Veterans, how was vaping back then?

[Baditude]

Yeah, I've seen several threads unlinked or broken lately. Maybe after Oliver is finally done they'll work.
What, did you Bookmark some of our battles lol?

I provided links to these popular threads when I wrote my Why Provari? blog.

 

[r77r7r]

I provided links to these popular threads when I wrote my Why Provari? blog.

You'll have to forgive me for not ever having read that blog

 

[Baditude]

You'll have to forgive me for not ever having read that blog

Shame on you! And I bet you were a Provarinati.

Just kidding.

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

I must agree. I joined ECF in 2012 when I first began to vape, and because of the wealth of information on this site I was able to make informed decisions on better gear and learned a lot of tips which greatly improved my vaping experience.

Innitially, I thought that my vaporizer had to "look like a cigarette". Well, after about a month's use of cigalikes I had quickly grown frustrated with the very poor battery time and poor e-liquid capacity. I literally had to have a few cigalikes available to last the day.

I had done a lot of reading on ECF and decided to go with a much larger battery device (a Silver Bullet, a mechanical mod with an 18650 battery which would last all day) and a cartotank (3 ml tank housing a cartomizer which would last all day). My first gamechanger.

Back in the day...

I thought my first setup had to taste like a cigarette, and I chased that round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I gave it up!

I probably dropped a few hundred on flavors, nic and base liquids trying to clone Johnson Creek's Red Oak Domestic and by the time I got close enough to it, I'd moved on from tobacco flavors.

I still have two of my three Vamo's. I remember you (and at least one other) telling me to buy three of those so I'd have one that might last. Fifteen Watts of unbridled power! And Protank II's that I rebuilt and rebuilt and rebuilt until that sucker would take all 15 and beg for more.

The V1 is the one that died. The V3 and V5 are still going. The V7 is still available now and it does 40 Watts.

I also remember you (and at least two others) telling me not to stack two 18350's in the Vamo, and I did it anyway and lived to tell about it (nothing bad happened--the Vamo is designed for it).

 

[puffon]

In 2007 I saw an ad for a "free" cigalike kit trial.
Ordered the kit, which was garbage.
Of course I didn't read the fine print that said you are enrolled in monthly automatic cartridge shipments.
I returned the kit within the allotted time frame to cancel, however I was still billed for $200.
Went googling and read this company was doing this to many people, some for a few months after canceling.
I had to cancel my CC and file a dispute. I had records showing I had shipped the kit back on time.
Got my $200 back and went on smoking for another 7 years.
Had a small stroke and the wife threw out all my cigs...
That's when I found ECF and a Halo system using WTA.
I finally ventured out of the Halo fourm, and saw everything else that was available.
Said to myself, "I'll never vape one of those big boxy things everyone is using."...LOL!
A month later I pre-ordered a VS rDNA 40....the rest is history...

 

[Baditude]

I thought my first setup had to taste like a cigarette, and I chased that round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I gave it up!

I probably dropped a few hundred on flavors, nic and base liquids trying to clone Johnson Creek's Red Oak Domestic and by the time I got close enough to it, I'd moved on from tobacco flavors.

I never smoked tobacco flavors, always a menthol. However, knowing that e-liquid flavors were conjured from food flavoring agents convinced me that trying to find a tobacco flavor would probably be next to impossible. I don't know any foods that taste like a burning cigarette. Burning tobacco leaves and smoke is not something that I'd like to eat or vape.

I always suggested to newbies to forget about chasing a tobacco flavor and try to find a flavor that they could vape and enjoy, whether that be a fruit, bakery, desert, candy, or coffee flavor. They would find those flavors to be more successful than a tobacco flavor which didn't really taste like a cigarette.

I still have two of my three Vamo's. I remember you (and at least one other) telling me to buy three of those so I'd have one that might last.

The V1 is the one that died. The V3 and V5 are still going. The V7 is still available now and it does 40 Watts.

I also remember you (and at least two others) telling me not to stack two 18350's in the Vamo, and I did it anyway and lived to tell about it (nothing bad happened--the Vamo is designed for it).

That advice was likely a comparison between a Provari and a Vamo. Chinese made mods at that time were made from cheap materials and questionable manufacturing. If it broke, you simply had to buy another. And according to ECF, many of those did break. To some folks, that was acceptable.

Provape made the Provari with top of the line materials and its manufacturing was top notch. It was built to last, and even if it did break the company would fix it. Not so with the Vamo or other Chinese mods.

For myself and many others, buying a Provari once made more sense than having to buy many cheap mods in succession. You had 2 of 3 Vamos survive; better than average odds.

 

[r77r7r]

Said to myself, "I'll never vape one of those big boxy things everyone is using."...LOL!

Yeah, I was desperate to leave my egos behind but I couldn't bring myself to buy the MVP. Waited until the Istick20 came out.
Everything was all Wands and Bricks until the 20.

 

[Vchick]

Only equipment to be had was at the mall...
Chinese e-liquid..
then there were tea bags...
oooh and boge gate...

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

Provape made the Provari with top of the line materials and its manufacturing was top notch. It was built to last, and even if it did break the company would fix it. Not so with the Vamo or other Chinese mods.

For myself and many others, buying a Provari once made more sense than having to buy many mods in succession. You had 2 of 3 Vamos survive; better than average odds.

I knew and understood all that and went with Vamo anyway. I'd make the same decision today. Those things did their jobs, saved me money and still provide satisfaction.

 

[Baditude]

I knew and understood all that and went with Vamo anyway. I'd make the same decision today. Those things did their jobs, saved me money and still provide satisfaction.

And that just goes to prove that there is no perfect setup that is perfect for every individual. If I had it to do over, I'd make the same decision, too. The Provari was right for me, and the Vamo was right for you.

I'm pretty certain that we have both since moved on to a different setup that seems perfect for us.

 

[bombastinator]

Only equipment to be had was at the mall...
Chinese e-liquid..
then there were tea bags...
oooh and boge gate...

Heh. I still have some pyramid teabags in my vape box

 

[Vchick]

I still have a carton of boge cartos... well I guess it would be a case, a case of 10 boxes of 5 - just in case of an apocalypse.. lol

 

[r77r7r]

I still have a carton of boge cartos... well I guess it would be a case, a case of 10 boxes of 5 - just in case of an apocalypse.. lol

Ha, I grabbed 20 when they were going for $1 per box and still have 19. Still have some black ones, ressurectors, and IKEN's.

 

[JCinFLA]

There are still people who've been happily vaping along using cartos for years. But, now that their supply has almost been depleted...they're having a hard time finding them at reasonable prices. Most of them I've talked to, had no idea that many vendors clearanced them out at rock bottom prices over the last year or so.

 

[r77r7r]

Cool, Boge has 2 versions of cigars and a subohm tank and this Vape Tank-

Subohm, 80w. Last I visited them, I got some weird clearo/cartomizer they were trying out.

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

And that just goes to prove that there is no perfect setup that is perfect for every individual. If I had it to do over, I'd make the same decision, too. The Provari was right for me, and the Vamo was right for you.

I'm pretty certain that we have both since moved on to a different setup that seems perfect for us.

Yep. What's cool is that no matter what we ended up with, we all found something that made us say, "hey, this tastes good! I can do this."

2013 was pretty late in the game. There weren't a lot of choices then, but there were a lot more than the folks had in '07 and '10.

And now... just wow. We're blessed.

 

[mattiem]

IMO, better back then.

I had a Go Go set up, proprietary threading, 1300mah & 3a of raw power attached to a go go cartomizer / go-cart that held 3 ml of liquid.
Battery lasted a full day, carto's were extremely efficient with liquid consumption, carto lasted 100+mls and had the perfect heat & airy draw, enormous cloudz, flavor was better than anything since. Every bit as good as any rda.
I still have 2 batteries & 2 carto's I'm saving for my 10 anniversary of quitting the smokes.

Gonna fill a carto & vape my face off.

Cigeasy & Nhaler were the only distributors Im aware of.

I still have 2 boxes of 10 each of the go go cartomizers. I also have 10 of the go go replaceable battery mods. Discount Vapers had them marked down to $10.00 each when they started going out of style lots of years ago. Hubby loved them at the time so suggested I go ahead and stock up on them Sure wish he would make the switch but sadly for now he is back to smoking At least I have something to fall back on if everything else quits working. I really should fill up one of the cartos and see if they are still as good as I remember them being.

 

[zoiDman]

this site says "the voice of vaping since 2007" so i was wondering if any veterans here can tell me how vaping was 10 years ago and how its changed over the years?

What was Vaping like 10 Years ago? Dunno?

But I can tell you what Vaping was like 8 Years ago when I started. Kinda Primitive by Todays standards.

Things many times just Didn't work all that Great right out of the Box. And many times you had to Make things work.

Enter the ECF. A place where people would come to Share ways to "Mod" something to make it Work Better. Or some Crazy, or Not So Crazy, idea of how to make something New.

Like cutting a BD Syringe and putting it on a CE2. Or putting Pyramid Tea Bag material or Blue Aquarium Foam in a Cart. Or Spinning a Carto on the End of a String after washing them. Or Filing this or putting an O-Ring on that. The List of Improvements and New Ideas that have been posted on the ECF is Almost Endless.

Today, just about Everything you buy Works pretty Darn Well. Sure, some stuff works a little Better (or a little Worse depending on your perspective) than the thing next to it. But for the Most Part, just about Everything works well.

So maybe that is one of the Biggest things I have seen over the Years.

 

[Geekay]

Less choices and a tighter-knit community for sure.. now there are so many different type of vapers and the market is segmented..

 

[tj99959]

I was fortunate enough to have had a good friend & mentor when I started vaping. In fact Jason opened one of the first B&Ms in 2008. As a result I avoided many of the bad choices & wrong decisions that were so prevalent back then.

The bad part was that the FDA was involved in a lawsuit, customs was seizing shipments, and the end of vaping was looming over our heads. So we were a "tight nit group" because we had to be.