Wednesday Next Week (may 20) = One Year Off Death Sticks!

I live on the East Coast USA.

Walking down the street, it's hard to notice that vaping is taking off in any meaningful way, because most people that I see still smoke analogs, that includes both young people and older people too. I'm not going to judge them, because it wasn't that long ago that I was still puffing on an analog, and I had failed to see the awesomeness of vaping.

Besides myself, I don't really see too many people vaping outside on sidewalks. I vape outside in the same way that I'd smoke analogs before, so that means practically all of the time, and especially when I'm walking outside. I'm using a thin e-cig, so I don't usually get too many strange looks. I can imagine what kind of looks somebody walking down the sidewalk must get if they're using one of those big, fancy and shiny looking mods to vape with.

Just 6 months ago, there were no vape shops at all in the immediate local area where I live, and now there are 4 that have opened up, all within a very short walking distance of me (10 minutes or less). I'm pretty sure that a lot of non vapers who live here are walking past those stores every day and wondering, what the hell kind of store is that and why are so many of them opening up in this neighborhood?

One of those four stores will probably fail though, because their sign says tobacco/vape store, while the other 3 are dedicated to vaping only. A store can't be both in my opinion. That's a bit of a contradiction and a stupid combination to put it bluntly.

I've been to a couple of the vape stores so far, and in the short time that I was in those stores there were always new customers there who were smokers who were looking to start vaping.

So while I might not notice how popular vaping is by walking on the sidewalks, I think that it's safe to say that vaping is taking off big time with so many small vape shops opening up, and the amount of people vaping will only increase, because there's still a lot of smelly smokers out there who haven't yet given up on their cancer sticks.

And if this is happening where I live, then I bet that similar things are happening all across the country. Every small town should have at least one dedicated vape shop! I like the quick and easy access to all sorts of liquids and brands.

Just today, I was reading online about some premium liquids, and instead of ordering it online (I didn't want to wait), I had acquired a bottle of that exact liquid five minutes later, after sampling it quickly, and I was already at home and vaping it 10 minutes later.  

its been a year since i had a allergic reaction to a juice (banana suicide) and i haven't been able to vape... i just choked...and i had to resort back to smoking... i know .. i know... and ive had a sinus cold the last few days so i went to the local vape shop bought a small bottle of juice since i didn't want to smoke while sick and tried it..yesterday....and what do you know...... IM SO EXCITED i can vape!!  

Hey guys,

I’m new to vaping. I have been a heavy 2 pack a day Marlboro light smoker for 20 years. I recently got into vaping and so far it has been an amazing journey!

I started with a small pod device (Caliburn) with 16MG nic salt. I found that I was still not able to quit smoking. I went back to my local Vape shop and got some 20mg nic salt juice, and that was too strong! It made me dizzy and confused and I just felt unwell. Even though @20mg I was getting a lot of nicotine I still wanted to smoke a cigarette.

On a whim I decided to give sub ohm vaping a try. I got myself a Lost Vape Thelema DNA 250c + a Freemax Mesh Pro 2 tank. I opted with 6MG freebase juice at 70/30. And sure enough it worked! I was able to quit smoking and have been smoke free for a week now!

My question though, is 6MG freebase nic @0.2 ohms (dual mesh), 70-80 watts too much? I feel fine for the most part and my cravings for cigarettes are under control. However from what I’ve read (and what the guy at my local Vape shop says) is that for sub ohm vaping you generally should stick to about 3mg of nicotine.

I know everyone is different, and you should do what works for you. But I’m just worried that with the large amount of Vapor I’m producing 6MG might just be a little risky.

I Vape quite a lot (200-250 puffs a day) and probably somewhere around 15-20ml of juice a day (at 0.2 ohms @ 70w the juice burns pretty quick). As mentioned above I generally feel fine. However sometimes I do feel a bit out of breath and like my chest is heavy. This could be gas (perhaps from inhaling so much air?). Or it could just be me adjusting from cigarettes to vaping. I don’t feel nauseous or have headaches.

Please let me know your opinions. Would really appreciate some advice from more experienced vapers!

Thanks!  

I was out of town visiting a friend who, like me, owns the provari P3. We were talking about the update they recently came out with for the P3 and was discussing perhaps sending them back to Provape for it.

He had a local shop nearby that was listed as a provari dealer. We gave them a call asking if they could download the update for us. They told us the guy who could do it would be in later the very same day.

We decided to go over and check them out, all the while keeping our expectations low.

We're two older guys, a little rough around the edges, weather beaten if you will. We walked into a store that was packed with vapers of various ages, and I do mean packed to the hilt.

I figured this will be a long wait if we get helped at all. They had a small group of people playing a video game on a large screen TV, vape was heavy in the air.... but I felt at home.

Within seconds of walking in the door we had an associate come to us. We told him what we were there for and he directed us to a guy in the back, who was talking with other customers. As soon as we approached he stopped talking and asked us if we needed help. We asked about the update, and he apologized saying he left the software at home, however, if we didn't mind waiting he could download it to his laptop within 10 minutes.

No prob.

Less than 20 minutes later we had our mods back in our hands with latest bells and whistles. We asked the guy how much, and he shook our hand and said, "have a nice day!".

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. So my friend and I bought $75 worth or juice instead.

My only issue with the place is I wish they were closer.

Skeebo  

Hey guys, I'm sure this topic pops up quite often round these parts but since everyone's a little different I thought I'd make my own thread

I, myself, have been vaping for 2 years now and I absolutely love it. I'm 26 and I smoked for about 7 years at around 15 cigarettes a day, and then spent about a year and a half transitioning exclusively to vaping. I'm now happy to say I've been smoke free for nearly 6 months thanks to my vape

My aunt has been a smoker for much much longer than I was, around 25 years I believe, and she goes through more than a pack a day (possibly 2). I'm going to visit her in a couple days and I plan on bringing all my old vape hardware for her to check out, and we're gonna hit a b&m as well. Since this forum has done a great deal to help me in so many aspects of vaping, I was hoping you could help me to help her by answering some questions, giving some of your opinions, etc. In framing your answers, it might be important to know that as of now she's pretty lukewarm to the idea. She doesn't reject and is willing to try it, but she's skeptical it'll work for her.

First: from someone who's done this with a serious heavy smoker before preferably, what's the best way to go about this in your opinion? What worked for you? The last thing I would wanna do is overwhelm or do something that turned her off to the possibility of vaping.

Second: what is the comparison of cigarettes to ejuice. Everyone who doesn't know much about vaping seems to want to know: how much ejuice equals one cigarette/one pack/etc. At this point I don't care much, and I never really did, I found something that works for me and that's what matters. But I'm sure she'll want to know. So lets say, for this questions purposes, around how many cigarettes would a 15ml, 6mg bottle of juice equate to?

Third: do you think it's worth investing in a set up more advanced than a basic ego twist/cartomizer initially with the thought that something higher quality might have a better chance to work long term for her? I'm thinking something like an istick/atlantis set up might be a good way to go since they're so popular and replacement atomizers will be easy to pick up online or in a store.

Fourth: I live in southern California, but my aunt is in Leander, Texas, which is around an hour drive from Austin. Can anyone suggest a quality b&m that we can go check out? I've been to enough b&ms myself to know if it's a quality shop or not, and I'd feel much better about her chance to succeed with vaping if I found a nice shop with great customer service to leave her with. we'll likely go into Austin while I'm there and it'd be fun to check out some shops there so feel free to suggest Austin shops (in sure there's a lot) but that would be a mission for her on a regular basis. Something in Leander that she can frequent would be best.

I know this is horribly long so thank you to anyone who reads it all and replies to help me out with any part of this. I love my aunt very much and I know her want to quit is there. She just needs to find something that'll work and I really hope it can be vaping. Thank you again.  

I haven't had a cigar for a year and a half, but due to not being diligent in watching an auto re-enroll in my favorite cigar club I was still paying 250.00 a year for the club. Since I still had fond memories of the place, and a lot of business acquaintances still there I thought I would stop by and maybe indulge in a nice stick (they have a lovely walk-in humidor there). It had been so long I didn't really know what to expect, except I had a lot of really good times there and was looking forward to reconnecting with old friends and having a really good cigar.

I got there about 5:30 and there was the typical blue haze and the aroma of premium cigars, leather chairs, and premium liquors, just like I remembered. Trouble is, I really didn't appreciate the smell of cigars like I did in years past. In fact, it was a bit nauseous. But a few of the old crew (business associates and friends) were there and it was great to see them again. I took a look inside the humidor to pick out a nice stogie but TBH just wasn't enthused with the smell of the sticks the way I used to be. I decided I really didn't want one and returned to the lounge and pulled out my iStick 50 and Atlantis and sat down with some friends. In the middle of a conversation about local business trends I was interrupted by the hostess and told vaping wasn't allowed there. Seriously?? I paid a lot of money for the privilege of sitting in a nice leather seat and smoking whatever I felt like. I told her that I intended, as a member, to smoke (I didn't use the word vape because I figured that would have confused the poor girl) what I liked in a club I had paid my yearly dues for. So she quickly left and I got back to my friends that had lots of questions about my iStick.

About 10 minutes later the young lady had returned and handed me a check for 250.00 saying the owner had refunded my membership fees and suggested I find a suitable club for vaping. WoW! So ok, I left and set a meet with my friends there at a local restaurant and we had a nice dinner and talked vaping stuff, after which I took them to a local shop so they could buy similar rigs to my vaping rig.

This happened about a month ago and of the 5 friends I met with for dinner and took to the vape shop afterwards, 4 have stopped smoking cigars and now vape only and love it. But none of them got a refund check for their yearly dues to the cigar club like I did. So at this point, I'm feeling like the lucky one.

Strange times to be a vaper I guess... even the smokers hate us.  

I've been vaping with v4l and v2 e-cigs for a couple years mostly the ego style ones. I love messing with all the technology I have and I'm very hands on so I figured I'd stop limiting myself. I bought a Sigelei 100w Plus, Kanger Sub Tank Mini, and a Mutation X V3 RDA.

WOW

I feel stupid for not doing this earlier. I've been vaping 12mg for a couple months now, but bought 6mg for the Sub Tank and RDA and that is even too strong! I diluted it with 100% PG to make it 3mg and it is much better. I couldn't be happier. No dry hits.. no leaking... all the problems I've dealt with over the past couple years are gone and I'm experiencing vaping like never before.

Success!!

Plus I finally convinced my GF to start vaping on New Years Eve and she hasn't looked back. She's using the V2 Pro Series 3 which she loves and we even found some really good house made flavors at a local vaping shop that we really liked. She got cotton candy and I got cigar. I didn't think a vape shop would have juice that good and they even made it fresh right in front of us. To my surprise no steeping required!

Alright I'm rambling. I will leave you with this pic.. and to all you musicians out there that is a ART Pro MPA II preamp with genuine Telefunken tubes from the 60's.

20150316_191947 by joshfiricano, on Flickr  

I opened up my vape shop a year ago, and since then I've made friends with other vape shop owners in the area. I'm in my early 30s, I worked two jobs for years to save up enough money to start a business. I also have loans. My friends in the business are in the same spot. Are we just supposed to file for bankruptcy and end up broke and homeless? I don't have anything at all to fall back on. And let me guess, nobody at all is going to reimburse us for completely losing our livelihoods. The kicker is, I've never sold to a minor, nor have I ever sold any tainted BS THC carts.  

There are so many vape shops in my immediate area now that I can't even keep track of them all.

Even though I still qualify as a newbie vaper, since I've only been vaping for a few months, I now know enough about vaping to know a terrible vape store when I see one.

I was in a vape shop some weeks ago, and what I witnessed shocked me.

This vape store sold the typical premium juices and brands that you'll find everywhere and they also sold some hardware, like clones and mods.

They also had their own brand of cheap, in house juice which they sold and which they would also give out to customers as part of their rewards system, where customers who earn enough points will get a small, free bottle of juice.

While I was in the store looking around, another customer was there and they were getting a free bottle of that in house juice, and they were sampling different flavors, to see which one they wanted.

The sales person asked the customer what nicotine level they wanted, and after the customer told them, I saw the sales person walk towards the middle-back of the shop, and in less than 30 seconds, the juice was mixed and ready to go. The sales person was just eye balling the nicotine content! And it was being mixed right there in the open, in the middle of the shop!

I don't need to be an advanced vaper to know that this is not good at all, and I am shocked that somebody with such bad knowledge would even dare to open their own vape store. Needless to say, a vape store like that probably won't stay in business for long, when there are so many other better options around, with more knowledgeable people working in them.  

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!


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