New to the forum and e-cigs in general. Looked at them 2 or so years ago when they were $150 a set. Things have definitely changed for the better!
I am/was a casual-to-regular smoker, usually less than a pack a day unless I was out drinking or partying heavy. I'd like to mirror that habit and tone down over time to nic-free, if possible. After reading an enormous amount here and other places, I am so turned around with all the choices/cryptic model names and brands/cost implications that I just can't figure it all out. One of the major problems is that a ton of technology has come and gone in a year's time, and a lot of comprehensive threads get outdated really fast. So I figured I'd start with the epic amount of criteria below in order of importance (top-to-bottom), and anyone that has a suggestion is welcome to give me some feedback!
General Criteria
-Not another new hobby: I'm looking for the cheapest set-up that meet these criteria, and I don't want to go nuts with this yet. I'm trying to cut down to nothing, after all. That said, I'm always scared of buying crap that cuts out in 3 months. Blu looks sucky for this reason.
-Look and feel: I want to match my current experience as much as possible with the look and feel of the device. Because of this, automatic batts, super-mini to mini seem to be my best bet. I love the look of the black with blue led. Not ready for a manual or bulky oddities. The Blu is looking attractive for this reason, but worried about the accidental activation (clubber, here). I will be using this at the bar/club/parties as much as at home, and don't want to stand out too much.
-Maximize batt/cart length given the above criteria: I'm cool carying around a PCC and swapping bits from it. I'd ideally like to be able to keep everything in a compact, portable case for one day's worth of use, even for those heavy party nights. It would also be nice that it looks cool. Seen the Revolver Elite, Blu, and possibly a 501 with an auto-batt?
-Ease of refill: I will be refilling/modding the PV, likely the Blue Foam mod considering what I've read about cost/flavor/vapor control. I want it to be easily compatible with this. I also don't really plan on dripping/dipping, because of the weirdness this brings to a bar setting, plus the annoying feature of carrying a bottle around.
-Flavor/Vapor/Throat hit quality: These are the least of my concerns (juice questions below), but still matter. I'd say they are ordered from most important to least, above, in terms of how much I care. I expect modding and self-made juice experiments will have the largest effect here.
Juice Info
I fully expect to make my own juice, but don't quite know how this works. I have access to a large supply of USP-grade PG on the cheap, so are there companies that sell flavorings and pure nic-juice that I can mix my own? If I want to try cool exotic flavors, am I stuck with premixed? How many draws you figure from 30ml bottles (trying to compare $ between packs of analogues)? Are there flavor-only's so I can mix my stock PG with flavor for home-made nic-free juice?
What's the deal with reports suggesting that nicotine quantity vaporized is extremely variable regardless of the concentration you get? Have users experienced any of this?
Also, I smoked a lot of hooka (tobacco mixed with VG and flavoring, vaporized by a coal and water filtered), and noticed lung pain after a few months. Any heavy vapers have the same situations?
The short of it: super-mini to mini, black/blue led, automatic but not overly sensitive to concert noise, refillable carts, decent part quality with accessible replacements, everything for a day of vaping fits into a PCC that looks cool, cheap as possible given this.
This is long! thanks if you read it all.
I am/was a casual-to-regular smoker, usually less than a pack a day unless I was out drinking or partying heavy. I'd like to mirror that habit and tone down over time to nic-free, if possible. After reading an enormous amount here and other places, I am so turned around with all the choices/cryptic model names and brands/cost implications that I just can't figure it all out. One of the major problems is that a ton of technology has come and gone in a year's time, and a lot of comprehensive threads get outdated really fast. So I figured I'd start with the epic amount of criteria below in order of importance (top-to-bottom), and anyone that has a suggestion is welcome to give me some feedback!
General Criteria
-Not another new hobby: I'm looking for the cheapest set-up that meet these criteria, and I don't want to go nuts with this yet. I'm trying to cut down to nothing, after all. That said, I'm always scared of buying crap that cuts out in 3 months. Blu looks sucky for this reason.
-Look and feel: I want to match my current experience as much as possible with the look and feel of the device. Because of this, automatic batts, super-mini to mini seem to be my best bet. I love the look of the black with blue led. Not ready for a manual or bulky oddities. The Blu is looking attractive for this reason, but worried about the accidental activation (clubber, here). I will be using this at the bar/club/parties as much as at home, and don't want to stand out too much.
-Maximize batt/cart length given the above criteria: I'm cool carying around a PCC and swapping bits from it. I'd ideally like to be able to keep everything in a compact, portable case for one day's worth of use, even for those heavy party nights. It would also be nice that it looks cool. Seen the Revolver Elite, Blu, and possibly a 501 with an auto-batt?
-Ease of refill: I will be refilling/modding the PV, likely the Blue Foam mod considering what I've read about cost/flavor/vapor control. I want it to be easily compatible with this. I also don't really plan on dripping/dipping, because of the weirdness this brings to a bar setting, plus the annoying feature of carrying a bottle around.
-Flavor/Vapor/Throat hit quality: These are the least of my concerns (juice questions below), but still matter. I'd say they are ordered from most important to least, above, in terms of how much I care. I expect modding and self-made juice experiments will have the largest effect here.
Juice Info
I fully expect to make my own juice, but don't quite know how this works. I have access to a large supply of USP-grade PG on the cheap, so are there companies that sell flavorings and pure nic-juice that I can mix my own? If I want to try cool exotic flavors, am I stuck with premixed? How many draws you figure from 30ml bottles (trying to compare $ between packs of analogues)? Are there flavor-only's so I can mix my stock PG with flavor for home-made nic-free juice?
What's the deal with reports suggesting that nicotine quantity vaporized is extremely variable regardless of the concentration you get? Have users experienced any of this?
Also, I smoked a lot of hooka (tobacco mixed with VG and flavoring, vaporized by a coal and water filtered), and noticed lung pain after a few months. Any heavy vapers have the same situations?
The short of it: super-mini to mini, black/blue led, automatic but not overly sensitive to concert noise, refillable carts, decent part quality with accessible replacements, everything for a day of vaping fits into a PCC that looks cool, cheap as possible given this.
This is long! thanks if you read it all.
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