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Does Vape Juice Expire? What You Should Know

by Aaron Cadena on Jan 18, 2021

Does Vape Juice Expire? What You Should Know | Juice Head

If you have been vaping for a few years, chances are that you have a collection of e-liquids you haven't gotten around to vaping yet that are gathering dust on your shelf.

Sure, you plan to vape them eventually, but if the product is past the vape juice expiration date, or if you see vape juice turning brown, is it safe to use?

Most of the time, you don't really need to worry about the ejuice expiration date. But there are a few exceptions to the rule we will discuss in this article.

Is It Safe to Use Expired Vape Juice?

First, let's get past the issue of the e-liquid expiration date. Your favorite ejuice products have the same kind of labeling that you will find on the eggs or the milk or the yogurt in your refrigerator. Somewhere on the bottle there will be a notation of "expiration date" or "best used by" or "expires on" followed by a month and a year.

The important thing to understand about expiration dates is that they aren't about safety. They are about quality. When you see an expiriation date on your ejuice, it's telling you how long it will maintain premium flavor.

Especially if you don't close the container tightly or you leave it out in the light (it's best to store your e-iquids in a closed cupboard), some of the flavoring in the product can evaporate. It will still give you a throat hit and it will still make clouds, but it won't taste exactly the same.

The nicotine in your ejuice, if you don't close the container tightly, can absorb humidity from the atmosphere. This makes your ejuice a little runnier. And both PG and VG as well as nicotine can turn brown when they are exposed to the air for a couple of years. This is like an apple or a banana turning brown after you cut them if you leave them out. The PG, VG, and nicotine, if your product contains nicotine, change color. They aren't as potent. But they don't turn into anything toxic.

Vape Juice Expiration: How Long Does Vape Juice Last?

An honest answer to the question of when does ejuice go bad is never or two years, whichever comes first.

You can expect your ejuice to stay in the same condition as when you bought it for two years. Even after two years it will be usable. It may have a lighter consistency and a different mouth feel and a darker color and less flavor. But it can still be vaped.

The flavorings are the iffy part. Flavorings are a complex combination of natural and synthetic chemicals. They interact with VG, PG, and nicotine in varied ways:

  • Artificial cherry flavoring preserves nicotine and artifiical vanilla flavor breaks it down. If you leave several kinds of ejuice on the shelf for a long time, you will get the most nicotine from the cherry-flavored e-liquid. Cherry flavored e-liquids deliver three times as much nicotine as vanilla after two years of storage.
  • Chocolate and cherry flavored ejuice can get sweeter the longer they are stored. That doesn't mean they taste better, just that they taste sweeter.
  • Tobacco flavor changes the most during storage. Tobacco flavor is a complex combination of naturally occurring plant chemicals that begins to break down after just 12 months.

Tell-Tale Signs Your Vape Juice Has Expired and You Shouldn't Use It

Sometimes the answer to the question of "Does ejuice expire?" is "oh, yeah." There are times you really ought to throw out old ejuice. If it's clumped up in the bottle, you should toss it. If it smells bad, you don't want to vape it. If it has black particles floating on top, those could be mold. You don't want to vape them. But these problems don't happen very often. And if they do happen, ignore the eliquid expiration date. Just get rid of it.

When in doubt, throw it out!

What Causes Vape Juice to Expire?

The wrong way to store vape juice involves:

  • Exposure to light.
  • Exposure to heat.
  • Exposure to plastic.
  • Exposure to the air.

We'll discuss what you need to do to avoid all of these problems in the next section.

How to Properly Store Your E-Liquid

There are some very simple rules for propetly storing your e-liquid.

Store your vape juice in a cool, dark place.

The best place to store vape juice is in a cupboard or a drawer in an air conditioned house. Vape juice begins to break down when it's heated to 104 degrees F (40 degrees C). That means that you shouldn't keep it in your car except for short trips.

Vape juice needs to be stored in a tinted, glass container with the cap tightly sealed. Glass vials look great and they are cheap.

The flavorings in ejuice can react with plastic and turn funky after a year or so. Leaving the cap off your ejuice container will cause it to absorb moisture and become runnier.

What's the best way to avoid expired vape juice? Buy the flavors you love one at a time. We have a great selection at great prices at JuiceHeadEliquid.com.

Important Disclaimer

All content found on this website–JuiceHeadeLiquid.com–which includes text, images, audio, or other formats were created for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Website.

If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the emergency department, or call 911 immediately. Juice Head E-Liquid does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on JuiceHeadELiquid.com.

Any decision or action you decide to do based on any information found on this website or provided by Juice Head E-Liquid, our employees, or contracted writers is done solely at your own risk.

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