Hey folks. So, it's been several months since I've posted, but I just recently got back into vaping and have some thoughts on my experience that I'd like to share. Maybe it will be helpful to some, and maybe it will prompt some of you to share your own thoughts. Also, I apologize in advance as I'll be touching on some topics that have likely been beaten to death, but they're relevant to my experience here.
When I was here last (maybe February?) I had been rebuilding stock Kanger heads for my mini Protank 3s. I was getting a good vaping experience but I guess I got tired of rebuilding. Swedish Snus is now readily available in my area without having to order online, so I think for convenience sake that became my go-to mechanism for nicotine absorption. It's what I still use at work. But, somewhere along the line I got back to where I was smoking again at home after work, so I decided to give vaping another go. I wanted to get away from rebuilding though, so I went to a local B&M to get a new tank and some liquid. I ended up getting an Aspire Triton. A sub-ohm tank, as I'm sure most of you are aware. I normally mouth-to-lung and don't consider myself a cloud-chaser. I'm using the 0.3 ohm coils (on an Aspire CF Sub-Ohm battery) but I set the airflow to as close to minimal as I can get. I like the performance, but I don't like how fast it drains the battery. I know higher-resistance coils are available for it, so I might give those a shot at some point.
Anyway, to sort-of treat myself, and help myself stay off the cigarettes, I ordered juice from an online vendor that I'm quite fond of. It's still good stuff. But, as I was vaping again I started reading the forum again, and I've read a lot of posts and threads about controversy with diketones that seems to have blown up during my absence. I was vaguely aware of this issue previously, but I guess that it's really started to rage lately with the whole Five Pawns thing and all that. Anyway, I know that the juice from my preferred vendor contains diketones at this time (and to their credit they have been honest about this fact). I didn't think that bothered me at first, there is very little in life that is worthwhile that doesn't carry an element of risk, and either way vaping still has to be better for you than smoking, right? But, the more I read the more I became swayed by the arguments of Kurt and others that, while there are still many unknowns to vaping, removing the questionable substances that we do know about is going to be the safest bet. I'm trying to quit smoking for my health after all.
Anyway, the more I thought about it, I decided to go a step further. The flavorings used in e-liquid really are the biggest unknown health-wise at this stage. I've seen posts from several on the forums who are really quite satisfied vaping unflavored. So why not give it a shot? So, I found some supplies from a DIY kit I ordered 2 or 3 years ago. I hadn't bothered to store it carefully, and the nic base I have now has a very slight yellow tint to it, but it doesn't smell bad. The kit was from One Stop DIY Shop and I have no idea who their nicotine supplier is, just that it is 48 mg/ml and it's in a PG base. I didn't really want to bother with accurate measurement, so I just mixed some up with some VG in an empty 15 ml bottle, eyeballing the ratio to shoot for 6 mg/ml. If I did it right, that would give me about 87.5/12.5 VG/PG, but like I said I just eyeballed it. I also didn't have a new bottle handy, so I rinsed out an empty bottle that had previously contained Fuzion Vapor Grapealicious and mixed it in there. To finish it off I added 5 drops of Koolada.
So, I took a vape on this and at first I tasted nothing at all. Compared to the strong flavors I had been vaping before there just wasn't anything there. After a while I started to get a subtle hint of grape from the old bottle, but as I've continued to vape this I'd say that has faded and now I'm detecting subtle tobacco hints from the nic, and a nice coolness from the Koolada. Not unpleasant at all. So, now I'm thinking I may just start DIYing unflavored or very-lightly-flavored juice. I've read a couple of posts from people who basically vape unflavored that sometimes they like to use just a dab of tobacco and/or menthol, which sounds pretty good. So now I'm curious about finding a good tobacco flavoring without diketones that I could use in small amounts.
Anyway, I don't really have a specific point that I have to make, other than that my journey unexpectedly took me to vaping unflavored and that I actually seem to like it. I'm curious as to what others think about anything I've posted here, be it my choice of hardware, diketones in flavoring, DIYing, or vaping unflavored. Feel free to call me an idiot if you need to, I'm trying to learn here. Thanks for reading!
When I was here last (maybe February?) I had been rebuilding stock Kanger heads for my mini Protank 3s. I was getting a good vaping experience but I guess I got tired of rebuilding. Swedish Snus is now readily available in my area without having to order online, so I think for convenience sake that became my go-to mechanism for nicotine absorption. It's what I still use at work. But, somewhere along the line I got back to where I was smoking again at home after work, so I decided to give vaping another go. I wanted to get away from rebuilding though, so I went to a local B&M to get a new tank and some liquid. I ended up getting an Aspire Triton. A sub-ohm tank, as I'm sure most of you are aware. I normally mouth-to-lung and don't consider myself a cloud-chaser. I'm using the 0.3 ohm coils (on an Aspire CF Sub-Ohm battery) but I set the airflow to as close to minimal as I can get. I like the performance, but I don't like how fast it drains the battery. I know higher-resistance coils are available for it, so I might give those a shot at some point.
Anyway, to sort-of treat myself, and help myself stay off the cigarettes, I ordered juice from an online vendor that I'm quite fond of. It's still good stuff. But, as I was vaping again I started reading the forum again, and I've read a lot of posts and threads about controversy with diketones that seems to have blown up during my absence. I was vaguely aware of this issue previously, but I guess that it's really started to rage lately with the whole Five Pawns thing and all that. Anyway, I know that the juice from my preferred vendor contains diketones at this time (and to their credit they have been honest about this fact). I didn't think that bothered me at first, there is very little in life that is worthwhile that doesn't carry an element of risk, and either way vaping still has to be better for you than smoking, right? But, the more I read the more I became swayed by the arguments of Kurt and others that, while there are still many unknowns to vaping, removing the questionable substances that we do know about is going to be the safest bet. I'm trying to quit smoking for my health after all.
Anyway, the more I thought about it, I decided to go a step further. The flavorings used in e-liquid really are the biggest unknown health-wise at this stage. I've seen posts from several on the forums who are really quite satisfied vaping unflavored. So why not give it a shot? So, I found some supplies from a DIY kit I ordered 2 or 3 years ago. I hadn't bothered to store it carefully, and the nic base I have now has a very slight yellow tint to it, but it doesn't smell bad. The kit was from One Stop DIY Shop and I have no idea who their nicotine supplier is, just that it is 48 mg/ml and it's in a PG base. I didn't really want to bother with accurate measurement, so I just mixed some up with some VG in an empty 15 ml bottle, eyeballing the ratio to shoot for 6 mg/ml. If I did it right, that would give me about 87.5/12.5 VG/PG, but like I said I just eyeballed it. I also didn't have a new bottle handy, so I rinsed out an empty bottle that had previously contained Fuzion Vapor Grapealicious and mixed it in there. To finish it off I added 5 drops of Koolada.
So, I took a vape on this and at first I tasted nothing at all. Compared to the strong flavors I had been vaping before there just wasn't anything there. After a while I started to get a subtle hint of grape from the old bottle, but as I've continued to vape this I'd say that has faded and now I'm detecting subtle tobacco hints from the nic, and a nice coolness from the Koolada. Not unpleasant at all. So, now I'm thinking I may just start DIYing unflavored or very-lightly-flavored juice. I've read a couple of posts from people who basically vape unflavored that sometimes they like to use just a dab of tobacco and/or menthol, which sounds pretty good. So now I'm curious about finding a good tobacco flavoring without diketones that I could use in small amounts.
Anyway, I don't really have a specific point that I have to make, other than that my journey unexpectedly took me to vaping unflavored and that I actually seem to like it. I'm curious as to what others think about anything I've posted here, be it my choice of hardware, diketones in flavoring, DIYing, or vaping unflavored. Feel free to call me an idiot if you need to, I'm trying to learn here. Thanks for reading!
! Took 2 puffs and couldn't throw it far enough away. But I have done some research on the DA/AP thing and found that (with a few exception) the levels in e-juice are a lot lower than what you would find in cig smoke. I'm vaping as a $ saver and for my health, but occasionally I still like a tank full of some V1 custards. It's a personal choice.
