Do You Have the Right Type Of E-Liquid in Your Vape?

Many inexperienced vapers having recently given up smoking are not aware that there are different types of e-liquid, they may be using a relatively simple starter vape device with the supplied or recommended vape juice. But as you move onwards and upwards on your vaping journey it is important to understand the different types of e-liquid in the marketplace and they are suitable for more advanced vape devices you might progress to. We will take a look at the rudimentary basics of vape liquid and discuss the three main types of e-liquid available and their characteristics.

The Main Components

There are four main ingredients in the e-liquid sold in the UK, which is then heated in the vape device to produce that flavourful vape sensation. Some seasoned vapers do prefer to purchase some of separate parts and mix their own e-liquid to their flavoured strength – more on that later, but the standard components of pre-mixed e-liquid are as follows –

  • Propylene Glycol (PG) – an organic compound used for over 60 years in the medicine and food industries, it is a superb carrier of flavour and the thinner of two main components.
  • Vegetable Glycerine (VG) – a clear liquid produced from natural plant oils like Coconut or Soy and used in Food and Cosmetic products. It’s thicker consistency means it produces larger clouds of vapour.
  • Nicotine – Will be one of two types of nicotine, Freebase or Nicotine salt and as stated can be pre-mixed or added later.
  • Food Based Flavourings – these are usual flavour giving ingredients used in today’s food industry.

The flavouring element is something that remains fairly consistent in e-liquid with the different types of vape juice having different levels of the three other components.

The Three Different Types Of E-Liquid

The manufacturers of e-liquid produce vaping liquids with different mix ratios of both PG and VG to create vape liquids that are more suited to some ways of vaping, the main three types of e-liquids in the marketplace are generally as follows –

  • 50/50 – the most often used type of e-liquid has equal amounts of PG and VG, it produces a nice even vape with both good flavour levels and vapour production and is suitable for both starter and some more advanced devices.
  • 70/30 – this type of e-liquid is higher in VG, the higher amount of this thick substance allows for the e-liquid to produce larger clouds of vapour when used in conjunction with an advanced vape machine with a sub-ohm coil. It is the vape juice of choice for all budding cloud chasers.
  • 80/20 – this mix ratio describes an e-liquid with a higher level of PG, this produces a vape high in flavour and a strong throat hit which is preferred by vapers who prefer taste and the replication of the smoking sensation. The type of vape liquid is best used with vape pens and pods which do not use a sub-ohm coil.

Mixing Your Own E-liquid

As I briefly touched upon, some seasoned vapers prefer to mix vaping liquid to their own recipe, to enable the majority of good vaping suppliers to sell e-liquid with no nicotine pre-mixed, this is referred to as Shortfill e-liquid. To this is added a nicotine component that is also sold in different strengths, this is called the Shot, by combining the shot with the shortfill their desired e-liquid is achieved. The mixing ratios can seem complicated but with some proper research it becomes clearer, to ease the process most shortfill e-liquid bottles are supplied with room for the shot so mixing is easy.

I hope this information has simplified the world of e-liquid for you and given an idea of where your vaping journey might take you.