I have a few people interested in beginning to vape, and want to give them good advice on entry level hardware.
I started vaping a little more than a year ago, and while satisfied with the Coolfire IV TC100 and still use the first one, I quickly moved away from stock coils. Also, I vaped direct lung right away.
Anyway, having no experience with MTL, and little familiarity with entry level setups, and a brain swimming (and drowning) in the endless choices on the market, I thought I’d ask some of you for guidance.
What mod/tank do you recommend to beginners who come to you?
A couple of the interested parties are not tinkerers at all, while another may end up in the rabbit hole. So simplicity on the one hand, and expandability on the other hand, but all a stable and satisfactory early experience. They are all long time smokers, and we’d hate to run them off unnecessarily.
Thanks in advance.
welcome them to hang out and get a feel not all can handle low ohms w/ low restrictions but others may love it
I just set up a mate with a Nautilus on a Istick pico. So far so good > Not hellishly expensive, will last all day without messing around with batteries, juice refills and room to move up if required and it appears to be a descent bit of gear.
Thanks. I forgot to mention that they are at a long distance. :]
The very best thing for a new vaper, is that they have the ability to try different things and see for themselves what works best. It’s not just the choice between a MTL or DL, but there are so many mods, tanks, rebuildables, liquids and nicotine levels and it’s not because 2 people smoked 2 packs of Marlboros a day that they’re opting for the same choice in vaping.
I always bring a lot of stuff to try when I meet people who I think are open to at least give vaping a try. Have them taste different liquids from fruits to bakery and tobacco, try a tank, a dripper, small mod, big mod, etc. If you can’t meet them, take out some time to look for a good vape shop in their area and tell them to drop in and try a few suggestions. Also explain a little bit what everything is… PG/VG ratio, tank, dripper, RBA/RTA/RDTA/RDA, squonking, difference in metals (and properties), nicotine % etc. Tell them about pricing (coil heads + replacement, rebuilding, liquids, diy), battery safety and last but not least, rub their noses in all the health benefits that you’ve experienced since you started vaping, no more lighters, no more ash trays.
My first experiences with vaping weren’t the best because I got poor advice in my shop (they were just happy with any sale instead of getting me on the right track from the get go). I wish I knew someone who had experience when I started vaping because I basically had to buy different things to try and waste 100’s of £ before I could settle. I can clearly see why a lot of people start vaping and go back to cigarettes. Initially there’s an overload of information and misinformation, along with a wide range of options -much more than in the regular tobacco industry- so it’s always great if someone you know is willing to spend some time to assist, educate and stand by for general help.
I find this intro to vaping for the new helpful:
https://onvaping.com/guide/beginners-guide-to-vaping/
Thanks. Will investigate.
Thanks for your time. You described the problem much better than I did.
I’m happy and eager to guide them to the extent that I’m able. But my knowledge of the available products is limited to what I use, mostly.
I like the idea of helping them to find a local shop. Definitely a way for them to get their hands on a variety of gear.
Otherwise, if I could narrow it down to a good reliable tank with stock coils, then I’d be happy.
You know, consistent good taste/clouds, TC capable-easy swap-inexpensive coils, easy fill, easy clean, good 510, leak-free (mostly :]), DL/MTL interchangeability, can wick higher VG, and under $30. (I hear people chuckling)
I really liked the Crown early on, but started getting bad coils with every pack, so for that reason cannot recommend it to someone who trusts me. Then the +insluator went bad, and although uwell dealt fairly with me and offered to replace the base, they wanted more info on me to make the transaction than I was willing to provide to a foreign power. Haha.
Anyway, just want to help my friends avoid these kinds of headaches, and happily get off the smokes.
Thanks. They suggest the Joyetech ego AIO in the end. Have you any experience with that setup?
Includes (2) Joye Cubis BF SS316L 0.6ohm MTL Atomizer Heads (Mouth to Lung)
Sub ohm may tend to use e-liquid more rapidly than a non sub ohm. Some folks don’t mind because it is a very simple functioning single one button fixed volts/watts for just that 0.6 ohm coil.
The Kanger Evod Starter Kit could be the best two for one offer out there. You get two complete mods which gives you an emergency backup. Note non sub ohm coils —2 x Kanger Atomizer Coils (1.8 Ohms).
re: Kanger Evod Starter Kit - Evod Vaporizer, Coils & Tank - Vapor Authority
SMOK and their products have kind of became somewhat of the “McDonald’s” of vape gear in that it’s become fairly run of the mill and accessible at mostly any shop IMO. Similar to the AIO’s aforementioned, SMOK’s v8 stick comes with the tried and true tfv8 baby beast and had fairly decent stock coils. Yes, some options geared around higher wattage but lower options r also available. Never had any leaking issues on my baby beast when I used it (switched to 100% diy coils/RTAs/RDAs ages ago). When I recommend a product to newly interested quitters, it’s usually this tank or the original aspire cleito. Right before I switched to only building my own coils I was in love with both the cleito and cleito 120. Excellent longevity on the coils, great flavor, vapor production, the whole shebang. I still have a stock pile of cleito coils and would use it again if for wutever reason I couldn’t build at the moment and needed a fresh coil/wick. To give further insight, I purchased the RBA coil heads for both cleito tanks so I could still enjoy them and build my own coils. Really solid tanks👍🏻
The stick battery itself, one button design built-in battery with micro USB charging provides the simplicity a beginner can appreciate. Not totally sure on life of the battery but, being a simple stick battery I’d imagine it’s nothing incredibly impressive but it will be more than enough to get them started. If they want to save money and not need to upgrade the battery through their vaping journey for awhile, the eleaf QC 200w has a 5000mAh built in lipo battery which will most likely last them all day without need for charging and offer up more than enough wattage capability indefinitely, along with being a simple design that’s easy to use and navigate. So for your non tinkerer I’d recommend the v8 stick and for the one standing in front of the rabbit hole, I’d recommend the eleaf QC 200w along with either the original cleito or the SMOK tfv8 baby beast or big baby (beast) which just holds more liquid. I recently advised a coworker to pick up the QC and original cleito. He went his own way and picked up the wismec exoskeleton and had so many issues he just buckled and went with my recommendations. He smoked 1-1/2 to 2 packs a day for over 20 years and hasn’t looked back since he got that setup.
I hope all my rambling has made some sense and can help lead your friends to a brighter, healthier future. I kno they will surely thank u! Kudos to u for truly caring and putting in the effort to give them some good advice!
Don’t mind rambling, especially when it is useful and as well written as yours. Appreciate it.
So far, took a look at the v8 Stick kit. Looks like a cool unit, and very affordable. It’d be weird for me not to see the numbers on a screen. And with “direct output voltage”, the coil resistance and battery charge state dictate the wattage range to expect. Interesting. So that means a .25 coil would range from about 70w to about 46w as the battery discharges thru the day. Is that how it works?
It now comes with the x-baby beast, FYI, whose coils are incompatible with it’s baby beast brethren. User reviews appear positive.
I’ll look at the others, too. Wanted to say thanks first :]
My pleasure brother, always glad to help! Yes, that’s how the stick battery works. I’d have to agree aswell, it’d be strange for me too all across the board. But that is coming from 2 people who understsnd wuts wut about mods, batteries, etc. The Eleaf QC comes in a kit too but I believe it’s the melo 300, which would be way high wattage for a beginner. That’s why my honest opinion would be that device with the aspire cleito for both your friends. Exited to hear how it plays out for them. Keep us updated!
Here in the UK I always recommend the bog standard kits like VIP or VYPE
VYPE - https://www.govype.com/uk/
VIP - https://www.vipelectroniccigarette.co.uk/photon-base-kit.html
- Simple to use
- Easy to maintain
- Similar to smoking
If they want to go on to explore after that, I’m more than happy to help them out.
This a 1000x this
But toss the stock coils and use the clr (rebuildable), they cost about the same as a the cl coils but are a 1000x better and for a thinkerer are easy to rebuild. The MTL at 1 ohm is outstanding an the DL at 0.5 ohm is decent enough for a starter. All in all a pretty cheap, multi functional piece off kit that gives a stellar performance.
Many thanks!
A few questions, if I may:
- Is there a problem with the stock coils, or do the CLRs just perform better?
- Have you tried the ceramic coils? I’m completely ignorant of that tech.
- What is the max battery output? (low side is 3.3v - all I could find)
- This thing runs in direct output mode and also constant voltage output. What voltage is the latter?
- The CLR head wicking seems similar to an RBA head I never got right a while back, either the Crown or iSub, cant remember. What’s been your experience?
Sorry, that was more than a few :]
Thank you :]
Its the Nicotine that they’re craving, noobs don’t know shit about clouds, ohms and all the details that we get hung up on. If the output is low, recommend more nic. So long as they’re exhaling something visual, they get a throat hit and their nicotine addiction is being satisfied, they will be happy. Nicotine is the biggest factor for smokers, they need that shit, as do I. Everything else comes second (though very few smokers realise it.)
Don’t know much about the battery besides that it gets the job done. I use the tank on an istick Pico.
The Cl coils wick poorly resulting in poor flavor, dry hits and burned coils rather quickly. The clr coils don’t have this problem. You can rewick them quite easily, with cotton pads a snug fit should do the trick. Complete rebuilds are easy aswell, I use something like this https://m.fasttech.com/products/3033/10020807/8120402-iwodevape-kanthal-a1-pre-coiled-wires-100-pack
@d_fabes might know more since he is an egghead aswell.
Edit: added d_fabes
Yep, I’m one of them. I tried at 0.7 ohm, OD’d on nic and threw up 5 minutes later. I’ll hit the bong if I want to punish myself, more fun too!