How did you start?

[57chilicat]

I also started vaping in 2008 with a CIG like that I bought at a mall Kiosk for over $150! What a rip off! Up until two years ago I was vaping and smoking. I just wasn't ready to let go of that morning and night time smokes! Now I'm glad to vape and so glad I do full time! It has been a long journey after 45 years of smoking but I am so happy to be on the journey! And especially with the wonderful people here on the forum. This forum has been by my side every step of the way!

 

[sonicbomb]

Smoked for decades, tried many times to quit and always failed. March 2010 a guy at work pulls out a cigalike, I take a puff and a light bulb goes off in my head. THIS I can do.
I bought a cigalike too and despite it being utterly useless, I managed to stay off the stinkers for 15 months using them until I discovered an Ego/Tank system. A year later I switched to cartotanks on Egos. Then November last year I got an 18650 VV mod and Nautilus, quickly followed by a RDAs, mech mods and all the rest of the stuff that we are blessed with having available to us now.
My vaping life has never been so sweet, and not a single puff of tobacco in five years. I don't know if I could stay off them if I didn't have vaping, so I'm furiously preparing for the vapocolypse.

 

[PeteyPete]

I had smoked a pack a day for ten years. My friend and coworker had taken up vaping to help cut back on cigs. I was the last hold out . Since I had taken up smoking a hookah at home, cigs were really not as enjoyable to me as they once were. I was really looking for a reason to quit.

One day at work, my friend had a Turkish flavor from the local BM that I had enjoyed. I asked if I could use his Kangertech T3S/Spinner II as if it were my own, to see if it would work for me. That entire morning I didn't smoke one cigarette.

I went straight to the local BM, on my lunch break, and bought the same set up. This was on Thurs. Feb. 12, 2015, the next day was Friday the 13th. If that isn't a sign I don't know what is. I haven't had a cigarette since.

I have since upgraded my equipment a couple of times, and the experience has only gotten better.

 

[Paramaniac413]

I started vaping out of laziness. I loved the ability to smoke in your hotel room...right up until the end. I didn't want to leave my hotel room and go out front to have a cigarette - it was December in DC and a little bit cold that year. I didn't really like the Blu, but it worked for it's purpose. Then some of us started using them while studying so we didn't have to stop to go outside. Then I saw an article in the paper about vaping and the different local shops, so I went down and bought an eGo and some clearo (no idea what it was). I didn't quit smoking until I got my iStick 20w and had my last cigarette at my graduation party in December. Now I use mechs. Can't stand the smell of smoke anymore. I use to like the smell of my Dad's cigars...now I have an air filter sitting behind my computer monitor so it's not as bad. Definitely glad I started vaping!

 

[jambi]

Just sheer luck. There's a tiny B&M that I drove past every day on my way to work for over a year and never noticed until they started putting a big "Electronic Cigarettes" sign in front of the store. When I saw that sign, I stopped in out of sheer curiosity and walked out with my first ecig, a non-adjustable 650 mah ego and ce4. Prior to seeing that sign, I didn't even know ecigs existed.

 

[roxynoodle]

Well, I had tried all other ways to quit over my 35 years of smoking: cold turkey, cutting down, patch, gum, nicotine inhaler, wellbutrin, chantix. Dismal failure each time, or allergic reaction (chantix, adhesive on patch). I had pretty much given up. I did some research on e cigs a few years ago, but never pulled the trigger on a starter kit. Last March I asked my doctor his opinion on e cigs and he gave me directions to a B&M. I bought an ego-t system. Two months later, I was off cigs.

In July I upgraded to Aerotanks, Spinners and MVP. In August I tried a Kayfun and Reo, and went nuts on RTAs, lol!

 

[hurricanegirl100]

Back in October of 2011, I had been smoking for 31 years and I'd tried just about everything to quit - patches, Zyban, nicotine lozenges, the agony of cold turkey. The lozenges actually worked, but because I was downing those little cappuccino candies like crazy, it actually made more financial sense to go back to cigarettes.

Speedway - gas and smokes. They had disposable cigalikes in there, and on a whim, I bought a menthol one. It wasn't bad! Three days later (and completely smoke-free!), the little battery died out, and I went to a local tobacco shop. Bought a rechargeable cigalike kit and a little pile of menthol cartomizers.

Then, I got wind of Blu (Flavors?? FLAVORS!!) on YouTube and I went whole hog on Blu.

I still enjoy a Cherry Crush on a 510 once in awhile, but DAMN, those cartomizers were expensive! I turned into an e-cigarette obsessive online, discovering juice stores, a new device called a 650 mah eGo, and all the unbelieveable choices in cartomizers available. For Christmas of 2011, my brother bought me that 650 mah eGo set with two batteries. Found a ton of e-juice suppliers with even MORE flavor options than what Blu offered, discovered ECF, and that was pretty much it lol...I became a die-hard vaper.

I forget what year it was when I discovered bottom coil clearomizers (2013?), but once I tried those, cartomizers went by the wayside. So much easier to fill, a draw that never devolved into "sucking a golf ball out of a garden hose" and, because they lasted so long, actually cheaper in the long run than the cartos.

Then, last year, a sales clerk in a local B&M let me try puffing on his mech/RDA - got my first mod for Christmas last year!

These days, I'm either vaping on a Vision Spinner, an IPV mini, or one of my mechs. My smoker's hack (it was Bad...) is long gone, I don't get as winded as I used to, and I seriously can't stand the smell of cigarettes anymore. Barring a vapocalypse, I'll never smoke another cigarette.

 

[dmwalker24]

My Grandfather (something of a personal hero) had made it a point to ask regularly, 'When are you going to quit?' I tried the patch and just about had a psychotic episode. The Blu was a new thing at the time and I started doing some research into these electronic cigarette things. The term 'vaping' wasn't even in common use at this point.

I've been through cigalikes, a whole phase with KR-808's and refilling cartos, then to an ego-T, several ego-C's, Protank mini, Full Protank + MVP 2.0, Aspire Nautilus, and then... Kayfun Lite Plus v2 on a mech. How far things had come since the humble cigalike.

That still didn't keep me off the smokes permanently. It was only with the recent passing of my Grandfather that I resolved to quit once and for all. I've got myself a Subtank mini, and an eleaf 50w now. Enough kanthal and cotton to last ~6 months, and a new juice that's so good I can't put it down. I wish I had done it sooner, but I'm happy about being smoke free, and I know he would have been happy about it too.

 

[Joules_Verne]

Smoked for 55yrs and as many above have said - tried everything over the last 20yrs except Chantix. patches=3times, lozenges, gum, nasal spray (disgusting), nic cartridges in cheroot holder - 80puffs=1cigarette "you gotta be kidding me", hypnosis - lasted 3days, cold-turkey (that was when I discovered I must have gone to the bathroom when they were dishing out will-power.)
Found ECF, did a lot of reading up, everytime I visited ECF a banner ad for Volcano Inferno came up so I sent off for a kit, 2batts, 2carto-tanks, spare cartos and juice, it arrived 22July 2013 and it worked ! amazing !
Had read that for serial (failed) quitters it could help to nominate the cigs that were most important in the day and smoke those while vaping the rest of the time, so, 1 with coffee in morning, again after lunch and again after evening meal. Cut the three down to two then just the morning one and on August24 2013 I ground out my last cigarette.
Upgraded to Provari and Protank2's then TaifunGTs - worked even better and now with 3xReos and RBA's it's more of a pleasant pastime and hobby than a way to keep me off ciggies.
Many thanks to ECF and the supportive members and hope many more are successful !

 

[yuseffuhler]

I'm pretty curious as to how many of us tried the gas station cigalikes and almost wrote off vaping as an option. I forgot to mention that I'd tried a few different gas station cigalikes in 2013, and they tasted terrible and didn't satisfy any cravings.

 

[FlamingoTutu]

I've been trying to remember how I learned about ecigs since this thread started but can't. The most logical place is I saw it on a news story.

Ordered a cigalike in 2009. The suggested "dosage" for what I smoked was 4mg. I really, really tried to make it work. Actually, it did work better than any of the FDA crap I tried, and I tried all of them except the lozenges. I tried using it again about a year or so later and ordered the strong stuff, 8mg. Crashed and burned with that too.

In 2012 my husband came home and told me a coworker was using a really BIG ecig that he was able to quit with. Looked it up on the spot and ordered it (with my husband's blessing) even though we really couldn't afford it at that time. When it got here, that Volcano Inferno sure looked huge. I had all the beginner problems but hadn't found ECF. Wish I had. Took five months to get off the cigs completely but I did it and will be eternally grateful to Volcano for that. It did take going up to 24mg to get free of smoking. Haven't looked back since.

It was another couple of months before I really found ECF and five before I joined. If I'd known about ECF in 2009, I might be one of those reminiscing about fish filters and tea bags today. Better late than never. I only go back as far as how to properly prime your carto with a piece of sting.

 

[jseah]

Started with blu Plus and quit smoking the same day, then graduated to Halo Triton a month later. Then moved up to box mods with the iStick 50 (and 30) with Nautilus Mini's two weeks after that. Now I am using two Subtank Minis (one with a nickel coil OCC), an Atlantis 1 and an Atlantis 2 (with a nickel coil) toppers on a VS rDNA40, SX Mini M Class, IPV Mini 2 and a Vaporflask V3 clone.

My wife smoked for about 3 years and quit cold turkey over 20 years ago when she got pregnant. Two days ago she said that since I have so many setups, she was going to take one. She likes the fruity flavors that I've been vaping and one or two hits gives her a little bit of nicotine that wakes her up and keeps her alert. It felt like someone was asking me to give up a child when she said she wanted one of my mods. So I set her up with a Nautilus Mini on the iStick 50 and she keeps it in her purse. She probably goes through about 0.5 ml a juice a day. She said that yesterday she vaped on her break at work (she's a nurse) and her supervisor asked her what perfume she was wearing because it smelled so fruity.

 

[ian-field]

I had tried to quit smoking numerous times over the course of 35 years smoking. None of the traditional ways to quit worked.

.

After trying for years and then doing a government sponsored quit scheme, I'd been on snuff about a year when I spotted some bloke come out of a shop and start puffing on a Vapourlites cigarette-alike. I asked him; "do those things actually work?". After a short conversation I went in and bought one.

The Vapourlites was just barely adequate and I had to shop around for juice prices to keep it less than snuff/tobacco.

What I ended up with was the Liberty Flights Vivi-Nova V2 - but that's obsolete now, so when I run out of those supplies I have to start looking again.

 

[dmwalker24]

Two days ago she said that since I have so many setups, she was going to take one. She likes the fruity flavors that I've been vaping and one or two hits gives her a little bit of nicotine that wakes her up and keeps her alert. It felt like someone was asking me to give up a child when she said she wanted one of my mods. So I set her up with a Nautilus Mini on the iStick 50 and she keeps it in her purse. She probably goes through about 0.5 ml a juice a day.

After watching my wife make many runs at switching over to vaping with gurgling clearos and wimpy protank heads, I grabbed my Infinite Kayfun Lite v2. Set it up with the nano kit and green tank section (her favorite color), a ~1.6 ohm tensioned micro coil wicked with KGD, filled it up with her favorite flavor, and spent some time adjusting the airflow until it was perfect. Now any time I say anything about that tank she tells me to leave it alone as not to "mess it up".

I really like that tank, but I couldn't be happier!

 

[AndrewH]

In the summer of 2012 I began getting increasingly tired of smoking, most all of my family doesn't smoke and at that point I had just gotten out of the Army and a nasty divorce (married 4 years). So when I came back to my home state of MI, I moved into the apartment my Aunt had in her basement and like the rest of my family, she didn't smoke. By August 2012 I knew that I was going to quit and started looked around for ways to do so, I settled on a cig-a-like starter kit from Greensmoke and when it arrived on September 1st 2012 I set it all up and started using it. Haven't smoked an analog since. I used the Greensmoke kit for over a year until I realized I was spending WAY more money than I should be as I had to buy 5 packs of prefilled cartomizers for ~$20 so I picked up some juice and a Joyetech Ecom when it launched and tossed the Greensmoke kit. I settled on Puresmoker Minthia (anyone remember them? lol) and I've been using it ever since as my ADV, they changed companies and it's now called Fog Boss Put em on Ice by Volvapor.

Earlier this year I decided I was due for an upgrade even though my Ecom had served me faithfully and still would today if I fired it up so I bought myself a Provari kit. So now I'm waiting on 2 authentic Kayfun v4 to show up in the mail along with my second Provari (a P3 Titanium) and I'll never have to buy coils/atomizers again. I've also decided to branch out and try new juices, I ordered 300+ ml of ejuice from different places and hope to find at least a couple that I really enjoy.


So that's my story and how I started..

 

[ChuckB]

I don't remember what the brand was that I got for my first e-cig, something with tiny carts, tobacco flavored (not really) . A friend gave it to me I think partially as a joke - we both work technology jobs and he and I are both gadget freeks. The taste was horrible but the novelty got my interest. Not long after that I was at a family party and someone had a Blu, had to try it and discovered that e-cigs didn't have to taste like burnt cardboard. Of course, being a tech nerd I did a bunch of web searches and found Volcano. Placed an order with them for their smallest starter kit. Quickly found out that I could vape a battery dry quicker that it could charge, so my solution at the time was to order a pile of those little batteries.

When I'd go to work I'd carry 3 or 4 batteries (I also had a charger at work) and a 1 dram (3ml) dropper bottle with my juice of the day. I did all of the blue aquarium foam, tea bag fixes to carts to make them work. Then the CE/2 cartos came out. Fell in love with them. I had started making my own juice by then, so parts were cheap, bought a ton of them. Also discovered that a 901 cart cut back would work as a drip tip on the CE/2 and I think at the time I found the perfect combo, Volcano batt, CE/2 carto, and 901 drip tip. Used that almost exclusively for a couple of years.

Then the Lava Tube came out. That was a game changer for me. I didn't like dripping but it did wonders for the CE/2 cartos. Volcano didn't have any real good options, to me their tanks were all a flop, leaky, high maintenance, and more work then they were worth. So of course being the nerd that I am, I started looking around. Tried a few things but couldn't find anything that performed better than the CE/2 other than having a bigger tank. Then I found the ProTank mini.

Through all of this my batteries had been almost exclusively Volcano batteries/ mods. After trying the Protank Mini (with an adapter - that's how I found MadVapes) I started looking at other batteries. I'd had a couple of the Volcano ego batteries and was't too impressed. I did go a little nuts getting other batteries for a bit then.. Got a few different mechs. Got into dripping for a short time and tried some of the various tanks that were out there. Then surfing around on ECF I found someone that was rebuilding the coils for the ProTanks. Hey, I have one of those and have been building coils for my drippers. Wasn't a very big step at that point.

Now, I have a Trophy Tank that I've used for about 8 months, uses the same coil as the Mini ProTank. This is my go to all day vape with my DIY menthol + spearmint juice. 5-6 years of trying to find something that works, something I ran into about a year ago is what's doing the job. I rebuild all of my own coils at 1.9 - 2.1 ohms. Now I have a device that is easy to do maintenance on and juice that is really cheap. Ongoing cost for vaping has dropped to nearly nothing at this point.

A lot of the other responses here are "this is how I quit smoking". This isn't one of those. I still have the occasional cigg, maybe 4-5 a day some days, sometimes 1-2 depending on what's going on. Before I started on all of this I made sure I had at least 3 packs of ciggs with me because I was going through more than two packs a day. I didn't start vaping to quit smoking, I started because I thought it was neat, cool, whatever. It looked like fun. It just happened to replace most of the ciggs I used to smoke every day.

 

[Pjump]

ChuckB so as somebody who still smokes cigs what's your mg on the nic? Just out of curiosity.

 

[VapnWitch]

I tried something from a gas station back in 2008 or 2009 and it was awful, so I never thought much about e-cigs again for a few years. Then in 2012 I heard a lot about Blu, so I got curious again and starting doing some searching online. I got a cig alike starter kit (not Blu) and ended up quitting smoking in just a couple of weeks because I preferred vaping. I never set out to quit, just to see if it was possible, so I guess the lack of pressure helped.

Within a few weeks of that, I found ECF and youtube vapers, and I upgraded to ego-C twists, then other things shortly after that. I think not intending to quit and just trying it for the heck of it really helped me, which is why I always recommend people just give vaping a shot without trying to force themselves to quit smoking immediately.

 

[ChuckB]

ChuckB so as somebody who still smokes cigs what's your mg on the nic? Just out of curiosity.

Mostly 5-6mg but I keep some 18mg around for bad cravings. The ones that I haven't been able to stop yet are that first one in the morning with coffee or if I'm having a beer with someone that smokes. As someone who smoked heavily for 40+ years I'm mostly fine with this.

Honestly, I wasn't really trying to quit, vaping just took the place of smoking for me.

 

[Mightyj]

I started vaping last July 2014. After 35 years of smoking and numerous tries to quit a family member in Florida said here try this. I had already stopped smoking for a few days but was going crazy with withdrawals. That vape did it for me. It straightened me right out and I loved it. I then bought my own an e-cig and 18 mg of nicotine in e-juice. I now vape at 3 mg and I would never go back to smoking cigs. I don't want to vape tobacco flavoured juices because once I walked away that was it, I don't want any reminders. My breathing has improved so much. I can walk up and down stairs without gasping for air and waiting until I can breathe normally. I smell better, my home smells better and I feel great. Vaping saved my life.