Novice to e-cigs with a few inquiries!

[Robolsson]

If you dont care about my intro the questions are at the bottom!

Hello, as my forum name would lead you to believe my name is Robert Olsson. I am almost 21 now, and i've been smoking a pack of Newports daily for the past 4~ years. In January I started my first semester at college taking on 17 credits and due to this I had to drop the days I work a week to 2. Now when you only work two days a week at your local general store for 8 dollars an hour and smoke a pack a day(in NJ, 7.8/pack) you quickly realize you're spending over half your weekly income on smokes. Along with the obvious health hazards..2 weeks ago i'd decided it was time to quit.

I obviously tried other methods, cold turkey and gum specifically..and though I realized sure I could probably do this, I also realized I could probably screw up my first college semester always thinking about breathing out a sweet breath of smoke instead of economics. Now when I first looked into e-cigs I was very overwhelmed by the vast majority of products and prices for said products so I knew some research was in order. After almost landing on Green Smoke I found this forum and saw no overwhelming mention of said company and quickly realized I might be sinking my USD into a poor investment choice. Now regardless of my low-icome I haven't been hesitant to consider a higher cost product in the name of quality. This is not what I was lead to believe by Green Smokes product, I was simply lead to believe it's a company that over inflates prices to accommodate for advertising expenses.

After doing some reading I came upon what seems to be a fairly new product by the company Bloog known as maxxfusion. When I saw some of the more experienced forum users raving of it's new cartomizers and vapor output I settled on a brand. The only problem i've noticed is the lack of supply but this has only re-affirmed my faith that the product is stable and worthy of trying, if they can't even keep up with consumer demand. I decided to call and order because so much was out of stock on the site and I wanted to see what they had, if anything, that wasn't listed. As it turned out I lucked out in being the first consumer to purchase their green color battery which doesn't seem to yet be listed on the site, i'm hoping it's a nice green cause I obviously never saw pictures . It also had Silver listed as out of stock but they had just gotten a shipment so I landed on that as my second battery. Great customer service, but I noticed their deluxe starter kits cost 14 extra dollars rather simply buying the products individually(though not including the two velvet pouches!)..but I strongly dislike velvet..so the 14$ inflation didn't seem worth it and I simply purchased everything separately.

I went with express shipping cause even at the current moment I wish I had it! I really want to be done with traditional cigarettes and enter what seems to be an engulfing world of vaping, though I might have gone a little overboard with the pre-filled cartomizers once I realized they might not taste as good as they currently do in my mind . I've started reading about the process of using what I guess is referred to as e-liquid to refill your smoked out cartomizers, so the main point of my post would now be to as a few questions if anyone would be kind enough to lend input to a novice.

-Though pre-filled cartomizers obviously seem the easiest to handle, i'm guessing the draw of e-liquid is the ability of customization and lower cost?

-This leads me to my next question..How safe is openly handling said e-liquid? How should I approach with cation when refilling a cartomizer? Do you need to sterilize the inhaling end of the cartomizer with anything after you use what I guess is called the Condom method to refill it?

-Does anyone have any recommendations for the best quality sites for various sample flavors?

And a long shot here..but if any previous newport smokers have a menthol e-liquid that can come in the realm of newports i'd love to hear of it.

Thanks for any input, sorry for the long post!

 

[dormouse]

Hi and Welcome!

You can start by just adding juice to your cartomizers - if you run one dry you can singe the stuffing and permanently ruin the flavor of that carto. So you keep them damp and you should be able to get 4-7 days out of one carto. You don't need to refill with the exact same juice - anything compatible will work. The flavors will blend and eventually be just the new flavor. Did you order some eliquid or were you planning on throwing away one or more cartos per day?

You can also buy prefilled and blank soft-cap cartos at Vapor4Life.com. And you can buy any KR808D-1 standard resistance blanks elsehwere (not low resistance aka LR which can damage a slim ecig battery - those are meant for fat-battery models which have stronger internal switches etc.). I recommend sticking with soft-cap standard stuffing-type cartos first then you could experiment with new reservoir types (and I do mean experiment - some clear ones have been known to fall apart).

You need to be EXTRA careful refilling cartomizers because you have auto batteries. Auto batteries are dependent on the drag sensor in the middle of the threaded end, exactly where juice would drip out of a carto. Take the carto off the battery when adding juice. When done clean up any drips, puff into the threaded end to clear the air channel (if the carto has a defined center air channel) then clean up any juice that is loose above the stuffing using a folded tip of tissue.

I don't really recommend the carto condom method with auto batteries - you want the cap off so you can look through the carto (assuming it has a defined center air channel) and so you can clean up any loose juice inside above the stuffing. if the caps are hard or glued on, you may need to use the condom method.

Handling - eh. Unless you have super-high nic (36 or handing higher than 48mg to mix your own juices) O wouldn't be too concerned if you get a bit on you hand. You do need to keep them safely away from kids and pets.

Cleaning the ecig? I do if I am sick. Don't use wet cleaners on the ends of your batteries though you do need to keep those threaded ends clean! Even a thin film of juice residue can get on the battery or charger contacts and mess up rechaging. I use dry tissue or my t-shirt's inside to wipe battery threaded end well before charging. if you want to be more sanitary and have soft-cap cartos, get a plastic or delrin (if in stock) 510/901/KR808D-1 drip tip at LiteCigUSA.net - those do fit in the cartos. A plain stuffing carto usually has enough room to replace the end cap with the drip tip. I do not drip in them (the juice could aim for the air channel which heads to the battery) but it makes a nice mouthpiece and that is easy to wash/rinse (just be careful of the little o-ring on it)

You might want to post again and in the title ask about Newport flavors and good places for samples. FreedomSMokeUSA has samples of some of their juices but the samples are fixed 24mg and fixed PG/VG. Juicy Vapor has lots of different size sample packs (whatever flavors you want). Johnson Creek has some samples. Strictlyejuice has a tobacco sampler. Velvet Vapors has samples but I prefer their dessert flavors like Raspberry Gingerale. Madvapes has very cheap juices. I think BlueMistVaping (name?) has samples.

 

[Robolsson]

thanks for the reply! Well i've been trying to find some sites to buy e-liquid from, nhaler seems to have pretty good menthols but I haven't found one with a good customizable sample pack so I can try a bunch of different flavors without buying 10ml of each.

 

[JC Okie]

Also, you don't need to be afraid of the nicotine juice. No need to sterilize. Just be careful with it and if you spill some on yourself, wash it off. Like Dormouse said, you can just add juice to your cartomizers when they start losing vapor. Don't vape them dry to the point that they taste burnt, or they will be done. When you notice the vapor slacking off, add more juice. I can refill a cartomizer many times if I haven't ruined it by scorching the filler. I understand the Bloog Maxxfusion is popular and a good choice. Good luck.

 

[JC Okie]

I just bought five 6-ml bottles from Alien Visions E-Juice for $20.00. I had never tried their juices, and I am very pleased with them. all of them have good flavor. I don't know about the Newport because I don't do menthol.

 

[Robolsson]

Hmm, I think i'll check that site out - trying to get as much variety as possible

Oh and what's the difference with PG and VG? I see maxxfusion cartomizers use PG, does that mean I should avoid VG liquids?

 

[dormouse]

I would be concerned the Alien Visions VG might be too thick for tight carto stuffing. It may not soak in well. Their Boba's Bounty I have is extremely thick.

PG - thin, lets through the most TH (and irritation) of nicotine, lets through the most flavor, quickly dissipating vapor
VG - thick, smooths the TH (and irritation) of nicotine, dull flavor a bit, makes more visible and persistent vapor

Most people here vape US liquids that are PG/VG mixes. I like anything within 10% of 70pg/30vg - enough PG so I don't get sore tongue, gums or throat from the nicotine, still has good TH and flavor, has more visible vapor

To me, AV's juices seem to have a throat hit additive of some kind - leaves a burning TH for me and normally 100% VG will really dull TH. They are a boon for people who are overly sensitive to PG or nicotine's irritation (nicotine is a skin irritant)

 

[Robolsson]

I would be concerned the Alien Visions VG might be too thick for tight carto stuffing. It may not soak in well. Their Boba's Bounty I have is extremely thick.

PG - thin, lets through the most TH (and irritation) of nicotine, lets through the most flavor, quickly dissipating vapor
VG - thick, smooths the TH (and irritation) of nicotine, dull flavor a bit, makes more visible and persistent vapor

Most people here vape US liquids that are PG/VG mixes. I like anything within 10% of 70pg/30vg - enough PG so I don't get sore tongue, gums or throat from the nicotine, still has good TH and flavor, has more visible vapor

To me, AV's juices seem to have a throat hit additive of some kind - leaves a burning TH for me and normally 100% VG will really dull TH. They are a boon for people who are overly sensitive to PG or nicotine's irritation (nicotine is a skin irritant)

Ohhh, okay! All of that make's a lot of sense, I don't want to clog up my cartomizers with the wrong type of e-liquid so I guess I should be going for a mixture of atleast 70% PG?

You've been extremely helpful

 

[Robolsson]

So I decided on a couple e-liquids from Vapor Vixens and NHaler but maxxfusion was out of blank cartomizers so i'm only going to be recieving pre-filled ones tomorrow. I'm guessing this will make it so the more exotic flavors I chose like Lemonade probably aren't going to taste very much like lemonade in a pre-filled RY4 cartomizer that's been mostly depleted?

From NHaler I ordered..
4x 6ml bottles 24 mg each..not the cheapest price i've found but i've heard really good things about the quality especially in the menthols. I went with:
1x NUport (Hoping this will be a big hit with me, being a newport smoker!)
1x Lemon Merinque (This one seemed to be very interesting, excited to try it)
1x Cream Soda (Ever since i've learned of this world of vaping I've wanted a cream soda vapor, expecting good things from this one)
1x 555 Menthol (Another liquid to add to my arsenal of quitting analogs for good right away, I don't want to have to ever go back to traditional cigarettes and I figure the more variety in flavors, the better chance I have of making this happen)

From Vapor Vixens..Found a couple good ones from here as well, and I've never been met with a quicker processing of any internet order ever. My email states my payment was accepted at 10:54am and my package was now in transit by 11:23am, being only 29 minutes later I found this to be very impressive.
I got another 4 bottles from them, 6ml ea and 24 mg aswell.
1x Cinful Mint (Not gonna lie this ones got me jumping outta my shoes, a menthol mixed with cinnamon flavors? Sounds good to me!)
1x Lemonade (They allow you to add menthol to pretty much any flavor I believe and I went with a very small hint of menthol for this one, hoping its gonna turn out well)
1x Peach Ice Cream (I love smoking, I love peach, I love ice cream, and now they're telling me I can have all three at once? I had to indulge.)
1x Wintergreen (Another menthol to add to my anti-analog arsenal!)

So seeing as my cartomizers are all pre-filled, what can I expect in terms of taste of of the ones like Peach Ice Cream and Lemonade? These seem like they're not gonna be experienced to their full potential until I get my hands on some blank cartomizers unless there's some way to clean them out? Or does it not really matter if I dump sweeter e liquid into any depleted cartomizer?

 

[jifjifjif]

Bluemistvaping.com has 3ml samplers sold in five packs. Avejuice.com does 6ml samplers.

 

[Robolsson]

Bluemistvaping.com has 3ml samplers sold in five packs. Avejuice.com does 6ml samplers.

Thanks for the recommendation, Bluemist seems fairly priced and I like that they offer a 3ml version for more variety . Hmm..blueberry muffin and key lime pie..I havent even gotten my e-cig yet I cant stop wanting to buy more e-juice ;b..excited to finally get a nicotine fix with an a great, safe taste.

 

[dormouse]

Yeah Lemonade may be weird blending with RY4. Vanilla or Chocolate or Caramel or another tobacco juice are my fave blenders.

Backwoods Brew Vanilla Bean - a nice non-milky vanilla. Reminds me of Vanilla Wafers

Vapor4Life WOWBacco (deep dark chocolate tobacco - mostly chocolate. You could try that in their WOW Tobacco sampler of cartos, as well as WOWBoy which is the same with a bit of mint added)

FreedomSmokeUSA Cocoa - an almost bitter strong cocoa, super for toning down the sweetness in a too-sweet juice or tobacco juice

FreedomSmokeUSA oRYental 4 - a sweet caramelly vanilla tobacco (it's their sweet Ry4) - I use this to sweeten tobaccos and vape it alone too

BTW Juicy Vapors has lots of different sample pack configurations - like 5 3ml, or 3 3ml, or ones with larger sizes. I just ordered some yesterday.

Velvet Vapors - you can get a set of 5 samplers (I like their Velvet PG/VG blend for Vanilla Almond Tobacco which is not very tobacco at all and their yummy Raspberry Gingerale - they have plain Gingerale too)

 

[ChipHead]

I just have to ask: What are you going to school for?

My wife smokes Newport Lights. On the recommendation of another forum member, one of the flavors I picked up for her to try was Menthol from Backwoods Brew. She states that's the closest to Newport Lights I've come yet but commented that there is a slight pine needle undertone. I took a couple of bangs of it and it tastes like menthol to me but I was not a menthol smoker when I was hitting the analogues. Every other menthol we tried tasted like peppermint or Christmas candy.

 

[Robolsson]

I just have to ask: What are you going to school for?

My wife smokes Newport Lights. On the recommendation of another forum member, one of the flavors I picked up for her to try was Menthol from Backwoods Brew. She states that's the closest to Newport Lights I've come yet but commented that there is a slight pine needle undertone. I took a couple of bangs of it and it tastes like menthol to me but I was not a menthol smoker when I was hitting the analogues. Every other menthol we tried tasted like peppermint or Christmas candy.

I'm currently taking Macroeconomics, English, Computer Concepts and Programming, Web Page Design, and finally a heavy dose of math . I'm majoring in Information Systems in technology which is very much alike a computer programming degree, but the college I attend offers what I believe to be a more complete curriculum majoring in Information Systems and Technology. I dropped out of high school 4~ years ago(first semester back at school) so I'm still getting into the grove of it all but I don't think i'll be taking 17 credits with a part time job next semester ;b too much stress!

I've been looking at backwoods brew product, especially since I believe they're made by don and his review's provided me with excellent guidance towards my first e-cig. Glad to know their menthol is worth picking up, I think i'll get some right now

 

[ChipHead]

Enjoy yourself robo!

 

[swedishfish]

So I decided on a couple e-liquids from Vapor Vixens and NHaler but maxxfusion was out of blank cartomizers so i'm only going to be recieving pre-filled ones tomorrow. I'm guessing this will make it so the more exotic flavors I chose like Lemonade probably aren't going to taste very much like lemonade in a pre-filled RY4 cartomizer that's been mostly depleted?

From NHaler I ordered..
4x 6ml bottles 24 mg each..not the cheapest price i've found but i've heard really good things about the quality especially in the menthols. I went with:
1x NUport (Hoping this will be a big hit with me, being a newport smoker!)
1x Lemon Merinque (This one seemed to be very interesting, excited to try it)
1x Cream Soda (Ever since i've learned of this world of vaping I've wanted a cream soda vapor, expecting good things from this one)
1x 555 Menthol (Another liquid to add to my arsenal of quitting analogs for good right away, I don't want to have to ever go back to traditional cigarettes and I figure the more variety in flavors, the better chance I have of making this happen)

From Vapor Vixens..Found a couple good ones from here as well, and I've never been met with a quicker processing of any internet order ever. My email states my payment was accepted at 10:54am and my package was now in transit by 11:23am, being only 29 minutes later I found this to be very impressive.
I got another 4 bottles from them, 6ml ea and 24 mg aswell.
1x Cinful Mint (Not gonna lie this ones got me jumping outta my shoes, a menthol mixed with cinnamon flavors? Sounds good to me!)
1x Lemonade (They allow you to add menthol to pretty much any flavor I believe and I went with a very small hint of menthol for this one, hoping its gonna turn out well)
1x Peach Ice Cream (I love smoking, I love peach, I love ice cream, and now they're telling me I can have all three at once? I had to indulge.)
1x Wintergreen (Another menthol to add to my anti-analog arsenal!)

So seeing as my cartomizers are all pre-filled, what can I expect in terms of taste of of the ones like Peach Ice Cream and Lemonade? These seem like they're not gonna be experienced to their full potential until I get my hands on some blank cartomizers unless there's some way to clean them out? Or does it not really matter if I dump sweeter e liquid into any depleted cartomizer?

Let me know how you like nhalers Nuport. That's all I vape (the nhale/xhale). The 555 menthol is OK but I do like his nuport.

BWB Menthol is good, but very mild. I prefer the nhaler nuport.

 

[cltaylor414]

check out madvapes.com ive been getting my juice from them the past couple of times there prices are nice and you can get 5ml bottles for about 2 to 3 buck so you can sample them without spending a bunch there topvapor usa liquid is 80pg/20vg or something like that and the have great shipping rates compared to some of the other places i think its 2.25

 

[Robolsson]

Let me know how you like nhalers Nuport. That's all I vape (the nhale/xhale). The 555 menthol is OK but I do like his nuport.

BWB Menthol is good, but very mild. I prefer the nhaler nuport.

Yeah I figured if Drew is comfortable enough to replicate the name, he must have confidence he's brought somewhat of a replication of the product. I've always been so picky with my taste and though i'm ready to experience a variety of flavors, I know I definitely want the most newport-like flavor I can find. Thanks for the reply, glad to know it's a good product .

 

[swedishfish]

Yeah I figured if Drew is comfortable enough to replicate the name, he must have confidence he's brought somewhat of a replication of the product. I've always been so picky with my taste and though i'm ready to experience a variety of flavors, I know I definitely want the most newport-like flavor I can find. Thanks for the reply, glad to know it's a good product .

He said that's what he used to smoke so I figured it'd be pretty good.

I'm not sure I'd say it tastes like a Newport, but it satisfied me that I stopped smoking with it. You get that little bit of tobacco flavor with a hit of menthol/mint. The BWB menthol is good too but like I said his juice is very smooth (and needs to steep). I definitely recommend his juices but for a menthol I want a little more of a kick.

 

[Robolsson]

He said that's what he used to smoke so I figured it'd be pretty good.

I'm not sure I'd say it tastes like a Newport, but it satisfied me that I stopped smoking with it. You get that little bit of tobacco flavor with a hit of menthol/mint. The BWB menthol is good too but like I said his juice is very smooth (and needs to steep). I definitely recommend his juices but for a menthol I want a little more of a kick.

Well i'm definitely excited for it to arrive now..i've heard the pre-filled bloog menthols i'm getting tomorrow resemble something more of a marlboro smooth which ill probably end up regret purchasing once I have the nuport liquid :b