What Is PG and VG — What’s In My Vape Liquid
Discover What Is In Your Vape Liquid — The Truth About PG & VG
Dan The Vape Man — May 27th, 2019
So, you’ve got your first vape kit in the mail and you go to set it up, have a puff and low and behold, it tastes like burnt cotton.
You do a bit of googling and discover that you are missing a crucial piece of the puzzle: Vape Liquid.
So what is Vape Liquid? What is it made of? How does it work? Is it safe? And where do I get it?
Read on to get the low down on all things to do with Vape Liquid so you can make the right choices and enjoy your vaping experience.
What is Vape Liquid?
To answer this, we first need to look at vaping as a whole. Firstly we need to understand a vape device to get perspective of how vape liquid works.
A vape device is generally made up of three components. A rechargeable battery, a reservoir for liquid and a crucial piece that goes by many names: atomizer/coil/burner/filter.
The correct terminology is atomizer but it’s safe to say, most people call it a coil.
The definition of an atomizer is “a device for emitting water, perfume or other liquids as a fine spray”
In a vape device, it is the piece responsible for vaporizing the vape liquid into vapour.
The atomizer is made up of an outer housing, cotton wadding and a coil that touches the cotton.
The idea is, the vape liquid soaks into the cotton, the battery heats up the coil and turns it into a vapour.
Without the vape liquid, you are simply going to burn cotton. That’s the burnt taste we spoke about earlier.
So vape liquid is crucial part to vaping. It’s what gets vaporized and inhaled.
Vape liquid is made up of at least 2 main components. Propylene Glycol and Vegetable Glycerin. Different vape liquids will have different ratios and quality of these components, and most, but not all, will have natural and/or artificial flavours added. Some will have nicotine added to them as well as this is the main chemical in smoking that causes addiction, hence why vaping works as a nicotine replacement therapy in the same way that patches, gum and spray work.
For this article, we will be looking only at the main two components: PG & VG.
Propylene Glycol (PG)
It’s all good and well to say vape liquid contains Propylene Glycol, but I think we’d all agree, it doesn’t sound like something I want to consume! So what is it?
What is it?
Propylene Glycol is a viscous, colourless and nearly odourless liquid.
One of the common misconceptions of PG is that it is anti-freeze. This misconception is due to PG’s ability to lower the freezing temperature of water. It is regarded as non-corrosive and has very low volatility and toxicity.
As a result, it was added to anti-freeze products in place of the formally used ethylene glycol, to make the anti-freeze product non-toxic in case of leakage that may come in contact with food.
It is a petroleum by-product and is classified by the F.D.A as “generally recognized as safe” for use in food products, sometimes as a solvent for food colours.
It is also used in many medicines and cosmetics to absorb extra water and retain the moisture content.
It has been used for years as fake smoke/fog in fog machines for theatrical effects and fire-fighting training. Chances are, you’ve breathed in plenty of PG on a big night out clubbing!
So, Is it safe?
For the sake of this article, let’s just focus on whether PG is safe to inhale, as there are numerous articles and studies in relation to the safety of PG for oral and topical uses.
The first study I want to bring attention to was one completed in 1947 and published in The Journal Of Pharmacology And Experimental Therapeutics.
The study was testing for the chronic toxicity of Propylene Glycol and also Triethylene Glycol.
The method used was to expose monkeys and rats continuously to high concentrations of PG and EG for 12 to 18 months. Despite me being against animal testing, I’m happy to say that the animals were not harmed (At least from the PG).
Here is an excerpt from the study:
The results of these experiments in conjunction with the absence of any observed ill effects in patients exposed to both triethylene glycol and propylene glycol vapors for months at a time, provide assurance that air containing these vapors in amounts up to the saturation point is completely harmless. (Robertson et al. 1947).
There is a minority of people that experience an allergic reaction from PG in general, meaning whether it’s inhaled or rubbed on the skin. Often when an allergic reaction is experienced when used in a vape device, a lower quality PG
has been used.
So it’s safe to say, PG is regarded as safe for inhalation by humans, but, it can be harmful for cats, so keep your juice away from your pussy!
Why Is It In My Vape Liquid?
Propylene glycol acts as the flavour carrier in vape liquid. It is also attributed to an increased throat hit.
It is also much thinner than VG so it wicks much better in your coils. As a result of its consistency, you may find you go through your vape liquid slightly faster.
A higher PG content will result in more flavour, easier wicking and slightly harsher vape when compared to VG.
A Quick Recap
Pros
- Thinner consistency provides better wicking in coils when compared to VG
- Stronger flavour profile
- Less gunk build up in coils
- Increased throat hit
Cons
- Some may consider increased throat hit a con
- Being thinner, it may flood direct lung coils
- Less vapour production
- A minority of people can have an allergic reaction
So, what is this VG I keep talking about? Keep reading and you’ll find out.
Vegetable Glycerin (VG)
What Is It?
Vegetable Glycerin, also known as Glycerol or just plain Glycerin, is a clear, odourless and slightly sweet tasting liquid that is viscous and non-toxic.
It is derived from plants such as Soy, Palm or Coconut and is used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals as a humectant, allowing products to stay moist.
It is also used in the food industry as a sweetener and to help oil and water based products mix together.
And, it is used in vape liquids to create the vapour we all love to see pouring out of our mouth after a long satisfying puff.
Is it Safe
Firstly, VG is considered a non-hazardous substance and is non-toxic. It is generally regarded as very safe, although there is not a lot of information on the effects on long-term inhalation.
However there are some animal studies, such as a screening information dataset from UNEP publications, which studied the effects of high doses of VG inhaled by rats. It concluded:
“The weight of evidence indicates that glycerol is of low toxicity when ingested, inhaled or in contact with the skin.”
It also stated:
“No systemic effects were seen at the highest dose tested (Anderson 1950, Renne 1992).“
The fact that it has been used in fog machines and many other pharmaceutical inhalation products, it’s safe to say that VG is safe to inhale.
Why Is It In My Vape Liquid?
So, what’s it doing in your vape liquid? Well, as mentioned previously, VG is the reason for the thick fluffy clouds you like to blow out. It also acts as a solvent in vape liquid to help store the product.
It is also added to PG vape liquid to prevent it from being to thin and harsh, as VG tends to give a smoother and sweeter throat hit.
As it has been used in fog machines for years and it vaporizes at lower temperatures, it makes sense that it is used in vape liquids.
However I will point out that there are different types and qualities of VG available. Make sure your vape liquid has the highest quality VG used.
When finding a substance that is non-toxic, vaporizes and is safe to inhale, VG obviously seemed like the best fit.
A Quick Recap
Pros
- Increased vapor production
- Smoother throat hit
- Low allergy risk
- More natural product than PG
Cons
- Too thick for some coils to wick
- Not as much flavour
- Gunk build up on coils
- Throat hit is not harsh enough
As you can see, some of the pros mat be cons for some and vice versa. The important thing is to understand what is in your vape liquid, what it does and how it affects you.
Best PG/VG Ratio For Me
So what is the best ratio of PG and VG in vape liquid?
Well, that all depends on your circumstances.
We can see from the above information that PG and Vg vary in many ways. VG as we can see is thicker than PG but PG allows more flavour in your vape liquid.
So what do you want? More flavour or more vapour?
I wish it were that easy. You may have picked up that VG is the culprit of coils burning out. The reason for that is; with it’s high viscosity, VG has trouble wicking into some coils.
So, how do you know if your coils can handle high VG? Well, you could just try it out but you’ll end up wasting a good coil! So, I’ll give you a good run down on the ratios best for different devices.
50VG/50PG — Great for mouth to lung devices such as pen style kits with small clearomisers. Works well in pod kits like the Teros, Infinix or Uboat. This ratio is likely to flood direct lung/sub ohm devices as it is too thin.
60VG/40PG — Great for any basic sub ohm kits or hybrid devices such as Herakles hydra tank, Melo 3/Pico kit and may work well in the Nautilus mini tank and Joyetech AIO series. Generally, it is for direct to lung devices.
70VG/30PG — We are now clearly in Sub Ohm territory. I would highly recommend anyone puffing on a MTL device to not use 70VG vape liquids. You will burn through money as you burn through coils. Any sub ohm/direct lung device will love 70/30 as it is nice and thick and still has plenty of flavour. Any device that uses Smok V8, GT or procore coils will work well with this ratio.
80VG/20PG — This ratio is, as you would imagine, quite thick. This should work well in the above stated devices but some heavy users may be prone to burnt hits. This ratio is more for DIY coil builders.
It’s safe to say, the same rules for 80VG/20PG apply to any vape liquid with a VG ratio higher than 80%.
So there you have it, a run down on PG and VG to help you understand what’s in your vape liquid and some tips on how to get the right ratio for your setup.
