I've been vaping for about 3 months or so now. I'm quite happy I found this technology, as I have been chain smoking cigars (and more recently pipes) for a number of years. While I certainly enjoyed it, I did NOT enjoy the burn marks on my clothes, car, and elsewhere (clumsy), and my SO certainly did not enjoy the lingering smell (neither did I, I found). In addition, I found that certain brands of tobacco gave me headaches.
My e-cig trek began with an E-Cig XOX which I vastly overpaid for at a local merchant. Later on I found the same model on the web for much much cheaper, but oh well, you live and you learn.
Since this is an 801(810?) model that's what I've stuck with. I quickly found that I'm probably classified as a "serial vapist". Therefore, my experience has been that batteries are almost totally worthless after a short period of time. I've seen the bigger battery units, but since I'm around available power most of my day (home, computer, car), I find that the USB pass-through units are indispensable. I try to keep several around in different places, along with atomizers. However, the USB pass-through units that I've been buying have a tendency to rub the input power cable raw, and I find that after a week or two I have to cut & splice the power cable to make it work again. I do this by removing the plastic tip (where the LED is and the power cable goes into the unit) and just cutting & splicing the wire. Of course electrical tape & solder go a long way here!
But for as cheap as these USB pass-through units are, I'm not complaining too much. Some time in the future I'm going to create my own little belt-pack battery unit with a USB port on it. Probably multiple USB ports, so I can also charge my cell and other gizmos if need be.
I love to demonstrate the USB pass-through to my traditional analog smoker friends. They all know me as the gizmo-technology type, so when I tell them it's 2010 and I can now use my computer to SMOKE, they go bananas! Ha.
In fact, some times I carry around my netbook purely for use as a portable battery to smoke with. I know there are battery units I can get which would probably do the trick, but this seems to work fine for me as the vast majority of the time I'm around available power.
Which leads me to a funny story. Recently I was at a public event for the fourth of July here in the states. I brought a decent size (9 amp hour!) 12V sealed-type battery with me, along with an automotive 12V cigarette-lighter/power outlet unit with a USB plug. In addition, I brought a small Coleman solar panel as a backup to charge the battery during the day. All of this... to smoke
. I had a few passers-by ask me questions and comment on the solar setup. But when I told them the primary purpose was to power my e-cig, that brought up all kinds of interesting conversations. It was fun. I did bring the battery for other purposes, but ended up only using it for the e-cig. I also had gotten a 12V fan because it was hot (90s), but there ended up being a decent breeze. I also brought along a radio to tune into local event stations, but ended up not using that either.
Anyway, I'm a big fan of the Halo e-cig juice. In fact, I joined the forum to make a post on their new forum, only to find out I have to make a certain number of "newbie" posts. So here I am with my life e-cig story. Maybe I should have spread it over 5 parts to complete my "quota". While I certainly appreciate the anti-spam approach, it's somewhat inconvenient and I'll probably end up forgetting to post more just to get into that sub-forum.
While I had enjoyed more "harsh" tasting analog tobacco, I'm finding that I enjoy a bit more mild e-juice. My present personal favorite is to mix one part Halo Menthol Ice with two parts Halo Torque 56 (formerly Harley 56). I have a 10ml plastic bottle which came from another e-juice purchase which I use to mix the Halo juice into. The Halo drippers are nice as they have the measurements on them, so I can get it pretty accurate. 2ml Halo Torque 56 and 1ml Menthol Ice, do this about three times and the bottle is nearly full. Then shake. Good stuff.
I just ordered a new batch and am going to try for 50/50 Halo Ice Menthol/Halo Torque 56 and see what that does, as there are times when I like the Menthol Ice by itself. However, too much of the Menthol Ice and I get something of a "coating" in my mouth. But mix it seems to be just fine...
I've only tried several other e-juice types. My first experience was with some unlabeled brand that was sold by the same vendor I got my original e-cig from. While I did enjoy it, they sold it for ~$13USD/10ml bottle. Ouch. After I figured out I was a serial vapist I figured that wasn't going to work out very well on the wallet. Thankfully Halo has sales here and there so that seems to work out pretty well.
Another brand I tried is the Johnsons Creek line. After reading many favorable reviews I gave it a shot. However, I personally did not enjoy it, that was just my experience. I tried the Wisconsin Frost, Arctic Menthol, and J.C. Original flavors. But I didn't seem to get any kind of menthol, nor chilling effect, from either the Arctic Menthol nor Wisconsin Frost flavors. This is just my personal experience and preference. Their service was excellent and the product came in good quality bottles and whatnot. But I did not personally enjoy the flavors.
Then I found the Halo juice and have been sticking with that.
When I first started this journey I read quite a bit on this forum, as well as others, about the different types of units and juices. I do have concerns about what different vendors are putting in there. I do like to see when a vendor claims they are using good ingredients. I believe both Johnsons Creek and Halo both advertise this. I would like the FDA to check this stuff out. Being a serial vapist I'd like to know if such high use of this stuff will lead to some new uncurable nano-cyber plague or something
. But based on what I'm reading now, it all "seems" fine. . And I'm enjoying it.
I've had one analog cigar this entire time, and that was only during a social event with some old friends. Otherwise I've not had the "craving" at all. I started off with a high level of nicotine, but have been moving down, and my new order I'm going to try the "low" stuff (6mg/ml). So we'll see how that goes.
After moving from cigars to a pipe, that got pretty cheap. I cheap pipe can be had for between $5-$20 bucks, and they lasted me a month or so. Then a can of Prince Albert ran about $25 for a bit more than two weeks. So I'm not sure that this is necessarily cheaper for me personally. It IS much cheaper than the cigars, that much is for sure, especially with the ever-increasing taxes.
But the most important fact for me to move to the e-cig was the reduced chemical intake. Going from 100s or 1000s down to a very small number (10 or less?) is huge. Now if the FDA would hop on and do some tests of the combination of this new stuff, I'd be happy. Of course I realize that even if they were to START looking at this stuff, it'd probably take years for them to even form an opinion. Anyone looked into this? There is probably info on these forums, but I've not directly checked lately. Since I'm doing it anyway, I'd probably be a good candidate, using so much of it so often.
My original atomizer from my E-Cig XOX just the other day died. Which is amazing to me, as I've read about others' experiences on these, and other, forums. As much work as I put these things through I know they aren't going to last (the batteries certainly don't). In fact, assumed it was my USB pass-through that crapped out and tore that apart... only to find it was working. Since I was out of town for a few days I did not have my other atomizer with me (I've got two). And since I'm a fiend and gotta have it, I did an Internet search and thankfully found that Pilot gas stations appear to sell the NJoy units. I ended up picking up one of their starter kits (801/810? model) for $59. Pricey, but less than I originally paid for the E-Cig XOX. But it was local and available, so I got it. I was thankful to find it matched my USB pass-through, hardware-wise. So that's kind of nice. And now I've got two more batteries (until they die). They sure don't last long (hour and a half of rigorous use), but I think that's more of my fault (HIGH USAGE) than the units.
I clean my atomizers by simply blowing through them by mouth to get the excess liquid out. I used to blow from the power end, then in reverse. But lately I've just been blowing from the opposite end (cartridge end). It seems to work fine. Then I'd do a few dry burns. But then I found that the dry burn had a sour effect on the first few puffs. It's probably not good for the life of the thing either, although I had been doing it for several months, and like I said, my first one just died recently.
So anyway, there is my story. I'm a happy vaper. I realize that none of the hardware will last very long, but thankfully it all seems rather cheaply available. The USB pass-through power units can be had for $12 or so, and the atomizers can be had for a little more. I even found one place that sold them in packages or 5 or 10, although I've not opted for that just yet as I've not seen the need to. While the retail packages are nice (especially to have available locally), I'm something of a DIY person, and a cheap-..., so the cheap on-line availability is nice.
My e-cig trek began with an E-Cig XOX which I vastly overpaid for at a local merchant. Later on I found the same model on the web for much much cheaper, but oh well, you live and you learn.
Since this is an 801(810?) model that's what I've stuck with. I quickly found that I'm probably classified as a "serial vapist". Therefore, my experience has been that batteries are almost totally worthless after a short period of time. I've seen the bigger battery units, but since I'm around available power most of my day (home, computer, car), I find that the USB pass-through units are indispensable. I try to keep several around in different places, along with atomizers. However, the USB pass-through units that I've been buying have a tendency to rub the input power cable raw, and I find that after a week or two I have to cut & splice the power cable to make it work again. I do this by removing the plastic tip (where the LED is and the power cable goes into the unit) and just cutting & splicing the wire. Of course electrical tape & solder go a long way here!
But for as cheap as these USB pass-through units are, I'm not complaining too much. Some time in the future I'm going to create my own little belt-pack battery unit with a USB port on it. Probably multiple USB ports, so I can also charge my cell and other gizmos if need be.
I love to demonstrate the USB pass-through to my traditional analog smoker friends. They all know me as the gizmo-technology type, so when I tell them it's 2010 and I can now use my computer to SMOKE, they go bananas! Ha.
In fact, some times I carry around my netbook purely for use as a portable battery to smoke with. I know there are battery units I can get which would probably do the trick, but this seems to work fine for me as the vast majority of the time I'm around available power.Which leads me to a funny story. Recently I was at a public event for the fourth of July here in the states. I brought a decent size (9 amp hour!) 12V sealed-type battery with me, along with an automotive 12V cigarette-lighter/power outlet unit with a USB plug. In addition, I brought a small Coleman solar panel as a backup to charge the battery during the day. All of this... to smoke
. I had a few passers-by ask me questions and comment on the solar setup. But when I told them the primary purpose was to power my e-cig, that brought up all kinds of interesting conversations. It was fun. I did bring the battery for other purposes, but ended up only using it for the e-cig. I also had gotten a 12V fan because it was hot (90s), but there ended up being a decent breeze. I also brought along a radio to tune into local event stations, but ended up not using that either.Anyway, I'm a big fan of the Halo e-cig juice. In fact, I joined the forum to make a post on their new forum, only to find out I have to make a certain number of "newbie" posts. So here I am with my life e-cig story. Maybe I should have spread it over 5 parts to complete my "quota"
. While I certainly appreciate the anti-spam approach, it's somewhat inconvenient and I'll probably end up forgetting to post more just to get into that sub-forum. While I had enjoyed more "harsh" tasting analog tobacco, I'm finding that I enjoy a bit more mild e-juice. My present personal favorite is to mix one part Halo Menthol Ice with two parts Halo Torque 56 (formerly Harley 56). I have a 10ml plastic bottle which came from another e-juice purchase which I use to mix the Halo juice into. The Halo drippers are nice as they have the measurements on them, so I can get it pretty accurate. 2ml Halo Torque 56 and 1ml Menthol Ice, do this about three times and the bottle is nearly full. Then shake. Good stuff.
I just ordered a new batch and am going to try for 50/50 Halo Ice Menthol/Halo Torque 56 and see what that does, as there are times when I like the Menthol Ice by itself. However, too much of the Menthol Ice and I get something of a "coating" in my mouth. But mix it seems to be just fine...
I've only tried several other e-juice types. My first experience was with some unlabeled brand that was sold by the same vendor I got my original e-cig from. While I did enjoy it, they sold it for ~$13USD/10ml bottle. Ouch. After I figured out I was a serial vapist I figured that wasn't going to work out very well on the wallet. Thankfully Halo has sales here and there so that seems to work out pretty well.
Another brand I tried is the Johnsons Creek line. After reading many favorable reviews I gave it a shot. However, I personally did not enjoy it, that was just my experience. I tried the Wisconsin Frost, Arctic Menthol, and J.C. Original flavors. But I didn't seem to get any kind of menthol, nor chilling effect, from either the Arctic Menthol nor Wisconsin Frost flavors. This is just my personal experience and preference. Their service was excellent and the product came in good quality bottles and whatnot. But I did not personally enjoy the flavors.
Then I found the Halo juice and have been sticking with that.
When I first started this journey I read quite a bit on this forum, as well as others, about the different types of units and juices. I do have concerns about what different vendors are putting in there. I do like to see when a vendor claims they are using good ingredients. I believe both Johnsons Creek and Halo both advertise this. I would like the FDA to check this stuff out. Being a serial vapist I'd like to know if such high use of this stuff will lead to some new uncurable nano-cyber plague or something
. But based on what I'm reading now, it all "seems" fine. . And I'm enjoying it. I've had one analog cigar this entire time, and that was only during a social event with some old friends. Otherwise I've not had the "craving" at all. I started off with a high level of nicotine, but have been moving down, and my new order I'm going to try the "low" stuff (6mg/ml). So we'll see how that goes.
After moving from cigars to a pipe, that got pretty cheap. I cheap pipe can be had for between $5-$20 bucks, and they lasted me a month or so. Then a can of Prince Albert ran about $25 for a bit more than two weeks. So I'm not sure that this is necessarily cheaper for me personally. It IS much cheaper than the cigars, that much is for sure, especially with the ever-increasing taxes.
But the most important fact for me to move to the e-cig was the reduced chemical intake. Going from 100s or 1000s down to a very small number (10 or less?) is huge. Now if the FDA would hop on and do some tests of the combination of this new stuff, I'd be happy. Of course I realize that even if they were to START looking at this stuff, it'd probably take years for them to even form an opinion. Anyone looked into this? There is probably info on these forums, but I've not directly checked lately. Since I'm doing it anyway, I'd probably be a good candidate, using so much of it so often.
My original atomizer from my E-Cig XOX just the other day died. Which is amazing to me, as I've read about others' experiences on these, and other, forums. As much work as I put these things through I know they aren't going to last (the batteries certainly don't). In fact, assumed it was my USB pass-through that crapped out and tore that apart... only to find it was working. Since I was out of town for a few days I did not have my other atomizer with me (I've got two). And since I'm a fiend and gotta have it, I did an Internet search and thankfully found that Pilot gas stations appear to sell the NJoy units. I ended up picking up one of their starter kits (801/810? model) for $59. Pricey, but less than I originally paid for the E-Cig XOX. But it was local and available, so I got it. I was thankful to find it matched my USB pass-through, hardware-wise. So that's kind of nice. And now I've got two more batteries (until they die). They sure don't last long (hour and a half of rigorous use), but I think that's more of my fault (HIGH USAGE) than the units.
I clean my atomizers by simply blowing through them by mouth to get the excess liquid out. I used to blow from the power end, then in reverse. But lately I've just been blowing from the opposite end (cartridge end). It seems to work fine. Then I'd do a few dry burns. But then I found that the dry burn had a sour effect on the first few puffs. It's probably not good for the life of the thing either, although I had been doing it for several months, and like I said, my first one just died recently.
So anyway, there is my story. I'm a happy vaper. I realize that none of the hardware will last very long, but thankfully it all seems rather cheaply available. The USB pass-through power units can be had for $12 or so, and the atomizers can be had for a little more. I even found one place that sold them in packages or 5 or 10, although I've not opted for that just yet as I've not seen the need to. While the retail packages are nice (especially to have available locally), I'm something of a DIY person, and a cheap-..., so the cheap on-line availability is nice.
