Hey everyone, this will be the first post of many. I'm sure that if you are reading this, then you are or are thinking about vaping. I started vaping to stop smoking. I was a smoker for about 10 years, and it sucked. I led a fairly active lifestyle but always found myself out of breath within ten minutes of doing something.
One day I saw that a friend of mine who had been smoking for probably 15+ years wasn't smoking, even after having a few beers. He pulled out his vape pen and said that this was all he needed now. After seeing how he still didn't need a cigarette after me and a few others lit up beside him, I was convinced. A few days later I bought an Ego-T and a Gummy Bear flavored juice, and haven't smoked a cigarette since.
So why should you check out this blog when there are probably hundreds out there? When I started, I knew nothing, not even how to unscrew the top of my pen to put the liquid into it, pretty comical actually, I finally got it after 2 minutes. This is to help the people who are just starting and like me had no clue. How do you know something if you've never done it before. So for those who already know what they are doing, you will probably read all of this and think that this site is dumb. So if you know what you are doing, let me stop you right here and say that probably the only thing you will enjoy are the post about the flavors, or not.
Feel free at any time to add any questions or comments, and maybe I'll have the answer, or someone else will. Thanks for considering, and have a great day!
Where to buy your pen
Here is where you have to think about what is important to you as a consumer. Do you buy your pen locally at a smoke shop, or off of the internet? What I did was I went and bought an Ego-T two pen set at a local smoke shop. After buying the two pen set, a car charger and two 15 milliliter bottles of juice, it came out to just under $100. At that time I had done no research whatsoever on vape pens or how much they cost.
After looking on the internet later that night I found the exact same two pen set for about $20 cheaper. Needless to say I was a little upset, on the other hand it is good to give some business to the local owners. This is where you have to make your decision, either spend a little bit more money at your local smoke shop, or get it online for a cheaper price, it's up to you. It was nice to just go ahead and buy it instead of waiting for it in the mail for a week.
Now, that being said, if you do decide to go on the internet, there are a few places you can look to find the right one that you want. I personally found that the Ego-T was right for me and I didn't nee a fancy $140 vape pen. I got two of them for about $50 locally. There are so many different types of vaporizers out there that you can even find an old fashioned tobacco pipe style. Most websites also have starter kits, which I recommend if you don't want to spend a lot of money before finding out if this is right for you. Here are a few links to websites that I have found to be very reliable:
Vape Dudes
http://www.vapedudes.com/hardware
Vapes Gone Wild
www.vapesgonewild.com
Vape Dojo
www.vapedojo.com
Konyo
http://konyovapepen.com/vaporizers/vaporizer-pens
You can also go to ebay as well and find literally everything you need on there, unless you want to buy juice that has nicotine in it, all the flavors on there are zero nicotine. Hope this helps, have a great day!
After looking on the internet later that night I found the exact same two pen set for about $20 cheaper. Needless to say I was a little upset, on the other hand it is good to give some business to the local owners. This is where you have to make your decision, either spend a little bit more money at your local smoke shop, or get it online for a cheaper price, it's up to you. It was nice to just go ahead and buy it instead of waiting for it in the mail for a week.
Now, that being said, if you do decide to go on the internet, there are a few places you can look to find the right one that you want. I personally found that the Ego-T was right for me and I didn't nee a fancy $140 vape pen. I got two of them for about $50 locally. There are so many different types of vaporizers out there that you can even find an old fashioned tobacco pipe style. Most websites also have starter kits, which I recommend if you don't want to spend a lot of money before finding out if this is right for you. Here are a few links to websites that I have found to be very reliable:
Vape Dudes
http://www.vapedudes.com/hardware
Vapes Gone Wild
www.vapesgonewild.com
Vape Dojo
www.vapedojo.com
Konyo
http://konyovapepen.com/vaporizers/vaporizer-pens
You can also go to ebay as well and find literally everything you need on there, unless you want to buy juice that has nicotine in it, all the flavors on there are zero nicotine. Hope this helps, have a great day!
Steeping
I will not get into the technical terminology and how the chemical compounds of certain juices react to each other, this is a simple explanation on what steeping is and my technique to steeping, everyone has their own way of doing it. Just hoping that someone can find this helpful.
What is Steeping?
Steeping allows your juice to become whole. Steeping gives the juice its best possible flavor and allowing them to develop and blend with each other, especially if it has multiple flavors involved, like a berry mix. Basically aging your juice like a fine wine. This is particularly true if you have a handmade fresh juice from places like Vape Dudes or Vape Dojo who mix your juice to your specific wants.
What is the process?
As stated earlier, everyone has their own way of steeping their juices, but the majority of steeping involves leaving the juice alone for a certain period of time. Some people believe that just by simply putting the juice in a cool, dark, dry place for a week or two will do the trick. That could be true, but I am too impatient and like to be more involved than that. I use a combination of letting the juice sit, shaking it like crazy, letting it sit in hot water, and more shaking!
How long should you steep the juice?
There is no specific amount for how long or how short your steeping process should be. It could be as little as two days, or as long as it takes for your juice to reach the taste that you want it to be. Typically most websites that create juices fresh tell you to step the juices for at least one week, so I would suggest starting there unless you like the juice right out of the package. I suggest tasting all flavors before beginning the steeping process.
My Process:
What is Steeping?
Steeping allows your juice to become whole. Steeping gives the juice its best possible flavor and allowing them to develop and blend with each other, especially if it has multiple flavors involved, like a berry mix. Basically aging your juice like a fine wine. This is particularly true if you have a handmade fresh juice from places like Vape Dudes or Vape Dojo who mix your juice to your specific wants.
What is the process?
As stated earlier, everyone has their own way of steeping their juices, but the majority of steeping involves leaving the juice alone for a certain period of time. Some people believe that just by simply putting the juice in a cool, dark, dry place for a week or two will do the trick. That could be true, but I am too impatient and like to be more involved than that. I use a combination of letting the juice sit, shaking it like crazy, letting it sit in hot water, and more shaking!
How long should you steep the juice?
There is no specific amount for how long or how short your steeping process should be. It could be as little as two days, or as long as it takes for your juice to reach the taste that you want it to be. Typically most websites that create juices fresh tell you to step the juices for at least one week, so I would suggest starting there unless you like the juice right out of the package. I suggest tasting all flavors before beginning the steeping process.
My Process:
- Taste all flavors that I am contemplating steeping
- Create a list of all flavors and keep track of how long each flavor has been steeping
- Shake all juices like crazy, some people even tie string to the bottle and swing the bottles furiously in order to ensure everything becomes mixed
- Let them sit over night after the brutal shaking
- Check the taste after each day, if it still needs some time, unscrew the bottle and remove tip if possible. Squeeze the bottle until liquid is at the top. Do this a couple times for each bottle. Then let it sit overnight.
- Taste again, if it still needs something, start turning on the hot water in your sink as hot as it will go. In either separate containers, or I found that a meatloaf pan works out well, fill the container with hot water, as hot as your sink will let it go, up to the point before it reaches the portion of the bottle where the cap screws on and off. Take the cap off as well as the tip of the bottle and set it in the hot water, make sure the water isn't too high. Let the bottles sit there until the water becomes room temperature. Repeat this about 3 times, I don't shake it afterwards. Put it back in that cool, dark, dry place overnight.
- I let them sit for 2 more days until I touch them again.
- As soon as I'm ready to continue after letting them rest, I shake them again, then taste them. Most store bought flavors will be even better after five days. The fresh liquid may need to be shaken and left overnight for a few more nights.
There you have it, that is my technique to steeping my liquid and so far it has worked out well. Feel free to ask questions or give advice. Hope this helps, have a great day!
Taste
I am all about the flavors, it is the one thing that has kept me from going back to smoking cigarettes. The nicotine does help as well. Everybody has different tastes and different standards to what they want to taste when they vape.
Here is what I get when I buy my flavors if it is online:
70/30 PG/VG ratio, 16 mg nicotine, and extra flavor.
Now what does that do for me?
I hate to say it, but it depends.
What does it depend on:
Here is what I get when I buy my flavors if it is online:
70/30 PG/VG ratio, 16 mg nicotine, and extra flavor.
Now what does that do for me?
I hate to say it, but it depends.
What does it depend on:
- The actual flavor, is it a citrus flavor, a sweet bakery flavor, or a tobacco flavor
- How long has it steeped
- How long did I hold down the battery button
Let's break all of that down.
The Flavor
Theoretically I guess this shouldn't matter since you are buying the same PG/VG ratio for your flavors, but it does. What I have found is that the fruity and citrusy flavors have a different feel to them, a much lighter hit. With the bakery flavors like Cookies N Cream and No Bake Cake, there is a full flavor no matter how long you inhale. With tobacco flavors, it is immediate. It is easy to spot which flavors are going to have a harder or lighter hit just by looking at them in my opinion. Most fruit flavors are clear, bakery flavors are fairly dark, and the tobacco flavors tend to be somewhere in the middle depending on which flavor of tobacco it is.
The Steeping
Now, I will go into more detail about steeping later on, but this is just a short overview. When you steep your liquids, you are giving them a chance to age and allow all of the flavor to develop. Typically store bought liquids don't need to be steeped, but I have found that some store bought flavors do taste a lot better once they have steeped. There is no limit to how long or how short a steep should be, it is just based off of you and how you think your flavors tastes. Most of the juices you buy online say that you need to steep the liquid for a week at minimum, but again this all depends on you. You could decide that they are great right out of the package.
The Button
Before I started vaping I thought that the only flavors I was going to like would be the fruit flavors, but I was wrong. Lately I have found myself enjoying that bakery flavors more and more, but then I realized why. I wasn't getting a good hit off of the fruit flavors, it felt weak. They weren't giving me the satisfaction that I needed to keep myself from smoking a cigarette. Then I found that if I hold down the battery button for a few seconds before I begin my inhalation, it is much better. It still isn't as good as the bakery and tobacco flavors, but it does allow me to enjoy my fruit flavors now. So, if you like the flavor, but it isn't satisfying your needs, hold the button down longer and see if that helps.
You will obviously start to find out that you do prefer certain types of flavors over others, and then begin to tweak how you vape them. If you are confused about what PG/VG ratio is, don't worry there will be a post on that as well and I will try to explain it as best I can. Also, not every vape store online will have the option to add extra flavoring, but some will. Some sites will also have the option to add certain flavors to your juice, like with Sweet Tars on VapeDudes, they give the option to add a certain fruit flavor to the juice. I hope this helps, have a great day!
Cleaning Your Tank
This was one of the biggest problems I had when I first started vaping, how the hell do you get the old flavor out of the tank?!?! I watched lots of YouTube videos and read other blog postings about how to do it and decided to give one of them a try, it was on multiple sites so it seemed like it was fool proof. The method that it showed was getting as much of the liquid out as possible and then shaking water through the tank a few times and then dry burning the tank. In my head that made sense, and I couldn't figure out why not to give it a try.
What ended up happening was that the first one I tried it on was fine, but the next two were destroyed because it had a burn flavor that was just awful. It ruined two clearomizers, which was unfortunate because I only had three at the time. So after that I decided to try my own way. Now the reason it said that you dry burn is to get the gunk and leftover juice off, that makes sense, but wit clearomizers being pretty inexpensive, an easier non-dry burning process will work fine. I haven't had to clean my new atomizer tank yet so not sure how well it works on that one.
Here is my easy cleaning process:
What ended up happening was that the first one I tried it on was fine, but the next two were destroyed because it had a burn flavor that was just awful. It ruined two clearomizers, which was unfortunate because I only had three at the time. So after that I decided to try my own way. Now the reason it said that you dry burn is to get the gunk and leftover juice off, that makes sense, but wit clearomizers being pretty inexpensive, an easier non-dry burning process will work fine. I haven't had to clean my new atomizer tank yet so not sure how well it works on that one.
Here is my easy cleaning process:
- Gently shake out as much of the juice as you can
- Run a small amount of water into the tank and shake vigorously
- Repeat step 2 as long as it takes for the water to come out clear after shaking
- Find a bottle cap
- Place the clearomizer upside down in the bottle cap and let it sit
It might take longer to dry, but unless you are in a huge hurry, I think it is worth it to keep from having your clearomizers taste burnt afterwards. I think it is worth doing a slower process in order to save your tanks because over time all of that can really add up.
If you have a different process that you would like to share or have an answer as to why my flavors tasted burnt after my first attempt please leave a comment. Hope this helps.
Clearomizer vs Atomizer
What is an atomizer and a clearomizer? Well, to get an idea, here are some pictures:
This is an atomizer, notice that there are no wicks at the very top, the wick is at the bottom, very small. This is because it is a dual coil atomizer where the wick is at the very bottom. I have found in my personal experience that the KangerTech Mini Tanks are the best so far. The taste is better and cleaner. Also, most of these KangerTech Atomizers allow you to interchange drip tips. Most of the drip tips that you find online will fit this type of tank, however the Vivi Blow tip listed under Hardware Reviews is too big for this tank.
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These are clearomizers, they have the wicks starting at the top. If you have read my earlier posting about cleaning your tank, this is the tank that I am talking about. They are pretty inexpensive. I bought 10 of them for about $12 on eBay. They are great for changing your flavors from one to the other on your battery, but honestly the taste will slowly start to decline with every use. However, if you are experimenting with flavors or are just starting out, this is the way to go. There is no need to spend money on something that you aren't sure that you want to pursue yet.
Bottom line....
The KangerTech Mini Pro Tank is obviously the better choice, but I don't think that you will realize it until you have dealt with the clearomizers. It's like when you had your first beer, it tasted amazing, but then you had another and noticed that it was significantly better. You would have never known that unless you had a worse beer. So unless you have money just lying around, I would suggest just going with the clearomizers for a while until you know that you are into vaping. Once you know that this is something that you really want to stick with to try and quit smoking, congratulations by the way, then you need to spend the extra money to get a quality product that will not let you down. Hope this helps!
This is an atomizer, notice that there are no wicks at the very top, the wick is at the bottom, very small. This is because it is a dual coil atomizer where the wick is at the very bottom. I have found in my personal experience that the KangerTech Mini Tanks are the best so far. The taste is better and cleaner. Also, most of these KangerTech Atomizers allow you to interchange drip tips. Most of the drip tips that you find online will fit this type of tank, however the Vivi Blow tip listed under Hardware Reviews is too big for this tank.
These are clearomizers, they have the wicks starting at the top. If you have read my earlier posting about cleaning your tank, this is the tank that I am talking about. They are pretty inexpensive. I bought 10 of them for about $12 on eBay. They are great for changing your flavors from one to the other on your battery, but honestly the taste will slowly start to decline with every use. However, if you are experimenting with flavors or are just starting out, this is the way to go. There is no need to spend money on something that you aren't sure that you want to pursue yet.
Bottom line....
The KangerTech Mini Pro Tank is obviously the better choice, but I don't think that you will realize it until you have dealt with the clearomizers. It's like when you had your first beer, it tasted amazing, but then you had another and noticed that it was significantly better. You would have never known that unless you had a worse beer. So unless you have money just lying around, I would suggest just going with the clearomizers for a while until you know that you are into vaping. Once you know that this is something that you really want to stick with to try and quit smoking, congratulations by the way, then you need to spend the extra money to get a quality product that will not let you down. Hope this helps!
Curbing the Cravings
I smoked for ten years, about a pack a day, sometimes more if it was the weekend, so I know about the cravings that come with quitting smoking. I have tried other products before with pretty pitiful results. I tried the Nicorette gum, expensive and tasted absolutely terrible and left my throat feeling thrashed. I also tried Chantix, worked for about a week with no cravings what so ever, but it made me crazy, my emotions were everywhere. I had to stop taking that stuff, it made me feel like a totally different person. Then I started vaping.
Everything turned around for me, I could breathe again! That is not to say that it is the end all be all and means that this is better than not doing anything at all, but it is a step in the right direction. I do smoke the occasional cigarette, especially if I'm drinking. I don't let myself feel bad about it, I have smoked maybe 10 cigarettes in the past three weeks. That is awesome! You can't let yourself feel bad about the occasional cigarette, it is normal to have one every now and then. It's a process. If you make yourself feel bad, it won't help, just move on and do better next time. Beating yourself up never solves the problem. Vaping though helps my cravings, different flavors for different times.
Experiment, see if certain flavors at certain times make you feel more satisfied than others. If I'm drinking, I know that the sweet bakery flavors make me feel more satisfied than if I went with a fruity or mentholy flavor. I know that from trying it out, so just try it. See what works for you. Not everyone can control the cravings while they are drinking and that is understandable. I myself haven't been able to since I started, but I'm working on it. I hope this helps, or gives someone some kind of encouragement to not give up quitting smoking.
Everything turned around for me, I could breathe again! That is not to say that it is the end all be all and means that this is better than not doing anything at all, but it is a step in the right direction. I do smoke the occasional cigarette, especially if I'm drinking. I don't let myself feel bad about it, I have smoked maybe 10 cigarettes in the past three weeks. That is awesome! You can't let yourself feel bad about the occasional cigarette, it is normal to have one every now and then. It's a process. If you make yourself feel bad, it won't help, just move on and do better next time. Beating yourself up never solves the problem. Vaping though helps my cravings, different flavors for different times.
Experiment, see if certain flavors at certain times make you feel more satisfied than others. If I'm drinking, I know that the sweet bakery flavors make me feel more satisfied than if I went with a fruity or mentholy flavor. I know that from trying it out, so just try it. See what works for you. Not everyone can control the cravings while they are drinking and that is understandable. I myself haven't been able to since I started, but I'm working on it. I hope this helps, or gives someone some kind of encouragement to not give up quitting smoking.
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