I started with Green Smoke and was able to quit a 2+ pack a day cigarette habit from my first vape using them. I liked their flavors and the batteries had an easy draw with a respectable amount of vapor. However, all their stuff is overpriced and Green Smoke, like any other battery that looks like a cigarette, needs frequent recharging and falls short of producing the truly satisfying vaping experience I got when I added variable voltage Twists after a week of using the Green Smoke cig-alikes.
The advantage of using a cig-alike is the psychologically familiar form factor which can help reduce stress when first starting. I held onto my cig-alike like a security blankie for the first few days and I still like to fidget with them in my hands. Also, using the outrageously priced pre-filled cartomizers means you can postpone learning how to fill them yourself (not hard but fiddly) and delving into the myriad of other delivery options available for e-liquid juice. The other advantage is that the cig-alikes do not resemble drug paraphernalia when vaping in public places.
I learned how to fill cartomizers within a few days but I got totally frustrated with tending batteries and topping off cartomizers within a week of first getting my Green Smokes. After reading a lot here at ECF I opted for ordering some variable voltage Twists and Vivi Novas. Wow! What a difference. Easy peasy to use, the batteries last all day for me and the vape is night and day better than anything with a cig-alike battery.
With variable voltage you don't have to learn about ohms, wattage or anything related. Just fill up the Vivi Nova or whatever other delivery goodie you prefer. Start on low voltage and turn the knob until you get the vape and throat hit you like. Lower voltage produces a cooler but more flavorful vape and a higher voltage produces a warmer vape with more throat hit. It couldn't be easier to choose your level of Goldilocks "just right".
I'm up to trying out 74 juices and one other advantage the variable voltage provides is that not all juices like to be vaped at exactly the same voltage. Again, easy as pie to simply dial in what is optimum for any juice.
If budget allows, I would suggest getting both a cheap cig-alike with 510 threads (same thread size as the variable voltage models) as well as a variable voltage model with Vivi Nova(s). If budget does not allow I would very strongly suggest starting out with variable voltage as the superior vaping experience loads the odds much more heavily in favor of vaping over smoking cigarettes.
If you want girly get skins on eBay or Cafe Press (you can make your own stickers on Cafe Press). Also, you can decorate your batteries with stick-on goodies from the craft store or nail stuff from the beauty supply. I'm having fun starting to girlify my Twists with arts and crafts goodies I had on hand. Check out the,
Show us your girly, pretty, decorated, pink! thread for ideas.
All the batteries are made in China which means that brand doesn't assure quality control so I shopped customer service in case things went wrong. I bought three inexpensive non-Joye brand Twists from Vapor Beast. The batteries are working fine and one of them survived being slung across the room and landing on a hardwood floor when I tripped over one of my dogs. Also, Tim at Vapor Beast provides extraordinary red carpet customer service and major hand-holding, including phone support, if you need it.
Vapor Beast has a new
non-Joye EGO Twist Ultra Kit that has a low battery indicator and easier to read voltage numbers than the Joye Twist. He also has a
cheap 510 kit with 280 mAh batteries which will give you a little bit better battery life than what normally comes with cig-alikes. You get approximately 1 hour of average vaping per 100 mAh.
For cig-alikes Smokeless Image has an excellent reputation for customer service, have a forum on ECS, and offer a
reasonably-priced starter kit with 2 batteries. However, they don't have 510 threads but you can get an adapter for them.
If you want Joye branded Twists Sweet Vapes offer a
Ego Twist starter kit. I know nothing about their customer service.
Vapor Kings is more expensive for Joye branded Twists but their customer service is good and they have their own forum here. They ship immediately and answer email promptly. If you click on the Coupon link at the top of the page they are offering 10% off with coupon code VKBC for orders over $50.
E-liquid juice does not taste like cigarettes because vaping doesn't burn tobacco leaves. Unfortunately, no two people like the same juices irrespective of what cigarette brand they smoked. I would recommend ordering a lot of sample sizes including a lot of non-tobacco flavors to start out. This thread has a few of the sellers that offer juice sample sizes,
Sample Packs - A listing for those seeking a favorite juice.
Also, there is a list of popular juice sellers in
post #1275 on the
Top 5 vendors (e-liquid) thread.
So choose what you feel comfortable with (which for a lot of people is something that looks like a cig.) Also with whatever you decide to order, Google to see if they have a coupon, cuz anything you can save is always nice.
