If you are new to vaping, you may be wondering what shortfills are and if these generous portions of e liquid would be good choices for you. Here’s our guide to shortfills, together with a shortfill calculator to help you mix the perfect juice every time.
Shortfills are large bottles of nicotine-free e liquid that are underfilled. The bottles afford room to add nicotine shots to complete the juice. For instance, a 50ml shortfill features a 60ml bottle containing 50ml of e liquid plus room to add one 10ml nicotine shot.
Check out our guide: The 10 Best Shortfill E Liquids On The Market
Why were shortfill e liquids introduced?
When the European Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) came into force, the volume of e liquid bottles containing nicotine was restricted to 10ml. Shortfill e liquids don’t contain nicotine. This means they are not covered by the regulations and so are available in larger volumes. But you can add the nicotine you need to complete the vape juice. In other words, e liquid manufacturers found a great way to get around the new regulations!
What sizes of shortfills are available?
The most common volumes for shortfills are 50ml and 100ml. But you will see 25ml and 75ml and 80ml options.
How do shortfills work?
To complete your shortfills, you simply add your preferred nicotine shot to the bottle.
Here’s how you do it:
It is important to remember that the nicotine strength of your shot will be diluted when you add it to nicotine-free e liquid. Shortfill bottles generally feature enough room to add one 10ml nicotine shot for each 50ml of e liquid. As the maximum permitted nicotine strength of a shot is 20mg, the maximum strength of your completed juice will be 3.3mg. You can achieve lower strengths by choosing lower-strength shots or adding only a portion of the shot. Many nicotine shots boast a strength of 18mg, and these will give you completed juice with a strength of 3mg. The calculations are a little complicated but our shortfill calculator below will help you work out what you need to do.
Related: How To Reduce Your Nicotine Strength
Shortfill calculator
If you wish to calculate the nicotine strength of you completed shortfill e liquid, the calculation is:
If you don’t enjoy doing the maths, here are all the answers:
Below you'll find dedicated guides that explain the process for mixing 50ml shortfills and 100ml shortfills in order to achieve the most popular nicotine strength of 3mg.
Most shortfills have 70VG or 80VG bases. This is because they are appealing to sub ohm vapers who vape their way through a lot of juice and require lower nicotine strengths due to the amount of vaper their devices produce. High strengths are impossible to achieve due to the restriction on the strength of nicotine shots.
To maintain your base liquid ratio, choose nicotine shots with the same VG/PG ratio. In other words, if your e liquid is 70VG, add a 70VG shot. Of course, you could use your nicotine shot to increase or reduce the VG ratio of your e liquid, if you wish.
Please be aware that altering the VG/PG ratio of your juice can impact its flavour.
Shortfills have many advantages. They give you greater convenience as you won’t need to deal with lots of small bottles. Shortfills also tend to be cheaper than buying the same volume of juice in multiple bottles.
Naturally, fewer bottles means less plastic that can harm the environment. But as shortfills tend to be high in VG and so suitable only for sub ohm tanks, they won’t be compatible with your hardware if you are a mouth to lung vaper.
Shortfills may also prove be poor choices if you vape nicotine-free juice. This is because shortfills are designed to be diluted by nicotine shots and the flavour concentration is adjusted accordingly. If you don’t add nicotine shots, the flavour may be too intense. You can get around this issue by adding unflavoured base liquid but the benefits of doing this could be outweighed by the additional hassle.
The short answer (forgive the pun) is every flavour you could wish for. Most e liquid producers offer the majority of their flavours in shortfills and certainly their most popular ones. You can choose from a huge variety of fruit, candy, tobacco, dessert and soda flavours together with unique blends that don’t fall neatly into any flavour category.
All the leading brands, including Vampire Vape, Ruthless, Suicide Bunny, Zeus Juice and Yorkshire Vaper offer a wonderful array of shortfills.
At Vapekit, we are delighted to bring you an exciting range of shortfill e liquids that gives you hundreds of delicious flavours to enjoy. If you take advantage of our multibuy deals or special offers, you will benefit from the lowest prices. This will enable you to try several flavours without breaking the bank.
