Panter
Achiever
- Joined
- May 28, 2014
- Messages
- 1,315
Congratulations!
You've landed on the doorstep of "Planet of the Vapes," The World's most bestest vaping website ever
What brings you here? Well, either you have an interest in vaping, or you're just really bad at Googling...
But, let's assume the former
As you stumble, wide-eyed and baffled through the posts on here, you may find a rising sense of desperation and bewilderment at the odd terms, posts and at the even odder people behind them. So, what's going on??
POTV caters for everybody, whether you're just interested in the best way to clean your starter quit and quit smoking as fast as you possibly can, right through to those at the cutting edge of the hobby.
And it is a hobby to a lot of people, more than that even, it's a lifestyle. Or, it's what you want to make it, it's up to you!
So, that's the point of this rough guide really, to pick through the rough gist of it, and try and make things a little clearer.
It's not a "How-to" guide, there are loads of excellent articles on here for just that. These are just the rambling thoughts from someone who felt just as bewildered by it all a few weeks ago as you do now.
So, vaping, what is it?
It consists of heating a liquid (juice or e-liquid) containing nicotine (usually) and inhaling it to satisfy those nicotine cravings. The stuff produced isn't smoke, although it looks a lot like it, it's vapour.
It's produced at far lower temperatures than by burning which is why it is so less risky than smoking.
It means you can inhale nicotine without the very real dangers posed by burning tobacco.
All e-cigarettes work in the same way.
You need five things.
1) The power source (battery)
2) The heating element (coil)
3) The liquid containing nicotine (juice)
4) A wick to deliver the liquid to the coil
5) Air flowing over the hot coil to deposit the goodies to your eagerly awaiting pie-hole
This is what's often known as a cig-a-like and the sort of thing you can frequently pick up at newsagents, petrol stations etc.
The battery is the main body of the device, whilst the coil, wick and liquid are combined in the head.
With this sort of device, you usually just throw the head part away when the juice has run out, dumping the coil along with it and just fit a new one.
The problem is, as you can see when compared to some of the other devices below, the battery is physically smaller so cannot hold as much charge. Also, the head cannot hold as much juice, nor do you have any control over the airflow.
To use it, you put it together, then just suck through it. A switch inside allows power to flow from the battery to the coil, which gets hots, and vapourises the liquid.
This is a typical type starter kit. As you can see, the battery is larger and the head contains a liquid that sloshes around. And, you can refill it!
So, a big improvement, right?
Well, yes. Perfectly fine for a lot of happy users, these deliver a decent amount of vapour and work perfectly well.
To use this one, you put it together, fill it with juice and then press a little button on the side to allow the battery to fire the coil and vapourise your juice.
So, now we're moving a little further away from the "cigalike" devices and a little bit closer to the "sci-fi convention" type devices.
It works in exactly the same way, but in this type of device the coil and the wick (the head) is replaceable.
So, you can refill the thing when your juice gets low, and replace the coil when it burns out (they're always heating and cooling, they don't last forever)
The battery on this one is also physically large, so can last a very long time. It can also be used whilst it's charging, has a nifty display, some buttons, can charge your mobile phone and make you a coffee in the morning.
OK, it can't make you a coffee just yet, but it does all the other stuff
To use this one, put it together, fill with juice, set your power or voltage level, and press the button which fires the coil and... yup, you got it.
But, what was that bit about setting power? voltage? I just wanna press a button!!
Welcome to your first regulated mod
The "mod" is the battery unit, and it's regulated because it has some electronic circuitry inside which allows you to vary the watts and voltage that is delivered to the coil.
Sounds complicated? well, it's not, really.
Some mods offer VV (variable voltage) and some offer VW (variable wattage) whilst a lot more offer both, like our little MVP above.
But, why??? what's the point??? I only want to press a button!
Well, with these devices, you can control the amount of power that hits the coil and, therefore, how hot it gets.
The point of this is that you can play around with the heat and get a different taste from your juice.
VW is easier to use, in that it automatically adjusts the wattage to the coil based on its resistance. VV does almost exactly the same job, but you'll have to remember Ohms law (remember that from School? Nope, me neither!) to calculate the power hitting the coil to get the same affect if you swap your tanks around.
You can't really go far wrong with this particular device . On its lowest setting you may find the vapour is a little weak, whilst on its highest setting, your juice may taste a little burnt and dry. But it's unlikely it won't work at all through incorrect power settings
My little tip? just use it in VW mode, set it at 8.5 watts, and go from there. It'll work just fine for 99% of juices.
Oh, by the way. It works in either VV OR VW mode, not both. If you go back to Ohms law again, it's impossible as they rely on each other. So, adjusting watts doesn't mean that you'd have to go and alter the volts as well. The device does that for you, it's how it increases the power.
Just thought I'd throw that in there as it confuses a lot of people.
Right, now seems a good a time as any to have a quick waffle about juices (e-liquids)
If you bought a starter kit, it may well have been bundled with a bottle or two of juice. Probably a Cherry and a tobacco, something like that.
These may not be the greatest quality, so you might not get a lot of improvement from tweaking the power settings on your mod (there, sounding like a pro already!)
There are, however, some fantastic juice makers in the UK.
Small, independent companies or individuals that hand make their juices and spend weeks hunched over recipe charts, formulating, experimenting and mixing.
And, in my opinion, it shows.
Trying some decent juice in your device is the biggest improvement you can make to your vaping experience. But, if you're happy with your bundled juice, then stick with it! you need to find what works for you.
Another quick point, nicotine content. These vary from 0mg to around 24mg , sometimes even higher.
To give you a very rough idea, 18mg is about the "usual" strength, and roughly equivalent to cigarettes. You may need to go higher, or lower, suck it and see!
Oh, these are sometimes given in percentages too, so just divide the mg figure by 10 to convert it. For example, 18mg is 1.8% and so on.
PG/VG. You'll see this mysterious acronym banded about a lot! PG (propylene glycol) carries the flavour and VG (vegetable glycerin) creates the vapour. 50:50 and 60:40 are typical mix ratios. Cheaper, mass produced juices tend to have higher PG:VG ratios, but that's what that all means anyway.
RBA's, RDA's, OMG's and WTF's.
Right. with the tanks above we've been generally looking at clearomisers. That is, you have a tank and a head (coil and wick assembly, remember?) and when your coil moves on to a better place, you ceremoniously sling it in the bin and fit a new one.
RBA's (ReBuldable Atomisers) are similar, except with these, you make the coil yourself and poke a wick through.
What's the point in that?
Well, it's cheaper for one thing, but you also get to control the resistance of your coil (and therefore how hot it gets,) how it's made and your wicking material. And, therefore, you can create a more intense/hotter, better flavoured vape.
There are all manner of different coil types and builds, parallel coils, quad coils, dragon coils, clapton coils, squiggly poodle builds, the budgies nest, the quad parallel oojamaflip...the list is almost endless. And, some of those I might have made up. But, you get the point.
But, really, it's just twiddling a piece of wire around a stick. (special wire called resistance wire, don't go lopping the kettle cord off!)
While we have our RBA in front of us, it's a good time to show you the coil and what it actually looks like. And, what happens when you press the fire button:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCWE7eQap2E
It doesn't actually glow Orange like that when you're using it, the juice keeps it cool but it's handy to show what it does. By the way, it doesn't pulse like that either, that's just me pressing the button Five times.
RDA's (Rebuildable Dripping Atomiser)
So, same thing again, a coil fired by a battery and a wick to feed it juice. This one is a little different though, in that there is no tank to hold the juice. The juice is dripped onto the wick, hence the name. Although, some will contain "juice wells" to hold a few drops of juice and save you topping them up quite as frequently.
And, the point? Well, better flavour and vapour production is the claim.
Mechanical mods (mechs)
So, these must be the really advanced things then? after all, they're nearly at the end of the guide.
Well, yes, and... no.
They are actually the most basic of devices. No fancy electronics, just a battery and a switch. And that's it!
But, that's what makes them an advanced device. The only way to adjust the power (heat) from your coil with a mech, is to change the coil itself. Different thickness of wire, multiple wires etc, will alter the resistance (and therefore heat) of the coil.
But, there are no fancy electronics to protect you. If you get a short on our chummy little regulated device above (by the coil touching the deck for example) it just won't fire.
Get a short on a mech, however, and it will quite happily fire. Straight into a dead short which with the li-ion batteies used in vaping can lead to it exploding.
It doesn't have to even short, just by exceeding the maximum capacity of the battery, they can go bang, quite easily.
So, it's critical to understand all the theory before playing around with mech's.
You can stick a regular clearomiser tank on a mech mod, there's absolutely nothing stopping you doing that. Only snag is you won't be able to adjust the power output, and it will tail off as the battery dies because it isn't regulated. But, as ever, it's whatever works for you!
Cloud chasing and sub-ohming.
This is where the mech's are really supposed to shine.
By building very low resistance coils, and pushing the batteries hard within their limits, you can make a coil get very, very hot.
This means you can get large clouds of vapour which has evolved into its own little specialist division of "cloud chasing," blowing as large a cloud of vapour as you can. There are even competitions in it!
This really is the loony end of the vaping spectrum though.
In a regular clearomiser, the resistance of the coil will be somewhere around 1.5-2.5 ohms. a cloud-chasers "sub-ohm" build could be down at 0.1 ohms, or even lower.
This is where an extremely good understanding of batteries, and their pulse rates is needed. Certainly not something to jump into straight away!
Also, there is a possibility that because of the far higher temperatures these things can heat your liquid to, there may be an increased risk of harmful substances being produced.
But, in case you're wondering, that's what it is.
What's the point? well, it's a bit of fun!
Clones
Another word you'll see a lot on here. Clones are copies of an original device. Either because they're a whole lot cheaper, readily available, or both. (some original "high end" devices are extremely difficult to get hold of as well as being eye-wateringly expensive)
Shinyitus.
I can't possibly leave this guide without touching on the shinyitus that you'll see mentioned again and again on the forums.
This terrible affliction leaves sufferers destitute and isolated from friends and family.
Victims are often seen drooling, guiltily, over web pages of shiny new kit with a vacant, longing stare in their eyes.
My God, what is it? can I catch it? is there a cure?
Basically, sufferers cannot resist buying more and more shiny vaping kit. Early symptoms are that despite having so much kit that you're unable to remember just how many devices you own, you're still to be found every day, curled up under the letterbox waiting for your long suffering postie and the next shiny purchase to fall into your trembling hands.
There is no known cure, best thing is just to let it run its course, it will subside, in time.
Some people are immune to it, these people need to be studied and their DNA extracted so that a cure for sufferers can be worked on. Until such a cure is found, be vigilant.
In all seriousness, vaping is what you make it. There is absolutely no need to "work your way up," the only goal is to find the kit that puts you in your happy place.
For some, getting involved in absolutely everything is part of the appeal. If you love to tinker, to learn and to explore new things, you may find that you want to experiment with absolutely everything, and that's fine, if that works for you.
But don't feel compelled to, it's not compulsory. Your vaping is your thing, do it your way!
Personally, I've loved it. I found the distraction of learning about everything was a great way to take my mind off smoking, whilst the vaping kept me sane and gently pushed me further and further away from smoking.
And, now? I'm over Two Months quit and I don't even want to smoke. And as the Worlds most dedicated smoker, I never, ever thought I'd say that. Vaping worked for me
So.... all that waffle... has it helped? I hope so.
There are a load of useful guides here that go into depth on all of these aspects, and more. But, hopefully, it's given you a little bit of insight into what seems a World of confusion.
And, of course, never hesitate to get involved with, and post on, the forums. They're a fantastic crowd of people here, they really are. There's never a shortage of vapers to help and advise you, offer their assistance on specific matters, praise your efforts or laugh along with you at your mistakes.
So, what are you waiting for? get posting!
You've landed on the doorstep of "Planet of the Vapes," The World's most bestest vaping website ever
What brings you here? Well, either you have an interest in vaping, or you're just really bad at Googling...
But, let's assume the former
As you stumble, wide-eyed and baffled through the posts on here, you may find a rising sense of desperation and bewilderment at the odd terms, posts and at the even odder people behind them. So, what's going on??
POTV caters for everybody, whether you're just interested in the best way to clean your starter quit and quit smoking as fast as you possibly can, right through to those at the cutting edge of the hobby.
And it is a hobby to a lot of people, more than that even, it's a lifestyle. Or, it's what you want to make it, it's up to you!
So, that's the point of this rough guide really, to pick through the rough gist of it, and try and make things a little clearer.
It's not a "How-to" guide, there are loads of excellent articles on here for just that. These are just the rambling thoughts from someone who felt just as bewildered by it all a few weeks ago as you do now.
So, vaping, what is it?
It consists of heating a liquid (juice or e-liquid) containing nicotine (usually) and inhaling it to satisfy those nicotine cravings. The stuff produced isn't smoke, although it looks a lot like it, it's vapour.
It's produced at far lower temperatures than by burning which is why it is so less risky than smoking.
It means you can inhale nicotine without the very real dangers posed by burning tobacco.
All e-cigarettes work in the same way.
You need five things.
1) The power source (battery)
2) The heating element (coil)
3) The liquid containing nicotine (juice)
4) A wick to deliver the liquid to the coil
5) Air flowing over the hot coil to deposit the goodies to your eagerly awaiting pie-hole
This is what's often known as a cig-a-like and the sort of thing you can frequently pick up at newsagents, petrol stations etc.
The battery is the main body of the device, whilst the coil, wick and liquid are combined in the head.
With this sort of device, you usually just throw the head part away when the juice has run out, dumping the coil along with it and just fit a new one.
The problem is, as you can see when compared to some of the other devices below, the battery is physically smaller so cannot hold as much charge. Also, the head cannot hold as much juice, nor do you have any control over the airflow.
To use it, you put it together, then just suck through it. A switch inside allows power to flow from the battery to the coil, which gets hots, and vapourises the liquid.
This is a typical type starter kit. As you can see, the battery is larger and the head contains a liquid that sloshes around. And, you can refill it!
So, a big improvement, right?
Well, yes. Perfectly fine for a lot of happy users, these deliver a decent amount of vapour and work perfectly well.
To use this one, you put it together, fill it with juice and then press a little button on the side to allow the battery to fire the coil and vapourise your juice.
So, now we're moving a little further away from the "cigalike" devices and a little bit closer to the "sci-fi convention" type devices.
It works in exactly the same way, but in this type of device the coil and the wick (the head) is replaceable.
So, you can refill the thing when your juice gets low, and replace the coil when it burns out (they're always heating and cooling, they don't last forever)
The battery on this one is also physically large, so can last a very long time. It can also be used whilst it's charging, has a nifty display, some buttons, can charge your mobile phone and make you a coffee in the morning.
OK, it can't make you a coffee just yet, but it does all the other stuff
To use this one, put it together, fill with juice, set your power or voltage level, and press the button which fires the coil and... yup, you got it.
But, what was that bit about setting power? voltage? I just wanna press a button!!
Welcome to your first regulated mod
The "mod" is the battery unit, and it's regulated because it has some electronic circuitry inside which allows you to vary the watts and voltage that is delivered to the coil.
Sounds complicated? well, it's not, really.
Some mods offer VV (variable voltage) and some offer VW (variable wattage) whilst a lot more offer both, like our little MVP above.
But, why??? what's the point??? I only want to press a button!
Well, with these devices, you can control the amount of power that hits the coil and, therefore, how hot it gets.
The point of this is that you can play around with the heat and get a different taste from your juice.
VW is easier to use, in that it automatically adjusts the wattage to the coil based on its resistance. VV does almost exactly the same job, but you'll have to remember Ohms law (remember that from School? Nope, me neither!) to calculate the power hitting the coil to get the same affect if you swap your tanks around.
You can't really go far wrong with this particular device . On its lowest setting you may find the vapour is a little weak, whilst on its highest setting, your juice may taste a little burnt and dry. But it's unlikely it won't work at all through incorrect power settings
My little tip? just use it in VW mode, set it at 8.5 watts, and go from there. It'll work just fine for 99% of juices.
Oh, by the way. It works in either VV OR VW mode, not both. If you go back to Ohms law again, it's impossible as they rely on each other. So, adjusting watts doesn't mean that you'd have to go and alter the volts as well. The device does that for you, it's how it increases the power.
Just thought I'd throw that in there as it confuses a lot of people.
Right, now seems a good a time as any to have a quick waffle about juices (e-liquids)
If you bought a starter kit, it may well have been bundled with a bottle or two of juice. Probably a Cherry and a tobacco, something like that.
These may not be the greatest quality, so you might not get a lot of improvement from tweaking the power settings on your mod (there, sounding like a pro already!)
There are, however, some fantastic juice makers in the UK.
Small, independent companies or individuals that hand make their juices and spend weeks hunched over recipe charts, formulating, experimenting and mixing.
And, in my opinion, it shows.
Trying some decent juice in your device is the biggest improvement you can make to your vaping experience. But, if you're happy with your bundled juice, then stick with it! you need to find what works for you.
Another quick point, nicotine content. These vary from 0mg to around 24mg , sometimes even higher.
To give you a very rough idea, 18mg is about the "usual" strength, and roughly equivalent to cigarettes. You may need to go higher, or lower, suck it and see!
Oh, these are sometimes given in percentages too, so just divide the mg figure by 10 to convert it. For example, 18mg is 1.8% and so on.
PG/VG. You'll see this mysterious acronym banded about a lot! PG (propylene glycol) carries the flavour and VG (vegetable glycerin) creates the vapour. 50:50 and 60:40 are typical mix ratios. Cheaper, mass produced juices tend to have higher PG:VG ratios, but that's what that all means anyway.
RBA's, RDA's, OMG's and WTF's.
Right. with the tanks above we've been generally looking at clearomisers. That is, you have a tank and a head (coil and wick assembly, remember?) and when your coil moves on to a better place, you ceremoniously sling it in the bin and fit a new one.
RBA's (ReBuldable Atomisers) are similar, except with these, you make the coil yourself and poke a wick through.
What's the point in that?
Well, it's cheaper for one thing, but you also get to control the resistance of your coil (and therefore how hot it gets,) how it's made and your wicking material. And, therefore, you can create a more intense/hotter, better flavoured vape.
There are all manner of different coil types and builds, parallel coils, quad coils, dragon coils, clapton coils, squiggly poodle builds, the budgies nest, the quad parallel oojamaflip...the list is almost endless. And, some of those I might have made up. But, you get the point.
But, really, it's just twiddling a piece of wire around a stick. (special wire called resistance wire, don't go lopping the kettle cord off!)
While we have our RBA in front of us, it's a good time to show you the coil and what it actually looks like. And, what happens when you press the fire button:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCWE7eQap2E
It doesn't actually glow Orange like that when you're using it, the juice keeps it cool but it's handy to show what it does. By the way, it doesn't pulse like that either, that's just me pressing the button Five times.
RDA's (Rebuildable Dripping Atomiser)
So, same thing again, a coil fired by a battery and a wick to feed it juice. This one is a little different though, in that there is no tank to hold the juice. The juice is dripped onto the wick, hence the name. Although, some will contain "juice wells" to hold a few drops of juice and save you topping them up quite as frequently.
And, the point? Well, better flavour and vapour production is the claim.
Mechanical mods (mechs)
So, these must be the really advanced things then? after all, they're nearly at the end of the guide.
Well, yes, and... no.
They are actually the most basic of devices. No fancy electronics, just a battery and a switch. And that's it!
But, that's what makes them an advanced device. The only way to adjust the power (heat) from your coil with a mech, is to change the coil itself. Different thickness of wire, multiple wires etc, will alter the resistance (and therefore heat) of the coil.
But, there are no fancy electronics to protect you. If you get a short on our chummy little regulated device above (by the coil touching the deck for example) it just won't fire.
Get a short on a mech, however, and it will quite happily fire. Straight into a dead short which with the li-ion batteies used in vaping can lead to it exploding.
It doesn't have to even short, just by exceeding the maximum capacity of the battery, they can go bang, quite easily.
So, it's critical to understand all the theory before playing around with mech's.
You can stick a regular clearomiser tank on a mech mod, there's absolutely nothing stopping you doing that. Only snag is you won't be able to adjust the power output, and it will tail off as the battery dies because it isn't regulated. But, as ever, it's whatever works for you!
Cloud chasing and sub-ohming.
This is where the mech's are really supposed to shine.
By building very low resistance coils, and pushing the batteries hard within their limits, you can make a coil get very, very hot.
This means you can get large clouds of vapour which has evolved into its own little specialist division of "cloud chasing," blowing as large a cloud of vapour as you can. There are even competitions in it!
This really is the loony end of the vaping spectrum though.
In a regular clearomiser, the resistance of the coil will be somewhere around 1.5-2.5 ohms. a cloud-chasers "sub-ohm" build could be down at 0.1 ohms, or even lower.
This is where an extremely good understanding of batteries, and their pulse rates is needed. Certainly not something to jump into straight away!
Also, there is a possibility that because of the far higher temperatures these things can heat your liquid to, there may be an increased risk of harmful substances being produced.
But, in case you're wondering, that's what it is.
What's the point? well, it's a bit of fun!
Clones
Another word you'll see a lot on here. Clones are copies of an original device. Either because they're a whole lot cheaper, readily available, or both. (some original "high end" devices are extremely difficult to get hold of as well as being eye-wateringly expensive)
Shinyitus.
I can't possibly leave this guide without touching on the shinyitus that you'll see mentioned again and again on the forums.
This terrible affliction leaves sufferers destitute and isolated from friends and family.
Victims are often seen drooling, guiltily, over web pages of shiny new kit with a vacant, longing stare in their eyes.
My God, what is it? can I catch it? is there a cure?
Basically, sufferers cannot resist buying more and more shiny vaping kit. Early symptoms are that despite having so much kit that you're unable to remember just how many devices you own, you're still to be found every day, curled up under the letterbox waiting for your long suffering postie and the next shiny purchase to fall into your trembling hands.
There is no known cure, best thing is just to let it run its course, it will subside, in time.
Some people are immune to it, these people need to be studied and their DNA extracted so that a cure for sufferers can be worked on. Until such a cure is found, be vigilant.
In all seriousness, vaping is what you make it. There is absolutely no need to "work your way up," the only goal is to find the kit that puts you in your happy place.
For some, getting involved in absolutely everything is part of the appeal. If you love to tinker, to learn and to explore new things, you may find that you want to experiment with absolutely everything, and that's fine, if that works for you.
But don't feel compelled to, it's not compulsory. Your vaping is your thing, do it your way!
Personally, I've loved it. I found the distraction of learning about everything was a great way to take my mind off smoking, whilst the vaping kept me sane and gently pushed me further and further away from smoking.
And, now? I'm over Two Months quit and I don't even want to smoke. And as the Worlds most dedicated smoker, I never, ever thought I'd say that. Vaping worked for me
So.... all that waffle... has it helped? I hope so.
There are a load of useful guides here that go into depth on all of these aspects, and more. But, hopefully, it's given you a little bit of insight into what seems a World of confusion.
And, of course, never hesitate to get involved with, and post on, the forums. They're a fantastic crowd of people here, they really are. There's never a shortage of vapers to help and advise you, offer their assistance on specific matters, praise your efforts or laugh along with you at your mistakes.
So, what are you waiting for? get posting!
Last edited:
