Settling In, A Routine For Long Term Vaping

[Mister]

Like many people here I've gone through a long learning process, five months in my case. I tried different units, different liquids, learned to use the units to produce the kind of vape I want, played with various cartridge fillers, thought about what to take when leaving the house, etc. I acquired a collection of parts, liquids, and tools.

I expect to be vaping for the indefinite future, perhaps for life. Though the learning process was interesting and fun at times, my "hobbymoon" ended and I wanted a minimum hassle day to day routine which just works.

I have now settled into a routine which provides what I want as a replacement for smoking. It satisfies me without putting a significant demand on my time. I do still enjoy some hobby aspects (participating on this forum and experimenting with new flavors) but this is no longer directly related to my day to day vaping.

My daily routine is specific to the PVs I use but perhaps it will suggest some useful ideas for other vapers.

My daily routine

I use three J-Sticks. One Janty Stick and two Joye Sticks. All are the V2 model and are functionally identical:

I use shredded PTB filler (Pyramid Tea Bag) in each Stick. This mod allows me to vape about 20 drops from each cartridge before having a reduction in flavor or vapor production.

Every morning I top off all three Sticks. It takes from 10 to 20 drops to fill each depending on how much I used that one on the previous day. This once per day filling is the only filling I do. Although all my Sticks could all be loaded with the same flavor, I use the three units to provide a variety for the day. One usually has my favorite flavor (DeKang Winston), one is usually one my next to favorites (DeKang Pineapple or Cappacino), and the third is some other liquid which I know I enjoy.

Before going to bed I plug all three sticks into a powered USB hub to charge them overnight. This is the only charging that I do:

And that's it for the basic day to day routine! Fill in the morning, use them all day, charge at night.

The fill once and charge once per day aspects of this routine eliminate the need to carry around juice/batteries/chargers and to be thinking about refills/topoffs throught the day. If one's preferred atomizer is something with a lower cartridge and/or battery capacity (e.g. a 510) then the equivalent might be filling/charging five or six units once each day. A variation which uses a PCC to recharge during the day and which uses pre-filled cartridges separate from full e-cigs could enable using fewer PVs even when they have lower capacity.

When one of the liquid bottles is very low or gets emptied in the morning I prepare a new bottle some time that day. In the evening I blow out that Stick's atomizer (the one getting a new bottle next morning) and if I'll be switching flavors in that Stick I pull its PTB filler and rinse it. If the filler seems shot in some way (discolored after washing or too compressed) I will replace it - I haven't done this so far, the PTB fillers seem to be quite reusable. I prepare 10 to 20 ml of liquid at a time so the process of cleaning one of my atomizers and setting up a new bottle for the next morning happens about once a week on average.

Here's a picture of the remaining equipment I need with this setup, not including mixing tools:

1. Tweezers, to pull PTB out of cartridge when cleaning it.
2. Cartridge cap, used as a gripper to screw/unscrew 801 atomizers in J-Stick body.
3. Spare PTBs, pre-emptied.
4. Spare cartridges.
S. Spare atomizers.
6. Spare batteries.

For me about 30mg/ml nicotine is just right so I custom mix to get that. When refilling a bottle I choose a flavor from the 24 or 18 mg flavors I have in stock and mix it to 30mg with a high nicotine flavorless liquid, sometimes also mixing in a bit of VG for more vapor. I acquired an assortment of tools while learning to vape. The following two are all that I use now for mixing:

1. 12ml veterinary syringe, with small diameter plastic tubing from hardware store pressed on.
2. 1ml dispensing syringe from pharamacy.

Why am I using just one kind of PV?

Many forum members enjoy using multiple types of PV. Reasons for this include making different tradeoffs (e.g. style, battery life, juice capacity) for going out vs. vaping at home, different kinds of hit from different devices, having multiple toys to play with, avoiding reliance on a single type, and more.

There are also advantages to settling on a single type and these are things which matter more to me:
1. They are easier to use on an ongoing basis. Learning to get a satisfying experience from a PV takes some time. Each type needs to be used a bit differently to get what a given person wants. E.g. automatic vs. manual, pre-heating or not, drawing hard vs. drawing slowly, avoiding leaks. When I was alternating between two devices I found I had to think about what I was doing more than I do now.
2. If a particular PV becomes the most satisfying one, and it travels well, it is nice to always have that best one available.
3. The spare part collection is smaller and cheaper. Each spare part can be used with any of the devices.
4. The maintenance routines are simpler since all the units are the same.

I was fortunate that I only tried two types of PV before finding one which works very well for me. I first used manual Joye 510s and soon after added a Janty Stick to the mix. It took a few months of experimenting with juices and fillers and of learning to vape effectively before I felt I had learned to get the best result from each. I ended up feeling unsatisfied with my 510 experience. I couldn't get a consistent vape from them except when using a pass-through, they heat up too much for the rapid puffing I like to do, and I didn't get as much vapor from them as from the Joye Stick. OTOH, I was quite satisifed with the Stick. I like the vapor I get from the 801 adapters and they don't have any noticeable drop-off in power until the battery is empty. If I hadn't been happy with the Stick I definitely would have gone on to try another device. But since I was happy with it I bought two more and shelved my 510s. (Actually, have sold one 510 kit and am keeping the other as extra backup until I get a fourth J-Stick.)

My stash

To finish this story with a bit of fun, a picture of my juice stash (roughly a one year supply):

[d4rk3]

Awesome. I hate to say it but you haven't even tried 5 or 6 volts yet? Man...so much better IMO and many others. If you plan on vaping for the rest of your life I would HIGHLY recommend getting a HV PV. Food for thought. Cheers.

[reeds101]

That is my thought exactly. I wish I would have started out with a high voltage device instead of wasting money on the others, but it is still better than smoking the analogs!
To each their own, though. If 3.7 works for you, then rock it. I'm glad you have it all figured out for yourself.

[dubnluvn]

Heh, I thought I was the only one to mark my bottles with a black sharpie. I do it to mark the open bottles...what are your marks for?

[keyzygirl]

I think you have a great system worked out for your self.I use the KR8,2xlong batts and 2 cartomizers get me through the day.I can save up a bunch and then refill when I have time.It works great for me.Thank god there are so many choices.

[Mister]

Awesome. I hate to say it but you haven't even tried 5 or 6 volts yet? Man...so much better IMO and many others. If you plan on vaping for the rest of your life I would HIGHLY recommend getting a HV PV. Food for thought. Cheers.

Actually I'm afraid of trying them. If I like them much more than what I'm using then I'd probably find myself buying enough to entirely replace my Sticks, and I'm also worried about higher ongoing costs. High voltage users seem to go through atomizers more often. (Correct me if I'm wrong, that's my impression from the posts I've read.) I haven't blown an atomizer yet. Since I'm quite happy with the J-Sticks my current goal is to reach break-even on money spent vaping vs. what smoking would have cost for the same time. After reaching break-even (and making my stash "free" in that regard) I may be more tempted to start exploring new options

[Mister]

Heh, I thought I was the only one to mark my bottles with a black sharpie. I do it to mark the open bottles...what are your marks for?

Me too, same thing!

Though I've become a bit inconsistent now. At one point I reorganized everything to segregate the long term stash in a storage box vs. a small number of bottles in current use in my desk. I don't mark in-use bottles now (they're all opened) but the ones in long term storage are marked if opened.

[SuZamme]

Thanks for putting this together. It was great to be able to "see" a routine for long-term, happy vaping.

I found your description of your routine very encouraging in that it shows there is a possibility for simplifying the process and what that can look like.

This should be suggested reading for all with growing collections of e-juice, pv's, chargers, mixers, blue foam vs ptb questions, and pc's.
How do you carry your Sticks during the day? 3 seems like are real pocketful.
Vape On!

[Mister]

Thanks SuZamme!

How do you carry your Sticks during the day? 3 seems like are real pocketful.

Interesting, this has become habit already and I had to stop to think.

When I'm going out for a full day I take all 3 Sticks. When I'm going out on an errand I take two (never want to get caught without )

When I'm wearing a suit (which I always do when going out to work, usually unnecessary, just personal preference) I have two in suit pockets and one in pant pocket.

When dressed casually I have one in pant pocket and one or two in shirt pocket.

Around the house I have just one in a pocket.

On thinking about this I can see I'll need something else when summer arrives and I'll sometimes not be wearing a shirt with a pocket. I like belt clip / pouches, use one for my cell phone. So I'll probably find a suitable clip pouch. (I don't like the ones which come with the Stick, they're too tight.)

I also realized while thinking about this that it was another factor in liking the J-Sticks. They're an easier fit in a pocket than cigarette style PVs. I tried using a pen clip to hold a 510 in a shirt pocket but it just didn't work as well as dropping a J-Stick in. A 510 in a pants pocket didn't work at all for me. And the PCC I got was too large to be inconspicuous (or even comfortable) in a shirt pocket.

[chicago_made]

im lost, dont know where to go.. can one of you please help!? i have bought numerous e-cigs and never could get a good vape. i mean blowing out clear, no vape come out or hardly at all so i broke down and bought a joye510. still cant get a good vape. i believe im using a bad e-liquid or a cheap version because i got it from litecigusa.net. just seems cheap and bad taste. my carts are filled properly, fully charged battery etc. cant figure iut out. i know i can have that many busted ones. ANY suggestions anyone?