Welcome to the ECF. I'm glad you made a decision to get away from smoking tobacco. Using a Personal Vaporizer as an alternative is healthier and a lot more enjoyable.
There is a lot of information here, and it can be a bit overwhelming choosing the right PV and juice. However, it can also be easy if you choose good equipment and take your time in learning to use it.
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Recommendation for those who don't want to read the whole thing:
This is your shopping list:
- 1 standard 3.7v mod such as the Indulgence V3 or E-Power
- 2 batteries for your mod
- 1 battery charger
- 2 packs of Boge 2.0 Ohm cartomizers for trying juices
- 1 carto tank
- Several sample packs of juice to try out
I know, I know; OMG! he's recommending a mod to newbies! My take is:
- Small batteries are going to be frustrating and may lead to failure
- eGo, Kgo and the like cost more money to replace batteries and don't have replaceable parts
- A good mod will give a better vape, last longer and will be more likely to help you kick the smoking habit
- Dripping is confusing and difficult for many people. Cartos are cheap, and you can use them to try a sample. If you don't like it, throw the carto and sample out
- Filling cartomizers is a pain, a tank is easy to fill, lasts all day and needs to be replaced less often. Once you find your all-day vape, this is the way to go
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Many kits you will find online are made up of the following parts:
- Battery
- Charger
- Cartridge (cart)
- Atomizer (atty)
While an atomizer can be handy for testing new juices by direct dripping, this configuration is difficult to use and tends to perform poorly. The first thing you will want to get with your kit is a pack or two of cartomizers (cartos). Cartomizers have their own atomizer and cartridge in one piece, have a more consistent vape, and hold more juice.
Atomizers and cartomizers have a resistance rating in Ohms. You cannot use low resistance attys and cartos on a small battery as they pull too much power and will kill your small battery. You need a battery 450 Mah or higher for low-resistance attys and cartos.
The basic types of cartomizers are:
- Standard resistance (usually 3.0 ohms)
- Low resistance (as low as 1.5 ohms)
- Dual-coil cartomizers
- Cartomizer tank
The standard resistance cartos are the only cartos you can use on a small battery PV.
Low resistance cartos give more vapor and a hotter vape. The lower the resistance, the bigger the battery you need. For an even hotter vape with more vapor you need more wattage.
A cartomizer tank has a cartomizer inside a small tank. The cartomizer has a small hole punched in it to soak juice into the carto so that you can just fill the tank when it gets close to empty.
The basic types of personal vaporizers in use are:
- Small battery, cigarette-sized
- Big battery, cigar-sized
- Standard modification (mod)
- Variable-voltage modification (VV mod)
- Bottom-feeder modification
- Box modification
The small battery PV's are meant to simulate a regular cigarette as much as possible. These can be convenient as they are small and easy to carry. However, they have a very short battery life and require you to constantly have a battery charging.
The big battery types have a much longer battery life so that you can vape one PV all day without charging.
A standard mod has removable batteries of varying sizes. This enables you to have a PV that can stay charged for very long periods, and the batteries are removable and cheap which saves money. Many mods have replaceable parts so that if, for instance, a switch fails you just buy a new switch and replace it.
Variable voltage mods allow you to adjust the voltage depending on the carto and juice you are using at the time. This allows great flexibility, but you also need to have a workable understanding of voltage and resistance. Not recommended for new users.
A bottom-feeder mod is usually a box mod with a small juice bottle attached. You squeeze (squonk) the bottle to fill the attached cartomizer. Once you get used to sqonking the right amount of juice into the carto, you can get a very consistent vape all day long.
A box mod is just that: a box that contains a battery or batteries, an activation switch and a connection to screw your cartomizer or atty into. These can be small or big and blocky. They can also be variable-voltage.
The next thing you will need is juice. This is probably the most difficult part. Every one's tastes are different, and your tastes will change over time. You may even have periods where you can't taste anything, or everything tastes terrible. You may have a hard time finding juices you can vape all day. The best thing to do is try small samples until you find something you like, and then stock up on those. You will just have to experiment.
One important thing to know about juice: no juice is going to taste like burning tobacco. You aren't burning anything, you are creating vapor. The "tobacco flavored" juices taste more like chewing or pipe tobacco than cigarettes.
This is just my personal opinion, take it with a grain of salt. You are the only one who can decide what's best for you.
Finally: quitting smoking is difficult no matter what method you use. Take it easy on yourself. Take your time and if you still need to smoke as you're learning; go ahead and smoke. You will set yourself up for failure if you stress yourself out. Be patient, and you will get there.
