Hello all, from GA.,USA

[janab]

I've been a vaper on and off for 5 yrs. The off times I'm a heavy smoker, I'm sorry to say--and I'm desperate to quit. My current equipment is the eleaf 20, var. With an Aspire Natautilis mini tank.

My problem? The thrill is gone, especially the taste. It seems that the taste quickly leaves and I try to capture it to no avail. Is it my liquid? I vape VG and have been getting it from Velvet Vapors. (I love their variety) Or is it my gear? Does VG require a lower watt or voltage? Currently using just 3.0V at 4.7Watts (unable to change watts for some reason.) Or is it my crappy smokers taste buds? I didn't remember this problem using my old gear (volcano inferno)

Any help or advice desperately wanted. I've tried to educate myself via YouTube but am stumped.
Thanks,
Jana

 

[r77r7r]

Welcome

 

[HotRodCarts]

Welcome.

You need to figure out why you can't change wattage.

 

[janab]

I just noticed this problem as I was posting! What do I do, contact eleaf even tho I purchased from eBay? I see that the watts change automatically when I change volts. But buttons only change seconds and volts.
CRUD!

 

[Noflers]

Welcome to the site!

High VG juices in the older tanks like the Nautilus doesn't work especially well. I'd recommend one of the sub-ohm style tanks available. VG doesn't necessarily need higher or lower wattage, though I prefer higher, it does need a tank that can handle the thicker liquid that is VG. BTW, changing volts in turn changes watts. So as long as you can adjust one or the other you should be fine with that setup.

If you don't have experience rebuilding coils you might want to stray away from the rebuildable tanks and go with something that uses replaceable heads like the Aspire Atlantis or Triton, the Kanger subtank is also a good tank to start out with. They both have coils with resistances ranging from .25-1.8. If you don't want to replace your mod just yet (sounds like you may be having an issue with your eleaf anyway) you should stick to higher resistance coils as your Eleaf wont be able to fire anything too low.

Of course the selection of devices grows everyday and there is much more than what I mentioned available. You can get an entirely new setup for under $50 nowadays. Gearbest has Chinese pricing available from their US warehouse and is one of my go-to online shops.

Feel free to ask any questions you have via PM as well.

Good luck!

 

[rgerber]

Well Jana, for me after nearly 60 years of smoking pipes and cigars (Inhaling), I started vaping almost two years ago. I started out with 24 mgs of nicotine as I too was a heavy smoker. I have not touched tobacco since I quit, and I am proud to say that I have been able to cut back my nicotine to....well....24 mgs! I also switched from flavored to unflavored and started building coils beginning with a Kanger Sub-Tank and iVPMini. I also build on an eGrip and have discovered the world of bottom feeders. Right now I have a Reo Grand with an RM2 and a Derringer that I build on. You can get off the stinkies....you need to find the right combo. It's out there. If this cranky 75 year old man can do it....SO CAN YOU! Keep us posted and good luck!!

 

[djsvapour]

Just a heads up.

The eleaf iStick 20w is a strange mod. If you have fully charged it, no matter what it says on the display, you certainly won't be vaping at 4.7watts...

(search 'step down iStick 20w' for the full story.)

Are you saying that if you change to watts (3 clicks) that it won't then go up and down?

There's no reason to not get good functionality in volts setting. I use mine (30w/40w) in Volts more than watts.

I don't really know how to comment on your Volcano experience. To me, that's a dreadful e-cig at a shocking price. I've not recommended anything ever from this company.

Maybe all this cheap kit is part of the reason you still smoke? Maybe I'm just a vaping snob these days . I use (and enjoy) the mini Nautilus, but neither the iStick 20w or using VG juice in this tank makes much sense to me.

 

[Topwater Elvis]

Rapidly press the fire button 3 times to change from V mode to W mode.

Might be time to change the head, be sure to thoroughly prime the new one.
3v / 4.7w is extremely low for a nautilus which will cause rapid coil gunking.
High %vg liquids are usually too thick to wick well in a nautilus unless thinned with DW.

 

[dcfluegel]

howdy! and welcome!

 

[Kaezziel]

Welcome, @janab!

If it's flavor that you're after, and you're running with higher VG juice, I might suggest this mod/atty: Vaporesso Target VTC Kit. I recently won one of these in a contest here on ECF and am waiting (patiently?) for it to arrive. I've done a bit of research in several threads here and other places online and have to say that I'm quite impressed with the reports on flavor! It seems that the 0.9 ohm Kanthal coils give the best flavor with these. It is a very new mod/tank kit.

Anyway, here is a link to one of the best threads about the kit: Vaporesso Target VTC with Ceramic cCell Coil
And here is a link to the contest that is still running. Hurry up and get your required posts in here at the new member's forum so that you can go throw your hat in the ring! Who knows, you might get lucky!
Vaporesso Target VTC Contest Part 2

Good Luck and Happy New Year!!

*edit* Don't know why that last link got all funky... I can't seem to fix it, either...
*double edit* There!! That fixed it!

 

[dennism]

I have a nautilus mini, an istick 30w and an istick 40w. I vape 30/70 (pg/vg) and have no problems, wicks just fine. I vape at 13.5 watts and all is good.

 

[janab]

Wow, you guys, thanks for all the responses. Now that my head is full again, I confess to a lot of confusion with the sub ohm jargon. Higher resistance coils? Does that mean going up or down? What is 1.8? I just invested in the dang istick and bought a slew of 1.8 coils for it. I was rather hoping it would be the juice!

I Admit my stupidity in forgetting how to change between watts & volts. DUH. K, I'll admit to be age 62!
Now, is there anyway I can work with what I have for the time being? I get lots of cloud, just not a lot of taste, and it does heat up quickly which spoils the process.

 

[djsvapour]

Wow, you guys, thanks for all the responses. Now that my head is full again, I confess to a lot of confusion with the sub ohm jargon. Higher resistance coils? Does that mean going up or down? What is 1.8? I just invested in the dang istick and bought a slew of 1.8 coils for it. I was rather hoping it would be the juice!

I Admit my stupidity in forgetting how to change between watts & volts. DUH. K, I'll admit to be age 62!
Now, is there anyway I can work with what I have for the time being? I get lots of cloud, just not a lot of taste, and it does heat up quickly which spoils the process.

You know, I have been searching my brain for some info.
I did meet a Vaper (of 2 years) who vapes her 20w iStick at the lowest setting. I ordered her a Pink 30w from China and she did find that one needed a little more power.
It's a bit confusing, but the 20w doesn't really get down as low as it says (watts/volts, makes no difference as far as I remember).

She doesn't use the mini Nautilus. I lent her one for 3 days and she gave it me back. I swapped it for a very unusual tank I won in a raffle and loves that one.

Most e-cigarette tanks work 'best' at certain power settings. The trick is to find one you enjoy and gives good taste and vapor for your needs.

In general, if you don't want to vape 'higher power' you should get high resistance coils.
Low resistance for faster heating up and more watts. Higher resistance for cooler vaping, lower watts and especially on mods which apply too much power to the atomizer.

Hang in there.

 

[Kaezziel]

Wow, you guys, thanks for all the responses. Now that my head is full again, I confess to a lot of confusion with the sub ohm jargon. Higher resistance coils? Does that mean going up or down? What is 1.8? I just invested in the dang istick and bought a slew of 1.8 coils for it. I was rather hoping it would be the juice!

I Admit my stupidity in forgetting how to change between watts & volts. DUH. K, I'll admit to be age 62!
Now, is there anyway I can work with what I have for the time being? I get lots of cloud, just not a lot of taste, and it does heat up quickly which spoils the process.

The only other thing that I can think to say is that PG is a better flavor carrier than VG, so maybe try some higher VG juices. You could have been absolutely correct in your first post about part of it being crappy smoker's taste buds as well. Lower wattage/voltage than you are currently using isn't going to help (as DJ said above me). Personally I vape at higher wattage with lower resistance most of the time (35W minimum for me). Although I am currently using a temperature controlled device that varies the wattage to maintain a specified temperature. It is working quite well and has been my daily vape for the past 2-3 months.

It is going to take a bit of a learning curve and some patience to find your personal 'sweet-spot'... there are a lot of us around here than can and will try to help you as much as possible, but a lot of it is going to have to be a 'try it and see if you like it' kind of thing. In the past 6 years of vaping for me, I've gone through a LOT of gear. Fortunately I've been able to pass quite a bit of it along to friends/family to get them off of the smokes as well. (They picked on me all Christmas day because I brought 4 mods that they'd never seen me with! My sister-in-law tried to steal my beloved Invader Mini ).

Anyway, hang in there and you'll find something that works for you and appeals to your sense of style as well... there are MANY, MANY options!

 

[janab]

Guess what! I found my sweet spot! Many thanks to Dennism and the rest of you for not letting me give up! I'm at 4.3v with 10.4watts and the taste of Divinity and Vanilla Cupcake are back

It's great to be here. Will hopefully learn more about sub ohm for my next purchase and look forward to find new vendors. THANK YOU!

 

[Kaezziel]

Glad to hear that it's all working out for you, Jana!

 

[Frenchfry1942]

Good to hear! *waves* from Arizona.