OK so I recently passed the one year marker on my vaping journey and I thought I’d share my hardware experiences. Apologies in advance for the epically long post.
Some History…
Tried an ego pen stile setup back in 2014 but it just didn’t cut it for me, resigned myself to my 30 year, 30 a day Marlboro habit.
2015 comes around and with it a major health scare, consultant reliably informs me that smoking is to blame and I must stop immediately. My reaction is ‘sod you I’ll be the judge of that’ but in the ensuing months of convalescence, with plenty of time on my hands, I started to research vape options.
My first set up was a coolfire 4 along with an Aspire Atlantis tank… It worked… I stopped smoking on the spot, and I haven’t looked back. I’ll always have a soft spot for that setup and I still recommend the coolfire 4 (or later versions) to people who ask me about a good first mod.
So I’ve established that I like DTL, I prefer high VG and I’m happy at the 6mg nic level. I won’t go into detail on my juice preferences, because as we all know, taste is subjective. But it’s fair to say that my all-time favourite is Dark Stars apple pie and custard. We’ll leave it at that.
So… to the hardware…
Second setup is an original Eleaf iStick 100w topped with a crown 1 tank. A year on its still going strong, still in daily use, and the crown is my number two all-time favourite tank.
Next I was smitten by the cloud chasing capability of the TFV4, quad coil you say, I’ll have some of that, and I’ll sit it atop a SMOK XCube II, cos I’m a sucker for flashing disco lights.
I enjoyed this for a while but the tank was kinda leaky and the mod was kinda rattley, and I found myself reverting to the old faithful iStick and crown. Put me off Smok products ever since.
I decided I needed something smaller for out and about, at this point in time the you tube reviewers were suggesting that SMY had got over their quality control issues and the 60TC mini is not only… well… mini…, but it has a ‘vape speedometer’! What’s not to love?
So I need a relatively stealthy tank to go with the new mod and I plump for the Tobeco supertank mini. This is a revelation! It’s small, cheap and simple, holds 4ml of juice, and can take atlantis coils (which you can pick up anywhere), but more importantly the flavour is outstanding! In my humble opinion this is an unsung hero of a tank. There’s good reason it’s the number one bestselling tank in the U.S. of A. My favourite tank to this day.
So I’m happy with these setups, but new tanks hit the market and I try a few.
The Cubis: Like the ‘pour it in’ fill method and no leakness, but it doesn’t really do it for me, maybe more for the DTLers.
The Clieto: (As shown in the above SMY photo) Not bad at all, but the coils are expensive and the flavours not as good as the Tobeco so… Meh!
So I rub along with my two setups for a while, then Shinyitis hits.
Shiny, shiny, shiny. OK a bit of a marmite setup I’ll give you that, but it works well. 4500 mah mod and the tried and tested crown… It’s at this point that I come to the realisation that I just don’t need temperature control. Which is just as well because that’s the one thing the Telsa nano isn’t very good at! It comes out when I feel the need for some bling. Oh and it hasn’t exploded yet.
So three setups in use and happy with them all, but I get fed up with the poor battery life on the SMY (maybe the vape speedo isn’t such a good idea after all) and start the hunt for new a dual 18650 mod, eventually settling on the Cuboid.
I’ve had four of these, smashed one, lost one still got two. I like the weight, the screen and the performance. The much loved tobeco tanks sit nicely on top too… My preferred daily driver to this day.
Several months pass and I start to get the itch for something new, I consider a DNA200 device and I’m not put off by the slightly clumsy escribe software, but in the end decide its overkill, it’s not like I even use temperature control. Whilst researching DNA 200’s I come across Wismec Reuleaux, I’m liking the three batteries and the RX200s has just hit the market with its better screen so I ship one in, the snazzy red and black version!
Obviously I needed a new tank for this and the obvious choice was a crown II. The pros and cons of the crown II have been discussed ad nauseam all over the internet but suffice to say, my one leaked like a motherfucker and the flavour isn’t as good as the crown 1. Rapidly consigned to my vaping history.
To replace it, the Freemax starre pure peeked my interest, I liked the leak proofness and the alleged great flavour and the semi ceramic coil life. (The flavour is up there with the tobeco and I’m still on the same coil after two months, so far so good!)
So there you have it. If you’ve read this far I salute you. In fact I salute all the members of this most excellent and informative forum!
P.S. If I’m good, I’m hoping Santa will being me an Asmodus minikin 2 and the new 25mm Supertank mini for Christmas, and so the journey continues…
Some History…
Tried an ego pen stile setup back in 2014 but it just didn’t cut it for me, resigned myself to my 30 year, 30 a day Marlboro habit.
2015 comes around and with it a major health scare, consultant reliably informs me that smoking is to blame and I must stop immediately. My reaction is ‘sod you I’ll be the judge of that’ but in the ensuing months of convalescence, with plenty of time on my hands, I started to research vape options.
My first set up was a coolfire 4 along with an Aspire Atlantis tank… It worked… I stopped smoking on the spot, and I haven’t looked back. I’ll always have a soft spot for that setup and I still recommend the coolfire 4 (or later versions) to people who ask me about a good first mod.
So I’ve established that I like DTL, I prefer high VG and I’m happy at the 6mg nic level. I won’t go into detail on my juice preferences, because as we all know, taste is subjective. But it’s fair to say that my all-time favourite is Dark Stars apple pie and custard. We’ll leave it at that.
So… to the hardware…
Second setup is an original Eleaf iStick 100w topped with a crown 1 tank. A year on its still going strong, still in daily use, and the crown is my number two all-time favourite tank.
Next I was smitten by the cloud chasing capability of the TFV4, quad coil you say, I’ll have some of that, and I’ll sit it atop a SMOK XCube II, cos I’m a sucker for flashing disco lights.
I enjoyed this for a while but the tank was kinda leaky and the mod was kinda rattley, and I found myself reverting to the old faithful iStick and crown. Put me off Smok products ever since.
I decided I needed something smaller for out and about, at this point in time the you tube reviewers were suggesting that SMY had got over their quality control issues and the 60TC mini is not only… well… mini…, but it has a ‘vape speedometer’! What’s not to love?
So I need a relatively stealthy tank to go with the new mod and I plump for the Tobeco supertank mini. This is a revelation! It’s small, cheap and simple, holds 4ml of juice, and can take atlantis coils (which you can pick up anywhere), but more importantly the flavour is outstanding! In my humble opinion this is an unsung hero of a tank. There’s good reason it’s the number one bestselling tank in the U.S. of A. My favourite tank to this day.
So I’m happy with these setups, but new tanks hit the market and I try a few.
The Cubis: Like the ‘pour it in’ fill method and no leakness, but it doesn’t really do it for me, maybe more for the DTLers.
The Clieto: (As shown in the above SMY photo) Not bad at all, but the coils are expensive and the flavours not as good as the Tobeco so… Meh!
So I rub along with my two setups for a while, then Shinyitis hits.
Shiny, shiny, shiny. OK a bit of a marmite setup I’ll give you that, but it works well. 4500 mah mod and the tried and tested crown… It’s at this point that I come to the realisation that I just don’t need temperature control. Which is just as well because that’s the one thing the Telsa nano isn’t very good at! It comes out when I feel the need for some bling. Oh and it hasn’t exploded yet.
So three setups in use and happy with them all, but I get fed up with the poor battery life on the SMY (maybe the vape speedo isn’t such a good idea after all) and start the hunt for new a dual 18650 mod, eventually settling on the Cuboid.
I’ve had four of these, smashed one, lost one still got two. I like the weight, the screen and the performance. The much loved tobeco tanks sit nicely on top too… My preferred daily driver to this day.
Several months pass and I start to get the itch for something new, I consider a DNA200 device and I’m not put off by the slightly clumsy escribe software, but in the end decide its overkill, it’s not like I even use temperature control. Whilst researching DNA 200’s I come across Wismec Reuleaux, I’m liking the three batteries and the RX200s has just hit the market with its better screen so I ship one in, the snazzy red and black version!
Obviously I needed a new tank for this and the obvious choice was a crown II. The pros and cons of the crown II have been discussed ad nauseam all over the internet but suffice to say, my one leaked like a motherfucker and the flavour isn’t as good as the crown 1. Rapidly consigned to my vaping history.
To replace it, the Freemax starre pure peeked my interest, I liked the leak proofness and the alleged great flavour and the semi ceramic coil life. (The flavour is up there with the tobeco and I’m still on the same coil after two months, so far so good!)
So there you have it. If you’ve read this far I salute you. In fact I salute all the members of this most excellent and informative forum!
P.S. If I’m good, I’m hoping Santa will being me an Asmodus minikin 2 and the new 25mm Supertank mini for Christmas, and so the journey continues…
. (Well, not ordinary tobacco anyway, SSHHH 
