newb looking for advice

[Whiplash205]

First some background. I'm 50, and have smoked since I was ten. About a 1 1/2 to 2 pack a day smoker. My wife also smokes about the same but started only ten yrs ago.
Smoke Marlboro menthol(lifelong menthol smoker).

We are looking to move to vaping for health and cost reasons. Quitting cold turkey is not an option as I am a trucker, she rides with me all the time, and nicotine withdrawals in that environment means somebody's gonna die. Lol.

I don't care if the unit is the size of an analog cigarette(preferably no box mods though). Tried the blu and njoy ones in the truck stops and they just don't cut it. No quality control and not enough oomph to em.

I am looking for units that would give good performance and be easy to maintain in my environment, ie can't be stopping a lot to refill, and the ride of a truck can be hard on breakables. I don't mind spending more for quality, and as an ex programmer I tend to overbuy rather than go cheap and just have to upgrade later. Any advice is greatly appreciated. One question in particular. Is it possible to prefill tanks or clearimizers to make swapping a fresh one in fast and easy.

Also any advice on the number of backup parts, juice I would need to ensure 1 to 2 weeks running would be helpful. I know this would be a pure guesstimate but I would rather err on the overkill side than be stuck on the road with the wife and us both going nuts cause we ran out/had stuff break. See above line on probable spouse-a-cide.
Also if anyone knows of decent b/m shops in the atlanta area that would be a big help.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

[Clayton993]

Take a look at the joyetech eroll. I've been using it for 2 weeks and love it. I've used many others and found them to be too much hassle, too weak or too big. The eroll is easy to refill with a needle tip bottle and I do it while driving, but I don't recommend you to do the same.

To give you atleast 2 weeks worth, I'd buy the starter kit, a 5 pack of carts and maybe 3 10ml bottles of juice. All that can be had for under $70 I believe. It also doesn't hurt to buy a few extra atomizers, but the starter kit comes with 2 and that should last atleast a month if you keep it wet and don't let your carts go empty.

If your wife is also switching then you would need to buy double everything

 

[Clayton993]

Oh and yes you can prefill all the carts. They come with rubber caps so they don't leak while you store them. Easy as pulling off the old cart and popping the new one on.

 

[The Ocelot]

Hi and welcome! Congratulations for wanting to get nicotine out of your life.

There are a number of good products on the market. What is the budget for the two of you?

 

[Bill's Magic Vapor]

Vamo is a good place to start. You can use with an 18650 battery and use it all day, in most cases. Variable voltage and power, ego and 510 threaded. OLED screen, and can be used with an 18350 battery as well (smaller form factor). Removeable drip well. Recommend the V3 in stainless steel. Very nice. I have one. Also, one in chrome and a chrome V2. V3 stainless the best, imho. Great entry level with great power, flexibililty and battery life. You'll need a charger and batts. Fasttech has a good one for $58. Add a topper and juice, and you have something that won't need upgrading for a while. But, you do need backups. Very important, because you can't get these at the corner drug store. Best clearos are the Protank V1 and V2 just came out, and the Davide. They are pyrex and can break if you drop on concrete. but still a very nice clearomizer. Maybe get the PT2 and the Davide, both. Then get lotsa juice samplers. Try Heather's Heavenly Vapes, MyFreedomSmokes, Johnson Creek and Mount Baker Vapor (no samplers, but inexpensive and good). Best to you!

 

[Whiplash205]

Starting budget prob Max out at $200. And we are both switching. I know like a lot of things the initial cost outlay is where you take the big hit so I am prepared for that. Plus I'm on a plastic buying freeze (disc golfer) so I have a little extra to invest. Actually one of the main reasons I'm switching to vaping is lower costs down the road so I can afford more discs. Lol.

 

[lmacias324]

really any starter kit should be good . a lot of people start with micro vaped

 

[r77r7r]

Darn, how much does a frisbee cost nowadays???

 

[Whiplash205]

Premium plastic is about $18 a pop. More for first run stamped discs.

 

[Clayton993]

Good luck on finding the right setup for you two. Be sure to use a trusted vendor from these forums and always look for discount codes to save you some money, those 5-20% off really add up in the long run.

 

[The Ocelot]

This is an amended list, since it is for two people:

You each need two batteries, if it is a one piece battery unit
One device each if you get a unit with replaceable batteries
If getting replaceable batteries, you need at least two batteries each
You can get away with one charger, if you pay attention and keep things charged.

After that, I recommend you spend the majority of the budget on trying different Juice Delivery Systems (what screws in top) top coil, bottom coil, carto tanks, etc. and juice samples to experiment with. You don't have much experience in what you might like yet. It's the juice and what toppers you have that will make the most impact on your vaping right now.

If you go with a one piece device, I always suggested getting at least one name brand (like Joyetech or Vision), since people tend to have less problems with them. Personally, I use all name brands, but if budget is an issue, generics are fine, especially for back up.

VV/VW is nice to have, it allows you to fine tune at what temperature the liquid is vaporized, which has an impact of flavor, throat hit and vapor production; but again, if there is a budget constraint at this time, it's not absolutely necessary. I quit smoking just fine with a regular 650mAg eGo and didn't even get variable voltage for several months. Since you've never "really" vaped anyway, this gear is going to blow you away whether VV/VW or not.

 

[scotton]

A couple of times a year I do a 10 day road trip and my preferred rig is an MVP with a Protank mini. The MVP lasts at least a day and I can charge it with the same charger I use for my phone, so I don't have extra crap laying around. I have a second tank that I can screw on while driving, and fill them both up when I stop to eat. I also like that I can set the MVP down and it doesn't roll around. If you had two, you could probably chain them together and charge both at the same time.

The best thing I did was find a good local shop that mixes their own favors and nic levels, so I can run a lower nic level when I'm driving and chain vaping and a higher nic level when I'm home and hitting it less often.

 

[Necrosis]

Was in a similar position as OP, decided to forgo all the lower end batteries and just started with an eVic with the hopes it'll have all the features I need to not worry about wanting to upgrade for a looooong time (other than tanks anyways). So far so good!

 

[Oavio]

As someone who has been smoke-free for a week and smoked on about your level when I quit, I can tell you that most people - the ecig manufacturers most of all - underestimated my ecig needs. I started with two chargers and three batteries and found myself cutting it close a few times, and even with full strength cartridges (24mg, or 2.4%) I was puffing twice what the equivalent cigarette intake would have been.

If your marriage is at stake, I would invest in white cloud products. Some of their more popular flavors run up to 54mg strength (what they call double extra strength), and their clear draw filters (as opposed to their smooth draw) feel a lot more like a cigarette .... than anything else I've tried. White cloud also has a neat "squid" charger, which charges three batteries at once off of one usb port, so if you have a car cigarette lighter usb adapter, you can more readily keep up with your vaping than if you could only charge one at a time (I can tell you that staring at the charging light is an awful way to pass a nicotine craving). Batteries go out faster than cartridges, at least in the cigarette-sized ecigs, so that's the part you really have to stay on top of. Smokeless Image Volt 78mm batteries work best for me, providing the most vapor and longest charge. They also recharge in white cloud's squid charger. A little tip on these batteries: the pen clip sold for Fischer Space Pen's bullet pen fits on the end of this battery, allowing you to keep it clipped on a shirt or pants pocket. The clip gets its best friction on the silver-colored batteries, so I go with those and just use different colored clips to differentiate between batteries. You can find these pen clips on ebay by searching for the bullet space pen and scrolling down; you'll see them on the first page.

I would count on at least fifteen pre-filled cartridges for your first week, or thirty for you and your spouse. Some might say that's a bit high, but that's nearly what I've gone through. Remember that you have to vape much more often than you would smoke. There are about forty different addictive substances in cigarette smoke, and only one (nicotine) in ecig vapor, so you have to get a lot more nicotine to help overcome those other addictions, at least for the first few days. Also remember to draw longer on the ecig than you would on a cigarette; it takes longer for the atomizer to warm up than it takes for the cigarette cherry to burn.

I live on the north side of Gwinnett, and while I don't know of any decent vaping stores in the area, I can tell you that everything I have ordered from white cloud and smokeless image (which has been a lot) has arrived in two business days with priority shipping, which is free on orders over $55 from smokeless image, and fairly cheap from white cloud.

One last thing: try to continue taking smoke breaks. I have found that puffing away on an ecig while at my computer for an hour is not as satisfying as five minutes of walking around my ashtray outside while vaping. So much of the addiction to smoking is just habit, and if you replace the chemical without continuing the routine, you will find yourself still craving.

Good luck.

 

[gerrymi]

The Best Ecig Starter Kit in the World

The Best Ecig Starter Kit in the World - YouTube

 

[robbhud121]

you can get the ego CE4 setup for 10 bucks on ebay, It works fine for me, only problem is the clearomizer that it comes with is disposable, but you can buy the CE5 tank for 3-6 bucks and it can be rebuilt with ease.

 

[ChipHead]

My two cents: Buy at least four Vision Spinners 1300 mah. Two for you and two for the wife. Since you're driving truck figure out which car chargers will work for you. Pickup a handful of Kanger T3s' and twenty or so replaceable heads. My wife is a menthol smoker and the only stuff she'll touch is Backwoods Brew Medium menthol. Start with at least 18 mg nicotine. Good luck.

 

[2naphish]

never expected to run into a disc golfer here... but glad to see it...started playing in 1982 dayton ohio.

smoked analogs for 40 years, vaping for 5 months now and haven't touched a coffin nail since.

 

[nmackan]

If I have to visualise you in front of my eyes, I should decide you to prefer cartomisers since you would be furious if your atomiser heads junked and wants to be cleaned. Also you should get a tank too. (a bit messy in the beginning but if you do whatever prescribed right there will be no problems)
And for batteries I would suggest AVP's Evic for instance. Dont get tiny objects as batteries (for the lady may be and any back up would be useful)
As for liquids which is the most important part of all vaping idea. I think you consider this as easy but there are rates of the ingredients which is necessary for something but might give you allergic troubles. also nicotine level is important. If it is less you crave for cigarettes if much you will have dizzyness and headache (Fortunately it is for a couple of hours only if you cease to get them for a while)
I would sugest not to go upper limits wit liquids 24mg/ml should be high enough. I personally was a chain smoker of hand rolled cigarettes (20-30 gr/day) and 24 was enough in the beginning. Even than I had bought VG and diluted them until I get the taste to my liking.
well good decision and good deeds I hope you every success my friend. Happy vapings

 

[Rossum]

In a truck all day? That makes battery-capacity a non-issue if the 'battery' in question has pass-through capability.