New Vaper. Old questions.

[brainweasel]

Hey there everyone! New vaper here and I have a couple of quick questions. First, I think I should tell you what my kit is: About a week ago I got myself set up with an itaste vv 3.0, mini protank three and one bottle of menthol flavored liquid. So far, it has paid for itself by not buying cigarettes and I can spend a bit of extra dough to make my experience better. Here goes with my newbie questions:

1.) It's an obvious that I really need to buy myself a spare battery, right? My gal got set up with a Kanger Evod, and although the local brick and mortar shop charged her a dubious amount of money compared to what I have seen online, I really like the way her thingie hits. Now, if I purchased the same model can I expect the same vape, or is that a bit touch and go?

2.) The brick and mortar store really left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm all for supporting the local shop, but I really went in and bought a starter kit on a whim and did not do my normal amount of research. Afterwards, when looking around this forum, I realized that we were charged double to triple the costs of our products. I can't do business with them after that. It was my fault the first time for not shopping around, so I was wondering if you fellows have a list of reputable online dealers you could swing my way.

3.) I mentioned my one bottle of menthol juice I purchased. I have already had a quick case of the 'vapers tongue' (this forum cleared that worry up quickly ) and I came to a quick realization that I have to expand my horizons. As of right now, I'm not very interested in the multitudes of flavors out there, but I know I need something different. A nice coffee flavor sounds interesting, and I am certain that coffee and menthol residue is not going to mix for my personal tastes. So, I'm really interested in how that works. Would taking my tank apart and cleaning it every time I want to switch up flavors be feasible? It sounds like an awful hassle. Should I invest in a few different tanks? Are there cheaper options? I am already on the cusp of buying a protank 3 as I am filling the mini up a couple of times a day. Really, any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys and gals.

BW

 

[FourWinds]

Hola,

I don't have answers to your 1,2, and 3.

My local B&M is owned by a nice guy, but he doesn't even label the stock with prices!!! I hate that.

In the future, when things have calmed down a bit, I will go out of my way to support B&Ms. Currently the ones near me both don't need or deserve my support. I'd like to shop at a local B&M but they are currently all tossers and I won't do it.

 

[pauly walnuts]

Whats up weasel, welcome to the forum. Heres some advice from me, a vaper of almost a year.
1. Yes, for sure get a spare battery. If your already using vv/vw batteries, dont down grade. The ability to adjust your power is crucial to getting the best vape experience, across a wide range of ohm resistances, tank types, and liquids. The innokin vv3 is a good little battery, get another one for consistency sake, then upgrade to a mod after you get the money, and do the research.

2. Look at the ecf forum business members, they is an enormous list at the bottom of the forum main page. Their prices and shipping will vary a bit, so find the best deal you can, or save money by buying multiple things from the same place.
When I order more than one thing online, I will search for the place that has everything I need. Sometimes its a challenge, but I typically save money over seperate orders. Also, look for a place close to you, your package will get to you quicker.

3. Since your just starting out, get a couple tanks and avoid being forced to clean when switching juices, make sure they all use the same coils (example. get a couple evods, or a mini protank2 and a normal protank 2). Might I suggest getting a protank 2(instead of protank3) and using a aerotank base. The reason is, it is single coil and if you want to save money by rebuilding coils, its much easier. You may not even want to think about rebuilding coils now, but someday you may. Its much cheaper and you get much better results than factory coils.

Ive been through the ringer with bad decisions and dumb vape purchases. If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[Anarchy84]

Hey there everyone! New vaper here and I have a couple of quick questions. First, I think I should tell you what my kit is: About a week ago I got myself set up with an itaste vv 3.0, mini protank three and one bottle of menthol flavored liquid. So far, it has paid for itself by not buying cigarettes and I can spend a bit of extra dough to make my experience better. Here goes with my newbie questions:

1.) It's an obvious that I really need to buy myself a spare battery, right? My gal got set up with a Kanger Evod, and although the local brick and mortar shop charged her a dubious amount of money compared to what I have seen online, I really like the way her thingie hits. Now, if I purchased the same model can I expect the same vape, or is that a bit touch and go?

2.) The brick and mortar store really left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm all for supporting the local shop, but I really went in and bought a starter kit on a whim and did not do my normal amount of research. Afterwards, when looking around this forum, I realized that we were charged double to triple the costs of our products. I can't do business with them after that. It was my fault the first time for not shopping around, so I was wondering if you fellows have a list of reputable online dealers you could swing my way.

3.) I mentioned my one bottle of menthol juice I purchased. I have already had a quick case of the 'vapers tongue' (this forum cleared that worry up quickly ) and I came to a quick realization that I have to expand my horizons. As of right now, I'm not very interested in the multitudes of flavors out there, but I know I need something different. A nice coffee flavor sounds interesting, and I am certain that coffee and menthol residue is not going to mix for my personal tastes. So, I'm really interested in how that works. Would taking my tank apart and cleaning it every time I want to switch up flavors be feasible? It sounds like an awful hassle. Should I invest in a few different tanks? Are there cheaper options? I am already on the cusp of buying a protank 3 as I am filling the mini up a couple of times a day. Really, any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys and gals.

BW

1. You should definitely purchase a spare battery (or several). So long as you're using the same battery / mod and the same topper, you can expect relatively similar performance. I own a variety of identical mods and they perform similarly when using identical toppers. If you like the way your lady's setup performs, grabbing an identical setup should produce satisfying results.

2. There is a list of forum suppliers listed on ECF. I typically don't do business with anyone not on that list, as they are trusted by the people on these forums. I would check that list out (link below). Personally, I recommend Virgin Vapors for e-liquid (more expensive than crappy juice, but worth it), IBTanked for tanks (I use cartos), and MyVaporStore for most everything else. Good customer service from each of those vendors, but there are numerous options to choose from. Check them out for yourself:

Forum Suppliers

3. I personally have invested in several identical tanks (IBTanked), but I still clean them every time I change a cartomizer / atomizer. It takes me about 10 minutes once every 2-3 weeks. I know several vapers who rarely clean their tanks. It's really up to you. I just enjoy having multiple tanks for different flavors, and being able to swap them out without worrying about whether one is dirty, etc.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[brainweasel]

Thank you guys so much!

 

[LondonGirl]

I can't help you with supplier recommendations as I'm in the UK, but yes you definitely need a spare battery!

The vape depends more on the tank and the juice than the battery.

It's well worth having a few tanks, especially for keeping flavours like menthol and coffee separate. Evod tanks are cheaper than protank minis, so might be a good alternative. Evod, and protank 1&2 use the same coils, but protank 3 uses a different coil. Coils are another thing you need spares of, as they tend to last 1-2 weeks. You could use several tanks with different flavours during the day, or look into a larger tank. Depends how much variety you need really.

Vaping can definitely save money compared to cigarettes, but it can take a few weeks to find what suits you best before you start to see savings. You might want to put your whole cigarette budget into vaping for 2 weeks or so, and then after that you will have to decide how much shiny stuff you want.

 

[JoshUng]

3.) I mentioned my one bottle of menthol juice I purchased. I have already had a quick case of the 'vapers tongue' (this forum cleared that worry up quickly ) and I came to a quick realization that I have to expand my horizons. As of right now, I'm not very interested in the multitudes of flavors out there, but I know I need something different. A nice coffee flavor sounds interesting, and I am certain that coffee and menthol residue is not going to mix for my personal tastes. So, I'm really interested in how that works. Would taking my tank apart and cleaning it every time I want to switch up flavors be feasible? It sounds like an awful hassle. Should I invest in a few different tanks? Are there cheaper options? I am already on the cusp of buying a protank 3 as I am filling the mini up a couple of times a day. Really, any feedback on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys and gals.

BW

Yeah, you're definitely going to want an extra tank or so, especially if you are going menthol and coffee. Depending on how you end of up vaping, rebuildables may be the best way to go, but it you want to avoid that (or just aren't ready yet), separate tanks is the way to go. I like Aspire tanks. The Nautilus is pricey, but worth it in my book. Aspire has cheaper tanks too though. When you do your research, I'd suggest finding tanks that you can easily t replacement coils for.

I guess I'm spoiled by B&Ms, all of them by me are nice (and there are 4 within 30 minutes), and they seem to each have their own thing going (cheap juice, most knowledgeable, etc). Depending where you are, you may be best served looking to see if there are others around. Though to be fair to the shop, starter kits are probably the thing I see priced the most varied everywhere. I've seen them from $15 to $60, sometimes because of the location selling, sometimes because its a different product. It's possible they sold you a $40 starter kit, and you found a $15 kit online, but they could be two different things (generic vs brand name, etc). Of course, you could have gotten screwed too. That would be too bad though, because I think a B&M is essential (at least to me), whether for learning, or just for community.

 

[Margie123]

I feel your pain in paying a high price at the BM. I walked in off the street not knowing the first thing about ecigs and walked out with a cheap starter kit and some juices for triple what I could have got on line. But after wasting a lot of money there I've learned my lesson. I hated to go on line to order because it's so impersonal and I would like to support the community Bm but I just can't justify paying those prices. If you don't mind waiting a few days for your stuff shop around on line and you can save a ton of money
As far as flavors go. I was a menthol smoker for many years. I started out with menthol juice and eventually tried fruit and bakery flavors and now can't go back to the menthol juices I have. So I'd definitely try a few other flavors before you stock up on menthol.

 

[deisenhour1]

Find a B&M that you like, is honest, has reasonable prices and support them. Opening a business is a huge investment and having quick access to quality products at a reasonable price is awesome very few B&M Stores can match the very bottom dollar online price because there is extensive overhead in a B&M that you do not have online. So if it costs 25.99 online and 27.99 in your local B&M then what you are paying for is convenience and the ability to touch the product BEFORE you hand over your credit card.

 

[brainweasel]

First of all I would like to thank the forum members here at ECF for being great. I know it must be rough answering newbies questions over and over again, but you guys really got back to me quick and gave me a lot to think about. I appreciate it. Forums such as this can be a scary thing to new members, but you all seem very welcoming and personable to us joining your community.

I would very much like to reply to all of you to thank you on the sound advice and the other bits that you have me thinking on, but I think that most of these replies were focused on my bad B&M experience, so I can clear that up quickly.

I really liked the gentleman at my local Vape shop. He set my dame and I up with a couple of starter kits, and enough information to get us going. I mentioned before that I went in uninformed on anything vape related and the fellow was as gracious as can be, and probably would have given me as much time as possible to make sure that I was going to get what I needed and answer any questions that I had. I put myself in his hands and asked what he was vaping with and he set me up with my aforementioned kit as a great starter. Money wasn't really an object, only ease of use.

I've been a smoker for twenty years. Two packs a day for at least half of that time, and I didn't have a smoke before I went to bed the same night that I first vaped on my starter itaste. How did I not know that this was an option? I've never even entertained the thought of quitting until I moved into a non smoking apartment two weeks ago...and here's the thing; how do I let every smoker I know understand that with a vaporizer and ejuice, I haven't bought a pack of cigarettes since. I went online to buy a starter kit for my mother, my sister and a lad I know that's having trouble quitting and found out real quick that I was just screwed by the B&M store. They have given me something worth more than the fifty bucks over charge for two simple batteries, so I'm not actually angry; just a little annoyed. I'm rambling again....sorry guys. A few bucks is a few bucks and I don't mind that, but fifty bones for an evod 650. Ripped off. Side note before my rambling is done, I went back to the same joint for juice because I like the guys that work there... just won't be buying any upgrades or kits from them... Weasel.