Definition of shortfill

The vape dictionary is full of words you've never seen anywhere else like PG/VG, coil and sub ohm, mod and nicshots.

And now, the dictionary has just added a word that you will surely hear often in the future: shortfill.

What is Shortfill?

Have you ever seen those big bottles of nicotine-free e-liquid on the shelf? They usually have cylindrical caps and labels printed so big you can see them from a distance. Look closely and don’t they look like they’ve been used before? Like they’re not quite full even though the seal hasn’t been broken.

That’s because the bottle isn’t actually filled to the brim. Shortfill bottles are typically only filled to 80% of their actual capacity by the factory.

And the reason for this may have to do with recent EU regulatory laws.

TPD's problem

In the past, loose regulations allowed e-liquid manufacturers to freely market any e-liquid with any nicotine concentration they wanted. Of course, they were still in moderation and did not go over the allowed limit.

But in 2016, the EU introduced a complete regulatory code under the name TPD (Tobacco Products Directive).

In May 2017, tobacco and nicotine product manufacturers had to comply with the TPD if they wanted to remain in the EU free market. That’s where the shortfill comes in, as well as the reminders you’ll find on the e-liquid bottles. It’s EU law, and we don’t see anything wrong with it. The EU, like us, wants people to stop using harmful tobacco products.

TPD is such a tight regulation that it's hard for us to find shortcuts or workarounds, but it basically makes it harder to trade nicotine.

For example, according to TPD, an e-cigarette tank cannot contain more than 2ml of e-liquid. And e-liquid containing nicotine cannot be sold in bottles of more than 10ml or more than 20mg/ml. Products that contain nicotine or can use it, including vape kits and e-liquids, must be registered and licensed, a process that costs money.

The fee is even higher for manufacturers. They can’t register a patent for their entire line, they have to register each flavor separately. And you know the huge number of flavors that exist in the vape world.

Short about shortfill

Of course, these licenses only apply to e-liquids containing nicotine, not to non-nicotine e-liquids. You can buy, sell, mix, manufacture, trade, or even burn them. TPD doesn’t care what you do.

But who still needs to vape with nicotine? The fact that you can customize the amount of nicotine in your e-liquid is one of the reasons vaping is attractive to people who want to quit smoking.

And so the mini nicotine vial was born. These little vials are only about 10ml and have a concentration of 18mg/ml, which is both TPD compliant and easy to calculate. You can sometimes find 20mg vials, but they are much rarer. Mini nicotine vials are cheap, easy to mix, and will soon be widely available.

Because what makes more sense from the manufacturer's perspective.

Sign up for a mini bottle of e-liquid, pay the subscription fee, and let your mixologists play around with all sorts of nicotine-free e-liquids...

Frankly, the second option makes more sense to them. But how do you add nicotine to newly refilled, nicotine-free e-liquid bottles?

Simple, just don't fill the tank.

And thus shortfill was born.