Well, my kids finally talked me into going full sub-ohm and yep, you guessed it my recipes have changed taste on me. I’m starting this thread to just get some direction from anyone who has noticed a big change in certain common flavors.
The one thing I noticed right off the bat is my menthol’s and mint’s are going to have to be adjusted to lower the freeze factor, they are suddenly very harsh on the throat hit.
But to the good side, the coffee vapes have mellowed and are taking the heat very well. Anything anyone wants to chime in on or advice I will take with bells on!
Good subject Maureen. I don’t know if this will be helpful to you or just one person’s opinion. When I started sub-ohm vaping I was not mixing much at all and had not advanced as a DIYer at that point so differences in types of liquids designed for sub-ohm versus non-sub-ohm had never crossed my mind. I asked a local mixer I trust once what the main difference was in the liquids he sold for dripping and others and he said mostly PG/VG ratios, but that he lowered his flavors in some mixes. He told me about nicotine and other ingredients, that since you are vaporizing more per puff you are getting more of everything per puff. Seems only too obvious now, but back then I dropped 18mg on a Patriot dual coil I had built and damn near knocked my throat out.
Once I started really getting into DIY it was for primarily sub-ohm vaping. I followed some recipes I found and got a “feel” for percentages of some flavors and how they work in dripper mixes. So really I had no adjustment period like you. However, I have also on occasion (and recently) used some of my mixes in things like the Nautilus Mini which has I think a 1.8ohm coil. Yeah, I’m keeping my nic at 3mg like I use with my subs. But I notice quite a few nuances of flavor not very prominent when subbing. For example, a strawberry milk recipe I use is just fantastic, but when I sub it I don’t really notice the Graham Cracker from the TPA Cheesecake w/Graham. On the Nautilus it’s oh so apparent.
That said, there are definitely different flavors that will be present at different temperatures. And that’s really the main difference between sub and non-sub ohm vaping - well aside from the vast difference in surface area of the coils. Where I would start if I were in your shoes is to take note of those flavors you already used sparingly in mixes and at least halve them in your recipes. Try them on sub-ohm and see if you’re more like the taste you’re used to with the recipe.
But again I don’t know how helpful if at all what I’m saying is for you. There are some incredible - well, artists here who probably have a lot of this type information on hand and ready. Best of luck transitioning to the Dark Side!
Oh wow, no my gosh - thank you very much SthrnMixer! That is extremely helpful to me! It was a little disappointing because I was just starting to develop a level of confidence with mixing my DYI.
I had 7-8 recipes that made me feel comfortable I had a good start and then… BAM… sub ohm hello!
Everything you are saying makes sense.
My Nicotine is at 6 and that’s not going to fly in this heat. I dont like that sudden head rush at all and it’s harsh. I just bought a big bottle of VG to get that stuff cut down to 3 immediately.
The custard seems to hold up really well, in fact it’s better than it was to me so that encourages me. However, the forest fruit mix I fell in love with in a 1.8 coil is fried in a .5 coil which is a huge bummer.
I’m wondering if it’s the acidic nature of the berries? I would love to hear people tell me what they get with citrus vapes too because if I could isolate that burning to acidic flavors like berries and tea flavor it would help determine proper balance? I did ok with a low percentage of citrus at sub-ohm till the 3rd hit. Once it’s hot… gets very harsh.
I will take any advice or experience any one is willing to share and … THANK YOU again!
Reading your post, the first thing I thought was she is now subohming. Hope she has dropped her nicotine accordingly. @SthrnMixer says he uses 3mg nic, for good reason. Subohm basically gives you 3-5 times the vapor (Depending on if you lung hit) which means you’re getting much more nicotine delivery. You mentioned harsh throat hit. Well, menthol and citrus are a bit tough when you go subohm. If you just got to have menthol, instead of a full flavor menthol you may have to add just a few drops for a little bit of the flavor. Running subohm units mean you should be blending Max VG or at the very least 70/30 blend. Two things are usually the cause of harshness. PG and nicotine. We do have to add a few flavors with subohm though as you noticed. Yes, Creams and custards will be easier on you in subohm…
I saw no mention of your equipment. You keep referring to heat and I know what your saying. I’m guessing the kids talked you into a RDA, a Atlantis, or maybe a Artic. Running a shop I’ve noticed that most of the younger guys always go for a hot running vapor producing units. For them the vapor is more important than the flavor. Please keep in mind that your equipment can make a big difference. Not all tanks are hot as a firecracker…
@ringling knows his stuff he helped me out just last weekend. I too wanted a better tank and I have a few of those offenders Atlantis, Arctic both too warm of vapor for my likings. You may need a different coil as well, I do not like too low of ohm. I tolerate 0.50 and up best but really like 1.0 + ohm even in a RDA. Finding a coil if your set on your tank may take some of that scorch down and of course your settings.
I would also ask anyone but me lol I’ll talk you to sleep all day long over flavors and recipe ideas but am not that tech dandy that would be " the guys " @ringling , @Pro_Vapes there’s plenty more but both of these dudes know they’re stuff and have helped me with questions.
Basically the same story for me. I was using Ego style stuff when I started DIY. Switching to sub-ohm was almost a let down when it came to flavor. I found that since upping the VG for sub use, it was necessary to up the flavor percentage of certain flavors. VG isn’t a very good flavor carrier, combined with the added heat of sub-ohm… The flavor suffers. I started increasing the “missing” flavors .5% to 1% to get the flavor back. But even then, the flavor profile is still different.
Maybe using +ohm coils in your sub ohm tank is an option for you. Most of the major sub-tank mfgs offer them, or even comes in the box with them new.
Some of the sub-tanks that seem to operate better at lower wattages (less than 30) are the Kanger Sub-Tank Nano, and the Mini, the Joytech Delta II, and dare I say, even the Aspire Atlantis. I vape all of those at less than 30 watts, even with a .5 ohm coil. But I like a cooler vape. Even with my RDA, my iStick 100 rarely sees use above the 40w mark. It makes for killer good battery life though.
I recently picked up a Joytech Ego One Mega and a couple of Ego One Mega tanks. That thing even vapes a little warm for me. It isn’t a VV/VW device. It is more like an electronically fired mech mod. I find that building coils around the .7 -.8 ohm mark for those tanks and mod cools it down substantially. Surprising what a few tenths of an ohm will do.
I am sure that some of the more experienced mixers (SthrnMixer, Ringling, Pro_Vapes…etc) could offer better explanation and solution than I. I digress.
B
This is very true. I hear often from people that the nano and the mini by kanger suck but you know, it’s because what that will give you is not what they are looking for. It’s actually a nice tank with the stock coils. For those looking for a cooler vape and some flavor with it, it works well. That .5 ohm coil will fire at VERY low wattage. At 14 watts it actually will vape nicely for those who can’t hang with the cloud chasers. You know, the tootle puffers. But of course you can crank the watts too if you like. Demonstrating them I actually fire it a 5w, 14w, 20w, 29w for people. Yes, it actually will fire at 5 watts but far from optimal…
Also very true and it’s good you addressed this for @Maureeenie since no one else mentioned it. Quite often you have to up the flavor. Either that or steep till the cows come home. Unlikely at my house, I don’t own cows…
One of my favorite RBA builds is a .8 ohm coil in the Kanger Sub-Tank Mini’s RBA section. It delivers GREAT flavor at 15 to 20 watts with more then enough vapor to be “volume satisfying”. You know, when you know that you’ve actually inhaled something? LOL
MOOOO. My steep box perfectly holds 32 20ml bottles. It takes me a month to fill it in rotation. I end up giving the left overs to friends and co-workers. (Leftovers translate into the mixes I don’t much care for). So bring on the cows. HAHAHA
I’m pretty much in the same boat as @SthrnMixer. I started sub-ohming and mixing right about the same time. I only a had few mixes that wasn’t all that great. My only adjustment was to my Nic level. Since then, all my mixes were mixed and tested for sub-ohming. I wish I had more to offer.
If you have a tc mod you can really tune your vape to fit your preferences. That’s pretty much all I have to add.
Never tried the RBA but did rebuild the stock coil with titanium. Yet to try it but its ready to go if the stock one in my tank will ever fail. I know, it’s cause I want it to fail, right? Speaking of MOOOOs…
I will not release juices I do not consider 5 out of 5 stars so what winds up happening is I have to give them away to get rid of them. Right now I have about 20 or so tobaccos that no one wants. Being I’m giving them away maybe what I need to do is give it a fancy name and when they ask what this is like, I Don’t Know…lol. Think that will work?.
I use fancy names…you know, like “Caramel Apple Pie, Strawberry Cheescake” in lieu of the ones already taken…you know, like Gambit and Unicorn Milk LOL.
I know what you could do, You could rename them all to “Unicorn Milk” and they would fly off the shelves. YMMV HAHA
@ringling and everyone who responded…sorry I did not respond last night, I was stuck in the basement with a smart phone watching football. (lol)
I am grateful for you all responding and helping! Thank you!
My sub tanks are Atlantis V2’s and one Melo V2.
I am always going to use stock coils because I tried building (once - bad idea for me) I can handle mixing my own liquid tho… that’s good right?
I have the Aspire 1.0 Coils and the Aspire .5 Coils. The 1.0 Coils seem to be doing the opposite of what they should do. They need to run higher wattage than the .5 Coil to make any vapor at all which makes very little sense to me. (It’s why I bought them to run cooler)
My child and her husband the “mighty cloud walker” tell me (perhaps you will concur) I need better mods. I am running on 30 W eleafs and a 40 Watt IPV. They say things like “Y U NO LISTEN?” and …“Mama its supposed to crackle and pop and hiss”… “You have to turn up your mod to 33 Watts!”
I admit is got better when I fired at 28.5 … but the hotter it gets - wow - losing some of those subtle flavors and frying my beloved menthol. (tears shed)
@bradslinux I am coming off the Nautilus (loved Nautilus but made me want to smoke? I don’t know why really…) I like your Ego idea!.. But will have to wait because I just spent money on these other tanks.
I will worship anyone who tries a flavor and reports how it performs in the heat! Thank you guys so much!
One important thing to notice - ohms by themselves mean NOTHING.
@Amy2 says she can’t tolerate stuff below 0.5 ohms, but I can build you a coil which will burn you at 1 ohms and another one which you will be able to touch with your bare hands at 0.2 ohms.
The Ego stuff has been around awhile, look around and you can probably find good deals on it. (Try E-Bay) but be careful where it is coming from. The Vision Spinner II paired with a Kanger EMOW tank is still a good vape and IMHO, it has good flavor. It is also possible to do pretty decent lung hits with it. But before you buy anything, keep messing with the coils you have and wattage settings. With the Atlantis II, be sure and mess with the top airflow a bit. That second shot of air can cool things off a lot. I can’t speak for the Melo 2, I don’t own one. If it is like the Lemo 2, it is a pretty good tank. I would probably try a Kanger Sub-Tank Mini before I would buy a complete Ego setup. At low to mid power settings, the .5 ohm coils are very cool.
Stick with the sub-ohm and try to make it work for you, once you find your comfort zone with PG/VG ratios, and sub-ohm combinations, I think you’ll be happy. Try the Atlantis 2 with the .5 ohm coil and your iStick set to 20-25 watts with a 30/70 PG/VG mix and run the bottom airflow wide open, and the top shut. That should be a pretty good cool vape.
I apologize for filling inboxes with email… but maybe a better question would be (given I accept my heart is broken losing my acidic berries and citrus except at very low %)… of all these cream flavors (whipped, fresh, sweet, vanilla custard etc) which one of those creams (in anyone’s experience) seems to hold up the best in the higher wattage? Part of my vaping joy is in the flavor. I’m wondering if I can cut these bottles of my fav’s down with VG and add a good high heat tolerant cream perhaps I can save some of these concoctions in my drawers of mixes? I have so much liquid here at 6mg and 30% PG… argggg.
The aspire 1.0 coil has to run at 35 just to get vapor so yes I noticed this. I bought two boxes of those coils and I am regretting the 1.0 choice, yes.
30% PG 70% VG is good for sub-ohm tanks. Do one thing at a time to fix your problem. If you do more than one, you won’t know which one fixed it.
Maybe time to get a dripper and let the resident cloud chaser do a build for you. That would be a good way to quickly test all of your current collection so you can get a handle on what works, and what doesn’t.
One of my favorite RBA builds is a .8 ohm coil in the Kanger Sub-Tank Mini’s RBA section. It delivers GREAT flavor at 15 to 20 watts with more then enough vapor to be “volume satisfying”. You know, when you know that you’ve actually inhaled something? LOL