What are Short Fill E-Liquids and How Do You Use Them?

You have probably come across the phrase short fill e-liquid but are not sure what it entails exactly. We are here to break it down for you. Short fill e-liquids are large bottles of nicotine-free e-juice that have some allowance in the bottle intentionally left for adding your own nicotine shots. So, short fill e-liquids, or short-fills in short:

• Come in a larger bottle than normal (the regular e-liquid bottle in the UK is 10ml)
• Do not contain any nicotine (they are 0mg e-liquids, aka nicotine-free)

Why is it this Way?

To understand short fill e-liquids, you need to go back to the TPD regulations that went into effect on May 20, 2017 following the one year grace period granted to most European countries to transpose the directive’s requirements into their own laws. Short for Tobacco Products Directive, the laws imposed certain rules to govern the vaping industry, or its products so to speak. In the case of hardware, for example, single-use cartridges are not allowed to exceed a capacity of 2ml. A nicotine sticker should also be supplied with every vape tank. When it comes to e-liquids, for vape juice to be TPD-compliant, there are certain boxes it needs to tick. Most notably, the capacity of the every e-liquid bottle containing nicotine should not exceed 10 ml (which is why your vape bottles come in this size) and the nicotine too should not be more than 20mg/ml (which is why you cannot find stronger e-juice in the UK). But this left some loopholes that can be legally exploited. You see, the 10ml bottle limit only affects e-liquid bottles that contain nicotine. Meaning if the bottle has 0mg nicotine concentration (nicotine-free) it can be larger and you will not be breaking any laws. So just like that, short fill e-liquids were born! The Nicotine Shot But 0mg nicotine e-juice is not going to be helpful for most people. The TPD rules also left some leeway for vapers to add their own nicotine to the short fill e-liquids. Provided it is not sold commercially, you can add your own nicotine to the larger short fill bottles and vape. Enter nicotine shots. Nicotine shots are small bottles of unflavoured e-liquid which contain a high concentration of nicotine. They usually come in a 10ml bottle size (since they contain nicotine) and are unflavoured because they are intended for use with normal e-liquid. The whole point of mixing them with regular e-liquid is to increase its nicotine concentration. Usually, the characteristics of nicotine (nicotine is very harsh) mean that it cannot be added to just about any e-liquid you come across. Otherwise, you will upset the balance of the vape juice, rendering it harsher than normal and thus not very vape-friendly. Hence the need to add the nicotine shot to a 0mg e-liquid (aka short fill e-liquid). The fact that the nicotine shot is unflavoured means it will not impact on the flavour of your e-juice. 

Short Fill Mixing Guide

A lot of people give up on the idea of short fills because they are not sure how much nicotine they should use. Although, you can add as much nicotine as you like, the reason most short fill bottles come with an almost similar extra space on top is because they are designed to accommodate a maximum of two nic shots. Considering the industry standard for a 10ml nicotine shot is 18mg, a 50ml bottle of short fill will result in a 60ml (50ml short fill + 10ml of nicotine shot) e-juice with a nicotine content of 3mg if you add 1 nicotine shot. If you add two 10ml nic shots, the resulting 70ml of e-juice will have a nicotine content of 6mg (3mg from each bottle). And so on. You can find the mixing calculation in this description.

Top Reasons to Use Shortfills? The benefits of using shortfills, in a nutshell, include the following:

• They will save you money
• No more carrying lots of small 10ml bottles around
• Shortfills are quick and easy to mix – simply open the short fill bottle, add the 10ml nic shot (or two, shake and that’s it!)

Who are Shortfills for? Short fills are for any vaper who is looking to stock up on lots of e-liquids without paying through the nose for the juice. We know, e-juice can be a costly item sometimes, especially for three sets of vapers in particular:

• Heavy vapers
• Sub ohm users (even more so the cloud chasers)
• Any vaper who enjoys sampling the beautiful flavours

So, if you are looking to stock up on bucket loads of e-liquid for the cheapest price possible, short fill e-liquids are a great option to consider. You can find our vast array of short fill e-liquids on this link with all kinds of awesome flavours.