Ive been lurking around these forums for a while now and figured it was about time I created an account and actually posted my experiences.
I started vaping about 2-3 months ago. I, like most folks, ran threw a couple rip-off rebranders before I discovered these forums, and my beloved V4L. The first of which, actually wasnt TOO bad of a rip-off...
Crown7
When I first discovered e-cigs, I did a little (read: very little) research and placed an order for a SafeCig starter kit. But while I was waiting for it to be delivered, I got a little ansy (read: gf was getting on my case about analogs), so I went to my local smoke shop and asked for the cheapest (2-piece) e-cig kit they had. I got a small Crown7 kit, two bats and 2 or 3 cartos. I kind of dug how they were sold in a carboard hard-pack style case, but the flavor was weak, the vaopr was weak, and I wasnt a fan of the all white look (I used to smoke about a pack + ½ Marlboro Mediums a day, and hate marb lights). As soon as my safe cig got to me, I dropped the Crown7 like a bad habit and donated it to a buddy of mine who also was trying to get off analogs. He didnt. Not recommended.
The Safe Cig
This is what I consider my first real e-cig. It may have been over priced (batts at $30 and pack of 5 sealed cartos at $12.50) but it was damn reliable. At the time, the flavor was perfect for me. It tasted a lot like an analog (at the time, now it just tastes kind of fruity to me, which is a change in my taste buds, i think). And the one thing I have to say about the Safe Cig, is that even with my chain-vaping, those cartos really did last all day, and usually a little more. Its the ONLY brand of e-cig Ive tried that actually lived up to that crazy claim of one carto = 1-2 packs of analogs. Ive since learned that the Safe Cig is just an RN4081 so if anyone want to try out their cartos, youre probably better off picking up a generic batt or an adapter for your existing gear.
One side note about the safe cig, is their case. If you use a KR808 shorty (Vapor4Life, Bloog, etc) go to the safe cig site and check out their case. It holds 2 cartos, one spare battery and one fully assembled batt + carto, and its roughly the same size as the generic batt/carto cases everyone else has. The reason the case can hold the e-cig fully assembled is because the items in the case are stored diagonally, with the fully assembled e-cig in the middle. The battery slot is a tiny bit shorter than my v4l shorty autos, but the groove on the bottom can easily be extended just by storing a spare batt with the case closed for a while so it pushes the top end down a bit (i.e. lazy modding). I dont think Id recomment this case for manual batts since it holds them pretty tight and would probably cause the button to be pressed constantly.
Green Smoke (not to be confused with GreenCig, which Ive never tried but read good things about on the forums)
So after vaping the Safe cig for a month (and not even touching an analog) I decided I wanted to see what else was out there. This was mostly because the safe cig cartos started tasting different to me. Im not sure if it was just a bad batch or if my taste buds were changing, but either way, I figured it was time to expand my horizons. I still hadnt found the forums yet, and was only looking at those bogus e-cig review sites that only seem to review the name-brand rip-offs. On the site I was reading, Safe Cig was rated number 1, and green smoke number 2. So it was a natural next step (also the smoke shop on my block has a lot of stocked green smoke cartos (at the freaking ridiculous price of $30 for a pack of 5 - i think theyre about $15 on the web site) so I figured itd be a good batt to have around in case I ran out one day). I quickly learned about the E9 carto burning problem (even though I didnt know what an E9 was at the time). If you are a chain vaper, stay the hell away from the green smoke. The cartos get burned really really easily, however, theyre shorty batts are really nice and short, and theyre absolute tobacco carto isnt THAT bad. They other thing I really liked was the draw. The Green smoke doesnt seem to allow any air in where the carto screws in (which I think means it all comes from the led-tip of the batt). This makes it a slightly harder draw, but produces clouds of vapor with even small draws. However, even with the size and pleasant draw, I still cant recommend this product to anyone since its still overpriced, and has a major carto burning problem.
White Cloud (yes, they got me, and they suck really really bad)
So obviously, I still hadnt discovered these forums when I ordered the white cloud cirrus 3 starter kit (for a whopping $290 - 3 bats, one charger and one pack of 5 cartos). The reviews I was reading all claimed that white cloud was the Rolls Royce of e-cigs (those dirty filthy ..... liars). Needless to say I got my kit and was extremely disappointed. Their (sealed) cartos tasted like strawberry flavored vomit (this was their tobacco flavor, mind you) and the whole clouds of vapor claim was BS. The only (semi) good thing about the white cloud were the batts were incredibly tiny (smaller than any other batts Ive used to date), super light, and seemed to last a long time (I say seemed, because I could never use the white cloud long enough to really determine the battery life, the cartos are really really bad).
However, this was right about this time when I discovered these forums (after delivery unfortunately), and noticed that the white cloud batteries look a lot like the KR808s. I wound up ordering a V4L shorty auto and some carts shortly after (which I will discuss in a moment), and found out that they are in fact, KR8081-Ds except with one FATAL FLAW. Normal KR808s (batts) have a few (usually 3) very tiny holes under the threads to allow for air to pass through. But the Cirrus 3 batts have to large cuts in the threading instead (I will try to get some pics when I can to compare). Im not totally sure how to describe this but look at the threaded tip of a normal 808, the imagine taking a kinfe thats about the width of a micro-usb plug and cutting the threads right down the middle, so instead of one circle, you now have 2 half-circles and two big gaps for air to flow through. It is such a pain to get a decent amount of vapor when using these batts (although this might also be due to a lower voltage) on any of the v4l carts I tried, thats theyre not even worth using. Wrapping your finger around the air holes while vaping helps a little, but even then you dont get too much. IMO, there is absolutely NOTHING that justifies paying that much for a Cirrus 3. I am lucky enough that $300 doesnt break the bank, but I worry these a#%holes are ripping off decent folk who cant afford it and it should be a crime.
STAY AWAY FROM WHITE CLOUD!
Vapor4Life + Wowboy
So by this time Id discovered the forums and Id been educating myself about all things vaping. I still wanted something that felt like an analog (since Id fallen off the wagon and was having 1-2 analogs a day), So I ordered a vaporking from v4l (chrome with a blue LED) and a couple of different cartos to try (including the tobacco shop sampler). It was then that I discovered my beloved Wowboy. The subtle hint of chocolate and mint blew my mind and I immediately ordered another battery, a PCC and 4 more packs of wowboy cartos (eventually tried out a manual batt too but I just really like autos). I was in heaven and Id found my every-day vape.
However, I started to notice a few issues with the Vapor King, and more importantly their WOW cartos. The biggest problem was leaking. Not through the battery hole, mind you, but through the mouth piece. At this time, Id never refilled a carto, and had never had a problem like this. But every couple of hours (and this happens on every wowboy carto Ive used) Ill get some wowboy on my lips and/or toung. Im still not sure why this happens so much with the WOW cartos (or at least the Wowboy cartos) but I have found a semi-solution which I will explain in a bit. The other major issue Ive been having is that the WOW cartos dont seem to last very long. I find myself going through anywhere from 2 - 5 a day. Since 5 cartos = $10 per day, I decided that its just not sustainable to keep vaping the WOW cartos ( I might as well be smoking analogs at that price - Im in NYC so $10 /day is still cheaper than a pack of analogs but not by much). So I started saving my used up cartos and ordered a couple bottles of juice from Backwoods Brew (V4L has been out of Wowboy juice for a while now). I learned taryn spin, and started dripping some extra juice into my dry wowboy cartos and it actually worked. But I still had the same problem with getting a mouth full of juice at times. So I decided I should keep looking for alternatives.
Bloog MaxxFusion
So I order a Bloog. Actually, I ordered the Bloog Mini PCC kit with 2 extra packs of cartos (Reds, Chocolate and Mint in total). I wanted to try their RY4 but they only had it in very high nic levels and Im an 18/11mg kind of guy. Now, Ive only had my BMF for a few days at the time Im writing this, but I have to say I was blown away at the draw and vapor production of the Bloog. Its truly impressive how such a light draw can produce so much vapor. Ive read some mixed reviews on their cartos, so maybe I just got a good batch. However I wasnt in love with any of their flavors. I quickly learned that Bloogs regulated voltage batts just wont produce enough energy to properly vape my Wowboy cartos, which was pretty dissapointing, but I didnt give up. Last night I tried two things that both went fairly well...
First I noticed that I rarely get any juice in my mouth from the bloogs. Now I think that part of this is the design of the carto, but it also seemed like theyre soft caps were a little better at trapping any liquid that makes it to them. I tried using a wowboy cart with a bloog soft cap (on my v4l batt) and low and behold, almost no more juice in the mouth! It still happens occasionally but MUCH more rarely.
Then I decided to go the other way. I took a fresh wowboy carto and drained it of as much juice as I could (using the reverse taryn spin). I dripped the juice into an almost empty (mint) bloog carto and vaped it on the bloog batt and it worked! It actually vapes quite nicely now, except that Bloogs mint is so strong it kind of masks the subtle flavors of the wowboy. Im planning on trying this again in an empty bloog carto (gonna try and drain a chocolate one since it seems the least flavorful) but I havent had the chance yet (this was last night).
BMF/V4L note: the Bloog Mini PCC does seem to charge my V4L shorty autos, but your mileage may vary. It seems that the V4L batts just cut themselves off when theyre full, which makes the PCC think there is no battery inserted. But when the battery is low or almost dead, the charging seems to go smoothly.
What Im Vaping Now
Im now switching off between my v4l wowboy carts (with a bloog soft cap) and my BMF with the mint/wowboy mixture trying to decide which I like better. Im still concerned with how quickly my wowboy cartos run out of juice, so to hold me over I ordered a couple bottles of wowboy peppermint, which (from what Ive read) seems like a good replacement until v4l gets the wowboy juice back in stock. Ive also got a pair of v4l diamond batts on the way to see how they compare to the BMFs, and a couple packs of blank bloog cartos to see how well the wowboy peppermint will vape in them. (Im totally OCD and need to try everything)
What Ive Learned
The forums are awesome! (but a wiki would be nice)
Vapor4Life has the best customer service ever!
Wowbow is amazing!
Bloog has some very interesting new cartos
Dont be afraid to drip into your cartos. Its a lot cheaper to buy juice than a pack of cartos every two days, and you get to experiment with new flavors!
Learn the Taryn Spin, instant gratification FTW!
The White Cloud corporation can bite my shiny metal a$%!
Most importantly - If youre new, dont give up after one bad brand/juice/battery, etc. Youre flavor is out there, you just have to find it
Anyway, sorry about the super long essay, but I wanted my first post to at least contain some useful info. Many thanks to everybody here for putting me on the right path.
I started vaping about 2-3 months ago. I, like most folks, ran threw a couple rip-off rebranders before I discovered these forums, and my beloved V4L. The first of which, actually wasnt TOO bad of a rip-off...
Crown7
When I first discovered e-cigs, I did a little (read: very little) research and placed an order for a SafeCig starter kit. But while I was waiting for it to be delivered, I got a little ansy (read: gf was getting on my case about analogs), so I went to my local smoke shop and asked for the cheapest (2-piece) e-cig kit they had. I got a small Crown7 kit, two bats and 2 or 3 cartos. I kind of dug how they were sold in a carboard hard-pack style case, but the flavor was weak, the vaopr was weak, and I wasnt a fan of the all white look (I used to smoke about a pack + ½ Marlboro Mediums a day, and hate marb lights). As soon as my safe cig got to me, I dropped the Crown7 like a bad habit and donated it to a buddy of mine who also was trying to get off analogs. He didnt. Not recommended.
The Safe Cig
This is what I consider my first real e-cig. It may have been over priced (batts at $30 and pack of 5 sealed cartos at $12.50) but it was damn reliable. At the time, the flavor was perfect for me. It tasted a lot like an analog (at the time, now it just tastes kind of fruity to me, which is a change in my taste buds, i think). And the one thing I have to say about the Safe Cig, is that even with my chain-vaping, those cartos really did last all day, and usually a little more. Its the ONLY brand of e-cig Ive tried that actually lived up to that crazy claim of one carto = 1-2 packs of analogs. Ive since learned that the Safe Cig is just an RN4081 so if anyone want to try out their cartos, youre probably better off picking up a generic batt or an adapter for your existing gear.
One side note about the safe cig, is their case. If you use a KR808 shorty (Vapor4Life, Bloog, etc) go to the safe cig site and check out their case. It holds 2 cartos, one spare battery and one fully assembled batt + carto, and its roughly the same size as the generic batt/carto cases everyone else has. The reason the case can hold the e-cig fully assembled is because the items in the case are stored diagonally, with the fully assembled e-cig in the middle. The battery slot is a tiny bit shorter than my v4l shorty autos, but the groove on the bottom can easily be extended just by storing a spare batt with the case closed for a while so it pushes the top end down a bit (i.e. lazy modding). I dont think Id recomment this case for manual batts since it holds them pretty tight and would probably cause the button to be pressed constantly.
Green Smoke (not to be confused with GreenCig, which Ive never tried but read good things about on the forums)
So after vaping the Safe cig for a month (and not even touching an analog) I decided I wanted to see what else was out there. This was mostly because the safe cig cartos started tasting different to me. Im not sure if it was just a bad batch or if my taste buds were changing, but either way, I figured it was time to expand my horizons. I still hadnt found the forums yet, and was only looking at those bogus e-cig review sites that only seem to review the name-brand rip-offs. On the site I was reading, Safe Cig was rated number 1, and green smoke number 2. So it was a natural next step (also the smoke shop on my block has a lot of stocked green smoke cartos (at the freaking ridiculous price of $30 for a pack of 5 - i think theyre about $15 on the web site) so I figured itd be a good batt to have around in case I ran out one day). I quickly learned about the E9 carto burning problem (even though I didnt know what an E9 was at the time). If you are a chain vaper, stay the hell away from the green smoke. The cartos get burned really really easily, however, theyre shorty batts are really nice and short, and theyre absolute tobacco carto isnt THAT bad. They other thing I really liked was the draw. The Green smoke doesnt seem to allow any air in where the carto screws in (which I think means it all comes from the led-tip of the batt). This makes it a slightly harder draw, but produces clouds of vapor with even small draws. However, even with the size and pleasant draw, I still cant recommend this product to anyone since its still overpriced, and has a major carto burning problem.
White Cloud (yes, they got me, and they suck really really bad)
So obviously, I still hadnt discovered these forums when I ordered the white cloud cirrus 3 starter kit (for a whopping $290 - 3 bats, one charger and one pack of 5 cartos). The reviews I was reading all claimed that white cloud was the Rolls Royce of e-cigs (those dirty filthy ..... liars). Needless to say I got my kit and was extremely disappointed. Their (sealed) cartos tasted like strawberry flavored vomit (this was their tobacco flavor, mind you) and the whole clouds of vapor claim was BS. The only (semi) good thing about the white cloud were the batts were incredibly tiny (smaller than any other batts Ive used to date), super light, and seemed to last a long time (I say seemed, because I could never use the white cloud long enough to really determine the battery life, the cartos are really really bad).
However, this was right about this time when I discovered these forums (after delivery unfortunately), and noticed that the white cloud batteries look a lot like the KR808s. I wound up ordering a V4L shorty auto and some carts shortly after (which I will discuss in a moment), and found out that they are in fact, KR8081-Ds except with one FATAL FLAW. Normal KR808s (batts) have a few (usually 3) very tiny holes under the threads to allow for air to pass through. But the Cirrus 3 batts have to large cuts in the threading instead (I will try to get some pics when I can to compare). Im not totally sure how to describe this but look at the threaded tip of a normal 808, the imagine taking a kinfe thats about the width of a micro-usb plug and cutting the threads right down the middle, so instead of one circle, you now have 2 half-circles and two big gaps for air to flow through. It is such a pain to get a decent amount of vapor when using these batts (although this might also be due to a lower voltage) on any of the v4l carts I tried, thats theyre not even worth using. Wrapping your finger around the air holes while vaping helps a little, but even then you dont get too much. IMO, there is absolutely NOTHING that justifies paying that much for a Cirrus 3. I am lucky enough that $300 doesnt break the bank, but I worry these a#%holes are ripping off decent folk who cant afford it and it should be a crime.
STAY AWAY FROM WHITE CLOUD!
Vapor4Life + Wowboy
So by this time Id discovered the forums and Id been educating myself about all things vaping. I still wanted something that felt like an analog (since Id fallen off the wagon and was having 1-2 analogs a day), So I ordered a vaporking from v4l (chrome with a blue LED) and a couple of different cartos to try (including the tobacco shop sampler). It was then that I discovered my beloved Wowboy. The subtle hint of chocolate and mint blew my mind and I immediately ordered another battery, a PCC and 4 more packs of wowboy cartos (eventually tried out a manual batt too but I just really like autos). I was in heaven and Id found my every-day vape.
However, I started to notice a few issues with the Vapor King, and more importantly their WOW cartos. The biggest problem was leaking. Not through the battery hole, mind you, but through the mouth piece. At this time, Id never refilled a carto, and had never had a problem like this. But every couple of hours (and this happens on every wowboy carto Ive used) Ill get some wowboy on my lips and/or toung. Im still not sure why this happens so much with the WOW cartos (or at least the Wowboy cartos) but I have found a semi-solution which I will explain in a bit. The other major issue Ive been having is that the WOW cartos dont seem to last very long. I find myself going through anywhere from 2 - 5 a day. Since 5 cartos = $10 per day, I decided that its just not sustainable to keep vaping the WOW cartos ( I might as well be smoking analogs at that price - Im in NYC so $10 /day is still cheaper than a pack of analogs but not by much). So I started saving my used up cartos and ordered a couple bottles of juice from Backwoods Brew (V4L has been out of Wowboy juice for a while now). I learned taryn spin, and started dripping some extra juice into my dry wowboy cartos and it actually worked. But I still had the same problem with getting a mouth full of juice at times. So I decided I should keep looking for alternatives.
Bloog MaxxFusion
So I order a Bloog. Actually, I ordered the Bloog Mini PCC kit with 2 extra packs of cartos (Reds, Chocolate and Mint in total). I wanted to try their RY4 but they only had it in very high nic levels and Im an 18/11mg kind of guy. Now, Ive only had my BMF for a few days at the time Im writing this, but I have to say I was blown away at the draw and vapor production of the Bloog. Its truly impressive how such a light draw can produce so much vapor. Ive read some mixed reviews on their cartos, so maybe I just got a good batch. However I wasnt in love with any of their flavors. I quickly learned that Bloogs regulated voltage batts just wont produce enough energy to properly vape my Wowboy cartos, which was pretty dissapointing, but I didnt give up. Last night I tried two things that both went fairly well...
First I noticed that I rarely get any juice in my mouth from the bloogs. Now I think that part of this is the design of the carto, but it also seemed like theyre soft caps were a little better at trapping any liquid that makes it to them. I tried using a wowboy cart with a bloog soft cap (on my v4l batt) and low and behold, almost no more juice in the mouth! It still happens occasionally but MUCH more rarely.
Then I decided to go the other way. I took a fresh wowboy carto and drained it of as much juice as I could (using the reverse taryn spin). I dripped the juice into an almost empty (mint) bloog carto and vaped it on the bloog batt and it worked! It actually vapes quite nicely now, except that Bloogs mint is so strong it kind of masks the subtle flavors of the wowboy. Im planning on trying this again in an empty bloog carto (gonna try and drain a chocolate one since it seems the least flavorful) but I havent had the chance yet (this was last night).
BMF/V4L note: the Bloog Mini PCC does seem to charge my V4L shorty autos, but your mileage may vary. It seems that the V4L batts just cut themselves off when theyre full, which makes the PCC think there is no battery inserted. But when the battery is low or almost dead, the charging seems to go smoothly.
What Im Vaping Now
Im now switching off between my v4l wowboy carts (with a bloog soft cap) and my BMF with the mint/wowboy mixture trying to decide which I like better. Im still concerned with how quickly my wowboy cartos run out of juice, so to hold me over I ordered a couple bottles of wowboy peppermint, which (from what Ive read) seems like a good replacement until v4l gets the wowboy juice back in stock. Ive also got a pair of v4l diamond batts on the way to see how they compare to the BMFs, and a couple packs of blank bloog cartos to see how well the wowboy peppermint will vape in them. (Im totally OCD and need to try everything)
What Ive Learned
The forums are awesome! (but a wiki would be nice)
Vapor4Life has the best customer service ever!
Wowbow is amazing!
Bloog has some very interesting new cartos
Dont be afraid to drip into your cartos. Its a lot cheaper to buy juice than a pack of cartos every two days, and you get to experiment with new flavors!
Learn the Taryn Spin, instant gratification FTW!
The White Cloud corporation can bite my shiny metal a$%!
Most importantly - If youre new, dont give up after one bad brand/juice/battery, etc. Youre flavor is out there, you just have to find it
Anyway, sorry about the super long essay, but I wanted my first post to at least contain some useful info. Many thanks to everybody here for putting me on the right path.
