Just bought my first ecig...

[Boognish]

The 3VO is a pretty inexpensive selectable voltage mod also. $48 base price. 3.7v on 1 battery. Stack 2 16340's and get 4, 4.5, and 5volt settings. I really like mine. It was my first experience with higher voltage. Although, I am still saving up for Provari for my 2 month celebration of being analog free. Tomorrow will be one month!!!!

[tica02]

Congrats to you spiral! I'm really hoping to be at that point soon! I've had some really great help in my thread so far. Everyone here is really awesome.

[tica02]

18650 EP What about this e-power?

[koticat]

No? Well you SHOULD!

Come to think of it, I've switched sides, and I'm now with you husband - be satisfied with the kit you bought!

Those sound very yummy. I may try the lava juice. I also definitely want some strawberry and peach flavors. I think I may end up being a fruity girl!

I loveeee fruit flavors.....watermelon, peach, green Apple......yummy

[John D in CT]

18650 EP What about this e-power?

Hi Sarah -

It's going to have just about the same exact vaping functionality as the 14650; it's just a physically larger device due to the (much) larger battery. There might be subtle differences in the vape because of the apparent (to me) fact that the battery won't be discharging as quickly, being about 2800mah instead of around 1,000. It's just a matter of ergonomics and appearance, with extra battery life thrown in.

And what do you think about the strategy of starting with an e-Power (or similar) power unit, and then graduating to variable voltage?

***

kotikat - I love fruit flavors too, and just ordered a WHOLE bunch of them over the weekend. I'll post some reviews of them in this thread when I've tried them.

[tica02]

I think I'll stick with the 14650, if I can find one next week I'm up for the idea of saving for a provari, they are gorgeous. I was looking at the provape on the site, I just really can't afford to spend that much. You know it's easy to spend 5 bucks on cigarettes every day but it's hard to come up with 125 to get started vaping. Makes me wonder how I come up with it everyday.

And in defense of cellphone addiction, a couple of those phones were traded for a new phone. However I got ripped off 200$ by a conman, which my husband found very not awesome. So the phone I have now cost me twice as much as it should have because of that. I feel that I am over the hump of my cellphone addiction. Of course now I have to replace that with something..... and that's where you guys come in!

I definitely am going to order a bunch of fruity flavors. Where do you buy yours kotikat?

[sailorman]

18650 EP What about this e-power?

John described the main differences, but don't be too put off by the fact it's a little bigger. It's really not all that noticeable in real life. An 18650 battery is only 1/10" inch. larger in diameter and about 3/4" longer than a 16450. Yet it's 2X the capacity. Your voltage will stay up much longer. For example, in my Lavatube, I can vape steadily for 8 hours and never let the battery fall below 3.8V before re-charging. Since you can vape all day without draining it nearly as much as a smaller battery, the overall lifespan will be a lot longer as well. Also, 18650 batteries are more common than 16450's so, when you need to replace a battery, there will be more options to choose from and the cost per mah will be less, like the fantastic Panasonic safe 2250mah IMR that costs only $8 at Smartvapes. I have paid more than that for batteries less than 1/2 the size, and not as good a quality. (AW 900mah ICR)
Personally, I think it the advantages of an 18650 outweigh the small difference in size.

[tica02]

And they are easier to find :/ do these ones take just one battery at a time?

Also I do have a question about cartos, tanks, and clearomizers. Which ones last longer? I like the tanks but they are fairly spendy and if they don't last I don't want to replace them all the time. I assume clearomizers use a drip tip and that sounds like the easiest filling to me. What's the difference between clearomizers and cartomizers? If I get the larger battery e-power what ohm accessories do I buy?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

[tica02]

And one more question. What is the difference between an atomizer and the other two? Isn't an atomizer the same thing that's in the cheap ecigs. I assume those are refillable also. Is there an advantage of one over the other?
I do want something that's easier to fill and easy to clean.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-5

[sailorman]

O.k., one at a time here.

Yes, all the ePowers use one battery at a time. Vape one while the other is recharging.

In my experience, clearomizers last longer. One reason is that, with a lot of clearomizers, you can clean them far easier, and with better results, than with cartomizers. I have clearomizers on their 4th and 5th weeks after being cleaned 3 or 4 times. Cartomizers generally last a week or two when not used in a tank. In a tank, they last longer because they are kept continuously wet.

When you use a tank, you don't replace the tank, you replace the cartomizer that fits inside it. You can get cartomizers with the hole(s) already punched into them, or you can get regular cartomizers and punch your own holes in them. The "pre-punched" cartomizers cost about twice the regular cartomizer price. The thing is, tanks that use cartomizers are not disposable. Some have replacement parts, like o-rings that seal the caps on the tubes, but the only disposable part is the cartomizer that fits inside.

Some clearomizers use their own mouthpieces, e.g. the Vision Giant clearomizer. Usually, it's the very large clearomizers that have their own mouthpieces because they are too big around for a normal 510 drip tip to fit on them. Most smaller clearomizers, the ones that are about the size of a regular cartomizer, can use a normal 510 drip tip (except G4s).

A conventional cartomizer contains an coil and some type of fiber filling, usually polyester, to absorb and hold the juice. If you let that filling get too dry, you risk having it burn or scorch. That ruins the flavor, and the cartomizer. When used in a tank, the carto is kept continually wet, so that doesn't come up. When you are starting out, you need to be careful and "top off" your carto frequently by dripping some drops into it until you learn the signs of a cartomizer that is in danger of running dry. When it runs dry and scorches the filler material, you will know it. Prepare to burn a carto or two until you learn the signs of a carto that needs to be topped off. (taste change, weaker vapor)

A clearomizer is like a cartomizer, except that there is no fiber filling. The juice is held in a chamber and fed to the coil by means of a wick. The outer shell is generally clear or semi-transparent, hence the name. Because the juice must be fed through a wick, they are sensitive to the thickness of the juice. Thicker juice doesn't wick as well as thinner juice and the vaper is more likely to get "dry hits". Most of them have the coil near the top (CE2) and the juice has to wick all the way up, or the carto must be tilted to get the juice to the coil. Some (CE3, G4) have the coil at the bottom and are better for thick juice. Also, the ones with the top coil usually have a silicone or rubber plug over the ceramic cup that contains the coil. This causes a burnt, plastic taste when new and most people perform some tweaks and minor surgery on the plastic plug, or discard it entirely. Doing this, however, introduces a risk of flooding or gurgling or leaking or getting raw juice in your mouth. When clearomizers are working well, they provide a cleaner flavor due to nothing contacting the coil except the juice.

There is no difference between the accessories you would get for an 18650 or 14650 battery powered PV. Both batteries are 510 threaded and both provide 3.7 volts. Some accessories are specifically designed for eGos. Those might require a $4 510/eGo adapter. But in terms of ohms, or resistance, there is no difference.

In a cheap e-cig, the piece that fits on the battery is often referred to as a "cartridge". It is technically a cartomizer, since it contains the coil (atomizer) as well as the juice in a one-piece assembly. Cartomizer = cartridge + atomizer

An atomizer is a one piece assembly that contains only the coil and relies on a separate piece (a cartridge or in the case of some eGos, a "tank") to hold and deliver juice to the coil. Don't be confused between the proper definition of "cartridge" and the way that cheap e-cig makers use the word. Their "cartridges" are actually cartomizers, they just call them cartridges so as not to scare new vapers.

If you don't have a PV that uses a separate cartridge or "tank" to deliver juice to the atomizer, the best use of an atomizer is for direct dripping. Instead of a cartridge delivering juice to the atomizer, you do it manually, drop by drop, through the drip tip that attaches to the mouth end of the atomizer.

A tank is easy to fill and clean. There are two types. One uses a cartomizer with a hole in it. The cartomizer slides into the tank, sticks out of both ends of the tank, and uses juice in the tank to keep its filler material wet. The other type contains it's own coil and wicks totally enclosed inside the tank, similar to a CE2 clearomizer. Good cartomizer type tanks include the J-Tank and the Mom & Pops tanks. The Smoketech DCT is not a very good tank, although it is cheap. The cartomizer can slide up and down and even come out enough to let the juice out and make a mess.

A good tank that doesn't need a separate punched cartomizer and that works on the same principle as a CE2 clearomizer is the Vision Stone 3. This is the one I use. It has replaceable innards, so it is not disposable. It tastes cleaner than any tank with a cartomizer because there is no filler. It's about the same price as a cheap Smoketech tank, and the guts are about $3. They also last a very long time, longer than the cartomizer you'd put in a tank. Plus, they look really, really, cool.

Gotvapes has the best pictures of the Vision Stone 3 Tank, but not necessarily the best price.
Look under the "tank" category on their website.

GotVapes.com, E-cigarette Supplies - Atomizers Cartomizers Mods Juice and more