new vaper stuff.

So my post about what to buy needs an update, because some of those things are out of stock or other things have popped up.

To get started vaping, you need:

• a battery, preferably two, one for backup
• a charger
• a tank or topper to hold the liquid
• a dripping atomizer for tasting liquids before filling the tank, these usually come with a mouthpiece called a driptip.
• the liquid/juice

Yes, you DO need two batteries. The  dripping atomizer is the only thing on that list that isn’t an absolute necessity.

Batteries: I think it’s easiest to start with ego-style batteries. They fit almost everything and they’re not too huge or crazy to look at. They’re a bit wider than a camel wide in the hand, and you can get tiny short ones too if you really are dead set on something very small.

I’d suggest getting a variable voltage one as your main battery, and a mini as your backup. This gives you one that’ll last a long time and which you can make more or less powerful, and also one tiny one for stealthy use. As always, I am writing for Poor people. I’m giong to try to give you a shopping list all from one place, that doesn’t cost too much and ships fast. Here’s the twist, and here’s the mini battery. If you poke around that site a bit you will notice that you can get these in any color, pretty much.

They also have chargers. If you have read about batteries exploding and stuff like that, it’s because people are using the wrong battery with the wrong charger. Or using batteries that are off-brand…it’s just like a cell phone battery, really, or a laptop battery. Those explode all the time too, when people put them on the wrong charger or something. So use the right charger, the right kind of battery (the ones I’m talking about) and don’t leave it sitting underneath a pile of laundry all night. Basically if you wouldn’t do it with your cell phone, don’t do it with these.

Now, the easiest tank I’ve used is this one. But if you choose citrus-flavored liquid or cinnamon, it’ll crack the plastic. So you can get this one if that’s what you plan to try. They cost a little more because they’re glass. I’d suggest getting one of each, so you have two complete set-ups to use. You’ll unscrew the base of these, disassembling it into two pieces, and then pour juice into the tank part. The base has a little head, a heating element, that can wear down over time- you simply replace that part eventually. (Those run about a buck) And both of these use the same part for that, this one.

Then, for tasting, here’s the cheapest atomizer.  You just take off the mouth piece, and put a few drops into the tube, then puff.

Now we’re done with the shopping list for that place. For juice, a cheap place to start is this store. They have tons of different flavors, and you can order tiny bottles for about 2.50. That way you can taste a variety of things, and figure out what kind of stuff you like. Tobacco flavors are all right, but you’ll want to try juices that have a LOT of flavor – and you will probably find that stuff that is less like tobacco and more like other stuff you enjoy eating, satisfies you more.

If you smoke more than a pack a day, try starting with 24mg content. If you smoke a bit less than that, try 18, or 12mg. A good thing to do, is to get a bottle at 24mg and also a bottle of the same flavor at 0mg- that way you can mix them together until the juice satisfies you without overdoing it.

The liquid contains nicotine- so if you spill it on yourself it can make you feel mighty sick. If you spill any, wash it off or clean it up as soon as you can. I’ve had one major spill, and it gave me the shits and the pukes really badly for an hour or so. So be aware of where you keep and how you use the liquids.

Side note, I didn’t get paid anything to write this, feel free to search around for the same stuff from other stores too! If you don’t mind a very long wait, fasttech.com has some of this stuff very cheap- but it can take a few weeks to get to you. There are tons of juice vendors too. The things I listed here are things I’ve bought myself, from the exact same place I linked to- they didn’t pay me or anything, and I don’t get anything out of sending you there.  If you find someplace cheaper or better, let me know! If you don’t want to even read this whole post or can’t be bothered clicking on stuff, you can get a serviceable kit here, although it only has one battery- it’s priced decently for what it is. Or this one, if it’s in stock. That one has two batteries, and tanks that won’t crack- so it’s an even better price.

You will probably end up finding better juices, bigger or crazier strong batteries, monster tanks and atomizers you can rebuild and stuff. But to start with you really need to start simple, easy, so you can understand how it works by putting your hands on it. After that things make a lot more sense. If you are a building/tinkering type of person, you can go ahead and build your own ecig pretty easily, all you’d need then would be a tank or atomizer. Plenty of people use cartomizers (like the “filter” thing on the blu and other disposable ones) which you can get in blank, to fill with your own liquids.

You can paint these, plastidip them. You can get a pipe stem and carve it to fit them. There’s a lot of weird shit you can do, the information is out there- usually the sites selling this stuff don’t give much information on it, but you can look here or here for more discussion and building ideas.

A lot of people buuy “mods”, too. “Mod” used to mean “modified”, like the person built it themselves- but now there are tons of people selling them in mass-produced versions. I don’t know much about those, mostly because I’m not only new to this, but also Poor, and those are really just Nice Things for Rich People that do the same damn thing the Poor version does.

(oh yeah…if this helped you, buy me a cup of coffee! unless you’re too Poor, in which case I understand completely.)