My New Vape

Back in August of last year I was still smoking tobacco, self loaded cigs with pipe tobacco that I was buying. It was a good deal, as many smoking regular cigs at around 50 dollars or so a carton, I was smoking for around 40 dollars a MONTH.

But....pipe tobacco or not, it was still tobacco and smoke.

I'd tried electronic cigs back in 2012, they were these small critters picture here (this is one of my old ones):



I was lucky if the battery lasted 3 hours, and the cartridge? Ha, don't even get me started on how expensive they were and not lasting very long. Worse....I found myself not only vaping with this thing, but smoking too! So all I'd done is pick up yet another habit....which I quit rather quickly.

But let's get back up to this past August. Everyone in my house came down with a chest cold including me. My wife was done with it in about 3 days. Same with my son Josh.

Me? Damn........took me 3 WEEKS to get over it, because it went from being a chest cold to Bronchitis.

Okay, not cool, but not unexpected. I'd been a smoker for 30 years. Still, as I'm hacking my lungs out with tears in my eyes, I'm lighting up another cigarette....I realize that I need to do something as I'm trying to cough up my lungs.

So just quit, right?

Yah, right. Listen up: I've known people that smoked for years, set them down one day and walk away without looking back. Good for them! Bastards! Not all of us that are addicted to Nicotine can do that.

Me? I turn into the worlds biggest asshole. Seriously. I'm like Mr. Hyde when I'm nic'ing. And I hate myself for it. I've tried just about every way there is out there to quit, and it only worked once: while I was in the Navy and out to sea, away from my family and I'd only been smoking for a few years. I succeeded then, and was off them for 9 months.......until I fell off the mast of my ship while doing maintenance on my radar antenna. I slipped and fell....with my safety line not attached to anything. Somehow it hit the rail, whipped around and latched, saving me from the 120 foot drop to a metal deck which would have turned me into a smear and not here talking with y'all.
First thing I asked for was a cig from one of my shipmates when they got me back up. My hands were shaking so bad they had to light it for me.

So I'd been smoking again ever since. But you realize that you need to quit. Especially when you know people or have loved ones that have died because they too were smoking. But quitting for a lot of us is a lot easier to say than to do. That's how it goes when you're an addict.

I explained it one day to my wife: try giving up chocolate....forever.
She said she'd have to kill herself. I told her that now she was beginning to understand how an addict feels.

But here I was...coughing up my lungs, finding myself on the floor gasping for breath, and whispering "Please...make it stop."

My fellow staffer and friend Kangaruex4Ewe came to my rescue. I asked and she hooked me up with a vaping wand that worked perfect for me:



I got this KangerTech wand, and after a day or two, it worked! I threw out all my tobacco and tubes, put the loading machine up in a drawer, and have not touched a cig since last August!

Within a week, my coughing stopped, and my chest rattling went away.

Within 2 weeks I noticed my blood pressure and dropped several points. I'd also carried a 50 pound bag of dog food, a 20 pound bag of cat food, and a 55 pound bag of chicken feed in 3 non-stop trips from the car without pause.....and I wasn't even out of breath!

It was amazing!

Haven't nicked once since I switched. My doctor actually had to change my blood pressure meds as my old ones were too much for me now. I got a cold again...and it only lasted a few days like everyone else! Heaven!

Okay, however, I needed a better battery than it came with. The one it came with only lasted about 5 to 6 hours. So I got a Spinner II



These batteries are pretty great! They last me 10 to 12 hours. Only issues I've had is that the button is like crap. It can break pretty easy on you. I had two of these and one of them broke after just a few months.

So I wanted something a bit better. I got this new battery made by Eleaf. It's adjustable (I keep my just over 12 watts....I vape to inhale...not fill a room with vapor, what a waste of juice...and to me is being a jerk to those that do not vape or smoke...mater of fact, I still treat my vape like a cig, and don't use it where smoking is not allowed), and lasts up to 18 hours!

Better yet: you can use it while it's charging if you have a long enough USB cable!

All for 59 dollars. Yay! Here it is:



So I don't have some huge Box Mod, with a huge Sub-Ohm tank (again...what a waste of juice), but to each their own. I'm quite happy with this!

a reply to: eriktheawful

Glad to hear it , congratulations,
I started with a ciga like and progressed up to a Kanger Emow , pen style like yours , I now have 30W istick box mod because better battery and something to play with.

Nice! that is the same unit i got when i first started. But mine was silver.
Over time my battery became damaged i guess because it was holding a charge for only 2 hours or so.
So then i manned up and put some cash down.
I got a Cloupor mini battery with digital read out and a Aspire Nautilus 5 mL tank.
This battery lasts a couple days between charges. I have it set at 10.5 Watts. Its insane how high it goes - i can vape at 30 Watts if i wanted to lol. But thats way to much. 10.5w is perfect for me. My juice lasts long. no noticeable burn off.
All together it came to $260 CDN. But well worth it.

a reply to: eriktheawful

I'm with ya! I have my KangerTechs! I started about the same time as you did. I didn't have the chronic cough but do have better lung capacity now.

Nice man! I actually had your a couple of your pieces about a year ago. I had that same tank and a Vision II Spinner battery like yours. I liked it but it was rather long/tall. A year ago about i upgraded to the JoyTech EgoONE.

It is a drip pen style with a 1 ohm coil. I hate dripping. But i have been doing it for almost a year lol solely because i am too cheap to upgrade to a tank. The battery lasts more than a day with one setting though.

Anyways, i am nervous about upgrading again. Recent trips to the vape shop have shown me ALL the new ones are with those box shaped batteries and crazy looking tanks. They are not even really pens anymore! I know absolutely nothing of the boxes and the new adjustments, settings, etc. They have.

Vaping is evolving so fast I dont even know what the guys are referencing when talking about their new devices. i need to learn more so i can upgrade again without walking in totally clueless!

a reply to: eriktheawful

I have a 50w and a 30w eleaf istick. My faves. One of my tanks just shattered and I am stuck with one I am not fond of, I will look for one like that.

I dont trust them, the juice has only been tested for the effect it has on your stomach and not your throat, or lungs. The government are using safety data from the manufacturers with no independent testing and speaking of the government why is it better to be addicted to nicotine in vapes than in tobacco?

I know cigs have loads of other chemicals in them and the associated dangers of said chemicals and that I guess is what im not trusting about vapes ... I dont know what's in them.

The original idea of fake cigs was as a quitting aid but these just substitute one addiction for a very similar one dont they?

a reply to: eriktheawful

I have smoked my tobacco from a great, big frigging bong, for the last five years.

And i do not cough, i believe that if you start coughing, the irritation creates and endless loop..
But still i am gonna die from this (SNIP) but hey, maybe there will be a zombie outbreak and my tarred-up body will munch on brains for hundreds of years.

a reply to: reldra

It's a EMOW Mega tank, it uses a 1.8 ohm dual coil.

a reply to: errorcode

In a nutshell?

Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Tar, Hydrogen Cyanide, Arsenic, .....and about 6,995 other compounds:

CDC Chemical List For Tobacco

What is in the vaping juice? Depends on where you get it from and who you trust. The people that I locally do business with? Their juices normally contain:

Nicotine
Propylene glycol (commonly used in asthma inhalers]
Vegetable glycerol (commonly used in food items and medications).

Diacetyl, which is suppose to be a chemical that causes "Popcorn Lung" was suppose to be found in certain brands of vaping juice.

Not mine.

Nicotine actually has quite a few benefits to humans. It can be both a stimulant and a calming agent. It also enhances on cognition, alertness and focus of the mind.

I can attest to that last one. In my line of work of troubleshooting extremely complex equipment and electronics, I can't tell you the amount of times a problem would stump me, until I took a smoke break, only to come back with the exact answer of what was wrong and needed to be fixed.

There are, just as with almost anything, adverse health effects too. Addiction certainly being one of them.

Many people do vape for just recreation, but many have also used it to reduce their nicotine intake, many times taking it down to ZERO, to where they are still vaping, but it contains NO nicotine at all.

Currently I'm using 18mg for my Nicotine. If I wanted to, I could go as high at 24mg. My plan is to start decreasing the amount of nicotine (14mg, 12mg, 10mg, 6mg, 3mg, and then finally zero).

Hopefully you'll understand better now. While vaping might not be healthy, it sure as hell is better than actual smoking of tobacco (or other things). YOU can control what it is you vape. The shop I go to, they mix it there in plain view and I can actually custom make what I want.

Can you do that with a cigarette? No, you can't. You can only decided on what brand you want to smoke, and how many you smoke.

Would I recommend someone who doesn't smoke vaping?

No, I wouldn't. If you don't smoke, I don't recommend vaping. Leave your lungs alone if you can. It's also why I treat my vaping like smoking and don't sit there using it where smoking is not allowed or blowing my vape in people's faces.
It's also why I don't use a vape that billows tons of vape to fog up a room. That's asinine, and not fair to people who do not smoke or vape.

Would I recommend it to someone that smokes? Oh absolutely, but only if they want to stop using tobacco.

I certainly felt the benefits of switching very quickly, and over the past 6 months, I've felt better than I have in literally DECADES.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Thats the best thought out argument for vaping I have heard, thank you.

I have seen a lot of youngsters take this up as a fashion statement (for want of a better phrase) and that makes them gateway drugs.
That being said I was unaware of nic free vapes

a reply to: lightedhype

I use the eGo One Mini's for typical day to day vaping. Small, discreet, and full of flavor. I have these 2:



Loaded into the black one is Lost Art Cottontail Cream. I the silver one is Cuttwood's Sugar Drizzle, both at 12mg nic. I typically put a fruity flavor and a dessert/cereal/sweet beverage flavor in the other. I can hide them both into the palm of the same hand. The lower part is about the size of a AA battery, to give some scale.


My wife has the pink and tiffany blue ones. But she uses the 1ohm coils, i use the .5ohm

While at home I use a Seigeli 30w box with a Kanger Subtank (the big 7ml one). Someone gifted me those, and I bought a couple extra tanks to go with it (so i can have variety and don't get burned out on my favorite flavors)

a reply to: eriktheawful

Nice. I persoally like the eleaf product. I know Domo has some concerns that are valid....but I've known a few folks who have them. My wife has an eleaf 20 istick mini in black, and a 10w istick mini in hot pink (each with nautilus minitanks). She loves them. I sometimes use them, too (when i don't want to subohm).

Ive given away a few of the 40w TCW eleafs as gifts as well. Haven't heard any complaints on them.

I HAVE heard of some autofiring and some catastrophic failures in the 50w. More than one or two. But I stay away from that particular product....and keep in mind that someone not using a battery safely can be very dangerous to themselves.

Nice upgrade. And really glad to hear you are finding health benefits. THe world needs more Erik.

a reply to: errorcode

I make my own juice.Vegetable glycerine,purified water nicotine and food-grade flavourings.

Not much nicotine because all my e-cigs are sub-ohm,100 watt monsters with 5ml tanks.

I've successfully stopped smoking because of them after 30 years of trying and failing.

Yes,I've changed one nicotine provider for another but the important thing is:it isn't smoking.

I no longer smell of burning carpet,nor do I have to cough up lung bits in the morning.And I can breathe.

I am so sorry I vaped as long as I did.

Just go cold turkey now. Do it while you can.

a reply to: Ericthedoubter

Are you using purified water to thin out the vg?

a reply to: ckhk3

Yep.I'm one of the few people who can't take PG at all.It gives me Dishidrotic Eczema and drives me mad with the itching.

80/20 VG to water.

So here's my story...

Back in late 2010, after smoking for 20+ years, I decided I really "wanted" to quit. Talked to my Doc and tried all the usual suspects (patch, drugs, etc.) The patch left monster welts on my skin for weeks, even when moving them around. The drugs made me not care about smoking, but I didn't care about anything else either...like getting up in the morning, or going to work, or feeding the cows; I just didn't give a crap about anything. So those solutions were out.

About that time a couple people I knew had some of the primitive e-cigs which got me curious. One other guy had a pretty advanced one and he was all into the technology. He told me about a place on the interwebz which had some pretty good deals, so I went and bought a low-mid range pen type e-cig.

When it arrived I charged it up, loaded it and started puffin' away. Literally, I put my smokes down and took up vaping in a 100% switch. Surprisingly, I didn't have any cravings or ill effects at all. After experimenting around with different e-juices I found the ones I liked (and the ones I didn't) and was pretty much set.

I remember telling some of my smoking buddies out in the smoking area at work how it had been "over two years since I've had a cigarette!...and it had been. I never really was able to reduce the strength of the e-juice more than a notch or so, but I was progressively less dependent on my e-cig. I got to the point where I could go for half a day or better without even thinking about it. One day I even forgot it when I went to work, and it wasn't a tragedy. I wasn't completely independent from my e-cig, but it wasn't a crutch either.

By this point I had a couple pen type e-cigs, one of which cost upwards of $100. Overall, life was pretty good and I was kind of proud of myself. I can remember at one point having to fly somewhere and not worrying about all the airport/flying hassles and smoking. YAY! Not only did I feel better, but my lungs were clear and I'd gotten my wind back (which really helps when you're lugging a newborn calf across a 2 mile pasture in blowing snow, in the middle of the night, with your head on a swivel trying not to get stomped by a raging mama!!) Then the perfect storm happened...

First one e-cig started leaking, then the second. It got to the point where they were making more of a mess than anything else and it was pissing me off. E-juice seemed to be everywhere. Then I got the phone call. Dad lay dying in a hospice 1,600 miles away...better get here pretty quick. About this time the wife unit decided now would be a good time to go figure out why she didn't feel happy anymore...and left. As I sat in my hotel room 1,600 miles from the ranch I realized in my haste I'd left my leaking / crummy e-cig behind. Reality hit me like a 2x4 between the eyes...I walked down to the liquor store across from my hotel, bought a 10 year old bottle of scotch and pack of smokes.

Now about a year later I'm right back where I started. This time though I got a couple of better box type e-cigs. These are WAY more powerful! I got a Kangertech sub-ohm box and a Cool Fire IV with an eGo mega tank. I did a lot more research this time around, looking into PG/VG ratios, coil ratings, the different performance characteristics of coil ohm ratings and wattage-voltage ratios. (I need some brain candy too you know).

So that's where I am now. I know it can be done...because I've done it once already. However, like the OP says; it's not just a matter of putting the pack down and walking away, not for me anyway.

Wish me luck...(I'm on about day 2)

BTW...Even though I'm only on day #2 (full time), I've been experimenting around with these units for months trying to get things to the right balance and would be happy to share any lessons I've learned along the way if anyone is curious.

On a side note; I too have noticed some sensitivity to PG and have had to go from an 80/20 mixture down to a 50/50 mixture. I've noticed that higher levels of PG not only make me itchy, but also make my mind kind of foggy.