New Setup

So....been vaping for 6 years.

For the last couple years I was using a Reo with an RBA at .5 ohms and was going through about 12-15ml a day. A friend of mine let me try his sub ohm tank a few weeks ago and I was hooked! The flavor was better than my Reo/RBA setup and the vapor was OMG.

Anyways, I've since bought a couple of sub ohm tanks with an IPV2 Mini, then graduated to a Goliath RTA with an SX Mini M Class. Using the Goliath with a .44 ohm dual coil at 30 watts on the SXM and I'm going through anywhere from 25-35ml a day! This just seem excessive....

Can anyone recommend an RTA that would use less juice but still give me a lot of airflow and flavor? I'm not all about the vapor, although I do enjoy it.

I'm guessing that if you want lots of airflow (I'm a direct lung inhale kinda guy) and a warm, full vape you pretty much have to vape at higher wattages/lower ohms and therefore use excessive amounts of juice...just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and has successfully cut down their juice consumption.

FYI, I DIY my juice so cost is not really an issue...I'm a bit concerned that using this much juice every day just can't be good for you.  

This is bad, and what's worse is I know it's bad but I can't seem to stop. I keep buying mods and tanks and juice and accessories. I've been vaping for almost a year now and for the most part I was happy with my setup (once i got past the cheap ego battery setup I had). I was rockin an MVP 2.0 and a nautilus tank. Loved every second of it. But recently the MVP threads got messed up so no tank would connect to it. So I decided to upgrade my setup and get a Sigelei 150w. Now THIS thing is amazing.

You would think since I was happy with my setup that would be enough. NOPE! I ordered an RDA (Mad Hatter) to go with the sigelei because the nautilus just wasn't fully utilizing the mod. I ordered wire, wick, ohm meter, the whole kit and kaboodle. But I also ordered an MVP 3.0 Pro for the times the sigelei batteries were dead or I just needed a smaller device. Got the MVP in today and it's amazing. I definitely love Innokin products.

That's it though, right? NOPE! I haven't even recieved my RDA yet and I was browsing the interwebs looking at forums and reviews and came across the Kanger Subtank Mini. Looks awesome. So I ordered it. But not by itself, oh no no no, I saw a kit with a Kanger Subox Mini and Subtank Mini starter kit. So I ordered it. Oh god will the impulse buying ever stop!?

Let's not get into my juice collection. I have more bottles than I know what to do with. Originally it was a handful of bottles that could sit on my desk, now I've had to rearrange my dresser so the multitude of bottles can sit up there. I have so many flavors that I love that I keep switching them around and it's driving me crazy. And everytime I see one of you post about your new favorite all day vape flavor I look into it, think it sounds amazing, and end up buying more.

Aww screw it, I love vaping. I'm sure i'll buy something else real soon. Speaking of which...I could use a new drip tip to go with my new tanks. Gotta go.

(thanks for reading my rant)  

Greetings,

maybe I was bored. Maybe to much doom and gloom on all the bans of new gear and the shipping of it. I started to think - why not have some fun with some of the stuff I already have?



Cases in point - the two rigs in the picture above. I believe that all the hardware (mods and tanks) are over 5 years old. The setup on the left has a bit of a story about it.

Sitting on my desk is a few old tube mods that I wonder what it would be like to use again. I found a old (I think KFv3) tank laying around, built a very low mass 2ohm coil in it, filled it up and went and tried it out on my old 15W tube mods. Sadly not a one of them liked the KFv3 and would register the 2ohm coil. So what to do? I had a old Evic that surely could be put into power mode. While I was not to surprised that it all works (I've actually refilled the tank a few times and replaced the battery once) the vape is more restrictive than I tend to like and be it the build (or the 10W power mode) I don't really like the flavor of the unflavored juice with this. Another negative is that while it is top fill, there is no juice flow control so the atomizer get flooded each time the tank is refilled. While I could (and have) used it in a pinch, I can get 1-2 tank fills on a single 3000mah battery.

The setup on the right represents some historical firsts for me. Years ago when I first got into rebuilding a Lemo2 was one of three tanks I bought when I started. It was also my first top fill tank. Sitting under it is my first ever Dicodes mod (a #6). This mod is setup in TC mode with 380F temperature setting and 23W.

Be it the better tank or the use of TC mode, the setup on the right provides a good vape. The 26650 has enough mah to easily allow me to vape the tank dry (takes me most of the day) and since years ago I got Dicodes very over priced charger, I just drop the mod in the charger at the end of the day and its ready for more vaping in a few hours.

So, anyone else putting to use or having some fun with +5 year old vaping gear? How do you like it?


g.  

Or maybe even a heretic, or a blasphemer?
I like mini tanks and small batteries. My favorite setups are mini protank version 1 clones with 650mah basic ego style batteries. Stainless steel finish, no funky colors or designs. Single bottom coil on the tanks, no air flow controls. Standard voltage batteries, no twisty things on the bottom, no usb passthrough, no digital displays, just a battery. I like the ego style because the protruding button is easier to find and helps keep them from rolling around. The lack of features I don't need means the batteries are small. I like small, sleek, simple.

I have a nice big fancy Smok vv/vw battery. If I cut my juice in half with VG I can blow some massive clouds without knocking myself out. I found this to be mildly amusing for a short period of time. I also found out that with my regular mix when I dialed around for the "sweet spot" I ended up at 3.7 volts...

The mini tanks don't hold a day's worth of juice, and the 650mah batteries don't last all day. So what? Tank gets low, twist it off and pop another on. Battery light flashes, same thing. I've got a battered old EGO case from my first starter kit, it holds four tanks and batteries and a bottle of juice with room to spare.

I got my first mini pro tank from a vape shop. I just assumed it was a Kanger, but there was no mention of Kangertech anywhere on the packaging or tank. Whatever, I really liked it. I figured the real deal would be even better so I ordered one online. Kanger had discontinued the version 1, so I bought the "new, improved" version 2. It was good, but I liked the clone version 1 better. The clone tanks are polycarbonate rather than pyrex, but I don't vape plastic eating flavors, so that's a non-issue.

Now I'm not knocking all the cloud chasing, coil winding, wick trimming gear heads that seem to dominate these forums, but if there's anybody else out there who enjoys vaping with a nice, simple, inexpensive setup, I'd like to hear from you.  

I am looking back at my spending this month, and I've realized the thing I used to get off tobacco and save money is now my full blown hobby and obsession. Bad? Nah - but it was eye opening and shocking! Recently (past 2-3 months) I've bought (this is just hardware. If I listed juices, this post would just be dumb long)

IPV Mini
IPV Mini V2
iStick 30w
Nitecore I4 charger (I2 became not good enough)
4x efest 18650 batteries (to add to the 4 I already own)
case to carry them all in while on the go
Atlantis 5ml extender
20 Atlantis coils
Delta II
10 delta II coils
Delta II RBA
Sense Herakles Tank
10 Herakles Coils
Horizon Arctic Tank
Pre-ordered Lemo II
Melo Tank
22ga, 24ga, 26ga, 28ga kanthal
ceramic tweezers
eleaf atomizer checker
wraps to protect/customize all my mods
Vape Life Drip Tips
Subtank Mini
Subtank mini OCC coils
Kayfun 4
Coil master kit
Screw driver sets
Torch
Butane for torch

Now I want the High Voltage tank

WHAT AM I DOING?! THE STRUGGLE IS REAL /endrant

My favorite so far: IPV Mini II rocking the Herackles tank at 55w - mmmmm

 

It all started as I was bored one day and decided to drop by the local vape shop and see what they had for sell. Silly me I bought a "pod mod" to see what all the fuss with the devices was about.

Enter the mod on the far left. A "pod mod". I don't recall what it cost me but it was small and light and not very expensive and the sales person claimed "it won't leak" so I figured - what the heck, I'll get it and make up some 'salts' juice and try it out.

While it was fairly easy to fill and the sales person was right, it did not leak. It did suffer from a number of 'issues'. Namely dismal output, battery life and juice capacity. Did I mention that the "flap" to get at the microUSB connection for charging was challenging? While I tried to make use of it while I enjoyed my morning coffee after a few weeks of ether running out of juice or battery at just the wrong time I started looking else where. However now that I had 30ml of 50mg juice mixed up I though I'd 'upgrade' my "salts dispenser".

Move to the setup in the middle, a Nautilus mini clone (with aftermarket RBA) and a iStick40. While the RBA is downright painful to build on I left the 1.4 ohm Kanthal build on it and filled the 2ml tank with the 50mg juice. The iStick40 is said to have a 2700mah battery (and optional TC with NI coils). The iSticks have their USB ports on the bottom. So with the tank filled up and the iStick charged up I again went about my business. This setup was a vast improvement over the 'pod mod'. Better (but not great, after all it is a Nautilus mini) output, longer battery life and more juice. It felt good to be able to grab some gear out of my stash and put it to use. The setup did have its downsides, namely the filling of the tank. Tanks of this era are filled by unscrewing the bottom+coil/atomizer out of it and squeezing juice directly into the upside down tank and then screwing it back together. While I had a dozen or more of this style of tank in use in my early vaping days, I've grown accustomed to easy top fill tanks so started thinking that I could do better so back to the stash I looked.

Enter the setup on the right. While the mod itself is fairly new (Dicodes 21700) the tank is a eLeaf "Lemo2" (only slightly newer vintage then the Nautilus). This setup gives me 3.2ml of tank, even higher output, top fill ease, longer battery life and TC of the coil. The three drawbacks of this setup are that its MUCH larger and heavier than the pod mod that I started out with and the only way to get new energy into the mod is swap batteries. Last and importantly (for those that like to use coil wrecking flavors) is that the only way to service the coil is complete disassembly of the entire tank to gain access to the coil. (not much of a worry when vaping pure unflavored juice).

This is the setup I've been using while enjoying my morning cup of coffee though. Just all part of a evolution.  

So I have been vaping for a few months now. I started with the ego type battery starter kit bought from a brick and mortar ( you all know the deal, littile carrying case, 650mah battery, junk clearomizer, and bottle of funky juice). I knew after a week I would not stop smoking with that alone. I then went and bought the Vision Spinner 2 and a Protank mini 3. I was feeling quite happy with this setup and went from a pack a day down to 4-6 analogs. I was even feeling better health wise. I soon discovered the vast world of vaping and "needed" the iStick mod. I bought that and threw the Protank mini 3 on it and life was good. I had no problems with my iStick and it was a huge step up from what I was using prior. It "satified" my need of "smoking". Everything was going well untill one day I busted the glass on the tank. I was not gonna let that get me down though. My vaping buddy gave me a some sort of knockoff topper that used the aspire coils ( I beleive it was a Nautilus mini clone of some sort, branded with the local shops name ). Still it fed my habit well. Now let me say I live in a small town and there is 2 brick and mortar shops. I usally would buy my coils from them and a bottle of liquid every now and then but.....I bought my iStick online. Fast forward a couple months now and I live with 2 roommates (one is a total jerk, and the other is a party machine. We all are in our mid 30's). Well recently I get off work and come home to a "party" on a tuesday night (like usual). Now remember I live in a small town and everyone vaping is using the ego type with plastic clearomizer. The brick and mortar shops here selll those and $100 RDA (which only a few friends I know have). Well this particular night my iStick was the talk of the kitchen table. Everyone wanted to try it and push the buttons. "Who can hit it at the higest watt?" type conversations. The night is ending and Im getting ready to go to my room. I set the iStick on its "charger" (just a handmade cutout box I made for it) sitting on the kitchen counter. 8 hours later I hit the BREW button on the coffee maker and reach for the iStick. IT IS FREAKING GONE!!!!!!!!! Now here is the deal. Noone there the night before knew anything about using it or finding the "sweet spot". The thing is that the knock off tank I was using is a 510 thread and I was using the included adapter to ease the wear and tear on the threads. So I am left with a Vision 2 spinner and a tank that just does not fit it. I AM SO ANGRY! I bring it up to my roommate and she is like "no one stole it, you misplaced it". If anyone of you guys and gals are like me, you know where your setup is at all times. So that leaves me with a MARK 3 disposable for now.
Sooooooooo does anyone have a lead on a good deal right now online? I see threre is a 30 watt now available. So if anyone know of a great deal please PM me or reply. I have limited funds right now but do not want to go back to Parliment analogs. Thanks for looking and letting me vent.  

Hey everyone, I just wanted to post my setup here, nothing to fancy so just take a quick look and feel free to leave a comment or reply.

To kick things off I've got a Seeker Mech Mod by EHPRO. It's a sleek design, all copper, and easy to press button. Little short and thick for those of us who like our setups to look beefy.

Atty- The Tobh Atty. It is a pain in the butt to take apart from the get go but once you get a bit of juice on all the O rings it comes apart fairly easy. Good deck to build on all pre-drilled holes on the three posts 1(+) and 2(-) (Obviously). Deep basin to hold plenty of juice for our drip and drivers safety. My current build is a dual single coil coming in at 0.28 ohms. Using a regular cotton wick.

Juice- "Bliss" made by The Artisan Vapor 100%VG This juice is an explosive flavor of fruits, and for being 100%VG it has a heavy flavor. 39ml bottle runs at 20$ not to bad for a good juice. When I drip with a full basin it lasts roughly an hour, and I heavily use my vape.

Battery- This thing is one of the best right now but I'm still limited on what builds I can do. My 0.28 is safe, however my 0.22 is unsafe (Go figure) ANYWAYS! (Specs) MNKE IMR-26650 3.7(low) 4.2(High) 3500mAh.

So I think that's all. Thanks for reading guess, and questions or comments just drop it down below. Goodbye and VAPE ON!
 

I make the choice that I'm certain I'll be vaping forever. I figured since I enjoy it, I'm gonna learn everything I want to know and make it a hobby.
Me being a perfectionist, I decided it was time to piece together a setup that was not only powerful, but pleasing to the eyes.
After much consideration, I made the choice to not go sub ohm. I instead decided a higher power, higher ohm setup would please me.
So this is what I ended up with.
Aspire CF VV 1600MAH battery. Instead of rocking a VV+ most people use, I went the route I did to get 600 more MAH battery and didn't care about the beauty ring because after all, my Aspire K1 tank is a backup now and can't be used with the VV+
The tank had to be good too. This was where I wanted to upgrade the most. I wanted adjustable airflow, and better coils.
The Nautilus Mini was the only clear choice. 2ml is fine for me as I switch flavors now and then, and the new redesigned OCC coils you can purchase was a selling point.
I've been using the setup since last night, and WOW!!! This tank brings the flavor through in ways I never thought possible. Also, the vapor production is amazing to me. I don't care about cloud chasing so by my standards this is a fog machine at higher voltage lol.
Overall with 5 additional spare coils I'm about 65$ in this setup and that's a bargain. It performs so well.
Also wanna throw out that GWAR Spew from MBV is friggin amazing in this tank!!!!  

Greetings, while looking through my photo archive I found images that help show my beginning steps in vaping. I need to point out that during the work day I use losenges that I get from Costco so only smoked in the mornings before work and the afternoons after work.

Here's the first one taken July 6th 2015:


In March/April of 2015 the other half started complaining about my cigarette smoke. She had a eye issue that she found was sensitive to the smoke when returning from visiting her daughter. (she would get used to it but would complain when he first got back)

Looking to solve the problem possibly with Vaping, I picked up a Blue kit and some extra cartridges from (of all places Costco). It was not all that expensive and the batteries (or cartridges) did not last very long or put out much vapor. They did have a "coffee" flavor I did like. I continued smoking.

Next time she left for a few days with her daughter I dropped by a local vape shop and for ~$75-100 (I forget) they set me up with a iTaste CLK!, Aspire K1 (and Maxi) and 15ml of 18mg Strawberry juice. While it took 3 days to get used to the charging/refilling/exc of the setup I quit smoking with this setup. The 1.5ml tank and mere 800mah battery were the main limitations as well as "glassomizers" really did not put out much vapor.

With in a few days I'd upgrade the tank to a Nautilus mini and shortly afterwards I'd get Full sized Nautilus tanks and the Blue tube mod shown in the center. While this mod was a good match to the Nautilus tank, I grew tired of swapping 18350's so bought the other two tube mods to the right. One could take ether 2x18350's stacked or a 18650 and the Vamo v10 on the right could take a stacked set of 18350's.

By July of that year I had given up on "drop in coil" tanks (the store bought juice I was using was killing them in as little as a few days) and had decided to take the plunge into RTA's and into temperature controlled vaping.


At the time the two leaders in TC vaping was DNA and Yihi. I bought a SXMini ($200) and three different popular (at the time) tanks: Atlantis, SubtankMini and Lemo2. Two of the three could be used with factory coils or a RBA head, the Lemo2 had the unique feature of top fill. (I still use a Lemo2 today!)

Back in those days if you wanted to TC, you were going to do it with Ni200 wire. I decided I liked the 28AWG. A few weeks later I had added two more mods:


By this point in my vaping journey I was developing a few habits: I was 'marrying' a flavor with a tank, a tank with a mod and all battery charging was being done via USB port. I just cycled complete setups on two USB charge cords I had. Others liked complaining about the SXMini's battery door but I had no issue with it as I'd only used it once.

Sometime that summer (or was it fall?) I got tired of paying the outlandish juice prices and decided to make my own. Granted for YEARS I simply made 7mg or 18mg unflavored 100% VG juice but the cost savings allowed me to get dozens of different tanks and mods to play with and try out.

By April 2016 I took this image:


TC vaping had evolved from from Ni200 wire to Ti to NiFe48 and SS. Early TC mods only supported Ni200 (and some Ti) and newer ones supported SS. Mods I've bought had to have a user programmable TCR value. I've been exclusively using NiFe48 for years.

Finally by about 2019 I decided to get into vaping flavors. Knowing that RDA's or Squankers give the best flavor, I outfitted myself (Bullcity flavors) with a bunch of squankers and now have the option of vaping flavors. (many of my squankers are in my profile image)

NOTE: only one mod in the images I've shown is dead and no longer able to be in service.

These days I have mods scattered all over the house but in/for 5 main areas: morning coffee, home office, watching tv, night stand and to take with me in the car/truck.

Thats my story and journey - happy vaping!


g.