I Was Feeling "retro" Today

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.  

okay so don't laugh but this is really an amazing vaping experience/setup for me! I have two batteries and a dual 18650 charger, so I never have to charge onboard nor do I find myself with no power since I always have at least one charging. I love the simplicity of the cloupor mini 30w. Between the magnetic battery door, simplistic screen/button setup, and the overall minuscule appearance of it, I think she's beautiful! The arctic tank however, I've had a could problems, but not too bad (Yes, I did allow my atomizer head to soak for a full 24 hours in juice.) Before I get into that tanks problems though, I'd like to also include that I've been getting into dripping aswell. I bought a plume veil clone a while ago for around 30$, and i was dumb enough to think that there was no need for a VV mod over $15... therefore I bought an X6 battery (cringe, I know..) and long story short I had a terrible experience. the wire that came with the rda was iffy, and it also came with silica wick; which I hate. I ended up building some kinda ****ed up maelstrom of a build. I used the cotton ends of ear cleaners, the questionable wire that came with the atty, and I ran it all at a mind melting 4.4v. Best part of it is that I had no way to check how many ohms I was pushin out. Anyways, I digress. First problem with the Arctic sub ohm tank was the "Check atomizer" deal on my cloupor. The problem was that the connector pin for the mini 30w isn't spring loaded, so I had to whip out the mini screw driver and adjust it. Once that was fixed, the atty was working perfectly!! Except, I was getting a little burnt taste. That's when I've learned that with this tank you have to start at a low wattage and work up to 30 when you're starting vaping for that session. The airflow is good, but I hate airflow; so it's even more splendid that the lowest airflow setting is barely any air at all. Really. It feels like sucking through a brick, and I like it. A ton of flavor, I vape eucalyptus mint flavored juice right now, and I'm loving it. I can't even express to you guys how much I'm loving this thing! Thanks for the advice in telling me to get it!  

Hey guyz,i am planning to buy a mtl setup and was wondering how to decide on good battery as i cant get a good explanation to the terms being used.i plan to vape around 15-25 watt and am looking for a 18650 battery that can last me well.i also saw people saying that sometimes its better to go for more amps than mah.So i was hoping someone can help me understamd as well as decide in some batteries  

Hey guys if i was to use the cloupor mini 30 watt regulated device with an efest imr 18650 35a
battery am i safe? will the cloupor see any overheating of the battery if it were to happen? or will it see if the ohms are too low? the lowest ohms i plan on using is .8 possibly .6 but i just wanted to know how safe is this device? also i am aware of the recall on this i will be doing the "too hot" test on it. thanks for your replys!  

I have a pair of new batteries that are green 18650's that say "Danger: Do not use outside of battery pack." The numbers are very faint but appear to be SE US 1865 UTC6 C6/ G 0964 8812K05P 144. I don't remember when I bought these or where from, but I buy only at reputable batteries sites. Any help would be appreciated. I am afraid to use them.  

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.  

Hello All,

Does anyone know which 18650 battery would last the longest when vaping at 13 watts? I have listed some below but any not listed recommendations are welcome as well.
(PS please don't respond with battery safety information or suggestions for me to look at mooch ratings)
Also, does anyone know if the vendors in the last 3 below links are reliable?

Thanks!

Sanyo NCR18650GA 3500mAh 10A

AW Protected 18650 3400 mAh

Samsung 35E 18650 3500mAh 8A Battery - INR18650-35E

Sony VC7 18650 Unprotected Li-ion Battery

18650 Battery 3500mAh Protected Li-ion 3.7V Rechargeable Orbtronic 10A Dual Protection (Panasonic-Sanyo inside) ORB3500P For High Performance Flashlights  

I've been using only twin-18650 mods for some time, and before the shipping ban came into effect, I bought a backup of my most-used mod (a Geekvape Aegis X), but since the 100W single 21700 / 18650 Voopoo Drag X Plus was only $35, I also picked up one of them as another backup.

I vape exclusively on RDA's, typically with a 3mm dual coil twisted build with 24 or 26 gauge Kanthal or nichrome-80. 5 or 6 wraps with 24 gauge, 6-8 wraps with 26 gauge. I typically vape these between 90 and 110 watts.

I did not expect to get a 'true' 90-100 watts out of the Drag X, so I set a target of around 60 watts. I mounted a 3mm dual coil twisted 28 gauge build with 6 wraps, which on my Aegis X vapes great at 60 watts, and very good at 50 watts. It measures at 0.45 ohms.

But on the Drag at 60 watts, it only vapes at what feels like 30 watts on my Aegis. Setting it higher makes no difference either, it seems to 'top out' at ~30 watts regardless of the setting. 60 watts @ 0.45 ohms is only around 11 amps, so I doubt I'm hitting an amperage limit.

I am using 18650 batteries (VTC5A), and it is about time to replace them, as I am only getting around 70% the battery life as I did when new. I will be picking up some 21700 batteries at the same time, which hopefully help with things on the Voopoo.

Does anybody have any good experiences with ~60 watt builds on a Drag X Plus?  

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.  

So, I'm familiar with battery safety, load, amp max for safe use, etc. I also know about ohms law. I'm on a regulated mod with an archon v2 rda and have just wrapped my 3rd set of coils. Three strands of 28ga. Kanthal. Two coils reads on my mod at .12 ohms. What's a good wattage range? I have a dual battery sigeli mod that goes to 200

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