How Come Certain Freebase and Nic Salt E-Liquids Change During a Vaping Session?

There is a common phenomenon that happens while a person is vaping, and it’s a sudden change in flavor. For instance, let’s say that you’re vaping a sour apple flavor, and a couple puffs into your vaping session, that sourness is suddenly nowhere to be found, and all you’re getting is intense sweetness. Naturally, you’ll be alarmed, because you paid money for a specific flavor, and there should be no reason for this sudden change, right?

Well, as you’ll find out, changes in flavor during a vaping session are pretty common, and they have several causes. Fortunately, they have just as many solutions. So, let’s break down the key reasons why this happens, and what you can do to fix it so that you can go back to savoring your vape juice flavor in no time.

Understanding the Flavor Change
Also, before we get started, we want to make it clear that this can happen whether you’re vaping a freebase nic or salt nic vape juice. You see, these types of e-liquids have an identical formula, only with a different kind of nicotine. Therefore, it doesn’t matter which type of e-juice you’re vaping.

Reason #1: Your E-Liquid Has Separated in the Bottle
One common culprit is separation. See, e-liquid is composed of four main ingredients: propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, nicotine and flavoring. Each ingredient has a different density. So, it’s natural that some ingredients float to the top while others sink to the bottom.

To make things even more complicated, different types of flavoring extracts can have different density levels. So, maybe the sweeter flavoring agents are at the top while the sourer ones are at the bottom. This means that if you don’t shake your bottle of vape juice prior to filling your tank, you may end up pouring separated e-liquid into the well. This means that throughout your vaping session, you’ll be getting different flavor notes.

Reason #2: Your E-Liquid Has Separated in the Tank
Similar to the reason above, your e-liquid may separate while it’s in the tank. This is more likely to happen if you’re someone who takes more than a day to go through all of the vape juice in your tank. Over time, certain flavor molecules rise while others sink. Therefore, you can understand how throughout your experience working your way through the e-juice in your tank, you’re going to get different flavor profiles.

Reason #3: You Didn’t Clean Your Tank Out Before Changing Flavors
Sometimes, that change in flavor is actually the result of getting a bit of the last e-liquid that was in your tank. If you don’t thoroughly clean your tank each time you switch vape juice flavors, there’s a good chance that some residue from the previous vape juice will be lingering at the bottom of the tank.

Reason #4: Your E-Liquid Has Over-Oxidized
Sometimes, a flavor change is due to over-oxidization. When e-liquid is exposed to a decent amount of light or heat, certain flavor molecules can evaporate while others bond together. This changes the flavor profile gradually over time. So, if your e-juice is left outside on a hot, sunny day, you may find that the flavor transforms throughout the duration of your vaping experience.

Reason #5: Your E-Juice Overheated
Another thing to take into consideration is that you’ve overheated your e-liquid due to using the wrong coil or output levels. Overheated vape juice will change in flavor as different temperatures bring out different flavor notes more prominently.

Reason #6: You Changed Your Output Settings Mid-Vape
Changing your output settings in the middle of a vaping session can very likely alter the flavor. Different wattage and temperature levels emphasize different aspects of the flavor of an e-liquid, such as sweetness, sourness, creaminess and so on.

Reason #7: Your Coil is on its Way Out
Lastly, your flavor may change suddenly because your coil is quickly dying. A dying coil will cause the vape juice flavor to be more one-dimensional.

What to Do About a Sudden Flavor Change While Vaping
Now that you know the many reasons why your flavor may suddenly change, let’s discuss the simple solutions.

Simple Solution #1: Shake Your Tank (Gently)
First, we recommend giving your tank a gentle shake. If the e-liquid in your tank has separated, this should solve the problem right away.

Simple Solution #2: Shake Your Bottles Before Refilling
Also, always shake your vape juice bottles gently before refilling your tank. Again, this will prevent separation of the different flavoring ingredients.

Simple Solution #3: Dump and Clean Your Tank
If you think that the change in flavor is caused by residue of the last e-liquid in your tank, dump your tank of vape juice and clean it thoroughly under warm water. Then, refill it with e-liquid.

Simple Solution #4: Check Your Coil
Check your coil to make sure that it’s still fully functional. A coil that’s on its way out will struggle to absorb e-liquid in its wick, and the wick will be very discolored.

Simple Solution #5: Determine Whether It’s Your Output Settings
Lastly, make sure that you didn’t accidentally change your output settings while you were vaping.

Final E-Liquid Flavor Changing Thoughts
While lots of different factors can cause a sudden change in flavor while you’re vaping, there are plenty of things that you can do about it. First, use this guide to diagnose the problem. Then, once you’ve done that, you can easily figure out what the solution is so that you can continue feeling satisfied by your delicious e-liquid.