Newbie-to-newbie: what worked; what didn't

[mikea]

I'll break this into two parts -- a first message and one reply. I'm writing it in case it might be helpful to others who are new to this e-cig technology, as I am. I made a few mistakes along the way; maybe a few people can avoid those same mistakes. (B.t.w., I'm not affiliated in any way with vendors or products mentioned in these messages. And I realize that it's a your mileage may vary sort of world.)

Vendors who haven't been great so far:

I'm not going to mention any names, but: those who are selling for $145 the sort of products in kit form that everyone else is selling for $45. Alas, there are web sites when you end up spending way more than you should. I don't think they're unethical -- they're entitled set their pricing as they see fit. (And we're entitled to vote with our wallets. Don't get drawn into that kind of pricing the way I did first time around.)

Vendors who've been great so far:

Eastmall: quickly responsive in e-mail and very customer-service-oriented. Best prices I've seen so far -- they're in China, so you don't get immediate gratification on shipping unless you're also in China

ElectroNicStix: quickly responsive in e-mail, good prices, pretty fast shipping

Rocky Mountain Vapor: reasonable prices, pretty fast shipping, and no shipping charges (that might not apply to all states in the U.S.).

Widows Bead Work: Yep, there's an e-cig store there; great for ordering if you're on the west coast because your merchandise arrives quickly. Good prices. Quickly responsive in e-mail. Free shipping [again, I don't expect this from vendors -- but it's "nice to have"; I don't know offhand what locations can't benefit from the free shipping]).

Johnson Creek (for e-liquids): very reponsive in e-mail and very customer-service-oriented. Good products -- not the cheapest but the flavors are good. (I bought some cheap 'juice' elsewhere and it's like: dude, where's my flavor?) I started out feeling a bit if-fy about some of the flavors but I'm liking them more and more. They do an outstanding job of child-safe/leakproof packaging of liquids -- best I've seen so far. (Some hardware suppliers just toss the poly bottle into the package with your other stuff; that isn't good.) Each order comes with an eyedropper and an additional 3ml poly bottle with dropper spout -- a nice touch.

Next: equipment that worked for me; equipment that didn't

 

[mikea]

I made the same kind of mistake many others do (gotta forgive ourselves for it even as we're kicking ourselves : getting very enthusiastic about e-cig technology, latching onto the first thing that looks/sounds good, rolling our eyes at the high prices, buying right away -- and spending way more money than need be. (Part of this was due to my first having seen a bunch of very badly designed e-cig web sites, and finally settling on a product advertised on a site that wasn't badly designed. Vendors might want to take note: good design, and readability, do matter.)

Mistakes

The first e-cig I got was a 'micro' type of device. It cost...I'm too embarrassed to admit what I paid. The flavors in its 'cartomizers' were actually very good. But the batteries lasted almost no time at all, and it turned out that the vendor doesn't even have replacement batteries for that particular 'micro'; they do for their others, but not that one. Bad deal; WTH was I thinking, anyway? The 'cartomizers' are super-small and run out of juice quickly.

DPV9 'disposable': Meaning, the cartridges are disposable. The batteries are rechargeable. This seemed as if it would be good in a pinch, and the carts are pretty good-sized. The flavors are kind of strange, though -- for example, a 'cream' flavor that (I am not making this up) tastes at first like buttered popcorn! That was not the best possible "end-user" experience. Maybe it's just a weird primer taste, but it lingered for quite a while. The jury's still out on the DPV9. Maybe I can somehow drip a bit of other liquid into the carts, though they don't look as if that's going to work (those things aren't supposed to be refillable).

Gamucci disposable: this one really is disposable. It's roughly the size of a 747 (ok, I lied -- more like a 707). They claim 40 cigarettes'-worth of puffs. I don't know if that's true, but the price I paid was something like 2.5 times the cost of a pack of smokes in my state. It seems to me that the Gamucci has really high nicotine content. It took some getting used to -- I puffed on it a little too hard for a little too long and felt a bit queasy. They claim a pretty good shelf life, but only 2 weeks of battery life once it's opened and used. I don't think I'll buy another unless the price comes down noticeably. (You might like it...who knows.)

Failure to buy enough spare parts: don't make this same mistake. Do not skimp on extra batteries, extra atomizers, extra cartridges. Always buy some extra juice at the time of your first purchase; not having any on hand led me to grief several times. And don't skimp on chargers. Some of these products' chargers are not all that well made and if your charger fails, you're in a world of hurt. Buy at least one extra.

Filling carts: today I got a small syringe for cart-filling. Hey, this works great...until I got a bit aggressive with the plunger and over-filled the cart. I ended up with juice inside the mouthpiece...and therefore, inside my mouth. I thought I thinned out the cart a bit, so to speak -- but it kept happening. Not good. Filling with a syringe: don't be too aggressive about with that plunger.

Successes

With the help of people in these forums, I was steered in a good direction gear-wise. Here's what worked well for me:

DSE 801: I found that this pen-style e-cig has excellent battery life and the cartridges hold a lot of juice. Unless there's an obstruction of some kind, the 'draw' is super-smooth.

Joye 510: Noticeably smaller -- which is sometimes an advantage, but along with 'smaller' goes shorter battery life. But I haven't found the 510's battery life oppressively short, as it was with that 'micro' e-cig I bought. (Did I mention: don't skimp on extra batteries?

Passthroughs: these are useful; save your batteries until you need them.

Several people I talked with don't like connecting passthroughs directly to the USB port of the computer -- and I'm not crazy for that idea, either. I got a Belkin AC-powered USB hub and I plug the passthrough into the hub. The hub wasn't too spendy and works great. The other thing I got that's super-useful (thanks to a heads-up from a forum "regular") is a Kensington battery pack (I think the model is 38021), which can power USB devices after it is fully charged. The thing is small, fairly light, and can be carried around in a small pouch on your belt. I found one on Amazon, but I've been told that the product goes on sale semi-regularly at electronics superstores for a good deal less than I paid.

It's worth having more than one passthrough, b.t.w. Stuff does break, after all.

Hope some of the above is useful to another newbie or two here. Again, I know it's a "your mileage may vary" sort of world and none of what I wrote should be taken to mean I think it's the Truth with a capital "T" -- just...what worked for me.

 

[jerseyguy72]

Very useful! Thank you very much for that info. I have not made a purchase yet but I am planning on it this weekend.

 

[wv2win]

Very good overview! Due to just how poorly the Chinese pass throughs are made and the size of the battery pack, you could accomplish the same long battery life and even better throat hit with one of the bigger battery manual PV's and in the long run actually save money due to the $2 cost of the batteries.

 

[Elendil]

Very good overview! Due to just how poorly the Chinese pass throughs are made and the size of the battery pack, you could accomplish the same long battery life and even better throat hit with one of the bigger battery manual PV's and in the long run actually save money due to the $2 cost of the batteries.

Or buy a Stick with the passthrough built in and still have the advantage of cheap batteries...........

 

[mikea]

Very useful! Thank you very much for that info. I have not made a purchase yet but I am planning on it this weekend.

Glad to hear it was useful. It's great that you found the forum before making the purchase. When I bought that first e-cig, I just didn't know it's possible to get into 'vape' technology for much less than I paid at first. By dumb luck (or just dumb , the only sites I'd looked at were those where the prices were over-the-top...so I gritted my teeth and said to myself: Ok, what price health? Turns out, it coulda been less...

Then I went nuts buying 'stuff' -- probably too much. What price health? I kept saying to myself. My wife thinks I'm near-"certifiable" now -- but, my lungs feel clear in a way that they have not felt literally in decades. I can still hardly believe it.

 

[mikea]

Very good overview! Due to just how poorly the Chinese pass throughs are made and the size of the battery pack, you could accomplish the same long battery life and even better throat hit with one of the bigger battery manual PV's and in the long run actually save money due to the $2 cost of the batteries.

Wow -- you've got an impressive number of posts here!

Yeah, it's a bit frustrating how poorly some of the passthroughs are made. The 801 passthrough at least has halfway robust cabling. The 510 passthrough is kind of pathetic. :-( I bought extras; at some point, those teensy little wires are going to break. Seems to me that the in-line battery box especially, if it puts repeated strain on the wires, is liable to bring the passthrough to grief. Must treat that thing delicately...

The "build quality" aside -- I was pleasantly surprised by how well the passthrough worked, especially when I'd begun using it with the powered USB hub. I kept hearing that the 510 passthrough battery has to be charged up before the passthrough can be used at all. But, using the hub, I haven't found that to be true. Then again maybe the (supplied) battery that goes into that little box arrives with a near-complete charge -- I don't know about that. I haven't checked to see how long the in-line battery will power the 510 when the whole business is disconnected from the hub. Not long, I wouldn't think...

A better-made 510 passthrough would sure be a good thing to have. It wouldn't hurt if they threw in even a single small page of documentation (what a concept, eh?).

Anyone happen to know what kind of battery is used in that in-line box? The ones supplied with the passthroughs I got don't seem to have any identifying data on the outside. Grumble.

 

[mikea]

Or buy a Stick with the passthrough built in and still have the advantage of cheap batteries...........

Thanks for mentioning that product. Other newbies: the 'stick' (I haven't seen one up close or used it) is a device made by a company named Janty. Purpose: extended 'vaping' via a higher-capacity battery inside the 'stick's' housing. As I recall, the 'stick' can be used passthrough-style as well. A Google search for Janty Stick will probably turn up Janty's site as the first search hit. There are some user reviews/demos of the 'stick' on that product page. (I don't know how many different makes of e-cig atomizers work with the 'stick'.)

 

[mikea]

Another newbie-ish error...

Yesterday I got into kind of ridiculously compulsive puffing on the e-cigs. I had done something wrong with filling a cartridge and I kept getting e-liquid in my mouth. After a while I wasn't feeling so well even though I was spitting the 'juice' out as often as I tasted it. I thought: any moment now, this will stop happening. It didn't. Well, it led to some gastric distress ('nuff said there) and heartburn. Uh-oh, I thought: I've OD'd on nicotine! One of the forum members advised me that it was far more likely that I was having a reaction to too much propylene glycol, even though I wasn't swallowing the stuff.

I stopped using that cartridge (it seems to be jinxed) and was a bit more reasonable about how much I used the e-cigs. The gastric distress and the heartburn went away.

"Mothers...tell your children...not to dooooooooo what I have donnnnnnnnnnnnne..."

 

[rob_r]

some good info here, mikea - i knew my next purchase would be a passthrough - lol

 

[wv2win]

Or buy a Stick with the passthrough built in and still have the advantage of cheap batteries...........

Good point. I forgot about the Stick having a pass through connection which is a great idea.

 

[mikea]

Another 'what worked' item...

Last time I placed an order with Johnson Creek for 'juice,' I bought a few of their needle-nosed poly bottles (.33 fl. oz.) even though I didn't know if I'd like them. (I was sure that if I could find them on the web they'd be a lot cheaper.[*])

The bottles' screw-on caps contain the needle-nose dispenser. Each bottle also has a fairly tight-fitting push-on cap that covers the "needle" when you aren't using it. The needle doesn't have a hole in it as shipped -- you cut off the tip to create a hole of whatever diameter you want. I started with a pretty small-diameter hole. At first I didn't think I would like using the bottle. The plastic is fairly stiff and pushing 'juice' up into and then out of the tip took more pressure than I'd expected. Then I realized that's a good thing: there's much less chance of accidental spillage. With the hole remaining fairly small, you have a smaller drop size (easier to control). The plastic is stiff enough that it's difficult to squirt liquid out of the bottle accidentally. Standard eyedroppers are convenient, but liquid comes out of them almost too easily. With the mouth of a bottle then exposed, there's always some risk of its tipping over and the contents spilling.

I think these poly "needle" bottles will be good for carrying 'juice' on a plane (I'm still going to double-bag them in ziplocks and possibly even use some strong cloth tape to ensure that the outer cap stays on good and tight).

([*] Via web search I found them way cheaper at plastics companies like Freund. But unless you plan to order a lot of them, you'll probably pay a small-order fee that will boost the per-unit cost quite a bit. And, shipping on top of that.)

 

[mikea]

Oh, yeah. One other thing. Don't attempt to 'vape' your e-cig after placing the LED end of the battery in your mouth. Strangely, nothing happens then.

(Hey, it could be worse -- remember what lighting the wrong end of a filtered cigarette tastes like? Eeeuwww...)

 

[DC2]

Oh, yeah. One other thing. Don't attempt to 'vape' your e-cig after placing the LED end of the battery in your mouth. Strangely, nothing happens then.

Yeah, I found that doesn't work.

(Hey, it could be worse -- remember what lighting the wrong end of a filtered cigarette tastes like? Eeeuwww...)

Yeah, I found that doesn't work either.

So, is posting drunk alllowed on this forum?
Just wondering.

And yeah, buffalo burgers make for good barbeque.
I think Heaven Gifts can ship out some buffalo at reduced prices.

 

[mikea]

So, is posting drunk alllowed on this forum?
Just wondering.

That's a great question. Please give it a try and let us know how that turns out...

And yeah, buffalo burgers make for good barbeque.
I think Heaven Gifts can ship out some buffalo at reduced prices.

Right -- that'd be the e-cig accessory known as the "PB-WTF?" ("Personal Bison"... hmm, I can't seem to recall at the moment what the rest of the product name stands for...)

 

[DC2]

That's a great question. Please give it a try and let us know how that turns out.

Working great so far, I'll keep you posted though.

 

[DoubleTrouble]

Thanks for the post. We're newbies too, and would add only another vendor: LiteCig USA as a terrific vendor! Shawn is a one-person dynamo, responding almost immediately to emails, questions, and shipping orders right away.

 

[Kent C]

Good point. I forgot about the Stick having a pass through connection which is a great idea.

W(BG)V, ;-)

Can you explain more 'built in pt connection' or a link explaining it.

Thanks.

 

[mikea]

Can you explain more 'built in pt connection' or a link explaining it.

I wondered about that myself. Does it mean that the 'Stick' can be used to run the show on battery power, or when plugged in via AC power, can be used as a passthrough?

 

[wezzie]

Milea,
Thanks for the info. I just recently ordered the Kensington K38021US from Amazon.

Do you know the best USB pass through for the Yeti 501 that will work with the Kensington? Where do you suggest I buy one from?

Thanks