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Hi. I'm Jon from at the moment, Malaysia and I've got a few insights that's hopefully helpful to those new to this wonderful activity. Firstly, I was a 2 pack a day smoker for nearly 50 years, and had really given up the idea of ever going a day without a cigarette, cigar or pipe. I really thought I'd hack myself to death, and at the time 61, sooner rather than later. Then I discovered vaping. I'd discovered it a couple of years before, but the devices at the time didn't work very well. They looked like cigarettes or pens and you had to refill cotton or whatever fabric pieces in the filter looking part which contacted the coil to produce vapour. They weren't consistent, didn't produce quality flavour, and the batteries weren't reliable. Then I got into the much improved devices with clearomizers, atomizers and tanks, batteries that would last a whole day, and that was a whole new world. I stopped smoking 4 May, 2013 and with a few bumps now know that I'll be vaping for as long as I live. I truly expect that to be quite a bit longer because I feel better than I did when I was 12 and bought my first pack. That's basically my credential for saying this. I know nicotine has addictive qualities, but in my opinion it's not nearly so addictive as the FDA would have you believe, If it were, those nicotine patches and gum along with a dummy cigarette for the hand to mouth habit would be a highly effective way to quit smoking. Basically they don't work for most people. They certainly didn't for me. My joke all those years ago was, "Yeah, I tried those patches, but I couldn't keep them lit." I really think that the other 4000 or so chemicals produced in cigarette, cigar and pipe smoke are more important than people think. It's really easy to just blame nicotine. I'm convinced from the rush I get those few times I've been caught short and had to smoke analogues, that those chemicals have properties that are also highly addictive, probably more so than nicotine. They probably mimic narcotic analgesics to make you feel good about what you are doing even though you know intellectually it's killing you slowly. Other chemicals probably act as bronchodilators to ease breathing and calm wheezing. Still others probably are like steroids to reduce inflammation to keep you from noticing the damage being caused by the tar particles. Maybe that's why your lungs feel so bad after a night's sleep and deprivation from these chemicals, so that you're inclined to immediately want to feel better so you light a cigarette and almost immediately after hacking up a lung, feel so much better. To conclude, the nicotine in vapour is a great help in overcoming the cigarette addiction, but so is the vapour cloud, and the hand to mouth activity. I strongly recommend you to buy a reasonable device and not one of those convenience store disposables before you decide if vaping will help you. I'm not very familiar with the names, and many here can direct you to some good starter products. My real point is to keep vigilant of those cravings that come from sources other than nicotine, and be prepared. If I had known this before I started I would have had an easier time making the decision to change smoke for vapour. Instead I actually listened to the idiot, easily swayed, easily lobbied FDA that nicotine was the major bad guy. I write this because I so want everyone who tries this to succeed. Plus, as many here say, it makes an awesome hobby. Best of luck to all you newbies. It really works. My real difficulty was deciding to switch, because I was afraid that life without cigarettes wasn't worth living. Then the discovery that quitting was almost totally painless. It's been 504 days, and I'm loving life even without cigarettes! Jon

The Sidewinder is a 2200mAh battery, which would last me almost 2 full days @ 3ml/day (which is my light days). Battery longevity is also affected by Resistance of the coil, how long you draw on a vape/hit, voltage drop, stand-by mA drop, etc. Lower resistance coils deplete batteries faster because they draw higher Amps (Ohm's Law). So, using a 1.5 Ohm coil will deplete the battery a tiny bit faster than a 2.5 Ohm coil. Vaping 1ml/day, using a 1.8 - 2.0 Ohm coil... moderate hits/puffs... I could see the battery lasting you several days (at least 3?)

Thanks to the quick response from Christopher, I received my new EPipes, (2 because remember the 'have backups for backups' advice?) I knew I'd be the coolest dude in the pub that night! Of course being a guy, and wanting to use it immediately, I started to fill and charge without even opening the instructions. Well, that didn't work out so well, so I looked up the method for filling the tank after I'd spilt liquid all over everywhere. The graphic in the booklet showed it being filled with a syringe. Sheesh, I thought, what have I got into. So I went to the pharmacy, and because this is Malaysia you can buy syringes over the counter, and the pharmacist looked at the hole at the end of the atomizer and thought it looked like it needed an 18 gauge needle. Got it back, and injected........ once again liquid all over the place. Then I carefully looked over the page again and read that you need to pull out the end of the atomizer half way then inject the liquid, so I tried to pull; twist and pull; pliers applied to twist and pull! Then I by mistake pushed the other way and hey! That's how it goes! Sheesh. After I reshaped the parts that I'd unrounded with the pliers, and put in liquid, there I was vaping. Keystone cops comes to mind. Rocket scientist (sarcastic) also comes to mind. I finally was the coolest dude in the pub! But, it isn't the greatest vaping device, but it works. Kinda like those old things that were designed to look like cigarettes. They work, but not as well by a long shot as something that was designed specifically to vape. It reminds me of the concept of evolving a jet engine from a piston engine where the boss says, "Make a jet engine from this piston engine but don't throw out any of the parts that work for the piston engine. Imagine what a nightmare devise that would be. Anything new requires a clean sheet of paper and creativity and imagination. So now I'm using my new Dovpo, which looks nothing like a cig, or a pipe or a cigar, but vapes brilliantly, and I'll just bring my EPipe to the pup when I want to be the coolest dude. Lesson finally learnt.

I have nearly a dozen KPT2's in my rotation, and have only had one leak... which turned out to be a bad o-ring on the coil. One of my AeroTanks leaked once too, but turned out that my coil became loosened in the base when I removed it to refill and I didn't think to check the coil for snug before re-assembling. The number one reason for any tank to leak is bad o-ring seals at the coil or tank itself... without a good seal, the tank cannot maintain vacuum pressure to hold the juice in the tank where it belongs. The number two reason I've found is bad wicks (short, burnt, damaged), which again prevent the tank from maintaining vacuum pressure as well. Knock-off coils tend to fail faster (or leak more) as well. I received a free 5-pack of knock-off coils when I bought a pair of my KPT2s, and 2 of the 5 lasted less than 4 tank-fulls... I'm guessing the wicking material was a really cheap synthetic? Another thing I've found out... as well as many of the members here... the coils that come with the tanks typically fail faster or leak more often than genuine replacement coils. I have no idea why, but it is true. Of the genuine replacement coils (1.5 and 1.8 Ohm) that I have used in my KPT2's, all have performed exceptionally well for weeks and weeks... but honestly, I also tend to change them out after they've seen ~20ml of juice (roughly 8 refills). I have pushed these coils up to 15+ tanks-fulls and they were still performing well, but flavor does start to drop off after about 6-8 refills (depending on juice used). There are knock-off KPT2 tanks out there as well, and a co-worker of mine unknowingly bought one of those (from eBay)... it leaked like crazy! O-rings and tank-glass with imperfections were the cause. I replaced the thin o-rings with better quality, and swapped the tank with a genuine replacement, and no more issues!

It's not bad at all! Be happy for yourself! Just realize that you are enjoying new tastes and a new experience. Doesn't hurt that it is more healthy then the stoges you were smoking!

I can't say for sure if your auto switch has the amp draw to make it worthwhile but you should try a SmokTech 1.7 ohm prepunched single coil carto in that pipe. I use them in my mech switch pipe with tank and they work great. Oh and I use IMR 18350 batts in mine and get about 4 hrs/1.25 tanks per batt before the vape drops off too much and I need a recharge.