Suggestion for first unit for a noob?

[okfarmgirl]

Hey again guys. Okay, so I've been doing a ton of reading and I feel more confused now than before. I have a KR8 version, but I'm thinking I may not want to stick with that since I'm not sure if I can buy parts, etc. from other vendors for it (it's a Tececig), etc. So I've been looking at the 510 style, but I'm not sure how much bigger those are going to be from my KR8. I don't want anything quite cigar sized, but the KR8 is a good size. Something slightly larger would be okay, I think.

I would like to be able to vape as inexpensively as possible because I'm on a major budget, which is part of my motivation for quitting smoking. I've been eyeballing the kGo kit as it is in a decent price range, but I'm not interested in the tobacco flavored carts that come with it. I'd like to be able to buy a few different juices in smaller bottles so I can find one I like, and I think I like the idea of clearomizers (these don't have the batting, right?) or at the least, a refillable cartomizer. I would like to buy everything from the same vendor. I like the idea of a drip tip (which is just a mouthpiece to keep the juice off your lips, yes?) so I can have acrylic in my mouth instead of metal. I'd love to land one in red, but it really doesn't matter so long as it is stainless so there's no nickel in it. I don't want to have to mess with syringes, as I have little kids. I want it to be something where folks aren't going to think I'm doing something illegal while vaping. So maybe if there's a clearomizer, it'd have a cone?

I'm seriously out of my element here. I need to do this purchase early next week, and I'm going to go completely off analogs with this. My goal is to keep my vaping budget to $50 a month and to have enough of what I need to never run out of batteries or juice during the day. (My KR8 only has one battery, and I have to charge it midway through the day - if I stick with the KR8, I need another battery).

I guess...just...help? Thanks everyone!

 

[okfarmgirl]

Ooh, one more thing. I'm not sure if I've just got a sore throat, or if the PG is bothering me. I like the idea of VG, because throat hit isn't as important to me as vapor, and I like sweeter flavor, so that's not a problem. I've been hearing though that it tends to clog up more than PG. Any advice in that regard would be helpful as well.

 

[luvinit]

Welcome okfarmgirl.. you've come to the right place! You will LOVE the KGO.. I started with one of those small kr808s and quickly moved up to the KGO.. and now I have four of them! They're a bit bigger than your 808, about the size of a sharpie marker. Believe me, I've bought no less than 6 kits in the last couple of months for people I've converted.. I usually get them from HoosierEcigSupply because he usually has all of the available colors, if you want red or green or blue. The only problem with his kit is that it comes with atomizers, and they're junk. The best all around deal for a KGO is at Dark City Vapors. His kit comes with a box of cartomizers, which is what you want. And you can get a second box of cartos at a reduced price. They also have drip tips and you're right, you want drip tips, at least a couple. They also have liquids, though I've never tried them from there.. there's tons of places to get liquid from.. that will take some some trial and error to find what you like.

I just checked Dark City and all he's got in stock right now is white or black.. Hoosier has a few more colors but seems to be out of the red, blue and green. The titanium is nice!

If you go with Hoosier, it's going to come with atomizers, so you'll need to order cartomizers. You can get everything you need from there. KGO kit1100mAh by SLB

I know it's extremely confusing.. but it works! If you can manage to decipher the tons of info here, you'll do well. I hope I didn't confuse you more! Check em out, and if you have more questions... fire away!

 

[luvinit]

Most places will customize the amount of pg/vg... you might have to play around with that.

 

[okfarmgirl]

Also, what I've got now is an auto battery, but I think I want a button, I guess, based on what I've read here. I don't understand all the electronics stats of the ohms, variable this and that, etc. But I don't think a button would bother me. I'm okay with black - it's what I've got now and it's fairly nondescript. I've seen the one at Hoosiers - I'll check out the other. Thanks for the reply.

 

[okfarmgirl]

Alright, so how many cartomizers does a girl need? LOL I want to be able to switch between 4-5 flavors, so do I need that many, or twice that many or what? Can I just move the drip tips, or do they retain flavor and should I have one for each cartomizer or what? Can you explain what a shorty cone is? Ack, and cartomizer OPTIONS? Seriously - it's all too much. LOL What kind of cartomizer is ideal?

 

[sailorman]

Except for the red thing, this is a piece of cake. Will pink do instead?
The kGo with ego Vision Clearomizers (CE4+) will do what you want.
You can get them in the same place. They don't need syringes to fill.
Until you find the juices you really like, I'd suggest you get the atomizer kit (to test juices) and some regular cartomizer, which you can fill with the "condom method" so you won't need syringes for that either.
The kGo atomizer kit will come with drip tips, and you can get additional ones pretty cheap, including red.
A great vendor for all of that is Hoosier. You'll break $50 by a little bit this time, if you get everything you need, but keeping it below $50/month is no problem at all unless you go crazy buying new toys.

Frankly, you should approach buying juice separately than buying your e-cig. The best deals and the best juice are usually not the same places that sell the best devices and accessories. Buy your juice somewhere else. That's the way to get the best for the least expense.

You can get everything else here. They also have juice but, if I were you, I'd shop for that separately:
KGO kit1100mAh by SLB

 

[okfarmgirl]

If I want to buy a thirty day supply of juice, for a pack a day smoker of M Lights, how many mL do I need? I seem to smoke more on the ecig. I'm also thinking 18 mg to start with a 20PG/80VG mix? (More vapor, less throat hit?) I can't tell you how I appreciate the help - there's just too much info for my little brain.

 

[sailorman]

Alright, so how many cartomizers does a girl need? LOL I want to be able to switch between 4-5 flavors, so do I need that many, or twice that many or what? Can I just move the drip tips, or do they retain flavor and should I have one for each cartomizer or what? Can you explain what a shorty cone is? Ack, and cartomizer OPTIONS? Seriously - it's all too much. LOL What kind of cartomizer is ideal?

If you're just going to use cartomizers, I'd suggest 2 boxes (10). You can move drip tips. They dont retain flavors. Eventually, you'll amass a collection of them, but it's not strictly necessary. A "shorty" cone is just what it sounds like. It's shorter than normal and more of the cartomizer or clearomizer sticks out. If you use a clearomizer, it let's you see how much juice is left easier than the longer cone which obscures your view.

You should hae a minimum of one cartomizer for each flavor you like. You can't really mix flavors in a cartomizer. With clearomizers, you can rinse them out and change flavors because there is no stuffing in them. For a kgo, a Smoketech 1.7ohm or Boge 2ohm are good cartomizers. For clearomizers, anything between 1.8 and 2.4ohms is good. The lower the ohms, the warmer the vapor will be. If you're vaping tobacco or coffee or heavy flavors, go for the low side in ohms. If you like fruits and flowers, go for the higher (cooler) side.

BTW, Hoosiers has 6 colors of kGo, so you're not limited to Black.

 

[okfarmgirl]

Sailorman, why is the atomizer preferable for testing juices? Is it washable/refillable? Don't they look a bit like glass tanks? I can drip into a cartomizer by taking out the soft end, can't I? With a nozzled bottle instead of a syringe? The color really isn't a big deal - just a wish-listy thing. I can always buy red batteries later. Will I need more than the two batteries it comes with?

 

[sailorman]

If I want to buy a thirty day supply of juice, for a pack a day smoker of M Lights, how many mL do I need? I seem to smoke more on the ecig. I'm also thinking 18 mg to start with a 20PG/80VG mix? (More vapor, less throat hit?) I can't tell you how I appreciate the help - there's just too much info for my little brain.

Assuming you'll be wasting some as you learn what you're doing, I'd estimate that 18mg should be good and you'll probably go through about 120ml in the first 30 days (3-5ml/day) if you don't have any disastrous accidents or buy something you just can't vape at all.

 

[okfarmgirl]

If I'm trying new flavors, is it okay to do 5mL bottles, or should I go 10 of each? I just don't want to run out, but I don't want to overbuy either. I need everything 100% available at all times because I don't live where I can just run out and buy something in a pinch (aside from analogs, which I want to get rid of altogether). I know I've got a million questions - I appreciate you all being so patient!

 

[okfarmgirl]

Assuming you'll be wasting some as you learn what you're doing, I'd estimate that 18mg should be good and you'll probably go through about 120ml in the first 30 days (3-5ml/day) if you don't have any disastrous accidents or buy something you just can't vape at all.

So, four flavors at 30mL is the way to go? Where are some of the preferred juice vendors? Is there a list?

 

[Iusedtoanalog]

Hi Okfarmgirl. The general rule is expect to use anywhere between 2-5ml per day of liquid. Combine that with flavor swapping and you have a somewhat range of totals available to base your ordering from. New toys will always allow you to use more liquid, eventually you will find what you like and settle back into a somewhat predictable amount of "I use this much" type of scenario. There are a ton of options for you and it seems as though you have found a good go-to device.Good Luck. Happy Vaping.

 

[Iusedtoanalog]

For starters you should consider the smaller bottles (5-10ml). As soon as you find something that touches on all the right places for you stock up on that one and keep going. What flavors do you like on your kr808?

 

[sailorman]

The batteries are sealed inside the e-cig. You use one while the other is charging. You should get about 8-10 hours on a charge. When talking about the kGo or other eGo type e-cigs, the term "batteries" refers to the entire e-cig, not just the batteries that you can't see and are contained inside. So, if you have a Pink battery, you have a Pink e-cig.

The atomizer doesn't have any filler or absorbent material that holds the juice. You can clean them, but you don't have to do it between flavors. An atomizer looks like a small metal tube with an open end and a connector for the battery on the other end. The only thing inside it is a heating coil. You drip some juice into the open end while it's attached to your kgo (battery), stick the drip tip on, and vape. When the vapor gets thin or burned tasting, you drip more juice into it through your "drip tip".

You don't want to drip into a cartomizer. A cartomizer is a longer tube with polyester filling inside that surrounds the heating coil. The filling absorbs the juice and acts like a resevoir for the juice. The heating coil vaporizes the juice that it comes in contact with. There's a lot of stuff inside a cartomizer and you don't want to tear one apart just to get access to a heating coil. That's what atomizers are for. They are like a cartomizer without the stuffing.

You don't need a syringe to fill a cartomizer or to drip drops into an atomizer. A regular dropper type bottle works fine for either one.

 

[sailorman]

So, four flavors at 30mL is the way to go? Where are some of the preferred juice vendors? Is there a list?

Don't buy 30ml bottles unless you already know what you like. Get 5ml or 10ml bottles of different flavors from various vendors. One company's "cherry" won't taste like another company's "cherry". There is a huge list of vendors in the vendors section. You can always start another thread to ask about juice recommendations. There is even a review section for juices somewhere around here. Finding the right juice is the hardest part of this whole thing. Tastes are too different. I'll help you all day with the right devices. I'm too lazy to do that with juices. Besides, I make the best juice and it aint' for sale.

 

[okfarmgirl]

For starters you should consider the smaller bottles (5-10ml). As soon as you find something that touches on all the right places for you stock up on that one and keep going. What flavors do you like on your kr808?

I only have three flavors (it was a 2nd-hand gift). The only "leaded" on is 6mg and it's cherry, which I hated at first, but has grown on me. The other two are 0mg, one vanilla (I really like that) and the other mint (which actually tastes like green apple). I like coffee, vanilla, white chocolate, and chocolate flavors. But I can also see trying some fruits, and frankly, I'm fascinated by the idea of a bacon flavored juice. LOL That will be down the line when I've got a few bucks to burn. I was thinking of getting maybe a vanilla, a coffee/latte/cappuccino type, a mint, and maybe apple or cotton candy or something sweet. How much does VG cut down on flavor? I'm thinking of trying a mix of mixes - varying the PG/VG on the high end of the VG scale. Like I said, my throat kinda hurts, and I don't know if it's the PG, or a cold or what, but I care more about inhaling and exhaling vapor - the throat hit of a analog has never been a plus for me.

 

[sailorman]

Ooh, one more thing. I'm not sure if I've just got a sore throat, or if the PG is bothering me. I like the idea of VG, because throat hit isn't as important to me as vapor, and I like sweeter flavor, so that's not a problem. I've been hearing though that it tends to clog up more than PG. Any advice in that regard would be helpful as well.

I'm a bit sensitive to PG myself, but having a certain amount avoids some cloggy problems you can get with 100%VG. I'd suggest trying juices with a small amount of PG, say 20-30%. It's not enough to bother you unless you are really allergic, but it's enough to keep the juice from being too thick and causing wicking problems or gumming up cartomizers too bad.

 

[luvinit]

okfarmgirl.. you're very lucky sailorman found you! He's VERY knowledgable about this stuff and more articulate than I (I went with the KGO on his suggestion way back!.. thanks sailorman!) One other thing about juice,, your tastes will change over time. Some of the juices I tried in the beginning and loved I can't stand now.. do small bottles, if you like vanilla (who doesn't?) get a little bigger bottle of that but I wouldn't do anything in 30ml until you know you like it. I was right where you are now, not so long ago so I feel your pain! It's really quite overwhelming! But there's good people here, willing to help.. and sailorman is one of the best!