Help! My pants are smoking!

[Digress]

Hey dudes, n00b here. I'm a 33-yo software architect from Belgium.

Started vaping for a second time recently, did it once for a few months last year with a Joyetech Ego Aio, but started A-smoking again because I didn't really understand the maintenance required and I don't come across any vape stores regularly.

Received a SMOK guardian III pipe from a friend last year 'cause he wasn't using it anymore and it was sitting in my closet for a while, now I've taken it back out, replaced the TFV4 with a TFV8 Baby Beast, bought some eliquids and some .15 ohm coils at the local store (online prohibition in Belgium), and been vaping along nicely so far.

I want to get ahead of the inevitable failure when I run out of ejuice, coils or my mod/battery dies. in terms of ejuice and coils that's relatively simple, just stock up, but in terms of a mod I'm looking for something to upgrade to so I can keep my epipe as backup. So I've been reading up here.

See you around!

 

[djsvapour]

Welcome @Digress

Back-up hardware and juice is essential in this game. Coils can be avoided with rebuildable tanks, but I still use factory coils a lot. I guess a lot will depend on what you really are allowed to buy.

Prohibition of online sales sounds harsh... did Belgium decide to take their own attitude to the EU TPD? How nasty is that.

 

[mountaingal]

Welcome to ECF! The joytech is a good back-up.

 

[Digress]

Welcome to ECF! The joytech is a good back-up.

Thanks!

I'm looking for something else so I'll never have to use the Joyetech anymore. I don't like the top coil, the vape is not likable compared to the SMOK, and I've had several burned draws with it, so I'm looking to have two good ones.

I'm not a student or anything, so price is not all that important to me (unless it's like €500.00, then I'll pass). I was looking at the SMOK G PRIV 220 'cause I'm not a fan of the one button interface and I believe touch screen is a nice addition. I liked the BLE module on the guardian but SMOK's app (Vaping Tour) is the worst kind of trash. It does just about everything I don't want, and nothing I want (No SMOK, I don't care for the MySpace of vaping). I've considered making my own bluetooth app to adjust my settings and stuff but there doesn't seem to be an API/SDK available for it. So I'm looking into that.

In the future I hope some mod vendor takes it upon itself to expose some open source API for their device. Would be nice if people could build their own open source apps for these devices. If there is someone building stuff like that and exposing their API, do let me know!

I'd probably get another tank too, I like the TFV8 Baby but I'd like to try using TC Mode (there are no SS coils for the Baby, just Kanthal) to keep the temperature low, I'm vaping for my health, not for any savings (as I was rolling my own, considering the price of liquids in local stores, I'm probably spending more on vaping than I did on smoking).

 

[Digress]

Welcome @Digress

Back-up hardware and juice is essential in this game. Coils can be avoided with rebuildable tanks, but I still use factory coils a lot. I guess a lot will depend on what you really are allowed to buy.

Prohibition of online sales sounds harsh... did Belgium decide to take their own attitude to the EU TPD? How nasty is that.

RDA's are illegal according to Belgian law, I assume so are RDTA's. (not sure about RTA's, at least the law doesn't seem to specify it).

I have no issues buying coils though. Ok, it's expensive, but it's worth it. I like vaping and it does wonders for my health. I've noticed 12mg of nicotine is too much for my sub-ohm tank, so I'll probably go back to 6mg soon again. I was using 6mg before with the Ego Aio and that didn't do much, so I took 12mg 'cause I thought 6 wouldn't cut it. Didn't know it was so heavily linked to resistance. So no rebuildables for me, I'll go Kanthal and if I get a TC tank I'll go SS, if I can get them in the shops here.

In my TFV8 Baby I'm currently using a .4ohm kanthal coil, but I bought a pack of .15's for when this one croaks.

And yes, Belgium law is very harsh. They had to revise their law because the courts threw it out under the discimination act, their original law was basically a copy of the original American one which meant any shops would have had to close as they had to register all their products at €15k each (i believe in the US it was $30k?). Basically they're trying to push the trade into Big Tobacco's arms.

The new one is still very harsh though. That's what you get for getting a corporate-party morbidly obese person as a minister of health. The sad part is she's a physician though. How shameful.

 

[djsvapour]

RDA's are illegal according to Belgian law, I assume so are RDTA's. (not sure about RTA's, at least the law doesn't seem to specify it).

Has anybody tried to get an EU friend or relative to send an RTA (Rebuildable Tank Atomizer) to you?

How expensive are coils? Is there a way to acquire a TFV8 Baby RBA?

There must be holes somewhere in the fence.

 

[tazzle]

If price is not an issue, I'd get the Yihi SX Mini G-Class or the HCigar VT133 Evolv DNA200.

Or, more affordably, maybe the Eleaf iStick 100W? For a built-in battery mod, I'm very attracted to the Vaporesso Tarot Nano (small! cute!), but I don't know if you need more power. Many, many, many of us have the Eleaf iStick Pico 75W TC (including me; I have 5 of them!), but again, not sure about your power needs.

 

[Aus11]

Welcome. You could get a JoyETech Cuboid. I only ever had the pleasure of owning the mini but they have come out with many more cuboids since then. You will also be able to put your TFV8 on the top. Come to think of it the cuboid mini would fit a Baby Beast well, and has an Integrated battery.
More powerful cuboids require you to get your own batteries but you get a higher power ceiling, or better battery life. Depends how you use it.

You can get a Smok Alien 220, they are around 50 U.S. dollars now but fair warning:
Read around this forum and you will know they are problem children more often than they should be. However, if you can find a solid performer they are good.

 

[stols001]

It really depends on what you are looking for, as far as size and price. If you want a stick some of the above recommendations are good. If you do ever want to go to higher wattages and you want something versatile, I'd go with a Tesla Steampunk if you want a quality build. It has some minor annoyances but it's excellent. It is very heavy, the battery door could be redesigned, and I vape it around 10--14 watts (I buy mods because I do want to try coilbuilding at some point, even though I'm using it at pitiful wattages at the moment... It really is the smoothest vape I've ever come across (keep in mind I don't buy $300 mods though) and has lots of functionality.

Good luck, you'll wind up with many suggestions, I'm sure

Anna

 

[Digress]

Has anybody tried to get an EU friend or relative to send an RTA (Rebuildable Tank Atomizer) to you?

How expensive are coils? Is there a way to acquire a TFV8 Baby RBA?

There must be holes somewhere in the fence.

Coils, depends. I bought 5 TFV8 M2 Coils which are €20, so €4 each, I guess that's a decent price. .15 ohm though, and my pipe only goes up to 75W, she didn't mention that. I can buy a TFV8 Baby RBA for €14.50, so if I'd go that way I'd have it covered, not sure if I want to be building my own though, we'll see, maybe i'll give it a try when I'm a bit further in, to reduce costs. Coils don't seem to be the big cost though, it's liquids, and I'm not looking forward to making my own as too much can go wrong with nicotine and such.

Luckily, a good friend of mine (who's also a vaper) works across the border in the Netherlands and already offered to get me some liquids once I know what I'm comfortable with. Looking at the webshop of my local store, I've found some decently priced liquids, though they don't seem to advertise it. They've got some posters with prices, but it seems they don't have the cheap ones on the posters and it's nowhere on the products. 10 ml for €3.00 sounds doable, I'll make a list and go get some 6mg/ml this weekend. I found that I'm really particular about it, even to the point that I like one menthol and hate another one. So I'll try a bunch and settle on a few good ones to buy a big bottle of.

Thank you all for the very nice suggestions, they seem very interesting, maybe instead of buying one myself I'll buy a mod online and have it delivered to my friend's work place. (That Tesla Steampunk does look awesome, and it's called Tesla Steampunk, yay!)

 

[Gramdogg]

Rebel DNA's = The best. Expensive though... $200-300.

 

[stols001]

Digress, I was both wanting to and freaked out about DIY e-juice. I did a fair amount of reading and just bought a bunch of stuff. As long as you're using a reasonable level of nic juice percentage (I don't want to go over 100 mg/ml) and just download a juice calculator app that looks easy to use, you'll be fine. I used gloves and a mask but I'm not convinced I really NEEDED them, and my first juice turned out great Just waiting for some more VG to create some more cocotions, it was FAR easier than I thought.

That said, no rush and that's nice you have a friend helping you out. Often, if you like a flavor, you may be able to buy very similar flavoring, if not the flavoring itself, so don't fret, it's really easy.

Anna

 

[Digress]

So I went shopping today. Kind of had to as the charger for my SMOK Guardian III gave out last night. Didn't have a lot of time as I gotta work. So I went to the local store to get a new charger cable and they, of course, had none in stock. Fricking hell, doesn't just about every mod work with that 510 ego charger thing? Hate that charger though, it's so easy to break being a mostly round connector in a plastic housing. I wanted to repair it, and it wouldn't be very difficult since I'm not an idiot with a soldering iron (Arduino ftw). Problem is I tore apart the wiring because the plastic cracked, and I can't easily replace that plastic now, can I? Anyhow, this is fuel for another thread, I'm sure.

So I bought the SMOK G Priv and it's pretty awesome.

wanted to buy an Efest LUC S2 charger but they had none in stock, so I took the Efest LUC Mini, which was a bad idea, since it's a slow charger and it doesn't have any indicators other than voltage, which is not very useful, or is it? At least I can go back to charging my Guardian III, even if it's external. Works over MicroUSB so I can hook it up to my laptop or a power socket if I have an adapter handy, which I like. Limited to 1 amp though, so slow charge.

I also got the Samsung Q30 18650, I'm guessing these are good, they are 3000mAh compared to the other ones they had in stock, which were 2600mAh for the same price.

Also got some eliquids.FlavourTec Iced Strawberry, American Stars (FlavourTec?) nutty buddy cookie x2, NEON Triple Mint, Collins's Magic Cold (they didn't have Magic Amber in stock anymore). Wanted to buy a bunch of Miller's, as they're the cheapest at €2.95 a 10ml bottle, but they didn't stock that yet. They promised to have it all in next time though (their site mentions the products, and I made a list yesterday night)

All in all I'm set for another week of vaping. I'm really liking the SMOK G PRIV, especially the micro USB charger and the touch screen (hate the usual mod interfaces). So this is my third vape, maybe I'll just throw out the Joyetech 'cause I really hate it.

I do hope the G PRIV can last me a full day though, I know the Guardian runs on empty by noon, but now I've got double the power and I'm not planning on vaping a much higher wattage (always between 40 and 60 lately). Would like to start trying TC, but I don't want to be building my own coils yet and the TFV8 Baby only seems to have Kanthal Coils.

Is there any reason they don't have SS Coils?

I was looking at which forum to put this post, but I ended up putting it here as there are really too many forums and I'd probably be putting it in the wrong one.

Dieter out, Vape on!

 

[tazzle]

That looks great, congratulations! Love the look of the fire bar and the touch screen!

If you want to post asking any questions or just getting tips and feedback from other G Priv users, you can post in the TC forum:

Temperature Control

 

[stols001]

Glad you found something you like. TC is a whole different animal, and I'm sure you'll find some useful info on where to get started to find something you like in that forum. A lot of people build with SS to do TC, but there are some tanks that offer it (now Nautilus is doing that, though I don't think their coils are SS) but I'm sure you'll find something workable.

Anna

 

[tazzle]

Just as a quick note, posting in the TC forum doesn't need to be about using TC -- it's just how the main APV forum is categorized by *type* of mod being discussed (ie mech mods in one category, VV/VW in another, bottom feed in its own category, TC-capable in the TC section).

 

[OlderNDirt]

Welcome @Digress !

Good choice on the G-Priv. I've had mine for some time now and really like it, especially the touch screen. While it should get you through most of the day, I would suggest a second pair of married batteries (with case) to swap out as back-up or use of mod while charging the other pair.

And if you like and are thinking of getting another Baby Beast, you might consider a Big Baby. Same tank using same coils, but larger tank.

 

[Digress]

Glad you found something you like. TC is a whole different animal, and I'm sure you'll find some useful info on where to get started to find something you like in that forum. A lot of people build with SS to do TC, but there are some tanks that offer it (now Nautilus is doing that, though I don't think their coils are SS) but I'm sure you'll find something workable.

Anna

Thanks Anna. This is definitely not the last mod I'm buying, I'll probably get another one soon like that Tesla Steampunk you mentioned, will buy that over the web though and have it delivered in the Netherlands.. Just didn't have the patience There's a whole lot of devices out there, I'm just looking for a few to tick all my boxes. Just today I threw away my last pack of tobacco, and I'm not looking back, happy to get rid of them.

I have a feeling in a few years we will really see vape mods in the mainstream and they will be getting better and better. Mostly I'm hoping we won't go through liquids that fast and coils will last longer. Probably TC might become standard and rebuilding coils will become easier and easier. If I look at how far cell phones have come in the past decade, you know there's a lot of progress to be coming in vaping.

Looking at you, OnePlus

Probably will be looking into rebuildables in a few months, but right now I'm trying to absorb all the knowledge I can and enjoy it as much as I can without having to feel bad about trashing my health and stinking up the place.

 

[Digress]

Welcome @Digress !

Good choice on the G-Priv. I've had mine for some time now and really like it, especially the touch screen. While it should get you through most of the day, I would suggest a second pair of married batteries (with case) to swap out as back-up or use of mod while charging the other pair.

And if you like and are thinking of getting another Baby Beast, you might consider a Big Baby. Same tank using same coils, but larger tank.

Thanks for the advice! Bought a set of Samsung Q30's as extras for when I don't make it through the day. I don't think it will really be an issue, since I'm behind my laptop for work all day, so I'll probably keep it plugged in while I'm working so it's always charged when I'm off to vape.

I went back to my SMOK guardian earlier and am happy to have both. The guardian has some 12mg liquid in it, just too much for me, I'll be staying with the 6mg and maybe do some 3mg when it tires on me.

Don't really see the point in getting another Baby, got two now and the tank is more than big enough for me. Refilling doesn't bother me in the slightest. Might look into getting one that I can get SS Coils for TC vaping for though. Not sure yet. Might just try my hand at rebuilding first.

 

[stols001]

Congrats on throwing away all your tobacco!

The remainder of my last pack, I gave away to the homeless over a few days.... I mean, I was like, "No sense wasting this." Heh, I should have kept them for my husband, his quit attempt grows weaker all the time... He won't vape, and he won't let me buy him tobacco or tubes either (we used an electronic injector) and I've noticed he's been coughing more lately... He's smoking these dreadful rollies that he makes out of some old, stale additive free pipe tobacco we used to thin our (expensive) America Spirit tobacco. Maybe I need to find that stash and give THAT to the homeless, it's so depressing watching him actually HURT his health more by refusing to admit this quit attempt (at least right now) is a massive fail. I've given up.

But, congrats to YOU that's awesome! Happy vaping!

Anna