Hello and Thank You to everyone here.
Big milestone under my belt, 1 month analog free and a good distance down the learning curve.
First, a small bit of background:
I am currently an RN with 8 years experience in surgical/trauma and was a computer & software engineer for 25 years before that so medicine and electronics are nothing new. I smoked 1.5 PAD since I was 12 and just turned 55. Given I grew up in a house with LOTS of side-stream and second-hand smoke before picking up the burning leaf myself. I was recently taken very ill with bronchitis and pneumonia during which it hurt to smoke. I had to find another way to deal with the habit knowing that I'd be around other friends and family who smoked. I tried using a cheap drug-store ecig and I could tolerate that where the analogs were out of the question. The decision was clear, go with an electronic alternative, or continue to put my lungs at risk for worse damage with analogs.
My setup (thanks to lots of reading here on ECF):
Hardware:
2 Joyetech 510 XL auto batteries and 150mA charger
1 Joyetech 510 standard atty & drip tip (for trying ejuice & blends)
2 Joyetech 510-T atty's (rotating them between cleaning)
2 Joyetech eGo-C 1000mAh batteries and 420mA charger
2 Vision/Thor CE4 2.0 CC Clearomizers 2ohm (1 spare, 1 working)
5 2ohm heads for the Clearo's
Juice:
Soldier's Blend at 18mg - night vape loaded into a 510-T cartridge
Coffee 24mg::Whiskey 18mg - 50/50 blend to make a 21mg Irish Coffee for craving / flavor break
Camel 24mg:
ipe 18mg::Vanilla 12mg - 50/20/30 blend to make a 19mg blend for daily vape in the clearo
Chocolate Covered Cherry 18mg - 75/25 VG blend for fun and as an alternative to harder flavors
Observations:
Getting the hang of vaping vs smoking takes some practice. Hitting a cig-a-like like an analog is not going to be too satisfying. Pulling the clearo at full lung will likely overwhelm most new vapers. Experiment with technique! I would liken vaping more to pipe or cigar smoking, it works (and tastes) better to draw into the mouth then inhale as so many recommend.
You can get sick on nic once you learn to vape effectively, keep some low nic around (I used the 12mg Vanilla straight to get a break). Getting nicotine in your system from vaping is definitely not as fast as from an analog. The result is that I would vape more than I needed, only to find this out too late. I found it took time to learn how much I needed to vape, what strength and when. If you're new like me, just keep experimenting to find your right combination.
There is no one-to-one correlation with the smoking habit. I found like so many others, there is a great difference between vaping and smoking. After I found my balance the analogs were no longer useful or desirable. While a cigarette seemed to satisfy, I found switching flavors / strengths to be quite useful and ultimately more enjoyable than smoking ever was. Be aware that there is no way any tobacco flavor will taste like the burning leaf version, that is a matter of chemistry and physics and is the key reason vaping is a healthier alternative than burning leaf. Learn to adjust, have fun, explore! I would never have thought of inhaling a chocolate covered cherry, but I tried a well blended juice and enjoy the flavor a lot.
Be discrete in public. Yes, learn to stealth vape, and its okay to vape in restroom stalls or other private areas. There is no smell unless you're using a strong flavor and that only lasts a very short while (less than room deoderizers). But I found the old addage true, you catch more flys with honey than vinegar. I found if I ask, permission is often granted plus I get an opportunity to teach about this new alterative to burning leaves. Never pass up an opportunity to help our cause with a careful and considerate approach.
Equipment needs maintenance. The 510 attys use a steel bridge that will get gummed up after a while and alter the flavors. Best solution for cleaning appears to be Ethyl Alcohol [ETOH] (100 proof cheap Vodka is 50% ETOH/50% H20 and works great). Tried blowing, boiling, water, Laquer Thinner (wood alcohol), Isopropyl alcohol. Blowing out (either mouth or canned air) gets rid of excess liquid but doesn't touch the gunk. Water, boiling or not, does do some good but hard burnt gunk is left behind. Alcohols are great solvents though they leave behind a residue; both isopropyl and denatured wood alcohol are dangerous when heated and left behind a film when allowed to air dry. Vodka worked and left no film, dried fast in open air, and wasn't dangerous.
Clearomizer wicks do have a life-span. The coil will likely outlast the wick. Pay attention when cleaning them as the burnt broken threads will shed. When I got down to 50% of wick I have to put a new head in. Cleaning the heads is the same as for the 510's but much less frequent. I clean the 510's about every 3-4 days (the Irish Coffee is very dark and gums up quickly in the drip atty, while the 510-T has a small spike that gets gummed up quickly too) so having spares helps. I found I get about 7-8 days on the clearo before I have to clean the head. I do get rid of the darkened fluid every few days.
Batteries and charging. I use the manufacturers chargers and run the batteries down till they blink then charge them up till the charger kicks over to green then remove them. So far no memory effect and I get a day of vaping on a set (one eGo-C and one 510 XL). I can't say anything about lifespan yet as they're all going strong still. I also don't know if the chargers kick over to a trickle charge mode when they're done, if they do then leaving them on the chargers could shorten the battery life. Lithium batteries lifespans are in full charge cycles thus if you charge a half charged battery twice you use one cycle. They ]don't like being half charged then discharged so the best bet is to use them up and charge them fully. FWIW: Most of this I learned years ago from battery engineers on various projects.
Have spares is a common theme for those of us who are new, and I can't emphasize that enough either. I have found that the equipment I have is a very workable system. Once the initial investment in hardware is made, adding an atty, head or battery to an order isn't hard and I'm still spending less than I did on a carton of analogs (even with the shipping). Beware, it's easy to suffer from G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). I set my budget to max out at a carton of analogs every two weeks and I can more than get enough gear and juice to keep me and my wallet happy.
Big milestone under my belt, 1 month analog free and a good distance down the learning curve.
First, a small bit of background:
I am currently an RN with 8 years experience in surgical/trauma and was a computer & software engineer for 25 years before that so medicine and electronics are nothing new. I smoked 1.5 PAD since I was 12 and just turned 55. Given I grew up in a house with LOTS of side-stream and second-hand smoke before picking up the burning leaf myself. I was recently taken very ill with bronchitis and pneumonia during which it hurt to smoke. I had to find another way to deal with the habit knowing that I'd be around other friends and family who smoked. I tried using a cheap drug-store ecig and I could tolerate that where the analogs were out of the question. The decision was clear, go with an electronic alternative, or continue to put my lungs at risk for worse damage with analogs.
My setup (thanks to lots of reading here on ECF):
Hardware:
2 Joyetech 510 XL auto batteries and 150mA charger
1 Joyetech 510 standard atty & drip tip (for trying ejuice & blends)
2 Joyetech 510-T atty's (rotating them between cleaning)
2 Joyetech eGo-C 1000mAh batteries and 420mA charger
2 Vision/Thor CE4 2.0 CC Clearomizers 2ohm (1 spare, 1 working)
5 2ohm heads for the Clearo's
Juice:
Soldier's Blend at 18mg - night vape loaded into a 510-T cartridge
Coffee 24mg::Whiskey 18mg - 50/50 blend to make a 21mg Irish Coffee for craving / flavor break
Camel 24mg:
ipe 18mg::Vanilla 12mg - 50/20/30 blend to make a 19mg blend for daily vape in the clearoChocolate Covered Cherry 18mg - 75/25 VG blend for fun and as an alternative to harder flavors
Observations:
Getting the hang of vaping vs smoking takes some practice. Hitting a cig-a-like like an analog is not going to be too satisfying. Pulling the clearo at full lung will likely overwhelm most new vapers. Experiment with technique! I would liken vaping more to pipe or cigar smoking, it works (and tastes) better to draw into the mouth then inhale as so many recommend.
You can get sick on nic once you learn to vape effectively, keep some low nic around (I used the 12mg Vanilla straight to get a break). Getting nicotine in your system from vaping is definitely not as fast as from an analog. The result is that I would vape more than I needed, only to find this out too late. I found it took time to learn how much I needed to vape, what strength and when. If you're new like me, just keep experimenting to find your right combination.
There is no one-to-one correlation with the smoking habit. I found like so many others, there is a great difference between vaping and smoking. After I found my balance the analogs were no longer useful or desirable. While a cigarette seemed to satisfy, I found switching flavors / strengths to be quite useful and ultimately more enjoyable than smoking ever was. Be aware that there is no way any tobacco flavor will taste like the burning leaf version, that is a matter of chemistry and physics and is the key reason vaping is a healthier alternative than burning leaf. Learn to adjust, have fun, explore! I would never have thought of inhaling a chocolate covered cherry, but I tried a well blended juice and enjoy the flavor a lot.
Be discrete in public. Yes, learn to stealth vape, and its okay to vape in restroom stalls or other private areas. There is no smell unless you're using a strong flavor and that only lasts a very short while (less than room deoderizers). But I found the old addage true, you catch more flys with honey than vinegar. I found if I ask, permission is often granted plus I get an opportunity to teach about this new alterative to burning leaves. Never pass up an opportunity to help our cause with a careful and considerate approach.
Equipment needs maintenance. The 510 attys use a steel bridge that will get gummed up after a while and alter the flavors. Best solution for cleaning appears to be Ethyl Alcohol [ETOH] (100 proof cheap Vodka is 50% ETOH/50% H20 and works great). Tried blowing, boiling, water, Laquer Thinner (wood alcohol), Isopropyl alcohol. Blowing out (either mouth or canned air) gets rid of excess liquid but doesn't touch the gunk. Water, boiling or not, does do some good but hard burnt gunk is left behind. Alcohols are great solvents though they leave behind a residue; both isopropyl and denatured wood alcohol are dangerous when heated and left behind a film when allowed to air dry. Vodka worked and left no film, dried fast in open air, and wasn't dangerous.
Clearomizer wicks do have a life-span. The coil will likely outlast the wick. Pay attention when cleaning them as the burnt broken threads will shed. When I got down to 50% of wick I have to put a new head in. Cleaning the heads is the same as for the 510's but much less frequent. I clean the 510's about every 3-4 days (the Irish Coffee is very dark and gums up quickly in the drip atty, while the 510-T has a small spike that gets gummed up quickly too) so having spares helps. I found I get about 7-8 days on the clearo before I have to clean the head. I do get rid of the darkened fluid every few days.
Batteries and charging. I use the manufacturers chargers and run the batteries down till they blink then charge them up till the charger kicks over to green then remove them. So far no memory effect and I get a day of vaping on a set (one eGo-C and one 510 XL). I can't say anything about lifespan yet as they're all going strong still. I also don't know if the chargers kick over to a trickle charge mode when they're done, if they do then leaving them on the chargers could shorten the battery life. Lithium batteries lifespans are in full charge cycles thus if you charge a half charged battery twice you use one cycle. They ]don't like being half charged then discharged so the best bet is to use them up and charge them fully. FWIW: Most of this I learned years ago from battery engineers on various projects.
Have spares is a common theme for those of us who are new, and I can't emphasize that enough either. I have found that the equipment I have is a very workable system. Once the initial investment in hardware is made, adding an atty, head or battery to an order isn't hard and I'm still spending less than I did on a carton of analogs (even with the shipping). Beware, it's easy to suffer from G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). I set my budget to max out at a carton of analogs every two weeks and I can more than get enough gear and juice to keep me and my wallet happy.
.
