Help An Old Vaper Find A Simple Kit For A Friend

Hello everyone!

I have been an happy vaper now for 5 years. Like most of the old beginners I started with cartridges, blue foam, cartomizer and so on. Currently I am using Kanger tanks, T3, Evod 2, MiniProtank and Aspire ET-S BVC, with Vision Spinner VV but I am looking for an upgrade.
I am not looking for an RDA, nor big battery and definitively not sub-ohms. I'm looking more for a glass tank, adjustable airflow, large capacity, and the ability to see the liquid.
Thank you you all so much for any advice, and happy vaping!  

Posting here because that's normally where I have. I was at a point where I was going to dive into DIY. I don't vape the sweet stuff but was ready to make the plunge into mixing. But I've seen posts from members here who said they vape unflavored juice so I thought I might give it a shot...thank you sooo much! This is it for me! Sorry but I can't remember who you are however I'm grateful for the info provided. It was as one poster mentioned...a true cig feel..for me also.
I'm gonna hunt for a local vaper who might need some flavors...donated . My flavors aren't extensive as many since I was a tobacco flavored vaper. I must mention as a never before mixer I did order flavors that were probably way outside my preferred tobacco flavors..area code 70726.  

Since I do all my vaping shopping online and will soon not be able to get eliquid containing nicotine by mail in the US, can one buy liquid nicotine now, store it and add it to pre made liquid? I know that I would have to probably use one of the apps out there to figure out how much to add to 30 or 60 mg of liquid to obtain a 3 mg amount. I don't even know if this is possible. I don't want to go the route of making my own since I have certain flavors I like from a couple of vendors and can probably not match these flavors doing it myself.
I have been vaping for 6 years now and am afraid that I will be forced back to smoking cigarettes when I run out of my current supply.  

hey guys.
i had a friend ask me to take her to a vape shop tomorrow to her set up with something thrifty. at first i thought of suggesting the istick but after seeing the issues on reddit and multiple vape forums i can't in good conscience recommend it to her. the b&m i'm taking her to has most of the trendy devices, but i am a vape dinosaur and i'm behind current trends.
she is a nonsmoker and is looking for something to tinker with. it's not like she needs something super fancy to keep her off smokes, but something reliable and easy would be best.
what would you guys suggest checking out, both device and atomizer? i'm pretty sure i don't want to take her down the high wattage low ohm road.

thanks!  

So why don't some of us old-timers reminisce a little bit about how it used to be....

--I remember when new members would be struggling constantly trying to find the path to a satisfying vape
--I remember when the 510 came on the scene, with a somewhat lower resistance atomizer, and new vapers started having increased success
--I remember when 510 cartridge mods were all the rage, as folks kept trying to find a good way to continue getting those consistently good vapes
--I remember when the KR808D came on the scene, and cartomizers started pushing new vaper success rates even higher
--I remember the ensuing 510 vs KR808D wars
--I remember the Boge Cartomizers for the 510 models that may well have turned the tide towards 510 models
--I remember when low-resistance (LR) atomizers came on the scene and the ability to vary your "power" became a reality
--I remember the FDA court case, and the formation of CASAA from members on this very forum
--I remember when CASAA started working closely with long-time harm-reduction advocates, thus giving long-time THR advocates new life and consumer backing
--I remember when the Chuck came out with custom graphics
--I remember the Chuck vs Silver Bullet wars
--I remember when the Reo Mods came out, and took dripping to a whole new level
--I remember when Egos came out and new vaper success started to skyrocket
--I remember the Buzz, which if I remember correctly, started the variable voltage revolution
--I remember when the Provari came out and started the variable voltage wars
--I remember when the Nhaler came out with the Darwin and started the variable wattage vs variable voltage wars

And I look at that the New Members sub-forum these days, and find very few struggling at first vape anymore.
Success, now, is nearly guaranteed.

That's progress.



What do you all remember?  

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.  

I've been trying to get my dad to quit smoking for two years now. He wanted to quit using an e-cig. However, he just can't seem to stick with it. He has been smoking for 30+ years. He smokes almost two packs a day.

I think the problem really is that he hasn't -tried-. As soon as he wants a real smoke, he lights one up. He only uses his e-cig is places he can't smoke.

He says he wants something that taste like tobacco. I've tried buying him numerous tobacco e-liquids. The closest was one from Ahlusion, but he still says it isn't like tobacco. He keeps saying he'll quit, but then he doesn't.

He has an ego with a mini protank, he seems fine with that. He isn't very amused by my mech mods and RTAs. lol.

I'm just lost as to what to do. A lot of people say to just stop telling him to do so and let him do it on his own. It is hard to just sit and watch him smoke though, esp when my mom had lung cancer just over a year ago (luckily, she did quit smoking with an e-cig and went into remission after radiation treatment). When I switched, I had only just started to smoke again (I smoked 3 years, quit, then started smoking again for about 4 months, then to an e-cig). I didn't like tobacco flavors when I started and almost immediately went to fruit flavors. He's tried those too, doesn't have much interest in them.

So my question to you ex long term smokers, what helped you make the switch? I feel like I just can't relate to smoking 30 something years.  

I began vaping in 2013. It was a basic setup: Ego Twist with a couple of Vivi Nova tanks.
It took some trial and error but found a couple of juices that I liked and stuck with them. Started
at 18 mg and settled on 12 mg nicotine level. The Ego was nothing special, but it seemed to work well at the time as I quit smoking for an entire year with it. As time wore on, I began getting to get more and more burnt / dry hits. Seemed to be happening all the time. Went through countless coils and it became such an issue that I finally got tired of messing with it and quit vaping. Went back to cigarettes. Looking back, I believe I was using a High VG or possibly Max VG liquid which may have been the cause. Desperate to get off cigarettes again I tried again last year. Bought several starter kits including Innokin IO and Innokin Endura T22. Did not like either of these. Just seemed to give me a headache even after just a couple of puffs. I tried both with 12mg and 6mg. Did not notice much of a difference. I just did not get the satisfaction I remember from years earlier. So gave up on vaping again and went back to analogs.

It is now 2019 and I am really sick and tired of smoking cigarettes. I hate them but can’t stop.
Along comes the JUUL, I decided to give it a shot and just figured it would not work.
At first I did not like it. Seemed WAY to strong at 5%. Stuck with it for a week and thought - hey this is not bad. Mainly was using Virginia and every once in a while a Mango pod was nice (Maybe ½ to 1 full pod a day). I was still smoking a couple of cigs in the morning but after that I would use the JUUL the rest of the day. It was by no means great but good enough. I would constantly struggle to get a decent hit off of it though. There always seemed to be air bubbles in the pods causing a problem or I had to pull the pod out and put it back in just to get it to hit decently. Like I said just good enough. After about 6 months or I started have stomach issues. Mainly really bad gas and thought it might be due to the higher nic level in the 5% pods. So I dropped down to 3% for a month or so and noticed no difference. Finally decided to quit the JUUL altogether to see if it made any difference. Within a week everything went away and was back to normal. No more JULL for me. I am guessing something in the Nicsalts didn’t agree with me. I never had this issue with freebase nicotine.

So, am now looking for a device to replace the JULL that does not use nicsalts and was hoping to get some recommendations. I do not need a big mod device to blow clouds or anything like that.
I want something very simple that hits well and does not burn. I am open to anything really as long as it works. I do prefer MTL style and have heard good things about the Joyetech AIO as well as the SMOK infinix devices. I am really open to anything that will work well. Prefer something small, easy to use and that fits in my pocket. Also, I prefer tobacco flavors and am planning to try out the Blacknote stuff which is a 50/50 PG/VG mix so looking for a device suited to that. Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks!  

I've given her some of the best of the best gear, a ton of DIY juice in just about every flavor of the rainbow and every nic level imaginable and she still won't give up the stinkies!

She seems to enjoy the flavors and enjoys vaping, she just continues to smoke as well.

It was so easy for me to switch to vaping (and that was 6 years ago using stick bats and 510 atties with blue foam after smoking for 30+ years!), why does it seem just not to "take" for some folks??  

I haven't come across any studies or polls that determine how important flavors are/were to help vapers to quit smoking and remain off cigarettes.

This video is a fantastic testimony on how important flavors are in vaping. It's in an MP4 format, so the link looks funny, but its safe to click on. Mark_Slis-Michigan_Testimony-2019-09-12.mp4

He shares that 99% of his customers choose a fruit or desert flavor. An 87 year old grandmother chose "Fruity COPYRIGHTDMCA Cereal". Yes, older people like flavors and demand "kid flavors".

Why You Don't Need an E-Liquid that Tastes Like Cigarettes

So I'm asking everyone in this community to voice their opinion on how important flavors were to get you off of cigarettes when you began vaping, and how important are they to you today to keep you from returning back to smoking? Will you be able to use just "tobacco" flavors if the FDA bans flavors?




Sign the Petition