8 Year Vaperversary Today 3/28/21

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!!  

I started vaping ages ago back in 2007 or thereabouts.
The only ecigs available then were either 510 or older type 801 atomizers.
We then bought the chucks and vaped on 6 volts with 5 ohm atomizers for a while. (Custom made Vivi Nova 5 ohm coils)
This "while" lasted for years, and I am a little "out of the loop".
I recently bought an IPV mini 70 watts with a few subohm tanks (Kanger, Artic, Herakles etc, 0.5~1.2 OHMS).
The internet is riddled with videos of guys blowing huge clouds of vapor with these sub ohm systems. This intrigued me.
What they do not tell you, is that it is impossible to take a mouth to lung puff, because these tanks afford too much airflow.
Personally, I feel very uneasy breathing anything directly into my lungs. My older 801 and 510 atomizers sometimes spurted out liquid.
I would like your thoughts on this one?

I find that a mouth puff gives you more taste. It's sort of wasted if it goes directly into the lungs.
Another thing I discovered is that these sub-ohm tanks vape much hotter than my previous e cigs. I cannot get a cool/cold vape no matter what wattage I use.

Thirdly, The kanger sub ohm mini coil crackles loudly, sort of Pops loudly from time to time. This greatly annoys me and adds to my lung inhale paranoia.
I'm a little stuck at the moment, and do not know what ecig/tank/coil system to transition to.
 

I've really been trying to get on this gaping train. I smoke less than a pack a day and have bought the eleaf mini along with the gs16s tank specifically for the mini. I have bought several juices from Vape Wild ITCVAPES Mt Baker Vapor and from my local smoke shops. I recently upgraded to the istick 30w and have kept my eleaf gs16s tank and I'm using it on the 30w. My problem is every time I attempt to vape for the day I wind up weepy coughing up phlegm and heavy chest. I don't understand it. I've done 50/50 juice higher pg juice higher vg juice 100% vg juice...what am I doing wrong?? Anyone with advice please help as I sincerely would like to put down the cancer sticks.  

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.  

I had quit, FINALLY, after 15 years of a pack or more a day smoking. What an accomplishment! Something i would be proud of for an entire year. The benefits I had seen were amazing! I could HIKE again, 3000ft elevation gain in 3 miles! Wow! Something i had not done since i was 13. Well, there I was... Camping with some friends.

I knew I should have brought my backups, I KNEW IT! All i had was two 18650's, my mini mech which took 1 and an RDA... It was only a matter of time before something went wrong. I did not bring the tools to rebuild the atomizer. I had no charger for my batteries- and we would be here for a week. What the hell was I thinking?

The trip was a blast, we did a TON of fishing, nights were spent with our group of party-goers by the campfire. We drank ALOT and we shared our stories.. In the back of my mind, i knew... I was going to be without nicotine at some point in this trip. WHY, Why did i not come prepared. Something SO IMPORTANT to me and i did not bring what i needed.

Then it happened. I was on my second battery- three days into the trip. The vape was becoming very weak, I was almost done. I fought hard to conserve, only vaping a puff or two every hour or so. I still needed SOME nicotine. It was about 8PM, time for another puff... Only.. Nothing. "OK" i said. "I can still do this, I dont need it". It had been an hour since my last puff and honestly, I did need it.

9 O'clock rolled around, we were hanging out around the fire drinking... everyone was smoking and I had nothing to occupy my hands. I was desperate. "I can go lay down, maybe if I go to sleep, wake up early and pack up- I can make it home and this will all be over". I laid down... Restless. The next thirty minutes felt like 10 hours, I did NEED it.

I will just go hang out some more, forget about it. I climbed out of the tent and rejoined the group around 10, seems like no one was tired. I knew i couldn't sleep. The alcohol was starting to loosen my grasp on priorities... Ok, just one drag, something to get me by. I looked at my buddy smoking and decided I would ask.. "hey man, let me hit your cig". Huge mistake! "Here, just have one" he said. Ok, what harm would a couple drags do? I lit the cig, inhaled deeply and noticed a few things.

The first drag was very weird. It tasted very bad, completely like chemicals. It was so satisfying though! I smoked that cigarette and enjoyed it, every moment. The campground we were at had a store that was open until 11, and guess what.. I needed nicotine. They sold cigs. The rest was history. I regretted that to this day. I had messed up, so bad. I had so much under my belt, so much accomplished- i was a loser that day.

Its been 5 years since then. My lungs have gotten so bad. I smoked 2 packs a day, marb 100's. I cough in my sleep and when i wake up. I vomit sometimes from how bad it is. Sometimes, i have a hard time breathing- something new and unfamiliar... I know why though. These past 6 months have been bad. It was time to make a change.

I proposed something to my wife; who does not smoke and never has. She loves sugar, if she could quit that... something i did 7 years ago... Then i would quit smoking. DEAL! She was onboard. Two weeks have passed, she has quit sweet creamer in her coffe, candy, chocolate, sweet tea, everything. She did it. Ok, My turn.

I went out tonight about 6 hours ago and bought a new vape. I have not smoked since i bought it! I can do this, I know I can! She is already proud of me, and I am too. Its time to quit once and for all, and I know i can do this... Here's to believing!  

So today I bought a pack of cigarettes . I havent smoked in a long time and i feel like vaping has turned me into a complete nicotine addict and this is why I bough the pack , I wanted to test myself since I know how much I use to smoke . Ever since I started vaping I have been increasing strenght and quantity of juice per day and I vape a lot , some days , I would vape between 10 - 15 ML of 6mg juice and absorb another ML though my skin while building . I smoked my first cigarette in almost a year and I finished it and guess what after that I wanted another one but I didnt take it .

Well before I started vaping I was smoking one cig every 2-3 hours and now I want way more . I am honestly considering quiting vaping and smoking all together , maybe 1 cig day , that would be it . Or maybe I should switch to non rebuiuldable tanks and stop making my own juice because I honestly feel like DYI and rebuildables is what made me vape more , trying different build on different attomizers , trying my new DYI e-liquids , trying other e-liquids that I bought , trying this , trying that , and at the end of the day 20ML of juice gone .

What would you recommend me ?  

This past week marks 5 years since I smoked a cigarette. It honestly doesn't seem that long, it seems like yesterday I was huddled out in the cold at work with the smokers. I had been a smoker for 28 years.

Unlike many I see posting here, I cannot say vaping helped me quit. I quit cold turkey, and never tried an ecig until about a year after I quit smoking. At that point I was still doing well as a non-smoker, I didn't physically crave smoking, but I missed the 28 year habit of lighting up, having something to fiddle with, and just the relaxing feeling of the inhale/exhale. I had been eating a lot more to make up for the void, and having been underweight all my life I started packing on pounds (too many!). I sorely needed a non-food substitute for the comfort I was missing, but wasn't about to go back to smoking.

I tried a junky convenience store ecig after that first year, and thought "if this was what they were like than forget it". I continued on not smoking, but still missing the habit. About two years after that I began seeing the new advanced products coming out, and did a lot of research. I bought my first starter kit in 2013, and slowly advanced up to bigger and better gear.

People ask why would start vaping after I had already kicked the cigarette habit, and I say, "Why not?". Other than nicotine I'm not getting any of the negative things I got with cigarettes. And in my opinion, there's really nothing wrong with a little nicotine. Nicotine is not what was killing me, it was the smoke that was delivering the nicotine that was killing me.

So I'm 5 years smoke free, I no longer hack in the mornings, my chest never hurts and my clothes, car and hair don't stink anymore.
I have no intentions on giving up vaping, as it has no negative impact on my life, and i enjoy it, so why stop?

I have since gotten my son, my step-son, and his wife to all trade vaping for smoking, so bonus points for saving all their lives too!  

November 20th, 2013, I walked into a vape shop and left with a Vision Spinner 1300, a Protank 2 and a bottle of 24mg juice, and haven't touched a cigarette since! Seven years today!  

Posting a picture of my set up for today got me thinking as it featured my oldest original well used, worn, scratched and faded iStick 30w which has served me so well and has far outlived its projected lifespan.


A lot changed for me back in October 2015 - my grown up daughter and her husband had switched to vaping as they couldn’t smoke even in the grounds at work and had taken to vaping.

They liked it and gave me an e-pipe, tobacco flavoured vape liquids, a couple of 18350 batteries for it and a Nitecore Charger.


I thanked them, said I’d give it a try - with my fingers crossed and the thought in my mind, “Aye that’ll be right, I’ll stick it in the drawer and phone you in a few weeks saying it broke and I’m really sad about it.”


A week later my conscience got the better of me and I tried it on a Friday morning ( the 17th of October ), was amazed that I got through a day on it without a craving, thought I’d try it over the weekend, did, and have never smoked in the four years plus since. Amazing since I had smoked for more than 50 years previous to that.


I took the e-pipe to Spain with me for the Winter and while there bought a couple of the old style Ego batteries and plastic tanks with their trailing glass fiber wicks “just in case.”


The 18350s need constant charging, the juice soon destroyed the threads of the pipe’s plastic tank and the back up devices gurgled badly and so I went down to Fuengirola where there was a big vape shop and asked could they recommend a better tank - they suggested a Nautilus Mini and when I asked about a battery for it ( I didn’t know they were actually called “Mods” then) they gave me an iStick 30w … and the rest is history.


I joined this Forum about five weeks after I switched to vaping. In those days MTL was THE thing, the setup I’d bought was “flavour of the month” along with the GS Air Tank and one by Kanger. I learned a lot on ECF in a very short time, and I’ll always be grateful for that.


I tend to be a bit of a stick in the mud when I find something I like and my motto tends to be “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!” I’ve experimented with mechs, squonkers, drippers, and coil building over the years but always come back to my old faithful Nautis and iSticks - simply because for me they work and they work well.


Having found kits that worked, I dropped out of the Forum for a few years until in Spain over the Winter gone I thought my Nautis were failing me or giving up the ghost ( in actual fact as I discovered when I got back to the UK I had had a batch of really really bad coils ) and started reading ECF again and found that the new best thing for MTL was the Zenith, so I gave it a whirl.


I was slow to take to the Zenith I have to admit - while it made my batteries last longer for some reason and was super easy to refill on the go, at first it vaped too dry for me, seemed too airy and the drip tip didn’t initially suit me at all but I persevered with it ( them) and now keep a set of seven for use outdoors or for when travelling or for when I simply feel like a change.


Here’s the Old Soldier!


Anyone else still using old kit?


 

It's been two months today since I stubbed out my last analogue cigarette and totally switched to vaping. You can say I quit cold turkey. I have had a couple of puffs here and there to see whether I really was missing something and convinced myself I absolutely did not. Today I can't understand how I spent 45 years of my life consuming such horrible, stinky stuff.

Have I saved money? No, not at all. It will be a year at least before I get into the black, and that is if I stop buying anything, which is very unlikely. It's become a hobby now and I'm enjoying myself thoroughly.

Has my life improved? Immensely! I had reached a point where the least little head cold turned into bronchitis almost instantly. I had four bouts of bronchitis this last autumn and winter. Since I switched to vaping I did catch another cold but it stayed that way - just a light head cold. For the past couple of years I needed to take an anti-tussive at bedtime because that dry, irritating, smokers cough would not let me sleep at night. No more now... I'm free. But there have been other improvements I never even imagined. I suffer considerably form arthritis. For the past 20 years at least I have had to take painkillers in the morning to ease the stiffness and be able to function... probably because I slept so poorly and tossed and turned all night. No more. I now sleep well, wake up refreshed and almost totally pain free. Apart from the side effects of medication I'm saving money there too even though I am not taking it into account.

And I have learned so much... physics and chemistry - ohms law and coils, resistance and watts and volts and amps, batteries and safety. And proper lab procedure in my DIY juice experiments.

And of course coming to this forum and meeting such a host of lovely, generous and knowledgeable people, to say nothing of the wit and humour.

It's been an epiphany and such a joy! I smile a lot more now.