Vaping stories from the good old days

[rosesense]

I too saw things in her illustration
I get the feeling she was a teacher back in the day. Sweet lady.
I am enjoying this topic.
Somehow during this long journey I missed a lot of things like cigalikes, egos, etc.
I started with GG and 910s (or where they 810s?) in mid 2009. Dripping. Using a couple of batteries that we don't use now and even a plug in adapter. Quickly went to punched cartos. There was definitely blue foam aquarium filter material acquired but I can't seem to remember why. A long, hazy road of Nr-R wires (I can't remember the reasoning) and I believe that was followed by years of REO squonkers then RTAs on regulated mods. Lots of RTAs. Along the way I learned to build rdas, rtdas and rtas. Began mixing my liquids and of course stocked up for Armageddon several times. Part of the adventure.
I tried my first pod today. I am sure they work for a lot of people and certainly are good for certain places. I bought it for my wedding day since I needed something very small but of course it took 9 weeks to arrive so I made due for the wedding.
I guess I just grew up tinkering with all of this so the pods just seem lacking in that department. I will probably end up giving it to someone I see interested in giving up smoking.
Still chasing the perfect set up which seems to come every now and again only to get eclipsed by something new. That is part of the fun. It has been fun on many levels.

First of all, congrats!

There were 801s (dondaboomvape) penstyle which I loved; 901s which I didn't like. Heck there was a pretty gold mod called Indulgence that had an adapter so you could use 510, 901, 801,808 (the famous Kr8).

I think the 401 was my first cigalike.

 

[Bliss Doubt]

Remember free samples? Anywhere you ordered eliquid, you'd get at least a couple of 5ml. sample flavors thrown in, or was it 3 ml... Back then there were already whisperings that our government, hand in hand with big tobacco and pharma, would push us back to cigarettes or the smoking cessation methods that didn't work, but it still felt like freedom, having so much access to so many options.

 

[DPLongo22]

dondaboomvape

 

[rosesense]

Who had a Phoenix and/or Dragon? I had both lol.

 

[rosesense]

And GrimmGreen, yay. What happened to those two?

 

[Bliss Doubt]

And GrimmGreen, yay. What happened to those two?

Grimmgreen still has his YouTube channel, still posts videos regularly.

Another one I used to watch all the time was TiaVapes, but in the last couple of years her channel isn't as interesting as it used to be. I can't quite say why. I think she started as a bounce-off from Indoor Smokers, another great channel still there.

 

[WorksForMe]

Who had a Phoenix and/or Dragon? I had both lol.

I don't remember those, but I did start with Mistic.

 

[tj99959]

Heck there was a pretty gold mod called Indulgence that had an adapter so you could use 510, 901, 801,808

My Mako will do all that

 

[Mediocre00Rebel]

The excitement of a variable voltage eGo spinner battery becoming available -'you turn this knob and the voltage CHANGES' ... The unbelievable exhilaration of purchasing a mod with a screen and buttons. No matter the screen was the size of a corn kernel and the buttons had extra built-in rattle... The world-shattering and pant-wetting excitement of a device that automatically converted the power output reading to WATTS (sometimes 15 of them) - 'look at me and weep you voltage primitives using your stone-age circuitry'...
The 'cotton as a wick, what sort of heresy are you talking you dolt. Silica wick will always be the king of flavour' debates (to be honest, not that many debates)...
All these things that made the journey the roller-coaster ride that we all knew and loved. Probably.

I remember the first time I saw the ones with the screen, I wanted one so bad but they were too expensive for my budget at that time.

 

[Mediocre00Rebel]

I don't remember those, but I did start with Mistic.

I'm pretty sure this was my first one before I got an ego stick. I was still really skeptical about vaping back then, I'd been smoking since I was 14 and when I was 18 I had one of these little things to have a "smoke break" after lunch in high school I would stealth vape in the bathroom lol. They wouldn't let us outside at all, it felt like imprisonment. This did the job for me. I continued to smoke cigarettes for years and I didn't really start truly vaping until about 24. The advanced in technology left me feeling less skeptical and more satisfied. And dang, it works fantastic.

 

[DPLongo22]

The first one that I count are V2, because they're the first that I was able to stop smoking. Smoke51 and ecig.net before V2 (almost two year before, actually) but S.U.C.K.E.D.. I used the yucky ones from Jan/Feb-2001 through Nov/Dec of the same year, but NEVER stopped smoking.

I then smoked exclusively for another year, until finding V2 in Nov-2011. And the rest is mystory (or something like that).

The V2s were only with me for about two months, but they're still looked back upon fondly. They were my ticket out, soon to be followed by bigger & faster vehicles.

 

[CMD-Ky]

The first one that I count are V2, because they're the first that I was able to stop smoking. Smoke51 and ecig.net before V2 (almost two year before, actually) but S.U.C.K.E.D.. I used the yucky ones from Jan/Feb-2001 through Nov/Dec of the same year, but NEVER stopped smoking.

I then smoked exclusively for another year, until finding V2 in Nov-2011. And the rest is mystory (or something like that).

The V2s were only with me for about two months, but they're still looked back upon fondly. They were my ticket out, soon to be followed by bigger & faster vehicles.

These (V2) didn't get me off cigarettes but they let me know the ecig was the answer. I found the ECF and many helpful people. Somewhere along the line in the summer of 2014, I stopped cigarettes completely and never looked back.

 

[ppeeble]

All of the first generation cig-a-likes that i tried were woeful. Don't get me wrong, i thought they were a fantastic idea but there was no way they could satisfy my nicotine craving. I remember using them, feeling underwhelmed and thinking that they were a gimmick - much like the plastic toy cigarettes that used to blow out a puff of talcum powder (i'm probably going back to the seventies for that memory)..
Then the Ego battery arrived with the clearomiser. That was when electronic smoking cessation became a reality for me. Throat hit ! I could actually feel the vapour as i inhaled.
I have fond memories of my first (very expensive) cig-a-like kits, simply because it was the start of the journey. The products themselves though were a lot of style but very little substance

 

[AvaOrchid]

I wish I could find the little menthol cartridges that came in my cigalike that I tried to quit smoking on... I had just moved back to my parents house after my divorce from my first husband and we were at the mall and there was a kiosk and my mom thought it would be a great idea and I was like well I'm willing to try so we went for it she helped to pay for it I think we got this whole collection of stuff which was a big mistake so many cartridges so many chargers a couple different devices a carrying case.. It was like $120 and I thought that was extremely expensive at that time I was going to a store that allowed you to make your own cigarettes with little filters so a carton of cigarettes was like 12 bucks. I was like damn I could have gotten 10 cartons of cigarettes so in other words I really didn't want to quit smoking I just didn't want to inconvenience my mother any further by smelling like cigarette smoke. I am sure I still have some of those cartridges somewhere. I wish I could remember I know that they were was a red cartridge and a green cartridge in the green was menthol and that's the one I got and I feel like the tip of it was gray and lit up and it tasted horrendous it was god-awful.

 

[Territoo]

I wish I could find the little menthol cartridges that came in my cigalike that I tried to quit smoking on... I had just moved back to my parents house after my divorce from my first husband and we were at the mall and there was a kiosk and my mom thought it would be a great idea and I was like well I'm willing to try so we went for it she helped to pay for it I think we got this whole collection of stuff which was a big mistake so many cartridges so many chargers a couple different devices a carrying case.. It was like $120 and I thought that was extremely expensive at that time I was going to a store that allowed you to make your own cigarettes with little filters so a carton of cigarettes was like 12 bucks. I was like damn I could have gotten 10 cartons of cigarettes so in other words I really didn't want to quit smoking I just didn't want to inconvenience my mother any further by smelling like cigarette smoke. I am sure I still have some of those cartridges somewhere. I wish I could remember I know that they were was a red cartridge and a green cartridge in the green was menthol and that's the one I got and I feel like the tip of it was gray and lit up and it tasted horrendous it was god-awful.

I remember those early cigalike kits being overpriced and they only gave you the idea of vaping. They left you with the thought, "Is there more?" Most people would just give up and continue smoking, but there were those of us that did the research and found out, yes there is more than what the cigalikes can give. Usually through sites like EcF. They became our veterans.

 

[ppeeble]

he he ... just remembered when i used to buy 1ml taster liquids. A tiny little flip-top test tube like container. Only problem was at least half of the liquid used to stick to the sides of the container - you were lucky if you got one or two drops out of them. Also remember buying Hangsen VG RY2 from Liberty Flights in 5ml containers for a couple of pounds. I swear at least a ml would stubbornly refuse to leave the bottle...
The first time i tried a flavour other than 'tobacco' - it was apple pie - was a revelation. Realising i didn't need to constantly search for the non-existent cigarette flavour to be satisfied was an epiphany..
Although the price of vaping has, in real terms, become a lot more affordable over the last ten years - i do miss the excitement and pleasure i used to get from it. Now it's just another habit.

 

[AvaOrchid]

I remember those early cigalike kits being overpriced and they only gave you the idea of vaping. They left you with the thought, "Is there more?" Most people would just give up and continue smoking, but there were those of us that did the research and found out, yes there is more than what the cigalikes can give. Usually through sites like EcF. They became our veterans.

I don't think I even fathomed at the time that this was a thing that people were doing like elsewhere. I thought it was a little gimmick that some independent group had just come up with and that maybe a couple other kiosks out in the world existed at malls but that it wasn't a big thing. Definitely wouldn't have thought of a forum but at that time I also didn't understand how forum threads work.

I gave up completely within a very short period of time with that device and I think it was 4 years later when I picked up one of those ego batteries that had the colorful little tank that had what I'm assuming was silica rope in the coil and that was much better. But what really did it for me was the ego aio. It had a replaceable coil and I'm fairly certain they actually still make them. I also during the ego battery a separate cartomizer days I found a sour grape e-juice at a gas station that I would kill to be able to find today. And that did it for me but what really sealed the deal was the ego AIO and then the subsequent ego AIO box and that's when I knew I would never smoke again

 

[smacuser]

Hey Ed? Are you getting this buddy? Where’d you go?

 

[DPLongo22]

Liberty Flights

Wow. I had totally forgotten that name. Unforgettable page design back then. Thanks for the flashback!

Hey Ed? Are you getting this buddy? Where’d you go?

LOL! Bringin' it all home, Smacs. LIKE!

 

[Seiggy]

WhiteCloud (Cirrus II) and Smokeless Image (Volt) cigalikes are where I started. Still have a bunch of batts & carts....Somewhere..............
I know Smokeless Image closed their doors, I don't know about WhiteCloud.