noobie with a few questions

[oscar615]

Hi, My name is Robert and I just discovered the e-cig thing. I am thinking about getting one, possibly to quit smoking.

I have a few questions. Am I correct in understanding that any e-cig can be refilled with juice? There by eliminating the need to buy more cartridges from the manufacturer? They all seem to sell cartridge packs and if you can just refill, well, it seems that this would save a lot of money.

What about the atomizers? This would be the part you have to continually replace, correct? How long do these last?

So as far as the juice is concerned? How many cigs of nicotine are contained in a bottle? Could you buy more concentrated and thin it out? Saving even more money? I think I even saw a place that sells 99% nicotine. Just seems like you could thin that down to 33% and then 16% etc fairly easily.

I guess all of my questions go toward, what are the recurring costs associated with e-cigs. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and the PCC's, are they cig specific or can you use one PCC for different cigs?

 

[Automaton]

Hi Oscar, welcome to ECF!

Yes, pretty much all e-cigs can be refilled. Not forever, though. And it also depends on how much work you're willing to do. For example, with my cartomizers (advertised as single-use), I can refill them a handful of times before they start tasting a bit funny. At that point, I can choose to toss them out, or wash them and continue refilling. The only question is, would I rather spend time or money? In my case, I'd rather spend time. But eventually, no amount of washing will bring them back. So THEN, I can either toss them, or I can replace the filler. Again, time or money?

Atomizers do eventually need to be replaced as well, but with good care, they can last for months. Or, sometimes you might just get a bad one that dies in a few days.

For most people who only use an e-cig, and don't smoke at all, a 30ml bottle of juice lasts them 3-4 weeks it seems like. I can't comment yet - I haven't killed a whole bottle yet.

And yes, making your own liquid is another way to save money! I make DIY liquid by mixing high-concentrate nicotine juice (VERY DANGEROUS, HANDLE WITH CARE), VG as a dilutent, flavoring, and a bit of distilled water.

I wouldn't recommend starting out with 100% nicotine though. It's really, REALLY dangerous stuff, and it will kill you if given half a chance. I am using 60mg as my base (which means 6% nicotine, still deadly, and some people think I'm nuts for even starting that high). And to handle it, I have to wear gloves. This stuff is really serious mojo.

I use this e-juice calculator to mix with. Very straight-forward.
eJuice Recipe Calculator

PCC's are typically model-specific.

EDIT: I bought almost everything I'm going to need for 4-6 months with $100. If you shop smart, you can save a lot of money.

 

[zbasspro]

Hi, My name is Robert and I just discovered the e-cig thing. I am thinking about getting one, possibly to quit smoking.

I have a few questions. Am I correct in understanding that any e-cig can be refilled with Juice? There by eliminating the need to buy more cartridges from the manufacturer? They all seem to sell cartridge packs and if you can just refill, well, it seems that this would save a lot of money.
Yes can buy ejuice and refill them or buy blanks and fill them yourself. Most still sell packs, I guess some people buy prefilled ones, I have bought a few packs empty just for spares.

What about the atomizers? This would be the part you have to continually replace, correct? How long do these last?
Atomizers, or around here attys don`t last forver. I`m still on my 1st one @5 weeks. I believe proper care helps, but they should still be considered replaceable parts. Budget two a month maybe.



So as far as the juice is concerned? How many cigs of nicotine are contained in a bottle? Could you buy more concentrated and thin it out? Saving even more money? I think I even saw a place that sells 99% nicotine. Just seems like you could thin that down to 33% and then 16% etc fairly easily.
I smokes like a freight train, and I vape a lot, and I use about 3MLs of juice per day 24mg nic. You are correct with the nic.

I guess all of my questions go toward, what are the recurring costs associated with e-cigs. any help would be greatly appreciated.
I probably spent $400-500 in start up costs for the wife and I. I have enough in supplies to last 6months I imagine. After that, if I wanted to we both could get by for around $50 a month.

Oh and the PCC's, are they cig specific or can you use one PCC for different cigs?

PCCs are model specific


Good luck and enjoy!

 

[foebea]

I use refill liquids exclusively. No cartridges or cartomizers. I go through an atomizer roughly once every six weeks. Had one last 4 months, my dad had one go eight months. Sometimes they only last a week or pop after a few minutes. Build quality seems to vary somewhat. A good rule of thumb is to keep one spare atty on hand for each day it would take to get another. If it takes my vendor 5 days to get one out to me, i keep at least 5 on hand. The alternative is going back to tobacco

Quick addendum re: 100% nicotine
Don't handle this at all. Nope. Unless you are a trained chemist and have a proper lab with safety gear, this is just asking for serious injury.

Most people who diy work around 48mg and dilute to their usage level. Wash hands after use and if any spills. This can bring your daily cost of use to about 50 cents.

Some vendors sell at 100mg. This is getting into the dangerous area. Wear gloves and don't spill any. This will bring you down to about 12 or 15 cents a day.

100% is 1000mg and is crazy to even think about.
This is a penny a day use, but you have to keep in mind the hospital or funeral costs which might drive it up. Nicotine is poison.

 

[stevem01]

I'm new to eCigs too and had some similar questions. Thanks for the insights MistressNomad and zbasspro. I smoke a pack or more a day of Mboro reds and was wondering how much nic to start out w/ per ml. I've got an eGo and some 24mg juices on the way from VaporKings, so we'll see.

I would imagine that it's pretty subjective and one can only experiment to find out... If I start getting that cranky / zoned-out feeling I'll know to increase the nic, I suppose.

Can't wait to start experimenting. It's little things now, like the idea of having a "morning flavor", "all day flavor", and maybe a relaxing / mellow evening flavor... That same old pungent mboro taste gets tiresome after a while. Tobacco-flavored Cinnamon Toast Crunch isn't quite cutting it anymore, I'm sorry to say.

 

[Shy]

sorry to hijack this thread but... they sell 1000 mg nic. now?! holy hell!

 

[zbasspro]

People vape and vendors sell favors to vape up to 48mg. I buy 100mg to mix with flavored zero nic. I don`t wear gloves, I have gotten in on my hands, and have never had an adverse side effect. I wash my hands after wards. It aint gonna kill you.

 

[Shy]

I'm new to eCigs too and had some similar questions. Thanks for the insights MistressNomad and zbasspro. I smoke a pack or more a day of Mboro reds and was wondering how much nic to start out w/ per ml. I've got an eGo and some 24mg juices on the way from VaporKings, so we'll see.

I would imagine that it's pretty subjective and one can only experiment to find out... If I start getting that cranky / zoned-out feeling I'll know to increase the nic, I suppose.

Can't wait to start experimenting. It's little things now, like the idea of having a "morning flavor", "all day flavor", and maybe a relaxing / mellow evening flavor... That same old pungent mboro taste gets tiresome after a while. Tobacco-flavored Cinnamon Toast Crunch isn't quite cutting it anymore, I'm sorry to say.

welcome to the world of vaping steve! i am new on the forum but far from new to vaping as a whole. i have been analog free for 4 months and once you get the hang of vaping youll love the hell out of it.

 

[zbasspro]

sorry to hijack this thread but... they sell 1000 mg nic. now?! holy hell!

The highest I`ve seen is 100mg. I think the post was a reference for the % of nic by mg. 100mg would be 10% nic. 1000mg would be pure nic. I may be wrong and stand corrected if so, but I don`t believe you can purchase over 100mg.

 

[Automaton]

I buy 100mg to mix with flavored zero nic. I don`t wear gloves, I have gotten in on my hands, and have never had an adverse side effect. I wash my hands after wards. It aint gonna kill you.

Well... actually, yes, it very easily can. All it would take is one distracted moment, one wrong move, and it could quite easily kill you.

Surely wearing a pair of gloves is not such a huge inconvenience that you'd rather risk your life...

I'm just sayin', people can and have died from nicotine levels much lower than 100mg.

 

[Drozd]

Hi, My name is Robert and I just discovered the e-cig thing. I am thinking about getting one, possibly to quit smoking.

I have a few questions. Am I correct in understanding that any e-cig can be refilled with Juice? There by eliminating the need to buy more cartridges from the manufacturer? They all seem to sell cartridge packs and if you can just refill, well, it seems that this would save a lot of money.

well mostly any...there are certain ones where the cartridge is foil topped and the atty is designed to pierce the foil when the cartridge is placed on..these can be refilled to but are generally more messy/work...then there are others that use cartomizers (where the cartridge and attomizer are contained in 1 piece and are considered disposeable (though they can be refilled))

What about the atomizers? This would be the part you have to continually replace, correct? How long do these last?
it depends on your treatment and use of them really...but overall life is kinda variable..I will say that I havent had an atty burn out in over 5 months

So as far as the juice is concerned? How many cigs of nicotine are contained in a bottle? Could you buy more concentrated and thin it out? Saving even more money? I think I even saw a place that sells 99% nicotine. Just seems like you could thin that down to 33% and then 16% etc fairly easily.

yes people often do buy juice in strength higher than what they vape and cut it down with flavoring "doublers" to an appropriate mg strength.. but a good guesstimate is that a pack a day smoker goes through about 2-3ml a day..

I guess all of my questions go toward, what are the recurring costs associated with e-cigs. any help would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and the PCC's, are they cig specific or can you use one PCC for different cigs?

PCCs are ecig specific toward models...some may work ok with an adapter...some ecigs have large enough batteries to completely eliminate the need for a PCC (like the eGo)...

Reoccuring costs really are juice...occasional atties, and occasional batteries...like I said I havent lost a battery or atty in like 5 months so those are occasional... the juice is a fairly regular expense

 

[stevem01]

welcome to the world of vaping steve! i am new on the forum but far from new to vaping as a whole. i have been analog free for 4 months and once you get the hang of vaping you'll love the hell out of it.

Awesome! Thanks for the encouragement. I intend on tweaking and experimenting until I can replace my analogs completely. That's an exiting prospect to say the least.

I was thinking that the transition from smoking to vaping might be kind of like switching from a regular computer mouse to a thumb/trackball mouse. I did that last year and it's one of those things where it's way better for you, but it takes a lot of getting used to and there are those times in the beginning were you are tempted to go back to the old regular-style mouse out of frustration.

But if you stick with it, your body and mind eventually catch up and make all of the adjustments over the course of a month or two and it's as if you've always used a trackball mouse. And when you have to use an old-style mouse again you think, "How could I have ever controlled my mouse pointer in this arduous and utterly primitive way?"

Anyway, that was just an analogy I was pondering that might be somewhat analogous to the vapor switch. I'm only guessing at this point as I don't have my device yet.

 

[zbasspro]

Well... actually, yes, it very easily can. All it would take is one distracted moment, one wrong move, and it could quite easily kill you.

Surely wearing a pair of gloves is not such a huge inconvenience that you'd rather risk your life...

I'm just sayin', people can and have died from nicotine levels much lower than 100mg.

I cited my experience in mixing 100mg, getting it on my hands, and having no adverse effects as a result. I would also point the people who tell ou you're crazy for mixing 60mg to this thread
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...04494-nicotine-levels-e-juice-am-i-crazy.html

"I'm just sayin', people can and have died from nicotine levels much lower than 100mg"

In liquid form through contact with skin? Please back up this claim with facts that support it, or stop spreading misinformation.

I would certainly recommend using gloves if you are mixing high levels, as you may not have the high tolerance that I do. The last thing we need is people showing up at the ER due to a panic attack because they got some juice on their hands and freaked out because of something they read.

 

[oscar615]

Thanks for all of the replies everyone. I appreciate the help and advice. And I think I will try one.

 

[Automaton]

It depends on your tolerance, how much you get on you, and where you get it.

What you got on you could seriously hurt a non-smoker, kill a child or pet, or seriously hurt someone who is just a small person like me, no matter what may I smoke.

If you spilled a significant portion on yourself, or got it in your eyes. you could also hurt yourself.

I'm not saying if you get a drop on your you're going to keel over and die instantly. But I am saying it's really not difficult to hurt yourself with it.

It's hardly "ignorant" to advise caution with a substance more poisonous than arsenic. Pretending like this is just peppery water is how people do get hurt using these sorts of substances.

 

[DoubleD]

I to am new to the ecig community, but have over the last month experienced the cost and associated enjoyment associated with ecigs. I started with a Revolver Elite, which is a good smoke with short battery life, then moved to the Modern Vapor 902 which has longer battery life, but lighter vapor, then I really got the bang with the VPYR and a DSE801 atty. This is probably the closest thing to analogs that I can imagine. I am 6 weeks without a Vantage and I love it.

 

[zbasspro]

It depends on your tolerance, how much you get on you, and where you get it.

What you got on you could seriously hurt a non-smoker, kill a child or pet, or seriously hurt someone who is just a small person like me, no matter what may I smoke.

If you spilled a significant portion on yourself, or got it in your eyes. you could also hurt yourself.

I'm not saying if you get a drop on your you're going to keel over and die instantly. But I am saying it's really not difficult to hurt yourself with it.

It's hardly "ignorant" to advise caution with a substance more poisonous than arsenic. Pretending like this is just peppery water is how people do get hurt using these sorts of substances.

I`m starting to feel as though you have a vendetta towards me or something here. I bolded my post to be sure and note that I advised others to wear gloves if mixing concentrated nic, while also sharing my experience as to no adverse side affects when I have had encounters with getting 100mg on my skin.

You said something to the effect of this stuff is just waiting for the opportunity to kill you. Now my opinion is that that`s media type hyperbole. That`s a comment that could very well send someone into panic if they were to get of few drops on them. Next thing you know people are showing up at ERs freaking out because they got some nicotine on their hands. What`s the likely outcome if that were to start happening?

I never said ignorant in any post. Uninformed? Yes. Nicotine can definitely be fatal in a 60 mg dose. that dose would either have to be ingested or put directly into the bloodstream.

So I ask again to please not state opinions unless they are fact based, and while you keep on this rant, you've yet to produce one case of this stuff knocking someone off @100mg during contact with the skin. Yet you post to a person on their very 1st post.

"All it would take is one distracted moment, one wrong move, and it could quite easily kill you".

Again I ask that you either please back that up with facts, or stop spreading hyperbole that could potentially scare off new members or cause an unneeded panic. The media doesn't need any help with that crusade.

And I have nothing against you, but wish I felt the same.

 

[Automaton]

No, nothing against you.

The warnings in the DIY liquid section are WAY scarier than anything I said. And for good reason. In the short time I've been here, I've already seen a couple people come by who obviously didn't have a healthy respect for what they were dealing with, or an understanding of how dangerous it is. And there are people who will put their health at risk to save money. I understand wanting to pinch pennies, trust me. But I also understand the bad decisions we can make when saving money seems to come above everything else.

It is not true that 60mg nic would necessarily have to be ingested to be very harmful. To kill you? For a heavy smoker, probably, yes. But for a lighter smoker, a social smoker, someone who's small, or a child? Not necessarily.

Honestly, I'd rather have someone be overly cautious than no cautious enough. "Yeah, I get it all over me and I'm fine!" strikes me as a dangerous message to put out there. That's all.

 

[zbasspro]

No, nothing against you.

The warnings in the DIY liquid section are WAY scarier than anything I said. And for good reason. In the short time I've been here, I've already seen a couple people come by who obviously didn't have a healthy respect for what they were dealing with, or an understanding of how dangerous it is. And there are people who will put their health at risk to save money. I understand wanting to pinch pennies, trust me. But I also understand the bad decisions we can make when saving money seems to come above everything else.

It is not true that 60mg nic would necessarily have to be ingested to be very harmful. To kill you? For a heavy smoker, probably, yes. But for a lighter smoker, a social smoker, someone who's small, or a child? Not necessarily.

Honestly, I'd rather have someone be overly cautious than no cautious enough. "Yeah, I get it all over me and I'm fine!" strikes me as a dangerous message to put out there. That's all.

These things '''''' are quotation marks and used to quote someone the times I've used them were when I directly quoted you. Now I never said ANYTHING like what you just quoted me as saying.

I tried to be nice about things, state my opinion as opinion, and my experience as such. I`m done here as I see the usual pattern when someone posts something as fact and is unable to back it up.

1. When asked to provide facts, don't post any cause they aren't there.
Check
2. Put works in other peoples mouth.
Check
3. Attack the poster and not the post.
Check


Feel free to comment again, as I'm sure you will, it's your MO. Me, I'm done, obviously by looking at the lack of responses others don't find it too interesting either. I'll let you have the last word as well, as I'm quite certain you would hardly let this die.

 

[Automaton]

These things '''''' are quotation marks and used to quote someone the times I've used them were when I directly quoted you. Now I never said ANYTHING like what you just quoted me as saying.

I tried to be nice about things, state my opinion as opinion, and my experience as such. I`m done here as I see the usual pattern when someone posts something as fact and is unable to back it up.

1. When asked to provide facts, don't post any cause they aren't there.
Check
2. Put works in other peoples mouth.
Check
3. Attack the poster and not the post.
Check


Feel free to comment again, as I'm sure you will, it's your MO. Me, I'm done, obviously by looking at the lack of responses others don't find it too interesting either. I'll let you have the last word as well, as I'm quite certain you would hardly let this die.

I'm looking desperately for where I actually attacked you... and I really can't find it.

Whatever. Think what you like.

This is stuff posted all over ECF. If I'm making it up, so is everyone else apparently.