I blogged this, but thought it might be helpful in the new folks' forum. Being a n00b myself I may be all wet but this is what I sent my brother-in-law when he said this morning he wanted to try vaping - sorry if this sounds like a madvapes ad 
==========
Hey
This is gonna be long and there will be a lot of information. The best resource I've seen for learning about this stuff is
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/
Anyway, after going through two pretty much complete kits this is what I'd recommend to anybody starting out - and I haven't had a cigarette for 16 days now. madvapes.com is a great place to get stuff - I'd start out with this:
MadVapes 510 Ego Kit with Carrying Case
This is the basic kit itself - $48.99. It comes with two batteries, a USB charger, five cartridges that you'll never use, two atomizers that you will use with drip tips or for emergencies and a reasonably nice case. It does *not* come with a wall charger, so get one of these unless you want an e-cigarette battery permanently connected to your laptop
2 amp AC to USB Adapter, ideal for Passthroughs
It plugs in the wall and has a USB port on the side that you plug you charging cable into. $8.99 so we're up to $58 so far.
You'll want cartomizers and a way to fill them - a cartomizer is an atomizer to vaporize the juice and a cartridge to hold the juice in one unit and IMO works much better than the standard atomizer and cartridge - but we're still gonna need the atomizers that come with the kit - more on that later. From what I hear a single cartomizer should last four or five days or better - I rotate mine. Get about five of these - at $2.49 each that should bring us up to about $70.
eGo Mega Dual Coil Cartomizer
You'll also need an empty plastic bottle, a needle and a syringe to fill the cartomizers. You can just drip directly from the bottle to fill them but it's a pain in the .... Get a couple of these
Empty 10ml Bottle with Childproof cap
and a couple of these
5 ML LUER LOCK SYRINGE
and a couple of these. They're blunt needles.
Luer Lock Needle 20 gauge 1.5"
I think we're up to $76 now
The only other thing we need besides the juice is a drip tip or two. A drip tip attaches to the atomizer (remember the atomizers we were gonna use later? now's the time) and will allow you to drip juice directly onto the atomizer so you can sample juices without contaminating a cartridge. Two or three drops straight through the mouthpiece on the drip tip should give you at least five or six good drags - this is good if you're switching flavors or if you want to smoke something different without getting the flavor in the cartomizers that you use to hold your normal juice. So get one or two of these - and we'll call it $80 but I think it's $81 now
Black Shorty Delrin Dripper Tip 510/901
On to the juice itself. I don't smoke menthol and have heard that most menthol juices leave a little to be desired so here's my best guess -
NuPort, 50ml, 24mg
but some guy on the e-cigarette forum did make a list of the most popular juices here - and the juice I'm using now isn't on the list
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...updated-606-opinions-167-tobacco-flavors.html
Okay, I think we're at $92. Madvapes shipping is $2.99 for orders under $75 and free for orders over $75 so shipping is free, but pay the $3.00 for priority mail. When I order on a weekend the stuff ships on Monday and I get it on Wednesday.
How to work the stuff -
First, charge at least one battery. The first few charge and discharge cycles are kinda critical and you want them fully charged before you use them for the first time. When the battery needs to be recharged the button on the battery will flash ten times when you press it - and then they shut off. Best to wait for that before you put a battery on the charger. A battery should last you 200 to 300 charge cycles. You're a heavier smoker than I was but single battery lasts me all day. I put it on the charger when I go to bed.
How to fill the cartomizers -
The cartomizers have silicone covers - they're called condoms and don't throw them away. Anyway, with a new cartomizer, take the mouthpiece off and blow through the battery end of the thing into a paper towel to dislodge any oil that may still be in there from the manufacturing process. You only have to do that once.
Inside the cartomizer you'll see what looks like a cigarette filter with a hole down the middle what you want to do is gently work the needle between the packing and the wall of the cartomizer - then fill the thing, pulling the needle back slowly until the top of the wadding looks slushy - then let the thing sit battery end down for about five minutes and top it off. It will drip fluid out the battery end so doing this on a plate or something is a good idea.
You should be able to see through the hole from end to end - you don't want to put juice in there as it'll just end up in your mouth. If the hole's not clear, blow gently through the battery end into a paper towel. The cartomizer should hold somewhere between 4 and 5ml of juice. This takes a little practice and you'll get a little juice in your mouth the first time or two - but you don't drag on an e-cigarette the same way you do a real cigarette. The trick here is to keep airflow going over the atomizer so you want to take long, slow draws. If you suck hard on it you'll get less vapor and if the cartomizer is full, probably a drop or two of juice in your mouth and the stuff tastes nasty. Gives me heartburn
If you ever do have to drip directly from the bottle hold the cartomizer at a 45 degree angle so the drops hit the packing and don't run down the hold in the middle.
How to use drip tips -
Blow through the atomizers the first time you use them. Unscrew the cartomizer and put an atomizer on the battery instead. Snap the drip tip into the atomizer and then screw the cone onto the battery so the whole thing doesn't look like ..... Holding the thing upright, drip three drops through the drip tip straight onto the atomizer element then push the button and inhale. This is good for sampling different flavors without contaminating your cartomizers.
But do check out the e-cigarette forum.
ps - I've been sucking on the same three drops of Cuban Cigar through a drip tip since I started typing this
==========
Hey
This is gonna be long and there will be a lot of information. The best resource I've seen for learning about this stuff is
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/
Anyway, after going through two pretty much complete kits this is what I'd recommend to anybody starting out - and I haven't had a cigarette for 16 days now. madvapes.com is a great place to get stuff - I'd start out with this:
MadVapes 510 Ego Kit with Carrying Case
This is the basic kit itself - $48.99. It comes with two batteries, a USB charger, five cartridges that you'll never use, two atomizers that you will use with drip tips or for emergencies and a reasonably nice case. It does *not* come with a wall charger, so get one of these unless you want an e-cigarette battery permanently connected to your laptop
2 amp AC to USB Adapter, ideal for Passthroughs
It plugs in the wall and has a USB port on the side that you plug you charging cable into. $8.99 so we're up to $58 so far.
You'll want cartomizers and a way to fill them - a cartomizer is an atomizer to vaporize the juice and a cartridge to hold the juice in one unit and IMO works much better than the standard atomizer and cartridge - but we're still gonna need the atomizers that come with the kit - more on that later. From what I hear a single cartomizer should last four or five days or better - I rotate mine. Get about five of these - at $2.49 each that should bring us up to about $70.
eGo Mega Dual Coil Cartomizer
You'll also need an empty plastic bottle, a needle and a syringe to fill the cartomizers. You can just drip directly from the bottle to fill them but it's a pain in the .... Get a couple of these
Empty 10ml Bottle with Childproof cap
and a couple of these
5 ML LUER LOCK SYRINGE
and a couple of these. They're blunt needles.
Luer Lock Needle 20 gauge 1.5"
I think we're up to $76 now
The only other thing we need besides the juice is a drip tip or two. A drip tip attaches to the atomizer (remember the atomizers we were gonna use later? now's the time) and will allow you to drip juice directly onto the atomizer so you can sample juices without contaminating a cartridge. Two or three drops straight through the mouthpiece on the drip tip should give you at least five or six good drags - this is good if you're switching flavors or if you want to smoke something different without getting the flavor in the cartomizers that you use to hold your normal juice. So get one or two of these - and we'll call it $80 but I think it's $81 now
Black Shorty Delrin Dripper Tip 510/901
On to the juice itself. I don't smoke menthol and have heard that most menthol juices leave a little to be desired so here's my best guess -
NuPort, 50ml, 24mg
but some guy on the e-cigarette forum did make a list of the most popular juices here - and the juice I'm using now isn't on the list
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...updated-606-opinions-167-tobacco-flavors.html
Okay, I think we're at $92. Madvapes shipping is $2.99 for orders under $75 and free for orders over $75 so shipping is free, but pay the $3.00 for priority mail. When I order on a weekend the stuff ships on Monday and I get it on Wednesday.
How to work the stuff -
First, charge at least one battery. The first few charge and discharge cycles are kinda critical and you want them fully charged before you use them for the first time. When the battery needs to be recharged the button on the battery will flash ten times when you press it - and then they shut off. Best to wait for that before you put a battery on the charger. A battery should last you 200 to 300 charge cycles. You're a heavier smoker than I was but single battery lasts me all day. I put it on the charger when I go to bed.
How to fill the cartomizers -
The cartomizers have silicone covers - they're called condoms and don't throw them away. Anyway, with a new cartomizer, take the mouthpiece off and blow through the battery end of the thing into a paper towel to dislodge any oil that may still be in there from the manufacturing process. You only have to do that once.
Inside the cartomizer you'll see what looks like a cigarette filter with a hole down the middle what you want to do is gently work the needle between the packing and the wall of the cartomizer - then fill the thing, pulling the needle back slowly until the top of the wadding looks slushy - then let the thing sit battery end down for about five minutes and top it off. It will drip fluid out the battery end so doing this on a plate or something is a good idea.
You should be able to see through the hole from end to end - you don't want to put juice in there as it'll just end up in your mouth. If the hole's not clear, blow gently through the battery end into a paper towel. The cartomizer should hold somewhere between 4 and 5ml of juice. This takes a little practice and you'll get a little juice in your mouth the first time or two - but you don't drag on an e-cigarette the same way you do a real cigarette. The trick here is to keep airflow going over the atomizer so you want to take long, slow draws. If you suck hard on it you'll get less vapor and if the cartomizer is full, probably a drop or two of juice in your mouth and the stuff tastes nasty. Gives me heartburn
If you ever do have to drip directly from the bottle hold the cartomizer at a 45 degree angle so the drops hit the packing and don't run down the hold in the middle.
How to use drip tips -
Blow through the atomizers the first time you use them. Unscrew the cartomizer and put an atomizer on the battery instead. Snap the drip tip into the atomizer and then screw the cone onto the battery so the whole thing doesn't look like ..... Holding the thing upright, drip three drops through the drip tip straight onto the atomizer element then push the button and inhale. This is good for sampling different flavors without contaminating your cartomizers.
But do check out the e-cigarette forum.
ps - I've been sucking on the same three drops of Cuban Cigar through a drip tip since I started typing this
