I use my protanks too (protank 3's) and even though no one else seems to like them, I like them just fine - closest draw to a cigarette, IMO.
Dollar-A-Day Group
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I like my vape mail but I really need to budget. It's tough finding that sweet spot where I have enough to cya vape-wise, yet not have too much. I had a lot of equipment failures when I first started vaping so durability and reliabilty were top priorites and I did pick up a provari within the first 3 months out of the classifieds. No regrets. It'll last forever and if I was a true minimalist, that's the only one I'd need. But I'm not a minimalist. Vapemail keeps me vaping.
I love finding budget friendly "sleepers" . I love my gripper mech from Mad Vapes for only $8 and my Vmods that I was able to get for apx $30 on a super sale. I was hoping the Kbox might be another but I haven't sprung for it yet.
Nothing wrong with Protanks that the AFC didn't fix. They are still workhorses.
I love finding budget friendly "sleepers" . I love my gripper mech from Mad Vapes for only $8 and my Vmods that I was able to get for apx $30 on a super sale. I was hoping the Kbox might be another but I haven't sprung for it yet.
Nothing wrong with Protanks that the AFC didn't fix. They are still workhorses.
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MFS has some good clearance sales going on - many are over 50% off. I got the email this morning of the new things they have added to their clearance area.
I would like to clarify this statement a little - there are things associated with vaping that I do not squeeze on to the extent that I am putting myself in danger - I just wait for sales - I do not buy cheap quality batts, tanks, PV's etc - I just wait for what I want to become cheap. This stuff goes through so many changes - what is hot today will be outdated tomorrow - I just wait till tomorrow...
I'm the same -- for batteries, I buy only Efest (for regulated mods) or AW (for mechs), and I do some waiting and observing when a new mod comes out before jumping on the bandwagon -- plus, waiting a while usually means lower prices -- witness the iStick. All the stuff I heard about iSticks running hot when they first came out -- come to find out, it won't step down, so it's kinda useless to me. Now the 30w's and 50w's are cheap, but I see a lot of problems reported for the 50w, so I went for the 30w -- which is way-overkill for me anyway, but at least it steps down to the 10w I prefer and I don't have to do my coils any differently. I started learning about waiting to upgrade with MS-DOS -- the first x.0 release was always buggier than month-old bread -- you waited for x.1 or x.01 to make the change. It also pays to know exactly what sort of vape you want, before buying a whole lot; I've got a half dozen T3S's and 2 mini PT2's that will most likely never be used again, unless I can PIF them to someone -- though frankly I'd be hesitant to inflict either one on a new vaper.
Otherwise, I look for what I like, at the best price I can find -- like Tobeco Kayfun Lite Plus -- you can find them now for +/- $20 -- though I don't begrudge the $32.95 I paid for my first two, they're so excellent.
Andria
How about one (or more?) of these?
$11.68 Authentic Sigelei Variable Wattage Kick Module w/ Box - anodized aluminum / black at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping
$9.07 Authentic Sigelei Variable Wattage Kick Module for Mechanical Mod - 5-15W at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping
They also have the VV version, at a similar price point.
I have looked and looked at FT for one. The storage box is nice, but I wanted one that would screw in on top of a mech rather than fit inside with a kick-ring.
Definatley PIF your gear. Many new vapers are still smoking and if they are low income, it's very hard to get started with enough hardware to last 24/7. I like to focus their attention on the juice flavors as soon as possible and hopefully by the time they find their adv, they are in a position to invest in something more serious and to their liking. It's so overwhelming in the beginning that it's comforting to have choices narrowed down. I'm talking very specifically about the non-hobbist, unikely to come to ECF or walk into a vape store on their own.
I've seen several hard core smokers quit effortlessly using ego's and ce4's. I still pick those up on sale. My neighbor just informed me he wants to try vaping and I'm cobbling together what I can find now. Another friend just celebrated their 2nd smoke free aniversery and he did it using a single ego pass through (I was so jealous because I seem to need so much more gear). He hopes to be vape free this year and he'll probably do it.
Don't discount your old gear. One person's trash can be another person's treasure. I fully believe every smoker has the opportunity to quit for probably the first time in history. Many are so discouraged by bt and bp products that they need to try it to believe it. I was that way and same with my neighbor, "this I can do!"
Sometimes I think it's easy to take for granted that by hanging out on ECF we get exposed to so much more gear than the average vaper does.
I've seen several hard core smokers quit effortlessly using ego's and ce4's. I still pick those up on sale. My neighbor just informed me he wants to try vaping and I'm cobbling together what I can find now. Another friend just celebrated their 2nd smoke free aniversery and he did it using a single ego pass through (I was so jealous because I seem to need so much more gear). He hopes to be vape free this year and he'll probably do it.
Don't discount your old gear. One person's trash can be another person's treasure. I fully believe every smoker has the opportunity to quit for probably the first time in history. Many are so discouraged by bt and bp products that they need to try it to believe it. I was that way and same with my neighbor, "this I can do!"
Sometimes I think it's easy to take for granted that by hanging out on ECF we get exposed to so much more gear than the average vaper does.
I'm the same -- for batteries, I buy only Efest (for regulated mods) or AW (for mechs), and I do some waiting and observing when a new mod comes out before jumping on the bandwagon -- plus, waiting a while usually means lower prices -- witness the iStick. All the stuff I heard about iSticks running hot when they first came out -- come to find out, it won't step down, so it's kinda useless to me. Now the 30w's and 50w's are cheap, but I see a lot of problems reported for the 50w, so I went for the 30w -- which is way-overkill for me anyway, but at least it steps down to the 10w I prefer and I don't have to do my coils any differently. I started learning about waiting to upgrade with MS-DOS -- the first x.0 release was always buggier than month-old bread -- you waited for x.1 or x.01 to make the change. It also pays to know exactly what sort of vape you want, before buying a whole lot; I've got a half dozen T3S's and 2 mini PT2's that will most likely never be used again, unless I can PIF them to someone -- though frankly I'd be hesitant to inflict either one on a new vaper.
Otherwise, I look for what I like, at the best price I can find -- like Tobeco Kayfun Lite Plus -- you can find them now for +/- $20 -- though I don't begrudge the $32.95 I paid for my first two, they're so excellent.
Andria
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On another note, I got an email from Sun-Vapes today announcing their pre-sale of the new limited version of Castle Long for a "special price" of $37.50 for 30ml. It does sound like a yummy flavor, but over $1/ml? That's a tough one for me to rationalize. I can't miss what I haven't experienced. I've tried expensive scotch's and honestly, without being told how much they cost I never would've guessed. Wines are the same. Sure I like some better than others but often the price doesn't have much to do with it.
i spent like 2 weeks planning a 200$ purchase =x. the best I could find was Fasttech, for batteries wire and shrink wrap, yet I saved so much money that I was eager to spend it so I added 3 RDA's to my cart which I didnt need. That left me with the problem that my DIY eliquids would run out soon and I wouldnt be able to restock til next month. I also didnt want to be left without supplies soo, seeing that I couldnt order my DIY eliquid supplies from fasttech I spent another week just wandering around in my free time to try to find the best thing I could do to satisfy my needs for new batteries, wire, AND DIY supplies.
Ended up spending only 110$ on my 200$ budget on
250' of 24g Kanthal A1
250' of 24g Nichrome 80
2xSony VTC4
1000ml of 6mg Unflavored VG Nicotine
90mL of Various flavorings
that should keep my DIY wire/eliquid supplies steady for a few months,
, now the challenge is to save the rest of the budget instead of looking for some new shinies to buy LoL
Ended up spending only 110$ on my 200$ budget on
250' of 24g Kanthal A1
250' of 24g Nichrome 80
2xSony VTC4
1000ml of 6mg Unflavored VG Nicotine
90mL of Various flavorings
that should keep my DIY wire/eliquid supplies steady for a few months,
, now the challenge is to save the rest of the budget instead of looking for some new shinies to buy LoL
I'm officially down to 36.6 cents a day for DIY juice and haven't bought any new gear in weeks My only other expenses are the occasional kanthal purchase.
I am interested in the IPV4 because I want to use temp control without spending $200+ but other than that I think I'm at my happy vape place.
I use about 64~ml a week
VG 20/L
Nic $100/L(48mg/ml) (NorthernNic was shut down so had to source locally cost me a bit more than average)
Flavouring 48.99/500mL
Usage Per Week
48ml VG @ $0.02/mL
4ml (48mg/ml) @ $0.10/ml
12ml Flavouring @ $0.10/ml
Total cost per week $ 2.56
I am interested in the IPV4 because I want to use temp control without spending $200+ but other than that I think I'm at my happy vape place.
I use about 64~ml a week
VG 20/L
Nic $100/L(48mg/ml) (NorthernNic was shut down so had to source locally cost me a bit more than average)
Flavouring 48.99/500mL
Usage Per Week
48ml VG @ $0.02/mL
4ml (48mg/ml) @ $0.10/ml
12ml Flavouring @ $0.10/ml
Total cost per week $ 2.56
Using wishlists to plan purchases is a good policy. Just use the two weeks to think about whether you really need the item(s). If a holiday is coming up, that will work well, because of holiday sales. FT doesn't dump carts, in my experience, so that is the way to go there.
Well, to be honest, I don't even know any smokers -- I was one of the very last hold-outs, still puffing on butts, long after anyone I know had already quit.
Our son is away from home, working out of state, and he used to be a smoker, but quit; lately he's been telling me that when he catches a whiff of cigarette smoke, it smells "tempting" to him -- so I'm kinda waiting to see if he might be interested in any of my old gear. He's told me that if he ever does succumb to the temptation, he'd much rather vape than go back to smoking. It's kinda up in the air right now though.
I really couldn't recommend the T3S's or mini PT II's to anyone; they're so troublesome, the coils are so tiny that even if you rebuild them, the vape isn't a whole lot better -- and that's the main thing, you just can't really taste anything from clearos -- and if you don't go for rebuilding, then you have to do that constant coil replacement thing. For a newbie, I'd be much more inclined to PIF along my cartotanks; still gotta deal with the replacement thing, but at least you can taste the vape, they're much easier to deal with, for a newbie, than clearos and coils, and *usually* fairly dependable.
The clearos are basically waiting around just in case I ever run into someone who actually likes to vape with clearos; if I ever meet that person, those clearos are his/hers!
Andria
1000ml of 6mg Unflavored VG Nicotine
90mL of Various flavorings
that should keep my DIY wire/eliquid supplies steady for a few months,
Next time it's time to stock up, you might consider 100 mg nic, in your preferred base, and PG and VG. Easier to do the calcs to step it down, and it goes a lot further. Your liter of 6 mg, plus flavorings, will make a bit over a liter of juice. Mixing down a liter of 100 mg will get you over 16 liters at 6 mg...
I find clearos like the T3S, PTs / Davides acceptable - when at the right resistance and power. Left cartos behind some time back. Too finicky and fiddly, and if you have a bum one, well, all the time filling and priming, and the juice in the filler wasted... at least with a clearo and a bum coil, I can drain and save most of the juice...
That said, I'm usually vaping one of eight Kayfuns...
I find clearos like the T3S, PTs / Davides acceptable - when at the right resistance and power. Left cartos behind some time back. Too finicky and fiddly, and if you have a bum one, well, all the time filling and priming, and the juice in the filler wasted... at least with a clearo and a bum coil, I can drain and save most of the juice...
That said, I'm usually vaping one of eight Kayfuns...
That's all true, unfortunately, about occasional bum cartos, and yes it's a huge pain -- but my kayfuns have spoiled me for any clearos; I just can't taste anything from them at all. With cartos, I can still taste what I'm vaping, even if it's a *little* muted. Unfortunately the juice I'm vaping these days is terrible for gunking; with a carto, I probably wouldn't get more than 6 hrs out of any carto before it needed to be replaced, and that's just not cost-effective AT ALL. So I've moved entirely to rebuildables, at least while I'm vaping this high-gunk stuff. If I ever go back to something less gunking, then I'll be using cartos/cartotanks again very happily.
Andria
I know people dedicated to PTII's. The afc ring solved a lot of problems. Another reason they like them is because the Kanger coils are easy to rebuild plus they use up less juice than other options out now. Those are priorities for some low budget vapers. Are you aware there are hacks to turn protanks into excellent little drippers (without the glass tank)?
There's a PIF thread on ECF, there's a group collecting unused gear for veterans and their used to be a priest collecting unused gear for the homeless (haven't seen him in awhile). With economic times the way they have been, there seems to always be someone in need or that will appreciate unused gear. That's the main point I wanted to make.
I'm kinda big on recycle and reuse anyway.
There's a PIF thread on ECF, there's a group collecting unused gear for veterans and their used to be a priest collecting unused gear for the homeless (haven't seen him in awhile). With economic times the way they have been, there seems to always be someone in need or that will appreciate unused gear. That's the main point I wanted to make.
I'm kinda big on recycle and reuse anyway.
well, my vendor sells the 100mg 1L Nic at 53$, then I would have to buy some few Litres of VG as well, I just wasn't looking to buy huge bulk. I also have small pets in the house and children around so I dont want to keep anything that high in nicotine content around. I used to mix with 60mg but after a mishap of my own got pretty sick, it's just a personal thing where the risks arent worth the savings to me.
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I have spent my dollar per day in the last month for the next year, but I am just getting started. I like the idea of DIY though, I see it in my future.
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