New to Vaping and Overwhelmed (like so many)

[estaz]

Hello All!
First of all, I am floored by this community of vapers helping each other out. It's an unbelievable support system and I'm blown away from what a hobby it's become for some. If I hadn't come across this forum, I would never have known that it is possible to quit smoking from vaping, and that there are so many of you that prefer vaping to smoking! It's like a dream come true!! I have been wanting to quit smoking for a long time now and when I came across this forum, I was excited to see all the information. BUT, I've been spending hours on this and find all the variations and technicalities sooo overwhelming. I know there are a thousand who have asked this before, and I really don't want to be number 1,001, but I'm desperate, and this group seems "charitable" in the information department..so here goes.

I have been smoking for about 15 years, and in the last few months, about a pack of parliament lights a day. In the last few months, I started ordering them from the Ukraine (hey there were cheaper) but they got me even more hooked than the american versions (they must be putting something sketchy in there). I went to Walgreens and purchased a BlueCigs disposable. I like the vapor production, but thought it was a) too heavy b) not enough of a throat hit. I also realized that to quit smoking I can't initially go bigger because I need to psychologically feel like i'm holding a cigarette. I understand that the heavy thing is probably something that can't be changed, but I think I need to stick with a mini for now, or at least something close to that. I also understand that these cartridges only have 6-7 cigs worth, so I'm hoping that there's some sort of kit out there, that once I learn the ropes will be easy and cost effective to refill. From what I've seen on some of these sites - these prefilled cartridges cost about $10 for a pack's worth. That's crazy!!!!
Anyway, with that said, I am guessing that so many new products have come out since the intros of this site have posted.
I'd really like to know what is my best choice if I have the following wish list:
1) Most resembles a real cigarette
2) Really good and easy throat hit (meaning you feel the cigarette tingle and you don't have to suck in hard to feel something)
3) Economical refill options
4) Customizable down the line (from what I see on this forum - that's important?)

And also, I live in New York City..Why the hell isn't there a store with all the top brands for people to touch and see and be advised on? Seriously, this should be done already! It would be a gold mine!!

 

[priorities]

Oh first congrats to you!! That is fantastic that you want to 'switch' !! and start vaping!! and yes...I wish NYC had some too!! Aww..there are so many people here who will come and help you..I am a bit new..but just let me tell you...you don't have to pay for pre-filled cartridges...you can buy carts and fill them yourself with so many wonderful flavors with as big a throat hit as you need depending on the nicotine level and the amount of PG in what you choose...so hang in there..they have them...the cig size and you can fill them yourself...someone will come here and help more...good luck to you!! take care and welcome!!

 

[MiamiMom63]

Welcome to the vaping community, estaz! Well, since you feel you must start with something that looks like a cigarette, I would recommend the Volt e-cig. You can google it and check out some of the reviews for it on youtube. It seems to be well made and has had good reviews. I personally think something that would satisfy you better and that is slightly bigger than a cigarette would be an EGO, KGO type starter kit. Also, like "priorities" stated above, you can get blank cartridges and a bottle of juice to fill them yourself, which is what I did when I started and it's alot cheaper and tastes better to me personally.

And what is really good news for you is that I believe there are at least a couple of vape groups in the New York area that you can hook up with and meet people usually on a monthly basis and be able to check out hands-on all the different types of e-cigs and juices out there. Check out the Community section in here or do a search for New York Vape Meets, etc.

Best of Luck to You!

 

[legacygone]

Hi there - You will get a ton of info here, so I will keep mine short and NYC focused.

From my experience, what you are looking for (and this will change) is an kr808d-1 battery, and cartomizers. I like the smokeless image ones.

NYC: The Electronic Cigarette Super Store | myvaporstore.com is in brooklyn. they don't have a physical store, but if you order before noon you will get the next day. So if you live in NYC, it's like overnight for the price of regular shipping. They have kr808d-1 cartomizers that are cheap and good. I recommend Strawberry and peach.

If you want to go to queens, these guys have a physical location:

Where We Will Be : VapeNY... New York's Choice for Electronic Cigarettes, VapeNY... New York's Choice for Electronic Cigarettes

Hope this helps.

 

[Mroutlaw]

Estaz, welcome.

I was in your shoes about a month ago. I wanted to quit for a long time, but couldnt give up the habit of having a cig in my mouth. I too, tried the blu disposable and had the same experience. I ended up ordering the Blu Premium 100 starter kit and hated it. The problem I found with Blu is that the battery dies within an hour, the cartos go bad quick and they cant be refilled. I recommend the Volt from Smokeless Image, that's where I ended up after wasting $180 on Blu (I am still waiting for my $90 refund). Heres why I recommend the Volt.

Like you, I knew I needed the look and feel of an analog. Let me start by saying that nothing is going to be the same weight of an analog, because of the battery, but you get used to it very quickly. But the VOlt will be very close to the size you are looking for. I will try and post a picture comparing for you if I can find it. I recommend you start with the Pro Starter Kit. That will give you 2 batteries, a personal charging case, a usb charger and a pack of cartomizers. That is enough to get you started. You can get that for $65 and there is a promo code "sivolt50" that will give you 15% off. They have 2 sizes, 65mm and 78 mm. the difference would equal a king size analog to a 100 analog. If you can handle the bigger, I recommend that, it lasts a lot longer. I made the mistake of wanting the smaller ones because it will fit in the pcc with a cartomizer attached, but now I dont care about that. I also recommend the mega pcc. It is the same price as the other one, but it holds a spare battery and 3 cartomizers. You might want to consider one of the batteries to be manual, but its up to you. I tell everyone to start with one of each to see what you like. The difference is with the automatic, you just inhale, and the manual, you press a small button.

Whats nice about the Volt is that the battery lasts a long time for a mini. On average, I get about 3 hours on a charge and I am a chain vaper. The cartos are about $9 for a pack of 5 before a coupon and realistically they are equal to about 1/2 to 3/4 of a pack of cigs, but it depends on the way you vape. You will get at least that. I go through about 2 to 3 a day but I am vaping about 5 times more than I ever smoked. I used to be a pack a day smoker of marlboro smooth. The nice thing about the Volt cartos is they can be refilled for as little as 20-30cents. They last a really long time. I have refilled most of mine at least 15 times. I have yet to have a burnt taste. That is something that is common to cartomizers when they get empty, but the volt has a different design, and most people do not experience that with them. I did have that problem with the Blu after only about 30 puffs and once you get that, the carto is shot, you can never get rid of that taste IMHO. If you are going to use a flavor from Smokeless Image, I suggest you buy a pack of their prefilled cartos with a bottle of their juice. There is no difference in price from the prefilled to the blanks so you end up getting 5 free ml. When they are empty, just refill them and save your blanks for other companies juices.

Lastly about the Volt. Their customer service is awesome. They generally ship the same day. I have placed 6 orders from them in the last 2 weeks and every one of them has been at my door within 3 days of ordering. The are very nice on the phone and take care of problems right away. I had something missing in my order, so when I called, they sent it out and a freebie for the trouble. It was at my door 2 days later. Also, they have a lot of contests and promos. For example, if you go to the smokeless image forum on here, they have a promotion that if you post a picture of yourself with your volt, they will send you a free battery, juice or pack of cartomizers. That is a great way to get a 3rd battery.

Alot of people on here are into larger PV and will recommend that, but even the veteran vapers will tell you if you are going to go with a mini, go with the Volt. IMHO they are the best mini out there.

Lastly, as for what to use. Throat hit comes from Nicotine level, PG and Mints. I would not go too high with the nicotine level. You were smoking light cigarettes and you WILL vape more than you smoked. Do not go higher than 12 to 14mg. If you feel you need to, you can always weaken it with some vg, but you will be good with that. BLu uses 100%vg, which takes away the throat hit, so you will get one with 12mg and 70%-90% vg. If you like mints, you get a great throat hit. I get a good one with the ry4 from Smokeless image

I also forgot to mention, the nice thing about the volt is later down the line, you can get an x2 battery from them which is like the size of a cigar and the battery life is between 7 to 12 hours for continuous vaping. I know people who have been going 48 hours without recharging. They also have clearomizers. Both of these are interchangeable with their mini batteries and cartomizers.

I know this was a long post, but I hope it helps. DOnt give up, it does work. I know it sucks that their are no stores that sell the better products. I am in South Florida and I encountered the same thing. From what I understand though, the places that do carry stuff, sell it for much more than you pay online.

 

[sailorman]

I second or third the suggestion of the Volt (smokelessimage.com). If you can find them locally, go for it, but they're the top choice on a very, very short list of cig-sized e-cigs. They perform well, they taste good and the service is top-notch. The cartomizers (cartridges) can be refilled. The pre-filled cartridges are not that expensive, being only a few dollars more than what a pack of blank cartos would typically cost. The re-fill juice is priced near the low end at less than $0.50/ml.. Those are all things not typically found with companies that sell mini-cig type of e-cigs.

Personally, I never recommend a mini-cig to anyone. But for those who must have that type of e-cig, I have no reservations about recommending the Volt. They also have X2 1300mah batteries available when you decide that small is not so important anymore (and you probably will). You can wean yourself into a larger battery at home and save your smaller batteries for public use.

Do make sure though, that you get a kit with at least 2 batteries. It's wise to get a 3rd one as well. The last thing you want is to be stuck with one battery if one of them fails or you can't recharge when you need to.

 

[Magikhat]

When I first went off cigs and went to vaping I was looking for the same shape and went with a Joy-E 510 but these do not have enough power when it comes down to it. I would recommend to get a EGO-T battery with Visions v2 clearomizer.


This place has the cheapest vision v2's Vision EGO Clearomizer -V2

So after you buy the battery and the clearomizer all you need is ejuice and you can vape

 

[wv2win]

Being a pack a day smoker, I strongly suggest getting a model with a better battery over the mini-battery types that look like the real thing.

Rule of Thumb: the more it looks like the real thing, the worse the performance.

I would look at the Kgo or the E-Power over the same physical size and over-hyped eGo. The Kgo and E-Power come with better batteries than the ego, but cost about the same, so you get more bang for your buck. These are all the size of a slim cigar or sharpie pen. Stick with manual batteries over the much more limiting and problematic auto batteries.

If you must have a mini-battery model, then I would suggest the Volt. One nice feature about the Volt is you can upgrade the battery to the "Kgo" sized battery at an additional cost.

Here are a couple of well-supported suppliers:

Kgo: http://www.sweet-vapes.com/shop?page=shop.browse&category_id=31

E-Power: Crystal Clear Vaping

Good Luck

 

[Mroutlaw]

Here is that picture I was talking about.

You can see the difference between the 65mm battery all the way up to the the 1300 x2. Like others have said, whats nice about the volt is you can upgrade to the kgo style, which is what the x2 is. What is nice about it is that you dont end up having to get all new cartomizers for it because the ones you have will fit on the x2. So for $17, you get a great large battery and can still use the smaller ones when you are out and about.

PS, I second the recommendation for having a 3rd battery. It sucks if both your batteries go dead at the same time. Like I said though, you can get a free one from SI on their forum here.

 

[estaz]

thank you!

 

[moishesmom]

Welcome & congrats...I hate to break the Volt chain (haven't tried it) but I found the Joyetech 510 was a great starter for me. I don't know where you're in NY, I see that someone already mentioned The Electronic Cigarette Super Store | myvaporstore.com - great company & here's another that has a brick & mortar www.cignot.com; awesome customer service, both just great to deal with. Good luck to you on your new venture.

 

[Pappy]

I would suggest not putting too much emphasis on it looking like a cigarette. That's what I thought I wanted at first. Then, when I did my research (thanks to this great forum), I realized that a lot of other factors were MUCH more important (to me). Your mileage may vary, but I suspect you could buy a KGO or EGO kit and within a week wouldn't care less about vaping something that looked like a real cig.

 

[estaz]

thank you so much for that! was just wondering if 1.2% equals 12mg when you are ordering the cartomizers...
and also, did you find the throat hit sufficient from the cartomizers that came with the starter kit? do these cartomizers or the eliquid contain the pg? sorry if my questions are so rookie-like

Estaz, welcome.

I was in your shoes about a month ago. I wanted to quit for a long time, but couldnt give up the habit of having a cig in my mouth. I too, tried the blu disposable and had the same experience. I ended up ordering the Blu Premium 100 starter kit and hated it. The problem I found with Blu is that the battery dies within an hour, the cartos go bad quick and they cant be refilled. I recommend the Volt from Smokeless Image, that's where I ended up after wasting $180 on Blu (I am still waiting for my $90 refund). Heres why I recommend the Volt.

Like you, I knew I needed the look and feel of an analog. Let me start by saying that nothing is going to be the same weight of an analog, because of the battery, but you get used to it very quickly. But the VOlt will be very close to the size you are looking for. I will try and post a picture comparing for you if I can find it. I recommend you start with the Pro Starter Kit. That will give you 2 batteries, a personal charging case, a usb charger and a pack of cartomizers. That is enough to get you started. You can get that for $65 and there is a promo code "sivolt50" that will give you 15% off. They have 2 sizes, 65mm and 78 mm. the difference would equal a king size analog to a 100 analog. If you can handle the bigger, I recommend that, it lasts a lot longer. I made the mistake of wanting the smaller ones because it will fit in the pcc with a cartomizer attached, but now I dont care about that. I also recommend the mega pcc. It is the same price as the other one, but it holds a spare battery and 3 cartomizers. You might want to consider one of the batteries to be manual, but its up to you. I tell everyone to start with one of each to see what you like. The difference is with the automatic, you just inhale, and the manual, you press a small button.

Whats nice about the Volt is that the battery lasts a long time for a mini. On average, I get about 3 hours on a charge and I am a chain vaper. The cartos are about $9 for a pack of 5 before a coupon and realistically they are equal to about 1/2 to 3/4 of a pack of cigs, but it depends on the way you vape. You will get at least that. I go through about 2 to 3 a day but I am vaping about 5 times more than I ever smoked. I used to be a pack a day smoker of marlboro smooth. The nice thing about the Volt cartos is they can be refilled for as little as 20-30cents. They last a really long time. I have refilled most of mine at least 15 times. I have yet to have a burnt taste. That is something that is common to cartomizers when they get empty, but the volt has a different design, and most people do not experience that with them. I did have that problem with the Blu after only about 30 puffs and once you get that, the carto is shot, you can never get rid of that taste IMHO. If you are going to use a flavor from Smokeless Image, I suggest you buy a pack of their prefilled cartos with a bottle of their juice. There is no difference in price from the prefilled to the blanks so you end up getting 5 free ml. When they are empty, just refill them and save your blanks for other companies juices.

Lastly about the Volt. Their customer service is awesome. They generally ship the same day. I have placed 6 orders from them in the last 2 weeks and every one of them has been at my door within 3 days of ordering. The are very nice on the phone and take care of problems right away. I had something missing in my order, so when I called, they sent it out and a freebie for the trouble. It was at my door 2 days later. Also, they have a lot of contests and promos. For example, if you go to the smokeless image forum on here, they have a promotion that if you post a picture of yourself with your volt, they will send you a free battery, juice or pack of cartomizers. That is a great way to get a 3rd battery.

Alot of people on here are into larger PV and will recommend that, but even the veteran vapers will tell you if you are going to go with a mini, go with the Volt. IMHO they are the best mini out there.

Lastly, as for what to use. Throat hit comes from Nicotine level, PG and Mints. I would not go too high with the nicotine level. You were smoking light cigarettes and you WILL vape more than you smoked. Do not go higher than 12 to 14mg. If you feel you need to, you can always weaken it with some vg, but you will be good with that. BLu uses 100%vg, which takes away the throat hit, so you will get one with 12mg and 70%-90% vg. If you like mints, you get a great throat hit. I get a good one with the ry4 from Smokeless image

I also forgot to mention, the nice thing about the volt is later down the line, you can get an x2 battery from them which is like the size of a cigar and the battery life is between 7 to 12 hours for continuous vaping. I know people who have been going 48 hours without recharging. They also have clearomizers. Both of these are interchangeable with their mini batteries and cartomizers.

I know this was a long post, but I hope it helps. DOnt give up, it does work. I know it sucks that their are no stores that sell the better products. I am in South Florida and I encountered the same thing. From what I understand though, the places that do carry stuff, sell it for much more than you pay online.

 

[estaz]

now things are getting complicated with clearomizers! are these new?

 

[yiddleboge6]

Looks like you've already got some good advice. Don't be afraid to keep on asking questions.
Congrats on deciding to make the switch to vaping and WELCOME to a great forum

 

[estaz]

thanks so much! this would probably be a second generation choice, once i completely wean myself off the cigarettes!

Being a pack a day smoker, I strongly suggest getting a model with a better battery over the mini-battery types that look like the real thing.

Rule of Thumb: the more it looks like the real thing, the worse the performance.

I would look at the Kgo or the E-Power over the same physical size and over-hyped eGo. The Kgo and E-Power come with better batteries than the ego, but cost about the same, so you get more bang for your buck. These are all the size of a slim cigar or sharpie pen. Stick with manual batteries over the much more limiting and problematic auto batteries.

If you must have a mini-battery model, then I would suggest the Volt. One nice feature about the Volt is you can upgrade the battery to the "Kgo" sized battery at an additional cost.

Here are a couple of well-supported suppliers:

Kgo: http://www.sweet-vapes.com/shop?page=shop.browse&category_id=31

E-Power: Crystal Clear Vaping

Good Luck

 

[estaz]

thanks for this! they're not that bad at all! the disposable blu cig i got seems to be larger than this!

Here is that picture I was talking about. View attachment 102202

You can see the difference between the 65mm battery all the way up to the the 1300 x2. Like others have said, whats nice about the volt is you can upgrade to the kgo style, which is what the x2 is. What is nice about it is that you dont end up having to get all new cartomizers for it because the ones you have will fit on the x2. So for $17, you get a great large battery and can still use the smaller ones when you are out and about.

PS, I second the recommendation for having a 3rd battery. It sucks if both your batteries go dead at the same time. Like I said though, you can get a free one from SI on their forum here.

 

[sailorman]

1.2% and 12mg are roughly equivalent. The throat hit is a function of the nicotine level. High VG content mutes throat hit, so some people have the mistaken impression that PG is responsible for more throat hit. In fact, more PG just means there is less VG to mute the throat hit.

The PG and the VG are contained in the liquid, which is a mixture of PG, VG, nicotine and flavoring. The PG and VG are used in varying combinations depending on the manufacturer. PG is a better flavor carrier and thinner. VG is thick and mutes throat hit, but produces more vapor. 70/30 PG/VG ratio is common. Some people have an intolerance to too much PG, or may be allergic to it in rare cases. So, you can get 100% VG liquid as well. You can also get 100% PG liquid if you want.

 

[sailorman]

now things are getting complicated with clearomizers! are these new?

Clearomizers have been out for about 2 years now. They were pretty bad at first, but they've improved dramatically. There are many versions and designs of them. Some are better than others. If they're working well, they're fantastic. The quality of the flavor can't be beat. If they're not working well or if they're a bad design, thery're terrible and a pain to fill or clean. The SI ones look like one of the clearomizers that are very well regarded, but I've never tried them so I can't say for sure how well they work.

 

[estaz]

ok, now i'm in a dilemma! i wonder if the joyetech or the volt is better.

Welcome & congrats...I hate to break the Volt chain (haven't tried it) but I found the Joyetech 510 was a great starter for me. I don't know where you're in NY, I see that someone already mentioned The Electronic Cigarette Super Store | myvaporstore.com - great company & here's another that has a brick & mortar www.cignot.com; awesome customer service, both just great to deal with. Good luck to you on your new venture.