Does Vape Juice Expire? Here's What You Need To Know

These days vaping is quickly gaining popularity as more options become widely available. While the spread of vaping is good for the industry, it does leave a lot of beginners and even experts lacking some of the common knowledge that comes with decades of information.

For example, if you think you can stock up on vape juice once and never have to worry about running out, you’ll be in for a bad time a few years down the line.

E-liquid is a consumable product like food and medicine, and, like all consumables, does have an expiration date.

Why Does E-liquid Expire?

E-liquid is made up of four or five main ingredients: water, vegetable glycerine, propylene glycol, flavor, and sometimes nicotine. Of these components, the glycerin and glycol are two different kinds of alcohol, used as sweeteners or preservatives. Both have shelf-lives of two years. If left unused for too long, they can begin to separate from each other in the bottle.

If stored correctly, your vape juice may last longer, but again, too much time might make the flavoring start to deteriorate. Most flavors last for two or three years, but quality vape juice flavoring can run up to five years if you somehow manage to keep it useable for that long.

If you’re buying vape juice with nicotine, that too can expire, just like in cigarettes. The nicotine will begin to degrade after about a year, lessening the effect and adding another stale flavor to the puff. This is also why e-liquid with nicotine lasts for less time than e-liquid without it.

How To Store Your Vape Juice To Extend Shelf Life

The three main detriments to vape juice’s shelf life are heat, light, and air. Heat from the sun or from improper ventilation will cause the different molecules making up the mixture to move faster, which can speed up the rate at which they interact and break each other down. UV rays from the sun and most types of light bulbs provide energy in a similar way.

For short term-storage, simply store your e-liquid in its plastic bottle in a cool, dark place. If you want to keep it for a long time, transfer it to a glass bottle instead. Plastic can slowly interact with the liquid and deteriorate with it, changing its flavor and composition.

Storing your e-juice bottles in the refrigerator or freezer will also extend its shelf life by slowing down the molecules and prolonging the rate at which they interact. The vape juice won’t freeze, but it might thicken some, so make sure to let it warm up a little bit before you use it again.

Air exposure is only a problem for e-liquid with nicotine in it--the oxygen interacts with the drug and produces cotinine. This decreases the amount of nicotine over time and can eventually cause it to go stale. To prevent this, try to find a glass bottle that’s just big enough to hold all of the liquid to minimize the amount of air left over inside.

How To Tell If Your Vape Juice Is Expired

With all of the factors and variations that go into the deterioration of vape juice, taking the expiration date on the bottle on face value might not be the best idea. It’s better to check the quality of the e-liquid yourself to make sure that it’s gone bad before you throw it away.

There are a number of ways you can tell if your e-juice is expired, from testing it out with a puff or by simply inspecting it visually. Here are a few things to look out for:

Appearance

When the different ingredients of vape juice interact and break each other down, they begin to separate. Thin, watery liquid will be near the top and thicker, oily liquid will have sunk to the bottom. If it’s not too far gone, it can be shaken to recombine. Another indicator that your vape juice is past its prime is a change in color. Some color change is common due to oxidation or heavy use, but if the color change is dramatic, the flavor may have gone bad. Giving the bottle a shake to remix the colors might work, but if not, it’s best to just get a new bottle.

Smell

As a rule of thumb, if something that used to smell good suddenly smells bad, it probably shouldn’t be used anymore.

Taste and texture

A big component of vaping is that the vapor is smooth, moist, and easy to inhale. If your vape juice has expired, it may feel rougher inside of you and hit a little harder than you’re used to. The taste of it should also be a big indicator--if the flavor is noticeably worse, there’s definitely a reason for that.

Nicotine content

If the e-liquid you use contains nicotine, that can be a good indicator for whether or not it’s expired. Stale vape juice will have stale nicotine as well, which will reduce the dosage that you ingest. If you can tell that you’re not getting as much of a hit as you used to, it’s probably because the e-liquid you’re using has deteriorated.

Technically, it’s not harmful to vape e-liquid that’s a little out of date, but you should exercise caution when doing so and definitely shouldn’t vape anything that’s well passed its prime. If you have any vape juice that’s far too old or that you just don’t trust, you should dispose of it safely and responsibly.

How To Dispose Of Expired Vape Juice

Never dump straight up vape juice down a drain--it and any nicotine or other chemicals in it will end up will end up mixing in with natural water and causing harm to the environment. If you must, be sure to heavily dilute it with water first. 

Other disposal methods include mixing it into cat litter or coffee grounds before throwing them away. Taking an extra step and pouring the grounds into a ziplock baggie will ensure that nothing leaks into the groundwater or gets into a stray animal’s stomach.

The next time you go to buy a bottle of e-liquid, consider buying a smaller amounts of different varieties that you know you’ll use and share, instead of stocking up on one big bottle that won’t ever empty out. After all, the best way to avoid expired vape juice is to go through it so quickly that it doesn’t have time to get stale at all.