What is a Shortfill Vape and How Does it Differ?
If you’re new to vaping then chances are you’re a tad overwhelmed by all the strange jargon you’ve had to contend with since taking up your new hobby. From drip tips and cloud chasers to throat hits and vaper’s tongue – for newbies it can almost feel like you’re learning a completely new language!
One of the words beginners are often confused by is shortfill. This is a relatively new term within the vaping world which cropped up around 5 years ago, but what is a shortfill vape and how exactly does it differ to a regular vape or e-liquid?
In this post we’ll answer all of those questions and more, so read on to discover everything there is to know about shortfills.
Shortfills Explained
Back in 2017, the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) brought in new regulations on the sale of e-liquid and vape tanks. Amongst other things, the new rules stipulated that e-liquid containing nicotine should be sold in bottles no larger than 10ml.
Many vapers were annoyed by the introduction of these restrictive new rules, not least because, until then, purchasing larger bottles of e-liquid was a surefire way to save money. With buyers now limited to purchasing 10ml bottles, this meant more plastic, more time filling up devices and, perhaps most importantly, more money forked out on e-liquid.
Us e-liquid manufacturers were none too happy about that, so we put on our thinking caps and came up with a clever solution. That’s when shotfill e-liquid was born!
So what was this crafty new product we’d conjured up to work around the TPD’s new rules? Well, it’s actually quite simple. Basically, instead of selling larger bottles of e-liquid with nicotine, which was now illegal, we decided to produce nicotine-free vape juice in larger bottles that our customers could add their own shots of nicotine to.
This meant the e-liquids would be TPD-compliant, and our customers could still save money by buying larger bottles. The only thing that’s changed since the TPD brought in these rules is customers now have to mix their own nicotine, but that’s no biggie as it only takes a matter of seconds to pour in your nic shots.
So there you have it, that’s shortfills explained. Shortfills are simply nicotine-free e-liquids that come with nic shots that you add at home, saving you money as there’s no need to buy multiple 10ml bottles which would cost considerably more in the long run!
Shortfill Sizes
So now we’ve answered the “what are shortfill vapes?” question, you might also be wondering about strengths and measurements. Afterall, when it comes to diluting our e-liquid with nicotine, the measurement will differ depending on what size you choose and how strong you want your juice.
To give our customers a clear idea of how much e-liquid there’ll be once they’ve added their nicotine, we list all of our juices to show the total amount once mixed. For example, if you opt for a 100ml shortfill bottle and you want your vape juice 6mg strong, you’ll receive 80ml of liquid and you’ll need to add 4 x 5ml nicotine shots, which equates to 100ml.
Alternatively, if you opted for 100ml juice at 3mg nicotine strength then you’d receive 90ml of juice and you’d add 2 x 5ml nicotine shots.
Who Do Shortfills Suit Best?
So now we’ve explained the ins and outs of shortfills and how you can make sure you get your desired strength/quantity, there’s really only one more base left to cover: what kind of vaper do shortfills suit best?
The truth is, shortfills are great if you like to vape e-liquid that’s 6mg or less. However, if you prefer to vape high-strength juice that exceeds 6mg then they might not be the best fit for you.
The reason for that is every shot of nicotine that’s added dilutes the liquid. When we produce our shortfills, they’re over-concentrated, meaning they’re stronger than they would usually be to overcompensate for the dilution. However, any more than the 4 nic shots you’d need for 6mg and the juice will start to lose flavour, so we wouldn’t really recommend adding any more than that.
With that said, you can add as many as you like! Just don’t expect the liquid to be as flavoursome if you’re mixing in more than the recommended number of nicotine shots.
So that pretty much covers shortfills. If you came here because you were wondering “what’s a shortfill vape?” then hopefully you now have all the info you were looking for!
Do you find it uncomfortable when you vape? Then why not check out our ‘Why Does Vaping Hurt My Throat?’ blog post, where you’ll find all the info you need to start enjoying your e-cig once again!