So it's now been 4 weeks since my last cigarette. Before e-cigs, I'd tried to quit unsuccessfully many times in the last 11 years; this is the longest I've gone without a cigarette since I've been in high school. I'm now at the point where I don't think I'll ever smoke a cigarette again, so...that's a plus!
I had tried e-cig like products multiple times before over the years, and each time they were horrible and a waste of money, until about four weeks ago. Here are some of my experiences with that (hopefully will help someone else before they start out):
First Experience- "SmokingEverywhere' - fail
I was in local mall, and passed a Smoking Everywhere kiosk. It's definitely a head turner to see people who appear to be smoking in a mall the first time. I knew nothing about e-cigs before this point, and spent 80 dollars on a kit- which is actually a couple of very cheaply made 510 auto batteries, a usb charger, an atomizer, and some cartridges. At the kiosk, I found the level of vapor fairly satisfying. After that, I set out to use the e-cig instead of a cigarette every time I wanted one. This didn't work out well at all. The cartridges only produced a reasonable amount of vapor for the first 10 hits, than turned to nothing. The battery only lasted 20 minutes or so. Both batteries completely lost the ability to hold a charge after just 2 or 3 charges. A complete rip off, and I was back to smoking less than 12 hours later. Didn't try any e-cig like products again for over a year after that.
Second Experience - Ploom Model One - fail
Quite a long time after the SmokingEveryhwere failure, I saw one of these at a local corner store. This thing looks like a pen, and it's not battery powered. It takes butane, you press a button which sparks it and then it heats up a chamber with the butane gas from the other end. It takes a proprietary cartridge that looks like a tiny k-cup.
This worked for about a day before it completely broke. Cost about 40 dollars. During the brief time it functioned, a cartridge would last for about 15 to 20 puffs. Maybe. It was a year between this purchase and trying e-cig like products again.
Third experience - GreenSmartLiving, almost a success
Six weeks ago, I was really determined to make another go at quitting smoking. I was thinking about trying Zyban or the Patch, both of which I'd heard a few success and few failure stories from friends about. At this point I chatted with an old college roommate who had quit smoking. He was always a heavy smoker -two plus packs a day- but recently had his first child and quit completely. I asked how he managed it, and if he had any tips. He told me he used an e-cigarette and it was a completely smooth experience for him. I mentioned how bad these were for me in the past, he told me they'd come a long way and I should try again - so I headed to the local smoke shop.
They carried one e-cigarette type, the Green Smart Living. This is a 510 threaded thing that looks like a cigarette as well- comes with two auto batteries, a couple cartridges, and a charger. And cost $20. Although it looked a lot like the SmokingEverywhere piece of junk I had bought a few years earlier, it actually worked. Adequate vapor, flavor and nicotine- I had my first 48 hours without a cigarette in a very long time.
Fourth Experience - Gentleman's Vape Executive- fail
At this point the Green Smart Living cigalike was okay, but the battery life was just too short, and one of the batteries had already lost most of its ability to hold a charge. I headed to a (different) local smokeshop (I'm in San Francisco, there's tons of them) where I often used to buy hookah supplies, asked to see their e-cigarette selection. They showed me an Ego clone, and I said I was looking for something with the longest lasting battery. At this point I had never browsed this forum and didn't know anything about e-cig hardware other than what's above. Neither did the store, really. They showed me a number of other devices, but they really sell them primarily for the use of 'medicinal oils' that are legal in this state. I ended up paying 50 dollars for something called the Gentleman's Brand Executive. It's big- twice the size of an ego, and silver- and came with 4 rechargeable (18650 i think) batteries - 2 fit in it stacked at a time- a battery charger, and two clearomizers. I purchased two bottles of their e-liquid (cherry and coffee, at over $1.20 / ml and took them home.)
I filled the clearomizers, let them sit, and popped them on the device to try. I would describe the taste as a mixture of burning plastic, chemicals, and sweatsocks. I almost threw up.
Since I've started browsing this forum I have a much better idea of why. One, this is a variable voltage device with the 3 settings - 4v, 5, and 6v. That, and the store had removed the clearomizers that were supposed to come with the kit, and put in two vision nanos instead. So I was putting 5 volts into a 1.5ohm or less tiny clearo and burning it immediately. Also, the juice was disgusting garbage.
The Ego-C + Stardust: I quit smoking!
At this point, I had spent an embarrassing amount of money on worthless junk, but I knew there was something to it after having some success with the GreenSmartLiving kit (which was the cheapest of them all, incidentally.) I started checking yelp, and discovered the Vapor Den- a small shop in town dedicated just to e-cig stuff. Yelp reviews were mixed between "this is great, they got me off cigarettes" and "this place doesn't know enough technical details about e-cigs, I'm an advanced user." Sounded perfect for me at the time.
I headed down there, told them about my experiences so far, and what I wanted. Extremely friendly and helpful- I bought two ego-c 650mah batteries, five stardust clearomizers, a charger, and 10 mls each of Mango, Ry4, and vanilla e-juice. This was my first really positive e-cig experience. They showed me how everything worked. I happily vaped through all of the mango juice in a couple days- and between two ego 650 batteries I could easily hold the charge all day. I experienced some transition/withdrawl symptoms (tiredness, some irritability) but successfully gave up smoking. First big win.
I ran out of the mango juice, and tried the vanilla. It tasted like burning alcohol and gave me a headache after one puff. For reference, all this place's juices are Dekang, except this vanilla, which had 'liqua' handwritten on it so I'm not sure.
Week two Smoke Free- Looking for the right juice
At this point, I discovered this forum [URL was written in the booklet I got from Vapor Den], started lurking and learning, and decided to try some other juice vendors. I bought some samples from Tasty Vapor (one city over, so deliveries arrive the day after I order), Ultimate Vanilla, Atomic Cinnacide, and Caramel Macchiato. At this point I was also thinking the reason the first juices I had were so gross might be a PG allergy, so I ordered some 100% and 70% VG 'organic' from Orb Vapor as well. I still had a handful of stardust clearomizers unused.
The Atomic Cinnacide clouded and cracked the clearomizer as soon as I filled it. The Ultimate Vanilla and Caramel Macchiato went into the other clearos. Both very strong, and much higher quality flavor than the stuff I had tried before. I decided I could vape these happily for a long time.
After a couple refills of the stardusts, they both started leaking profusely out the battery end, to the point they were unusable. I read about some other options, and I ordered a few Kanger T3s and an Ego-Twist. I refilled my Ultimate Vanilla and Caramel Macchiato orders from TastyVapor, and also added BlueBerry Cake Batter and Orange Creamsicle. Since I knew I'd receive it the next day and long before the T3s came, I also tried some of the hardware tasty vapor offers. I was hoping to like it because if I could buy the juice and hardware from a place that ships in just a day, I'd be set for life. I ordered a pack of smoktech dual coil 1.5 ohm cartomizers, and a few 1.5 ohm mega dual coil cartomizers.
Week Two-Three - clearomizer, cartomizer and juice woes
At this point I'm off cigarettes, I have a couple juices I know I like, and a drawer full of hardware.
SmokTech dual coil 1.5 ohm cartomizers: Good flavor, medium vapor. But they run down the Ego 650 battery in a matter of minutes, so they're out. I'm thinking there'd be more vapor on a bigger battery, and the Ego just can't handle them. Atomic Cinnacide doesn't break them like it does the clearomizers, but turns out I don't like that flavor anyway.
Ego Mega Dual Coil Cartomizers: I really really wanted to like these, because they are durable and make the ego battery look like a discrete cigar like thing, instead of some strange paraphanalia. Unfortunately, they produce almost no vapor and kill the battery fast. Same as above, I think ego batteries just can't handle them, but that seems pretty stupid to me considering they're clearly designed for Egos. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Kanger T3: Unlike the stardusts, this didn't leak, at all, which was great. And it held more juice. And it tasted fantastic...at first. After a few fills it started getting gnarly- so rinsed it. And I soaked it in Vodka. And dry burned it. Nothing helped. The greatest success I've had with cleaning/dry burning was making it produce great vapor and taste like cardboard.
Orb Vapor Organic Liquids: At a few days old, they all smelled like what they were supposed too, but tasted like one of these three things regardless of purported flavor: butter, dish soap, or nothing. I since let them steep a few weeks, and found a couple of them had a much better (but still very subtle) flavor. Also really gummed up clearomizers. I decided to order some more of these, this time in higher PG ratios.
Tasty Vapor Orange Creamsicle and Blueberry Cupcake: Orange creamsicle tasted like orange rinds, no creamsicle. So I have 20 something mls of this one I'll never use. Disappointed because Fumari Orange Creamsicle Hookah Tobacco is great, but not convinced I'll ever replicate that flavor as an e-liquid.
Blueberry Cupcake did taste something like Blue Berry cupcakes, but was really gross. Something harsh about the blueberries. I can't decide whether it's a bad blueberry flavor, or it's a perfect blueberry flavor but I have no business vaping a blueberry.
At this point I ordered a bunch more T3 replacement heads from various vendors. However, my T3 experience has never made it back to where it was the first time. At best, I'll get good flavor for one tankful. Still no luck cleaning them to restore taste, and I've noticed that even after just one tank of Ultimate Vanilla, the flavor wicks can become permanently blackened and gunked up. Starting to think it could be an issue with TV even though I liked the flavor a lot at first.
Then to Now- Looking for a reliable vape :/
I still can't decide whether I've already used the last two good-tasting Kanger T3s on the planet, or the TV juice I'm using just won't work well in them. Or maybe I'm sick of the juice and that's why it tastes different to me. I've ordered some other juices to try from Virgin Vapors.
I've tried the mini vivi nova, and the rebuildable stardust. The rebuildable startdust also leaks quite a bit. Both the vivi nova and the rebuildable stardust give me lots of dry and plasticy hits. (I've noticed the thin inner tube of cloth around the nova head has burned- the one that's supposed to protect the coil from touching the outer metal.) And they also taste like a hot blast of sugar instead of the flavor of my juice. I really think the T3 was about right when it was working- I liked the cooler bottom coil vape- and I've ordered some evods to try. But I'm starting to think the T3 is just not going to do it for me, have never been able to get back to the taste quality of the first couple I had.
I ordered a carto tank from valley vapes. I'm crossing my fingers it will be all kinds of great and I'll never need anything else, because I feel like I've tried just about every other type of device there is.
I'm happy to be off cigarettes for a month- but I've also spent a whole lot on start up costs and trying things, and still haven't reached my ideal situation. I'd like to find a clearomizer/cartomizer etc that I like, order a few dozen of them, find a juice I like, and order a bunch of it, and stop fiddling with this stuff. Not sure when that will happen.
In retrospect I think the GentlemansVape Executive vv I bought is probably a nice device, but I currently don't have an ego adapter so haven't given it much more use.
TLDR:
Suggestions for people just starting out:
I had tried e-cig like products multiple times before over the years, and each time they were horrible and a waste of money, until about four weeks ago. Here are some of my experiences with that (hopefully will help someone else before they start out):
First Experience- "SmokingEverywhere' - fail
I was in local mall, and passed a Smoking Everywhere kiosk. It's definitely a head turner to see people who appear to be smoking in a mall the first time. I knew nothing about e-cigs before this point, and spent 80 dollars on a kit- which is actually a couple of very cheaply made 510 auto batteries, a usb charger, an atomizer, and some cartridges. At the kiosk, I found the level of vapor fairly satisfying. After that, I set out to use the e-cig instead of a cigarette every time I wanted one. This didn't work out well at all. The cartridges only produced a reasonable amount of vapor for the first 10 hits, than turned to nothing. The battery only lasted 20 minutes or so. Both batteries completely lost the ability to hold a charge after just 2 or 3 charges. A complete rip off, and I was back to smoking less than 12 hours later. Didn't try any e-cig like products again for over a year after that.
Second Experience - Ploom Model One - fail
Quite a long time after the SmokingEveryhwere failure, I saw one of these at a local corner store. This thing looks like a pen, and it's not battery powered. It takes butane, you press a button which sparks it and then it heats up a chamber with the butane gas from the other end. It takes a proprietary cartridge that looks like a tiny k-cup.
This worked for about a day before it completely broke. Cost about 40 dollars. During the brief time it functioned, a cartridge would last for about 15 to 20 puffs. Maybe. It was a year between this purchase and trying e-cig like products again.
Third experience - GreenSmartLiving, almost a success
Six weeks ago, I was really determined to make another go at quitting smoking. I was thinking about trying Zyban or the Patch, both of which I'd heard a few success and few failure stories from friends about. At this point I chatted with an old college roommate who had quit smoking. He was always a heavy smoker -two plus packs a day- but recently had his first child and quit completely. I asked how he managed it, and if he had any tips. He told me he used an e-cigarette and it was a completely smooth experience for him. I mentioned how bad these were for me in the past, he told me they'd come a long way and I should try again - so I headed to the local smoke shop.
They carried one e-cigarette type, the Green Smart Living. This is a 510 threaded thing that looks like a cigarette as well- comes with two auto batteries, a couple cartridges, and a charger. And cost $20. Although it looked a lot like the SmokingEverywhere piece of junk I had bought a few years earlier, it actually worked. Adequate vapor, flavor and nicotine- I had my first 48 hours without a cigarette in a very long time.
Fourth Experience - Gentleman's Vape Executive- fail
At this point the Green Smart Living cigalike was okay, but the battery life was just too short, and one of the batteries had already lost most of its ability to hold a charge. I headed to a (different) local smokeshop (I'm in San Francisco, there's tons of them) where I often used to buy hookah supplies, asked to see their e-cigarette selection. They showed me an Ego clone, and I said I was looking for something with the longest lasting battery. At this point I had never browsed this forum and didn't know anything about e-cig hardware other than what's above. Neither did the store, really. They showed me a number of other devices, but they really sell them primarily for the use of 'medicinal oils' that are legal in this state. I ended up paying 50 dollars for something called the Gentleman's Brand Executive. It's big- twice the size of an ego, and silver- and came with 4 rechargeable (18650 i think) batteries - 2 fit in it stacked at a time- a battery charger, and two clearomizers. I purchased two bottles of their e-liquid (cherry and coffee, at over $1.20 / ml and took them home.)
I filled the clearomizers, let them sit, and popped them on the device to try. I would describe the taste as a mixture of burning plastic, chemicals, and sweatsocks. I almost threw up.
Since I've started browsing this forum I have a much better idea of why. One, this is a variable voltage device with the 3 settings - 4v, 5, and 6v. That, and the store had removed the clearomizers that were supposed to come with the kit, and put in two vision nanos instead. So I was putting 5 volts into a 1.5ohm or less tiny clearo and burning it immediately. Also, the juice was disgusting garbage.
The Ego-C + Stardust: I quit smoking!
At this point, I had spent an embarrassing amount of money on worthless junk, but I knew there was something to it after having some success with the GreenSmartLiving kit (which was the cheapest of them all, incidentally.) I started checking yelp, and discovered the Vapor Den- a small shop in town dedicated just to e-cig stuff. Yelp reviews were mixed between "this is great, they got me off cigarettes" and "this place doesn't know enough technical details about e-cigs, I'm an advanced user." Sounded perfect for me at the time.
I headed down there, told them about my experiences so far, and what I wanted. Extremely friendly and helpful- I bought two ego-c 650mah batteries, five stardust clearomizers, a charger, and 10 mls each of Mango, Ry4, and vanilla e-juice. This was my first really positive e-cig experience. They showed me how everything worked. I happily vaped through all of the mango juice in a couple days- and between two ego 650 batteries I could easily hold the charge all day. I experienced some transition/withdrawl symptoms (tiredness, some irritability) but successfully gave up smoking. First big win.
I ran out of the mango juice, and tried the vanilla. It tasted like burning alcohol and gave me a headache after one puff. For reference, all this place's juices are Dekang, except this vanilla, which had 'liqua' handwritten on it so I'm not sure.
Week two Smoke Free- Looking for the right juice
At this point, I discovered this forum [URL was written in the booklet I got from Vapor Den], started lurking and learning, and decided to try some other juice vendors. I bought some samples from Tasty Vapor (one city over, so deliveries arrive the day after I order), Ultimate Vanilla, Atomic Cinnacide, and Caramel Macchiato. At this point I was also thinking the reason the first juices I had were so gross might be a PG allergy, so I ordered some 100% and 70% VG 'organic' from Orb Vapor as well. I still had a handful of stardust clearomizers unused.
The Atomic Cinnacide clouded and cracked the clearomizer as soon as I filled it. The Ultimate Vanilla and Caramel Macchiato went into the other clearos. Both very strong, and much higher quality flavor than the stuff I had tried before. I decided I could vape these happily for a long time.
After a couple refills of the stardusts, they both started leaking profusely out the battery end, to the point they were unusable. I read about some other options, and I ordered a few Kanger T3s and an Ego-Twist. I refilled my Ultimate Vanilla and Caramel Macchiato orders from TastyVapor, and also added BlueBerry Cake Batter and Orange Creamsicle. Since I knew I'd receive it the next day and long before the T3s came, I also tried some of the hardware tasty vapor offers. I was hoping to like it because if I could buy the juice and hardware from a place that ships in just a day, I'd be set for life. I ordered a pack of smoktech dual coil 1.5 ohm cartomizers, and a few 1.5 ohm mega dual coil cartomizers.
Week Two-Three - clearomizer, cartomizer and juice woes
At this point I'm off cigarettes, I have a couple juices I know I like, and a drawer full of hardware.
SmokTech dual coil 1.5 ohm cartomizers: Good flavor, medium vapor. But they run down the Ego 650 battery in a matter of minutes, so they're out. I'm thinking there'd be more vapor on a bigger battery, and the Ego just can't handle them. Atomic Cinnacide doesn't break them like it does the clearomizers, but turns out I don't like that flavor anyway.
Ego Mega Dual Coil Cartomizers: I really really wanted to like these, because they are durable and make the ego battery look like a discrete cigar like thing, instead of some strange paraphanalia. Unfortunately, they produce almost no vapor and kill the battery fast. Same as above, I think ego batteries just can't handle them, but that seems pretty stupid to me considering they're clearly designed for Egos. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Kanger T3: Unlike the stardusts, this didn't leak, at all, which was great. And it held more juice. And it tasted fantastic...at first. After a few fills it started getting gnarly- so rinsed it. And I soaked it in Vodka. And dry burned it. Nothing helped. The greatest success I've had with cleaning/dry burning was making it produce great vapor and taste like cardboard.
Orb Vapor Organic Liquids: At a few days old, they all smelled like what they were supposed too, but tasted like one of these three things regardless of purported flavor: butter, dish soap, or nothing. I since let them steep a few weeks, and found a couple of them had a much better (but still very subtle) flavor. Also really gummed up clearomizers. I decided to order some more of these, this time in higher PG ratios.
Tasty Vapor Orange Creamsicle and Blueberry Cupcake: Orange creamsicle tasted like orange rinds, no creamsicle. So I have 20 something mls of this one I'll never use. Disappointed because Fumari Orange Creamsicle Hookah Tobacco is great, but not convinced I'll ever replicate that flavor as an e-liquid.
Blueberry Cupcake did taste something like Blue Berry cupcakes, but was really gross. Something harsh about the blueberries. I can't decide whether it's a bad blueberry flavor, or it's a perfect blueberry flavor but I have no business vaping a blueberry.
At this point I ordered a bunch more T3 replacement heads from various vendors. However, my T3 experience has never made it back to where it was the first time. At best, I'll get good flavor for one tankful. Still no luck cleaning them to restore taste, and I've noticed that even after just one tank of Ultimate Vanilla, the flavor wicks can become permanently blackened and gunked up. Starting to think it could be an issue with TV even though I liked the flavor a lot at first.
Then to Now- Looking for a reliable vape :/
I still can't decide whether I've already used the last two good-tasting Kanger T3s on the planet, or the TV juice I'm using just won't work well in them. Or maybe I'm sick of the juice and that's why it tastes different to me. I've ordered some other juices to try from Virgin Vapors.
I've tried the mini vivi nova, and the rebuildable stardust. The rebuildable startdust also leaks quite a bit. Both the vivi nova and the rebuildable stardust give me lots of dry and plasticy hits. (I've noticed the thin inner tube of cloth around the nova head has burned- the one that's supposed to protect the coil from touching the outer metal.) And they also taste like a hot blast of sugar instead of the flavor of my juice. I really think the T3 was about right when it was working- I liked the cooler bottom coil vape- and I've ordered some evods to try. But I'm starting to think the T3 is just not going to do it for me, have never been able to get back to the taste quality of the first couple I had.
I ordered a carto tank from valley vapes. I'm crossing my fingers it will be all kinds of great and I'll never need anything else, because I feel like I've tried just about every other type of device there is.
I'm happy to be off cigarettes for a month- but I've also spent a whole lot on start up costs and trying things, and still haven't reached my ideal situation. I'd like to find a clearomizer/cartomizer etc that I like, order a few dozen of them, find a juice I like, and order a bunch of it, and stop fiddling with this stuff. Not sure when that will happen.
In retrospect I think the GentlemansVape Executive vv I bought is probably a nice device, but I currently don't have an ego adapter so haven't given it much more use.
TLDR:
Suggestions for people just starting out:
- Do NOT buy any e-cigarette product at a mall kiosk. It will be overpriced crap.
- An Ego battery seems to be a cheap and reliable place to start out.
- If you want a cigarette-looking e-cig choose one recommended on this forum, it will probably do the job at first.
- Dekang liquid is disgusting crap.
- A decent local store is great if you can find one. Mail order sucks for lots of reasons, and you may end up buying (and waiting for delivery) on a lot of junk.
- Don't suck too hard.
- Almost all the e-cigarette supplies on the market seem to be cheaply made / bad quality control.
- E-cigarettes can really help you quit but there's a lot more 'fiddling' involved because of #7 than there is in walking to the corner and buying a pack of smokes.
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