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Master Mixer's Tips & Tricks

Some of these tips and tricks are paraphrased from the thread DIY Master Techniques - Flavor Add-on's (EM, VW, BW, MTS, ACV, ect) on ECF.

I've had great response from the wonderfully sarcastic members of ECF. It's much aprreciated! I don't pretend to know everything, and I am very open to feedback!

A word before you begin

Many of these notes are anecdotal, and the experiences you will gather yourself, is the only truth. Some say that many of the additives will mute the flavors over time, and not enhance it. This, like the positive things, is also hearsay, and may not be what you will experience, working with them.

My intentions for creating this so called "Master Mixer"-page, was to try and gather all useful tips and tricks used by people around the web, to enhance their mixes. Many of them, I haven't tried myself.

Secret ingredients

Adding Throat Hit

Most of us are suckers for a good punch in the back of the throat ;)

Flavors known to add extra throat hit:

Horchata by Capella

Most cinnamon flavors

Ecto Cooler

Flavors that use capsaicin (the strong component of chilies).

Menthols - See futher up.

Some say that adding a bit of vodka to your mix will enhance TH.

Steeping/curing

Steeping or curing is arguably the most important part of DIY. Very few mixes are real good right after mixing. Of course there are exceptions to the rule. Regardless, most juices change over time. Even though some juices are good right off the bat, they can turn phenomenal after steeping, so try to let the process run its course.

If it's good straight away, by all means, have at it - but expect it to change. If the flavoring contains any kind of alcohol, it can be a good idea to leave the cap off for a good 24 hours. Shake your mix a couple of times a day, and leave it in a cool dark place. I usually try my new mixes after a couple of days. If it's no good, I leave it alone until it's steeped for a week, and try again. If it's still no good, wait one more week. If you're still out of luck, you can try leaving it for longer, but outlook is not good ;)

For best results, patience and time will do everything for you. The following tips are for the impatient ;-)

Steeping shortcuts

Crockpot / warm water

There are several methods to speed up the steeping/curing process. Some use a crockpot, set it for low temperature and leave their mix in a warm water bath for 2-24 hours.

Instead of the crockpot, you can put the bottles in warm water until cooled off, then shake vigoruously. Repeat ad nauseum :)

/u/simpleone234 steeped 6 mg/ml juice in a crock pot for 5 hours on high, then sent the juice to a lab for testing. The result was that the juice was now 5 mg/ml. So the nicotine breaks down a little when using heat and time.

Hot rice bath

Another method is to heat a bowl of dry rice in your microwave, and put the bottles right in the middle of the rice. When it's cooled completely shake it like you just don't care, and do it again.

Ultrasonic Cleaner

People have also reported that putting your bottles in an ultrasonic cleaner. These are commonly used to clean jewelry. You can even get an ultrasonic cleaner, with heating to make the process even faster.

The author of this ECF-thread claims that his e-liquid, normally steeped 14 days, are ready in just two days! Read another thread with steep times. Bottom line is, with the heated cleaner, 12-24 cycles of 8 minutes will simulate a three week steep.

Microwaving

To gently heat, you can also microwave your mixed liquid, for 3 seconds, followed by vigorious shaking until cooled down, and repeat a few times. Be careful not to leave it in the microwave for too long.

A word on coloring, opacity and gunk ;)

My personal opinion of coloring is this: It's completely unnecessary. Adding an unknown to the mix in form of a color, just because it will look more interesting is unnecessary. if you do decide to add coloring, research and add something that should be safe to vape (don't know how to check that). Also know, that the coloring will serve to gunk up your atomizer way more quickly.

As you may have noticed, darker liquids tend to gunk up your atomizers more quickly than clear liquids. By dark I don't necessarily mean coloring (we covered that), but mixes that become darker with age.

Sugary additives and sweeteners tend to gunk up your atomizer much faster. Saline may or may not act the same way.

Always be hesitant of opaque liquids. If the liquid is not completely clear (dark is ok), it's probably not a good idea to vape it, before investigating why it's opaque. Some liquids like absinthe based on aniseed (and wormwood) turn opaque when they are mixed with other liquids. But a while back we learned that a vendor added titanium oxide to achieve the same effect. That is definitely not a good idea to vape.

My mix turned harsh!

You've done a mix, and it turned out great. After a while though, the mix slowly turns harsh, as it steeps - you're getting a way harder throat hit than you used to. Chances are you have added too much flavoring. Try to dial down the flavoring, and let it steep before sampling it.

Drops per ml?!

How do I know how many drops there is to a ml? Drops are really a terrible way to measure. It's ok in a pinch though, but if you want to be precise with it, you need to work out how many drops you get per milliliter of a particular liquid. One way, is to take a syringe, pull in some air, then pull up the liquid to exactly one ml (perhaps a tiny bit more), then put the liquid the container you drip from. A pipette, dripper, bottle, bottle with needle nose etc, then it's just a matter of counting.

Another way, is to put a small receptacle on a precision scale, reset (tare) it, then just drop until you have one ml. This requires you to know how much one ml of liquid weighs.

Propylene Glycol weighs 1.04 g per ml.

Vegetable glycerine weighs 1.26 g per ml.

Water weighs 1 g per ml.

PGA or Ethanol is typically 95% pure alcohol and weighs 0.79 g per ml.

Most flavors are in a PG solution with "something else", and can probably be approximated to 1 g per ml.

Be sure to always have roughly the same ambient temperature, when measuring.

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