New Guy w/Lots of Questions

[smahoney76]

ok to start out, I've only been vaping for about 2 months now, and only 24 hours doing it without smoking as well. I'm liking it so far, but have a few questions. Now, I've heard that this whole website has a bad reputation for flaming people for using "certain brands" of e-cigs/VPs, so, I can tell you that if you start flaming about anything I'm currently using, thinking about using, or really anything else at all, I probably won't finish reading your post, so posting it is pointless in the first place. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it.

Ok, so, I have a V2, a Blu Pack, and some disposables from the store. The V2 is by far my favorite so far. I love the blu size, packaging, and the way it recharges, but it just don't output enough for me. The V2 also has draw backs in that the add ons for it are expensive (such as the box that recharges it and keeps it safe in your pocket is like 60 bucks, who wants to pay that for a box)?

So my first question would be what other VPs would you suggest? Keeping in mind that I'm on a fairly tight budget, I need to keep this cheap, no more $100 starter packs for me.

Next, am I really better off buying pre-made juice, or should I make my own (I am trained in handling dangerous chemicals, so mixing out 100mg nicotine juice doesn't scare me). If I'd be better off making my own, what kinds of flavorings do I need and wheres a good (cheap) place to buy them.

As far as pre-made juice is concerned. Whats a "good" price? It seems that every web-store I've been to has prices that aren't even similar to each other, which makes it really hard. Is there a big difference between companies> I have already place an order with .......... just because their juice was the cheapest, but they have 3 - 5 week shipping which kind of sucks. Are some companies better tasting than others? There doesn't seem to be any regulation on this so how do you really know what your getting before getting out the old wallet?

Is there any other advise you can give a beginner? Perhaps something you did in the beginning you wish you hadn't, or anything like that, to help me avoid mistakes. I'd rather learn from yours, than from my own.

Thanks in advance for any and all information you can give me, I'll look forward to hearing replies.

 

[JohnnyVsGirl]

As someone that's only been in this 9 days. I was lucky enough to have read up on different models here before buying. That helped a lot. Two years ago John tried the e Health cigarette and it blew. Fast forward to a week ago and we ordered 2 eGo C Twist batteries from Altsmoke for $22.95 a piece. A couple of 510 tanks for about $12 a piece, a charger and wall charger for about $12 total and we're good to go. I'd start out with premade juices to figure out what you like first. We tried a few samples from EC Blends for about $2.50 a piece. Once we figured out what worked we could order a larger size and try other places as well.

 

[drewdown951]

Hi, I've only been vaping for about 3 months but like you I started off with the disposables. Wasn't long before I need something more. upinvapor.com has the ego-c starter kit for $40. They only have 6 flavors of juice but the blueberry frost is amazing. All they sell is the ego-c. Maybe why they are so cheap. Got mine in the mail in 2 days.

Smoke free for 3 months!

 

[smahoney76]

ego is a name I keep seeing over and over, seems to be a major player in this game. And at that price I might just have to look into getting one for myself. Thanks for you response

 

[Needeles]

First off, ya some ppl do flame but pay no mind to them. To be honest each products works differently for each person.

Next thing is, do you want something that is variable volt or just a standard type device? VV allows you to change the volts being kicked out and in turn can have an effect, good or bad, on the flavor ur vap'n. You can get cheaper units by "shopping" around but in the end it really does depend on what you want and what you like. I'm a smokeless image fan to be honest. There prices are very good and there customer support is top notch. Most ppl seem to startr small and then find new things and want them. In the end most ppl tend to spend an ongodly amount of cash until they really find what is perfect for them. Alot of ppl swear by the ego twist. Its a decent size unit, seems to be pretty reliable, has a longer battery life and has VV. You can also buy units like the X2 from smokeless Image that are simply bigger batteries but a constant voltage. They come with a USB charging system so there is no PCC to carry around. You then have the different types of connection as well. 510 connections seem to be the most popular followed up by the 808 connections. I personally started with a volt system, good price and still works good when i don't want a large device to carry around. I am now on my Starfire and just love it. It is big but lasts me all day off a single charge if not longer.

As for juices, if you want to save some cash making ur own is the way to go by far. You do have to be careful as it can be messing and a bit frusterating at first til you find the perfect mixes. Each site sets there own pricing, again you have to shop around to find some good prices. I make my own and deal with 2 places. One for the Nic juice and another for my flavors and PG. The VG I simply buy at my local walmart for alittle more the $3. The places I deal with are both well known and offer, imo, good prices. Following is the link to em...

One Stop DIY Shop
www.rtsvapes.com

If you use other places be sure that they use good quality nic juice or ur just gonna get detered as it will taste like crap no matter what you do. RTS labales there nic juice stating when it was made, lot number ect which is the type of labales u want to see. One Stop is a great place for the DIY as they have almost everything you need. They even offer full on starter kits so you get all the bottles, pipettes, ect that you need to start.

Check out youtube. One of the good places to see devices in action and get an idea of what you may want. If you want something bigger but simple get an X2, if you want the next step up get an ego, beyond that it is a toss up. Alot of ppl love Provaries but they are expensive but very reliable from what I hear. I'm sure others with more know how then me will chime up here as well. This is a great board to get help and info. Good luck to ya and happy vap'n!

Wanted to add if you do make ur own juice make sure to get an ejuice calculatore. It will help a ton...eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator

 

[wolandepiphanius]

The eGo/kGo starter kits are fairly inexpensive and come with everything you need. As JonnyVsGirl mentioned, the ego c twist is a good one since it has variable voltage so you can test at what ohm & voltage you like to vape at (I did this by trial and error with my first LT) and they cost under $100 in most cases. The 1000 mah eGo/kGo are fairly big, but if you don't mind that, those tend to last an average person an entire day, I think. My first kit was an eGo-T with their tank system, which worked well until I discovered other devices, then that destroyed my bank account for a while .
As for juices, I don't mix my own, have no experience doing it, and I'm sort of frightened by it. I hear it's easy, but I'm still new to all this so I'm going to wait until my fear disappears. If you're worried about ordering pre-made juices there is a list of vendors in this forum, and a section where users have given feedback about those vendors. Spending a little time reading about their experience with the vendors might be a good thing. I'd say that in my experience 12 to 18 dollars for a 30ml juice is average for me. Also, if you want to learn more about vaping with a sense of humor, you may want to visit TasteYourJuice.com and see what PBusardo has to say about things. He's entertaining and gives great reviews (thought it's all subjective as he says).
I'm sure the veterans here will chime in and give you better advice, but here's my 2 cents. I hope you find this helpful. And good luck!

 

[Fiamma]

I read and did research for a few months before I bought my first gear. I was totally not interested in the small cig lookalikes so avoided them. I cannot speak to their strengths or weaknesses.

I started on Ego gear, the T model was out then. It had some drawbacks initially, once I learned how to draw on it things got better. One of the hardest things for me to learn was to not hit a PV like a cig. Doesn't work very well and on my ego gear caused leaking. When the C models came out I migrated to them. Still have them for out and about. I vaped on Ego for a year straight before I started branching out.

Juice is subjective. Again I did a lot of reading and watching reviews before I settled on the first juices I would get and then I got them in sample packs. I still use juice from that company today and now I make my own as well. I make a lot more than I buy, primarily because I made some I really love and it saves me money. I test new stuff in small 4ml batches to see if it's something I want to make a larger batch of or toss. I will never be a juice wizard but so far I have more good ones than failures.

I'm glad I started vaping, I feel so much better now, have more energy and breathe much more easily. Sinuses are still trying to figure out what changed and adapt and it's been a year and 5 months.

YMMV

 

[Mroutlaw]

Best place to buy DIY supplies is wizard labs.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Cool_Breeze]

I strive to keep under $0.50/ml on juices I purchase rather than DIY. However, there are some nice ones just over that threshold. One of those a little over that mark is Vermillion River's Kentucky Vanilla Blend.

At present Joogler Juice is having a 10% off sale. I'm tempted to pick up 30 ml of Clint Vapewood...~$0.44/ml including shipping for a single 30 ml bottle. That can be knocked down with a 'first time purchaser coupon code for $5 off,' though I'm not sure what restrictions may apply.

 

[Jonner]

Three suggestions,
(1) Ego-C Twist for device (set at 4.2ish for (2)below)
(2) Boge LR Cartos (2ohm)
(3) NiteLiteVapor for liquid

I think those three are a great start.

 

[muzichead]

I suggested the following in another thread and will do the same here:

I would recommend either the eGo 510-T or just the standard eGo 510 kit.... Simple to use and better than the KR808 style and overall quality. Not to mention if you decide to branch out and try items like clearomizers or other types of atty's or carto's, you will be all set up and won't need any kind of adapters.... I also might add it will be cheaper.... KR808 carto's can get to be quite expensive as you've already mentioned.... Here are a couple of links to the cheapest prices on the internet for most eGo items....

JOYE 510-T (TANK) ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE - BLACK - BLACK $29.99 /kit
JOYE 510 ELECTRONIC CIGARETTE - BLACK - BLACK $32.99 /kit

 

[Ralikar]

I spent over a year on 808d must look like a cig and I learned a ton I wish I knew:

1) Start with a EGO they are cheap like 12-14$ and lots of power. Don't get a twist (mine is due tomorrow) as you don't know enough to appreciate the variable voltage feature. BUT you will have the EGO charger stuff to upgrade later.
2) Juice -- price varies widely. My sinuses got destroyed by flavored/Chinese juice so i went to smooth Johnson Creek which is expensive. I just did my first DIY batch and I made 4 simple flavors for $35 I would have paid $120 at JC. Had I known I would have saved $1000+ easy. DIY will save you a fortune and can be started very easy (Wizard's Lab for premade juice+ Capellas for 1 ingrediant simple flavors is great to learn. Get into DIY soon! (Can look up my DIY posts for new person advice and what I did). DIY can be complex or baby-simple like I did it. it can be as easy as ordering a 18/24/36mg 60ml bottle of PG/VG ratio you like for $5 from Wizard's Labs then adding 9ml of a flavor --say raspberry-- from Capellas (15% solution to personal taste; $5 for 13ml)--and splitting the batch into your 2 30ml jars. It's that easy! So for $10 we just made 2 30ml jars of raspberry-- $40 at JC. DIY!
3) Cartos--get a good cartomizer that you like. Then learn to refill them.
4) THEN play around with vivi nova tanks, clearomizers, etc--they give you better flavor but a solid metal little cartomizer is the easiest and most reliable thing. The rest is advanced or for fun.
5) THEN, later, buy an EGO twist if you want to play around with VV--you will already have the chargers and then your EGO batteries can be back-ups.

People on ECF are really nice, they just try to steer people to the better brands cause (like me and many others) people tend to but cheap stuff at a gas station and then pay 2-3x what they should on refills of stuff. I wish someone had told me my SmokeTip crap was garbage from a rip-off vendor before I found out the hard way...

GL!

 

[Cool_Breeze]

I spent over a year on 808d must look like a cig and I learned a ton I wish I knew:

1) Start with a EGO they are cheap like 12-14$ and lots of power. Don't get a twist (mine is due tomorrow) as you don't know enough to appreciate the variable voltage feature. BUT you will have the EGO charger stuff to upgrade later.
2) Juice -- price varies widely. My sinuses got destroyed by flavored/Chinese juice so i went to smooth Johnson Creek which is expensive. I just did my first DIY batch and I made 4 simple flavors for $35 I would have paid $120 at JC. Had I known I would have saved $1000+ easy. DIY will save you a fortune and can be started very easy (Wizard's Lab for premade juice+ Capellas for 1 ingrediant simple flavors is great to learn. Get into DIY soon! (Can look up my DIY posts for new person advice and what I did). DIY can be complex or baby-simple like I did it. it can be as easy as ordering a 18/24/36mg 60ml bottle of PG/VG ratio you like for $5 from Wizard's Labs then adding 9ml of a flavor --say raspberry-- from Capellas (15% solution to personal taste; $5 for 13ml)--and splitting the batch into your 2 30ml jars. It's that easy! So for $10 we just made 2 30ml jars of raspberry-- $40 at JC. DIY!
3) Cartos--get a good cartomizer that you like. Then learn to refill them.
4) THEN play around with vivi nova tanks, clearomizers, etc--they give you better flavor but a solid metal little cartomizer is the easiest and most reliable thing. The rest is advanced or for fun.
5) THEN, later, buy an EGO twist if you want to play around with VV--you will already have the chargers and then your EGO batteries can be back-ups.

People on ECF are really nice, they just try to steer people to the better brands cause (like me and many others) people tend to but cheap stuff at a gas station and then pay 2-3x what they should on refills of stuff. I wish someone had told me my SmokeTip crap was garbage from a rip-off vendor before I found out the hard way...

GL!

...a couple of juice samplers might help provide a direction for embarking into DIY

 

[bluecat]

I been vaping a little over a month. So far the money spent on vaping is more than the cost of the smokes. I can't seem to find anything that I like best. I am always in search of something that will hold me. I started with the 40x type. I have a few of everything. The juice right now is killing me. I can't seem to find anything I like. It is costing a ton of money to find my that juice I really like. Luckily my wife said "I'll pay anything to have you quit smoking". I have been getting the evil eye with the juice purchases though.

The good thing.. I have been cigarette free. I now don't think of that smoke after work.

Unfortunately at least for it is a hope you get lucky and find that perfect juice.