Welcome to vaping Zmerc! Here's my 2cents, lol. Just a thought, perhaps when deciding on a nic level, you might want to consider why you smoke. At 5 cigs per day, are you truly addicted to nicotine or is it an emotional thing instead? What I mean is, you might want to look at how you are feeling when you want a cig, perhaps it's just when you are stressing about something, or angry, or frustrated, etc. Over the years, when I would quit smoking, I'd still get a craving a few times a year, especially when I was stressed, like when someone close to me went into the hospital, or when a huge work deadline loomed. It wasn't the nicotine I was craving, it was the act of smoking, of carving out a little alone-time personal space in the midst of chaos, to calm myself.
Now with vaping, I get that same cigarette-soothing down-time, even without any nicotine. Guess getting what nicotine you're going to be satisfied with is a totally personal thing, not something easily equatable, cigs versus vaping.
As for what to choose, with earlier types of batteries, I'd of recommended nothing but manual batteries, because back then, as late as Dec 2010, automatic batteries sucked. But Volt auto batteries are winners. I bought one of their manual batteries and to me it's exactly the same but I have to push a tiny button. Nah, I prefer the auto batteries.
As for 65mm vs 78mm, I agree with previous posters, in that they both perform exactly the same, but with the 78mm's they last longer, if chain-vaping, they last about an hour longer than the 65mm. The thing is, you're only talking 1/2" difference between the two, size-wise. So for me, getting only 78mm's is a no-brainer.
Vaping around non-smokers is win-win for my family. They cannot smell anything in the air when I'm vaping, except certain eliquids, none of them the SI eliquids. Oh, if I blow the vape directly at someone's nose, then they can faintly smell something, we oft-times play a guessing game to see what I'm vaping, LOL!
No, vape does not set off smoke alarms. My easy chair is directly beneath the smoke alarm in my den. I've vaped my big battery mods with tanks on them, putting out pea-soupers of foggy vapor, and never once have set the alarm off.
My recommendation for a first Volt order would be 2 or 3 automatic batteries, a charger, at least one pack of cartomizers, and a 30ml bottle of eliquid. I've found if I keep a cartomizer slushy-wet inside and never vape it dry, it will perform just fine more than a week, I've gotten 2 weeks so far on one cartomizer, and that's without doing any cleaning on it or anything. Now, some specialty eliquids will gum up the heating coil and make the cartomizer taste burning and crappy really fast, so that's your own choice, especially ones that are really sweet or dark in color. This is true with all atomizers and cartomizers, not just SI's. None of the SI eliquids that I've tried gummed up the heating coil.
How many puffs per cartomizer, in my mind, is a marketing thing, not related to anything in real world experiences, lol. I mean, how long does it take you to smoke a cigarette? Do you light it and then let it mostly sit in the ash tray or do you take repeated long drags and have it gone in 3 minutes? Or something in between? In my Volt chain-vaping tests, I found a prefilled Volt cartomizer lasts about 5 hours. But I've found that with all prefilled cartomizers, how much they were prefilled with can vary, guess it's manufacturer's tolerances or quality control. Plus, since I'm not vaping them dry in everyday use, I always put in 6 drops or so every hour to keep it topped-up and every time I change a battery I top it up again. I have a video on my youtube channel about topping up cartomizers, oh yeah, SI also put it up on their site, under their eliquid category.
I've never taken an ecig on a plane trip, so can't help you with that one.
Happy vaping and again, Welcome!
SteelJan
Now with vaping, I get that same cigarette-soothing down-time, even without any nicotine. Guess getting what nicotine you're going to be satisfied with is a totally personal thing, not something easily equatable, cigs versus vaping.
As for what to choose, with earlier types of batteries, I'd of recommended nothing but manual batteries, because back then, as late as Dec 2010, automatic batteries sucked. But Volt auto batteries are winners. I bought one of their manual batteries and to me it's exactly the same but I have to push a tiny button. Nah, I prefer the auto batteries.
As for 65mm vs 78mm, I agree with previous posters, in that they both perform exactly the same, but with the 78mm's they last longer, if chain-vaping, they last about an hour longer than the 65mm. The thing is, you're only talking 1/2" difference between the two, size-wise. So for me, getting only 78mm's is a no-brainer.
Vaping around non-smokers is win-win for my family. They cannot smell anything in the air when I'm vaping, except certain eliquids, none of them the SI eliquids. Oh, if I blow the vape directly at someone's nose, then they can faintly smell something, we oft-times play a guessing game to see what I'm vaping, LOL!
No, vape does not set off smoke alarms. My easy chair is directly beneath the smoke alarm in my den. I've vaped my big battery mods with tanks on them, putting out pea-soupers of foggy vapor, and never once have set the alarm off.
My recommendation for a first Volt order would be 2 or 3 automatic batteries, a charger, at least one pack of cartomizers, and a 30ml bottle of eliquid. I've found if I keep a cartomizer slushy-wet inside and never vape it dry, it will perform just fine more than a week, I've gotten 2 weeks so far on one cartomizer, and that's without doing any cleaning on it or anything. Now, some specialty eliquids will gum up the heating coil and make the cartomizer taste burning and crappy really fast, so that's your own choice, especially ones that are really sweet or dark in color. This is true with all atomizers and cartomizers, not just SI's. None of the SI eliquids that I've tried gummed up the heating coil.
How many puffs per cartomizer, in my mind, is a marketing thing, not related to anything in real world experiences, lol. I mean, how long does it take you to smoke a cigarette? Do you light it and then let it mostly sit in the ash tray or do you take repeated long drags and have it gone in 3 minutes? Or something in between? In my Volt chain-vaping tests, I found a prefilled Volt cartomizer lasts about 5 hours. But I've found that with all prefilled cartomizers, how much they were prefilled with can vary, guess it's manufacturer's tolerances or quality control. Plus, since I'm not vaping them dry in everyday use, I always put in 6 drops or so every hour to keep it topped-up and every time I change a battery I top it up again. I have a video on my youtube channel about topping up cartomizers, oh yeah, SI also put it up on their site, under their eliquid category.
I've never taken an ecig on a plane trip, so can't help you with that one.
Happy vaping and again, Welcome!
SteelJan
