough estimate would be something like you could make two or more doublers and still be under the price of one commercial doubler. I don't think I'm doing DIY to save money though - I just really enjoy trying combinations and experimenting.

 

Cost will vary depending on how much you are paying for the ingredients and the strengths used. A link to download the calculator I use is below. One of the Excel pages is a DIY Cost Calculator. Load in the variables and it will give you the costs.
https://www.filesanywhere.com/fs/v.aspx?v=89716a8d58646ea772a0

 

Regarding concentrate strengths, I mainly use PA concentrates and most flavours I mix at 15%. However, some like Cinnamon Red Hots I can't handle above 5%. That first 20ml of 15% near tore the lining from my mouth!!! LOL

 

try redhots at 20% geez did that dry up my mouth

 

The expensive bit is trying out flavours and then figuring out your own favourite recipes (this costs time)

When you have your recipes all tweaked to perfection it will cost peanuts. Especially with FlavourArt and some of the Perfumers Apprentice flavours....since they are so concentrated.

If you go direct to flavourart you'd be paying about $5 for 20ml (you can buy larger amounts for a huge discount if you like) - You'd probably be using 10-15% flavouring at most...so 20ml of FA flavouring would give you about 170ml of juice (if my maths is right) mixed @ 15%. So that's $5 for flavouring+ PG/VG + nicotine + dropper bottle = 170ml of e-juice.

It can be a lot of fun but at the same time isn't for everybody.

 

Thanks everyone, i do have plenty of time, so will definatly be giving it a go

 

1.5ml Camtel
.75ml Black Cherry
.5ml Butterscotch
.5ml Rasberry.

If you like Dels Champion Blend you will like this.
I dont mind it but not for all day.

All PA flavours
for a 30ml Mix

 

Huh. Never thought of raspberry with tobacco. I like adding dark cherry to tobacco flavours though.

 

Why would you mix FlavourArt at 15% ?

Where are you getting your FA from? (It's rhetorical and tongue in cheek, I have been reading your various postings around the place)

15% for a primary FA concentrate flavour is very...overly strong, it would be like mixing most cordials 50/50 with water and then drinking it.

Apple Pie (for arguments sake) at 5% (doubler would be 10%) will give a full bodied flavour. 15% would be sickly.

Most tobaccos would be a 2-3% start and even then that could be overly strong.

Based off revised figures using real world amounts of the genuine stuff....20ml concentrate would make 400ml of vapeable juice....not 170ml.

 

Some people do mix some of the flavourart flavours at @ 15%. I guess they like strong juice I'd bet there'd be some who use +15%. Strangely enough too much flavouring can make it taste weaker! This is known you can look it up.

The reason for using 15% was to get the MOST it would cost her. If I had told her she'd get 400ml out of 20ml of concentrate, there's every chance she might like her mix stronger.

Some flavours are weaker than others...it's just how it is.




I personally wouldn't. I get my flavours from flavourart, vapour trails and ecig-sa (very happy with them all) Some of you people from WA seem to be very suspicious about fake FA stuff going around. With more experience you guys will realize that there's inconsistency with even the best flavour makers Changing natural ingredient quality, storage/heat/light and how long ago it was manufactured will all play a part, as well as companies changing their recipes occasionally.

Here's a link to a sticky thread at ECF by a very knowledgeable DIY'er. He mentions some FA stuff being reported to be good up to 15%. -

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/74109-guide-diy-flavoring.html#post1097224

You should give some of that thread a read, it's got some good basic information at the beginning, and more technical stuff further into the numerous pages of posts. This is probably where I'd recommend most people start out

The point you bring up about flavour concentration being variable is important.

 

Toned Down!

 

Have to think outside the box I've been trying to do this lately and have had some good juices as a result.

Any of you guys tried hypnotic mist? Can't pin down the flavour but I think lemonaidey with a very very slight hint of tobacco at the end. 10% is good, 12% is good but getting a bit heavy for my tastes. Could probably go 15% if you're someone who wants lots of flavour.

As hack mentioned above it IS very important to start low with flavourings, and then work your way up. Some flavourart stuff especially, watch out with those tobaccos!

Also from flavourart - Cookie @ 10% with another flavour added can be realllly good.

 

I made up several concentrates last week - with low concentrations. Tried them a day or two later and I think most are just fine as they are. I'll give them another go this week after a bit of steeping.

I haven't yet mixed any two concentrates together, but I do have both peanut butter and chocolate I'll be combining to see if I can get something like my beloved peanut butter cups. Gee and calorie free too. YUM!

And I DO plan on trying the cookie soon. I don't have any but next time I do an order I will for sure. Love the idea of peanut butter cookie flavour too.

 

Hmm...I must be doing something wrong. Can someone help?

I just made up 2 mixes using FA & Ecig-SA concentrates. Irish Cream and Pina Colada.

10ml:
2.5ml Nic (36mg 80/20 PG/VG) - to give 9mg overall
2.0ml Flavour
5.5ml VG (100%)
So that's 20% flavour

Mixed, loaded up a new Boge LR carto with an Ego VV battery....Tastes terrible. Sickly taste and smell on any voltage

Hmm.... maybe too strong I thought, so I put it into a 30ml bottle and added:
15ml VG
5ml Nic
So the flavour is now down to 5%.

Sat the mixed bottle in warm water for a few minutes, shaked heaps and put into another fresh Boge LR carto.
Blah!!! Still sickly in smell and flavour. I can hardly taste the actual flavour its meant to be.

Do you think I just need to let it steep for longer. like a few weeks? Or have I done something wrong.
I've only ever used premixed juices before and they're all warm with heaps of flavour.

 

Sometimes you make good juice, other times it's what's affectionately called 'Ass Juice' around here. That said, steeping is always a good idea on any mixes you do. It rarely tastes decent when freshly mixed. Did you use all of the original mix when you diluted it? If not, just steep both and try them again in a couple of weeks.

 

From what I've been reading about DIY e-juice lately, I've gathered that the percentage of concentrate depends highly on their quality. Some juices I've seen are advertised as 1.2% and 2.4% for doublers! They must have *very* concentrated flavours to work with.

I have a theory that the lower percentage of flavour in the base liquid will be much gentler to atty coils, not that I'm necessarily an atty preservist or anything. I would like to have both good flavour and less of that dark crappy juice that won't volatize eventually flooding into my juice well or gunking up the coilis and burning in the wick. Ick!

 

and .. I still think your theory needs work

Flavours are chemicals, to get the same strength you need the same amount in the final mix regardless of what the starting concentration is.
its like strong cordial and weak cordial, you mix to taste, use less of a strong one and more of the weak one.
other things that are not the particular chemicals that you want are of course unneccesary, so purity will make a hell of a difference.

saw a doco on flavour once, apparentely you can only taste around 4 things at once, it may have been smell also, not sure.

I have a theory too, dekang as a biochem factory only use a small quantity of specific, safe (as in tested) and likely manufactured chemicals to produce a synthetic flavour close enough to represent what they want, other flavour companys extract flavours from the real thing, so its likely a great deal of the chemicals in there have no effect and are possibly unknown. There could well be a great deal of them in a flavour and not all will be active. So its going to be more accurate representation than what a dk juice is, but may kill your atty in the process.

look at the list down the bottom of this page for an idea of what I mean Ester - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Used to be able to mix at around 20 to 23 percent for all the concentrates around, which is why many juice calculators have 20% as the de.comlt starting amount.. that was 2 years ago. These days however there are so many different brands of concentrates it is hard to know what to do. Menthol was always one that you mixed lower than that.. but I'd say 90% of the flavours could be mixed at between 18 and 23 percent. Now though the range is everywhere from about 1% all the way to 25% depending on the strength of the concentrate. Would be nice if sellers and resellers of concentrates had some kind of guide for each and every flavour concentrate that sold.