The Dos and Don’ts of Storing Vape Juice

If you want to get the most out of every e-juice purchase, then it’s essential that you store your juice the right way. Luckily, optimal e-liquid storage is super simple – you just need to follow a few basic rules. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few dos and don’ts of storing your e-juice for the longest life.

DO keep your e-liquid away from children and pets

First and foremost, it’s important to store your e-juice safely. That means keeping it well away from kids and animals. Nicotine is toxic in high enough doses and especially dangerous for your little ones and your furry friends. Wherever you store your vape juice, make sure that it’s high up, locked away, or in another location where children, dogs, and cats cannot access it.

DON’T store your juice in direct sunlight

Sunlight harms your vape juice in two different ways: it heats it up, and it exposes it to light. Heat and light are the two worst things for the shelf life of your e-juice because they cause the nicotine to oxidize and decrease its strength. If you accidentally leave your juice out in the sun for a little while, it isn’t likely to have a noticeable effect. However, long-term sun exposure will, in terms of both the flavour and the strength of your e-liquid.

DO store your juice in a cool, dark place

There’s more to storing your e-juice than simply keeping it out of the sun. You should also keep it somewhere relatively cool to maximize its life. When exposed to heat, your juice’s molecules gain energy, making them more volatile and more likely to react and alter the taste of the juice or even the nicotine content. When you keep your e-liquid somewhere both dark and cool, you give it the best odds of maintaining its flavour for as long as possible.

DON’T keep your vape juice in plastic bottles

Plastic is not the best choice when it comes to long-term e-juice storage. That’s because plastic can interact with the liquid and change the flavour, and also because some plastics are permeable to air – and as we’ve already discussed, air = bad. If your vape juice doesn’t come in glass or high density PET ( Pharma Grade Polyethylene Terephthalate ) bottles, then you may want to invest in a few to keep it in long-term.

DO sniff before you vape

Even when you do everything right, e-juice is not completely non-perishable, and it will deteriorate in quality over time. If you’ve had your juice for several years – or you aren’t sure how long you’ve had it – then it’s a good idea to take a quick sniff before filling your vape mod or e-pipe. Just as you would sniff a carton of milk that had been in your fridge for a while to make sure it still smelled normal, taking a cursory whiff of your vape juice can tip you off to any changes it may have undergone while in storage.

So, how long does e-juice last? It depends largely on how you care for it. In general, you can expect your flavours to start to degrade within two years or so, but that may be shorter for fruitier flavours and longer for sweeter flavours and tobaccos. However, you may be able to extend this time frame significantly with proper storage. It’s important to note that even if your flavours do change, it doesn’t mean that the juice had “gone bad” – it simply means it will taste different when you vape. For the freshest juice and most authentic flavours, replace e-juice that you’ve had for more than two years, or that shows noticeable changes in colour or taste.