After just over nine months of vaping I feel like sharing my story. I started off November 2013 vaping. I purchased a Kangertech Evod kit with a 900mah battery and some 12mg 50/50 juice. Bought my Ol' Lady the same setup as well. The girl behind the counter went through everything with us and filled up the Ol' Lady's and we were off. Got home filled mine and thought this is great! Tastes so much better then the Camel Crush menthols I was smoking at the time., but, it just wasn't satisfying my nic craving. Continued using it and smoking, but smoking much less. Went back and got some 24mg juice the next day. That was so much better. Used that for a few weeks and was here reading, on Youtube watching, and doing research for other devices. Now at this time I hadn't been in the market for anything more than longer battery life. Saw no reason for adjustable power, had zero interest in rebuilding, and certainly did not want the bother of making my own juice concoctions. I also could not see any reason a person would spend $100 + on a device, let alone a topper. I was wrong...
Decided to go ahead and purchase a Vamo V5 and some Efest 18650 batteries and a Trustfire charger. I figured well if I am going to buy longer lasting batteries, might as well spend the cheddar and try something I could adjust power on. I was happy. I still was still under the $100 price range, and I had to get the charger and batteries, so really I was still well under it. Again a new awakening had occurred. Not only did I find a much better experience, but this is the point shinyitis started to set in. I figured well with a new mod, maybe a bigger tank would look better with it, and plus I could hold more juice and only fill it once a day. I didn't want to keep track of different coil styles at the time so decided to go with an Anyvape Davide tank. Used the same coils, was larger, and was glass. Thought that should be good, I could start trying some of these "tank cracking" juices I have been interested in. Again the experience became better. Cleaner flavor, more capacity, and looked good on my new device. Decided to grab a couple Kangertech Protank 2's. Now I could have a couple tanks full with different juices all the time. But, a problem arose. The new tanks looked silly on my Ego style battery, and I only had one MOD. Shinyitis then stepped in and said, "get a SID, a VTR, and an SVD, that will solve that problem". Well that's exactly what I did. Now this brought me into the world of Top coil clearomizers with an iClear 30s tank. I thought Ok here we go with multiple coil types to keep track of, but they are way different so I'll be alright. However, turned out I didn't like going back to a plastic tank, and didn't care for the top coil design. So back to the BCC stuff. Now keep in mind, this process at this point was only about a month maybe two long. Having dropped a considerable amount on new thing's I started researching how I could start saving some money. The Ol' Lady had given up on her setup, and was beginning to complain I had something coming in the vapemail every other day. Decided, I could rebuild my Kanger heads, after all I build tattoo machines and computers, so this couldn't be that hard... I build my own machine coils, and do lots of soldering on MOBOS etc. It really wasn't, but there was definitely a learning curve.
Stayed doing this for quite some time experimenting with different juice types and vendors as well as different resistance on my builds. Discovered the Airflow controller base from Kangertech at this time also. Had to buy one for each PT 2, as well as each Davide. I had really dialed into what I liked. Grabbed an Aspire Nautilus, and hated it. Hated it with the fire of 1000 suns. A friend I met here sent me some Cartomizers, and a carto tank to give them a try. Did those for a couple weeks, but just didn't care for them much. I was getting just as good of flavor from my rebuilt Kanger heads with much more vapor production, so I left the carto world in the rearview and continued for months with what I had liked.
Always here reading and always on Youtube watching, I decided I should check out all the hype with a "true" rebuildable tank atomizer. Afterall, I was pretty much already doing this with my PT'2s. But, I had a problem again. I didn't have any devices the reviewers were using and figured I probably wouldn't get the same experience without one. Shinyitis bites again. I went out and purchased a Sigelei 20 Watt and since I had been using Efest batteries, I decided maybe I should get some better batteries if I am going to be experimenting with high power levels. I grabbed some Sony VTC5's to go along with the new MOD. I didn't want to put good batteries on a mediocre charger so I picked up a Nitecore intelicharger too. This put the new RTA on hold for about a month. I definitely blew my idea of never buying a $100 + device. The experience I was having with my old toppers brought new life to them, but still couldn't help but wonder if I was missing out on something better. Back to the PC and I had an Ehpro Kayfun Lite Plus V2 on the way with more Kanthal sizes. When it arrived I didn't even make it in the house before tearing the package open and seeing the box and it's contents. Set about cleaning it all up and was so impatient, grabbed a hair dryer to make sure it was all good and dry and ready for a build. I quickly built my first coil and had it wicked with some Peaches and Cream cotton yarn. Juiced the wick, assembled the KFL, fill her up, and I was off. I actually only made it through half a tank and found myself ordering another one. This gets us up to currently...
I now find myself researching drippers, authentic DNA powered devices, and the likes. While I am still trying to be aware of that $100 + price point I had set for myself, I am finding it less of a concern than when I started. Here I am looking for economical solutions, but not having a problem spending double what I spent to get started on a single topper device that I have to build to get it to work. I am admittedly more focused on good quality clones than I am authentics, but I can see if things keep moving forward, as my track record has shown, I will soon be only interested in authentic devices. I am also now finding myself able to really help people in the right direction when getting started.
I truly believe this is all due to the wonderful folks here. For this I thank you all and curse you all at the same time. My poor motorcycle addiction has taken a backseat and not had much of any attention since I started vaping. Still gets her loving, but no where near as many new parts as she used too.
I left out my experiance with cigalikes a few years back, but lets face, we all know those rarely work for anyone as a long term solution. I also left out my juice making experience, and FDA comment stuff. It would be an entire new wall of babble for that.
Thanks for reading, sorry it was a wall of useless babble, but hope someone can read this and maybe take away a little something from my experience thus far.
Decided to go ahead and purchase a Vamo V5 and some Efest 18650 batteries and a Trustfire charger. I figured well if I am going to buy longer lasting batteries, might as well spend the cheddar and try something I could adjust power on. I was happy. I still was still under the $100 price range, and I had to get the charger and batteries, so really I was still well under it. Again a new awakening had occurred. Not only did I find a much better experience, but this is the point shinyitis started to set in. I figured well with a new mod, maybe a bigger tank would look better with it, and plus I could hold more juice and only fill it once a day. I didn't want to keep track of different coil styles at the time so decided to go with an Anyvape Davide tank. Used the same coils, was larger, and was glass. Thought that should be good, I could start trying some of these "tank cracking" juices I have been interested in. Again the experience became better. Cleaner flavor, more capacity, and looked good on my new device. Decided to grab a couple Kangertech Protank 2's. Now I could have a couple tanks full with different juices all the time. But, a problem arose. The new tanks looked silly on my Ego style battery, and I only had one MOD. Shinyitis then stepped in and said, "get a SID, a VTR, and an SVD, that will solve that problem". Well that's exactly what I did. Now this brought me into the world of Top coil clearomizers with an iClear 30s tank. I thought Ok here we go with multiple coil types to keep track of, but they are way different so I'll be alright. However, turned out I didn't like going back to a plastic tank, and didn't care for the top coil design. So back to the BCC stuff. Now keep in mind, this process at this point was only about a month maybe two long. Having dropped a considerable amount on new thing's I started researching how I could start saving some money. The Ol' Lady had given up on her setup, and was beginning to complain I had something coming in the vapemail every other day. Decided, I could rebuild my Kanger heads, after all I build tattoo machines and computers, so this couldn't be that hard... I build my own machine coils, and do lots of soldering on MOBOS etc. It really wasn't, but there was definitely a learning curve.
Stayed doing this for quite some time experimenting with different juice types and vendors as well as different resistance on my builds. Discovered the Airflow controller base from Kangertech at this time also. Had to buy one for each PT 2, as well as each Davide. I had really dialed into what I liked. Grabbed an Aspire Nautilus, and hated it. Hated it with the fire of 1000 suns. A friend I met here sent me some Cartomizers, and a carto tank to give them a try. Did those for a couple weeks, but just didn't care for them much. I was getting just as good of flavor from my rebuilt Kanger heads with much more vapor production, so I left the carto world in the rearview and continued for months with what I had liked.
Always here reading and always on Youtube watching, I decided I should check out all the hype with a "true" rebuildable tank atomizer. Afterall, I was pretty much already doing this with my PT'2s. But, I had a problem again. I didn't have any devices the reviewers were using and figured I probably wouldn't get the same experience without one. Shinyitis bites again. I went out and purchased a Sigelei 20 Watt and since I had been using Efest batteries, I decided maybe I should get some better batteries if I am going to be experimenting with high power levels. I grabbed some Sony VTC5's to go along with the new MOD. I didn't want to put good batteries on a mediocre charger so I picked up a Nitecore intelicharger too. This put the new RTA on hold for about a month. I definitely blew my idea of never buying a $100 + device. The experience I was having with my old toppers brought new life to them, but still couldn't help but wonder if I was missing out on something better. Back to the PC and I had an Ehpro Kayfun Lite Plus V2 on the way with more Kanthal sizes. When it arrived I didn't even make it in the house before tearing the package open and seeing the box and it's contents. Set about cleaning it all up and was so impatient, grabbed a hair dryer to make sure it was all good and dry and ready for a build. I quickly built my first coil and had it wicked with some Peaches and Cream cotton yarn. Juiced the wick, assembled the KFL, fill her up, and I was off. I actually only made it through half a tank and found myself ordering another one. This gets us up to currently...
I now find myself researching drippers, authentic DNA powered devices, and the likes. While I am still trying to be aware of that $100 + price point I had set for myself, I am finding it less of a concern than when I started. Here I am looking for economical solutions, but not having a problem spending double what I spent to get started on a single topper device that I have to build to get it to work. I am admittedly more focused on good quality clones than I am authentics, but I can see if things keep moving forward, as my track record has shown, I will soon be only interested in authentic devices. I am also now finding myself able to really help people in the right direction when getting started.
I truly believe this is all due to the wonderful folks here. For this I thank you all and curse you all at the same time. My poor motorcycle addiction has taken a backseat and not had much of any attention since I started vaping. Still gets her loving, but no where near as many new parts as she used too.
I left out my experiance with cigalikes a few years back, but lets face, we all know those rarely work for anyone as a long term solution. I also left out my juice making experience, and FDA comment stuff. It would be an entire new wall of babble for that.
Thanks for reading, sorry it was a wall of useless babble, but hope someone can read this and maybe take away a little something from my experience thus far.
Getting too old to be driving home from South Florida or SW Missouri in one shot anymore but the GBC easily last me for a lazy 7 to 9 hour day on the road, even 11+ or whatever it took from SC this summer or TN last summer.
