Clear eJuice ?

[ToxicRVA]

I have read numerous posts stating that the darker colored juices tend to gunk up your coils faster so I was wondering, are there any vendors out there that do NOT use any food colorings at all, and carry a line of completely clear juice.

The flavors I like are all generally darker, but do they really have to be?

 

[wjosephsimmons]

MBV (Mt. Baker Vapor) have a new line of 3 or 4 premium ejuices called GWAR, that come in optional uncolored mixes. But they still have some color in them, just no added colors. Beyond that, they do have a handy color/shade indicator rating, from 1-5, on the web-pages of each of their regular mixes, so you can tell which will gunk up your coils faster than others. And it is quite accurate from my experience, too. They also maintain a list of their juices that will crack plastic tanks.

 

[Susan~S]

You can buy PG/VG nicotine base at many online stores that sell DIY supplies.

In general (if you are not DIY) fruits tends to be lighter, deserts, tobacco, and more complex flavors tend to be darker.

 

[ToxicRVA]

MBV (Mt. Baker Vapor) have a new line of 3 or 4 premium ejuices called GWAR, that come in optional uncolored mixes.

I know all about the Gwar juices, one of my favorite local bands, and Dave Brockie (R.I.P.) was a friend of mine. I'm actually on the fence about those, a bit pricey and more of a novelty collectors item than something I might open and use.

 

[ToxicRVA]

You can buy PG/VG nicotine base at many online stores that sell DIY supplies.

In general (if you are not DIY) fruits tends to be lighter, deserts, tobacco, and more complex flavors tend to be darker.

If I'm understanding you correctly, it's the flavorings themselves that contain the coloring rather than extra color added after mixing the flavors.

Makes sense... so I would have to find flavoring companies that don't use colorings and get into DIY

 

[wjosephsimmons]

I know all about the Gwar juices, one of my favorite local bands, and Dave Brockie (R.I.P.) was a friend of mine. I'm actually on the fence about those, a bit pricey and more of a novelty collectors item than something I might open and use.

I agree. The glass bottle is cool, but I transfer all my MBV juices into glass bottles that I get from Specialty Bottle (shameless plug) anyway. Most of their regular juices can't be beat, especially at their prices, so I buy from them exclusively these days. The fruit flavors are my favorites, and their banana is my ADV (make that my all-month vape)! And it's so light that I can easily use the same coil in a Protank 2 for over a week, and maybe once simply wash it under really hot water to clean it before replacing it.

 

[Maurice Pudlo]

It isn't from my understanding the colorant that gunks up the coils as much as the sweetener and flavor extracts themselves used in some e-liquids that do the gunking.

Less flavoring tends to minimize gunking, where more flavoring leads to rapid coil crud buildup.

As for color of the liquid itself being a good indicator of a liquid that will result in a gunked up coil, I suppose it is as good an indicator as any. Mind you nicotine itself will oxidize and color an otherwise perfectly clear e-liquid, generally giving a orange color to the mix.

Maurice

 

[wjosephsimmons]

As for color of the liquid itself being a good indicator of a liquid that will result in a gunked up coil, I suppose it is as good an indicator as any. Mind you nicotine itself will oxidize and color an otherwise perfectly clear e-liquid, generally giving a orange color to the mix.
Maurice

Good point.

 

[mattiem]

It has been my experience that if a flavored juice has nicotine in it, it will darken somewhat over time even with no extra color added. I am not a chemist so don't know why it does what it does.

I discovered this by mixing up some of my favorite juice (Hazelnut) I mixed 30ml @12mg nic and 30ml with no nic. Both had the same amount of flavoring added. The one with no nic stays perfectly clear while the one with nic turns a nice amber color after just a few days and continues to darken until it is a really dark amber color. While vaping it, it turns almost black when the juice level goes down to close to needing to be refilled. The flavor doesn't seem to change so I just add new juice to the dark that is already in there.

My hubby vapes plain unflavored nic juice. I mix his at 14mg. Since it has no flavoring at all it stays perfectly clear other than a hint of brown as his coil gets near the end of its useful life. The juice in the bottle does not discolor at all.

This juice has no extra sweetener or other additives so my coils don't tend to gunk up as quickly as one with the sweetener added.

 

[realsis]

Yes, I make my own e juice and sweetener and darker flavors can junk up a coil. Sweetener especially depending on what your using. Most of my juices I'd say 90% are clear. The color is coming from the flavoring. Have you considered making your own e juice? Then you can make it exactly the way YOU like and you can be certain your juice isn't colored. I have noticed most of the ejuice bought from a company is colored. I often wonder why and if they actually color it. But if you make your own you can be certain what's in it. Hope this helps.

 

[Susan~S]

If I'm understanding you correctly, it's the flavorings themselves that contain the coloring rather than extra color added after mixing the flavors.

Makes sense... so I would have to find flavoring companies that don't use colorings and get into DIY

Yes, the flavorings do have color.

As far as DIY, the color of your juice is dependent on the strength of the flavoring. Flavoring from Flavour Arts and Inawera are more concentrated than say TFA or Capella. So when using FA I don't have to add as much flavor to my recipe as I would with TFA. If you look at some single fruit recipes you can see this.

 

[ToxicRVA]

Thanks for all the great replies, it's looking like I need to start working on DIY juices.

I can completely understand sweeteners gunking up things faster as the sugars caramelize on the coils, most of the flavors I've got are a bit sweeter than I want them to be anyway so going DIY would let me reduce that aspect as well.

Looks like my next step is to dive into the DIY forums and see if I can find a good starting point for myself that doesn't cost more than my past monthly cigarette budget.

 

[FattyJ]

The nicotine does make your juice darker over time due to oxidation. If the juice is clear from the start and gets darker over time odds are it is from nicotine oxidation.

 

[asvaldr]

From my experience the gunk is not only affected by the color of the juice, i have a clear eJuice that makes gunk really fast because of the sugar content in it easily caramelized, on other hands i got some juice that has some color in it and make my wick and coil stay clean for a long time.

 

[yzer]

I vape the same cartomizer for a maximum of ten days in a carto tank. This is 95/5 VG/H2O with 12mg nicotine. No coloring, no flavoring, nothing else. I refill the 5ml tank once a day when it reaches the half full point. This is what the juice looks like in the tank for the first seven days. Completely clear.

Here is the same juice ten days later. The color has yellowed due to the accumulation of what I assume to be cotinine, the first metabolite of nicotine and what nicotine turns into when it is oxided by heat and/or sunlight. I usually swap out a new carto, clean the tank and refill with fresh juice before reaching this point. I don't like the flavor of yellowed juice all that much.

 

[440BB]

I do wish all or at least more liquid vendors gave a shade rating, so those of us who prefer clear or pale liquids could make that choice easily. I want minimal color, and definitely no added coloring.

 

[yzer]

Remember Pluid?

 

[Unforeseen]

Moved to General E-Liquid Discussion