Cost effective vaping tips and tricks

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SPACKlick

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With more and more people vaping I'm sure there are some great tricks out there for making things cheaper so I'd love to hear them. Below are my own thoughts towards cutting my costs, I do not endorse any of these sellers in particular as I am yet to use them. As far as I can see there are four things you spend on for vaping.

Mod&tank/Clearo/Carto - not consumables (in theory) so over the long haul make little difference to the cost, unless you go new toy crazy.

Liquid, Atty, Batteries.

with Liquid, the only thing I've ever thought is DIY. Get the cheapest/mg Nic you can. Although 72% is relatively common in the uk I've found sometimes 52mg/ml can work out more cost effective. If a few of you go in together this works out at £1/g of nicotine (1/3rd the price of Alchemists Cupboard) but it is 2.5L which will make 7 to 21 litres of E-juice (36% - 12%).
Then you need your PG or VG base. Buying in bulk can save loads. I found 25L for under £100. With these two deals I could happily make 21L of plain 12% juice at a cost of under 12p per 10ml (with some PG left over). As far as I'm aware from having worked in a lab with PG it never goes off and if you dilute your Nic down it won't go bad either (I'm not sure about keeping high strength Nic lying around for a long time)
I have no tips for buying flavours cost effectively.

with Atty, I'm told rebuilding is easy enough and cheap enough...I have no experience but I'm sure someone can fill us in on tips for cheap long lasting atty's. One thing I will say is strong dark flavours in VG kill Attys much quicker than unflavoured PG. So vapeing plain PG, with occasional flavours will be cheaper for those who can do it.

with Batteries. Again, pure newb but what I've picked up on so far is charge slowly. if you have a variable amp charger, put it on the lowest setting and your batteries will last much longer. As for whether to keep them full/empty/half charged. To have fewer that you use more often or more that you use less often I look to the forum for more advice.

What tips and tricks do you have for making vaping as cheap as it can be?
 

Completely Average

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My wife has the best money saving technique.

She bought one mod in August, one tank, and hasn't used or even tried anything else since. She got 5 coils with her mod when she got it and we still have 2 of those left.

In otherwords, since August, the only thing she's spent money on is her juice which we buy 236ml at a time for less than $45. She's spent less than $100 in the past 6 months.
 

tiffany7278

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My wife has the best money saving technique.

She bought one mod in August, one tank, and hasn't used or even tried anything else since. She got 5 coils with her mod when she got it and we still have 2 of those left.

In otherwords, since August, the only thing she's spent money on is her juice which we buy 236ml at a time for less than $45. She's spent less than $100 in the past 6 months.

My husband is the same way, he could care less about all the fancy stuff I'm buying. He is happy with his ego-t while I now have the itaste vv 3.0, MVP2, looking into ibtanked and ordering 12 juices a week! He is just vaping away on classic menthol we got here locally.
 

Ohms Lawbreaker

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Best tip I have is don't go wild getting into expensive rda's and mods if you're new. After just 8 or 9 months, the "bright and shiny" magic for me is gone, the fascination with rebuilding has subsided. Unless you are a hobbyist and enjoy the collecting aspect, one can sometimes get caught up in the insane variety of new toys that come out every day. When the fiddling around starts to interfere with the pleasure of vaping itself, it's time to scale back. If cash is an issue, take it slow. If not, have fun! :)
 

Razorback

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Best tip I have is don't go wild getting into expensive rda's and mods if you're new. After just 8 or 9 months, the "bright and shiny" magic for me is gone, the fascination with rebuilding has subsided. Unless you are a hobbyist and enjoy the collecting aspect, one can sometimes get caught up in the insane variety of new toys that come out every day. When the fiddling around starts to interfere with the pleasure of vaping itself, it's time to scale back. If cash is an issue, take it slow. If not, have fun! :)


I'm with you on this one... I have settled on 1 Provari, 2 eVic's, Vivi Nova tanks, and DIY liquid... Now it only cost me roughly $25 per month to keep my habit up. :)
 

Completely Average

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My husband is the same way, he could care less about all the fancy stuff I'm buying. He is happy with his ego-t while I now have the itaste vv 3.0, MVP2, looking into ibtanked and ordering 12 juices a week! He is just vaping away on classic menthol we got here locally.

Yep, that's my wife.

She has her one little device and one flavor (Also a plain, clear menthol), and that's it. Doesn't care about anything else.

I'm a little different. I like trying out new things and tinkering. It's resulted in a lot of money spent on stuff I'm not really satisfied with. My wife hates me for that because she views it as money wasted, and perhaps she's right, but in my mind I ask "how do you know what you want if you don't try the options that are out there?"

I'm getting in to mech mods now because I'm a tinkerer and I just enjoy building things and working with my hands. I doubt I'll ever be one of the serious hobbiests or collectors of mech mods and RBAs, but I want to build a few just to have the experience of it all. And so what if I blow a few hundred dollars more on vaping gear that I really don't need? What's the point of having a job and earning an income if I cannot spend it on things I want?
 

SPACKlick

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The big lie is that you will save money in vaping. :)

I've saved plenty of money in just the few weeks I've been vaping, enought to buy a VTS...and then I won't have saved money any more. Bigods, you're right.

But seriously, cost is a big reason a lot of people are switching, and for people who are being really squeexed in these tough times, tips on how to get the most out of your money are useful. Some people are scared of buying pharmaceutical grade PG from anywhere other than a vape shop, you needn't be. Some people don't realise just how much you save by buying Nic and mixing yourself, even in small quantities. If pennies are tight the difference between £4.99 for 10ml and 12p for 10ml is huge (I'm not suggesting everyone wants 21L of e-juice kicking about, I mean even at a 10ml/day that's 5.75 years of E-juice, for £270 all in). The biggest way to save I've found is find some nearby vapers who like something similar to you and split costs. Postage can be halved this way and products can be bought in serious bulk.

I'm sure there are little tips to maximising the life you get out of your batteries, and the most cost effective build/clean/use regime for atty's which could bring the running cost of heavy vaping to less than the cost of 1 analogue per day possibly even per week.
 

PhatRon

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DIY e-liquid and learn to build your own coils...
Buy resistance wire by the 100ft and use organic cotton balls as wicks.
Save all your old e-liquid bottles that you bought from vendors to use for your DIY.
Purchase a quality battery charger and batteries.
Go to Penny Vaper and find your toppers/mods that you want to use.
Buy a precision screwdriver set from the Dollar Store to wrap your coils on so they are nice and uniform wraps.
Clean your contacts on your mod and toppers so they perform well everytime you fire your device.
Buy a roll of $0.50 Vaper Towels from your local grocery store to clean off connection points/bottles/any spills.
Go to Wizard Labs to purchase all your DIY supplies.
Also if you don't want to DIY your own Liquid you can visit Mt. Baker Vapor and they have liquid for $4.99-$5.99 per 15ml bottle or $7.49-$8.49 per 30ml bottle.
-They also have a 10% off coupon: vaporfrombaker

Sorry thats a little jumbled up and in no particular order..
 
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twgbonehead

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Here's my strategy to save money (doesn't actually work for me, but it might for someone):

1. While you're shopping (either online or in a B&M) keep saying to yourself "It will still be there next week. It will still be there next week"

2. Don't try to save money by buying a larger bottle of e-liquid if you haven't tried it before! Even if you liked other juices from the same vendor!

3. Stay away from ECF! It will tempt you mercilessly to try/buy new stuff.

4. Likewise, don't go near FastTech unless you have very good self-control!!!!!
 
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