MadVapes Weekly Contest - March 10 thru March 14

[JoanJ]

My first experience was a Blu disposable menthol. It wasn't a bad experience or I would still be smoking.

My first kit was really overpriced... the ultimate V2 kit. I pretty much knew at the time it was spendy but had 3 batts, pass thru and several different chargers and a charging case. I still don't regret it because there was enough in it for me and my son to start vaping. By the time my hubby was ready to start vaping, my son and I had moved on to bigger stuff. Halo Tritons and some eGo batts. The V2 stuff still gets used by hubby and he is perfectly happy with them plus I had bought enough batts to also give some to my pops so he could vape too so it is all still getting used, just not by me.

 

[bsoplinger]

Actually I came here to ECF for info before I purchased so my first kit was a pair of manual 901 batteries, pair of atomizers, 5 cartridges and USB charger with wall wart for under $30. Can't remember where I got my first bunch of e-liquid but it pretty horrid stuff. I do remember ordering from at least 2 other places within a few days after the liquid arrived. Luckily I found the dekang USA type tobacco flavor acceptable and I got a bottle of that initially although I don't now remember if I bought it with the kit or ordered elsewhere.

Nowadays, I'd suggest a pair of some sort of eGo type battery, pair of inexpensive clearomizers, 2 flavors of e-liquid and a charger. I'd point them at madvapes to get it all in 1 place for about $50 which is just over half the state minimum for a carton of name brand smokes like Marlboro.

In case this manages to win, pick someone else. It's been 4 years since I started so I've no need for the prize but I do like to keep in the habit of posting in the contest thread and to let madvapes know I'm a pleased customer. I hate when I forget and see that it was a great prize that week.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Xparent Purple Tapatalk 2

 

[Crowedude654]

I suppose I should tell my story too...

Well it all began back in December 2009. While surfing the web, I saw a banner ad for an e-cig and thought it looked interesting. So before I bought the first e-cig I saw, I did some research and thought that the Blu was the best bang for my buck. (Read: I was an idiot.) I really wanted something that looked like a cigarette and I didn't want to have to press any buttons. It ran me about 100 bucks, with extra cartridges and one of those PCC chargers that looks like a pack of cigarettes.

One of the two batteries was DOA, and the other one was just not enough for me. I wanted more vapor! So I sent a customer service ticket to Blu and asked about the battery. They said to fill out a form and send it back for a replacement. Realizing that I probably wasn't going to get any more vapor from a new battery, and that I didn't want to go through all that trouble just to return a 180mAh stick battery, I just returned the entire kit. This was the old style Blu, when the atomizer was 306-style and the cartridges had that tin foil that would stick to the bridge and block the liquid from wicking. Terrible design. Anyway...

I moved on to a Joye 510 cigalike with a manual button, because everyone seemed to agree that manual was better. As soon as I tried it, I coughed a lot....and thought it was awesome. Twice as much vapor as the Blu.

Then I started getting annoyed with the little things, like having to carry 4 batteries with me all the time, charge them every hour or so. I also had to deal with what seemed like a 3-ohm atomizer and polyfill getting stuck to the bridge all the time and burning up. Then I discovered the Blue Foam. Basically, you would cut up aquarium filter and replace the polyfill in the cartridge with that, and it wouldn't wear out as fast or get stuck to the atty. Back then, Blue Foam was the equivalent of rebuilding. If you used Blue Foam, it was implied that you knew your s**t.

But even that wasn't enough to get me off cigarettes, even though I was never really trying to quit. I eventually found my way to an eGo and low-resistance attys. That worked for awhile, but it wasn't until I went High-Voltage that I was able to stop smoking. Back then, there was no variable voltage or variable wattage, unless you wanted to spend a lot of money on a ProVari. But one day, the eGo-Booster was released! For the low-low price of $70, you could attach an extension to your eGo battery which would allow you to adjust your voltage up to 4.7-volts, as long as you didn't mind vaping something that looks like a walking cane. Just think, now you can get a variable voltage/variable wattage eGo for under $20. That was my first taste of voltage higher than 3.7, and that's when things got serious. It was a RoughStack at 7.4 volts with 2.5-ohm dual-coil cartomizers that really got me vaping full-time. Ever since the Blu, I've been on the insatiable quest for MORE VAPOR! Since then, it's been all mods, starting with 7.4 volts, then variable voltage, then mechanicals and sub-ohming.

And that's my story. I ended up quitting smoking even though I loved smoking and didn't want to quit. I spent way too much money. I bought lots of devices that didn't work for me. But even through all of that, it still ended up helping me quit.

 

[1w15h1w45m0ngu]

At first, learning about all the stuff that was involved with a switch from smoking to vaping seemed impossible. I had no idea what an ohm, watt, volt, etc. and then there were terms like "mah", "BCC", cartomizer and atomizer. I did research for about a week to really understand what I was getting and ordered a 350 mah ego battery, a beauty ring, a protank, a charger and some juice (that ended up being waaaaay too strong for me). I wanted everything to match and look sleek, be small, and last all day. After I got it I realized I needed a bigger battery and some 12mg juice but it all worked out in the end, I was lucky enough to be satisfied with this and ended up quitting smoking withing about a week. I haven't looked back since.

Thanks for the contest!

 

[aceswired]

Got my starter kit from VaporBeast for 18 bucks. The next day, it was on sale for 14 bucks!

 

[willowize]

I saw the "Doctors" show on TV back in 2009. I thought, "bet I can quit smoking using those". So I got online and started searching and did a lot of reading. My first ecig was the DSE901. It worked too! I left smoking in the ashes and starting my vaping trip in the clouds and still love it.

 

[Racehorse]

My first kit was from an online company that was going out of business. The batteries were ego clones with no 5-click safety protection, so you had to carry around one of those little plastic "button covers" that made the button flush with the battery sides. They sent me pre-filled cartos.....must've been over a year old+, they tasted nasty and I threw them all away. They were pretty though, and I was pretty excited.

Ego Twists had just been invented, so that was my next purchase, along with some "stardust" clearomizers. My first juice was Johnson Creek, Wisconsin Frost, it was delicious, and one of the few companies back then who had 100% VG juice.

I was able to quit smoking in 2 weeks so despite the less than perfect gear, it all worked!

 

[Reddhott]

i paid 25 bucks for my first ecig kit from china
2 white batteries a atty and 5 carts with foam in them that went on top of the atty. came in a box that looked like a cig pack that u plugged into the wall hahha worked great!
i bought juice but i didnt pay attention that it was the diy stuff u had to add vg or pg too and i just added it right to the foam carts lol live and learn i say. didnt know Any better then

 

[kathi17]

I started with a cig-a-like kit from my local Cigarette shop. It was a Phoenix Vapor. It helped a bit, but didn't quite do it. A year later, I tried an updated Phoenix Vapor kit. It wasn't any better. Then I bought a disposable. I can't even remember the brand. It was worse. The next year I bought a kit called Metro. That was worse than the Phoenix Vapors.

This year, I bought an ego clone kit. It was much better than the others, even though it was a bad ego kit. Now I have Spinners, an MVP 2, and some Kanger tanks, and only have an analog once in a while. I think soon I won't use any analogs at all!

 

[Tinkiegrrl]

My first e cigarette actually wasn't too shabby, and it came from the most unlikely place - My mother, a nurse who is vehemently against smoking. She went so far as to make any smoker walk down the block to smoke a cigarette, nevermind making them go outside. After a smoke, we were to wash our hands upon returning. I was shocked to get an e-cigarette from her! She bought the "third hand smoke" propaganda hook, line and sinker, so it's surprising she disregarded the anti e-cig crowd.

She bought me a generic, variable volt, 650 mAh, passthrough, 5 click to the next setting battery that came in a blister pack with a plastic, bottom coil clearo that took Evod coils and a USB charger. It wasn't the best Ego set around to be sure, but it got the job done, and within a week I was no longer smoking cigarettes. She purchased it from a local brick and mortar in SC, where she was staying with my grandmother for a month. My grandmother was dying of lung cancer, and my mother went down to assist with her medical needs. She smoked for 40 years, quit 20 years ago, but didn't quit on time. She beat the lung cancer, but it spread to her brain and she died at the end of October in her own bed at home. She signed a DNR after her battle with lung cancer, and created a living will stating that if the cancer came back, in whatever form it came back in, that she did not want treatment. It was very hard on my mother, who essentially went down to make sure she didn't die on her own.

There was a hospice nurse who came to assist my mother with my grandmother for the last couple of weeks so my mother could get some sleep. My mother told her of all the smokers in the family, and the nurse took my mother to the brick and mortar. While my mother would have gone for cigalikes for everyone, the hospice nurse pointed her to the egos, and I think it was wonderful that she did! The kit was so cheap, that my mother was able to buy one for every single smoker in the family, and I in turn was able to buy one for my own husband, his mother, and his sister. While I was very skeptical when I got it (I've tried my friend's Blu kits and was less then impressed), I felt that under the circumstances I had to promise to give it an honest try, and I'm so glad I did. Unbelievably, it allowed me to vape through cravings while my husband smoked a real cigarette in the same room as I was in, and he was begging for a kit of his own soon enough!

 

[Docbrown121]

My first ecig was from a local b&m that costed 75 for one battery, 5 clearos, a short USB cable and a wall adapter. Not knowing what dry hits or gurgling was, I didn't really know how to properly maintain. Fast forward 5 months I have upgraded to a Provari and haven't looked back.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[Prism]

My first kit was called a Joytech nobox 510 kit. 2 complete Joye 510 cigarettes, (2 atomizers and 2 batteries), charger, and 5 prefilled carts for $25. It was a decent deal at the time and about a week or so later they came out with the first Ego.

 

[MrsP0721]

My first e-cig was from a gas station/casino lol. I was with my sister, aunt and husband. It was my husband's birthday and they were taking us to celebrate at the casino (an ACTUAL casino). We were in my sister's car, we're not allowed to smoke in it. We stopped at the gas station (which also has a casino inside) and my sister told me to try an e-cig. I picked up a disposable V2 and enjoyed it enough to invest in a kit for me and my mom. I have since moved on to bigger and better things, my mom still has the V2, but still smokes at least a pack a day I've been trying really hard, but no luck! My husband is vaping now though, if only he'd STOP DIPPING!

 

[cvedrick]

Actually, I did a bit of research and got a 2 each EVOD/EVOD kit form electronic stix for $45 shipped, now the high caliber juice they suggested was just barely good enough to keep me off cigarettes and high priced for what it was but that is a different story.

 

[440BB]

In the spring of 2010 my wife came home with an eHealth kit she bought at a smoke shop for $65. It was a 401 with cartridges, and didn't interest me a bit. She bought a couple five packs of cartridges before the batteries fell apart, and we just set it on a shelf. About a year later, my dad mentioned them to me and I started learning more about them, ending up with a 510 kit, cartomizers and menthol liquid. Vaping has been a part of our lives ever since, we have saved over $8000 and are healthier by far!

 

[Elantis]

My first experience with E-Cigs was with the Njoy Pro when it first became available at our local smoke shop, $89.95 for two batts, two atomizers, 5 cartridges, and charger...what is worse, I bought two sets. One for me and one for Hubby...I did pretty good in the beginning, but the problems happen when I started buying the "replacement cartridges". At the time, I knew nothing about buying juice and refilling myself, so the 10 cartridges were $19.99 and a carton of the "generic" cigs were $18 (tax included). Even though I tried (hubby didn't really) the expense factor sent us both back to smoking.

It wasn't until August of 2012, when I ordered my first kit from a vendor here on ECF and joined the day my kit was received in the mail and I haven't looked back or smoked since then.

Thanks for the opportunity!

 

[analogbgone]

My first ecig kit was a smoke relief kit , my kids bought it for me for Christmas about 4 years ago, It was a cigalike with cartridges that I could only find at head shop 30 miles away. I used it until it broke , then bought those disposable njoys from Walgreens. I happened to go in another head shop that was next door to a restaraunt I was at. I don't know why I went in, I don't frequent headshops very often, They had an Ego Tank starter kit (genuine Joye way overpriced) and I decided to get it. I still have that kit with one original battery that is going strong today. I added some 1000 batteries a couple of years ago, and those are still going too. I got a Tesla a few months ago and am happy with that but am still wanting to add some new mods to my collection . I am always on the lookout for new tanks and such. And juice is always in the back of my mind. I found ECF somewhere along the way and have learned tons. I still find it extremely hard to decide what to buy next. I'm just glad I never wanted another cigarette after I discovered vaping. I wish I had known about it sooner.

 

[chigal]

I started with 2 650 eGo style batts and CE-something clearos. I used those for about a month before I got fed up with the short battery life and bought some eGo passthroughs and T3 clearos, which I still use to this day.

Thanks for the contest!

 

[kadkins11]

I purchased my first kit from Madvapes in Pineville NC on Jan 12th 2014. It was an Ego Winder 1300mah VV and I havent smoked an analog since! I'm now using an MVP 2.0 and I love it!

 

[whodat2112]

My first was an 808 cig - look - alike. Paid way too much for it but it did get me started vaping.