Journey of a vape newbie – day zero
( most of this has been said in other posts of mine… just putting it all in one place )
If you are bored with long posts… then skip this, what I intend here is to give a running commentary on my Journey away from Smoking and into vaping ( the term people seem to be using ) I will probably update this once a day for a while, and slow it down over time. But I like writing this kind of stuff and it helps my own commitment level to document how I am doing, I might as well do that here.
Today I am assuming is day zero, Woke up this morning, I still have a half a pack of cigarettes ( I am a pack a day smoker, my wife smokes less than a half a pack ) I smoke Marlboro Light Menthol, but I am a rather heavy dragger on the smoke while I smoke it. Checked the tracking on my packages and I am assuming they will both arrive today… the packages… well.. I will get to that later.
I started smoking at 16 ( I am 55 ) I have quit too many times to count, once for several years, but as we all know smoking is very easy to fall back into. I have tried them all, gum, lozenges, patches, pills and it starts off ok, then I cheat a little, then I cheat a lot, then people catch me cheating, then I am back to a pack a day in no time. Rinse and repeat over and over and over and over.
I don’t know anyone who Vapes, not around here anyway. My manager once showed me an advertisement for an E-cigarette and I laughed at the time, but it stayed in my mind. One day about 2 weeks ago I started doing a little bad research. By bad research I mean I read the websites of E-Cigarette companies… and the easiest to find ones ( you can imagine which ones ) they all of course said it was great, particularly their own products.
Then someone on the forums of one E-Cig company showed me a website called E-Cigarette lady, it was a series of videos on different products, and she liked one so much I figured that must be the product for me. I ordered a kit, and a bunch of cartridges. This was a very cigarette looking device with little batteries and a red led light at the tip
Later that same day… someone pointed me to the E-Cig forums ( here ) and I started reading, and reading, and reading, and occasionally posting, and replying and all of a sudden I was struck like a bolt of lightning…. I ordered the wrong thing ( for me anyway )
I wanted something that would be satisfying, that was large enough to last me all day at work ( I smoke about 1 cigarette an hour at work ) That I could take on a trip ( I have 2 daughters getting married this year, both long distance weddings ) That would produce enough vapor, and flavor, to be satisfying.
Fortunately the company I had ordered the product from was having inventory issues and so canceling the order was easy. They were all very nice people, I wish that company well… but I got convinced here that I should order something totally different. ( I wont mention which one as I will only talk about what I know, I never tried their product, for all I know, it is fantastic )
I ordered ( and the packages I expect in the mail today ) is a Ego-T kit from Clouds of Vapor and 5 - 10ml bottles of juice from Blue Mist vapor. I also picked up a bottle of Glycerin at Target the other day ( VG ) just to have in my “Vaping kit”. The tracking numbers on both packages look to arrive at my house today, tomorrow at the very latest.
I am still smoking of course, and awaiting the mailman, I work until 3pm but often go home for lunch ( I will check the mail again then as well ) Im in California on Pacific standard time.
I of course have a ton of questions, some of them stupid questions that I am afraid to even ask. Like if the system is Battery-Atomizer-Tank-Mouth then why aren’t you just sucking juice out of the tank? I assume the answer is that there is a tube from the mouthpiece inside the tank to the atomizer… but I suppose I will know the answer to that soon enough. I hear about people spinning the tank in the atomizer so I am not sure how that works yet… I will find out I suppose.
I have been reading everything I can get my hand on about the Ego-T and still have more questions than answers ( does any of the stuff I read about cleaning an Atty even apply to the Ego-T? … with the puncture devise and the wick inside it, can you even see the atomizer?
How long will a battery last with 3 good pulls on it an hour? ( I guess will find that out )
How long will a tank last ( again 3 good pulls an hour ) I will probably be doing a short no atty pull first to prime the atty before vaping.
But again… I will know all that soon enough.
Assuming I get all the stuff today… I will probably place an order for more juice once I see what direction I might like with Juice. I started with a sample pack of 5 flavors in 10ml bottles.
A tobacco flavor with menthol ( like I smoke now )
One called Smooth ( another tobacco flavor with menthol )
Coffee and cream ( just for fun )
Chocolate moose ( might have been a mistake, but I do love chocolate )
Rum and Cola ( how can that possibly miss… it is what I usually drink )
I got them all 80%PG and 20%VG and with an extra 5% of flavoring strength ( again on advice from here )
After selecting one of these I like for a larger bottle I will probably get a 30 or 50 ml bottle of it and a bottle of clear unaltered PG just to have in my kit for clearing things out.
I also need to pick up a syringe… I hear a blunted 18 gauge needle is about right. ( but will gladly take the recommendations of others ) I should do that today…. At lunch perhaps I will drop by the drug store and pick up a syringe.
I am a little nervous this morning, excited… I want to see how well this works, if I like it I will probably get a larger battery ( the 1000mah ) and another spare atty just in case.
As the tanks are reusable and it comes with 5 of them I should be good to go on those for a while.
The plan… I need to quit smoking, and I don’t want Vaping to become a more intrusive habit than my smoking already is. I don’t need a new hobby… I have hobbies, I am a gamer ( PC ) and an amateur astronomer, and I fly high power sport rockets ( not the little Estes things.. the big guys, that take FCC clearance and licensing to fly ) I don’t need another hobby.
I’m looking for something to help me quit, I am starting out with 24mg of Nic, and I hear that is 24mg per ml, but the absorption rate is uncertain. So… what I will do is wait until I have a strong nic craving and then go outside and take 3 pulls off the E-Cig, then satisfied or not.. go back to what I was doing.
I hope to replace a cigarette with 3 long slow pulls off the E-Cig… we will see.
Over time I want to go from 24mg to 18mg then to 16mg and very slowly down the scale to zero over a year or so time.
I suppose I don’t care if I every really stop Vaping, as long as I stop smoking, and reduce the nicotine level as that really isn’t good for me and my medical conditions either.
I will post again after I receive my packages… perhaps today will be the last day that I am a smoker.
( most of this has been said in other posts of mine… just putting it all in one place )
If you are bored with long posts… then skip this, what I intend here is to give a running commentary on my Journey away from Smoking and into vaping ( the term people seem to be using ) I will probably update this once a day for a while, and slow it down over time. But I like writing this kind of stuff and it helps my own commitment level to document how I am doing, I might as well do that here.
Today I am assuming is day zero, Woke up this morning, I still have a half a pack of cigarettes ( I am a pack a day smoker, my wife smokes less than a half a pack ) I smoke Marlboro Light Menthol, but I am a rather heavy dragger on the smoke while I smoke it. Checked the tracking on my packages and I am assuming they will both arrive today… the packages… well.. I will get to that later.
I started smoking at 16 ( I am 55 ) I have quit too many times to count, once for several years, but as we all know smoking is very easy to fall back into. I have tried them all, gum, lozenges, patches, pills and it starts off ok, then I cheat a little, then I cheat a lot, then people catch me cheating, then I am back to a pack a day in no time. Rinse and repeat over and over and over and over.
I don’t know anyone who Vapes, not around here anyway. My manager once showed me an advertisement for an E-cigarette and I laughed at the time, but it stayed in my mind. One day about 2 weeks ago I started doing a little bad research. By bad research I mean I read the websites of E-Cigarette companies… and the easiest to find ones ( you can imagine which ones ) they all of course said it was great, particularly their own products.
Then someone on the forums of one E-Cig company showed me a website called E-Cigarette lady, it was a series of videos on different products, and she liked one so much I figured that must be the product for me. I ordered a kit, and a bunch of cartridges. This was a very cigarette looking device with little batteries and a red led light at the tip
Later that same day… someone pointed me to the E-Cig forums ( here ) and I started reading, and reading, and reading, and occasionally posting, and replying and all of a sudden I was struck like a bolt of lightning…. I ordered the wrong thing ( for me anyway )
I wanted something that would be satisfying, that was large enough to last me all day at work ( I smoke about 1 cigarette an hour at work ) That I could take on a trip ( I have 2 daughters getting married this year, both long distance weddings ) That would produce enough vapor, and flavor, to be satisfying.
Fortunately the company I had ordered the product from was having inventory issues and so canceling the order was easy. They were all very nice people, I wish that company well… but I got convinced here that I should order something totally different. ( I wont mention which one as I will only talk about what I know, I never tried their product, for all I know, it is fantastic )
I ordered ( and the packages I expect in the mail today ) is a Ego-T kit from Clouds of Vapor and 5 - 10ml bottles of juice from Blue Mist vapor. I also picked up a bottle of Glycerin at Target the other day ( VG ) just to have in my “Vaping kit”. The tracking numbers on both packages look to arrive at my house today, tomorrow at the very latest.
I am still smoking of course, and awaiting the mailman, I work until 3pm but often go home for lunch ( I will check the mail again then as well ) Im in California on Pacific standard time.
I of course have a ton of questions, some of them stupid questions that I am afraid to even ask. Like if the system is Battery-Atomizer-Tank-Mouth then why aren’t you just sucking juice out of the tank? I assume the answer is that there is a tube from the mouthpiece inside the tank to the atomizer… but I suppose I will know the answer to that soon enough. I hear about people spinning the tank in the atomizer so I am not sure how that works yet… I will find out I suppose.
I have been reading everything I can get my hand on about the Ego-T and still have more questions than answers ( does any of the stuff I read about cleaning an Atty even apply to the Ego-T? … with the puncture devise and the wick inside it, can you even see the atomizer?
How long will a battery last with 3 good pulls on it an hour? ( I guess will find that out )
How long will a tank last ( again 3 good pulls an hour ) I will probably be doing a short no atty pull first to prime the atty before vaping.
But again… I will know all that soon enough.
Assuming I get all the stuff today… I will probably place an order for more juice once I see what direction I might like with Juice. I started with a sample pack of 5 flavors in 10ml bottles.
A tobacco flavor with menthol ( like I smoke now )
One called Smooth ( another tobacco flavor with menthol )
Coffee and cream ( just for fun )
Chocolate moose ( might have been a mistake, but I do love chocolate )
Rum and Cola ( how can that possibly miss… it is what I usually drink )
I got them all 80%PG and 20%VG and with an extra 5% of flavoring strength ( again on advice from here )
After selecting one of these I like for a larger bottle I will probably get a 30 or 50 ml bottle of it and a bottle of clear unaltered PG just to have in my kit for clearing things out.
I also need to pick up a syringe… I hear a blunted 18 gauge needle is about right. ( but will gladly take the recommendations of others ) I should do that today…. At lunch perhaps I will drop by the drug store and pick up a syringe.
I am a little nervous this morning, excited… I want to see how well this works, if I like it I will probably get a larger battery ( the 1000mah ) and another spare atty just in case.
As the tanks are reusable and it comes with 5 of them I should be good to go on those for a while.
The plan… I need to quit smoking, and I don’t want Vaping to become a more intrusive habit than my smoking already is. I don’t need a new hobby… I have hobbies, I am a gamer ( PC ) and an amateur astronomer, and I fly high power sport rockets ( not the little Estes things.. the big guys, that take FCC clearance and licensing to fly ) I don’t need another hobby.
I’m looking for something to help me quit, I am starting out with 24mg of Nic, and I hear that is 24mg per ml, but the absorption rate is uncertain. So… what I will do is wait until I have a strong nic craving and then go outside and take 3 pulls off the E-Cig, then satisfied or not.. go back to what I was doing.
I hope to replace a cigarette with 3 long slow pulls off the E-Cig… we will see.
Over time I want to go from 24mg to 18mg then to 16mg and very slowly down the scale to zero over a year or so time.
I suppose I don’t care if I every really stop Vaping, as long as I stop smoking, and reduce the nicotine level as that really isn’t good for me and my medical conditions either.
I will post again after I receive my packages… perhaps today will be the last day that I am a smoker.
