The E-cig and Perfection

[Arnie H]

I'm relatively new to vaping, only about 5 months in. But in this short time, I've experimented with a lot of stuff.

The industry and technology continue to improve/evolve, but I don't think we've reached 100 percent perfection yet.

Seems like both top and bottom coil atomizers have some issues.

Top coil (juice reservoir located below the coil) = i.e. Vivi Nova, Genesis style, etc. Sometimes must do some tilting and/or twirling (position dependence) and dancing sort of an e-cig tango.


Bottom coil (juice reservoir located above the coil) = Protank, Fogger, Kayfun, etc. Gravity fed, too little wicking you get gurgling/flooding, too much burnt taste, etc. Also in my quest for larger and larger tanks, I've noticed these wicking issues are more acute the larger the volume/weight of the liquid in the reservoir above. Which makes sense, as there would be more pressure where the liquid enters the wick. Can anyone more experienced confirm or comment?

Cartomizers = I find these to have a muting effect on flavor with the all that filler material they contain. Metals from cartomizer may leach into e-juice.

Rechargable Cig-a-like/stick batteries = generally short run times due to size of battery.

Disposables = Gas station ones, not too good in my opinion. They say 300 puffs but I only get like 30. 9 bucks down the drain. Not cost effective when purchased in small quantities.

Mods = Sometimes connection issues with fixed pins, mechanical mods without a kick = vapor decreases with battery life. Regulated mods with circuits = generally greater risk of something going wrong with the electronics over time.

Coil building and DIY e-liquid = require 3 P's (patience, perseverance, and practice). Also applies to vaping in general.

Dripping Atomizers = First didn't like em, but now starting to love em. Must carry juice with you though, also when initially saturating the wick, find it difficult to determine how much is too much, need to be near sink, sometimes resulting in mess.

Steep learning/experimention curve, lotta reading and research and terms to learn.

Despite this though, I am very pleased where I am currently, with my setups and all. Will it ever be 100 % perfect/hassle-free? Maybe. Who knows what the future holds.

 

[toddrhodes]

I'm relatively new to vaping, only about 5 months in. But in this short time, I've experimented with a lot of stuff.

The industry and technology continue to improve/evolve, but I don't think we've reached 100 percent perfection yet.

Seems like both top and bottom coil atomizers have some issues.

Top coil (juice reservoir located below the coil) = i.e. Vivi Nova, Genesis style, etc. Sometimes must do some tilting and/or twirling (position dependence) and dancing sort of an e-cig tango.


Bottom coil (juice reservoir located above the coil) = Protank, Fogger, Kayfun, etc. Gravity fed, too little wicking you get gurgling/flooding, too much burnt taste, etc. Also in my quest for larger and larger tanks, I've noticed these wicking issues are more acute the larger the volume/weight of the liquid in the reservoir above. Which makes sense, as there would be more pressure where the liquid enters the wick. Can anyone more experienced confirm or comment?

Cartomizers = I find these to have a muting effect on flavor with the all that filler material they contain. Metals from cartomizer may leach into e-juice.

Rechargable Cig-a-like/stick batteries = generally short run times due to size of battery.

Disposables = Gas station ones, not too good in my opinion. They say 300 puffs but I only get like 30. 9 bucks down the drain. Not cost effective when purchased in small quantities.

Mods = Sometimes connection issues with fixed pins, mechanical mods without a kick = vapor decreases with battery life. Regulated mods with circuits = generally greater risk of something going wrong with the electronics over time.

Coil building and DIY E-liquid = require 3 P's (patience, perseverance, and practice). Also applies to vaping in general.

Dripping Atomizers = First didn't like em, but now starting to love em. Must carry juice with you though, also when initially saturating the wick, find it difficult to determine how much is too much, need to be near sink, sometimes resulting in mess.

Steep learning/experimention curve, lotta reading and research and terms to learn.

Despite this though, I am very pleased where I am currently, with my setups and all. Will it ever be 100 % perfect/hassle-free? Maybe. Who knows what the future holds.

I think I get almost as much, if not the same amount of joy and pleasure from tinkering with all the crap I have as I do from actually vaping. Keeps things interesting and in an industry that literally changes everyday, it can be a bit much (not to mention expensive) to keep up with. Great post though, sums up pretty much everything fairly succinctly!

Todd

 

[GunArm]

As far as mechs go, when vapor decreases, replace the battery. Any mod will stop producing vapor when the battery is dead. If you look at the discharge rates of batteries, it's not linear, they hang pretty consistent around 3.7 for a long time until they get really drained and then drop below that. Thats why they are called 3.7v batteries and not 4.2v (as they come off the charger). You make your coils for that and when vapor drops off it means your battery is dying.

 

[fasteddie]

Hey there Arnie,

Great post I think you pretty much summed up all the trials of the average vaper!

I think you only missed one important niggle IMHO-LEAKING! I hate leaks with a passion, it is so annoying to put half a bottle of great and often expensive juice in your atty only to find 5 mins later you are wearing it!!

I genuinely think we are getting there though, there are 2 standout atty's for me.

1. Kayfun 3.1
2. Aspire BDC

The Kayfun 3.1 addresses all of my personal niggles with Vaping although it's not for beginners

The Aspire BDC, it's really cheap, nearly as good on flavour as anything else I own, easy coil change, great wicking, easy enough filling, robust, perfect for newcomers although shouldn't everyone go through the crap to know when they got it good?

I have found my perfection GP Paps 18500 SS, with 18350 and Kick 2, Kayfun 3.1 topper, Microcoil with cotton.
Consistent all day long and one spare 18350 is all I need. No leaks, very easy filling, microcoil will last months and cotton takes 2 mins to change every week/few days depending on juice etc.

 

[Steamix]

Of course not, one can elaborate and fine-tune and pimp around on the basic principle:
You need something that vaporizes a liquid. That something needs an energy source in turn.
You can run the liquid over a hot plate and just hang your face over it and inhale the vapors. Problem solved in a very basic, down to earth way. You can hook up a computer with controls the heat or vibes or whatever you plan using with sophisticated feed back loops to regulate energy, liquid flow, time of day, weather forecasts in Antarctica, flux patterns of sun spots...
No limits to your ingenuity and creativity - but folk prefer something that doesn't require a flatbed trailer to lug around and won't cost the annual defense budget to buy...
Taking these two major constraints into consideration things still evolve as technology becomes available...

But: I surewonder what kind of giant nicflash and mindblasting throat and orgasmlike flavourflash hit one could get when insta-vaporizing 50ml of one's favourite liquid by means of a large hadron collider...

But I doub we'll get find that out, dem guys way to busy chasing hadrons and bosons to be bothered with anything useful...

 

[JuiceIsLoose]

Vaping for 8 months now

I understand the concept, went from cigalikes, Ego stick batteries, Pro Tank 1, EVODs and now Aro BCC pyrex tanks. Settled on a mechanical (EHPro) with 18490 battery and a self-resetting breaker. Next up, the Aspire BDC pyrex tank which will show up next week
in it's 1.8 ohm dual coil goodness (I hope!) My dream is it can handle a fully charged AW without burning the juice and give great flavor (the Aro is close!)

The last step for me is a Kayfun/Russian style rebuildable with cotton wicks, 28AWG Kanthal micro coils at 1 to 1.5 ohms. No nic juice in that thing for monster clouds and the nic juice when I need it from the Aspire BDC on a VV Ego. That's the plan...

It has been only 8 months but the tech really has exploded this year--vape on.

 

[Jazzi Mike]

The Reo is vaping perfection. It marries dripping with a juice reservoir. They are a bit pricey, but after trying out numerous set ups, the Reo makes it so I don't even think about other devices.

 

[InTheShade]

I was going to say the same thing but substitute another device - the VMOD XL.

No tank to leak, no wicks, large on-board juice storage, 18650 size available, takes a standard atty or can be used with other RDA's - it's dripping but without the drip.

Nice write up though Arnie, I think you hit pretty much every nail on the head. As I always say, vaping is fiddly, you absolutely must fiddle with your *ahem* equipment to get a consistent vape. Even a REO or a VMOD take some small amount of fiddling and maintenance to make them work like they should 100% of the time.

 

[Zealous]

I agree with all this. I do have to say that this year a lot of great things have come out.

I'm no vet by any means but I've been vaping for 2 years now & in that time there have been TONS of improvements. I remember when the startdust came out & even that was an amazing clearo for it's time because it was the first one I discovered where you could rebuild the head when it went bad. Of course there have been plenty of issues with those, as well as all the other items mentioned in the OP. But before that first generation Startdust came out I was really struggling to like vaping outside of dripping which, as has been noted, has it's own set of hassles. It seems to me that the Kayfun is one of the best RBAs to come out as far as performance & ease of coil build. While I don't consider it a "beginner" RBA by any means it's certainly less complex than others out there.

I totally agree we're not 100% there yet. But for me, this is the first time since I started vaping where I don't feel like I need to "improve" something I have. That's pretty exciting (doesn't mean I won't want new things though cuz that's just crazy talk there).