Noob from UK ^^

[Sida]

I had an ecig quite a long time ago. I only used it for a couple of weeks before I just gave up on the idea. Today I saw someone using one and wondered how things had changed and maybe I'd just used the wrong one back then. I found this forum and here I am (btw I put Chrissie as my referrer because he/she has posted lots of great information in the UK forum that's already helped...so maybe you can get something back from that ^^)

I've had a little look online at reviews and things but there are SO many brands and 10x as many reviews that I really have no idea what's going on. I was hoping that maybe if I post a little about what I'm looking for then you guys could help with some recommendations.

• Most importantly, I want to be able to buy cheap liquid and refill the ecig somehow. I have no intention of buying cartridges over and over again. While the health benefit of ecigs is a huge plus, my main motivation at the moment is cost (though I don't mind spending a bit extra on the ecig itself if it helps in the long run).
• I didn't even know you could get "upgrades" for ecigs. I love gadgets and things, so an ecig that I could eventually add nifty little devices to would be cool
• Size doesn't matter too much as long as it's reasonable to smoke in public and isn't as big as my arm.
• I want to feel the hit. If I see loads of vapour coming from my mouth but didn't feel a thing when I inhaled...that's no good for me.
• I often have access to a computer so the battery life isn't too important (as long as it at least gets me through a decent amount of hours) as I can recharge quite often. A spare battery would obviously help a lot.

Looking forward to seeing some replies and thanks in advance for your help

Edit: Forgot to say, the old ecig I had was one of the really tiny cig-lookalikes. I did have one before that too that was a bit bigger but it was so terrible I didn't even use it for a couple of days.

 

[northernmonkey]

Hi new here myself. I know where your coming from. Im using and eGo C Twist with a Dual core Tank, holds loads of juice 6ml, 1/1 and half days worth for me and i chong it all the time. Nice throat hit and flavour aswell, battery life on it is good so far seen reviews that it last around 8/9 hours pretty much constant use. Not really tried any other brands, but i reckon the eGo range is a pretty good place to start.

 

[daveinleics]

Hi Sida
A popular starter kit in the UK is this one:
The VE Riva 1100 Deluxe Kit £34.95 - Deluxe Vaping Kits - Riva 1100 Kit Electronic Cigarettes | Vaping Devices | Accessories | E-Liquid
There are various other good kits on this site as well. Another good value one is this:
Stoptober - Vision eGo Kit
This has only one battery though, so it would be a good idea to add another one so you can use one while the other is charging.
These all have standard 510 connections so there is a wide choice of things to go with them.
Hope this helps!

 

[Sida]

Thanks for the fast replies!

I've noticed it's quite hard to find external reviews on most of the kits posted here, maybe because they're less mainstream on youtube vids and things? What is the difference between those two? They both look very similar and I can't really find anything that explains the pros/cons of both. Also, I LOVE the idea of that big refillable clear cartridge...that's perfect!

Edit: Actually just realised that even the clear cartridges have to be replaced after a couple of weeks. Is there no permanent solution to liquid storage?

 

[Chrissie]

Hello & welcome Sida

Lol, I've just spent the afternoon with someone from my village that had just bought a ciggie lookalike & a neighbour of mine told him to come & chat to me about finding a better e-cig. I mainly use a GGTS, but gave him a go on my Riva with a freshly filled cartomiser to begin with & then a freshly filled vision ego clearomiser (you get both in the first kit that Dave linked to). he was gobsmacked & amazed by the the amount of vapour he got from them

As for a permanent juice delivery system, only if you start looking at rebuildable mods. Though you can buy vision egos & Vivi novas with replaceable heads & even rebuild them, after a while you would also have to replace the tubes.

 

[Baditude]

The larger the battery, the more satisfaction that you will experience. It will become frustrating to need to change batteries every 3-4 hours with the cigalikes. And being so small, they are limited in the amount of e-liquid that they can hold.

A good starting point for you would be the mid-level Ego battery systems as were recommended to you above. About the size and diameter of a long cigar, these can provide a battery time of 6-12 hours use between charges. Battery passthru cords are available to use at your computer's USB port.

There are many different attachments to vaporize your juices in that connect to the top of the batteries. I have a short blog entry on this topic for beginning vapors under my avatar to the left.

Once you get your hardware together, finding some good ejuices will be your new mission for the next few months. Everyone likes something different because taste is so subjective. Just buy sample packs or trial sizes in the beginning until you find 2 or 3 that you really like, then buy larger quantities. Testing new flavors in a small device like a ce3 makes sense so as to not need to waste an entire cartomizer or empty an entire tank of juice to test out new flavors.

 

[Sida]

Thanks ^^

Is it cheaper to fill and replace the cartomisers or the clearomisers overall? I usually smoke around 10-12 cigs per day so I'd be looking to replace that sort of usage. What sort of cost would that be say, weekly or monthly as an estimate?

I'm getting a bit confused. When I last looked at ecigs the cartridges were just plastic with cotton wool type stuff in. So in the two products Dave linked...they're actually the same product with a different battery or? What actually makes the "Riva 1100" part if theyre both vision ego cartomisers/clearomisers?

 

[Sida]

The larger the battery, the more satisfaction that you will experience. It will become frustrating to need to change batteries every 3-4 hours with the cigalikes. And being so small, they are limited in the amount of e-liquid that they can hold.

A good starting point for you would be the mid-level Ego battery systems as were recommended to you above. About the size and diameter of a long cigar, these can provide a battery time of 6-12 hours use between charges. Battery passthru cords are available to use at your computer's USB port.

There are many different attachments to vaporize your juices in that connect to the top of the batteries. I have a short blog entry on this topic for beginning vapors under my avatar to the left.

Once you get your hardware together, find some good ejuices will be your new mission for the next few months. Everyone likes something different because taste is so subjective. Just buy sample packs or trial sizes in the beginning until you find 2 or 3 that you really like, then buy larger quantities. Testing new flavors in a small device like a ce3 makes sense so as to not need to waste an entire cartomizer or empty an entire tank of juice to test out new flavors.

Thanks for the advice. I actually have access to recharge quite often but it would be nice to not need to. I'd like to read the blog but I can't actually see any link under your avatar, am I missing something?

 

[Baditude]

Thanks for the advice. I actually have access to recharge quite often but it would be nice to not need to. I'd like to read the blog but I can't actually see any link under your avatar, am I missing something?

Where it says blog entries, click on the "1". This will bring up a new page, and then click on the title.

If that doesn't work for you, click this link: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/baditude/3230-proper-terminology-carto-tank-what-lol.html

That post was actually for a new vapor who was interested in device attachments to put on their ego battery. Cartomizers can either be used alone, or can be used in larger containers called tanks.

 

[Sida]

Where it says blog entries, click on the "1". This will bring up a new page, and then click on the title.

If that doesn't work for you, click this link: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/baditude/3230-proper-terminology-carto-tank-what-lol.html

It appears I can't see it under your avatar because I don't have permission to view the blog :/

 

[Baditude]

It appears I can't see it under your avatar because I don't have permission to view the blog :/

That is probably because you are a new member here and need so many posts to gain full member status. Could you reach the blog by clicking on the additional link I provided in my last post?

Edit:

Try this new link: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/cartomizers/343294-proper-terminology-carto-tank-what-lol.html#post7562212

This above link goes directly to the original thread that I posted my answer in. Won't matter if you have full priviledges or not.

 

[Chrissie]

Sida, the Riva 1100 is a 1100 mAh battery with a 510 fitting. That means it's compatible with most 510 cartomisers & clearomisers. Plus the 1100 mAh means the battery will last most folks a day before needing to be recharged. The ciggie lookalike batteries are usually only between 15 - 180 mAh.

I mainly use cartomisers & refill with e-liquid & my costs are about £10.00 a week. However, I used to smoke an average of 50 ready mades a day

 

[Sida]

That is probably because you are a new member here and need so many posts to gain full member status. Could you reach the blog by clicking on the additional link I provided in my last post?

Nope I just don't have permission. I tried after reaching 5 posts too but it didn't help. I'll try again later I guess.

Sida, the Riva 100 is a 1100 mAh battery with a 510 fitting. That means it's compatible with most 510 cartomisers & clearomisers. Plus the 1100 mAh means the battery will last most folks a day before needing to be recharged. The ciggie lookalike batteries are usually only between 15 - 180 mAh.

I mainly use cartomisers & refill with e-liquid & my costs are about £10.00 a week. However, I used to smoke an average of 50 ready mades a day

Ah okay, so it's more a case of looking at these things as two separate parts now then, the battery and the cart/clearomiser rather than the whole thing as one I guess. It seems as though the main thing to be researching is the cartomisers and clearomisers then right? The battery just needs to be able to support it...until you get to those variable-voltage batteries and other stuff that I won't worry about now

From 50 fags per day to £10 per week??? That's crazy! I thought the cost of having to replace the cartomisers would be higher than that. I think I'm going to order that Riva kit But I'll continue looking a bit tonight seeing as it's past delivery cut-off time anyway.

 

[DMAudio]

Hey Sida, having used the cig-a-likes myself in the past, I took the advice from Chrissie and Dave above and bought that exact kit. It arrived today and I've been using it most of the day. The difference in quality between the Riva and your run of the mill E-Lite/Nicolite type thing is huge. I got the stainless Riva 1100 and it looks the business!

As far as maintenance goes, as far as I'm aware the clearomiser can be refilled a few times before the coil packs in/starts tasting burnt. Same with the cartridges I guess. Fortunately, the kit comes with 5 cartomisers to start with, so you can experiment with different juices til you find one you like, then move on to the clearomiser/rebuildable tank type. I'm still new to this myself, so I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the Vision Clearomiser could have its coil/wick replaced?

The last question you had (not sure if you got your answer), but the 'Riva 1100' just refers to the battery part. It's a manual (press and hold a button while you puff) 1100mah battery. Again, I'd recommend this kit as it comes with a spare battery too

DM

 

[Sida]

Thanks DM. I didn't realise you had to hold the button (the website just says to press it 3 times to turn it on). Not a big deal I guess. I think I'll order one tonight and hope it comes on Saturday Is it the battery part or the other part that gives these things positive or negative reviews? The cartomisers it comes with are described as just "standard" cartomisers, nothing special...I thought it was the atomiser that made the bulk of the vape experience but now it seems it's actually the battery.

One last thing, you said you have the stainless Riva...I only see black, white and pink options on the site. How did you get the stainless?

 

[Sida]

That is probably because you are a new member here and need so many posts to gain full member status. Could you reach the blog by clicking on the additional link I provided in my last post?

Edit:

Try this new link: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/cartomizers/343294-proper-terminology-carto-tank-what-lol.html#post7562212

This above link goes directly to the original thread that I posted my answer in. Won't matter if you have full priviledges or not.

Works great, thanks!

 

[DMAudio]

Thanks DM. I didn't realise you had to hold the button (the website just says to press it 3 times to turn it on). Not a big deal I guess. I think I'll order one tonight and hope it comes on Saturday Is it the battery part or the other part that gives these things positive or negative reviews? The cartomisers it comes with are described as just "standard" cartomisers, nothing special...I thought it was the atomiser that made the bulk of the vape experience but now it seems it's actually the battery.

One last thing, you said you have the stainless Riva...I only see black, white and pink options on the site. How did you get the stainless?

Whilst the atomiser plays a large part on the delivery, I believe the strength (voltage?) of the battery, and the resistance (ohm) of the atomiser are the two main factors. The kit listed comes with 'standard resistance' atomisers and its got more than enough hit for me, and I consider myself a 'heavy hitter' with smoking Marlboro reds all my life. As I say, the kit seems more than capable of providing what I need, but I dare say as time goes on, like so many others here, I'll start experimenting with other contraptions

As for the stainless, maybe I got the last one. This was the line from the confirmation email;

1. Deluxe Vaping Kits > Riva 1100 Kit The VE Riva 1100 Deluxe Kit Stainless Steel VE151 Stainless Steel ( x1 @ £34.95 each) £34.95

Might be worth giving them a call and see if they still have them.

DM

 

[Baditude]

The battery is what allows the heating coil (atomizer) to heat e-juice and turn it into vapor. The resistance of the heating coil, or atomizer, is how hot it will burn. An anology would be the different watts that different light bulbs can be purchased to provide lesser or greater light output.

Unless you get a variable voltage device (like an Ego Twist), all batteries put out the same voltage of around 3.7 volts. What resistance of attachments (which contain the heating coils) determines how cool or warm the vapor will be.

A low resistance (LR = <2.0 ohm) attachments will provide a warmer vapor.

Standard resistance (SR = 2.0-2.5 ohm) attachments will provide a cooler vapor.

High resistance (HR = 3.0+ ohm) attachments are for higher voltage devices capable of voltage higher than 3.7 volts. These devices have a booster chip which allows the voltage to be adjusted from 3.0 volts up to 6volts. Variable voltage allows the user to determine how warm or cool the vapor will be by adjusting the voltage of the battery. Also, some flavors will taste better either with a lower or higher voltage...the "sweet spot" as you will hear vapors describe.

 

[Sida]

Thanks for all the help! I've just ordered the Riva 1100 and a pick'n'mix of Grizwald's liquids, I can't wait for it to arrive ^^ I just went for the black one in the end.

 

[daveinleics]

Hi again Sida - just catching up. In answer to your question above about the difference in batteries - most of the batteries described as eGo's or Rivas (or quite a lot of other things) are pretty much the same - depending on which of many Chinese factories produce them. Using reliable well established vendors usually guarantees you a good one and if you get a faulty one it will be replaced. The only difference is that eGo's made by Joytech (and some of their copies) regulate the voltage to a constant level of about 3.3 volts, all the others start at 4.2 volts and gradually reduce as the battery discharges. In the end though these are just driving whatever you stick on top - the kit you have chosen includes cartomisers and a Vision eGo clearomiser, both very popular, so you can see what you get on best with.