Hello forum. I'm overwhelmed! =

[overture]

Hello all,

My mother randomly bought me one of those Xhale o2 PVs from 7-11 on a whim the other day, despite my showing no interest whatsoever in electronic cigarettes as a method of tobacco replacement. The taste is pretty awful, but the experience has been quite enjoyable - enough so that I have spent about 90% of my internet time since researching this forum and other e-cigarette resources. Like most other newbies, my head is spinning from information overload.

I have tentatively settled on the Vapor King for my first purchase. The cartomizer concept is attractive to me as a beginner - fewer parts to consider and to replace. However, I have two main concerns:

1) I currently smoke about 1/2 to 3/4 of a pack of original blend (blue) American Spirits per day. I tend to smoke more in the evenings, especially while at home. I can generally smoke a cigarette in the morning and get through my work day without another until 4 or 5 pm. Is there any way to estimate how many cartomizers I will use per week? How does one determine which nicotine strength to buy?

2) I have heard mixed reviews on the flavor of Vapor4Life juice and cartomizers. If anyone has used them, I would appreciate your opinion. Forgive my ignorance, but do other companies supply cartomizers that are compatible with the Vapor4Life Vapor King? Can any juice be used in Vapor4Life's blank cartomizers?

Thanks everyone!

(and sorry for the novel )

 

[firefox335]

Glad you found the forum. I use Vapor Kings exclusively. I'm a menthol fan and use their Dunhall Menthol cartomizers at 18mg. I also buy 30ml bottles of the same so I can refill.

One word of warning: If you were a heavy smoker, you will be a heavier vapor!

I smoked 1 1/2 packs a day and now I go though 1 30ml bottle of e-liquid a week. A cartomizer usually lasts me about 2-3 days. One key to making them last longer is to always keep them topped-off. I usually buy 1 30ml bottle and a five pack of carts a week. Don't go through as many carts, but it's better to have too many than too few. But even with that, $29.40 a week beats $50.00+ for a carton of analogs. Plus you're not killing yourself.

Another word of advice is to check the vapor4life sub-forum on here. There's a sticky about coupon codes. The run specials often and it's good to check that sticky before you order. "SMILIN" will get you 10% off your order. And they recently had a graduation party code that got you 20% off. They're friendly and have great customer service.

Hope this helps!

BTW: Yes, I'm pretty sure than any juice can be used with their carts. Also, If you refill, Leaford has a great video about the condom refill method. I'll post it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnPWfGkhnF4

 

[VaporMadness]

Welcome Overture!

Hello all,

My mother randomly bought me one of those Xhale o2 PVs from 7-11 on a whim the other day, despite my showing no interest whatsoever in electronic cigarettes as a method of tobacco replacement. The taste is pretty awful, but the experience has been quite enjoyable - enough so that I have spent about 90% of my internet time since researching this forum and other e-cigarette resources. Like most other newbies, my head is spinning from information overload.

I have tentatively settled on the Vapor King for my first purchase. The cartomizer concept is attractive to me as a beginner - fewer parts to consider and to replace. However, I have two main concerns:

1) I currently smoke about 1/2 to 3/4 of a pack of original blend (blue) American Spirits per day. I tend to smoke more in the evenings, especially while at home. I can generally smoke a cigarette in the morning and get through my work day without another until 4 or 5 pm. Is there any way to estimate how many cartomizers I will use per week? How does one determine which nicotine strength to buy?

So a less than heavy smoker. There really are two questions, how much liquid and how many cartos (since cartos can be refilled quite a few times). A very rough estimate is .5 or 1.5 ml of liquid per day. Being a relatively light smoker, you may be able to use the same carto for an entire week.

2) I have heard mixed reviews on the flavor of Vapor4Life juice and cartomizers. If anyone has used them, I would appreciate your opinion. Forgive my ignorance, but do other companies supply cartomizers that are compatible with the Vapor4Life Vapor King? Can any juice be used in Vapor4Life's blank cartomizers?

The VaporKing is really just a KR808D-1 model that uses cartomizers. Many people get blank (or empy) cartos and fill them with the liquid of their choice. Those basic components (batteries, blank cartos, liquid) are readily available from many vendors, not just V4L. All KR808D-1 stuff from the variety of vendors is fully compatible.

Liquids can be used with any model. In fact you could get some better liquid and use it in your 7/11 device.

 

[overture]

Thanks firefox. Another question that is probably totally subjective...if it's likely that I will use the PV more than I smoked, is it better to buy carts with a lower nicotine content than I would smoke in an average day?

Wiki lists blue American Spirits as 1.0 mg of nicotine per cigarette (although a post here cited them as over 2 mg). So if I smoked 13 a day, would it make sense to buy carts with less than 13 mg of nicotine?

I've read here that people sometimes end up increasing their nicotine intake when they make the switch...I would like to avoid that if possible!

 

[overture]

Welcome Overture!

The VaporKing is really just a KR808D-1 model that uses cartomizers.

When people refer to KR808 or 501 or 801 or whatever...is that a generic term referring to batteries?

 

[salemgold]

When people refer to KR808 or 501 or 801 or whatever...is that a generic term referring to batteries?

Those are different model numbers for different models of e cig. I was also very overwhelmed a few weeks back but it will all fall into place.

1 suggestion that I will make is to pick up at least 1 of their XL batteries or get the XL kit. They hold a charge longer and vape better.

You may want to try several different flavors as you may surprise yourself at which one you might like. I started on the 18 mgs and found it to be way too low. I was irritable and having awful withdraw symptoms. I went up to the 36 mgs and it was much better. I was a 1 1/2 pk a day smoker though. I feel like it may be good to go for a little higher nic level just to get you off the cigs. You can always lower the nic once you have kicked the cig habit.

Good luck and you will find tons of info here.

 

[phoenix2121]

Welcome Overture, I'm new here as well, but I have done some serious forum lurking so maybe I can answer your question. First of all, the 7-11 e-cigs are awful. If you want a good experience, look into a 510, 801, or 901 starter kit.

Secondly, the amount of nicotine in your juice is entirely reliant on you. I've found that I vape twice as much with lower nicotine doses, so you're going to get your fill either way you go about it... but you will use much less juice with a higher dose... just my experience, may not be typical. However, I've heard that stepping the nicotine level down gradually seems to the way to go. I haven't tried that much yet, but I have tried 6mg, 12mg and 16mg liquids. I'm pretty comfortable with the 12, but the 6 mg dose doesn't seem to cut it. I'd say that you should try a couple different doses, and see which one seems to work for you. Obviously if you are trying to quit analogs, the lowest dose possible will start to get you closer to being completely nicotine free. Find the dose that works, and then just vape away!

 

[VaporMadness]

When people refer to KR808 or 501 or 801 or whatever...is that a generic term referring to batteries?

In addition to the battery itself, those model numbers distinquish...
* the design of the atomizer (or cartomizer in the KR8 case)
* the type threading used to attach the atomizer/cartomizer to the battery

With threading adapters you can mix and match batteries and attys/cartos. The std ecig batts are not long lived enough for many heavy users (have to recharge them too often), so we get what are called "battery MODs (devices that hold larger rechargeable li-ion batteries) and use an atty/carto of choice on those devices.

For a while, cartomizers only came with KR808D threading, but now you can get 'cartos' with other threading (notably with 510 threading).

There is a lot of info to digest and its tricky to pick things up in the broader discussion forums, but one section of ECF is intentionally organized to teach people. The the ECF Library - E-Cigarette Forum "The Wonderful World of Vaping (parts 1 thru 6)" is classic.

 

[overture]

Thanks for all your help guys! I really appreciate it. I just placed my first order!

 

[bearscreek]

I don't know why you couldn't get by with between 1 and 2 cartos a day easily if that's all you smoked. What I mean by that is 1-2 fully filled cartos that can be refilled, depending on your luck, several times before they might need to be tossed. I can use a carto constantly and get roughly 5 days out of it before it's no good (for me) any more.

As for your nic level, that's debatable and I'm not that sure what your cigarettes really add up to, but what you can do is to buy juice in maybe 24 mg strength, and if you feel like it's too strong, you can dilute it with PG and fill your cartos with that. It's almost impossible to add up the theoretical mg of nic you got smoking and then try to exactly match that with vaping, but some reasonable guesstimates have put the amount at vaping 2.5 times what you smoked, even though it's possible that the nic absorption from vaping is as little as 10% of that from smoking. It's not really comparing apples to apples, BUT if you looked at a few educated guesses that have been tossed around and went with 2.5 times nic content, then if you smoked 10-15 mg of nic, you might vape 25-37.5 mg of nicotine. If you ended up vaping, say, 1.5-2 mL of juice per day, then maybe a strength of 18 mg might be a good starting point (which is actually what I started to say in the first place, simply because that's roughly the strength I use). These are extremely loose numbers I'm talking about, though, and the different types of cartos hold different amounts of liquid. I guess instead of saying all that I should have simply said that 18 mg liquid might be a good place to start, but that's just my 1 little opinion.

 

[firefox335]

I started out with Blu and their highest nicotine content was 16mg. When I switched to V4L, I decided to go up to 18 rather than down to 12. Seems just about right for me. I did order wow peppermint in 36mg, (the only strength available at the time for that flavor) and I notice a BIG difference. They make me jittery and I almost break out in a sweat. I save them for the stressful times.