Well, coming up on one year since I last had a cancer stick, and holy crap, lookit my footer and how much money I've saved and more importantly, how many cigarettes I have not smoked! I was a heavy smoker, but vaping help me quit cold turkey.
Some thoughts and discussion on vaping for me since then - some good and some bad:
For the first three months after switching to vaping, I was doing 24mg then 18mg of nicotine juices and using the Bloog system with the cartomizers exclusively. I even went through the rigamarole of boiling and cleaning (trying to clean) the cartomizers for several months to save some costs. Then I placed new orders for the Volt batteries and KR808D cartos and used those for several months, again trying to do the cleaning thing to avoid re ordering. I tried a half dozen juice suppliers in Canada. Then I got a bigger battery KR808D model because I was tired of the small ciggy-like batteries dying out. Also reduced my nicotine over time (but not stopped sigh). Then about a month ago, I went for a new ecig system - the eGo C system with various different batteries and the 1.2mm cartridge system and the low-resistance setup.
So what I learned in that time:
- Bloog, Volt, etc is nice if you want to really mimic that smoking experience (especially after you quit) but seriously, the QC of the parts is bad. I've had many dud empty cartos, and I've had many batteries that don't hold a charge after a month or two (and a few that died after a few charges). Ditto with the chargers themselves - both the little mini ones and the portable ones with built in batteries - they are really of suspect build quality. My Bloog portable charger died after a few months, and I've been through at least six of the mini "stick" type chargers. Verdict: great choice if you want to mimic cigarette smoking to the max, but bad choice if you want something that's actually going to last.
- Cleaning cartomizers. Not really worth the effort. I'd do a triple boil on these and big time flushing with a modified turkey baster. Then bake them dry in a toaster oven for an hour at 200F. It would work on maybe 1/3 of them (maybe I vaped them too long to start). If you can score a box of five KR808D cartos for under $8, just go that route and use fresh ones each time. I usually refill them about 10 times or more before chucking, but always use the same juice when I do.
- As you reduce nicotine, I found you need a bigger "hit" from the battery to replace the throat hit. Just my experience, so I as brought down the nicotine, the Bloog / Volts weren't doing it for me any longer. I got a fat battery KR808D thing that puts out 4V or something like that (honestly I don't know this geeky side too much of vaping - just that this battery burns hotter at the coil inside the cartomizer). Lasted a helluva lot longer too, but no where near stealthy or casual as the bloog/volts.
- One, then both the big fat KR808D batteries failed on me (surprise lol), so I decided, okay, if I'm going to continue with this hobby, I'm gonna go a different route. Did some research, liked what I read on the Joytech ego C system (esp, the variable volt battery, and the upgrade batteries that let you switch to full, declining power, or straight 3.6v), and the new system of vaporizer being its own unit inside the eCig that you can replace, so I ordered a full kit, including upgrade batteries. Also ordered the cool pass thru upgrade battery and the variable volt battery.
- Been using these eGo Cs for a month and I like it, though it's definitely not mimicing smoking a cigarette. It mimics maybe smoking a Colt.
I like the controllable voltage too, quite a bit. Nice throat hit, even from 8mg juices.
- Nicotine. Sigh. I really wanted to be off nicotine and off ecigs by my one year anniversary. Hasn't happened. I am down to 8mg / 12mg most days, some days 16mg when I need it at times. I have several of my fave flavour juices without nicotine, and have tried going down to 4mg (mixing with 8mg batches) and 0mg, but I get the massive withdrawal headaches and cave.
On vaping here and there:
- in home, I vape all the time (not constantly, but in bouts). Bad news on this is that I am vaping much more than I ever smoked. I'd chain smoke sometimes, but not like this. But good news is, I've gone 3, 4, 6 hours without vaping because I got tied up in my work and didn't miss it... till I started getting a headache.
- When I'm out for dinner, I'll pop into the bathroom before first course (but after ordering) and take some hits. Ditto after the main or desert (if we order desert). I don't vape at the table.
- When I'm out for drinks and what have you, if I'm with a group, I'll do it semi-stealthy at the table eventually (my friends get a kick and tease me as they know, but I don't make a big scene or cloud about it); but if I'm alone or with my spouse, I do the bathroom visit. I don't go outside and vape.
- When walking around, I vape, and kind of treat it like a cigarette (with the bloog/volts not so much with the eGo). I get the same stares and evil eyes I did when I smoked, though people sometimes look surprised when they don't SMELL cigarette smoke.
- got stopped once by a cop. They wanted to know what it was and thought I was vaping 520. I let them sniff. On my way.
- at movies... I vape. My childish 44 year old brain thinks I'm getting away with something lol. I'm stealth about it, blowing it down to the floor, and such.
- My wife generally likes it. She says the house smells great most days.
On liquids.
I've tried over a half dozen Canadian eliquid vendors, and I've settled on two - Gentlemen's Reserve and Vaporgeek. Some honest thoughts on both
GR: Great quality eliquids mostly, prices are a bit high, but I really like a few of their flavours. I've ordered 4 or 5 times from them, and I had two different issues with my orders in past. One was, I ordered in stock stuff, paid (via interac) but was informed after they were out of stock on items and I'd have to wait, which was about 2 weeks. Another time I ordered methol in some eliquids but they arrived without - to GR's credit, they shipped me out a full 30ml bottle of menthol at no extra charge and walked me through adding the liquid.
VaporGeek - great prices especially when on sale. Good prices on parts, esp. KR808D stuff. I bought my eGo C through them during their labour day sale. Wide range of eliquid offerings, but many can be out of stock. No sales tax!
Speaking of sales taxes: I have to question any eliquid vendor who charges HST but doesn't provide a BN number. I'm not just singling out GR here, but questioning any eliquid vendor that does charge HST, because by law, if they do so, they have to provide you their BN. It does add 12% to every order, and while I reluctantly pay it because by law I have to, I do not like paying it if the person is operating a cottage business and not set up for paying HST to the government.
I haven't asked GR for their HST / BN number, but I have asked two other vendors in the past, and both just ignored my emails. I didn't order from either again.
Anyway, a lot said lol - but it's coming up on one year, I haven't participated here in a while, so I figured why not a long post
Mark
Some thoughts and discussion on vaping for me since then - some good and some bad:
For the first three months after switching to vaping, I was doing 24mg then 18mg of nicotine juices and using the Bloog system with the cartomizers exclusively. I even went through the rigamarole of boiling and cleaning (trying to clean) the cartomizers for several months to save some costs. Then I placed new orders for the Volt batteries and KR808D cartos and used those for several months, again trying to do the cleaning thing to avoid re ordering. I tried a half dozen juice suppliers in Canada. Then I got a bigger battery KR808D model because I was tired of the small ciggy-like batteries dying out. Also reduced my nicotine over time (but not stopped sigh). Then about a month ago, I went for a new ecig system - the eGo C system with various different batteries and the 1.2mm cartridge system and the low-resistance setup.
So what I learned in that time:
- Bloog, Volt, etc is nice if you want to really mimic that smoking experience (especially after you quit) but seriously, the QC of the parts is bad. I've had many dud empty cartos, and I've had many batteries that don't hold a charge after a month or two (and a few that died after a few charges). Ditto with the chargers themselves - both the little mini ones and the portable ones with built in batteries - they are really of suspect build quality. My Bloog portable charger died after a few months, and I've been through at least six of the mini "stick" type chargers. Verdict: great choice if you want to mimic cigarette smoking to the max, but bad choice if you want something that's actually going to last.
- Cleaning cartomizers. Not really worth the effort. I'd do a triple boil on these and big time flushing with a modified turkey baster. Then bake them dry in a toaster oven for an hour at 200F. It would work on maybe 1/3 of them (maybe I vaped them too long to start). If you can score a box of five KR808D cartos for under $8, just go that route and use fresh ones each time. I usually refill them about 10 times or more before chucking, but always use the same juice when I do.
- As you reduce nicotine, I found you need a bigger "hit" from the battery to replace the throat hit. Just my experience, so I as brought down the nicotine, the Bloog / Volts weren't doing it for me any longer. I got a fat battery KR808D thing that puts out 4V or something like that (honestly I don't know this geeky side too much of vaping - just that this battery burns hotter at the coil inside the cartomizer). Lasted a helluva lot longer too, but no where near stealthy or casual as the bloog/volts.
- One, then both the big fat KR808D batteries failed on me (surprise lol), so I decided, okay, if I'm going to continue with this hobby, I'm gonna go a different route. Did some research, liked what I read on the Joytech ego C system (esp, the variable volt battery, and the upgrade batteries that let you switch to full, declining power, or straight 3.6v), and the new system of vaporizer being its own unit inside the eCig that you can replace, so I ordered a full kit, including upgrade batteries. Also ordered the cool pass thru upgrade battery and the variable volt battery.
- Been using these eGo Cs for a month and I like it, though it's definitely not mimicing smoking a cigarette. It mimics maybe smoking a Colt.
I like the controllable voltage too, quite a bit. Nice throat hit, even from 8mg juices.- Nicotine. Sigh. I really wanted to be off nicotine and off ecigs by my one year anniversary. Hasn't happened. I am down to 8mg / 12mg most days, some days 16mg when I need it at times. I have several of my fave flavour juices without nicotine, and have tried going down to 4mg (mixing with 8mg batches) and 0mg, but I get the massive withdrawal headaches and cave.
On vaping here and there:
- in home, I vape all the time (not constantly, but in bouts). Bad news on this is that I am vaping much more than I ever smoked. I'd chain smoke sometimes, but not like this. But good news is, I've gone 3, 4, 6 hours without vaping because I got tied up in my work and didn't miss it... till I started getting a headache.
- When I'm out for dinner, I'll pop into the bathroom before first course (but after ordering) and take some hits. Ditto after the main or desert (if we order desert). I don't vape at the table.
- When I'm out for drinks and what have you, if I'm with a group, I'll do it semi-stealthy at the table eventually (my friends get a kick and tease me as they know, but I don't make a big scene or cloud about it); but if I'm alone or with my spouse, I do the bathroom visit. I don't go outside and vape.
- When walking around, I vape, and kind of treat it like a cigarette (with the bloog/volts not so much with the eGo). I get the same stares and evil eyes I did when I smoked, though people sometimes look surprised when they don't SMELL cigarette smoke.
- got stopped once by a cop. They wanted to know what it was and thought I was vaping 520. I let them sniff. On my way.
- at movies... I vape. My childish 44 year old brain thinks I'm getting away with something lol. I'm stealth about it, blowing it down to the floor, and such.
- My wife generally likes it. She says the house smells great most days.
On liquids.
I've tried over a half dozen Canadian eliquid vendors, and I've settled on two - Gentlemen's Reserve and Vaporgeek. Some honest thoughts on both
GR: Great quality eliquids mostly, prices are a bit high, but I really like a few of their flavours. I've ordered 4 or 5 times from them, and I had two different issues with my orders in past. One was, I ordered in stock stuff, paid (via interac) but was informed after they were out of stock on items and I'd have to wait, which was about 2 weeks. Another time I ordered methol in some eliquids but they arrived without - to GR's credit, they shipped me out a full 30ml bottle of menthol at no extra charge and walked me through adding the liquid.
VaporGeek - great prices especially when on sale. Good prices on parts, esp. KR808D stuff. I bought my eGo C through them during their labour day sale. Wide range of eliquid offerings, but many can be out of stock. No sales tax!
Speaking of sales taxes: I have to question any eliquid vendor who charges HST but doesn't provide a BN number. I'm not just singling out GR here, but questioning any eliquid vendor that does charge HST, because by law, if they do so, they have to provide you their BN. It does add 12% to every order, and while I reluctantly pay it because by law I have to, I do not like paying it if the person is operating a cottage business and not set up for paying HST to the government.
I haven't asked GR for their HST / BN number, but I have asked two other vendors in the past, and both just ignored my emails. I didn't order from either again.
Anyway, a lot said lol - but it's coming up on one year, I haven't participated here in a while, so I figured why not a long post
Mark
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