Newbie Vaper in Albuquerque NM

[Shade42]

Hey all...Been lurking in the forum a few days and decided to finally "pipe up!"

I'm a heavy cig smoker who had no plans to quit smoking. Then a couple weeks ago my husband (who has been wanting to quit) came home from a vape store nearby with a kit. He chose a tobacco blend VG juice and after two days suddenly said, "This tastes better than a cigarette!"

Well I was completely intrigued and went back to the vape shop with him. (T &S Vapors, they were very nice and didn't laugh at all my questions.) Bought a Kanger Evod 2 and some juices. I am enjoying it very much! Went from about 22 cigs a day (AmSpirit yellow) to maybe 6 or 7. (Except today I had a rough time and smoked about 10.) Alternating between a sweet marshmallow blueberry flavor and a tobacco flavor mixed with coffee flavor.

Definitely enjoying the new habit, but still have strong cravings for cigs. Especially in the morning. It's a bit frustrating to suddenly have TWO puffing habits now, but I am glad it's helping me cut down on the "analogs." My head feels clearer and I am not so dehydrated and jittery.

Would love to hear from others in Abq and others who have any suggestions for transitioning from analogs. In the meantime, I'm appreciating all the posts here. Thanks...

 

[bacc.vap]

Hello and welcome. Only advice I have is when you have an urge to smoke just keep puffing away on the ecig. Don't worry too much about having the occasional cig and soon all you'll be doing is vaping.

 

[somdcomputerguy]

I wasn't too much of a heavy smoker, I usually only smoked 3 or 4 packs a week. Sometimes a pack a day though. I was smoking American Spirit cigs too, and I was spending at least 100 bucks a month. So at my next stop in a sorta close smoke shop, the lady sold me a starter kit for about 20 bucks. Three months later, I'm still vapin', and don't have to scrounge around for gas money! The company I've been dealing with is Tastypuff, they are in New Mexico too!

 

[yardbyrd]

CAW! Salutations from across the Realms and welcome! Cawgratulations on beginning your vaping journey! When I first started to vape I smoked along side vaping for one month (I went from 2.5 PAD of Mar*boro Red 100's to 10 a day when I started vaping). Then one day, a month later, I thought, "I'd rather have the flavor of Vanilla Latte than that analog! I'm going to try just one day analog free." Christmas Day marked my 34th month as a vaper and 33rd month tobacco free.

If I lived in Albuquerque, NM, I would flyby Alice and Vapeland. Their flavors are not as pronounced but more gourmet style. I love their "White Rabbit" and "Fifteen Foot Falls" most but there are others. If you DO flyby there, ask for Jah, or Nicole, and if they are there, say, "YardByrd said I should flyby!"

I also urge you to get 5 posts, on this forum, because THEN you will be able to move about it more freely and mine its wealth of information!

Best wishes on your vaping and Congratulations again! CAW!

 

[daleron]

Welcome to ECF Shade, make yourself right at home

 

[Susan~S]

Hello and welcome to the forum Shade42. Glad to have you here!

 

[DaniB]

Welcome Shade 42.

 

[HDMontana]

Welcome aboard.

HD

 

[Warpigs]

Welcome to ECF!

 

[Shade42]

If I lived in Albuquerque, NM, I would flyby Alice and Vapeland. Their flavors are not as pronounced but more gourmet style. I love their "White Rabbit" and "Fifteen Foot Falls" most but there are others. If you DO flyby there, ask for Jah, or Nicole, and if they are there, say, "YardByrd said I should flyby!"

The company I've been dealing with is Tastypuff, they are in New Mexico too!

Do either of these companies have a storefront? I would love to just buy from them locally rather than ordering. They both seem like great companies.

I've been loyal to T & S Vapors so far, but there is so much choice here in Albuquerque I'm getting curious about other stores. (PM me if you're from here, would love to chat!)

Shade

 

[drunkenbatman]

Would love to hear from others in Abq and others who have any suggestions for transitioning from analogs. In the meantime, I'm appreciating all the posts here. Thanks...

Awesome! I'd ask you to consider:

1. Drink more water than when you smoked if you can -- vaping dehydrates.

2. I don't think you said what your nicotine was, but consider bumping it up to something higher. It might help a lot with the heading back to analogs.

3. Keep experimenting with flavors you can try -- but get them in small amounts. Consider having a tank or two loaded and ready to go with different flavors; the novelty can help keep you focused.

4. If you find yourself really struggling, search the forum for whole tobacco alkaloids, or WTAs. These are eliquids that include more of the tobacco plant -- I don't usually recommend these full time, but when you're transitioning or getting a huge craving having a tank of it to switch to can make all the difference.

Give yourself a bit of time, you're on your own schedule and there's a lot to be said for cutting back drastically until you've lost interest in stinkies.

 

[aerosolizer]

I started aerosolizing two months ago. Yes, people are calling aerosol "vaper" because it sounds "cool", but you are not creating a vapor, you are creating an aerosol. My coworker got pregnant, so quit smoking. To help her quit, I also quit for a week. When I started smoking again the following week, she said the smell from my clothes made her nauseous. So, I went to a "vape" store and bought a little ego kit. They gave me a $10 discount for handing them my pack of smokes. I've not bought a pack since. I tried a few puffs of a cigarette, but much prefer aerosolizing.

The store I went to was expensive (my future purchases were all online). VERY nice layout, well designed, great vape bar, etc. Anyway, I quickly moved from the generic ego kit to a Nautilus Mini, and got an MVP20W battery a couple days ago. Before I was carrying the Aspire 1000mah and a 900mah USB passthrough for all-day aerosolizing. Now my MVP20W box is all I need. I also carry a little bottle of juice.

The Nautilus Mini is considered the best tank out there, and the MVP is very well regarded. I am different than many people here in that I don't think aerosolizing is "cool". I see myself as a nicotine addict, and this is the best means to handle that addiction (much, much cheaper, and healthier).

Flavored ejuices are really expensive, and after a day or so, you can't taste the flavors because your olfactory glands adjust (like with cigarettes). I just ordered 250ML of 6mg flavorless 50/50 pg/vg mix for $13. That will last me a bit over a month, so, compared to spending $9 a day on cigarettes is a pretty amazing savings. Some people just use different flavors every day, or multiple times a day. I'd rather skip the cost and hassle and go flavorless.

The e-cig forum has been my go to resource, and I also have really enjoyed Indoor Smokers youtube channel, and ordered my nautilus mini and MVP (his favorite products) based on his reviews.

I found that worldofvape has really good prices on aspire (Nautilus) and innokin (MVP) stuff.

One of the things I have learned about ejuice is that high VG bases coat your lungs and make it hard to breathe. If I aerosolize high VG juice before walking up a hill, I am short of breathe. If I don't, I can walk up the same hill without noticing it. My current ejuice is 80% VG. We'll see if the 50/50 works better. If not, I'll increase the PG.

Another thing, in terms of health, is formaldehyde production. The higher the voltage, the higher the formaldehyde production. Adjusting the voltage from 3.3-4.8 on a 1.8ohm coil increase the formaldehyde production 800 times! It's scary but true, many people use coils lower than 1.8ohms and at higher voltages than 4.8! You want to use use higher ohm coils (1.8) and the lowest voltage that is comfortable if you want to reduce the production of toxic chemicals. This same principle applies to all toxic impurities that may be in your solvent (PG and/or VG), flavoring and nicotine. Because aerosolizing is popular with teenagers, people are calling themselves "cloud chasers" and trying to blow as much aerosol as they can, by using lower ohm coils and higher wattage. If that's your thing, good for you, but as someone starting out, it's important to know that there is a direct correlation between safety and higher ohm/lower voltage.

 

[CrazyAce]

First to get off the analogs for me (1-2pk day for 30 years) was to get a flavor I really liked. That is the absolute key. Getting your daily vape flavor. I landed on several, a good one for a daily is any tigers blood mix. If you prefered menthols get a medium menthol. Try to stay around 1.5 ohm on your coil replacements may even go to a ribbon wire 1.5 ohm. If you can, pick up a VW/VV mod (the battery part) that can take down to .1 ohm. Buy a Atlantis RTA and you will notice two things change. A) much more cloud production and a better feel of smoking analogs, B) if you can try a lung hit or two... but if you do this DROP your nic MG level drastically... like 3 to 6mg...

If you're craving go up on your nic level for a tank or two and keep reducing back.. soon you will be analog free!

Good luck!

 

[ElevenEleven]

Hi Shade!

I still smoked a few cigarettes while vaping when I first started. On rougher days I would do the same. Something that helped me was to hold my ecig and place my pack of ciggs somewhere inconvenient. Try playing with your ecig. Twirl it around in your fingers, hold it like a cigarette, or anything that could curve your addiction. The point is to keep you distracted from smoking and replace cigarettes with something more comfortable.

 

[somdcomputerguy]

I'm not sure if Tastypuff has a storefront. I'm glad their online though as I live in West Virginia! Email 'em and ask. Their customer support email address is info AT tastypuff . com.

edit: the city on the return labels is Albuquerque. (I'll admit I had to look at the shipping label more than once to make sure I was spelling it right..)

I will PM you the street address if you want.