Knowledge, Guides, and News

As with most consumables on the market, they have an expiration or best before date. So, this begs the question whether or not E-Liquid has a best-before date and the answer to that is yes, but there are some factors to it. The most important ingredients in e-liquid being PG, VG, and nicotine all have a shelf life of roughly 2 years if stored in the right conditions. Now, I say "right conditions" because certain factors can shorten the shelf life of an e-juice and cause these ingredients to break down.

One of the main things that shorten the shelf life of e-juice is direct sunlight and extreme heat. Keeping your e-juice in a dark, room temperature environment is one of the best ways to keep your bottle fresh. If you’ve ever left a bottle of juice in the car, you’ll probably notice that it’s much darker than when you bought it. This is because VG and PG can breakdown when exposed to heat for a long period of time and it loses the ability to recombine even when the temperature is lowered.

A few ways to tell if your e-juice is expired is to see if it’s separated. Usually e-juice will separate if left for a long period of time and a quick shake will usually fix that. But expired e-juice wont mix the same way non-expired e-juice will. If you are trying to shake your bottles, but still notice some separation, it may be time to toss the bottle.

Another way to check expired ejuice is to simply smell it. As with most things, if it goes bad, you can usually smell it. Now, not all flavours will change smells drastically, but if you notice that it looks and smells a bit odd, your ejuice may be expired.

Lastly is the “Peppery” taste. This is a clear sign that the nicotine in your e-juice has gone bad. Nicotine in e-juice usually has little to no taste when vaped fresh. The only thing noting nicotine in an e-juice is usually the throat hit. If you find that you are getting a harsh, peppery taste from your e-juice, you may have to throw it out and pickup a new bottle.

Vaping expired e-juice poses no apparent harm, but it’s definitely not a good vape experience.

If you find that you have multiple bottles of juice waiting to be vaped, I’d recommend leaving them in a drawer away from sunlight until you’re ready to vape them.