To juice or not to juice
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I think filling your own cartomizers or cartridges offers more choices, better ability to customize what you are vaping, and it's cheaper than buying pre-filled ones. I really like being able to try a lot of different juices from a wide variety of vendors, so for me, that's the primary reason I buy juice and either fill my own or drip.
Welcome to ECF and the Ecig world.
1. You're already using juice, it's just prefilled by the vendor you bought the Cartomizer from...
Anyway...
Is buying your own juice and filling blanks better / cheaper.
Cheaper - Yes, absolutely, no doubt about it.
Better - that's a matter of opinion and no one can tell you one way or the other.
But I will say you will have a MUCH wider variety of possible flavors and PG/VG mixtures if you fill with your own juice purchased seperately.
But on the negative side, it's more hassle to fill them, instead of just buying them already filled.
So there's the pros/cons.
Buy prefilled = Less hassle but also less variety and more expensive.
Buy blanks + juice seperately = More hassle, but cheaper and more variety.
It's up to you.
Hope that helps..
1. You're already using juice, it's just prefilled by the vendor you bought the Cartomizer from...
Anyway...
Is buying your own juice and filling blanks better / cheaper.
Cheaper - Yes, absolutely, no doubt about it.
Better - that's a matter of opinion and no one can tell you one way or the other.
But I will say you will have a MUCH wider variety of possible flavors and PG/VG mixtures if you fill with your own juice purchased seperately.
But on the negative side, it's more hassle to fill them, instead of just buying them already filled.
So there's the pros/cons.
Buy prefilled = Less hassle but also less variety and more expensive.
Buy blanks + juice seperately = More hassle, but cheaper and more variety.
It's up to you.
Hope that helps..
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Welcome aboard Hog!
If you confine yourself to prefilled cartomizers (cartos), imo you're missing out on the real fun part of vaping.
Filling your own opens up a whole new world of flavors...almost infinite. There are tons of flavors from suppliers but the best juices are available from mixers like Tasty Vapor, DIY FlavorShack, et al. You get freshly made juices from them, custom blends to your order, or make your own recipes.
Having blank carts on hand, you can also tweak your nicotine level to suite your needs. And as long as you don't go crazy ordering juices (easy to do), you can save a lot of money by filling your own (can also refill your used ones).
If you confine yourself to prefilled cartomizers (cartos), imo you're missing out on the real fun part of vaping.
Filling your own opens up a whole new world of flavors...almost infinite. There are tons of flavors from suppliers but the best juices are available from mixers like Tasty Vapor, DIY FlavorShack, et al. You get freshly made juices from them, custom blends to your order, or make your own recipes.
Having blank carts on hand, you can also tweak your nicotine level to suite your needs. And as long as you don't go crazy ordering juices (easy to do), you can save a lot of money by filling your own (can also refill your used ones).
i too was on this question for the last week or so. but today i am ordering some juice and a few blanks and going to give it a whirl. My paranoid brain with the whole "nicotine is bad for small animals and kids in this type of form....blah blah" was making me stir crazy. its like anything else i guess, you make a choice and you live with the responsibility of that choice. So "clean up after yourself & wash your hands, you big dummy" is how my brain went today.
I will be juicing as of next week, hope i enjoy it and i hope you enjoy it too hog, if you decide to hop on this bandwagon
I will be juicing as of next week, hope i enjoy it and i hope you enjoy it too hog, if you decide to hop on this bandwagon
hope you didn't toss your used up pre-filled cartos', refilling them with your own juice allows cartos to go a long ways . I can refill a single carto several times before I toss it away.
Cartomizer filling is getting quicker and easier.
If you haven't seen this video, you can watch it now.
YouTube - A double demo! The Cartomizer Condom Filling Method, and the Taryn Spin.
If you haven't seen this video, you can watch it now.
YouTube - A double demo! The Cartomizer Condom Filling Method, and the Taryn Spin.
Welcome To EFC. Myself I prefer the juice over the cartos. Actually I prefer carts with juice. But when it comes to cartos, if you find a juice you really like than thats the icing on the cake.
If you are happy with pre-filled cartos, seems like your doing ok.
For me, I like to mix my own because I never found a pre-filled that I realy liked. Buying juice is cheaper but you will try a flavor that you don't like so in the short run, it is about the same cost.
But once you find a handfull of flavor you like, refilling is cheaper. So hang onto your empty cartos.
You might post what flavors you like and then see what other people recommend juice wise. Be prepared for many replies though.
For me, I like to mix my own because I never found a pre-filled that I realy liked. Buying juice is cheaper but you will try a flavor that you don't like so in the short run, it is about the same cost.
But once you find a handfull of flavor you like, refilling is cheaper. So hang onto your empty cartos.
You might post what flavors you like and then see what other people recommend juice wise. Be prepared for many replies though.
i prefer to fill my own cartos. after a couple days or when i wanna chg out flavors in one i can simply take a pair of tweezers and pull out the cotton looking stuff and add new. my daughter turned me on to this. buying the white poly-looking stuff in the pet dept at the local store. you know, the stuff they put in fish air filters to filter the air/water thru before it goes back into the tank. my daughter called it something like fluffle or some other F word. (not the dirty F word tho) it works great and never need to throw my cartos away at all or buy new.
I'm brand new and figured out quickly that mixing the sample bottles of menthols I got (PG and VG) was better than the pre-filleds. The pre-filleds weren't *terrible* -- I smoked them -- but as I added the new stuff to top off, *woah*. Much better vaping!
Then when I was out that night and inserted another non-doctored pre-filled, it stunk. I figured [wrongly] that it mean ecigs weren't consistent. However, later I got home and started topping off with the liquids again, and I realized the hardware was fine; it was the pre-filleds I didn't like.
So I squeezed out all my prefilleds to make blanks (Mwhahahaha!), and made up my own favorite mixtures. After a little trial and error, I have a few mixtures I can always fall back on, and plenty more on the way!
(Unfortunately, I'm almost out of juice now. Scrambling tonight to find quick shipping liquid providers.)
Then when I was out that night and inserted another non-doctored pre-filled, it stunk. I figured [wrongly] that it mean ecigs weren't consistent. However, later I got home and started topping off with the liquids again, and I realized the hardware was fine; it was the pre-filleds I didn't like.
So I squeezed out all my prefilleds to make blanks (Mwhahahaha!), and made up my own favorite mixtures. After a little trial and error, I have a few mixtures I can always fall back on, and plenty more on the way!
(Unfortunately, I'm almost out of juice now. Scrambling tonight to find quick shipping liquid providers.)
I'm still new at all this myself, just not as new as some of you... so I want to point out there is a difference between the cartridges you get with your starter kit (a/k/a "carts") vs. cartomizers (a/k/a "cartos") which are a single piece that combine a cartridge with an atomizer.
The fluffy white stuff that holds the liquid in prefilled cartridges can be replaced by other material if you don't like the taste or the way it wicks e-liquid ("Fluval" is the name someone was trying to come up with; polyfill is also used, but I myself prefer the Blue Foam mod for faster wicking).
Cartomizers hold more liquid than cartridges, so they last about twice as long, and because they contain a dedicated atomizer, you don't have the "flavor hangover" that occurs when you change to a different flavor cartridge while you're still using one of the original atomizers.
That's why I'm going to order some cartos right now! I like flavor variety and don't necessarily want to use up a whole cart before changing flavors. Just swap to a different carto - problem solved (or so I've read - like I said, I'm still new!).
The fluffy white stuff that holds the liquid in prefilled cartridges can be replaced by other material if you don't like the taste or the way it wicks e-liquid ("Fluval" is the name someone was trying to come up with; polyfill is also used, but I myself prefer the Blue Foam mod for faster wicking).
Cartomizers hold more liquid than cartridges, so they last about twice as long, and because they contain a dedicated atomizer, you don't have the "flavor hangover" that occurs when you change to a different flavor cartridge while you're still using one of the original atomizers.
That's why I'm going to order some cartos right now! I like flavor variety and don't necessarily want to use up a whole cart before changing flavors. Just swap to a different carto - problem solved (or so I've read - like I said, I'm still new!).
i too was on this question for the last week or so. but today i am ordering some juice and a few blanks and going to give it a whirl. My paranoid brain with the whole "nicotine is bad for small animals and kids in this type of form....blah blah" was making me stir crazy. its like anything else i guess, you make a choice and you live with the responsibility of that choice. So "clean up after yourself & wash your hands, you big dummy" is how my brain went today.
I will be juicing as of next week, hope i enjoy it and i hope you enjoy it too hog, if you decide to hop on this bandwagon
Id like to just comment on this and reassure you.
If you are doing DIY and using hte 100% pure nic then yes, you have to be very very careful in handling and usage. Gloves, apron, eye protectors, etc etc As long as you are careful you should be fine. Lockable boxes are your friend if you have pets or family nearby.
BUT - if its the prefilled bottles you buy from suppliers you aren't going kill yourself or anyone else with them. On the forums someone posted their puppy ate (drank?) an entire bottle, and it wasn't even sick.
I personally have;
accidentally drank some (gave me a bit of acid tummy)
got some in my eye (ow, can i say ow?)
got some in an open cut
get it on my hands a lot
licked it off the cart (habit..lol)
Honest Im not as clumsy as this make me out to be lol
I'm not super woman nor I have super recupurative powers - I'm allergic to glue, it gives me dermatitis, and have hay fever. If I eat too much rich foods well lets say the bathroom is my pal for a hwile - Im telling you this to show you that even with my occasionally delicate constitution, after all the above NOTHING BAD HAPPENED.
SO stop worrying
Pre-filled flavored cartomizers from V4L cost about $9 for 5.
Blanks are only a buck cheaper and 5cc of their juice costs about $3. Not a big savings to fill yourself. If you like their juice in the prefilled, invest in 5cc of the same flavor to refill them.
Downside that I see to prefills is I prefer variety. I don't want 5 of the same flavor because I tend to rotate favorite flavors every few days so I buy blanks & juice them myself.
Blanks are only a buck cheaper and 5cc of their juice costs about $3. Not a big savings to fill yourself. If you like their juice in the prefilled, invest in 5cc of the same flavor to refill them.
Downside that I see to prefills is I prefer variety. I don't want 5 of the same flavor because I tend to rotate favorite flavors every few days so I buy blanks & juice them myself.
I am still in the mode of trying to figure out which way to go, I currently am using V4L. Started out with carts, but started using the blanks, and filling them myself, its all trial and error it seems. I started out at 4, but now I'm at 11..........not sure on what strength yet, but I guess I will get there. I used to smoke Marlboro lights...........36 years of analogs, and put them down 5 weeks ago........never going back..........I hope....................Thanks so much for all the useful info
CaptJay, that is reassuring indeed, thanks for posting that. I've read that you don't really want to mix with anything over about 48 mg although stronger concentrations are available if you search.
I've gotten just a smidge in my eye transferred from my hands, it's not fun! But while learning and experiencing some leakage here and there, it hasn't harmed me one whit as far as I can tell and I'm pretty body-feedback-aware.
When I first heard about PVs and DIY mixing from an online pal, he emphasized the fact that nicotine is poisonous in high concentrations. (I think he was cutting a 60 mg base.) The whole idea sounded great except for that part, it scared me off for nearly a year! But after a lot of reading since, I've become more enthusiastic and fearless (though still careful when mixing, the highest I've used is 36 mg). Apparently you actually ingest much more nicotine from analogs than you do vaping 18-24 mg (but I suspect I'm vaping more than enough to offset that, even though I was only smoking half a pack or so a day).
Never got that chemistry set I wanted when I was a kid, so I'm having a great time playing mad scientist with my growing flavor collection! Having my lungs back, and no more telltale ashtray smell, that's the best of all.
I've gotten just a smidge in my eye transferred from my hands, it's not fun! But while learning and experiencing some leakage here and there, it hasn't harmed me one whit as far as I can tell and I'm pretty body-feedback-aware.
When I first heard about PVs and DIY mixing from an online pal, he emphasized the fact that nicotine is poisonous in high concentrations. (I think he was cutting a 60 mg base.) The whole idea sounded great except for that part, it scared me off for nearly a year! But after a lot of reading since, I've become more enthusiastic and fearless (though still careful when mixing, the highest I've used is 36 mg). Apparently you actually ingest much more nicotine from analogs than you do vaping 18-24 mg (but I suspect I'm vaping more than enough to offset that, even though I was only smoking half a pack or so a day).
Never got that chemistry set I wanted when I was a kid, so I'm having a great time playing mad scientist with my growing flavor collection!
Having my lungs back, and no more telltale ashtray smell, that's the best of all.- Status
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