Electronic cigarettes

Babby's first e-cig

How it werks: the battery heats up a coil, typically kanthal wire, to vaporize the liquid surrounding it. The liquid is commonly held in a silica, cotton, or steel mesh wick.

What you need: a battery, a charger, an atomizer, and some e-liquid.

Recommendations

• <$30
  • Ego-c twist
  • Kanger Protank
  • 510 Charger
• <$60
  • Vamo VV Mod
  • Several 18650 or 18350 batteries
  • Kanger Protank
  • Charger

Cigalikes

• $60
  • eRoll/eMini
  • Requires needle-tippled bottle heads for easiy fills of tank

Liquids

E-liquid, or e-juice, is made up of two main ingredients: Propylene Glycol (PG) and Vegetable Glycerin (VG), as well as natural and/or artificial flavorings. Some specialty liquids may also contain distilled water as a main ingredient.

PG is a low viscosity liquid and has many applications ranging from the suspension agent used in some inhalers, to an ingredient in FDA approved oral and topical medications, as well as a preservative in food and tobacco products. VG is a high viscosity liquid organic compound with applications ranging from use as a sweetener in foods, medications, soaps, and cosmetics.

As PG is a humectant it is recommended that you drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, as otherwise it is common to experience drying of the mouth, sore throat and some unproductive coughing (especially if you've recently quit smoking cigarettes.) If similar symptoms persist when hydrated, or become more severe e.g. sore or swollen mouth, face, gums, and/or back of throat, you should consider switching to a 100% VG concentration as you may be allergic or sensitive to PG.

The percentage of PG/VG is commonly 50/50, but what works best for you depends on your e-cigarette itself, personal preference, and their vaping properties. 100% VG puts out a lot of vapor, produces little to no throat hit, but mutes the flavor while 100% PG is the opposite. VG also has a relatively high resistance to the heat most atomizers put out, while a higher PG concentration might taste burnt at the same wattage.

Nicotine

Safety

See: Gwern on Nicotine

Recommended e-liquids

Flavor is subjective and boils down to personal taste: general e-liquid recommendations are hard and established preferences might not apply to e-liquid flavors e.g. one might prefer menthol cigarettes but dislike menthol e-liquid while preferring "tobacco" or coffee flavors. Your tastes will most likely change after you've quit smoking, or you might grow tired of a certain flavor, so it's recommended that you have several or more different preferred e-liquids. Mixtures and bases also vary among vendors so you may find that you prefer a fruit flavor from a certain vendor over others.

Only buy US or EU e-liquids, stay clear of Dekang shit. WESTERN WORLD STRONK.

Israeli and reptilian overlord liquids may also be acceptable.

Recommended brands for newbies in North America

MtBakerVapor - very cheap, good taste - customizable PG/VG blend

Fuzion Vapor - A little pricey, good taste - any liquid is available with menthol, which is a plus - all liquids are pure VG

AllAboutVapor - more expensive, very good taste - most (I think all, actually) liquids are 60PG/40VG - 5ml bottles are available at $2.95 a piece, good for trying a bunch of different flavors

Once again, taste is completely subjective, and you may not like anything recommended here; however, it's a good place to start, and remember that no two flavors are quite the same. Some flavors even vary from batch to batch.

DIY

• Propylene Glycol
• Vegetable Glycerin
• Distilled H2O
• Nicotine
• Rubber/Latex Gloves
• A place to cook, maaaan.

Atomizers

Cartomizers

Good place for new vapers to start. Most convenience store bought non-disposables use pre-filled cartomizers as "refills." Combines atomizer and an absorbent filler material which supplies the heating coil with liquid. Cartomizers themselves are disposable yet can usually be refilled several times before needing replacement. Cartomizers have been known to burn the filler material which freaks some people out.

Clearomizers

Bottom coil

• Kanger Protank
  • v2 seems to be shit, leaks, some have had success replacing original base with aerotank base. mini seems unaffected.
• Kanger T3S
  • Similar and cheaper than the protank, uses the same atomizer as the protank. Kind of iffy depending on the e-liquid. If it's too thick it won't draw into the wick and you'll get a burnt taste, too loose and it'll leak through to the battery. A mixed 50/50 liquid is preferred.

Top coil

• Mini Vivi Nova
• Kanger T2

Dripping Atomizers

Dripping atomizers are generally used for sampling flavors but they are preferred by many for their clean vape. Bridged atomizers have an additional piece of wicking material above the coil, while Bridgeless atomizers do not. Dripping is a convenience tradeoff, you will have to drip 3-4 more drops liquid into your atomizer very frequently.

• Cisco-spec

Atomizer Tanks

• AMP Tank

Rebuildable Atomizers

• Drunker Tank

Genesis

• RSST [Polycarbonate or Pyrex Tank]
• The Kraken
• AGA-t2

Bottom Fed Tank RBA

• Russian [91%]
• Fogger [v2, v3, v4]
• KayFun [lite, lite +, 3.1 ES]

Rebuildable Dripping Atomizers

• IGO-W
• IGO-L
• Nimbus
• Cyclone
• The Octopus
• The Omega
• The Patriot
• Trident

Batteries

• Efest IMRs
• AW IMRs
• Panasonic Hybrids
• MNKE IMRs
• Sony VC4

Chargers

• NiteCore
• TrustFire TR-001

---TrustFire chargers do not have overcharge protection. Avoid if you don't know what this means.---

Mechanical Mods

--- WARNING: MECH MODS MAY BE DANGEROUS WITHOUT PROPER SAFETY PRECAUTIONS. MAKE SURE TO VAPE WITHIN YOUR BATTERY'S AMP LIMITS ---

• Astro (Telescoping)
• k100 (telescoping
• Mortar (Telescoping)
• Bombshell (Telescoping)
• Panzer
• Nemesis
• Caravella
• Chi-You
• The Hammer (Also Hammer clones, 18350 only without extension tube)

Hybrid Mods

• Richman
• I-Hybrid

Regulated Mods

• Vamo
• Provari
• Selegei
• DNA 20/30
• MVP
• SVD

Rebuilding

Wicks

• Stainless Steel Mesh
• Cotton [organic or medical grade is encouraged to avoid possible pesticides, boiling is recommended regardless of source]
• Amorphous Silica
• Hemp
• Ekowool

Wires

• Kanthal
• Nichrome
• Titanium

External Links

The MAP | Vapers Rising - Community maintained map of brick and mortar shops dedicated to or with a selection of e-cigarettes and accessories