I'm a newbie, I need a E Cig that can TRULY provide the pleasure of real cigarettes!

[imsoenthused]

Personally, I would NOT recommend a Provari or a Vivi nova to a rank newbie who just yesterday went to Walgreens to buy a disposable. Would you?

If the newbie came to me and said that form factor and price weren't important and they wanted the best performance available? Yes, I would tell them to get a Provari and a few vivi novas. The only reason I have been recommending ego twists lately is because people say they want something like mine but not as big.

Best PVs on the market that you can't buy when you want to: Darwin and VV Reo

Best PV you can buy anytime you want: Provari

Combine that with the best non genesis tank around and you totally got what you paid for. Only think you need then is juice, and juice is so subjective that nobody can really do more than recommend what they personally like.

 

[synthros]

As someone who's quit cigarettes earlier this year - I can tell you that I haven't found a way to match that first cigarette in the morning. But it's not the end of the world, over time you that will past. You just have to fight the urge until you get over cigarettes completely. I've tried to smoke a cigarette on Saturday night for the first time since I started vaping (May 1st) and let me tell you, that cigarette was absolutely disgusting.

So while I personally can't advise anything worthwhile, I can tell you that you will get over it in due time. Hang tough

I dunno, first thing in the morning i hit some regular old dekang(36mg), that nicotine buzz hits me pretty hard. No, its not exactly the same as that first cigarette used to be, but its still pretty darn good! I cant vape that all the time, but when i get particularly,whats the best way to put it?, anxious or jittery about not smoking, that settles me out. When i was younger i did whatever i wanted, but since my son was born I have never smoked inside again. One of the beauties of vaping is I can hit it before i even roll out of bed i cant wait till winter to not go outside and freeze while i smoke!
I have to second faint's comment above, I had a cigarette the other day and was amazed, it did nothing for me at all! Ive only been full on vaping for about a month. Im sure i could reclaim my old habit, but after an estimated 300,000 cigarettes, I can honestly say im preferring vaping. You are getting good advice here, take a little time, read a bit, do a little "research", you'll find a good option for you. In fact you can get as much information and as much advice in as much(or as little)detail as you could possibly ever need or want here

Best of luck to you

 

[dragonbone]

If the newbie came to me and said that form factor and price weren't important and they wanted the best performance available? Yes, I would tell them to get a Provari and a few vivi novas.

Combine that with the best non genesis tank around and you totally got what you paid for.

Telling a complete newbie who hasn't even vaped before, to get one of the most expensive, huge, unwieldy, torch look-alike, APV's (the 'A' is for advanced BTW) and a DIY rebuildable tank, just seems..... seems.... words fail me at this point.

 

[Duker63]

Dont get the Blu. Wasted money. Buy smokes until you get a ego or ego clone and some juice

I dont miss smoking at all. And it has to do with Hardware that works

Blu is gonna crap out on you and leave you jonesing for a cig
.
I wasted 200 bucks on equiptment until I got stuff that worked because I didnt wait

Read the forums

ETA
I know my signature says 10 days. But it is more like 20 but for 10 of those days I bought a cig for 50 cents a piece from a co worker because The Blu didnt work as in
dead battery or empty cartomizer

 

[paulw2014]

Telling a complete newbie who hasn't even vaped before, to get one of the most expensive, huge, unwieldy, torch look-alike, APV's (the 'A' is for advanced BTW) and a DIY rebuildable tank, just seems..... seems.... words fail me at this point.

what about an eGo C Twist ?

Again, I need it to have some power and kick.

 

[teflon79]

Being backed up by a large company with shareholders that want results is not allways a good thing, as compared to a private small company.

Anyway , There are very real options out there that mimic real cigs really well. If you would spend like 150$ on all hardware and some different tastes of E-Liquid ( from different companies too! ) it's a pretty safe bet you will be satisfied.

Anything more expensive runs into diminishing returns for that 1% more as far as I've seen , But some people like to spend on a quality VV bat that will last for ages. I just got a eGo-C twist ... even if it dies you could get another one as they are cheap and good.

start here :
The Wonderful World of Vaping | Vaping Guides to the Electronic Cigarette

I feel it's important to know your liquids. a bad liquid can ruin a good cig and people could easily blame it on the cig.
I once heard a guy say " It's cherry! it's supposed to taste sweet and it doesnt" , the brand just sucked. As he tried my home mixed Decadent vapours of strawberry and he said it was night and day. anyway :

WWV Part III (page 4) | Vaping Guides to the Electronic Cigarette

This is a chart showing various batteries and atomisers\cartomizers combinations , via ohm's law you can figure out how much wattage your "head" uses , more power more vape more heat . simple. but there are upper limits. A good rule of thumb is around 7 watts as far as I remmember. but it's kinda subjective.

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/469/wattage.png

this is why , get your self a variable voltage (VV) battery so you could use most combinations.

Just stick around and start to read stuff. you will get the hang of it. it can easily replace cigs , easily. when you are doing it right that is...

I was in your boat not so long ago and got much help here , ask around

Im in that boat now. Thanks for the insightful response!

 

[Pappy]

Telling a complete newbie who hasn't even vaped before, to get one of the most expensive, huge, unwieldy, torch look-alike, APV's (the 'A' is for advanced BTW) and a DIY rebuildable tank, just seems..... seems.... words fail me at this point.

I know, I know. That's why I said I usually don't make that recommendation. But the OP said money and size weren't issues and he/she seems to REALLY need early success in order to give up cigarettes. I think the Provari probably is the safest choice for delivering the goods, and has the highest likelihood of being able to deliver the big hit he/she needs.

If you think about it, other than the size and the cost, what's so different about the Provari than something like a lavatube or the Twist? There is pretty much the same learning curve. He/she still has to learn about cartos/atomizers/tanks, etc. and find juices that he/she likes.

I will say again that I do NOT own a Provari, so I'm not a Provari drone to whom every question only has one answer. This just seemed like a special case to me.

 

[dragonbone]

what about an eGo C Twist ?

Again, I need it to have some power and kick.

Yes. Good choice! 650 mAh Twist is better. The others are too huge.

 

[s14sher]

Yes. Good choice! 650 mAh Twist is better. The others are too huge.

What, you don't like carrying a mag lite around?

 

[dragonbone]

What, you don't like carrying a mag lite around?

Lol.... Actually my stuff is getting smaller and smaller and my mag lite is on the vape counter collecting dust....

 

[NancyR]

I know, I know. That's why I said I usually don't make that recommendation. But the OP said money and size weren't issues and he/she seems to REALLY need early success in order to give up cigarettes. I think the Provari probably is the safest choice for delivering the goods, and has the highest likelihood of being able to deliver the big hit he/she needs.

If you think about it, other than the size and the cost, what's so different about the Provari than something like a lavatube or the Twist? There is pretty much the same learning curve. He/she still has to learn about cartos/atomizers/tanks, etc. and find juices that he/she likes.

I will say again that I do NOT own a Provari, so I'm not a Provari drone to whom every question only has one answer. This just seemed like a special case to me.

While I understand your reasoning behind it. I also notice that the op said they had to quit smoking, never once said anything about wanting to quit. Then followed that up with a list of it must be this and it must be that, things that most of us already know he won't find. So suggesting any advanced setup I think is going way overboard for someone who next week or so may decide to just stick it in a drawer.

 

[paulw2014]

Thanks for the help guys. It seems quit a few ppl is recommending the Provari. Along with that, I'm also considering the Ego C Twist, but since I'm pretty new to this, can you guys list out in more detail on the things I need?

I also heard the Vivi Nova Tank is pretty good. But how do I integrate that with say, Ego C Twist (battery?)? Is the Ego C Twist battery only compatible with the Ego C system? (the base, the head, the cartridge etc...)?

Thanks

 

[paulw2014]

Then followed that up with a list of it must be this and it must be that, things that most of us already know he won't find.

That's not very encouraging.

 

[rondasherrill]

That's not very encouraging.

The facts are this... Vaping is nothing at all like smoking. It is a different beast altogether. It can take care of the nicotine cravings. It can taste great. It can produce amazing cloudy vapor. It can get you off cigarettes.

It cannot emulate smoking. Smoking involves literally burning paper, tobacco, and a couple thousand other chemicals. It's that combination that gives you the "smoking experience". With vaping there is no actual ignition, and the list of ingredients in juice is quite short. If you want something a little closer to the cigarette buzz, you can check out juice vendors that have WTA's or whole tobacco alkaloids. Be warned though that using them effectively takes all the stuff from tobacco, and puts it back into your juice.

 

[NancyR]

That's not very encouraging.

As everyone who has smoked and quit, be it by vaping or another means, can tell you, having to and wanting to are completely different. You, yourself said you don't want to, so no amount of encouragement is going to force you to change that.

You said "We all know that real cigarettes offer 100% consistency and reliability so I expect an ideal E-Cig to come reasonably close too"

If you spend time reading the forums there is not a single delivery system out that even one person can say has ALWAYS been reliable, trying to get 10 or more to agree to one, forget it not happening.

You said "And perhaps the most importantly, I really love the nicotine rush, that BUZZ that you get from the first cigarette in the morning. I don't care how reliable or how "tasty" a e cig is, if it doesn't offer me the nicotine pleasure, then it's still worthless for me."

Two people have replied with they get that rush, most people that have responded not just in this thread but in others in the forum about that buzz agree they don't get it with this.

You go on to say you think Blu is gonna be good because a tobacco company owns it, again if you had read anything in the forums you would have known there is not one single person here that would suggest anyone get a blu.

So no my post wasn't very encouraging, but I found your post to be insensitive and written in a way to tell me you don't want to do this, so why are you?

 

[mostapha]

Personally, I would NOT recommend a Provari or a Vivi nova to a rank newbie who just yesterday went to Walgreens to buy a disposable. Would you?

Yes. And I don't even like the Provari for myself. But it depends a lot on the person involved. The nova is a decent choice as long as s/he gets enough information.

Thanks for the help guys. It seems quit a few ppl is recommending the Provari. Along with that, I'm also considering the Ego C Twist, but since I'm pretty new to this, can you guys list out in more detail on the things I need?

I also heard the Vivi Nova Tank is pretty good. But how do I integrate that with say, Ego C Twist (battery?)? Is the Ego C Twist battery only compatible with the Ego C system? (the base, the head, the cartridge etc...)?

Thanks

The Ego-C Twist is just branded Ego-C. It's an Ego. It's a Twist. It has nothing to do with their "Ego-C System". I'm using a Vivi Nova (a full size and a mini) on 2 Ego Twists right now, and I have been for a while. They work flawlessly as long as you're aware of a couple small things.

1 - The vivi nova heads (the part with the atomizer coil that actually heats the liquid) take a little time to break in. There are ways to shortcut it (boiling the heads for a few minutes in water), but those shortcuts are not the kinds of things that a beginner or "n00b" would be expected to know or do flawlessly. I didn't screw up the first time I did it, but that might have been luck. Plus, I'm a nerd and watched youtube videos and read forum posts about it.

If you don't do that, they'll take a day or two to break in. On a twist, you'll be playing with the voltage knob after just about every drag to ride that fine line between "no flavor" and "burned flavor"……and it seems to change (for me) every few drags for the first day or two. Fortunately, they don't seem to need to break in again (at least, not as badly) after being cleaned by running hot water over all the pieces, drying them out, and putting them back together.

If you're using a single-voltage battery (like a regular Ego), I doubt the experience would be very good at all for at least 2 days.

2 - There's a bit of a learning curve to using them because of weird manufacturing tolerances. The center posts on the vivi nova (which carry the + electrical connection) tend to stick out too far. If you just crank one down on a battery, you'll probably break the battery. You can adjust it by disassembling the vivi nova, screwing it on your battery, and then putting the atomizer head on, taking it off the battery, and reassmebling the rest of it. But it doesn't always work completely. It works on one of mine, but not the other. Probably some version issue.

IMO, the best thing you can get for using a Vivi Nova on a Twist is a thread cover like this or this. The first one is for the full size; the second is for the mini. You screw the thread cover all the way on, put the vivi nova on the battery just until it makes solid contact, then unscrew the thread cover until it holds the vivi nova in place.

It's not like rocket science to do it right, but there is a learning curve. If you do it that way, you wont damage the battery from over-tightening the vivi nova, and you don't have to worry about it being un-stable on the battery. But, you can also damage threads doing that, which could make the battery useless. Again, it's not rocket science…but it's not entirely straightforward either.

I love that setup, and if that's where your budget falls and you think that, assembled, it's the type of thing you could see yourself using……I'd seriously consider it. It gives a great experience, IMHO. But I haven't used much that people would consider higher end than that.



I feel like I'm whoring that picture out all over the place, but that's my daily setup. 2 ego twists. One has a full size vivi nova with a blue tube, the other has a mini with a clear tube. Both of them have aftermarket drip tips which you don't need and are largely just aesthetic (you need to have one, but not a specific one…and they each come with a black one).

If you want to go higher-end right off the bat…the added financial investment might help convince you to make a more legitimate try of it. Judge that based on yourself. But you owe it to yourself to watch some reviews of anything you consider buying. Grimmgreen (on youtube) has a great review of the twist, and pbusardo (tasteyourjuice.com) has a good review of the provari as well as the twist……though he gets a lot more technical and posts long reviews that might bore you senseless if you're not as much of a geek as someone like me. There are a lot of others as well.

After you figure out hardware that works for you, it's just a matter of trying juices. And there are a lot of juices out there. It might just end up being fun.

Also, there are people who are perfectly happy with the Blu. They just tend not to frequent vaping forums because they're not enthusiasts. It seems like you probably won't be happy with it, but if money's no issue……go ahead and try it. You might like it. People here tend to prefer the Volt from Smokless Image. Frankly, I think all of the "mini" e-cigs, the things that still look like cigarettes, are just sick jokes. I can't see how they're satisfying to anyone……but they still exist, so they must be.

The other big point…

<someone saying that vaping will never be like smoking>That's not very encouraging.

It's also true…to a degree. The experience of vaping is a lot closer to the experience of smoking a hookah or a pipe. The feel when you're inhaling is a lot closer to a hookah than a cigarette, and the draw is closer to a hookah or a pipe than a cigarette. Also, if you've ever smoked either a hookah or a pipe, you know there's some babysitting: keeping a pipe bowl at the right temperature by how often/hard you drag; moving the coal around a hookah and occasionally purging the stale/burned smoke from the chamber above the water; tamping things down properly; setup; cleaning; etc..

I don't think anything will be quite the same as pulling out a pack, shaking one out, lighting it, and tossing it away when you're done. There's just too much going on in vaping for it to feel that simple.

BUT, the experience is tremendously rewarding. I don't stand out as "that guy playing with electronics" when I'm hanging out with my still-smoking friends. But there's more prep work. At times, I feel like a chemist with all the juice bottles and cleaning little metal and plastic pieces. But it's easily worth it.

And there are a few other things. Vaping will dry your throat out, so you have to drink a good bit of water. You have to be able to fiddle with things a bit; dry hits can always happen (especially if you're avoiding propylene glycol) and they will tear up your throat (temporarily) worse than I remember cigarettes doing. I don't think it's ever going to be 100%, but it's easily good enough if you want it to be.

I was a PAD (pack a day) Lucky Strike smoker for a while. My girlfriend tried a gas station disposable that was a hands-down better experience than my first vape kit (in early 2009 from a mall kiosk) and lead me to this site. I got off the disposables pretty quickly and am extremely happy with what I've got. But I never intended to quit smoking; I wanted something that would cut down on the pointless chain-smoking when I was waiting for things. I thought eventually I'd get to the point where I vaped most of the time but had a cigarette when I wanted one. Instead, I still have a couple lucky strikes sitting in a drawer somewhere that I have no intention of ever smoking. And it's only been a few months. I'm so enthralled with this community and all these new toys that my old rituals have been left in the dust.

So, it's not the same. And it won't be. But you might find it's better.

As for the nicotine head rush thing: I definitely get it. But most people seem not to. I always chalked it up to oxygen deprivation rather than any specific drug effect (because I didn't get it from gum either) so maybe it has something to do with the way I breathe while I vape. Start with a higher nicotine juice (24 or 36mg/ml) if you need to.

I say definitely go for it. But you might have to change your expectations just a bit.

I think it's worth it. Easily.

Good luck.

And sorry about the wall of text. I'm also an insomniac.

 

[dragonbone]

Yes. And I don't even like the Provari for myself. But it depends a lot on the person involved. The nova is a decent choice as long as s/he gets enough information.

The Ego-C Twist is just branded Ego-C. It's an Ego. It's a Twist. It has nothing to do with their "Ego-C System". I'm using a Vivi Nova (a full size and a mini) on 2 Ego Twists right now, and I have been for a while. They work flawlessly as long as you're aware of a couple small things.

I'm sorry, I will never be convinced that a huge PV with an odd and user unfriendly electronic menu, and the Vivi Nova - a rebuilable tank - is something a newbie needs. He hasn't even vaped yet for goodness sakes. Now he must go and learn all about watts and amps and the like.... and single coil and dual coil and resistant wires and wicks and go and build his tank, just in order to try out vaping for the very first time??? This is way to complicated and beyond ridiculous.

The eGo Twist is a variable voltage eGo battery.

QuietVibes needs:
2 batteries (eGo or something)
some cartomizers (maybe Boge)
a charger
driptips
high nic eJuice

The END!!!

Once he has actually vaped and educated himself a bit more, he can make his own mind up about where to go next.

 

[imsoenthused]

Thanks for the help guys. It seems quit a few ppl is recommending the Provari. Along with that, I'm also considering the Ego C Twist, but since I'm pretty new to this, can you guys list out in more detail on the things I need?

You will need a PV. Your PV will either contain a self contained battery, like the ego twist, or will need separate batteries like the Provari. If it contains its own battery, you will want two of them or more so you can swap them off on the charger. Look at the mah rating and keep in mind that 100 mah = about 1 hour of vaping. If it takes separate batteries you will again, want at least two of them, and you will need a charger that is appropriate for whatever batteries your PV takes. Something like the starter kit for the Provari includes a couple of batteries and a charger for them, but other options may require you to buy them separately.

Once you have a PV, you need the business end that you put juice in so you can vape it. There are a lot of options, but they can mostly be broken down into atomizers, cartomizers, and clearomizers. A tank just means large capacity, tanks tend to be either cartomizer based, or clearomizer based.

Atomizers give extremely clean taste, have no way of storing juice, The downside is you have to drip liquid into them constantly as you use them. Even a person who doesn't use these all the time may want to keep one or two around just for testing juice flavors.

Cartomizers are basically just an atomizer that is stuffed full of something absorbent so that you can keep the coil wet with out dripping all the time. The downside of cartomizers is that they tend to fail faster than atomizers so you will replace them more often and need to keep more of them around, also the filler tends to affect the taste of your liquids even when new and it gets much worse as the filler material gets burned up over time.

Clearomizers are basically atomizers with a liquid reservoir that the wick extends in to. The downside with most of the modern ones is that as they get low on liquid you may find yourself tilting your PV around to keep the wicks fully saturated. Some of the older ones were very finicky and leaked all over the place. An example of a good clearomizer, in my opinion, is the vision clearomizer, and example of a horrible clearomizer is the so called "tank" system that came by default with the ego-c and ego-t.

Tanks generally are a cylinder full of juice that either has the internal workings of a clearomizer, or uses a cartomizer with a hole/holes punched in it that runs up through the middle of the tank. A smoktech dual coil tank is an example of a cartomizer tank. A Vivi Nova is an example of a clearomizer tank.

Then you need some juice. Juice is subjective, buy some flavors that sound good and see if you like them. Better yet, go to a walk in store if it's available near you and see if they let you sample the flavors they have available.

So to give you an example, on a daily basis I use my Provari with a battery, a backup battery for when/if that one runs out, my two flavors of juice I'm using for the day, usually a menthol and something else, and a Vivi Nova tank filled with each juice. When I'm home, I'll pop the dead battery on to the charger as needed so I always have a fresh one available.

I also heard the Vivi Nova Tank is pretty good. But how do I integrate that with say, Ego C Twist (battery?)? Is the Ego C Twist battery only compatible with the Ego C system? (the base, the head, the cartridge etc...)?

Honestly, integration is based off of the connector type, most things these days use a 510 connection, and most accessories come with a 510 connection. The Provari and all ego/ego clones can use any 510 accessory. Keep in mind, if an accessory is specifically labeled as being for the ego connection like the vision clearomizers you may need a 510 extension adapter to use it on a pure 510 device like the Provari.

 

[imsoenthused]

I'm sorry, I will never be convinced that a huge PV with an odd and user unfriendly electronic menu, and the Vivi Nova - a rebuilable tank - is something a newbie needs. He hasn't even vaped yet for goodness sakes. Now he must go and learn all about watts and amps and the like.... and single coil and dual coil and resistant wires and wicks and go and build his tank, just in order to try out vaping for the very first time??? This is way to complicated and beyond ridiculous.

The eGo Twist is a variable voltage eGo battery.

QuietVibes needs:
2 batteries (eGo or something)
some cartomizers (maybe Boge)
a charger
driptips
high nic eJuice

The END!!!

Once he has actually vaped and educated himself a bit more, he can make his own mind up about where to go next.

Two things.

First, the vivi nova has replaceable heads, they screw off and new ones screw on, it's pretty simple. Replaceable heads does not equal rebuildable. The vivi nova replaceable heads happen to be rebuildable but that's really stretching things to the point of absurdity. Long story short, the Vivi Nova is a tank, but it's no more "rebuildable" because you can screw on a new head than a carto tank is because you can stick in a fresh cartomizer.

Second, if he follows your idea it's quite possibly not the end and and will just be a stepping stone to an additional larger purchase. The difference is, if he ignored you and bought a Provari and decided he didn't like it for what ever reason, he can sell it for almost as much as he paid for it. If you followed your advice and wants something bigger, he just threw away $100 that he'll never see again. Nobody with a brain buys used sealed battery PVs, because they have no way of knowing how many times it's been cycled. You could get one that's barely been used and works great for six months to a year, or you could get one that's already lasting only half as long on a charge as it should and should have been thrown in the trash a month ago. As a result they have no real resale value.

 

[Trilly]

Very well explained, Imsoenthused