Really enjoying my first e-cig experience so far.

[Rayder]

I bought a FUMA e-cig. From what I understand by browsing this forum, it is essentially a KR808D-2/E9 model e-cig. So while it is not real widely supported, it IS a pretty decent one, according to what I've read from members here anyway. Obviously, if I continue to enjoy my e-cig experience, I'll want to look into buying a more mainstream e-cig that I can refill manually, as opposed to buying new carts all the time.

One of the main reasons I want to go with an e-cig (besides health benefits of course) is the mess of analogs. I'm tired of ashes everywhere, the extra dust and film buildups they cause, the general stink of analog cigs. I'm tired of them burning away in the ashtray (essentially being wasted) if you get into to something and forget about them for a minute. I hate feeling obligated to smoke a whole analog after lighting it and sometimes put-out and re-light the same cig multiple times. I roll my own and that whole process is messy and I hate it. I really wish I could just forget about cigarettes and all the annoyance and aggravation that goes with it.

That's where the e-cig comes in. Or at least, that's what I'm hoping. So far, since getting the e-cig, the only time I'm tempted to smoke an analog is when the e-cig's battery dies and I'm waiting for it to re-charge. The vapor it provides is nice and thick in appearance. The throat hit is strong and the slight head-rush suggests to me that either I just got a nice dose of nicotine, or there's something else in the juice that's buzzing me for a moment. All in all, not an unpleasant experience by any means.

In roughly 4 hours from the time of this post, it will be 24 hours since my last analog. As long as I can hit the e-cig every once in a while, then I don't need an analog. But I fear buying refills is gonna be murder on the pocketbook, and quite a bit more frequent than that "one cart = one pack" would suggest. I would put it at about 4-8 analogs = 1 cart.
You know, I'd really like one of these e-cig companies to provide some detailed information on how they determine how many analogs = cart. How many hits on an e-cig = 1 analog by THEIR standards? So far, by my (and apparently many members here) standards, it's nowhere even close to pack-per-cart ratios as they like to claim. So in essence, the 5-cart pack is like 1 pack of analogs. But that 5-pack cost $15.

I need cheaper alternatives to fit the current battery based on the model numbers I mentioned above......just until I can afford to get into the better quality/availability products.

 

[cyberwolf]

Welcome to the ECF and glad you are seeing some good results. There are two things you should look into. First, it sounds like you only have one battery. You should definitely get at least two more - one to use while charging and another as a standby. Litecig has Kr808D-1 batteries at a reasonable price. Second, buying the prefilled cartos is not wallet friendly. A $5 bottle of juice will fill those same carts at least 10 times. You'll eventually need to replace the cartos, but I typically get at least a dozen refills before the taste gets weak.

edit: I didn't initially catch the fact that your model is KR808D-2 compatible. Disregard my KR808D-1 suggestion unless you are thinking of buying a whole new model.

 

[Newbz]

So in essence, the 5-cart pack is like 1 pack of analogs. But that 5-pack cost $15.

Ah, I remember those days.

The carts are refillable for a time or two. Grab yourself a bottle of eliquid from any of the great vendors here and refill until you can get a better model of personal vaporizer.

A cheap, but great vaporizer can be had at Electronic Cigarette - Starter Kits - Riva 510 with the RivaLite bundle. It's a 510 unit, which means it is widely supported, you get everything you need (except your e-liquid) for under $30 when you click on the 20% off button at the top left hand corner of the screen. This unit is about the size of a Sharpie pen, so a bit bigger than KR808 in diameter, but still easily fits in the pocket. I use one battery per day and about 1.5 ml of no nicotine juice. I started at 2-3 ml of 36 mg nicotine back in October.

I use my Riva every day, have owned it since November, and it still fires like a champ. I was a 1.5-2 PAD smoker for 15 years. I have not smoked for well over 6 months thanks to the Riva.

Good luck!

 

[HarmonyPB]

If you want to stick with the KR808D-2 batts LeCig sells them along with blank (and prefilled) D2 cartos. Although I would highly suggest switching to D1 asap. As you stated there are many more options available. I am actually in the same situation atm. I started on D2 and am just now switching to D1. LeCig also has D1-D2 and D2-D1 adapters to make the transition easy and more cost effective. Although I must point out that I can't get my D1-D2 adapter to work on one of my D1 batts. It works perfectly on my D1 pass-through though!! I also want to point out that the D2 cartos from LeCig are NOT the best. After I purchased 10 of them, and hated the draw, I decided to switch to D1. Vapor4Life has some awesome D1 cartos and they have some batteries on clearance right now That's where I got mine. And as cyberwolf said, buying juice and refilling cartos is the way to save!! I've had some cartos for 7 months that are still going strong, I just keep refilling them! If you want to get even more life out of them you can even clean them (search YouTube).
Welcome to ECF and good luck with your vaping adventure

 

[Vap0rJay]

This exact same reason is why those tv deal are such a rip off. The tv add get you sub-par model then want to enroll you in their "club" so you are burning through cartos and they know full well someone new to vaping wouldn't know its not equal to a pack. The TV models want your $15 every week.

Get some juice, do a little research... and fill your own! Good luck and welcome!

 

[Rayder]

Oh yes, this model I'm using now is getting put onto the novelty shelf. Once I get some money together, I'm gonna do as you guys have suggested and get a better model with refillable carts and juice and all that. I know I could quit smoking by using e-cigs, I just need the most efficient initial setup first.

I like the 3-battery idea. But if someone makes one that lasts all day (I don't care if it looks like a cig or not) that would be better.
I can deal with carrying extra carts around, as long as they are refillable. I'd prefer juice that tastes at least something like a real cig, not really into special flavors, just a basic cig-like flavor. I do understand that this is a rare thing, but that's what I guess most people want, so.....yeah. I would also prefer the carts to have a large capacity, so I don't have to swap them out as often. Again, I don't care if any of it looks like a cig or not.

So I guess it all comes down to:
Determine which e-cig model to go with.
Splurge on a big, gnarly battery, maybe buy as many as 3 of them. (don't care about it looking like a cig)
Find out which tips last the longest per re-charge and provide at least the same vapor power as the FUMA I have now and buy up a dozen or so of those.
Figure out which juices I want and buy a gallon or two. Heh....
Throw away analog cigs.

In short, I don't care if it looks like I'm smoking a cell-phone as long as it works with minimum hassles and gets me off of filthy analogs. I wanna try to get the cost of vaping much closer to the price of roll-your-own analogs....initial startup costs notwithstanding. I know roll-your-own will always be cheaper, but when I bought the FUMA, I knew THAT unit would be nothing more than a test-unit. I KNEW that if I liked my e-cig experience (and I did), I would have to seek out more efficient methods of vaping beyond that FUMA device. I knew that I'd have to seek out a site that discussed e-cigs. Obviously, I have found that site.

I may be a noob now, but once I get to where I can go full-bore into vaping, I won't be a noob long. ECF is proving to be an invaluable source of information. I like how active the site is and how fast my posts have been replied to. All of you guys have been a great help and I appreciate and take into consideration all the advice you guys are giving. Keep it coming!

I'm currently in between jobs right now, so I'm stuck at the initial investment hump. Once I get over that hump, I will finally be in a position to go analog free using some form of e-cig.
Based on what I've sort of laid out more clearly in this reply as to what I'm looking for (which is sure to evolve as I learn more about vaping), I look forward to hearing more recommendations.