How did you start?

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ian-field

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I started using ciglike to stop smoking, hated the cig smell all my life and couldn't stand smelling like an ashtray after i smoke. Then i saw ego at the local kiosk and never looked back at stinkies. Now building coils is a hobby and i collected a good gear. DIY mixing ( many failures though) getting there slowly

I didn't notice the smell till I'd been vaping for a while, now I can spot passing smokers without seeing a cigarette in their hand.

Someone offered me a cigarette about a year ago, I smoked it for old times sake - the smell hung round me for a few days.
 

sylpheel

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Dh and I decided that we had to quit cigs in 2011 when they added the "fire-safe" carpet glue as it made him cough up blood. So we decided to go with RYO. I made about 200 cigs a week until 2014. I had researched e-cigs before and decided to look again because I was interested in them. I had tried a Blu disposable that past fall and it was ok, nothing great but nothing horrible. I researched for a month because I knew it would take tons of info for DH to make the switch. We ended up bypassing the eGo's and went with the VTR's as DH is a contractor and really loved the side tank option. I am now DIYing our e-juice and building our coils for our RTAs. I could not be happier and my health is also much better.
 
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baseballmom

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Well, an orthopedic veterinary specialist used to come in to do acl surgeries on dogs, he kept offering staff $100 to buy smoke anywhere kits at malls to get us staff members to quit smoking, never took him up on it, but one vet tech did, he really sparked an interest though, and yes he PRomoted and encouraged vaping, a Dr!!!!, wish I would see him recently to thank him for planting the seed/curiosity....around Christmas 2 years ago, I bought njoys for my mom and I to try, why not, took 6 months to revisit cigalikes, went to another njoy, some blus, came here, got volt kits, then to twists, mvp 2's...since then the ortho spec no longer offers $100 to staff where I work, but we got a nice little group of vapers, smokers might be one person ahead of us vapers in general, but all in all less animal hospital staff where i work smoke anymore in general compared to when I started in 1996, yes more non smokers than smokers now, pretty amazing, only one recently quit successfully with chantix, and we got some spouses who quit by vaping too, so vaping has been quite successful...a few moved on staff members had tried chantix but had bad times with side effects, not sure what they do now, and one did use the melts, I had tried gum in the past a few times, also got a few in my neighborhood vaping now too
 
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K_Tech

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I didn't even know what vaping was until about a month before I started. I'd used those cigalikes for a few years before, off and on, but just wasn't happy with battery life (and battery failure), inconsistent vapor, leaky cartridges, etc. I could never quite put down cigarettes, and most days I'd end up going back to the smokes.

I happened to be on YouTube one day, just aimlessly browsing. I saw a video about vaping, checked it out, watched a few more. That led to ECF, and me buying two Ego C-twists and two Kanger PT2s, along with a buttload of e-liquids, lol.

The rest is history!
 

raqball

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I started in 2009. I was walking through a mall and there was a kiosk there selling Smoke 51..

I bought a starter kit, at a ridiculous price I might add, because I didn't know any better..

Even though it was overpriced garbage, it did get me started vaping. The Smoke 51 was quickly replaced once I found ECF and started reading though.

That's how I started...
 
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ian-field

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I started in 2009. I was walking through a mall and there was a kiosk there selling Smoke 51..

I bought a starter kit, at a ridiculous price I might add, because I didn't know any better..

Even though it was overpriced garbage, it did get me started vaping. The Smoke 51 was quickly replaced once I found ECF and started reading though.

That's how I started...

Appart from the battery units, the Liberty flights clearo wasn't much more than the cig-alikes I started off with. By the time you factor in the re-useability and the possibility of DIY coils - it was *MUCH* cheaper.

With the cig-alike unit, the battery charge didn't last long and took at least 2 hours to recharge - I had to keep about 4 batteries on charge while using a 5th.
 
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Maiar

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after two years with getting a bad case of pneumonia that lasted for months with the flu...I (we Ed and I he had it just a lighter version) knew I (we) needed to stop smoking, unless you like being sick all the time and reliant on nebulizers and steroids and eventually hauling around an oxygen concentrator. (which we didn't) so Ed called a friend he knew that vaped..she steered us to her B&M and that was it..goodbye ciggarettes...now almost a year later..it's fantastic to be free of smoking.
Good to hear! I smoked for 10 years and every single year I'd get bad bronchitis at least 3 times. Usually twice really bad in the winter. This winter I've just been vaping though, haven't gotten any bronchitis!
 

ian-field

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Good to hear! I smoked for 10 years and every single year I'd get bad bronchitis at least 3 times. Usually twice really bad in the winter. This winter I've just been vaping though, haven't gotten any bronchitis!

What really got to me, was the wheezing when I lay down and try to sleep.

It isn't complety cured since vaping, but nowhere near as bad.
 
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tmcguffie

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My wife kicked things off for me, she came home from town one Friday with a small ego style device which she was going to try out. I borrowed it and gave it a blast over the weekend and quite liked it, she picked one up for me the following week and I haven't looked back, we have both been vaping for approx. 9 months now.
I've had a couple of converts at work and a few of my wife's friends have also started vaping. The guys at work probably saw me as a "die hard" smoker and the fact that it worked for me, I think, made them feel that it was something worth trying out.
I did find it generated a lot of curiosity when people saw me vaping early on and I was quite happy to tell them about my experiences, and of course there were one or two negative comments by mentally challenged individuals, the worst more or less called my manhood into question, somehow he saw smoking as more macho than vaping. My reply, if I wrote it down here would most certainly get me kicked out of the forum, suffice it to say, he did not get a very polite and dignified response.
I have got one or two good pieces of gear now, started rebuilding and DIY e-liquid, it has definitely turned into a most enjoyable pastime
 
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ian-field

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My wife kicked things off for me, she came home from town one Friday with a small ego style device which she was going to try out. I borrowed it and gave it a blast over the weekend and quite liked it, she picked one up for me the following week and I haven't looked back, we have both been vaping for approx. 9 months now.
I've had a couple of converts at work and a few of my wife's friends have also started vaping. The guys at work probably saw me as a "die hard" smoker and the fact that it worked for me, I think, made them feel that it was something worth trying out.
I did find it generated a lot of curiosity when people saw me vaping early on and I was quite happy to tell them about my experiences, and of course there were one or two negative comments by mentally challenged individuals, the worst more or less called my manhood into question, somehow he saw smoking as more macho than vaping. My reply, if I wrote it down here would most certainly get me kicked out of the forum, suffice it to say, he did not get a very polite and dignified response.
I have got one or two good pieces of gear now, started rebuilding and DIY e-liquid, it has definitely turned into a most enjoyable pastime

"enjoyable pastime" is not quite how I'd put it.

If I could get by without the niccotine fix, I'd pack it in and save even more money.

Formerly; I chain smoked hand rolling tobacco - so I've quite a big hill to climb before there's any hope at all of tailling it off.
 

tmcguffie

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"enjoyable pastime" is not quite how I'd put it.

If I could get by without the niccotine fix, I'd pack it in and save even more money.

Formerly; I chain smoked hand rolling tobacco - so I've quite a big hill to climb before there's any hope at all of tailling it off.
I was a hand roller myself for years and I was amazed that vaping worked for me, I'm just happy to be off tobacco
 

ian-field

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I was a hand roller myself for years and I was amazed that vaping worked for me, I'm just happy to be off tobacco

The cig-alikes I started with were a bit of a struggle, I soon find out if the juice I bought isn't much good. You can only fill the disposable cartos a few times before they just don't do much anymore. In my case, it would have worked out no cheaper than smoking if I didn't refill as many times as I could get away with - and finding out the carto was dead generally wasted a squirt of juice.

The Liberty Flights Vivi-Nova V2 is much better, and I bought a few spares at clearance price because they're discontinued now - the standard coil in those is 2.4 Ohms, for me they gum up after only a few days. The 1.8 Ohm coil is (slightly) better, but for best results I wind my own for just above 1 Ohm.

After hand rolling tobacco - slightly scorched juice is not such a bad thing.
 

ian-field

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I started by first smoking a NJOY :confused: because I drove from Indiana to Texas in a rental car that doesn't allow smoking....then said to myself there HAS TO BE something better than this and never looked back!

After my experiences with cig-alikes - I wonder how shops manage to keep selling them!

But everyone's got to start somewhere, and that's where I did.
 
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Bgren99

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I started vaping just becuz...It was the day after xmas 2 years ago, I said to myself "maybe I can use an ecig at home and just smoke butts when I go out". So I bought a Blu starter kit...it worked fairly well but i was still smoking butts. Then I bought a Volcano Inferno kit which was basically an ego kit with a carto tank. That also worked well but I still wanted a cig here and there. Then I bought an itaste VV with an aspire tank, and it was a wrap from there...no more butts. Then I went MVP2 with a Protank 3, then a nautilus mini and it only got better. Currently i'm on an iStick 50W and a Lemo, I've had a couple butts in the last year..but out of curiosity not a craving. Anybody who says vaping doesn't help you quit smoking, is unfortunate and not a reflection of my experience
 
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ian-field

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I started vaping just becuz...It was the day after xmas 2 years ago, I said to myself "maybe I can use an ecig at home and just smoke butts when I go out". So I bought a Blu starter kit...it worked fairly well but i was still smoking butts. Then I bought a Volcano Inferno kit which was basically an ego kit with a carto tank. That also worked well but I still wanted a cig here and there. Then I bought an itaste VV with an aspire tank, and it was a wrap from there...no more butts. Then I went MVP2 with a Protank 3, then a nautilus mini and it only got better. Currently i'm on an iStick 50W and a Lemo, I've had a couple butts in the last year..but out of curiosity not a craving. Anybody who says vaping doesn't help you quit smoking, is unfortunate and not a reflection of my experience

Had a couple of cigarettes since I started vaping - they didn't particularly do anything I couldn't get from the ecig.
 
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