New to vaping in Phoenix

[Keithhesh]

So even though I guess I have sort of made my presence known in a few thereads I figured I would start one of my own really quick to officially say hi.

My name is Keith and I am a lifetime Arizona resident.

I work at a local hospital.

I'm just over 5 days in to my vaping journey and am loving every minute of it.

Used to be a 1 pack a day smoker and haven't had a single analog since I started vaping.

I started with a Halo Triton tank system and have actually really enjoyed it and am enjoying it more and more every new day.

I have however already made my first upgrade purchase...

Today in the mail I will be recieving my Itaste Mvp starter kit with 2 Iclear somethings.... and a Kanger Protank.

I definitely want to christen the protank with something new so if anyone has any local juices from a local shop that they would reccomend I would be grateful.

Have been leaning more towards the sweet side of things and havent really tried any tobacco flavored vapes yet but if you read this and have a "Oh man you have to try this one!!" moment feel free to chime in.

I haven't nessasarily found my go to all day vape yet and don't know if I ever will but lately I have been puffing on mtbakervapors blueberry cheesecake mixed with their waffle for a breakfasty vape and Hitecvapors peanutbutter.

Really want to try some radiator pluid, bobas bounty, bounty hunter and jabbas hookah but since I really dont want to wait for shipping, most of those seem sold out, and I didn't really plan accordingly I want to support some local juice.

What have you been vaping Phoenix?


- Keith

 

[Rat2chat2]

Hi Keith. Great post. Most of the time I feel like a kid in a candy store here. I want to try all the flavors you mentioned. I am still searching for the "one" or 2,3 or 4. I just am enjoying the journey and feeling better everyday.

 

[F Bailey]

Welcome to the world of vaping. Im sure someone local will chime in. Are you juicing at 0% nicotine?

 

[davelog]

Welcome to VIP and vaping, Keith!

Local juice recommendations - my wife ADORES Zikwid's Zanilla if you like vanilla vapes, and I recently tried a few of .... Out's new house liquids and found the Melon Collie and their pina colada flavor (Can't remember what it's called) to be very exciting flavors.

Boutique juices - I don't chase most of the high-demand juices, but I do always have Halo Belgian Cocoa and Backwoods Brew Malty Toffee on hand, and have recently secured a good-sized bottle of Grant's Vanilla Custard from across the pond - if you'd like to try any of these, let me know and maybe we can get together for a samplin' session before the next meet!

This is a great time to be a vaper. The technology is constantly improving and going in cool new directions, public awareness and acceptance is on the rise, studies are showing positive results, and the FDA and lawmakers are slowly starting to take note. Quitting the nails has never been so easy!

 

[Keithhesh]

I have been mixing it up a little between nic and 0 nic. I smoked Parliment lights so I didnt need anything too heavy so I have been pretty consitent in ordering 6mg nic. I did have one 6ml bottle of english toffee with 12mg of nic that I tore thru pretty quickly during an extra shift at work. For the most part 6mg has been rocking for me and not keeping me up at night.

I have found that I have been tearing thru juice too.

I thought that with the variety of juices I initially ordered that I would have an abundance to last me awhile but a few were sample packs and a few were 10ml bottles.

I have been vaping ALOT.

Much different than smoking where I didn't smoke indoors or in my Jeep. Now I plop down on the couch and puff or ride around town and puff...I'm actually surprised I havent tried to puff in the shower yet. It might slow down but it's just so damn enjoyable.

Welcome to the world of vaping. Im sure someone local will chime in. Are you juicing at 0% nicotine?

 

[Keithhesh]

Welcome to VIP and vaping, Keith!

Local juice recommendations - my wife ADORES Zikwid's Zanilla if you like vanilla vapes, and I recently tried a few of .... Out's new house liquids and found the Melon Collie and their pina colada flavor (Can't remember what it's called) to be very exciting flavors.

Boutique juices - I don't chase most of the high-demand juices, but I do always have Halo Belgian Cocoa and Backwoods Brew Malty Toffee on hand, and have recently secured a good-sized bottle of Grant's Vanilla Custard from across the pond - if you'd like to try any of these, let me know and maybe we can get together for a samplin' session before the next meet!

This is a great time to be a vaper. The technology is constantly improving and going in cool new directions, public awareness and acceptance is on the rise, studies are showing positive results, and the FDA and lawmakers are slowly starting to take note. Quitting the nails has never been so easy!

Thanks for the heads up on the local flavors and I definitely might hit you up before the next meet up. I actually found this group the day after the last one but I was working anyway.

I think the only hyped juice I have bought into so far is Alice in Vapeland and I bought enough to scratch my curiosity. Still not even sure when that order is going to ship but once it does I'll probably decide if I'll buy into hype from other high demand juices. If it knocks my socks off I will definitely be singing their praises here on ECF.

So far today I just couldn't bring myself to go to a shop.

I feel like I'm going to be bummed about prices after shopping HITEC but at the same time, after sampling at HiTec for a good hour there was nothing I REALLY fell in love with other than there prices.

Juice wasn't bad in any way shape or form but nothing really stands out in my memory other than their pizza juice...which I don't know if I would be able to handle for a tanks worth.

Maybe if I picked up an atomizer too but payday isn't until Wed at midnight.


I might actually just stroll up there after the mail comes today and sample again... will post if I find something great.

I plan on going to .... Out Thursday morning and then making the long trek to check out Vape Escape shortly after that. (Really curious about that place)

 

[Keithhesh]

Looks like I'm gonna check out Vape Escape sooner than I thought. The owner just offered me a 30ml bottle as a belated wedding gift on my facebook page. Will check it out and post a juice review soon. Pretty stoked to check them out. I was going to go check them out anyway since theyre giving out a free strawberry lemonade 6ml sample...but wow.

I might even pick up a bottle of some pink spot to check that out while I'm there.

 

[davelog]

That's awesome, I wanna check that place out too. Take some pix and post 'em up!

 

[Keithhesh]

Got my MVP and Protank. Time to go and fill it up. Will try to take some pics too. Bringing my DSLR too just incase the Iphone doesnt cut it.

That's awesome, I wanna check that place out too. Take some pix and post 'em up!

 

[Aubie80]

Looks like I'm gonna check out Vape Escape sooner than I thought. The owner just offered me a 30ml bottle as a belated wedding gift on my facebook page. Will check it out and post a juice review soon. Pretty stoked to check them out. I was going to go check them out anyway since theyre giving out a free strawberry lemonade 6ml sample...but wow.

I might even pick up a bottle of some pink spot to check that out while I'm there.

I love the pink spot juice, always a got to for me, the canteberry crush is amazing as well, very nice shop indeed at vape escapes. Dave you do need to go check them out very friendly staff. At the meet a guy let me try banana pudding frome the plume room, needless to say later that night I placed an order at plume room(I got my order in before they put banana pudding up as their juice of the week, $10.50 for a 30 ml bottle.)
The banana nut bread from desert vapes is pretty good to, not overpowering banana flavor, you can actually taste the spices that go into making the actual bread.

 

[Keithhesh]

x2 Dave, Gotta stop into this place. Very cool laid back vibe. They're still in their soft opening so the owners definitely have their listening ears on. The juice selection was great and I can imagine will only get better or with their big catalog of juices and website (once it's running) it's gonna be a good place to get a fresh made batch from.

Equipment was meh.

I didn't look around much at that (Ego's, rebranded lavatube 1 etc.) but they told me they are gearing towards the new vaper off the street for that kind of stuff. I kind of agree since most people that know what they want, know what they want and will most likely find a better price online vs. a brick and mortar any day of the week.

No Kanger Pro tanks.

That would be a good shelf item in my opinion but again I really don't know if they would see a profit with a competitive price and it is a pricey tank to just have sitting on the shelf.

But I'm no business major anyway so what do I know.

As far as the store vibe it was COMFORTABLE.

Nice cool, relaxing colors on the wall, beachy themed everything (surfboard menus) Nice big tv with the baseball game on. IMO I would even go as far as to say skip the sports channels and throw on some surf documentarys to give it even more of an island vibe, eg. endless summer, riding giants, step into liquid, september sessions etc. but I really love that stuff. (I drive all the way to desert ridge to Islands burgers, not only for their delicious gormet burgers but also for the art and videos on screen that let me forget for a second that I'm in the middle of the desert)

Now Juice.

I originally planned to go into Vape Escape to sample some Pink Spot with out blind ordering some to be shipped and to find out I don't like it.

I was more inclined to go in yesterday when the owner contacted me and offered me a deal that said "Dude just come into our store today, we really want you to check it out."

So when I first got there I had Pink Spot on the brain. Now, I'm not going to say Pink Spot wasn't worth the drive cause it was. I'm not going to say that I tried some Pink Spot flavors that I didn't absolutely love, cause I did.

But this place has some AMAZING (made in house) juices that will keep me coming back for more.

In fact, with every customer they start a sheet of the samples (oh there were lots to sample) that you love and you write them down, they cross off what you want now and then file it away for next time.

I was hard pressed to not ask for a second sheet after I filled every blank spot of my first sheet.

This is good quality juice and while it is not the lowest price in town you definitely get what you pay for. I got 2 bottles (1 30ml and 1 12ml) and I know I will be back for more.

12mls were just over 10 bucks and 30mls were at 22.95

I skipped the pink spot stuff for my order and went with 2 house blends.

Chocolate Mint - which is somehow an Andes mint in liquified form with a little added nic.

And Grape Escape - which makes me think of a tamer, more mellow, Grape Kool Aid that you could sip on all day beach side.

I don't want to give this place a thumbs up or thumbs down. Even though in my opinion it is a great brick and mortar that I will be making frequent repeat visits too. But like juice tastes I think Brick and Mortar expreiences are very subjective to each customer.

I would at the very least reccomend stopping in for a minute to check out their digs and to meet the very very friendly staff.

Also if you make it in before Sunday they are giving away a sample bottle of their Pink Lemonade blend until supplies run out.

Just a warning though the pizza joint next door smells like heaven.

https://www.facebook.com/VapeEscapes?fref=ts

 

[Hellen A. Handbasket]

<- Late to the party.


Welcome Keith. Hope to see you at a meet soon. You found us on Facebook ok?

(I'm also a life long resident... 3rd generation native born in AZ)

edit: If you want a Kanger ProTank, you can get one locally from Craig at Kidney Puncher (he's on our Facebook group) for $20 or you can go to iVape on line to see if they still have them for $14.95 each. I bought 4 of them a week ago when they had some coupon codes out as well so it was $63.06 for all 4 delivered. Love these tanks... I'm just getting the hang of dry burning them after a soak in some PGA (works great). I haven't rebuilt one yet (need to find the wire/silica and get it ordered). I just wish someone would get the atty heads in stock and cheap so I don't have to diddle with all that.

 

[Keithhesh]

Just sent a group join request on Facebook. I got my protank from Ivape in the mail yesterday and love it. Either gonna order a few more from them or make the small trek to Desert Vape for more (looks they have a similar deal.

Using the Iclear 16's that came with my new MVP too but the protank blows them out of the water. Doesnt help that the threads got stuck inside of the beauty ring on my mvp and I ended up getting juiced.

Won't make that mistake again.

 

[blindmice]

Hey Keith,

Thanks for the info on the new shop!! I can't wait to check this place out. I haven't found any vape stores even remotely close to my area. I go to this mall all the time so I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the info.

 

[Aubie80]

Hey Keith,

Thanks for the info on the new shop!! I can't wait to check this place out. I haven't found any vape stores even remotely close to my area. I go to this mall all the time so I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the info.

What part of town do you live in?

 

[Hellen A. Handbasket]

Don't forget we have a complete listing of local Arizona suppliers as a Sticky Document. I keep it regularly updated.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...9-rollcall-local-phoenix-e-cig-suppliers.html

If you find a place that needs to be on this list, just PM me with the info. and I'll add it!

 

[blindmice]

What part of town do you live in?

I'm in Fountain Hills