Hi and welcome back,
How many cigarettes are you smoking per day?
Where are you located?
Do you have a vape shoppe close to you?
Are you looking for a complete kit or just a topper? Do you already have a regulated device? (Mod)
If you plan to rebuild; what gauge and type of wire do you have?
What is your budget?
What juices have you tried?
What type of tobacco flavours do you prefer? (What do you smoke?)
Have you considered a POD device? Some are refillable and some can also be re wicked/re coiled.
HTH
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On bad days I smoke about 30 cigarettes, I live in Spain, I do have a regulated mod, I don't have vaping shops near me, I have 24GA Kanthal, I have about 50€ to spend, I've tried mostly sweet juices and some "tobacco" juices too such as tribeca but I can't see how they are considered tobacco flavors, I mostly smoke Lucky Strike and King 100s. PODs seem very attractive, they seem comfortable to carry and kinda resemble the experience of smoking analogs, I didn't know there were rebuildable pods wich makes them even more interesting to me.
For me it was restricted airflow for a tight draw, higher nic 24mg, higher resistance 2.5Ω, lower wattage. I tried several tobacco flavors but they just seemed to remind me of what i was missing. I remember thinking who would ever try deserts or fruits, glad I did. Nutty flavors worked well for me it was Butter Pecan that let me quit smoking.
I have tried nutty flavors and they don't do it for me, they are interesting for a while but then they get repetitive, just as if I was eating too much of something.
If you’ve ever tried menthol cigarettes, try a menthol flavour ejuice or tobac and menthol.... gives a nice kick... btw I hated menthol cigs, but liked the vape...
I've tried menthol eliquids too, Halo Kringles Curse, it was ok but I'm not a fan.
I can help with tobacco flavors, because I knew none would be close enough to my brand (I never would smoke anything else, so why vape it).
I did find I liked bakery more that I’d have thought, and toasted almond is my favorite when I want something rather cigarette like.
I only have a few mtl tanks, but if you want mtl RTAs, maybe the Berserker would work for you. The only difference between mtl and dl is Less airflow and usually higher ohms for mtl. And, to start off, a higher nic should help as well.
What tobacco flavours would you recommend? I have tried bakery and desert flavors too , there are some delicious eliquids such as dinner lady lemon tart but everything gets tiring and stops doing it for me after a while and I start craving cigarettes and the flavor of tobacco. I'm not prepared to vape anything but tobacco eliquids for now since I'm still bound to cigarettes.
I started with e cig version 1.0 back about 10 years ago. I struggled and never could make the brake until an DNA device with +20w and the RDA came out. You don't have to go sub ohm a 1.3 has both good vapor and flavor with about 15w. Once you have the right equipment and nicotine level a light will come on and the gates will open, you'll never look back. Also for me to get away from analogs I had to get away from tobacco flavor, at least till i made a good clean swap. I go for a version of Five Pawns Black Flag Risen on occasion.
For me it seems it's counterproductive to try and stay away from tobacco flavors since that is what makes me go back to smoking analogs. I prefer to get into vaping instead of smoking even if I never get into vaping other eliquids besides tobacco flavored ones, for me it's about health, not making the most out of vaping.
I mix my own so I can have 12mg nic and use just 1% of an all in one flavoring. The 6 ml per day I vape costs 8 cents. Most pre mixes are hideously over flavored so you need multiple flavors to avoid fatique and the nic percents are too low for MTL. To get MTL in a small sustainable, inexpensive atomizer I use an SV rda clone then use a tall silicone slip ring for fine air control. The SV air supply is confined to one side of the barrel which makes it far easier to control leaking for pocket carry. The market is so fad driven I believe SV clones are out of production and hard to find at best (For $7 each I have a bunch of them). The industry and community are focused on hobbiests not people trying to quit smoking.
If you must have the closest thing to smoking a heat not burn product has been approved by the FDA and is probably coming soon. That will cost you about the same as smoking cigs. If you mix and rebuild vaping can be so inexpensive it's free for practical purposes.
One of the reasons I want to keep using rebuildables is the money factor, I know how inexpensive rebuilding is compared to buying specific factory coils for your tank. Also I already own a regulated mod and I can't really buy another one.
if I were you I would grab a decent aio mtl(like the breeze 2 or innokin t20) with some 15-20mg salt juice. that should be enough to easily get you off the cigs.
in the meantime grab some rtas and mess around with them because they have a big a learning curve and you don't want that frustration turn you back to smoking.
sub ohming straight off just doesn't work for a lot of people so it's good you realized there are better options and didn't give up.
I own a RTA and the learning process was indeed frustrating but I kinda got the hang on it, I'm not the best at it but I get decent results. I looked into the breeze 2 and it looks very interesting, what are nicotine salts?
I smoked 45 years, and I still stick with tobacco, and need that smoking type throat hit. If I'd started with what I'm currently using, life would've been much easier:
Doggystyle tank: You can't get the original, but Fasttech sells a perfect SXK version for around $10. Gives me better TH and flavor than any tank I've tried, and is stupid simple to build. I don't know of a drop-in coil that can give you the same experience as a good RTA. And if you decide to use NET (see below), it fouls coils very quickly, so rebuilding will save you a ton of $. There are a lot of good MTL tanks out there, but I find the doggy more closely replicates smoking for me than Kayfun Prime or any of its KF predecessors, Dvarw, Ares, Berserker, or Siren. Plus, it never leaks or gurgles, wicking isn't finicky - it just performs perfectly. Always. I do SS 316L, 2mm coil, 7 wraps, about 0.62 ohm, at 8.5-9.5 watts.
NET (Naturally Extracted Tobacco) juice: I believe the right juice is more important, and harder to get right than the equipment. I'd been making my own juice, primarily with Hangsen's tobacco flavors for over a year (Gold & Silver is closest to analog). I believe Hangsen makes the best non NET tobacco. And it is good, but....I just got my first NET juice from Stixx Mixx a few weeks ago, and wow. VERY satisfying- worlds better than any tobacco juice I've ever had. American Virginian is great. No sweeteners. And making your own is easier than so many here & on youtube would have you believe. I like all vg and 14% nic. So I measured and marked a 30 ml. bottle. Now I just pour nic to the mark, put in about 100 drops (approx 7% flavoring), and fill to the top with VG. Takes less than 3 min., and cost about a buck for 30ml.
I don't think the mod matters that much. But I will say that I have a small DNA mod, and I think DNA does give a little better vape somehow than my other ones. A few months ago, I wouldn't have believed I would be able to tell a difference.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
You understand me, I need to feel that tobacco flavor and throat hit otherwise it's not satisfactory enough.
I will look into the tank you are recommending. And yes money is a big factor for me that's why I prefer rebuilding over drop-in coils.
I don't want to get into making my own eliquids yet, I have looked into it and it seems interesting and very cheap indeed, so eventually I will get into it but not yet, maybe next month when I get comfortable with whatever tank/eliquid or pod I end up getting. My goal is to quit smoking as fast as possible and having to learn new stuff and having to wait for the eliquid to macerate is not an option right now but I appreciate your advice since it will come in handy in a near future.
I also think drop in coils would be easier to start, and the Zenith is a really nice solid well built MTL vape, and given you are coming from sub0hm I might suggest starting with the 0.8 coil. It's actually not even that big of a juice drinker but may be an easier adjustment as far as draw. If I were to recommend a rebuildable, it would be a Siren V2 (it's a fairly airy MTL vape) an Ares, or a doggystyle clone.
For me when I fell of the wagon upping my nic content in at least some of my vapes was really key, I don't need that much more nicotine all the time but when I do, it's available.
Best of luck sometimes even the "different approach this time" can be part of what works, it feels new, it is kind of "new" and it may be different enough to give you that edge that you need. I hope it all works out for you and I wouldn't hesitate to raise your nic up quite high if that is what you need for it to work out. Good luck,
Anna
I will look into the zenith since people are recommending it a lot. And yeah hopefully it works out with this different approach, I will take in account your advice regarding nicotine.
Thank you all for all of your responses, really useful stuff.
