How much money have you wasted on unvapable eliquid, cigalikes that taste like plastic and atomizers that break or stop working quickly?

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guyvelella

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Aug 18, 2014
59
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Florida
I probably wasted close to a thousand dollars over the past 3 years. First I got the silver bullet. The website selling it had an eliquid called Nuport. I thought that ment it was supposed to taste exactly like Newport cigarettes. It was so bad I had to switch back to analogs before I found a good menthol eliquid called Dekang from madvapes. This was before I knew there were variable voltage mods but it was too late. One time when I was about to go to Florida from NY, there were no ecig stores anywhere in Westchester. I had no place to get eliquid so I drove all the way to Brooklyn to find the only brick and morter ecig store. I bought a menthol and tobacco bottle for $20 each, they were terrible, the menthol one had no menthol taste and the tobacco one tasted like peanut butter. Then I switched to cigalikes when I came back. I tried the Njoy which is now discontinued.

The atomizer for the Njoy says it supposed to last the equavalent of a pack of cigarettes. I barely got 2 or 3 cigarettes worth from each of them before the flavor runs out. For a while I didnt know you could open the atomizer and refill them with juice. Njoy says nothing about that and just recomends you buy another 5pack of cigalike atomizers for $22. The only place that had Njoy was a little too far from my house. I saw other gas stations with other brands of ecigs. I tried them, they were all terrible, no flavor and tasted like plastic. Another $20 wasted. I tried the disposable ecigs, all of them taste like plastic. For I while I used both the Silver Bullet and Njoy. I became obsessed with wanting to get more vapor but the Silver bullet has no variable voltage mode. The silver bullet started getting rusty and atomizers that screw on stopped fitting in. So then I got the Itaste VTR for $90. I thought that was it, since it was so big I thought it was the most powerful mod. Wrong, more wasted money since that mod only goes up to 15 watts.. I saw videos on youtube with people blowing huge clouds with 100+ watt mods so I had to get another mod. This time it was the Variant. The battery on it doesnt work or doesnt charge so Im waiting for Plaza Vapor to get back. So now Im back to using the Itaste VTR. Today the only clearomizer I had that works with the Itaste VTR broke when I dropped it. I called the nearest ecig store in Orlando where I live now. They said over the phone they had a glass I could buy for it for $7. I then drove there and then they said they were out of stock, so then I ended up buying another clearomizer from Kangertech for $26.

The bad thing is I cant get refunds for unsatisfactory products.
 
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David1975

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Apr 30, 2014
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Probably $100-200 in all. The short lived yet expensive (for what they are) coils on the PT and other such attys was the real reason I first got into rebuildables.
As for liquid, not too much of that was a waste. I tend to only buy from well know companies with a lot of reviews. Now I DIY, and while I can't say all of my own DIY reviews are great.... at least I didn't waste a lot of cash making them :D
 

Ryedan

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I didn't lose much. Maybe $180 the first year and about $80 of that was a package the post office lost and it wasn't insured. I always read a lot of reviews and generally made reasonable choices. I bought liquids online, but small bottles of a few flavors at a time. If I found two out of five I liked I would keep buying those and add another couple of new ones in the next order. It didn't take long until I had a dozen I liked.

These days I use mech mods, rebuildable attys and I make my own juice. Makes it pretty cheap :)
 

Mrs C

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Aug 27, 2013
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How are you going to try any juice when 99% of them are only available online? Most people dont live near an ecig store and whatever ecig stores that are have high prices and terrible selection.

There are 3 good B&M's that I go to, the furthest being a 15 min drive if traffic is bad. All of them have tasting bars with both house and other juice lines available to sample. The main one I get juice from is $5.99 for 10mls or $15 for 30 mls regular price and 2 sale days a week $3.99 and $12. They have a clean room for mixing. I live about a half hr from Indy out in the sticks. There are about a dozen crappy stores I drive by on the way to the good ones.
 
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seminolewind

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Apr 5, 2009
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I think I've wasted less money every year. 5-10 years ago we were the pioneers-or guinea pigs that got us where we are today. I think every one has to experiment and also try about 100 juices . Thank Gawd it's a cheaper hobby than cigarettes. I can say I mostly save my money now and know what I want. Or I come here to look for the latest gadget.

Just think it's because of our vast amount of veteran members that a newbie can walk into a BnB , and walk away satisfied with at least an Ego and aspire mini tank.
And let's not knock the Chinese. If it wasn't for them we'd all still be smoking cigarettes.
 

Surreal Vapist

Full Member
Jan 11, 2015
47
23
Tanks have come a long way, if you prefer them. The Aspire Atlantis is pretty good but not so great for pulling those restricted-airflow cigarette drags (this is based on out-of-the-box experience, I haven't tried to rebuild it yet). When I tried the low airflow setting, it gets too hot before you get a thick enough cloud (for my preference). I'm a bit of a cloud chaser though, which is why I prefer RDA's. Anyway, I think the fact that the technology is so new is the reason we waste money. There's just something better that keeps coming out. My suggestion though, is to forget the little innokin style batteries and get a mech mod, provided you know how to deal with Ohms, Amps and Volts. Kanger tanks...I really suggest getting the ones that don't have an intake hole in the actual atomizer's positive pin, like the Aerotank, or add the airflow control base to your existing Protank
 
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Ive wasted some money, that's for sure. But not a ton as every experience teaches you something, particularly about juices and your palate.
I used to smoke menthols and really like a few from Halo, sub zero and menthol ice mixed together will always be my favorite. I've also found that on crummy juices, I add a little of that to the juice and it makes it more tolerable. It doesn't work with all of them but it especially works with the fruits. You lose most of the original flavor but at least its usable.
 

Rickajho

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Apr 23, 2011
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Welp, first those are the nJoy cartomizers - not atomizers - you are complaining about. And pre-filled cartomizers are/were never a good thing. Just buying empty cartos and filling them yourself fixes that $$$ problem.

I only have had three things I would consider a waste in my nearly four years into this game, totalling maybe $150.00. Most of that was two hardware devices that were designed as crap: The VV/VW Tesla with one of the poorest fire buttons ever put in an APV - guaranteed to fail in short order. And the E-Power 14650 that wouldn't work with any device lower than 2.2 ohm. And even then it was flaky and wouldn't fire on a consistent basis. And one e-liquids purchase, with liquids that were so bad they were separated and would not stay mixed. I didn't consider those safe enough to even try. Sorry - that's about it.

But I'm pretty sure every pack of cigarettes I purchased over a 30 year time span was a waste of money - so what's your point?
 
I can't say that I think any of the money I spent on things that didn't work out vape wise was wasted. Everything taught me a lesson about what I liked, what I didn't like, and helped me find what was going to be my go to gear and juice. More importantly, it all helped to keep me from smoking.

My current gear is an iStick and a fasttech M6 RDA, and an identical backup. Still trying to figure out the wicking for the ErlK nano clone, but now that I'm closer it looks like that will be my drive time / night time vape.

All told, I've spent maybe $200 on gear and juice that I no longer use or didn't enjoy using. The money spent weekly was the same or less than smoking, so I suppose at the very least possessing the pieces of metal, glass, and plastic along with the empty bottles from things that didn't work out on my way to where I am is better than being left with nothing but a pile of ashes and a bad habit that was starting to catch up to me.
 

zapped

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Nov 30, 2009
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$0 dollars and 0 cents.

All of it, every penny I've spent on vaping, has led me to where I am today.

Check the sig below, 2+ years and counting and even if 20 percent of the stuff I bought was crap that I couldnt use, I would still be 5k ahead.

Want some free advice? Buy quality whenever you can, its more than worth it in the long run....and a lot cheaper than cigarettes regardless.
 
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SoCal805

Moved On
Dec 9, 2014
36
13
Im super new, a few months. I guess I've gotton lucky. Only thing I've really wasted was two blowone T2 clearomizers, only because they don't make the atomizers for them any more. I was heavy smoker and nothing else worked to quit cause I was so addicted to the inhale. My Kanger T3S dbc and crystal xl dbc both totally satisfy me. I wish I cud find blowone atomizers tho, cheap descent little rig why the others are charging. So I guess that's a $40.00 loss.
 

Varick

New Member
Jan 11, 2015
3
1
Post Falls, ID
A lot of the stuff that I bought while I was still learning I keep around as a backup plan (my ego batteries, protank, etc.) so I can't say that was wasted cash. HOWEVER, the very first kit I bought from a company called Smart Smoke... THAT was a ripoff. $150 for two batteries, charger and a couple of cartos. Not to mention that juice from them was like $20 for 10ml. Now that more and more legit online stores are opening up, and the fact you can find reviews on youtube for pretty much anything it is becoming easier to buy equipment that will suit your needs more.
 

ronnbert

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Jun 7, 2014
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Tanks have come a long way, if you prefer them. The Aspire Atlantis is pretty good but not so great for pulling those restricted-airflow cigarette drags (this is based on out-of-the-box experience, I haven't tried to rebuild it yet). When I tried the low airflow setting, it gets too hot before you get a thick enough cloud (for my preference). I'm a bit of a cloud chaser though, which is why I prefer RDA's. Anyway, I think the fact that the technology is so new is the reason we waste money. There's just something better that keeps coming out. My suggestion though, is to forget the little innokin style batteries and get a mech mod, provided you know how to deal with Ohms, Amps and Volts. Kanger tanks...I really suggest getting the ones that don't have an intake hole in the actual atomizer's positive pin, like the Aerotank, or add the airflow control base to your existing Protank

Just throwing my 2 cents in:

The Atlantis was made for clouds and decent flavor with direct lung hits. If the lower airflow option becomes too warm, I would recommend turning down your wattage. It sounds like you prefer mouth to lung hits, instead of direct lung hits, which makes no sense when you say directly afterward that you are a cloud chaser, since that usually entails lung hits with wide open airflow. I have always gotten great cloud production out of the Atlantis, and has always been a very cool vape at 30 watts. YMMV, but if you want a tighter "cigarette like" draw I would suggest a kayfun or something along those lines.

Now to keep me from derailing this thread, as others have said, I have bought gear that has started to be used less often, but they still get there spot in rotation or as a backup. My mods get cycled well, even though I do have my favorites. Some tanks have been sidelined for now, but will PIF to someone starting out or in need. I feel like I got every penny worth out of all my gear through its' use, and even if I didn't it was a learning experience to figure out what I do or don't prefer, as others have said. My gear has also kept me from smoking, which is priceless in my book.

Now I have been slightly burned on some juices, but 90% were at least vapeable, and also taught me preferences as well.
 

dhood

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Sep 30, 2014
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I've probably spent around $100 on liquids I don't like. Mostly from online vendors selling sample packs. Also, I've been trying to find a replacement for the Kool Apple I like. My local vendor is out of my nic level so I've been ordering a lot of apple flavors from vendors trying to find a suitable replacement. Some of them are vapeable, but none of them come close to the flavor. I've wasted enough money on liquid that I won't even try other flavors via mail any more. I'm lucky to have about 10 shops within 20 miles so I can taste what they have before buying. I'm tired of wasting money on something that had "great" reviews only to be disappointed once more.
 

Alter

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My only real loss was buying a bunch of SMOK DCT's and carto's, bout 50 bucks worth. I have since PIF them all to a friend on the other side of Canada so its not considered a loss to me no more. I wanted to try some of those el cheapo Chinese juices and there went another 20 bucks and ewwww some of those juices were mighty nasty.
With research and co-ops I've had no real epic failures from any of my gear other than the occasional leaking of a kayfun. Most peoples problems with gear is they buy cheap and receive cheap, then wonder why they are having a bad vape experience and then go out and spend a second time to replace what they should have not bought to begin with. :)
 
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