What’s up crabcakes!!! It’s ya boy JPHONIC: the ghost with the most, the vaper with the paper!! !!! Welcome to LPZone’s UNAUTHORIZED VAPING THREAD, made personally for you by yours truly, the man what always got your back, the grandpa of Ohm’s Law: JPHONIC!
Post pictures of your rig! Talk about your favorite e-liquid! Share your story about quitting smoking! Ask questions about battery safety, nicotine strengths, advice on quitting smoking, whatever! Just follow the following easy rules and chuck some s.
THREAD GUIDELINES:
This is a thread for discussing vaping as a hobby and as a smoking succession aid. This is not a place to shit on vaping or make fun of people who are into it. There’s a lot about vaping and the surrounding culture that is inherently ridiculous and we can embrace that while also acknowledging vaping’s capacity to help people quit smoking.
No rig judgement. Not everybody needs to blow fat stacks to enjoy vaping. If you think someone is dumb for being satisfied with an iCare and not a 200W Snow Wolf or whatever, go back to Reddit.
No minors (how’d you get here???)
Affiliate links must be disclosed
Additional rules will be added as necessary
HELPFUL LINX:
Steam Engine – An extremely useful tool for calculating coil resistances, amp limits, Ohm’s law figures and a handful of other useful tools.
JuiceDB – Good resource for discovering e-liquid manufacturers and for finding sales. Probably full of affiliate links and planted reviews though so always try to independently corroborate claims with a li’l googlin’ when possible.
ONLINE RETAILERS I’VE USED AND TRUST:
Mount Baker Vapor – MBV is as affordable as you’re likely to find for e-liquid and some hardware (coils are usually $5~ cheaper than elsewhere). Since they have hundreds of flavors, it takes a bit of trial and error to find what’s good, but the good stuff is pretty good considering the price. They also pre-steep all their liquids, which most other sites charge extra for.
Eciggity – Eciggity is usually where I go for hardware when there’s not a sale on elsewhere or MBV doesn’t have the specific thing I’m after. Their prices are typically competitive and they have a pretty big selection.
VaporDNA – Similar pricing and selection as Eciggity, but sometimes hardware will only be available on one or the other, so I usually check both sites.
BlueDot Vapors – BlueDot is my favorite budget e-liquid manufacturer, I tend to take them over MBV when money isn’t tight. Their nicotine is a lot smoother than MBV’s and while they have fewer flavors, they’re a lot more ambitious with the flavor profiles they do offer. They do charge extra for pre-steeped liquids, but most of the stuff I’ve tried from them has been fine out of the mail so it’s never been a consideration.
VaporBeast – VaporBeast is more expensive than most sites and their shipping is slower, but their big clearance sales are worth paying attention to. Can’t really recommend their non-sale pricing though.
I smoked 1/2 to 1+1/2 packs a day for 10 years before I finally managed to quit with vaping. I had tried patches, gums, lozenges, prescription medication and willpower, and vaping was the only thing that stuck. I’ve been smoke free for just over three years now and I really believe in this as a thing that can help people change their lives for the better.
hey I don’t vape (or smoke for that matter) but I am curious about the whole “different flavors” part of it. Are there good flavors for vaping? Bad ones? Does the flavor matter or does the feel of the vapor matter?
I’m honestly curious, and I don’t mean to look down on it.
Good questions! Vapor on its own is inherently flavorless, so e-liquid manufacturers add flavoring to make the experience more enjoyable and to mask the flavor of the nicotine in higher dosages. You can get e-liquid that tastes like just about anything – simple stuff like “strawberry watermelon” all the way up to very complex flavors that change from inhale to exhale.
As for what’s good or bad, it’s a different strokes/folks situation. I tend to like sweeter dessert flavors and some hybrid tobacco flavors*, but when I worked at the vape shop I had regulars that swore by liquids that I thought were awful. There’s definitely a correlation, however, between the quality of the ingredients and the quality of the flavor. Low-quality nicotine is real peppery even at low dosages, whereas good nicotine is a lot more subtle. Good flavor compounds can be almost indistinguishable from the real thing, whereas cheap flavor additives taste like bad artificial candy flavors. Liquid quality varies greatly by manufacturer, like food at restaurants.
The feel of the vapor has to do with its density and “throat hit,” which are determined by the ratio of vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG), respectively, in the e-liquid. A liquid that is 80% VG and 20% PG will produce a much denser vapor and will be smoother on the inhale, as it has much more VG than PG. Conversely, a liquid that is majority PG results in a thinner vapor with a more intense sensation on inhale, closer to what one experiences when smoking tobacco.
As for which is better, it’s all personal preference. E-liquids can typically be ordered in a variety of VG/PG ratios** to match the user’s preference. Some people, myself included, are allergic to PG, so I have to make sure all my liquids are at least 70% vegetable glycerine.
Hope this helps, and thanks for asking!
*Many e-liquids are flavored like tobacco, but it is important to note that there is no tobacco product involved in the production or use of e-liquid.
**Manufacturers that market themselves as “premium” e-liquid brands tend to offer flavors in only one VG/PG ratio, as the consistency and sensation of the vapor is considered an integral part of that specific liquid’s recipe.
There’s a lot of variety! I tend to prefer either custard-like flavors, or kind of citrusy flavors. Lemonade flavor is really good, and kind of soothing, and vanilla custard type flavors often have surprisingly complex hints of sweetness and spice.
Is it alright to judge those who run potential fire hazards? :V
Joking aside, I do need to upgrade my mod whenever I can afford it. Been running an IPV4 for awhile and it’s starting to show its age. One juice line I definitely suggest would be Choo-Choo. Roughly $35 for a 120ml at my local store that’s pretty damn good quality and will last awhile. Best flavor would definitely be Stunna, a strawberry custard.
Are there any lemonade flavors you’d recommend? I’m always afraid to risk it because the few I’ve tried have been very chemical-y.
I’m also in the Old Mod Club, still runnin’ my Sigelei 50W V2. Plenty of power for the Triton 2 I’ve got sitting on it but it’d be nice to upgrade to something with temp control and presets and stuff. I’ve never heard of Choo-Choo, I’ll check 'em out!
I bought it direct from a craft juicemaker guy back on SA, but I think he’s gone out of business? He has a website, but it’s super anemic and doesn’t have the flavor listed. I think the FDA regs must have put him under since I last ordered a few months ago, since mixing your own juice makes you qualify as a “tobacco product manufacturer” now.
I’m completely uninformed, so this question might seem basic: what’s the deal with Ohms? Why would you want to adjust it instead of having a preset? How exactly does it effect things?
Hot damn that’s a nice lookin’ coil. I haven’t built anything in forever, maybe I should dig my old freakshow mini out
This is a good question! The resistance of the coil is what folk are usually talking about when they mention ohms, and it dictates a lot of things about the strain put on your battery and the characteristics of your vaping experience. In a nutshell, a higher resistance coil will require fewer watts to get up to operating temperature, whereas a low resistance coil requires many watts but heats up extremely quickly.
There are pros and cons on both sides, and like most things about vaping it comes down to personal preference. If you like cooler vapor (or less of it), or you want the most out of your battery life, a coil with a higher ohm rating might be for you. If you like a real warm vape, or wanna toot down the mississippi river like a big ol’ steamboat, you want low ohms.
That’s all for traditional coils made out of kanthal wire though, the new “temperature control” coils are made out of nickel or titanium usually and that’s a whole different thing.
EDIT: I forgot to address the “why change this” part of your question! You can achieve the same operating voltage at the coil by pumping more or fewer watts out of the battery, and while this balances things on paper there’s still a noticeable difference between a 0.5 Ω coil at 4 volts and a 1.2 Ω coil at 4 volts. There are also folk out there who still use “unregulated” or “mechanical” “mods,” which are vapes that have no circuitry to control the output from the battery, so the resistance of the coil is the only variable they can adjust.
!!! Welcome to LPZone’s UNAUTHORIZED VAPING THREAD, made personally for you by yours truly, the man what always got your back, the grandpa of Ohm’s Law: JPHONIC!
s.
