New To The Forum, But Not Really New To E-Cigs

[PixieVC]

In fact, as far as e-cigs go, I'm going further and further down the rabbit hole!

I used to be a pack a day smoker - loved my American Spirits, but my lungs didn't love me, nor did my doctor. And I really needed to quit for health reasons. That said, I love nicotine - it's a tremendous help in my job and what I do for a living. Nothing helps me focus like it... best legal drug there is.

So, one day, I was fighting with a gas pump and very reluctantly decided I had to head inside the store to get the help of the guy behind the counter. While I was in the store, I noticed they had a disposable e-cigarette for sale for $8 - I figured, why not? The brand was "Square" as I recall - I bought a Menthol as I remember - it was about 4 months ago... I figured I'll give this a try. After the gas pump was brutally beaten into submission, I got back into my car, pulled out my lighter and stopped myself - and then pulled out the e-cig and gave it a try.

Underwhelming at first, but I gave it a few more puffs. And then a few more. The nicotine was definitely there. But I needed more - something more powerful. And thus the search began. I found myself at a local headshop - they sold me a starter kit from GreenSmartLiving; to this day I still use it. I bought two of them. One to charge, one to smoke. The battery, under my usage, would be gone in an hour and a half..the cartridge would last longer than the battery life, which made for tons of wastage (50 cartridges laying around my desk in varying states of emptiness - is it empty? Nearly empty? Only one way to find out - slap it on and burn my throat)... decided I could find a better way.

This 'better way' was Eversmoke. Which turned out to be a mistake. Ordered a starter kit from them, and enrolled myself in their automatic refill program. Unfortunately for me, I got the e-cigs from them - they didn't even fit the carrying case they included, the flavor cartridges they sent were downright disgusting (I like my stuff fruity and such, and I like minty too, but this stuff just tasted like.. propylene glycol and other chemicals. Everyone else has disguised it better.), cartridge life was much worse for these cartridges (which were far more expensive than the 'budget brand' GreenSmartLiving that any headshop carries), and they're automatically charging my credit card, with no way to go online and cancel the process.. I just ended up reporting the card lost so I wouldn't have to deal with them anymore.

But I wanted something more powerful still, and I knew it existed out there - the headshop had tried to upsell me on something when I had first come in expressing interest in e-cigs, something they said was for the 'hardcore smoker'. Well, given that it was now a month and I hadn't touched a real cigarette - I think I was ready for the real deal... this is when they sold me a basic Apollo EGO battery, kit, and some fruity juice. Good gods, I was in bliss.

And so where I am now - I've doubled down on the Apollo system - and I like Apollo. It's a local Bay Area company, so I spend money and keep the profits local.

I've seen some really hardcore guys before though - there's this one guy works at the building across the street - he takes vaping to the extreme. The hardware he has doesn't even resemble an e-cig, more like the grip of a gun with a mouthpiece - and a big reservoir of juice hanging out from the bottom. He makes me look like a newb! I should probably try to strike up a conversation next time we see each other..

[Jeffb]

Welcome to VT Pixie. Glad you're enjoying vaping.

[mcquinn]

hello and welcome

[mse12]

You'll quickly find that the most of us don't use many stick batteries. Welcome aboard!

[PixieVC]

Heh, stick batteries - yeah, that's a nice way to put it. I've been trying to find out what the mAh ratings are for them, but nobody publishes them anywhere, probably because it's probably something pitiful like 90 mAh - which is why I can kill a fully charged one in 37 minutes!

600ish mAh with USB charging passthrough? Yessirie, I'm happy now.

[mse12]

I think some of the highest mah ratings for the stick style are around like 280? Don't hold me to that. I personally use 18650 mah mods that run around 2000mah depending on the battery. I think I'm close to picking up a 26650 mod and those run between about 3500-4500mah depending on the battery. Everyone has their own cup of tea. One of the best things about vaping. There's no one size fits all.