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I wonder what other factors, apart from oxidation, affect the storage life of nic base in the freezer... ? and if there are, will glass bottles reduce them?

Personally, up to 10 years is fine for me - but if I wanted to lay down a few bottles for future generations then I guess I would use glass.

Like many of us, I bought a huge stash of 72mg nic base before the (ridiculous) EU law came into force in May.


The general consensus has been that this should be stored in glass containers in the freezer, but I have now discovered that this is not strictly true. I have a friend that is a plastics engineer in the food industry, and he says that bottles made of HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) are perfect for long term storage in domestic freezers, as there is no leeching of toxic chemicals into the contents, and they remain flexible at these low temperatures and will not crack or shatter. Moreover he says that glass containers, unless made of Pyrex or Kilner type glass become more brittle at freezer temperatures and could shatter if a heavy object (like a frozen turkey) was dropped on them in a chest freezer. Also, if unsuitable glass containers were subjected to rapid thawing like defrosting in a microwave oven, they could shatter.


I looked at the bottom of the 1litre bottles that the nic base was supplied in, and there is the Resin Symbol for type2 HDPE, so it seems that they are perfect for freezing - so that's where my 6 bottles are now safely stored.

Being very cautious about this kind of thing, I have since researched this on the Internet and I am happy that the information my friend gave me was correct. Take a look yourself - there are many references on this subject especially from accredited commercial sources. 

I was recently ejected from a (Green King brewery) pub for vaping. In public, I only stealth vape - creating virtually no vapour, but it was the fact that I was seen to be using a vaping device that was enough to be asked to go outside with the stinkies, or leave. I left - and vowed never to set foot inside a Green King pub again (no great loss, their beer is c..p anyway!).

It amazes me that a member of an industry that is founded on selling products that have known health issues (wine, beer, spirits etc) should adopt such a policy for something that is perfectly legal and has no reported health issues. Before the smoking ban, how many bars/pubs had a no-smoking policy - none that I can think of.

I have also read that since the ban in 2007, nearly 40% of pubs in UK have closed (15 in my area). I also read that over this time the availability of alcohol in the form of affordable good-quality wine and craft beers in supermarkets has risen by over 500%. Is all this an indication that breweries are ditching the hospitality side of their business, in favour of mass distribution of alcohol to the large retail outlets?

When I read in the Telegraph about the government's positive (changed) attitude towards vaping, I smelled a rat. The treasury must be smarting from the decreasing revenue from tobacco so, is it possible they are attempting to stimulate the vaping market so that at some time in the not to distant future it will be worth imposing duty on nicotine products? (Notice I refer to Nicotine, not Tobacco products - a lot of our vaping nicotine is not derived from tobacco.)

I watched the program twice, and found it to be generally well balanced, informative, and fairly unbiased. The science was interesting, but left several questions unanswered, and failed to equate the health aspect with other potential 'risks' we encounter in our daily lives (like micro-particles belched out by vacuum cleaners and air-conditioning systems, not to mention scented air 'freshener' aerosols and strong perfumes - the list is too long to continue here). It was also amazing that there was no mention of the huge cost incentive in switching to vaping.

BUT... There was one thing that annoyed me immensely, in common with virtually every other documentary on vaping that I have seen, and that was the huge focus on what I think you call 'cloud chasing'. They even went to great lengths to enhance the visual impact by stage-managing the lighting and using dark backgrounds. This is just the kind of adverse publicity that vaping doesn't need, and is bound to alienate public opinion against it. I am a committed vaper of over 6 years, have many friends that vape, and noticed countless people out and about that are vaping, and it is rare to see anyone do this. I wonder how many people that do, realise how ridiculous it looks, and likely to give a false impression of their mentality. I put it in the same category as spitting in public. One of the first tricks I taught myself when I first started vaping was the art of 'stealth vaping' - the exact opposite of cloud-chasing, so as not to draw peoples' attention. This is particularly useful in desperation in places where vaping is prohibited (but not unlawful). 

One thing that did come out from the program was the question mark over flavourings, which did not surprise me. In my first year of vaping I started out using commercial flavoured juice, but I gradually found that my breathing was not as good as I would have expected, and I coughed a lot. I then switched to mixing my own, mainly for economic reasons, but I did not get any improvement. Besides this, my wife complained of the sweet smell of the vapour which she said was not particularly pleasant, so I experimented with making a flavourless brew. After a while, I came up with the perfect formula and have used it now for the past 5 years without any breathing difficulties. Interestingly, my friends have also converted to this and I regularly supply them because they are too lazy to mix their own.

When I ceased smoking cigarettes, I went cold turkey. I still had 2 packs left - one was unopened, and the other had one left in it. I stashed these in the glove box of my car as a 'safety net' but, strangely, as time went on this also helped me because rather than being a temptation they became a constant reminder and physical evidence that I was succeeding in my determination to quit. After a month of pure hell I experimented with NRT which took the edge off my cravings, but it was not until I happened across vaping (I was an early adopter) that life became good (really good) again.

What happened to those packs? Well, after a couple of years I was going to frame them as a trophy to my success, but by then I viewed them with such revulsion, and guilt that I had let them rule my life and my pocket for so many years, that I ripped them apart and put them in the bin. It felt so good!

Here is a cost and health breakdown of my own experience of switching from tobacco through NRT to vaping, using current prices. I should mention that I used to smoke up to 3 packs a day, and was also a smoker for over 50 years


    NRT (mainly gum & lozenges) £140/month - regular gastric problems, still often had unpleasant withdrawal symptom 

    Vaping £9/month (including expendables) - no noticeable health problems, did/do not suffer withdrawal at all  

Finally, I recently had a health mot, and they found my lung function was nearly 80%, blood oxygen level was normal, and an ultrasound test on my main arteries showed they were perfectly healthy. This was a huge improvement on the results of a similar examination performed ten years earlier. Apparently, for someone of my age, I was told, it was as if I had never smoked...

Jeff 

Bear in mind that longer names affects both screen layout and printing, if everything is to fit on a small index card...

So, you will have to wait for next version, which I am currently working on. There may be a solution for you.

So, if you are working with such low mix volumes, and one of the flavours comes out to 1.43 drops, how are you going to cope with that? and that is assuming that the drops/ml are correct. Should Ez-Mix report this as 1, or 2 drops?

If you occasionally come across very low volumes, then it is an easy matter to convert this to drops yourself, providing you have confidence in the conversion factor, which could easily be different between different liquids. Then make a note of what you did in the Notes.

See the Help file under 'Drops vs ml' to see why I do not advocate this approach. When I first started mixing, I tried using 'drops' myself, but soon realised its shortcomings, and now it seems a crude and amateurish thing to do. Having said that, I note that, occasionally, flavour vendors give recommendation of quantity in drops (using their bottles). I may address this aspect in the next version.