I smoked 10 American Spirit (Medium Strength/ Sage Colored Box) cigarettes a day. I have smoked for 10 years. I have noticed my health begin to gradually decline. Shortness of breath would catch me when smoking. Smoking two cigarettes in a row caused me to have slight pain in my lungs sometimes. Other times I would feel somewhat sick or ill from smoking a cigarette. Smoking would drain energy I could be using to hike, walk, workout, etc. The lack of lung capacity was causing shortness of breath. The lack of lung capacity was making it harder to breathe. I was paying $9.07 a pack. This added up to roughly $1673.52 a year.
Then my friend talked me into trying the envy electronic cigarette. I was not impressed with the amount of vapor, or the taste. Regardless it satisfied my insatiable craving for nicotine. That made me curious if there were better systems available online. 200+ hours of research later, I made my first purchase.
Bought 190ml of various flavoring, 220ml 36mg strength PG e-juice, Two 900mah ego batteries, three 1.5ohm LR Atomizers, some DIY Supplies, a charger, a cone, a Tapered Long Super T-Tip, and a 500ml 100mg strength e-Juice Bottle, and four Seedmans premix tobacco flavoring spray bottles. It cost me $360.00 for everything startup costs.
I now have enough juice to last me a year and two months. Two batteries should last me 6 months to a year, and three 510 1.5ohm LR Atomizers could last me a week or two a piece if I wash them in 90% isopropyl rubbing alcohol daily.
Thanks to your community, recipes, my experimentation, ry4, and a great ry4 recipe I have some interesting observations for anybody starting out with an electronic cigarette system!
Difference between smoking & vaping (Personal opinion)
Smoking is cool because you do it with your friends outside, get time to spend with them to small talk each other up, philosophize, and waste 5 minutes of your lives together. Its a social thing. Nothing changes there. The only difference I have found is I was chasing that flavor of tobacco I missed. I found going through Health Cabin Banana(Not much flavor), Rum(Gets old, but good by itself), Carmel(Gets old, but good by itself), Vodka(Good by itself), RY4(ok by itself), 555(Kinda ok by itself), Cappuccino(Bad), Redbull(Pointless), Vanilla Soda(Yummy, but tiring), that only by mixing:
29 drops 100mg strength pg
12 drops vg
15 drops seedmans premixed Virginia
5 drops carmel
5 drop vanilla soda
(Creates 1.8 ml)
E-Juice Calc v.13 Values:
base pg nic:100
target pg nic: 36
Amount to be made in recipe: 1.8
Water/Vodka/PG: 0.01
VG: 24
Flavor: 40
Did I create a juice I could vape all day. That was the definitive answer for me personally to ensure I stayed with vaping over smoking.
I KNOW if I didnt have:
A 3.7 volt device
(Not Enough Vapor I would Relapse, having to charge more than once a day = relapse), LR Atomizer
(Vapor to start with so I can learn about burnt flavors, how long to hold down the button)
Stainless Steel Drip Tip
(I take it off to drip directly on the atty, but stainless has no taste otherwise = relapse)
100mg strength PG E-juice
(I would not have been able to mix the recipes at the percentages I wanted = relapse)
This relapse I imagine would have been horrible! (Ill tell you the benefits of vaping in a moment) Yet I can not yet emphasize enough the equal importance of liquid flavorings you like. I went through the flavorings online. I thought I would try an assortment other users liked. That was a good start. Honestly the flavors I was choosing I was hoping would resemble cigarette smoke like flavors to help me through the transition away from that tobacco flavoring. Two days, and my yearnings for tobacco flavorings are gone. I still want the habit of walking outside, breathing fresh air (I imagine myself having a smoke), then my mind tells me thats silly because this (vaping) is much more enjoyable! I remind myself I no longer have to go outside for a smoke, and I enjoy the laziness of being able to vape in doors. I started I mixed 1ml 24mg strength. It seemed too strong. I tried 18ml, 12ml, and those strengths were more flavorful, but not as satisfying. I determined if I use higher nicotine content then I am not using my atomizer as much. If I get the nicotine faster, it saves me time too when I vape. I am now looking for somewhere between 24mg & 36mg with a plan to slowly wean myself down off of nicotine all together perhaps.
My only warning to you newbies: I anticipated I would be vaping less than smoking. I quickly found myself IMHO in taking more nicotine now than before. With smoking I would get high off a smoke break kinda lame style. A smoke was to me a fix where a vape is for pleasure. Now I literally get high off nicotine. If I am getting tired and need to wake up because I am exhausted all I have to do is inhale some, and blow it out my nose. My eyes water, eyeballs bug, head shakes & Im awake again! I literally find the pleasure from the nicotine again! Its like I am 18 years old again!
Almost immediately after switching to vaping I felt a remarkable increase in my energy levels throughout the day on par to the first few times I tried going cold turkey quitting smoking all together. I now equate cigarettes to a slavish sedimentary addiction that gets in the way of time, work, physicality, health, lifestyle, relationships, finances, and personal body odor. I see vaping as a fun way to get spun up on energy, manage nicotine addiction, cut costs, return to a healthier you, and have fun doing it!
So many flavors so little time. LorAnn and others whom sell flavors interest me. I look forward to the recipes I will try. I wish I had more knowledge about Do It Yourself before I bought my first DIY Supplies. Regardless, I love to vape everywhere. I feel free-er (If that is a word) , and love sharing what the experience is to everybody I meet who smokes! I just had to find a good flavor first I felt comfortable sharing with. I go to sleep more easily as my body doesnt feel gunked up and restless any more. I do have a raspy voice as my lungs cilia are moving all sorts of stuff up my throat, but asides from that I feel fine.
Honestly though, that iron/steel taste in your mouth is only the primer on the atty. Most that taste will go away in a day, and the rest of what is mostly noticeable should be gone in another two days. I was afraid at first of burning up LR attys. Now I know as long as you alternate two ecigs, (so one atty doesnt get too hot), clean often, charge daily one battery & use another, and keep the atty wet, and dont go more than 5 seconds you seem to be ok. It only took me a day or two to truly learn the taste that comes when you need to add (another) drop taste versus the (need to add) two drops taste. Priming with two or three drops is good after you isopropyl clean. I soak my atty with 90% isopropyl for 5 minutes to remove tastes between flavors. It works pretty well. I only smell a slight taste of the last flavor used for the first vape. After that its gone.
I do think I will move onto Ikenvape 2.0 ohm attys. These LR Attys seem to get too hot too quick. Theres a microsecond of holding the button between flavor, burnt flavor, no flavor, and metallic toasty flavor. I want to hold down the button and take a long draw without having to tap it so much so precisely. Although, I do like the LR atty as a starter because it taught me what to do vs what not to do pretty quick. Hopefully after going through three of these attys I will be schooled enough to treat the Ikenvape ones right! I want my attys to last reasonably long like a month or so. I will tell you all how that works out for me with my routine.
With these LR Attys I suspect I am having to add more flavor (20% flavor via diy calc) to compensate for how hot its all getting. I also understand Health Cabin flavor is not as concentrate as some, so there might me some compensation there. I thought I might save some first time DIYers some time by posting my observations here.
Its early on to speculate. From what I have read on this forum:
Total yearly ecig costs = $457.19 a Year
Total yearly Smoking costs = $1673.52 a year
That's $1216.33 a year ($101.36 a month) I'm saving!
I should break even in 3-4 months or so, but bulk atty orders arent cheap. Neither are bulk flavoring orders. Bulk I say to consolidate shipping. I wanted to warn others. If you are looking for a way to save on cigarettes, you may have to put a good fair chunk of change up front to really start saving bundles. I expected for around $300.00 I would be set for my own juice, a satisfactory vaping experience, enough flavoring, and attys for at least a year. Turns out the start out costs for me will end up equaling $500.00. This is good however because by ordering quality in bulk I am saving all kinds of money, and in the long term goals of things that works out!
P.S. I will have to move up from a wide assortment of drams of all e-cig compatible LorAnn flavorings (for sampling first) on one order, and then order largest size of the flavors I absolutely love. This too will end up costing me big time, but I know there will be big time rewards for it in the quality of life, fun, and enjoyment that will come from it!
Another warning: I started calling my Personal vaporizer My Precious. I even put a small picture of Gollum holding my PV taped to both batteries so I know I covet the precious!! Its ours!!!
Add insight to what Im doing wrong or right please! I have only been vaping for three days!
Then my friend talked me into trying the envy electronic cigarette. I was not impressed with the amount of vapor, or the taste. Regardless it satisfied my insatiable craving for nicotine. That made me curious if there were better systems available online. 200+ hours of research later, I made my first purchase.
Bought 190ml of various flavoring, 220ml 36mg strength PG e-juice, Two 900mah ego batteries, three 1.5ohm LR Atomizers, some DIY Supplies, a charger, a cone, a Tapered Long Super T-Tip, and a 500ml 100mg strength e-Juice Bottle, and four Seedmans premix tobacco flavoring spray bottles. It cost me $360.00 for everything startup costs.
I now have enough juice to last me a year and two months. Two batteries should last me 6 months to a year, and three 510 1.5ohm LR Atomizers could last me a week or two a piece if I wash them in 90% isopropyl rubbing alcohol daily.
Thanks to your community, recipes, my experimentation, ry4, and a great ry4 recipe I have some interesting observations for anybody starting out with an electronic cigarette system!
Difference between smoking & vaping (Personal opinion)
Smoking is cool because you do it with your friends outside, get time to spend with them to small talk each other up, philosophize, and waste 5 minutes of your lives together. Its a social thing. Nothing changes there. The only difference I have found is I was chasing that flavor of tobacco I missed. I found going through Health Cabin Banana(Not much flavor), Rum(Gets old, but good by itself), Carmel(Gets old, but good by itself), Vodka(Good by itself), RY4(ok by itself), 555(Kinda ok by itself), Cappuccino(Bad), Redbull(Pointless), Vanilla Soda(Yummy, but tiring), that only by mixing:
29 drops 100mg strength pg
12 drops vg
15 drops seedmans premixed Virginia
5 drops carmel
5 drop vanilla soda
(Creates 1.8 ml)
E-Juice Calc v.13 Values:
base pg nic:100
target pg nic: 36
Amount to be made in recipe: 1.8
Water/Vodka/PG: 0.01
VG: 24
Flavor: 40
Did I create a juice I could vape all day. That was the definitive answer for me personally to ensure I stayed with vaping over smoking.
I KNOW if I didnt have:
A 3.7 volt device
(Not Enough Vapor I would Relapse, having to charge more than once a day = relapse), LR Atomizer
(Vapor to start with so I can learn about burnt flavors, how long to hold down the button)
Stainless Steel Drip Tip
(I take it off to drip directly on the atty, but stainless has no taste otherwise = relapse)
100mg strength PG E-juice
(I would not have been able to mix the recipes at the percentages I wanted = relapse)
This relapse I imagine would have been horrible! (Ill tell you the benefits of vaping in a moment) Yet I can not yet emphasize enough the equal importance of liquid flavorings you like. I went through the flavorings online. I thought I would try an assortment other users liked. That was a good start. Honestly the flavors I was choosing I was hoping would resemble cigarette smoke like flavors to help me through the transition away from that tobacco flavoring. Two days, and my yearnings for tobacco flavorings are gone. I still want the habit of walking outside, breathing fresh air (I imagine myself having a smoke), then my mind tells me thats silly because this (vaping) is much more enjoyable! I remind myself I no longer have to go outside for a smoke, and I enjoy the laziness of being able to vape in doors. I started I mixed 1ml 24mg strength. It seemed too strong. I tried 18ml, 12ml, and those strengths were more flavorful, but not as satisfying. I determined if I use higher nicotine content then I am not using my atomizer as much. If I get the nicotine faster, it saves me time too when I vape. I am now looking for somewhere between 24mg & 36mg with a plan to slowly wean myself down off of nicotine all together perhaps.
My only warning to you newbies: I anticipated I would be vaping less than smoking. I quickly found myself IMHO in taking more nicotine now than before. With smoking I would get high off a smoke break kinda lame style. A smoke was to me a fix where a vape is for pleasure. Now I literally get high off nicotine. If I am getting tired and need to wake up because I am exhausted all I have to do is inhale some, and blow it out my nose. My eyes water, eyeballs bug, head shakes & Im awake again! I literally find the pleasure from the nicotine again! Its like I am 18 years old again!
Almost immediately after switching to vaping I felt a remarkable increase in my energy levels throughout the day on par to the first few times I tried going cold turkey quitting smoking all together. I now equate cigarettes to a slavish sedimentary addiction that gets in the way of time, work, physicality, health, lifestyle, relationships, finances, and personal body odor. I see vaping as a fun way to get spun up on energy, manage nicotine addiction, cut costs, return to a healthier you, and have fun doing it!
So many flavors so little time. LorAnn and others whom sell flavors interest me. I look forward to the recipes I will try. I wish I had more knowledge about Do It Yourself before I bought my first DIY Supplies. Regardless, I love to vape everywhere. I feel free-er (If that is a word) , and love sharing what the experience is to everybody I meet who smokes! I just had to find a good flavor first I felt comfortable sharing with. I go to sleep more easily as my body doesnt feel gunked up and restless any more. I do have a raspy voice as my lungs cilia are moving all sorts of stuff up my throat, but asides from that I feel fine.
Honestly though, that iron/steel taste in your mouth is only the primer on the atty. Most that taste will go away in a day, and the rest of what is mostly noticeable should be gone in another two days. I was afraid at first of burning up LR attys. Now I know as long as you alternate two ecigs, (so one atty doesnt get too hot), clean often, charge daily one battery & use another, and keep the atty wet, and dont go more than 5 seconds you seem to be ok. It only took me a day or two to truly learn the taste that comes when you need to add (another) drop taste versus the (need to add) two drops taste. Priming with two or three drops is good after you isopropyl clean. I soak my atty with 90% isopropyl for 5 minutes to remove tastes between flavors. It works pretty well. I only smell a slight taste of the last flavor used for the first vape. After that its gone.
I do think I will move onto Ikenvape 2.0 ohm attys. These LR Attys seem to get too hot too quick. Theres a microsecond of holding the button between flavor, burnt flavor, no flavor, and metallic toasty flavor. I want to hold down the button and take a long draw without having to tap it so much so precisely. Although, I do like the LR atty as a starter because it taught me what to do vs what not to do pretty quick. Hopefully after going through three of these attys I will be schooled enough to treat the Ikenvape ones right! I want my attys to last reasonably long like a month or so. I will tell you all how that works out for me with my routine.
With these LR Attys I suspect I am having to add more flavor (20% flavor via diy calc) to compensate for how hot its all getting. I also understand Health Cabin flavor is not as concentrate as some, so there might me some compensation there. I thought I might save some first time DIYers some time by posting my observations here.
Its early on to speculate. From what I have read on this forum:
Total yearly ecig costs = $457.19 a Year
Total yearly Smoking costs = $1673.52 a year
That's $1216.33 a year ($101.36 a month) I'm saving!
I should break even in 3-4 months or so, but bulk atty orders arent cheap. Neither are bulk flavoring orders. Bulk I say to consolidate shipping. I wanted to warn others. If you are looking for a way to save on cigarettes, you may have to put a good fair chunk of change up front to really start saving bundles. I expected for around $300.00 I would be set for my own juice, a satisfactory vaping experience, enough flavoring, and attys for at least a year. Turns out the start out costs for me will end up equaling $500.00. This is good however because by ordering quality in bulk I am saving all kinds of money, and in the long term goals of things that works out!
P.S. I will have to move up from a wide assortment of drams of all e-cig compatible LorAnn flavorings (for sampling first) on one order, and then order largest size of the flavors I absolutely love. This too will end up costing me big time, but I know there will be big time rewards for it in the quality of life, fun, and enjoyment that will come from it!
Another warning: I started calling my Personal vaporizer My Precious. I even put a small picture of Gollum holding my PV taped to both batteries so I know I covet the precious!! Its ours!!!
Add insight to what Im doing wrong or right please! I have only been vaping for three days!
