Does Vape Juice Expire?

If you have a refillable vape, bottled e-liquid is going to be a constant part of your life because you need it in order to keep your device full. Buying e-liquid is a major part of the fun of owning a refillable vape because there’s an almost endless variety of flavors for you to experience. You could buy a new flavor each time you stock up on vape juice and would probably never run out of new things to try.

If you’re the type of person who loves to experience new vape juice flavors, you probably get pretty excited when your favorite vape shop has a good sale because it’s a perfect excuse to stock up and enjoy some new experiences.

One problem with buying e-liquid in bulk, though, is that you need a plan for storing it properly and using it before it expires. That’s right – vape juice does expire, and that means you typically need to use it within about a year of buying it in order to have the best possible experience.

So, how can you tell when vape juice is expired, and what can you do to make it last as long as possible? Let’s dive in.

When Does Vape Juice Expire?

The expiration date for vape juice is typically about a year after it’s made. There’s usually no question as to when a particular bottle will expire because the expiration date is generally printed on the label. If you buy e-liquid in bulk and want to make sure that you’ll use it while it’s still good, check the bottles for expiration dates when you first buy them.

If you can’t find expiration dates, write the current date on the bottles and plan to use them within about a year. Vape juice is a fast-selling product at major vape shops, so chances are that the bottles weren’t on the shelves for long before you bought them.

Can You Use Vape Juice After It Expires?

If you happen to have a bottle of e-liquid that’s a bit over a year old, you can use it anyway if it still tastes good to you. Vape juice doesn’t automatically explode a year after it’s made – the degradation process is gradual. Also, the main ingredients of vape juice are antimicrobial, which means the bottle is very unlikely to have bacteria or fungi growing inside it.

The reason why vape juice usually has an expiration date is because once a bottle of e-liquid is more than about a year old, it’s likely that the experience of using it won’t be quite as good as it was when the product was first made. Flavoring agents are often fairly volatile, and they’ll change in character over time. Also, there’s no way to completely prevent nicotine from oxidizing and degrading, which means that old e-liquid won’t be quite as satisfying to use as it should be. In order to maintain your usual nicotine levels, you might need to vape more often than you normally would.

Again, though, there’s no reason not to use e-liquid that’s a little past its expiration date as long as it still tastes good to you. If a bottle of vape juice has truly gone bad, you’ll definitely know it. We’ll discuss the signs of that next.

How Can You Tell When Vape Juice Is Bad?

If a bottle of vape juice doesn’t taste, smell or look right, you shouldn’t use it. Those are potential signs of microbial contamination – in which case, the e-liquid may be unsafe to use – or severe degradation of the e-liquid’s ingredients. Vape juice may not be dangerous to use if the ingredients have degraded, but it certainly won’t be a very enjoyable experience.

These are the signs that you should probably not use a bottle of e-liquid.

• If you smell something unpleasant when you open the bottle, that’s a likely sign of microbial contamination. In this case, you definitely don’t want to use the e-liquid.
• If the e-liquid has a cloudy appearance – or you see solid bits or blobs floating inside it – those are also likely signs of bacterial or fungal growth. This is also a case where you’ll want to avoid using the e-liquid. Any microbe that’s capable of growing in an anaerobic environment is definitely something you don’t want to inhale.
• If the color of the e-liquid has become extremely dark, that’s a sign that the nicotine is badly oxidized. It’s normal for the nicotine in vape juice to turn yellow or light brown in storage. If the e-liquid is dark brown to black, though, it’s a sign that there’s almost no active nicotine left in the vape juice. Although it’s probably not dangerous to use, it certainly won’t be enjoyable.
• If the e-liquid tastes completely different from when it was new, that’s another sign that you probably shouldn’t be using it. Flavoring ingredients are often volatile and will degrade over time. If vape juice no longer tastes good, it’s likely that the nicotine is mostly gone as well. There’s really no reason to use it at that point.

What’s the Best Way to Store Vape Juice?

Storing vape juice is easy – and if you do it right, there’s no reason why you can’t make it last a year or even longer. Here’s what you need to do.