It’s the end of October and the weather is starting to get chilly. You’ve already seen a few half-formed snowflakes fluttering around in the brisk autumn air, but the first real snow has yet to fall. Suddenly it hits you: does e-liquid freeze?
If you’re planning to place a new order of e-liquid or even take your vaporizer up with you on the ski slopes, will your mod burst or crack? As it turns out, no. While e-juice may thicken when it gets colder, the temperatures would have to plummet well below zero for your vape juice to turn solid. Continue reading to find out why your e-liquid won’t freeze on you, what does happen to e-liquid in the winter, and whether intentionally freezing your e-liquid helps to preserve it.
What You Should Know About Freezing Points
You might recall from elementary school that water freezes at 32℉ and evaporates at 212℉. However, if you’ve ever stored your bottle of vodka in the freezer to chill it, you know that not every liquid has the same melting and boiling point, and additives, like salt, can lower the freezing point and raise the boiling point.
Vape liquid doesn’t contain any water at all.
Propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerin (VG) are the main ingredients in e-liquid. Propylene glycol has a melting point of -74.2℉, and vegetable glycerin has a melting point of -64℉. Plus, e-juice contains nicotine and flavorings as well, both of which change the melting point. So essentially, if the temperature outside is so cold that you have to worry about your e-liquid freezing, you probably have much more serious problems to consider.
If you’re ever outside in -74℉ weather without several layers of very heavy clothing, you would probably die from hypothermia within a relatively short period of time. The last thing you’d have to worry about is frozen vape juice.
However, because vape liquid is a blend, it starts to harden at around -10℉. Ten degrees below zero is still very, very cold, and you wouldn’t be out skiing in temperatures like that. If it does happen to be colder than normal outside when your package is travelling from the warehouse to your place, your e-liquid will return to normal by the time you are ready to use it.
That being said, the e-juice might not wick as easily at lower temperatures. VG is a thicker liquid, and so it vapes more easily at higher temperatures. PG is not as viscous, and so the lower temperatures won’t affect it as much. If you do plan to vape outside in the cold, consider using a 50/50 blend rather than a high-VG blend.
Experience
As we’ve mentioned before, while e-liquid only freezes at extremely low temperatures, it might thicken when it gets chilly. Nonetheless, because it doesn’t freeze, it’s not going to expand. If you place a full bottle of water in the freezer, it might explode when the water freezes and expands. You won’t have to worry that your vape mod will explode though.
You might notice that it takes several tries to get your battery started at cold temperatures. Like the battery in your car, the battery in your vape pen might not work as well when it starts to snow. Ideally, you should let the vaporizer heat up to room temperature before turning the device on.
Intentionally Freezing E-liquid
There are vapers who believe that freezing vape juice will make it last longer, but there aren’t any long-term studies proving that this actually affects the flavor at all. E-liquid already has an incredibly long shelf-life, and so unless you’re planning for an apocalypse, there’s probably no need to freeze them. If the e-liquid does freeze, it will taste the same once it has thawed and returned to room temperature. Since VG has a melting point of 64℉ though, you’ll have to keep the e-liquid in a relatively warm room to help it return fully to its normal liquid state.
So Does E-Juice Freeze?
So, does e-juice freeze? The short answer is, of course, no. In fact, it’s even quite difficult to freeze e-liquid intentionally. So thankfully, if you need to bring your electronic cigarette along with you to the top of the sledding hill, you’ll still have liquid to vape.