E-Cigarettes

In My Humble Opinion
81

I’m liking the “press, release” concept- It is what I use with my USB passthru, which (duh! I forgot) is a manual. I have used it with my battery as well, with no issue, although may need to look a bit closer and make sure I am not doing any damage.

I use the dry burn method to dry off a rinsed atomizer, which is great when you are in a hurry- but is not something a newbie should probably try, or you may damage your atty.
Speaking of cleaning, I tried a little different method night before last that has worked quite well.

I have described my method of tossing the atty’s in alcohol overnight, but this time I rinsed them first to clear out any liquid, since it had only been a few moments since I dripped.

Wow! You know how I have been telling you guys that atty performance will creep up on you if you do not clean your atomizer daily? Well, it happened to me even with my regimen.

My best guess is that when I go directly to the alcohol, it has to break down all of the juice that is already in there before it can really “clean”. By rinsing it first it got the majority out, which made the alocohol more efficient. My first draw this morning on one of them had me coughing like a teenager behind the shed. I do not think I will take the time to do it every day, but at I will be doind it at least once per week from now on.

82

You could contact Volcano and see if they will. A percursory search of the checkout would make it appear that they do not, but they are so helpful who knows?

83

Awesome! We may end up having to have a dope/vapefest. :cool:
On the referral note- I appreciate it, but the fact that y’all are trying these is payment enough. It worked for me, it has worked for several of my friends, and it can work for you*.

We are saving lives here, people! :smiley:
*and again, if it doesn’t help you quit, at least you have some way to smoke in the bar/office/public space.

84

I forgot to comment on this earlier.

This could be few things:

  1. Are all of your atomizers doing this? If so you may need to puff a few hours to get the atty’s broken in. I have had a couple that weren’t so hot out of the box, but after about an hour the were smokin’ right along.

  2. If all of your atty’s are broken in, and you are still having the problem it could be the cartridge. Taking them on & off crushes the filler, which can make for a hard draw. Pull the filler up a bit with a paperclip, and be sure the foil is out of the way.

  3. If all of the above is cool, try this: Take 1 drop of liquid, and put it directly on the atty wick. Pop out the insert of the cartridge, so that you are left with just the outer casing, put it on the atty, and see if you still have the same trouble. If you do, then this would be the most serious of the 3 possible problems- The battery itself.

I bought a bunch of batteries from various places, and I have had 2 of them go “Bad”- one right out of the box. They will come on, but I had to suck like a tornado to get anything. This is when the friendly customer service that I was talking about earlier comes in to play. You will have a replacement shipped to you so fast your head will spin. (This is also why it is a good idea to have at least two batteries, so that if one ever does croak, you won’t be tempted to grab an analog)

FTR, most of my batteries probably have in excess of 20 hours on them. I calculated that by 10 mins per smoke X 6 sessions per day, and it is probably VERY conservative. In fact, one of mine has lasted since July or so, and there is no noticeable degradation of performance.

85

holy cow!! Thank you :slight_smile:

I haven’t smoked inside for years and years, and have no intention of starting again just because I can. It is more the habit of ‘getting away for a few minutes’ that is hard to break.

This is so perfect; thanks to you and everyone else who has contributed to this thread. :slight_smile: I don’t even inhale much…I, too, do the ‘suck with mouth, inhale tiny bit and blow rest out’ method, so I will start with a very low nicotine hit.

Thanks again, all, and I will subscribe to the page and, and I am sure, have lots of dorky questions next month when I get the kit.

Also, if this works alright for me, I will be buying kits for my mom and her husband, both of whom cannot seem to quit even though they both have very serious lung issues due to smoking.

This is fricking awesome. <3

86

I’m still having problems with throat hit. When I put on a new cartridge, the first 5 or 10 drags are awesome - it feels just like a real smoke. After that, it drops off, and I barely feel anything, if at all. I’m still getting the flavor and blowing out a good sized cloud of vapor, it just feels like I’m smoking air.

I’m trusting in what I’ve been told: that once I mod the carts with the blue foam, or start using a drip tip, I’ll have a better and more consistent experience. But until I get some consistency, I can’t see cutting out real cigarettes altogether.

Anyway, I want to share this tip I came across, which helps a little bit: if you’re not getting any throat hit, take the cartridge off and push the filler down as far as you can - I use the rounded end of my paper clip for this. Then pull it back up to the rim of the cart. This soaks the filler a bit better, and provides a few more decent hits (though not as good as those first few).

87

I just ran across this post on Volcano’s forum. It seems that using rubbing alcohol to clean atomizers isn’t a good idea, after all.

88

Dumb question… how do I know that a cartridge is empty? No more vapor produced, or can you still get vapor from inhaling atmosphere?

89

Yep, no more vapor … possibly a vague taste of burning plastic if you persist in puffing long enough to heat up the dry fluff … not that I did that on my first one. :wink:

90

This has been covered to death on various forums- The general consensus seems (and it is certainly my opinion as well) to be that if an atomizer has a lifespan of one month, what is the big deal if it fails 3 months down the road? It still lasted two months longer than it should have. Besides, having left mine for literally hundreds of hours in alcohol without any problems, I think I will stick to my plan. YMMV.

91

Another thing you can do is after 5 drags or so, flick the Magma, so that gravity will force more juice on to the atomizer.

The reason you are having that problem is two-fold. First, the poly-fill is what it is, and needs to be replaced with blue foam. It crushes easily, it doesn’t have a good draw, etc.

Second, after a time you tend to only pull maybe 5-10 times on it. I’m not sure how many times I would puff on an analog- quick math says around 30- but I gradually got to where I was puffing less and less so it was no longer an issue. However, when you are new, you puff a LOT, and you end up drying out the atty very quickly. Give it a few taps, or a flick of the wrist- Simply giving it some time to wick more juice cures the problem. (Until you start to get low, in which case you do the paperclip method)

92

For what it’s worth, I’ve been using these things for a couple of years and I have never cleaned an atomizer. Sometimes they last a month, sometimes two or three. I have also had an ecig that uses a cartridge that contains an atomizer, called a cartomizer, so each new cartridge replaces the atomizer.

About $6 for a new one, or spend time cleaning every day … attys are too cheap for me to bother cleaning.

Batteries also have a life span; maybe 100 charges or so, sometimes maybe 300.

93

I do the “thermometer flick” all the time; it does nothing.

Besides you saying it, I’ve also read on the forums that the main problem is that these pre-filled carts just suck. My plan has been to get through the initial 25 carts before I start modding them; I’m afraid if I try a modded one first, I’ll never get around to finishing off the pre-filled ones. So I’m making myself suffer, and trying to get the best I can out of them. :slight_smile: Problem is, it’s taking a lot longer than I thought it would - it’s been a week now, and I’m only a bit more than halfway there. I’m still going through half a pack of cigarettes a day, though (compared to 25-27 a day previously).

I’d hate to waste them, but maybe I should just say “screw this,” empty out my remaining carts, and get on with it.

94

I cannot find the video anymore, but there was a guy on youtube who used to buy regular carts, then mod them instead of using bottles to refill. (Don’t ask me why)

He took a pack of carts, and ripped the foil off of them. He then took out the poly-fill, and put it in a syringe. At that point, you can squeeze the juice back in to the inserts, and mod with blue foam.

Might help in the interim.

95

If you have juice, you could try just putting some on the cartridge you’re using. Put in 6 or 8 drops and try it. If it improves, put in 6 or so more until you find the point that is too much. Once you get to too much, you can just take off the cartridge and blow out the excess into a paper towel.

96

Update: so my analogues are gone, and I’m trying to be 100% on my Magma now. I’m still on the starter cartridges, but like GESancMan plans, I’m going to get my way through those, and then try dripping. In fact, I just ordered a couple of drip tips, a couple of extra attys, and a variety of liquids from Volcano.
I know everyone’s style and consumption are different, but roughly how long is 15 ml of e-liquid working for each of you?

97

I have so many different flavors, it is difficult to judge. If I were to just puff on one bottle, I would guesstimate my usage would be a bottle every 3-4 weeks. When I first started vaping, it would likely have only lasted perhaps 2 weeks or a little less. Of course, when I started I was still smoking analogs along side of the e-cig, so it is tough to gauge. If I had just stopped smoking analogs entirely, my intake would likely have been quite higher.

I do a modified drip/foam for the most part. Dripping entirely burns through a lot of juice from waste- You will see the juice collecting on the inside of your tip if you get a clear one. I take the shell of a cartridge, push in a piece of dry foam to catch the residue, and away I go.

I am currently puffing on some Cherry Lava from Volcano, and DAMN is this tasty! I may have a new favorite over Blue Water Punch.

98

After reading this thread (and despairing over my failed New Year’s resolution to quit smoking), I took the plunge and ordered a Volcano Inferno Kit. The tanks are easy to fill and the vapor hit is huge and quite flavorful. In the past week I’ve been using it, I went from a half-pack a day outside in the freezing cold to just 4-5 vape sessions daily in the warmth of my apartment/office, no longer reek of smoke, and my smoker’s hack is nearly completely gone. In my current tank is CinApple and it’s outrageously delicious.

Thanks to everyone in this thread!

I highly recommend the tanks, by the way. So simple.

99

Okay, so I’ve been with my Magma since Friday, and I have all of this to offer, as well as a few questions later on:

It’s currently Thursday night. I finished my analogues on Tuesday night. I was snowed-in all day Wednesday, and with my Magma, I had zero inclination to run to 7-Eleven to spend $7 on a pack of Marlboro Lights. And of course, all day today I’ve been fine.

So far, one cartridge isn’t one pack. Three to four cartridges seem to be one pack, at least for Volcano’s “medium” 8 mg cartridges.

When I originally ordered, I wasn’t sure of the nicotine dosages, so I simply ordered “medium” because although I smoked Marlboro Lights, I used to smoke Marlboro Mediums (not even sure they makes those any more). However by accident (either my own or Volcano’s) the Waikiki Watermelon is “high” and I like its punch much better.

I do have a hard time knowing when I’m “done.” As mentioned in this thread, that seems to be pretty common, and my understanding is I’ll know as I go.

Also as mentioned in the thread, once the atty is broken in, it works great! So do as I did and GESancMan did: finish off your analogues, but work on breaking in your atty.

I vaped at work in my cubicle today. No one noticed anything, and the few times that anyone walked by, no one said anything. When a colleague walked in (a social-drinking smoker) I showed it to him and he was dumbfounded.

On Monday I let a chain-smoking Frenchman try my Magma (with a clean cart, of course), and he was impressed enough that I’m pretty sure he’s going to get one for himself.

Oh, I do think that the carts are empty before they stop producing vapor after all. Like mentioned by others, I just kind of get to know based on the vapor amount and quality.

Spit, re-reading the thread, I realize that you do get points for referrals, but I didn’t realize that when I bought! Sorry, especially because it was your recommendation that convinced me! And you’ve also been exceptionally helpful in this thread. I feel bad for having rushed things on the initial order and not paid attention.

Some more questions:

What makes a Magma a Magma? I think I’ve got a ship of Theseus. For example, I’ve ordered some drip tips. I may order a manual battery. That would leave me with the original atty, but I also ordered two more attys. I’m thinking that I no longer have the Volcano Magma, unless the real magic (the “heart of it”) is really in the atty. Or maybe the cool charging case?

What are caps for when refilling cartridges? Just so they don’t spill? I’ve not dissected a cart yet, but they seem pretty simple. And although I’m going to try dripping, I’m thinking that dripping and driving is probably not all that safe.

Blue foam from a pet store? Do I just go in and ask for blue foam? I’m guessing that the reason for this mod is better wicking and maybe a better draw. Okay, that’s cool, but I’m guessing that I’m going to look like a drug-addled maniac if I walk in and say, “hey, man, I’m told you sell blue foam here. What ya got? Where you keep the stuff, man?”

Finally, I deal with a supplier all of the time called “Magna” and it’s very hard for me to force myself to type “Magma.” I think I fixed them all, though.

100

I went to PetCo, and it’s on the shelf in the aquarium supplies section. They sell the actual filters (hard plastic) with the foam built in, and at first I thought that was all they had; then I found packages of just the foam on another aisle. It was $10 for a pack of three, and they’re about 8" square. The brand is Marineland.

To update my own experience: I still have six of the pre-filled carts to go, and I’m still smoking half a pack a day, because I can’t take the light-to-none throat hit. I like the syringe idea, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort or cost to go out and buy one at this point. I am wondering if I would have just dropped the analogs and gone full time with the Magma if I’d be used to it by now, but oh well. Like I said up thread, I’m seriously thinking of just saying screw it and trying out a mod tomorrow. I’d only wind up wasting five carts, that’s not so bad.