Well, I can't post anywhere until I post here. So I may as well share a story!
I am/was a daily pipe smoker. Well, more like a nightly smoker - come about 10pm, I would like nothing more than to go on my porch, light up my pipe and read for a few hours.
I liked the idea of smoking a pipe, and I really enjoyed the activity. I started smoking a pipe about 15 years ago, and then started trying other kinds of tobacco. I eventually got addicted to bidis - and smoked about a pack a day of those. I decided then that I needed to stop, and finally transitioned into cigarettes - reasoning that I hated that cheap tobacco and that would make it easy for me to quit.
Three years later, I quit cold turkey, and didn't touch a tobacco product for 2 years. This was about 8 years ago. I finally decided again that I missed smoking a pipe, so I took that up again, and would smoke it occasionally in the evenings. It is still an "evening" habit - I don't feel the need to smoke it during the day, but at night I felt I MUST do it. I wanted to only smoke it occasionally, so I thought I'd try a vaporizer to fill in the gap. So I did some research on ePipe varieties, watched a couple of videos, and ultimate decided to try out a DSE601. I researched rates, and purchased one from a Chinese website - focalprice.com.
Not my best decision.
I paid for priority shipping, but it took forever for them to finally ship the thing out. After waiting about two weeks, it finally went into customs, and a couple days later, I finally had my order.
I don't know how these things are usually supposed to ship new, but inside the box was a nightmare. I first noticed that there was no shrink-wrap on the box. (another unit I later bought in a store also wasn't shrink-wrapped, so maybe this was normal?) Anyway - they "packed" the item by placing a small piece of bubble wrap in the bottom of the shipping box (which was much larger than the 601 box), putting the 601 in there, and shipping it out. When it arrived, it looked like the thing had exploded - pieces were all over the place. There was a scratch on the bowl of the pipe (which was loose in the box), and there wasn't a single piece that was seated in it's foam.
I immediately contacted customer service, and started a process with them about getting a refund. There was a bit of back and forth, and they finally offered to send me another unit free of charge. I decided to accept that, and since they weren't asking for the one I received back, I figured I could maybe try it out and make mistakes with it. I made a few.
One of the batteries it came with would not hold a charge, and the other one would only hold a couple hours of charge. So I did manage to get it operating - and let me tell you, the first couple days were awesome. I ordered some juice from Alien Visions, and the pipe performed magnificently for the first week.
Then things started to go a little wonky. The draw went to almost nothing. If I were to direct drip (a little hard with this unit) it would work fine - but that's more of a pain in the .... than I wanted to bother with. So I started looking at cart mods, thinking maybe the foam that came with the unit wasn't the best. And, since I was getting another unit in the mail, I thought I may as well experiment. And I tried everything - the straw mod, punching a hole in the bottom of the cart - the blue foam... in the end, the blue foam worked best, but I could never figure out the right amount to put in there. Either it would flood the atomizer, or it wouldn't wick enough.
Perhaps this unit was just too advanced for me.
Wednesday arrived - and that was my designated "real" pipe smoking day (I belong to a masonic lodge, and there are several pipe/cigar smokers there). I fired up the pipe, and it was all wrong. It tasted dirty - wrong. The nicotine was overwhelming, and it was almost like I had never smoked before. I realized I hadn't gone two days without smoking the pipe, let alone a week, in a few years. I realized I really liked vaping. And considering all of the hassles I had with the pipe, and some of the bizarre, uncomfortable ways I had to hold it to make it work (again, too much of a n00b to use that unit I think), it occurred to me that I didn't really NEED something to be pipe shaped. I just needed something a little bigger than a cigarette.
More research. I finally decided on the eGo, and got ready to order. But I was so sick of waiting... I am still waiting for the replacement 601. I would be ordering from an American retailer, but I just wanted something easy to use. So I saw a post on this forum talking about E-Cig City in Laguna Beach. I called them up, priced the Ego unit (cheaper!), and decided "To Hell With it" - got in my car, and drove down to Laguna.
Long story short, I walked out with a Leo (Not what I expected), an extra battery, and a couple cartomizers. I smoked one of the not great carts it came with - and I was impressed. It had the right draw, the right about of vapor - with a little better flavor in there, this would work.
At home, I broke out one of the cartomizers - and like a fool, just tried to fill it without looking to see how to do it (it was my first one). I figured, 4ml... I'll just squirt that much juice in there!
Wrong! It leaked out the bottom badly. And since I underestimated how much came out, I just slowly dripped a little more in there, and fired it up. It wasn't bad - the smoke was thicker, but the flavor was a little off. That didn't last too long though - it quickly started to taste like burning. I think I ruined it. I looked at a video, got another cartomizer out, and SLOWLY dripped it in, allowing it time to absorb. I don't know if it is the 100% VG I was using, but this took FOREVER. I guess you are supposed to use a syringe to make it go faster? I ordered one of those, so we will see. That one worked a lot better. I put more juice in the first one, but it still wouldn't produce much vapor, and the taste was still bad. Oh well there. Maybe someone here can say if I ruined it or not.
After a while puffing on the carto, I decided to put some of my juice in the cartridge I was using on my way home. There was still a little of the original juice in there, so the taste wasn't great - but it was a little better. Anyway, the vapor came out smoother than from the cartomizer... I started to think that if the cartridges maintained that kind of consistency, maybe I liked them better!
Anyway - the replacement DSE601 is still in the mail... it finally showed up on the tracking website (after a week), so I imagine it will be a few more weeks before it gets here. I've decided to just try and sell that one (if I can figure out where), and stick to this Leo. So far, it seems a little more reliable. And, if I need replacement pieces, I can always just drive down to Laguna... I have to recommend the store.
I welcome advice on the carto/atty issue I am having, but beyond that, I figured I just had a story to tell.
I am/was a daily pipe smoker. Well, more like a nightly smoker - come about 10pm, I would like nothing more than to go on my porch, light up my pipe and read for a few hours.
I liked the idea of smoking a pipe, and I really enjoyed the activity. I started smoking a pipe about 15 years ago, and then started trying other kinds of tobacco. I eventually got addicted to bidis - and smoked about a pack a day of those. I decided then that I needed to stop, and finally transitioned into cigarettes - reasoning that I hated that cheap tobacco and that would make it easy for me to quit.
Three years later, I quit cold turkey, and didn't touch a tobacco product for 2 years. This was about 8 years ago. I finally decided again that I missed smoking a pipe, so I took that up again, and would smoke it occasionally in the evenings. It is still an "evening" habit - I don't feel the need to smoke it during the day, but at night I felt I MUST do it. I wanted to only smoke it occasionally, so I thought I'd try a vaporizer to fill in the gap. So I did some research on ePipe varieties, watched a couple of videos, and ultimate decided to try out a DSE601. I researched rates, and purchased one from a Chinese website - focalprice.com.
Not my best decision.
I paid for priority shipping, but it took forever for them to finally ship the thing out. After waiting about two weeks, it finally went into customs, and a couple days later, I finally had my order.
I don't know how these things are usually supposed to ship new, but inside the box was a nightmare. I first noticed that there was no shrink-wrap on the box. (another unit I later bought in a store also wasn't shrink-wrapped, so maybe this was normal?) Anyway - they "packed" the item by placing a small piece of bubble wrap in the bottom of the shipping box (which was much larger than the 601 box), putting the 601 in there, and shipping it out. When it arrived, it looked like the thing had exploded - pieces were all over the place. There was a scratch on the bowl of the pipe (which was loose in the box), and there wasn't a single piece that was seated in it's foam.
I immediately contacted customer service, and started a process with them about getting a refund. There was a bit of back and forth, and they finally offered to send me another unit free of charge. I decided to accept that, and since they weren't asking for the one I received back, I figured I could maybe try it out and make mistakes with it. I made a few.
One of the batteries it came with would not hold a charge, and the other one would only hold a couple hours of charge. So I did manage to get it operating - and let me tell you, the first couple days were awesome. I ordered some juice from Alien Visions, and the pipe performed magnificently for the first week.
Then things started to go a little wonky. The draw went to almost nothing. If I were to direct drip (a little hard with this unit) it would work fine - but that's more of a pain in the .... than I wanted to bother with. So I started looking at cart mods, thinking maybe the foam that came with the unit wasn't the best. And, since I was getting another unit in the mail, I thought I may as well experiment. And I tried everything - the straw mod, punching a hole in the bottom of the cart - the blue foam... in the end, the blue foam worked best, but I could never figure out the right amount to put in there. Either it would flood the atomizer, or it wouldn't wick enough.
Perhaps this unit was just too advanced for me.
Wednesday arrived - and that was my designated "real" pipe smoking day (I belong to a masonic lodge, and there are several pipe/cigar smokers there). I fired up the pipe, and it was all wrong. It tasted dirty - wrong. The nicotine was overwhelming, and it was almost like I had never smoked before. I realized I hadn't gone two days without smoking the pipe, let alone a week, in a few years. I realized I really liked vaping. And considering all of the hassles I had with the pipe, and some of the bizarre, uncomfortable ways I had to hold it to make it work (again, too much of a n00b to use that unit I think), it occurred to me that I didn't really NEED something to be pipe shaped. I just needed something a little bigger than a cigarette.
More research. I finally decided on the eGo, and got ready to order. But I was so sick of waiting... I am still waiting for the replacement 601. I would be ordering from an American retailer, but I just wanted something easy to use. So I saw a post on this forum talking about E-Cig City in Laguna Beach. I called them up, priced the Ego unit (cheaper!), and decided "To Hell With it" - got in my car, and drove down to Laguna.
Long story short, I walked out with a Leo (Not what I expected), an extra battery, and a couple cartomizers. I smoked one of the not great carts it came with - and I was impressed. It had the right draw, the right about of vapor - with a little better flavor in there, this would work.
At home, I broke out one of the cartomizers - and like a fool, just tried to fill it without looking to see how to do it (it was my first one). I figured, 4ml... I'll just squirt that much juice in there!
Wrong! It leaked out the bottom badly. And since I underestimated how much came out, I just slowly dripped a little more in there, and fired it up. It wasn't bad - the smoke was thicker, but the flavor was a little off. That didn't last too long though - it quickly started to taste like burning. I think I ruined it. I looked at a video, got another cartomizer out, and SLOWLY dripped it in, allowing it time to absorb. I don't know if it is the 100% VG I was using, but this took FOREVER. I guess you are supposed to use a syringe to make it go faster? I ordered one of those, so we will see. That one worked a lot better. I put more juice in the first one, but it still wouldn't produce much vapor, and the taste was still bad. Oh well there. Maybe someone here can say if I ruined it or not.
After a while puffing on the carto, I decided to put some of my juice in the cartridge I was using on my way home. There was still a little of the original juice in there, so the taste wasn't great - but it was a little better. Anyway, the vapor came out smoother than from the cartomizer... I started to think that if the cartridges maintained that kind of consistency, maybe I liked them better!
Anyway - the replacement DSE601 is still in the mail... it finally showed up on the tracking website (after a week), so I imagine it will be a few more weeks before it gets here. I've decided to just try and sell that one (if I can figure out where), and stick to this Leo. So far, it seems a little more reliable. And, if I need replacement pieces, I can always just drive down to Laguna... I have to recommend the store.
I welcome advice on the carto/atty issue I am having, but beyond that, I figured I just had a story to tell.
