Anybody else do it? I smoke and chew (and need to quit both). Most of my smoking is psychological. I got coupons in the mail today for a free Mark Ten starter kit and a free "pack" of cartridges (in this case, a "pack" equals 2) so I got them. Very different from smoking but not bad. From what I've read, it's not quite as bad for health than traditional cigs. With a pack of Marlboros hitting 6 bucks a pack these days, this isn't any more expensive. The Mark Ten e-cigs are quite a bit heavier than a regular cig but about the same size. Not sure if I'm going to stick with this or not.
Anyway, if you vape, what do you use and how do you like it?
I've a fair amount of friends who have switched. I went the patch route
Either way both will at the very least save you money. Cig's in MN are over $8 a pack 2wk supply of step one patches $38.. if you're a pack a day smoker do the math. I won't mention the health benefits.
I've tried vaping but it was from a friend and she had some "interesting" flavor choices, but on a bio response level I could get the nic hit I wanted in as few as 2-3 hits (results may vary)
If you're looking to dump traditional tobacco go for it! You've got nothing to lose and quite a bit to gain. You're letting your body deal with processing a ton less junk than just nicotine which really isn't all that bad if you look at the studies.
I went to Pink Spot(LV) and bought the eGo starter kit, last August. My smoking habit was also mainly psychological, and I wanted a fluid that was as close to the taste of a cigarette as possible. I like the tobacco flavored juice the best, nicotine is 18mg. Let me just tell you that at first its pretty unpleasent(should get your mind of the daily stessors), expect a sore throat for a few weeks. It would be a good idea to use this to get past the initial triggers and then stop all together, IMO. After the sore throat goes away the consumption increases, and the dependence is still there, at least in my case, due to the stresses of working with lazy a$$holes. LOL
I started the switch to vaping around Christmas last year. I got one of the cigarette looking vapor options and while I liked the flavor, I didn't like how restrictive the airflow was. The holes on that thing were very tiny and it was a lot of work to inhale the vapor. At the time my oldest daughter had gotten into vaping and she showed up with one of her eGo e-cigs. She let me try it out and it was a much more satisfying experience. It still wasn't as easy of a inhale as a cigarette, but it was a lot less restrictive than the Blu style e-cig. So I ordered up a couple of eGo's, one for my wife and I. The nice thing about the eGo was that it had a tank you could fill up with flavored juices which could be bought for around $5 a bottle. I used those for awhile and gradually upgraded them for tank style atomizers that gave better performance. They worked fine when I was at home and my wife didn't really have any problems with hers. However, I was having constant problems with them flooding while I was working so I was still smoking while at work and vaping at home. Eventually I got fed up with that and figured either I was going to get a setup that would work properly all the time or I was just going to ditch them and go back to smoking. So I bought a mechanical mod and a dripper style atomizer. This worked great, even though what I originally bought was a inexpensive piece to test that kind of setup with. I didn't want to sink much money into something that I may again find disappointing. Well with the mech mod and dripper I started with 2.4mg juices and over a couple of months I stepped down in nic strength. I am now down to .6mg nic and plan to drop to 0 nic juices this weekend. Even once I get to 0 nic juices I will continue to use the vaporizer because it still gives me the "feeling" that I'm smoking so it helps me to deal with stress, just without the bad side effects and a choice of many pleasant flavors (currently apple candy, "atomic fireball" a sweet cinnamon, "Plush" a peach melon and berries mix and straight peach). I liked the mech mod/dripper combo enough that I purchased the setup I really liked and am perfectly happy with it.
It's a Chi You mechanical mod with a Tobh dripper atomizer.
I can wire up the coils in it however I want to give me whatever type of vapor I want. If I want large volume of warm vape then I go with a sub ohm dual coil build. If I want a cooler lower volume vape, then I wire up a single coil in the 1.5-2.5 ohm range. I use 30 amp Sony VTC4 18650 batteries in it and 26 ga. kanthal wire for the coils. at first I was using silica rope for the fluid delivery to the coils but switched to cotton a few weeks back. Personally, I plan to stick with this and ditch smoking forever (which since I got the mechanical mod about a month and a half ago, I haven't had a cigarette). I will, once I'm a couple weeks into the 0 nic e-juices, start making my own e-juice to save even more money. I can buy the stuff to make over 100 10ml bottles of juice for less than what it cost to buy 10 10ml bottles in the stores. My goal is to get to the 0 nic e-juices before the feds start regulating vaporizers like they do cigarettes so if the cost goes up for the e-juices, I can just make my own out of the commonly available ingredients. If 0 nic juices aren't cutting it, then I will look into the cost for the nicotine to add to them and stay at the .6mg nic level if/when I start making my own. You just have to be really careful with the straight nic juice, because it is rather toxic in that form and can be absorbed through your skin making you sick and could potentially be fatal to a small child. I'll have to keep the nic in that form put away where my kids can't get to it (which because of the hazards of it in that form, is why I would prefer to go to 0 nic juices).
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 06-19-2014).]
I started vaping about this time last year, and went from ~2 packs a day to nothing in 24 hours. I also quit alcohol around that time so it wasn't that hard to vape. But the first time I got drunk after a few months of that, I immediately bummed a cigarette. I smoked when I drank exclusively until I moved to California. Ironically, it's far cheaper to vape than smoke here, but the week traveling here all I did was smoke so vaping was hard to jump back to.
I have vaped on and off since I got here. I was about a pack and a half smoker until 2 weeks ago, when I quit again. No vaping for me--I have the Nicorette gum for those blasted headaches, and nothing else. I've gone out drinking and basically just pop that gum until I feel sick. I can't go back. I'm not even worried about my lungs; my throat is going to get cancer before 30 if I keep going. I sing karaoke usually twice a week, which is hard on the throat. I smoke a lot, hard on the throat. I have bad allergies, and the air quality here is terrible, all hard on the throat. I continuously damage my throat and one of these days the scarring from all my bad stuff is going to lead to a malformed cancerous cell that'll spread. I am going to decrease that risk.
I've quit a lot. Even publicly on here a lot. But I really can't go back this time...
I've done it. I would avoid the small cartridge based ones and go straight to the "real" ones which have reservoirs & wicks. while it may not have happened yet - it will: leaks. the "juice" is horrible if it touches your lips or tongue. also, the smaller cigarette sized ones are VERY inconsistent in delivery.
I've done it. I would avoid the small cartridge based ones and go straight to the "real" ones which have reservoirs & wicks. while it may not have happened yet - it will: leaks. the "juice" is horrible if it touches your lips or tongue. also, the smaller cigarette sized ones are VERY inconsistent in delivery.
I'd have to agree. If you read my post, you will see that I started with one of the cigarette looking ones, upgraded to a eGo with a small tank, upgraded tanks for the eGo with replaceable coils, went with a less expensive mech mod and dripper and finally with the mech mod I liked and the dripper I liked. I wish I would have just skipped all the steps between the cigarette style and just went straight to the mech mod and dripper that I liked and have currently now. That's not saying a mech mod and dripper would be best for you, but it's where I ended up in order to find something close enough to actually smoking that I was satisfied. The eGo style would have been fine if I could have kept it from flooding the coil. I assume the flooding was from the temperature changes it went through causing what air was in the tank to expand and force the juice through the wick, but that's just a guess. With the dripper, I have to keep my e-juice bottle with me and put a few drops on the cotton every 6-15 puffs, depending on how long of a puff and how I have the coils set up. I thought it would be a hassle, but it really isn't any more of a hassle than getting a cigarette out of a pack and lighting it.
Good info, guys and thanks. Honestly, I probably would never have tried vaping if I hadn't gotten the coupons for the free Mark Ten setup. I'll have to find some place local that sells the "real" vaporizers. I want something fairly simple (pull it out and inhale) yet reasonably inexpensive. If it gets to be the same cost as cigarettes, it's not worth it to me.
If you search ebay you can find the kamry k100 or k101 starter kit that comes with batteries and charger for about $30. A dripper, say the patriot or the nimbus can be gotten on eBay got about $12.00. So roughly $45 would get you a setup that works good and will last. The bottles of juice, 10ml being the normal size, are about $6.00. I use 1 to 1-1/2 bottles like that a week, so $9.00 in juice a week versus the $35.00 a week for packs of cigarettes. I you skip all the middle steps, the setup should pay for itself in 2 maybe 3 weeks. There will be some other expenses such as kanthal wire and wicking material. Cotton is cheap. Buy a bag of cotton at the grocery store, boil it in distiller water for 20 minutes, then wring it out and rinse it in distiller water a couple of times. A bag of 100+ cotton balls will last probably a year, so $3.00 for wicking. Kanthal wire is about $10.00 for a 100 feet and that would be about another years worth. Or you could try to find a shop like a few we have here that will put the coils and wick in for free with a purchase of juice. Other than that, it's all juice and replacement batteries when your battery stops holding a charge ( I haven't had that happen yet ). That's if you choose the mech mod and dripper route. We have a k100 and a k101 as extras here since I bought the Chi You. We also have a couple of nimbus drippers since we replaced them with the Tohb.
I vape on and off. Looking into the new options, seams there are units out here with huge batteries and tanks ect. which was what the modders were doing a few years ago when I got into it. I should pull the trigger especially since they are squawking about raising the tax another buck.
Still use my Joy510 but not often because you have to fiddle with it, not bad with a modded cartridge. I have smoked on and off for decades and that thing will give a hit that will dizzy you. My problem is I like to smoke tobacco. I went months just smoking one real cigarette in the morning with coffee and vaping the rest of the day. But that was winter so not going outside was a good motivator.
There are a few good threads here on vaping, loaded with links for info and buying.
Except mine is dark blue. It comes with a "tank" that uses the 510 cartridges like the little cigarette style e-cigs have. The holes on those are just to small to allow for much vapor development and that's why I ended up with a dripper.
This set up is pretty inexpensive from e-bay. In the local vape shops the K101 goes for $65-75 and the Nimbus around $50. Honestly, if I was you I'd look at them in the vape shop then price shop online because the stores prices are usually rather inflated on devices. I mean the 2 items above would be about $37 vs. the $115 in a vape shop for the 2... Even the eGo style e-cigs are about half the price on e-bay that they are in the vape stores. Many of the vape stores even sell their store stock on e-bay at lower prices to compete there. So basically, shop around a bit when you look for something.
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 06-20-2014).]
I got into all of it after I quit smoking. Mods, drippers etc...
Now after all that I just use a set of 510 batteries with assorted bottom feeder tanks screwed onto them for day use.... I have a itaste mpv I use with a kager tank at home. It will run for 3 days without charging. I use mid range nic level ejuice. I also only vape the fruity ejuice. Don't start out with something that tastes like a Cigarette....because it won't..
2 years no real cigarettes.. none.
And be courteous where you smoke it..
[This message has been edited by deezil (edited 06-20-2014).]
Found out that there's a vape shop in town so I decided to stop by while I was running around. Spent $65 on a Spinner battery (I can change the voltage on this one), USB charger, 2 dripper atomizer thingies (?...the chamber that holds the juice that you suck on) plus 2 bottles of juice (Permafrost and something vaguely strawberry....both with 12mg nic). They make their own juice and have about 90 different flavors. 10ml bottles are $7.50 but if I buy 5 at a time, I get one free. Buy 10 at once and I get 3 free. If I like this (and so far, I really do), I'll start shopping online for a Nimbus. Not sure I want to try boiling cotton balls, etc. I don't know about the Nimbus but with these atomizer things, I can replace the wick for less than 5 bucks. Even if I replaced one a week and bought 2 more bottles of juice at the same time, it's still less than $20/week. I spend that much in 3 days now.
[This message has been edited by Monkeyman (edited 06-27-2014).]
If you use the Nimbus on the 510 battery, you will need to make sure to use a small gauge kanthal wire, probably 32, to wire up the coils so you don't fall below the resistance range of the battery. If you take the resistance to low on those you will fry the little circuit board in them. I believe 1.5 ohm is the lowest that should be used on them. The replacement coils you mention can be purchased on eBay for about $2.00 a peice, I ordered them in 5's and 10's when I was using tanks that utilized them. I might be wrong, but I'm guessing your using a tank something like one of these or something similar?
Those are the type I had problems with flooding. Now, I had problems with them because of the temperature extremes I subjected them to I'm guessing because my wife didn't have problems with them. So they may work very well for you.
12mg strength, while it's written that way on the bottle, it's only 1.2% of the juice in the mix. That is probably the most commonly used nicotine level as it's pretty close to what a lot of different cigarettes deliver. For instance, I smoked Pall Mall reds, and a juice that would equal them is roughly 1.1% nicotine, so the 12mg is right there.
Yes, cost wise they are much cheaper in the "weekly" cost. Those coils should last 2 maybe 3 weeks depending how much you use it. It is possible to "dry burn" them when the vapor production starts to fall off to clean some of the gunk that builds up on them off to get another week or so out of them. It becomes even cheaper if you learn to make your own juices, you just have to be really careful with the straight nicotine juice when you do it.
Be careful with dairy/butter flavored juices. They often contain diacytel (sp) which is a known carcinogen. The amount is small and not as dangerous as a actual cigarette, but I'd limit my use of custard, cream, ice cream, milk and butter flavored juices. Basically, for the occasional use I'm sure you'd be find but I wouldn't make it my all day vape flavor.
If your looking for something with a good throat hit, cinnamon will do it and I think it is YUM-EEEE! However, warning, here again I wouldn't make it my all day vape. A couple of times a day is fine but if you do like me and vape on it all day every day for a week or so it has a side effect. Now, I'm not talking bleeding lungs or anything like that. Rather, it will kill your ability to taste any other vape liquid. It took me about a week of vaping other flavors before I could begin to taste them again. So I only use cinnamon a couple of times a day now and can taste the other flavors just fine doing that. But man do I love the taste of the cinnamon candy juices. Another way you can give your e-juice a more throaty hit is to add .5 ml of Vodka to your 10 ml bottle. You can increase the amount by .5 ml at a time until you get the feeling your looking for. I don't do that. I've never felt the need, but it is a option.
Anyways, I hope you continue to like it and I'll try to answer any questions I know the answer to or can find the answer to. I hope I've been at least a little helpful .
dennis_6 --- I'll have to look them up. Cheaper juice is good. Not sure I'm ready to mix my own, though. Maybe someday when I'm done with the nicotine.
Kwh --- Close but this is what I've got.
Plastic but my next will be Pyrex and metal. I'd rather have something translucent so I know when to refill. The coils are the same or similar to what you show in the pic.
They suggested 18mg but I figured, since I'm on vacation, I'd be on it all evening so I went with 12mg. Good to know about the dairy/butter flavored carcinogens. The only 2 flavors I got were Permafrost (sort of a minty menthol) and something strawberry-ish. I like a good tobacco taste so I'll probably stick with those flavors for now. I'll definitely have to see if they have any cinnamon next time I'm in the shop. Not sure I want to waste $7.50 if I can only really use it a couple times a day, though. I think I'll stay away from adding alcohol. I can do this while I drive and I'd hate for anything to happen. I know. At that level, it wouldn't do anything but no sense in taking any chances. The first thing I asked when I walked in the vape shop today was if there was anything in the air that might cause me to fail a random drug test at work. The last time I was in a shop that sold "alternative smoking products", it was called a head shop.
What do I search for on eBay when looking for coils? Just "coils"? How do I know what to buy?
EDIT: Sorry for the pic size. I used imgur. Probably not gonna bother to resize it.
[This message has been edited by Monkeyman (edited 06-20-2014).]
From what I could find on that style of tank, it looks as if they use the same coil as the more common Protank. So I'd search "Protank replacement coil". You will only want to look for the single coil units as the dual coil won't fit (those are for the Protank 3 and the coils in the one you posted a picture of are single coil like in the Protank and Protank 2). A pyrex tank is really nice to have as some juices will dry the plastic out and cause it to crack, such as cinnamon or citrus based juices.
For example on the coils, here they have 20 of them for $22.95. At roughly $1.15 each, it's a pretty large savings over the $5.00 each in a vape store. Don't get me wrong, I've bought several tanks and coils in vape stores because of the convenience even a few of the 510 batteries since my wife wanted the ones with pretty patterns and lighted up jewel filled ends. But if you want to have several coils on hand so you don't end up at home one day with the coil failed and nothing to replace it with until you get to the vape store, it's hard to beat a "bulk" order on eBay. I'll look around here and see if we have any left over that are still new in the package. Since we switched to the drippers, we won't ever use them. I think we might have 5 or so I can send your way for free and you can see if they fit to make sure the Protank coils will work. Drop me a PM with your name and address and I'll try to get them out to you Monday. Heck, I'll look for one of our pyrex Protanks and send it your way to, after I boil it since we've used it.
Edit: I checked, we still have 5 of the 2.2 ohm single coil units that are sealed new in the package.
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 06-21-2014).]
From what I could find on that style of tank, it looks as if they use the same coil as the more common Protank. So I'd search "Protank replacement coil". You will only want to look for the single coil units as the dual coil won't fit (those are for the Protank 3 and the coils in the one you posted a picture of are single coil like in the Protank and Protank 2). A pyrex tank is really nice to have as some juices will dry the plastic out and cause it to crack, such as cinnamon or citrus based juices.
For example on the coils, here they have 20 of them for $22.95. At roughly $1.15 each, it's a pretty large savings over the $5.00 each in a vape store. Don't get me wrong, I've bought several tanks and coils in vape stores because of the convenience even a few of the 510 batteries since my wife wanted the ones with pretty patterns and lighted up jewel filled ends. But if you want to have several coils on hand so you don't end up at home one day with the coil failed and nothing to replace it with until you get to the vape store, it's hard to beat a "bulk" order on eBay. I'll look around here and see if we have any left over that are still new in the package. Since we switched to the drippers, we won't ever use them. I think we might have 5 or so I can send your way for free and you can see if they fit to make sure the Protank coils will work. Drop me a PM with your name and address and I'll try to get them out to you Monday. Heck, I'll look for one of our pyrex Protanks and send it your way to, after I boil it since we've used it.
Edit: I checked, we still have 5 of the 2.2 ohm single coil units that are sealed new in the package.
I'll send you a PM in a minute. Thanks. Picked up a Kanger Aerotank today. Pyrex tank, dual 2 ohm coils. I turned the volts up to about 4.0 and get a much cooler draw. One of the owners of the vape shop had a nice mix in his rig I got to try. REALLY nice. Smooth, menthol-ish flavor with a medium throat hit. Think I've found my daily vape. Definitely going to keep the other tanks for my non-daily vapes. They also had one of the new(er) iTaste MVP mods. I seemed to get a better vape off of it. They want $75. I can find it online for $45 so that's where I'll buy it whenever I'm ready. Wish I'd found vaping long ago.
Seems like a viable tool to kick a tabaco habit. But could the nicotine "vape" cause a craving for tabaco?
Nah. Up until I started vaping (just the other day), I'd find that I'd crave a cigarette quite a bit. If I wasn't smoking, I was chewing. In the past few days, I've smoked exactly 2 cigarettes and chewed 3 pouches. Granted, I'm getting my nicotine from the ejuice but I can lower the nicotine level in the juice with the next bottle (or 10 or 100 bottles from now). My goal is to stop nicotine completely by the end of the year. After that, I'll just be vaping for the flavor. There are a ton of "bad things" in tobacco that this just doesn't have so, while I'm trying to ditch the nicotine habit, I'm also ditching all the other crap. The only ingredients in this juice is propylene glycol, vegetable glycerine, nicotine and flavoring. Nothing in that mix that's "bad" for you other than the nicotine which can be eliminated from the mix without compromising the flavor (although I think it affects the throat hit some). The juice I use is mixed 50/50 PG/VG.
As to vaping leading to craving tobacco, for me it hasn't. However, I think you might be talking about a person who takes up vaping that has never smoked ending up moving on to cigarettes? I don't think this will be a common thing. There is one thing I never really "liked" about smoking except when it came to clove cigarettes. That was the "flavor". It wasn't horrible and I'd say it's like coffee or beer, an acquired taste. It's more something you get used to than crave as far as the flavor goes. I mean yes, you may crave the flavor because your brain associates that flavor with the nicotine it wants but a never smoked vapor will not have that nicotine/flavor association. Rather their brain will have the nicotine association with all these yummy vapor flavors and if they tried a cigarette I think they'd reject it based off of the flavor. Why smoke a flavor you have to get used to when you can vape a flavor that you like? That's why I switched to vaping. If I can satisfy my nicotine craving and have flavors that I enjoy that don't make everything near me smell like an ash tray? Well it's worth a shot. So I tried it and I haven't had the desire to light a cigarette since I finally got a setup that works well for the life style I lead (I do a lot of work outside and in tractors). I'd say the biggest problem I face with vaping now is deciding which flavors I want this week looking at that menu of 90 or so flavors...
dennis_6 --- I'll have to look them up. Cheaper juice is good. Not sure I'm ready to mix my own, though. Maybe someday when I'm done with the nicotine.
Kwh --- Close but this is what I've got.
Plastic but my next will be Pyrex and metal. I'd rather have something translucent so I know when to refill. The coils are the same or similar to what you show in the pic.
They suggested 18mg but I figured, since I'm on vacation, I'd be on it all evening so I went with 12mg. Good to know about the dairy/butter flavored carcinogens. The only 2 flavors I got were Permafrost (sort of a minty menthol) and something strawberry-ish. I like a good tobacco taste so I'll probably stick with those flavors for now. I'll definitely have to see if they have any cinnamon next time I'm in the shop. Not sure I want to waste $7.50 if I can only really use it a couple times a day, though. I think I'll stay away from adding alcohol. I can do this while I drive and I'd hate for anything to happen. I know. At that level, it wouldn't do anything but no sense in taking any chances. The first thing I asked when I walked in the vape shop today was if there was anything in the air that might cause me to fail a random drug test at work. The last time I was in a shop that sold "alternative smoking products", it was called a head shop.
What do I search for on eBay when looking for coils? Just "coils"? How do I know what to buy?
EDIT: Sorry for the pic size. I used imgur. Probably not gonna bother to resize it.
By mix I mean add flavor, you can't really hurt yourself there just make it taste bad. By cheap i mean 500 ml for 26 dollars. That is dirt cheap. Here is the link http://www.myfreedomsmokes....moke-juice-e-liquid/ Here is a link to flavors... http://www.myfreedomsmokes..../all-flavorings.html But a lot of places have concentrated flavors. Just stay with the 24mg unflavored if you want to be safe. I vape that straight and have for a while now. 36mg is questionable anything above is dangerous, 100mg is lethal.
By mix I mean add flavor, you can't really hurt yourself there just make it taste bad. By cheap i mean 500 ml for 26 dollars. That is dirt cheap. Here is the link http://www.myfreedomsmokes....moke-juice-e-liquid/ Here is a link to flavors... http://www.myfreedomsmokes..../all-flavorings.html But a lot of places have concentrated flavors. Just stay with the 24mg unflavored if you want to be safe. I vape that straight and have for a while now. 36mg is questionable anything above is dangerous, 100mg is lethal.
Thank you Dennis. I can find 100% VG all day long around here at health food stores. PG is a little harder to come by. I can order the 24mg in 100% PG and then dilute it with VG to a 75% VG and 25% PG strength to get 6mg nic level non flavored. Adding flavoring would reduce the nic level a little bit more but not much depending on flavor strength. I think I'll be ordering up 500 ml's.That's what, almost 17 oz. of juice with nic in it I could dilute. That will last a rather long while, considering the 3:1 part ratio and me vaping about 20-30 ml a week. So roughly 64 weeks of vaping. The VG I can get 4 ounces at a time for about $5 local, or I could order it a quart at a time for around $15. Flavor concentrates can be gotten from TFA for around $8 for a 4 ounce bottle. So that much flavor concentrate would last awhile also. Really, with that nic juice, if I find 0 nic just lacking, I can still keep my cost way down compared to the $5-$7 for a 10ml bottle in the stores. I mean the $15ish a week I spend on juice now is still a $20 savings over what I was spending, but while the initial layout might be more than I'd normally have spent in a week, the cost from then on would be minimal until I ran out of nic juice and had to buy it again.
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 06-23-2014).]
To go along with the link for flavor free nic juice above, I've done some searching and this seems to be one of the more commonly suggested sites for flavoring. The website for the nic juice above, sells these flavors down in the DIY flavor concentrates section of their site. They are listed as TFA flavors.
You go there and click on The Flavor Apprentice (TFA) icon, then professional flavors where you can browse the different flavor concentrates they sell. I'm going to order a few of their 4ml trial bottles to add flavor to the VG I have and see if I like the flavors. If I do, which I suspect I will, I'll order some larger sized bottles from their bulk sales section.
Thank you Dennis. I can find 100% VG all day long around here at health food stores. PG is a little harder to come by. I can order the 24mg in 100% PG and then dilute it with VG to a 75% VG and 25% PG strength to get 6mg nic level non flavored. Adding flavoring would reduce the nic level a little bit more but not much depending on flavor strength. I think I'll be ordering up 500 ml's.That's what, almost 17 oz. of juice with nic in it I could dilute. That will last a rather long while, considering the 3:1 part ratio and me vaping about 20-30 ml a week. So roughly 64 weeks of vaping. The VG I can get 4 ounces at a time for about $5 local, or I could order it a quart at a time for around $15. Flavor concentrates can be gotten from TFA for around $8 for a 4 ounce bottle. So that much flavor concentrate would last awhile also. Really, with that nic juice, if I find 0 nic just lacking, I can still keep my cost way down compared to the $5-$7 for a 10ml bottle in the stores. I mean the $15ish a week I spend on juice now is still a $20 savings over what I was spending, but while the initial layout might be more than I'd normally have spent in a week, the cost from then on would be minimal until I ran out of nic juice and had to buy it again.
Post back about the flavor. Looks like good prices on most.
Okay, I picked up "Apple Candy", "Cinnamon Red Hots", "Rootbeer Float" and "Sweat and Tart".
Just to test flavors I did a 90% VG with 10% flavoring mix. I've read as far as flavorings go, people using from 5% to 20% normally and sometimes as much as 35% for really weak flavors. I figured 10% would be a good starting point.
Cinnamon Red Hots: 10%, Tastes good, I like it. However I think I will try 5% when I get the nic juice since the nic juice adds some throat hit to. The flavor is strong enough I think 5% will still be plenty. I'll be ordering 4 oz. of this flavoring.
Apple Candy: 10%, again tastes good and I like it. I think I will try 15% when I get the nic juice to try to kick the flavor up just a little bit more. However, I will also let this one sit for a week to steep. From what I've read if the flavor is a little week letting the juice steep for a week will usually fix that. I will be ordering 4 oz. of this one also because I could mix in a little cinnamon with it and get a candied apple flavor.
Rootbeer Float: At 10% is good. I don't get much of the "float" part but maybe steeping will help with that to. If not, maybe a couple of drops of a vanilla flavoring just to boost that part a little. This one was for my wife, so if she likes it I'll order a 4 oz. bottle for her. For me though? This would be maybe a 30ml bottle because it wouldn't be a frequent use juice.
Sweet and Tart: Another juice my wife wanted to try. I haven't had a chance to mix this one up for her yet so I'll have to report back on it later.
Overall, compared to the LorAnn flavor concentrates that are more readily available in local stores, I like these flavors A LOT more. For each flavor, I removed the cotton in my dripper and replaced it so there would be no flavor contamination. I just wanted to judge the flavor without maybe having a little of the sweetness from the apple candy still hanging around making the rootbeer float seem to sweet or what have you. There are some flavors they don't have that I'm going to have to look for elsewhere but if the other test bottles I order over time are as good as the first ones I've gotten, then I've found my flavoring source. I don't remember for sure, but one juice I like is called Plush. It is described as a mix of melon, peach and berries. The problem is I have no idea what kind of melon or what kind of berries. TFA has a couple of melon flavors like honey doo, but no general melon or berries flavor.
Cheap way to get started, though the knock off ecigs don't seem to last as long... Ego CE4 650mAh Personal Vape Pen w Clearomizer and Charger Starter Kit Vaporizer $6.99 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ego...&hash=item4183024074
Thought I posted this but don't see it. I bought an iTaste MVP mod on eBay. It was supposed to be v2 but turned out to be a v1. Apparently, one of the issues with the v1 was a slightly taller neck on the 510 connection. I can pull the bottom of the coil on the Smoktech GBCs so they contact the top of the MVP battery but can't move the one on the Kanger Aerotank. I got a partial refund and since it works with the other cartos, I'm happy enough. I think I'll buy a v2 from a reputable shop (even if it's a little more $$). I like the box over the skinny Spinner and LOVE the Aerotank so I need to make them both work. If I can find a good deal on the new Kanger Aerotank Mega, I'll probably buy that. I wouldn't mind a dripper for home use but it's not convenient enough for on-the-go vaping (at least for me).
I wish the local vape shop would give me their recipe for this daily vape I've been buying as I'd rather mix my own. I love it. Sort of a warm menthol. Much less "bite" than a menthol analog and not minty. Got a 60ml bottle today for $35. That'll last me over a week so that'll be about 1/2-2/3 what I was spending on tobacco.
One of the guys at the vape shop tried to convince me to buy a Hana instead of the iTaste mod. Only 2 problems I see are it's only variable wattage, not voltage and it's 300 bucks. I can buy a Provari for less than that and that's the Bentley of mods.
On a side note, this new 60ml bottle is only 6mg nic. I'm vaping enough that 12mg seems to be a bit much, especially since I tend to vape until I go to bed. I think I have been getting as much if not more nic than when I was smoking/chewing. 6mg should bring me down some. Another month and I think I'll try some 0mg juice.
Not sure what one has to do with the other. Care to elaborate?
I don't know what the point of it is... I've never done it, but it seems like a waste of time. I mean, is it like eating a candy bar? Do you get a buzz or something from it? Or is it just something to do?
Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: I don't know what the point of it is... I've never done it, but it seems like a waste of time. I mean, is it like eating a candy bar? Do you get a buzz or something from it? Or is it just something to do?
It's a much healthier option to smoking. Instead of getting the 1000's of chemicals in cigarette smoke to get nicotine, you get a flavored vapor with nicotine in it. The vapor is produced by heating a coil of kanthal wire that is wrapped around a wick. The heat causes the juice that saturates the wick to turn to a vapor. The juice is typically made of food grade Vegetable Glycerin, Propelyne Glycol, Distilled Water, Nicotine (from 0 to 3.6% being the "safe" amounts) and then the flavoring. According to my Doctor, while he suggests because of my arthritis to drop the nicotine, it is as safe as taking a nice hot steamy shower.
So yeah, if you have never smoked you will get a "buzz" from the nicotine but that won't last long if you use one regularly. I'm currently down to 0.6% nicotine juice that I buy and the juice I make myself is currently 0 nicotine so I will be off the nicotine completely soon as I don't plan to buy anymore juice containing nicotine. So once I've used up what I have with nicotine in it, that will be it. I'll order some of the unflavored nic juice for my wife so I can make her flavors since she hasn't dropped the nioctine levels as fast as I have but still she is down now to the 1.2% and this last weekend started getting the 0.6%. Another month or two and she won't have the nicotine in her juice anymore either.
Oh, and the juices I make at home contain food grade Vegetable Glycerin, Distilled Water and the flavoring. I don't use the Propelyne Glycol.
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 06-28-2014).]
82-T/A [At Work] --- Personally, I think drinking beer is generally a waste of time. To each, their own. Like Khw said, it's a healthier option to smoking (or any tobacco use). Up until a week ago, I'd either smoke or chew and had done it for 34 years. I haven't had any tobacco product in a week due to vaping. Vegetable Glycerin is in a lot of food products as is Propelyne Glycol. Both are considered safe by the FDA. The big words regarding PG sounds something like this: "The acute oral toxicity of propylene glycol is very low, and large quantities are required to cause perceptible health damage in humans; propylene glycol is metabolized in the human body into pyruvic acid (a normal part of the glucose-metabolism process, readily converted to energy), acetic acid (handled by ethanol-metabolism) [and] lactic acid (a normal acid generally abundant during digestion)...". In words I can understand, the only things it produces are things normally found in the human body. VG is used in many food products as it is slightly sweet but has less calories than sugar. It's interesting to note that it's also used in soap and suppositories. So....anything you could conceivably put on or in (in any way you want to see that) your body could have VG in it. Water is water. Nicotine is a stimulant and HIGH doses (such as pure nicotine juice) can be fatal but it's NOT carcinogenic. There are even some minor health BENEFITS to nicotine, believe it or not, although the overall negative side effects probably outweigh the benefits. The "bad" things in tobacco (cigarettes or chew) just aren't in e-juice.
I'm not trying to get you to vape. I enjoy it as a quality and much safer alternative to tobacco use. I don't get the shakes or the cravings I normally get from NOT smoking. The draw of the vape takes care of the psychological part (dragging on a cigarette) and the nicotine in the juice takes care of the physiological part. As I decrease the nic level in my juice (I'm currently on 6mg or 0.6% and expect to be on zero nic in a couple months), my cardiovascular system gets healthier.
Khw --- Let me know how the zero nic juice affects the throat hit.
Just tried one of these last night and I must say I was impressed. Stepson said he had been on the same tank and battery all day too. things have come along way since my 510 and pretty cheap price