You might be lucky if you have family or friends to give you guidance, but if not, never mind, here’s some advice that might help you clear things up in your vape journey.
The flavour, the nicotine strength and the PG/VG ratio might be the key things that we should consider when buying e-cig juice.
What is Vape Juice & How Does It Work?
Vape juice typically contains 4 ingredients: PG, VG, Flavoring & Nicotine (optional).
PG — A thin liquid that delivers intense “throat hit” feeling, produce very little vapor on its own.
VG — A thick & sweet liquid plays a better role in producing vapour.
(PG & VG are the carriers of flavorings & nicotine)
Flavoring — Giving taste to the e-juice. Desserts, tobacco, fruit & more blends.
Nicotine — It is an addictive substance and comes in various strength in e-liquids. Not required to make juice. Add throat hit to the juice.(For this reason we don’t recommend taking up vaping if you have not smoked.)
In a word, PG & VG are odourless liquids combined with flavorings and nicotine to create the vape juice (nicotine can be optional in it). Each ingredient plays an important role in your vaping experience.
How does vape juice work? When the eliquid is added into the tank, it begins to soak the coil, then when you fire up the vape kit, it heats the ejuice up so that it turns into a vapour.
How Can I Choose the PG/VG Ratio?
The PG/VG ratio refers to amount of PG and VG that is added in the vape juice.
There is no one best ratio for everyone, it will mostly depend on the vape setups that you use & the effects that you want.
Two main vape effects:
For large clouds & gentler throat hit —— choose a higher VG level to produce dense clouds of vapour. You can choose something like 70VG:30PG and above.
But do bear in mind that you will need to get a more powerful setups before using that.
As the VG is thicker, it is harder to vaporize, the battery need to provide more power, you will need a powerful setup to handle that power & thicker juice.
To get a strong throat hit —— If you enjoy a sharp throat hit, a high PG ejuice can be the option. The feeling is something many ex-smokers crave.
Based on varied vaping setups:
Clearomizers: Suits for high PG ejuice, or a 50/50 ratio. They are not generally suitable for high VG liquid, as their high resistance coil can’t work well with the thick liquid,
and the battery can not provide enough power for vaporizing, they can lead to dry hits.
Sub-ohm mod kits: These high powered vapes heat liquid at a higher temperature, they are designed to deal well with high VG ejuice and anything over 50% VG will be suitable.
Rebuildables: They are more flexible with the ratio.
Besides that, you will also need to pay attention of the coil resistance, and here is the principles for your reference:
High resistance coils need less power & longer time to heat up, less power results in lower temperature, and low temperature suits a thinner PG e-juice, meaning more throat hit from your e-cig.
Low resistance coils need more power & less time to heat up, more power results in higher temperature, and high temperature suits a thicker VG e-liquid, meaning more throat vapour from your e-cig.
The PG:VG/50:50 ratio is the most common one that gives enough throat hit for most smokers, but you can adjust the ratio accordingly to get your comfortable spot.
Just to be aware of the vaping setups that you use should be able to support different ratios.
How to Choose the Nicotine Strength?
The most common strengths are from 0mg-48mg, but every person’s needs and habits are different, and you can try to find the one that satisfy your cravings best.
Normally, it depends on how much and how often you vape.
Low Strength = 6mg & below – For light smokers who go through 10 cigarettes or less per day. (But if you are not already a smoker, you don’t need nic,the 0mg will be the option)
Mid Strength = 9mg to 16mg - If you have around 1 pack a day.
High Strength = 18mg & above - For heavy smoker with more than 1 pack a day.
Choosing the right strength is important for you, as varied strengths will lead to different feelings, too little will make you vape more to compensate, while too much may give you headaches, coughing.
A suggested rule is to choose your strength level and start with lower mg, then adjust accordingly.
Besides that, there are 2 types of nicotine bases in vape juice, freebase nicotine & nicotine salts.
Freebase nicotine —— It is the original nicotine in vaping liquids, which creates strong throat hit, it suits people who enjoy that feels.
Nicotine salts —— It feels less stronger throat hit than the Freebase one. They are popular with with new vapers and are ideal for light smokers.
How About the Flavour?
There’s a huge variety of flavours in the market to suit different tastes, tobacco tastes, fruity & food tastes, menthol tastes, etc.
Choosing e-liquid flavorings is a very personal thing, start with the one that you are pretty much sure you will like, best among famous & reliable brands,
then try and test till you are more experienced to find the one that suits you best.
The End
It may take some time before getting the e-liquids that suits you best.
But once you identify your needs, things will get easier for you to start with.
And when you are more experienced buying e-juice, you will be able to make quick decisions what you might enjoy vaping.
Thanks for reading.
WARNING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. You must be at least 21 years old to purchase.