Hi Strick, been a couple of weeks since the last post here, thought I'd chime in with my experiences, hopefully be of some help if you haven't made a decision yet.
Like you I spent a couple of years with vape pens - mainly a Joyetech ego - it worked ok, I was vaping mouth-to-lung 70/30 PG/VG juice so it was quite runny
(and leaky) but flavour was good, with virtually no vapour.
A year ago I changed to a box mod -
Innokin MVP3.0 - and a
Kanger Aerotank, using the same juice with the same technique - I found the coils
(~1.8 ohms I think) didn't last very long, perhaps a month max, and at 2 quid a pop
(tenner for 5) I thought there must be a cheaper way...
(not that 2 quid is a lot, but....you know...)
I thought it would be great if I could build my own coils but knew nothing about it, so went to my local vape shop, and they recommended that I change to a VG heavy juice and direct lung inhale - I had been sceptical since when I tried a VG juice a while ago, it tasted odd and left a thick mucus at the back of my throat!
The vape shop lady said that happened because it was a cheap juice, and she recommended a flavour which I tried in the shop and it tasted great - no unpleasantness at all, just a nice flavour and lots of vapour.
After an hour of chat, and parting with an amount of currency I left with a new box mod, some VG juice, a rebuildable tank atomizer
(RTA) and some 26 gauge kanthal wire, I went home to try out this coil building lark.
This was probably 6 months ago, and I am hooked on building my own coils now - I can roll out a foot of clapton wire in about a minute -
(clapton wire is where a thinner wire is coiled around a thicker wire - it holds more juice and therefore produces more vapour/flavour)
Anyway, sorry I've rambled on a bit, but in summary, don't worry about taking the plunge - my first step into box mods wasn't that successful either.
I try to tally up how much money I've saved from quitting smoking, and I plough it into vape stuff nowadays - and I'm still quids in, so spending a bit of cash feels fine for me!
I also found it helpful that the vape shop lady was so understanding, and willing to listen to my nooby questions, and maybe 'cos I'm an old geezer I didn't care about how I didn't know anything! lol
You'll be up to speed in no time Strick - vaping like a pro and building fused claptons
(whatever they are! lol) before you know it!
As Shirtbloke said there are a wide variety of gadgets out there - but just for the record, I'm using a
Wotofo Stentorian Chieftain 220 watt box mod - sounds scary, but I got it because it has a load of safety features, and I don't crank it up to max either, so the batteries last longer.
(The batteries are Efest 18650 3500mAh and I have my mod set to 50 watts)
I currently use a
Geekvape Griffin RTA - I have two, the 22mm and the 25mm for more juice capacity, and I make 32 gauge kanthal over 26 gauge kanthal claptons - 7 wraps each side
(two sides) - which gives 0.46 ohms
(Take care with sub-ohm mods that aren't protected - mine is, so it tells me if there's a short etc.)
My juice of choice is by
Generals Juices and is called
20:03HRS also known as
After Eight flavour, and is 70% VG to 30% PG - tastes great, not too sweet, and not at all fattening!! lol
Best of luck
