- Status
Five different setups in six months. You are more than a technology chaser. You are obsessed
Most of you never experienced the FDA ban in 2009, I started vaping in the middle of it. I read about e-cigs on a tech news site and went looking for one and couldn't find any, that's when I stumbled across ECF. It was here I learned of the ban and how most american suppliers were out of stock, as I read I learned of a couple of Chinese company's that were listing the items imaginatively to get them through customs. So my first e-cig, a BE112 from BestEcig, came marked as electronics parts, it was 4 months later that the ban was lifted and I no longer worried about getting my order.
Waiting a few days is one thing, having to wait a couple of weeks and not even knowing if you'll get it is another. So many people lost their orders at customs during that time it was pitiful, but we kept trying and kept learning. There weren't that many mods at the time, but they were useless with out attys, carts and e-liquid, and that came from China. In just the two years since I've been vaping e-cigs stuff have exploded, there is at least 10 or 15 times the stuff we had then, there are so many choices today even I get confused.
When I leave advice for a newb I tell them to keep it simple and learn how things work first and find some flavors they like, what drives me up a wall is someone with 2 or 3 months under their belt telling them they HAVE to get a reo or vv device. In my opinion if you can't remember beginning vaping, then keep your mouth shut, you doing more harm than good. I still have my BE112 it's my back up, then I have never had a desire to have massive amounts of vapor, what I use now gives me the flavor, TH and just a little more vapor than an analog gives smoke.
I didn't start vaping to impress people, I started vaping to get away from analogs, 99% of the newbs are doing the same thing. Massive amounts of vapor isn't going to keep you off the analogs, a satisfying feeling with the right amount of nic is going to do that. I try to let the newbs know it's not going happen real easy but if you keep at it you can stay away from smoking, it's a lot of trial and error and no one has all the answers, you just have to find what works for you.
Waiting a few days is one thing, having to wait a couple of weeks and not even knowing if you'll get it is another. So many people lost their orders at customs during that time it was pitiful, but we kept trying and kept learning. There weren't that many mods at the time, but they were useless with out attys, carts and e-liquid, and that came from China. In just the two years since I've been vaping e-cigs stuff have exploded, there is at least 10 or 15 times the stuff we had then, there are so many choices today even I get confused.
When I leave advice for a newb I tell them to keep it simple and learn how things work first and find some flavors they like, what drives me up a wall is someone with 2 or 3 months under their belt telling them they HAVE to get a reo or vv device. In my opinion if you can't remember beginning vaping, then keep your mouth shut, you doing more harm than good. I still have my BE112 it's my back up, then I have never had a desire to have massive amounts of vapor, what I use now gives me the flavor, TH and just a little more vapor than an analog gives smoke.
I didn't start vaping to impress people, I started vaping to get away from analogs, 99% of the newbs are doing the same thing. Massive amounts of vapor isn't going to keep you off the analogs, a satisfying feeling with the right amount of nic is going to do that. I try to let the newbs know it's not going happen real easy but if you keep at it you can stay away from smoking, it's a lot of trial and error and no one has all the answers, you just have to find what works for you.
+1 keep it simple. To which I would add...let them be.
Whatever works happily for someone is their best setup. Let's not turn into ANTZ to smokers...how soon we forget, or start segregation within the community...our numbers certainly do not warrant it yet. The worst irony of all would be, having escaped persecution of sorts, we extend it here.
I'm both new and experienced on different scales, and I still use carts...happily. Happy vaping to all!
edit: and, yes, it takes effort to save one's life, which is not composed of free lunches last I heard.
Whatever works happily for someone is their best setup. Let's not turn into ANTZ to smokers...how soon we forget, or start segregation within the community...our numbers certainly do not warrant it yet. The worst irony of all would be, having escaped persecution of sorts, we extend it here.
I'm both new and experienced on different scales, and I still use carts...happily. Happy vaping to all!
edit: and, yes, it takes effort to save one's life, which is not composed of free lunches last I heard.
Last edited:
I totally agree. You must take the time to learn. It's an investment of time, for your health. I happen to love my ego-t atty's. But I took the time to learn how to use them properly. I learned how to clean them, take them apart, adjust the wick and put them back together. I have even learned how to replace the wicks, which is the part that seems to degrade the fastest. Every atty I have bought since I have started vaping still works even though I replace them when the paint gets chippie. 
I understand that not everyone has the time to learn how to care for them and I guess that's why we use cartos too. They are just fill and go until dirty, then just grab a new one. It kind of irritates me to see people bashing products that they won't take the time to learn how to use or telling people to spend even more money buying something new rather then helping people use or fix what they already own. I've become quite techie with my e-cigs and I like it. I'm quite confident that I can troubleshoot any product I own because I invested the time, learning. No it's never going to be as easy as opening a pack of cigs and I don't think it ever will be. It's unreasonable to think that an electronic device will ever be as easy as lighting a cig. But our families, pets and our health is worth a little extra effort, don't you think?
I understand that not everyone has the time to learn how to care for them and I guess that's why we use cartos too. They are just fill and go until dirty, then just grab a new one. It kind of irritates me to see people bashing products that they won't take the time to learn how to use or telling people to spend even more money buying something new rather then helping people use or fix what they already own. I've become quite techie with my e-cigs and I like it. I'm quite confident that I can troubleshoot any product I own because I invested the time, learning. No it's never going to be as easy as opening a pack of cigs and I don't think it ever will be. It's unreasonable to think that an electronic device will ever be as easy as lighting a cig. But our families, pets and our health is worth a little extra effort, don't you think? 
Iffy....... You Nailed This Post Like an Olympic Gold Medal Winner Nails a Dismount my friend. Home Run!!!
My sig also says it all in a nutshell
Great post and great philosophy
Vape On Vapers!
Nate aka Darth Vapor
My sig also says it all in a nutshell
Great post and great philosophy
Vape On Vapers!
Nate aka Darth Vapor
please expand on the "Ultrasonic Cleaner"...
An ultrasonic jewelry cleaner can be bought for under 30 bucks at several places both online and at stores. They work really well for breaking up the gunk that can get caked up on an atomizer from the juice being heated or being thick or dark in color or whatever, atomizers get gunked up sometimes. The best way I have found to breath new life into my 510 and 306lr atomizers is to pour some cheap Vodka into an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner every now and then or just when they start performing poorly or taste bad and turn it on and leave it for a bit to break up the crud and then rinse them out with distilled or filtered water, let dry and then reuse them over and over. I have only ever bought One 306 lr atomizer, that was over 4 months ago and it is still working perfect to this day.
HTH
Nate aka Darth Vapor
My first attempt at vaping was affected by the ban, as well as iffy legislation that, at that time, was up in the air. I wasn't fortunate enough to find ECF, though. I had bought an (overpriced) NJOY from an online retailer (don't remember the name, but I know they switched to selling a different brand last year). Suddenly extra parts were not available, and with the legislative move to eliminate all flavored tobaccos, my choice in cartridges shrank from 10 to ONE because the retailer also pre-emptively stopped offering menthol. At that point, I hadn't actually switched to vaping, I used it to cut back on analogs, but because everything was so up in the air, I just gave up on it until I looked into vaping again last month. So, thanks to the FDA, I probably smoked for two years longer than I would have. I'm becoming convinced that the FDA's greatest skill lies in unintentional irony.
That said, I haven't completely quit analogs this time around. My self-designed program had a few unanticipated flaws, but I'm still only smoking a few analogs a day, and I foresee a complete switch to vaping in my future. Those flaws are related to the Learning Curve and delayed gratification being discussed here, in a way. I knew my taste buds would change, but I didn't realize how much. Some of the liquids that delighted and satisfied me a couple weeks ago now are repulsive, and the one liquid that always does the trick for me is one that I can't vape all the time because the cinnamon irritates me if I vape too much of it. So, it's back to sampling everything I can get my hands on and just hanging in there. Thank goodness for sales and discount codes.
I just knew someone would drag my name into that fiasco!
If I had been vaping during that period, I would have replaced all my Y2K preps with vaping supplies! What...? Ya don't say... My, how time flies...
Last edited:
I just knew someone would drag my name into that fiasco!
Haha Oops! Sorry!
And OT, but that's the most repulsive emoticon I've ever seen. /tangent
That emoticon is labeled 'abused'. Trust me, it's a lot better than my actual photo... ;-)
iffy, from one ol' fart to another great post !!!
for me trying the latest, greatest cartos or attys are a no-brainer.... pack of cartos cost
about the same or less than I spent on smokes in ONE day, worth taking a flyer.
for me trying the latest, greatest cartos or attys are a no-brainer.... pack of cartos cost
about the same or less than I spent on smokes in ONE day, worth taking a flyer.
Great post and I agree a 100%
I have smoked for more then half of my life, I tried quitting too many times to count, and each time it was hazardous to all around me... I quit quitting for a while lol... then one day I thought "heh, why not try e-cigs, just to try it, and if it's not working and I turn into a green monster, I'll just get another pack of smokes, cause they are always there"
I was not really planning quitting smoking, I just wanted to give it a try and to see if it would work enough to substitute...
While my first mall purchased kit had really sucked, it still worked, because I haven't needed to purchase another pack of smokes again since, I didn't have any of my normal moody withdrawals at all as I had in the past so many times before, and with the rest of it I could deal with.
I now have found a perfect combination of all the elements that I'm happy with thanks to this forum and that's after several bad pieces of equipment and some nasty e-liquids later, ...but I have not even considered going back to smoking, and I don't see myself doing so.
It's been 6 month analog free for me, and that's a milestone that I would have not even have imagined before I could get to prior to that... and now days, I don't see myself picking up another analog ever again, the though of it actually grosses me out now lol
I have smoked for more then half of my life, I tried quitting too many times to count, and each time it was hazardous to all around me... I quit quitting for a while lol... then one day I thought "heh, why not try e-cigs, just to try it, and if it's not working and I turn into a green monster, I'll just get another pack of smokes, cause they are always there"
I was not really planning quitting smoking, I just wanted to give it a try and to see if it would work enough to substitute...
While my first mall purchased kit had really sucked, it still worked, because I haven't needed to purchase another pack of smokes again since, I didn't have any of my normal moody withdrawals at all as I had in the past so many times before, and with the rest of it I could deal with.
I now have found a perfect combination of all the elements that I'm happy with thanks to this forum
and that's after several bad pieces of equipment and some nasty e-liquids later, ...but I have not even considered going back to smoking, and I don't see myself doing so.It's been 6 month analog free for me, and that's a milestone that I would have not even have imagined before I could get to prior to that... and now days, I don't see myself picking up another analog ever again, the though of it actually grosses me out now lol
We had our choice of over 200 different brands of analogs, and everyone had their very own "there is no other". Vaping is no different, everyone has their own sweet spot. So why should anyone be surprised when they take someones suggestion and goes "yuck". The suggestions we offer are just alternatives to try.
My observation is that we evolve as we go along with our vaping. What satisfied our needs yesterday won't after we have been vaping for a few months.
My observation is that we evolve as we go along with our vaping. What satisfied our needs yesterday won't after we have been vaping for a few months.
I know for me the cinnamon redhot flavor was really one of the few flavors that really gave me that true full lung feeling that I craved but it does irritate after a day or two. I can only handle it once in a while now. Plus it seems to hang around FOREVER in an atty! I figured that I would only like tobacco flavors but I found that I don't even like tobacco flavors at all. I gave up on them altogether. I still make them for my friends but for me I have gone completely to non tobacco flavors. What I have found is that I love menthol which is odd for me because I HATED menthol cigarettes. No, seriously, I HATED menthol cigarettes. The menthol flavors that vendors sell didn't do much for me but I got some menthol crystals myself and crushed them up added them to everclear in equal amounts to make some high powered menthol drops to add to any flavor. The exact amount of the drops to add will vary per user, I use pretty extreme amounts compared to most but it does give a much better kick. I have found some flavor combos that I really like that I did not expect. Watermelon or Peach with menthol are both very nice. Some other flavors seem to give more as well such as coffee but it is tough to find a good coffee flavor the best one I have found is actually not coffee at all but a tiramisu flavor. For me the typical 20% is a bit strong and tastes a bit burnt but taking it down to about 12% gives a good plain black coffee flavor. Now if someone could make a decent cream flavor then my vanilla flavoring would make a good latte! I don't know if you DIY your juice or not but it is a great way to find that satisfaction. Of course it is also a great way to find frustration. The reward way outweighs the cost imho.
Isn't it funny? When I started smoking I was Pall Mall non filters for YEARS!!!!!! none others would do, anything else seemed gross. Then I switched brands, then again, then again, then again. Isn't it great now that we can switch flavors by the drip, or screw on a different carto, or pick up a different PV? Man, cigarettes never offered these kinds of options!
I LOVE that we are all here, and that everyone can come ask questions, and that everyone offers their opinions, and that we can all have fun reading, asking questions, answering questions, growing and learning, and thinking YUCK! and getting ideas to try. I have learned so many cool things from people here! ECF is an awesome group of people!
- Status
Similar threads
