First E-CIG: Oops!

[Ponda]

First of all, I would like to thanks everyone again for all of the valuable information on this forum. With all of your support, hopefully I'll become tobacco-free down the road like many others here. Thanks again. Now on to my story...

I am a brand new E-CIG user. I did my research on the forum about a week ago and decided that it was worth the money to try it out. I wanted to see the product in action first, so went looking in the Glendale mall in Los Angeles. Three hours later, I had nothing to show for it. I came home later that evening and ordered the m402 from Lite Cig USA online.

The m402 arrived today. I had ordered the stainless steel starter kit that came with 2 blue LED batteries, 2 gold atomizers, a charger and 5 carts. Based on other's advice on the forum, I also ordered 5 nicotine carts, 5 empty carts and 3x10ml bottles of flavor juice. Everything came out to $70 with shipping.

I received the product at work and immediately took out the USB charger and plugged in one of the batteries. When I was packing up to go home, I unplugged the battery and charger and inserted one of the atomizers with the cart attached. I was thinking to myself that it was pretty considerate for them to ship the atomizer with the cart pre-attached. Maybe so that it is less intimidating to newbies.

As soon as I got out into the parking lot, I took a quick puff. The blue LED lit up, a bit of vapor came out. Strangely, the taste was somewhat metallic. I was not expecting that. I took another puff, and yup, it definitly tasted like metal. I got in my car, and figured that I'll play with it more while I drive home. As soon as the car stopped at a light, I took another puff. Yet, no vapor came out. I clearly saw the blue LED light up. I tried several more times with no luck. Each time the LED lit up and no vapor will come out. At that point, I decided to wait till I get home to see what was going on.

As soon as I got home, I tried it again with the same results. I figured that I must be doing something wrong. I checked the battery, and it was screwed on right. I twist it off and twist it back on. I decided to really twist it to make sure that it was on. That's when I twist off the cart by mistake. Low and behold, the cart was completely empty.8-o I can see right through it.

Well that explains it, there is no juice in the cart. I need to add juice. I stared at it a bit more. That's strange, I thought to myself. How can an empty cart like this hold liquid. Then the lightbuld turned on over my head. I rushed into the package and broke open a new pre-filled cart. Pluged it onto the atomizer and took a puff. Ahhh, vapor came right out.

I took a small puff. As soon as I inhaled, the air along with the vapor made me cough right away. After a moment, I decided to take a bigger puff. Again, the air made me cough. I gave up and went outside for a cigarette.

After cigarette, I came back into the house much more calm. I decided to inhale as long as possible. I guess that did it. When the vapor was completely filled, there was no air to choke on. It went down smooth. Sucess!

Thanks again everyone. Stay tuned to this thread. I'll share my experiences in the coming days.

 

[Dredbull]

Nothing like eating that atty primer for the first time!
Hell man nothing like getting a big burly antinom hit of it on accident any time you break an atty in after either.

 

[gooney0]

Ponda,

Thats pretty funny.

Newbie mistake #2 is putting a battery in the charger without screwing it into the charger.

A quick tip: A full cartridge tastes much better than a half full cartridge. It is also smoother IMO.

Your next mission is to find the best juice flavor and nicotine level. If you don't already have a bottle of juice you should probably hurry up and order. The pre-filled carts won't last long. (Some of the carts maybe 0mg too)

Good luck and keep posting,

-Gooney0

 

[Ponda]

I just double checked the second battery. Yup, it's screwed in tight to the charger. For some reason, the light keep blinking from green to red.
I'll check it after 8 hrs.

I have 3 bottles of flavor juices. Once I get used to E-CIG, I'll try out the different flavors. Right now, the vapor still tastes "metallic".

 

[RKayne]

That'll go away, takes a bit for it to smooth out. Just make sure to not let it go dry I find it is easier to tilt it up to clear it from a bit too much juice than to let it go dry How do you like it so far, though? We use 510's (absolute joy!) and I have been thinking about something diff for us and, frankly, looks are a 'thing' for us (thus the 510's). That bugger is beautiful! Did you get a standard black or one with some 'flair'? I have been looking at our 510's and thinking about how I could accoutrement them, lol.

I hope you get over the metal taste fast, maybe do a good 'drip' (search the forums if you haven't investigated already ). I noticed it took a bit for ours to go away.

Welcome to the world of vaping, and I have to add one thing. I still consider myself a smoker. I will never deny myself an analog if I want it and refuse to feel bad about it.

 

[tribalmasters]

Ahh the classic vaping with an empty mouthpiece! Done that before

 

[Ponda]

Rkayne,

Looks are important to me as well. I ordered the m402 with the stainless steel body and gold atomizer. The cartrige is black. Take a look at this picture from litecig USA. This is where I ordered it.

What type of 510 did you get? Based on gooney's experience, I am going to get one too. I really like the PCC. I can't seem to find one for the m402.

 

[Fedor]

Rkayne,

Looks are important to me as well. I ordered the m402 with the stainless steel body and gold atomizer. The cartrige is black. Take a look at this picture from litecig USA. This is where I ordered it.

What type of 510 did you get? Based on gooney's experience, I am going to get one too. I really like the PCC. I can't seem to find one for the m402.

There is no PCC for the M402 as far as i know. The closest would be the new M702, which uses the same cartridge as the M402. They claim to have a Smart PCC which has an LCD screen that shows battery level. I'll post more when i get mine.

Starter Kits - *NEW* Starter Kit- M-702 - Electronic Cigarette | Electronic Cigarettes | E-Cigarettes | E-Cigs from Smoore

 

[gooney0]

Ponda,

Thats a nice looking PV you got.

I haven't tried any other models than the 510 so I can't say for sure the 510 is the best.

You can get 510 parts in different colors except for the carts. The carts are either black or white.

The rest of the parts come in Black, White, Silver, Titanium, Copper, Pink or Blue. (i think thats all the colors?)

I've seen LEDs in Blue, Red, Purple, White, None, and Green.

It seems the starter kits are always black or white. For a few extra bucks you could just order parts and a charger and get the colors you want.

A lot of vendors don't carry the colors so you may need to shop around.

There should be a m402 thread under "Model specific" topics. Thats where the experts live sort of speak.

-Gooney0

 

[Reboot]

I have 3 bottles of flavor juices. Once I get used to E-CIG, I'll try out the different flavors. Right now, the vapor still tastes "metallic".

The metallic taste you are getting is probably from the primer on the atomizer. Unscrew the atty from the battery, take the cart off (if there is one) put the atty to your lips (threads in your lips - bridge out) and blow all that crap out of the atty.

Once you get all the crap out of the atty I think you'll find it tastes much better. Do this everytime you start up a brand new atomizer.

 

[Old_sCool]

Welcome to the world of vaping, and I have to add one thing. I still consider myself a smoker. I will never deny myself an analog if I want it and refuse to feel bad about it.

Even with the e-cig, I still consider myself a 'smoker', since I got the highest nic content liquid I could find! I always do things full-bore, and was smoking RIYs filled so full with Camel tasting tobacco it took ~20 minutes to smoke one!

I broke my 084 today (I just CAN'T leave things alone!), but I have a 510 coming (hopefully!) tomorrow, and had 4 half cigs to fill the gap. However, i notice...no stale tobacco smell in the clothes. One of my cars actually smells like a car, one of the others...needs a GOOD rug shampooing!

I also have some Camel SNUS to fill in until the 510 gets here...I really don't miss cigs as much as I thought I would, but I sure like vaping!

 

[Ponda]

Reboot - I'll try blowing out the atomizer next time I change it. The metallic taste is now gone. I tried both the Coffee flavor liquid and the Coke flavor. I prefer the Coke.

Old-sCool - How many drops do you usually put in your carts? How do you know when to stop filling?

gooney0 - I'll take your recommendation and buy the part separatly. I'll post a picture when I get it. But it'll probably be a few weeks since I am still getting used to the m402.

Fedor - That PCC sounds really cool. I really like the high tech stuff.

 

[whistlrr]

Two more mistakes not to make:

1. Don't screw the atomizer on too tightly to the battery (it doesnt have to be just as absolutely tight as it can go, not entirely sure why this is not a good idea but Ive seen it said all over that it isn't a good idea to overtighten them)

2. Don't use the cartridge to put the atomizer on (I mean don't have the cartridge on the atomizer and then use the cartridge as a handle to screw the atomizoer on and off the battery -- hold the atomizer by the atomizer and possibly screw it on and off without the cartridge on at all, put that on last)

the reason for this one was demonstrated somewhere either in pictures on this forum or on a youtube video (not sure which) but somehow using the cartridge like a 'handle' to screw the atomizer on and off twists up the little wires inside the atomizer and destroys it.

 

[Ponda]

I can see why that would be a bad idea. The torque on the exposed wick would no t be good for the leads in the atomizer. You make a good point.

How long does an atomizer typically last before you would have to service (clean/change) it?

 

[Bitterblossom]

The metallic taste you are getting is probably from the primer on the atomizer. Unscrew the atty from the battery, take the cart off (if there is one) put the atty to your lips (threads in your lips - bridge out) and blow all that crap out of the atty.

Once you get all the crap out of the atty I think you'll find it tastes much better. Do this everytime you start up a brand new atomizer.

Thank you - just tried this on mine, massive help!

 

[whistlrr]

How long does an atomizer typically last before you would have to service (clean/change) it?

I personally haven't had or used one e-cig long enough to find out (I've not been at this very long but I've managed to already have 4 different model types I switch between plus I often just go to completely different things like snus/nasal snuff etc) so I can't really say personally just yet.

From what I have read around here and seen on YouTube, it seems mileage here varies greatly and seems to depend on variables like how hard you go at vaping, very possibly the make/model and even different quality of even the same atomizer (I get the idea that for example, not all 510 atomizers are necessarily made the same quality.. really not sure here, somebody who knows more can certainly step in and say with more experience, I'm just going by what I've read and seen)


some people seem to eat an atomizer a week while others have said they are still using the same atomizer for months, and it seems care and maintainence can also have a lot to do with this

you can clean them (there's a guy named moobyghost or something like that or 'thatguy in thefedora' who has very good youtube movies about 'everyday' maintainence).. kind of blowing the gunk out of them every day or every other day the way explains (he has videos covering most every type of atomizer and how to do this, and I have done those with a few of my atomizers already) then there's more extreme types of cleaning that seem to include sort of soaking them in various fluids.. I haven't done those yet because I haven't seen a literal howto video on this and I can't quite understand without seeing it how submerging a whole thing with little wires and all in it like they are won't hurt it, need to see more of how that's done. Those methods are generaly done more infrequently and some are 'last ditch efforts' for extreme situations if your atomizer quits working entirely (which like I said, I hven't gotten that far yet. I've been vaping on and off with my already too many ecigs somewhere between a month and two months.)


here's a link to one of moobyghosts atomizer cleaning videos (he's also already posted them on this forum, hope its okay to repost a link here, beats trying to find it on here when I can find it on YouTUbe) which will get you a good start to look around the rest of his videos, he's got some very good stuff there.

This method seems pretty safe (especially just the blowing out types of parts) and even though I don't know if they actually really needed it or not when I did it, I've done moobyghosts method shown in his videos with my 401 atomizers before (somewhere in there either this video or another in his set also he shows how to do them too)

YouTube - moobyghost's Channel

also and I hope I'm not breaking any rules with this and there's a lot of really knowledgeable people here, this moobyghost is one and additoinally there's a guy on here who goes by the name of 'TropicalBob' (I haven't actually communicated directly with either moobyghost or tropicalBob) but these two, moobyghosts videos and things that tropicalbob says on here (and he has a couple videos too) are two really good one on here I like to really kind of watch for and follow around and pay particular attentoin and read their posts and watch their videos, both just seem to really know their stuff, Tropicalbob has tried just about every tobacco and smoking and e-cig and smoking cessation etc related thing and comes up with some really interesting ideas. I find these two to be especially good to keep an eye on and read what they say.

moobyghost has some really good videos about how to optimize your cartridges and fill them with more efficient stuff (like lipton Pyrimid tea bags) etc:
YouTube - moobyghost's Channel <-- part one of several in a series he did about repacking different types of cartridges with the lipton pyramid tea bags

 

[Ponda]

whistlrr - Thanks for the link. I watched the whole thing. I am going to order a 510 this weekend based on gooney0 experience with it. I guess I'll also need to go pick up some lipton tea bag too now.

 

[LisaK]

LOL! I did the exact same thing with my new NJOY. Just one of the many problems I've had getting started. However, I have been analog free for 3 weeks today so it's all been worth it.