Hey Kaleb,
If you are looking to purchase a new system, from my experience, I have never had any problems with the Screwdriver MkII. Its battery is a 900mAh, 3.7 Volts type and the unit includes two. Additionally, the battery life of the unit is more than 8 hours, even under heavy vaping conditions. I use the unit as if I am on life support and it still takes several hours to run down the battery. It has several conversion kits available for it, and the two atomizers it includes is fairly easy to maintain. Here is a
link to it if you are interested in checking it out.
JonEFive mentioned direct dripping, and he makes a good point for the alternative solution, but most cartomizers have an exposed atomizer once the cartridge portion is removed, which would not be wise to have skin near the heating filament when operating. If your brand is not high-end, most likely it will not offer customizable aftermarket products for it, although you still can find parts that may fit - I would not recommend rigging though. I noticed someone in the thread mentioning warranty concerns, but as long as your nicotine solution uses similar ingredients that are being used you will not have warranty problems, and you are usually able to find those ingredients on the packaging to compare. From my previous experiences with cartomizers, such as the Blu e-cig, most types allow swapping the cartridge component of it for refills. From owning the Blu e-cig , I eventually just found a dealer, TotallyWicked-eLiquid, that sold e-nicotine and refilled the cartridge portion of the cartomizer, which saved money in the long run. After trying some brands of e-cigs, I eventually settled with the Screwdriver MkII as I have found it most reliable and customizable.
You mention throat hit and that depends solely on the mix of the solution being vaped. Some diluents harshen or smooth the hit of your liquid. Three common ones are Propylene Glycol (PG), Polyethylene Glycol 400 (PEG 400), or Aqueous Glycerin (a diluent of Vegetable Glycerin, or VG). One thing about AG/VG is if you get pure VG, it will need to be diluted. Additionally, there are other ingredients in flavoring that contribute to the harshness or smoothness of hit and, finally, the potency of nicotine.
After doing some experimentation, if you do decide to customize your own flavors, I have learned some things that are okay and things to never use and seldom use. FIRST, never put Methyl Salicylate, or Wintergreen flavor, in or on any plastic components of your e-cig as it WILL dissolve the plastic. Call the manufacturer to verify that the atomizer does not contain plastic components if you do decide to use it, and I would prefer ONLY to direct drip if you admire the Wintergreen flavor. Another thing is some ingredients with flavors will gunk up or damage your atomizer, or, specifically, the filament. One well known ingredient is sugar based ingredients, so stay away from caramels and other sugars. There are some controversies about using oil-based flavors, but from testing, I cannot find any detrimental results concluding from their use, only that they do not mix well and would need to be mixed with the diluent and nicotine "very well" and only applied to the atomizer by direct dripping. If oil-based ingredients are being used, the atomizer will need to be cleaned after every use, preferrably with hot water. One other ingredient that has not been confirmed is acidic ingredients. These ingredients may damage the filament through erosion, but there are individuals who clean the atomizers with vinegar, myself included, so I could not say a mild level of acidicity is harmful.
As being new, there is much more to learn with vaping as the intentions of vaping is to safely draw nicotine in a vaporized form without causing harmful effects. So I just wanted to share my discoveries with you and hopefully you gain more knowledge as your appreciation for vaping grows.
