What I have learned - Something for newcomers

[Rusthammer3k]

This is a post for anyone getting into vaping. I am about 2.5 to 3 months in and I wanted to share what I have learned.

I went in blind. Didn't do a lot of research. I tried Blu Cigs and loved them at first. I still would be using them, if their cartridges weren't so inconsistent. At least 50% of the carts that I purchased ended up being bad. By bad I mean I couldn't get enough vapor, it wouldn't last more than one or two smoke breaks, or was empty to begin with. This made the product as expensive as normal cigarettes. Not the cost effective change that I was led to believe it was. The weaker battery didn't bother me too much. The personal charger alleviated that problem to an extent.

- Cost

The initial cost will be pretty expensive at first. A starter kit and a bottle of liquid can be upwards of $100 depending on what you get. After about a month that cost wont matter because the savings are massive considering that a pack of cigarettes where I live are $6 to $8.75.


-What you want to consider

If you are new, consider buying a product that you can refill yourself. It is astronomically cheaper to do it yourself. A good sized bottle is only going to run you $10-$12. That should give you at least a week or two depending on how much you vape. I like my Halo G6. It is built to refill yourself. There are other brands that you can easily refill but I felt Halo was the best based on my research. I almost bought the Volt but the flameguard technology that Halo was advertising swayed my decision.

-Liquid

I do not like PG liquid. It doesn't produce enough vapor for me. I have found that I might be more addicted to big clouds of vapor than I am nicotine

For people just starting, you may want to go pure VG as some people are allergic to PG liquid. Not a good way to start if you are one of those people. If you can, get both and figure out which you prefer.


These are my favorite liquid providers

Virgin Vapor | Electronic Cigarette Organic e-Liquid | Electronic Cigarettes

Virgin vapor has the best flavors I have tried. Their sample 3 pack will let you sample more liquids and help you find your favorite faster. And if you don't like it, you aren't wasting a ton of money.


USA Made Vapor Renu : Electronic Cigarettes Refill Cartridges : Candy Flavorings : E Cig Liquid Nicotine : Cartomizer Refills : Menthol E-Liquid : Flavoring Oils : E Cigarette Refills

So many options. If I ever decide to get off nicotine completely, I will be using these guys exclusively. They will add trace amounts of capsicum to give you a throat burn that resembles nicotine.


Johnson Creek Smoke Juice - America's Smoke Juice! Johnson Creek Smoke Juice

I like their tobacco flavors only. Tennessee Cured and Domestic are good. If you are fresh off normal cigarettes you may want to start here if you are tentative to try fruit or dessert flavors.


- One last thing

BUY A THIRD BATTERY! Most starter kits come with two. Buy a third. You may get a bad battery with your starter which could ruin your experience. If you cant use your product you might jump back into normal cigarettes. It almost happened to a friend of mine.


So that is it. I hope this will be helpful for people. One noob to another

 

[Triphamr]

Thanks for the tips!

 

[avnger]

Great points, I also started with a cig-alike (V2 cigs) but had the same problems with cartos, I went with an ego-c, which is an easy system to start on and cheaper in the long run since you use your own juice. I'm getting into tanks now.

This can be expensive to start with but I'm still doing better than the $50 dollar carton per week that I was, and once I settle in on a system I really like it will be much cheaper

 

[Pasasana]

Wow. Lots of great info, thanks. The USA Made Vapor Renu looks the the place I should go when I'm ready to give up nicotine - soon I hope. They have so many options! It's a little confusing. Again, thanks.

 

[vidpoboy]

Rusthammer3k,

I couldn't agree more.

I was going to start with the Blu's a couple of weeks ago and luckily I found this site first and read a number of posts like yours that prompted me to go big from the start. I wound up getting a Vamo and a ego kit with clearomizers to start off and I couldn't be happier. Still some learning curve. I spent up front and I figure I will be saving on analogues in the next 2 weeks. If I don't get hooked on buying more mods. There's some cool stuff out there. My Cartons were about $75 buck a week.

 

[dreamer4217]

thank you a lot of good information

 

[guppy]

Very good info. I started on the ego-T and did a bunch of research since my battery on the ego died about 4 times within a month which kind of lead me to have a few analogs here and there but in the end, the research paid off and I jumped right into the provari. I highly recommend the provari!!!

 

[Dustyzomg]

Thank you for the tips! I have been vaping for maybe 3 weeks now, give or take a few days. I have just been buying flavors locally, which usually cost me about $10 for a 15ml bottle. I stretched a couple times and spent a little extra to get a 30ml bottle. I didn't know there was a difference between PG/VG, but my friend who got me into vaping explained to me the difference. I also think I am equally as addicted to the big puffs of vapor as I am to the nicotine, if not more so. Although I still analog every now and again, especially when under stress. But I'm going to have to try and find a VG liquid, thanks to your tip.

 

[x1zz1x]

This can be expensive to start with but I'm still doing better than the $50 dollar carton per week that I was, and once I settle in on a system I really like it will be much cheaper

I completely agree with you. My friend got me started and gave me his BluCig, I then moved on to something like the V2 cigs. I started thinking that Im still spending money on the cartos, thats like $100 a year. A few months ago, I bought the Provari mini and AGA-T to find out if I'll like it. This is my current set-up right now and I really like it.

 

[boosmoking]

I use a pg/vg mix, for it's kind of the best of both worlds....

 

[brhollifield]

Great tips for the Noobs !!! Think this thread would be a great place for everyone to " start ". I unlike you didn't go in blind... I spent about a month reading EVERYTHING, watching videos... the whole nine yards, but everyone isn't like me and they just want to jump in and you have condensed and posted a lot of very good info here! Thanks.

 

[Mitch65]

I made some banana creme Juice today. I HATE BANANAS!! It was terrible. ugh what was i thinking i cant stand banana

 

[Controlthebleeding]

thanks for the info. i've been reading up on all the finer points of vaping the last week since i quit almost two weeks ago and someone suggested i come here. i've been smoking the blu disposables till i can buy one in a week (rent was due and i'm paying rent for 2 people). till then i'm just hoping i don't go back to analogs. 2 weeks in and 2 blu disposables later, im on the fast track to quiting and figured vaping would be a good way of slowly lowering my nicotine till i can finally quit fully. now just to figure out what the heck to buy.

 

[piedmontqc]

This is all good info. I'm about 1 month into vaping and I started with 2 ego type batteries and a carto tank. I now have 5 batteries and a small 14500 size vv mod. I could not get good performance out of the carto tank, switched to clearomizers and also tried a vi vi nova and like them much more. Last week I started dripping with a phoenix clone and thats all I use at home anymore. I've got a supply of kanthal
wire and wick coming from ebay. Today I mixed my first DIY juice, its steeping now and I can't wait to try it. I love this vaping stuff, I have other hobbies but this has taken over everything else. ECF is the best.

 

[skorpiankh]

Great post. I'll just add that you need to have backups of everything if you are trying to quit. One of my first ego batteries died in the first week and the other wouldn't stay charged long enough for work. That's when I upgraded to the Lavatube and got extra batteries and two tanks with a drip atty. I's still not perfect but at least I have some options if something goes wrong.

 

[clypto]

I have read a few tips for beginners and this is echoing a lot of those. However, why do you believe somebody should start 100% VG? I recall some tips that stated to kind of mix the pg/vg at first due to VG being sort of like syrup, clogging some of the 'lesser' PVs.

I havent received my stuff just yet, but I have sunk a few bucks in to various places for eliquid. I have been avoiding straight 100%s due to what I had read but if thats not really an issue then I may try my luck.

I will be starting with a eGo-T - 1100mAh eGo-T Kit
So, I guess what I am asking here, for me and the eGo - will the 100% VG juice be an issue?

 

[jazon1]

personally i think the best "starter"kit for some new to vaping is a ego battery with a vivi nova tank.
i tried Blu's and many other cigalikes thinking having a small e-cig would be best the truth is they just do not have enough power or battery life or vapor production for most smokers to quit and often just waist peoples money.

 

[DoctorJ]

All good info and I'll chime in on my e-cig lessons. I've been vaping for 6 weeks now and boy oh boy, there is so much more to the vaping world than I realized when I started my journey.

I started with a V2 starter kit after doing a lot research, much like brhollifield. They are a tad on the expensive side, but I like the warranty (even though it has a catch, but that's no big deal). I eventually bought a Volt X2 and got turned on to Smokeless Image. They are just as good as V2, however, prices are a bit less expensive. I got some prefilled cartos with my kit and they worked fine. But after doing the research, I quickly went to filling my own. I bought some clearos and made a few big orders from three different vendors.

Now, to what I've learned thus far:
-I had no clue what PG/VG was and googled it. This was fortunate on two fronts. First, the link I found brought me here to ECF, the best e-cig forum on the web! Second, I found this link that clearly explains PG/VG http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/general-e-liquid-discussion/237271-vg-pg-explained.html Thanks Cool_Breeze for such a comprehensive post on the subject.

-When, and if, you order your own juice, you must know about "steeping". Ejuice steeping is defined by one vendor as "Time allows all flavors to be married together and Mature, making them taste richer." My own definition of steeping is "Setting your ejuices aside and staring at them for what may seem forever, which may actually only be 3-4 days or a week. Resisting temptation to vape your juice even though it's not ready yet and trying really hard not to put it in a cart or clearo and vape it!" After my first juice order and reading the brochure about steeping, I made a few other ejuice purchases so as to space out steeping time between batches and, therefore, I would have a batch to vape while the next was steeping. ***Be sure when you order your juice to have blank carts or clearos for it. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE ENOUGH OF THESE!!!!*** Nothing sucks worse than to get a new batch of ejuice and have nothing to vape it in!

-REHYDRATE! Vaping will dehydrate you quickly, so I always keep a bottle of water near by, even when I'm not vaping.

-Have spares for your spares. I have four batteries and do my best to make sure they are always charged.

-Be a comparative shopper! If you find something you like, be it batteries, ejuice, or other vaping supplies, SHOP AROUND!! There are so many vendors out there now and you find something you want/need, the first time you find it might not be the least expensive place to buy it. Here's a link that I use often and frequently VaporSearchUSA

-Lastly, if you don't understand anything or have a question you can't find the answer to, POST IT HERE ON ECF!!! I've had many of my noob questions and queries answered by the great folks on this forum. I'm a professor and I always tell my students, "There is no such thing as a dumb or stupid question, especially if it's something you don't know and need to know. Never be afraid to ask!"

Hope this helps a bit. You'll learn more and more as you go. I come to this forum and browse threads to try and learn something new as often as possible. I still post noob questions and quite sure I will continue to do so for quite awhile.

Keep on Vapin'

 

[telijah]

My experience has been identical to rusthammer's, except I have not had a problem with 70/30 or 80/20 pg/vg fluids. Might give higher vg fluids a try soon though.

DoctorJ: I am sure I could easily find this elsewhere, but maybe no need if the answer is this simple. I've seen "steeping" mentioned a lot... Is that really just meaning to let a new bottle of juice sit for a while? Nothing else?

 

[Rusthammer3k]

I agree. They need to work on their website a little. My only real issue with them is that I dont see a sample size that they sell. They have the largest list of flavors that I have found and I would like to try them, but I dont want a giant bottle that I will never use if I dont like it.