I had made a post at the five day point talking about the J118 (VX2) ordered from litecigusa. At this point I have 3 atomisers, 3 batteries, and two wall chargers.
Atomisers:
The vapor production is still stellar on all three atomisers. After readying everything in the forums on the subject, I've developed an "atomiser philosophy".
1) Drip carts, not atomisers. Reason is, they are supposed to be moist with fluid.
2) Store the atomiser with a cart attached. Reason is, they are supposed to be moist with fluid.
3) If they get cloggy, soak in distilled white vinegar for a few hours, blow through, let dry, drop 4 drops of liquid on the wick, attach a full cart, stand cart end up for 15 minutes.
4) Slow deliberate draws. If I don't try to win the vapor production olympics, I won't kill my atomiser.
So they are always moist. The filament never risks not having the juice it needs to not burn off it's wicking material, so the capillary action stays good, so the atomiser stays good.
Time will tell if my philosophy is correct. I figure it has to be something like this because there are people on here that have been using the same atomisers for a very long time, and we aren't talking about insanely high tech equipment. All mine are still working like new.
Batteries:
I had a fourth battery that up and died on me, but it was my fault. I know I overfilled a cart and let it sit atty up overnight. With this particular model, juice will flow through the atomizer into the battery and kill it if you overfill the cart. So use common sense. You can actually "hear" gurgling liquid if there is too much in the atomiser. Take off the battery, take off the cart, blow or suck (your choice) the extra liquid out of the atomiser. In general, battery life has been remarkable. If I'm absently doing work with it hanging out of my mouth most of the day, I'll get eight hours. If I'm doing casual weekend stuff and just doing a few puffs every 10-20 minutes, I've had batteries last over 12 hours.
Chargers:
The wall charger is great. You can leave a charged battery in it and it will be fine. I keep a battery and wall charger at work and at home, and keep the third battery on the unit itself. This way I've always got my vapor. I can say without a doubt the USB charging unit I received is almost completely worthless. Probably defective. With a dead battery, the LED light on it *might* turn red when you plug in the battery, but it might not. The wall charger works perfectly though. The only real strangeness is sometimes it takes four hours to recharge a battery, and sometimes it takes as little as an hour and a half. My feeling is that the "low battery" blinking might go off prematurely sometimes.
e-liquid:
As I was expecting, as my taste buds changed with the lack of analogs, the preferences changed. It was the same way with snus. Started out liking the candy snus, eventually fell completely in love with Roda Lacket. Out of all the flavors I've tried now, the Hilton from midwest vapor is the one I crave. I just ordered 60ml of it. I still like the flue cured, but it's turning into an occasional thing. I also mixed all the candy flavors into one big bottle and made "fruit punch". It's really good, but also a once in a while thing. I'd love to talk about how great my experience with Johnson's Creek stuff was, but the package hasn't even been given to USPS for delivery yet, and the order was placed seven day ago. Not very confidence inspiring.
Reality:
The comment was made in another post that getting parts for a unit that only came from a handful of suppliers might not be a great idea. So I started looking for suppliers, and found only bulk. I'm not going to buy 200 of them. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this thing. My greatest fear was that the technology might not be "there yet", and those fears are gone. That's a real testament to the build quality and user experience I've had with this VX2. And it's not just me. Every single person I work with that smokes has wanted to try it, loved it, and has or will place an order with Shawn. It's really that good. However...
I like hedging my bets, and I *know* if I have downtime for any reason, my ... will be in my car heading to the gas station for a pack of american spirit. So I ordered a Janty Stick, spare battery, and an extra atomizer. And it is going into a drawer. Honestly, it does not have the cool factor that the J118 model has. To me it looks like people are smoking a circa 2001 USB thumbdrive, or maybe a borg shuttlecraft. It's not elegant and shiny, at least on youtube, and I don't like the idea of having to push a button. Maybe I'll change my mind when it gets here. The main reason I went with it was the reviews, ease of getting batteries, and ability to use almost any atomiser with it. I'm not giving up on the J118. It's entirely too slick of a product not to use. I'll replace parts as they die as long as I can get them. Using it is entirely too enjoyable.
Let me know if you have any questions.
PS: I just noticed Shawn is just about the only person with RY4 in stock, so I ordered some to try before he sells out. I got order number 1300 so I hope he's still doing the free VX2 kit promo. : )
Atomisers:
The vapor production is still stellar on all three atomisers. After readying everything in the forums on the subject, I've developed an "atomiser philosophy".
1) Drip carts, not atomisers. Reason is, they are supposed to be moist with fluid.
2) Store the atomiser with a cart attached. Reason is, they are supposed to be moist with fluid.
3) If they get cloggy, soak in distilled white vinegar for a few hours, blow through, let dry, drop 4 drops of liquid on the wick, attach a full cart, stand cart end up for 15 minutes.
4) Slow deliberate draws. If I don't try to win the vapor production olympics, I won't kill my atomiser.
So they are always moist. The filament never risks not having the juice it needs to not burn off it's wicking material, so the capillary action stays good, so the atomiser stays good.
Time will tell if my philosophy is correct. I figure it has to be something like this because there are people on here that have been using the same atomisers for a very long time, and we aren't talking about insanely high tech equipment. All mine are still working like new.
Batteries:
I had a fourth battery that up and died on me, but it was my fault. I know I overfilled a cart and let it sit atty up overnight. With this particular model, juice will flow through the atomizer into the battery and kill it if you overfill the cart. So use common sense. You can actually "hear" gurgling liquid if there is too much in the atomiser. Take off the battery, take off the cart, blow or suck (your choice) the extra liquid out of the atomiser. In general, battery life has been remarkable. If I'm absently doing work with it hanging out of my mouth most of the day, I'll get eight hours. If I'm doing casual weekend stuff and just doing a few puffs every 10-20 minutes, I've had batteries last over 12 hours.
Chargers:
The wall charger is great. You can leave a charged battery in it and it will be fine. I keep a battery and wall charger at work and at home, and keep the third battery on the unit itself. This way I've always got my vapor. I can say without a doubt the USB charging unit I received is almost completely worthless. Probably defective. With a dead battery, the LED light on it *might* turn red when you plug in the battery, but it might not. The wall charger works perfectly though. The only real strangeness is sometimes it takes four hours to recharge a battery, and sometimes it takes as little as an hour and a half. My feeling is that the "low battery" blinking might go off prematurely sometimes.
e-liquid:
As I was expecting, as my taste buds changed with the lack of analogs, the preferences changed. It was the same way with snus. Started out liking the candy snus, eventually fell completely in love with Roda Lacket. Out of all the flavors I've tried now, the Hilton from midwest vapor is the one I crave. I just ordered 60ml of it. I still like the flue cured, but it's turning into an occasional thing. I also mixed all the candy flavors into one big bottle and made "fruit punch". It's really good, but also a once in a while thing. I'd love to talk about how great my experience with Johnson's Creek stuff was, but the package hasn't even been given to USPS for delivery yet, and the order was placed seven day ago. Not very confidence inspiring.
Reality:
The comment was made in another post that getting parts for a unit that only came from a handful of suppliers might not be a great idea. So I started looking for suppliers, and found only bulk. I'm not going to buy 200 of them. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love this thing. My greatest fear was that the technology might not be "there yet", and those fears are gone. That's a real testament to the build quality and user experience I've had with this VX2. And it's not just me. Every single person I work with that smokes has wanted to try it, loved it, and has or will place an order with Shawn. It's really that good. However...
I like hedging my bets, and I *know* if I have downtime for any reason, my ... will be in my car heading to the gas station for a pack of american spirit. So I ordered a Janty Stick, spare battery, and an extra atomizer. And it is going into a drawer. Honestly, it does not have the cool factor that the J118 model has. To me it looks like people are smoking a circa 2001 USB thumbdrive, or maybe a borg shuttlecraft. It's not elegant and shiny, at least on youtube, and I don't like the idea of having to push a button. Maybe I'll change my mind when it gets here. The main reason I went with it was the reviews, ease of getting batteries, and ability to use almost any atomiser with it. I'm not giving up on the J118. It's entirely too slick of a product not to use. I'll replace parts as they die as long as I can get them. Using it is entirely too enjoyable.
Let me know if you have any questions.
PS: I just noticed Shawn is just about the only person with RY4 in stock, so I ordered some to try before he sells out. I got order number 1300 so I hope he's still doing the free VX2 kit promo. : )
. They are both so close IMO that I'm not certain right now which one will end up being my fav. I'm going to use my j118 a few days, then switch over to the 510 and I'll report back.
