I got my Magma setup on Tuesday, and I’ll chime in with my experience so far.
The cartridges aren’t that great. Had I not purchased a drip tip and some sampler packs of juice from Eliquidplanet, I think I would be pretty discouraged already. I have some blue foam on the way (Marineland Rite-Size U Bonded Foam Sleeve, Balthisar. They’re aquarium filter sleeves.) and I’m hopeful that they make a significant improvement, but dripping is far more satisfying.
The atomizer definitely sucks at first. Before it was broken in, both drip and cart were far from satisfactory. I kept at it, and was pleasantly surprised when it finally “worked.” If you’re getting a tiny bit of vapor out, regardless of the reason, it’s not working. You should easily have enough to blow rings.
Hands down, the biggest improvement for me is the manual batteries. The way I smoke, they have a bigger effect than cart vs. drip. I don’t know if I’m an anomoly, but I don’t take smoke (or vapor) directly into my lungs. I draw it into my mouth first, and this works much better with manual batteries. The manuals have a button that cooks the juice as long as you press it. With the auto, you have to have a fair amount of pull to activate the atty, and that’s harder to accomplish with a mouth pull. With the manual, I can activate the battery and draw slowly enough to fill my mouth with vapor. I can’t do that with the autos. Unfortunately, the manual batteries (at least the ones I received) are just a tiny bit longer than the M-Pack can close over. I’m hoping I can find a solution here for the sake of portability.
Overall, I’m digging it quite a bit, but auto batteries are a deal-breaker and I’m not too happy with the polyfill carts. GESancMan, stick with it until you get it working. If you have bottled juice, you can still drip. Two drops on the atty, let it sit for a couple minutes and pull straight from the atty. The tip gives you a bit of room between your lips and the atty and is definitely worth getting, but it’s not required.
You should give it a shot dude. However in my vast knowledge after two days of vaping, I would recommend this:
The Deluxe ($79.99 SPECIAL) kit includes:
(1) Gift Box (Who cares? It’s a box.)
(2) M-Batteries (2 @ 11.99 = 23.98)
(1) M-Pack (14.99)
(1) Atomizer (7.99)
(1) Wall Charger (8.99)
(1) USB Charger (4.99)
(25) Cartridges in the strength and flavor of your choosing! (5@ 3.99 = 19.95)
= $80.89 -79.99 = I saved 90 cents!
Here’s how I would do it over, if I wanted to test the waters:
(2) Atomizers (2@ 6.99 = 13.98)
(1) USB Pass–through (12.99)
(1) Stainless Drip Tip (4.99)
(1) Bottle of 10-15ml juice (8.99-12.99)
= $40.95-$44.95, and you must vape near a USB port until you decide if you dig this enough to drop more cash on portability. Seems like a good place to start, in my opinion. Add a $12 battery and a $5 charger if you want a longer leash. I wish I had done the math before ordering.
Buy this stuff. Screw the USB pass-through into the atomizer. Drip two and only two drips of juice on the bridge of the atomizer. Cap the atomizer with your drip tip. Wait a couple minutes and press the button on the USB pass-through. The LED at the tip will light up. Draw slowly, and then inhale.
It will be a slow start as the atomizer breaks in, but it’s awesome dude, you’ll love it. Eliquidplanet sells 24mg juice that will get you a nico-buzz you haven’t had since you were a new smoker!
That’s a referral link. Strictly for a tiny bit of personal gain if you order through it. I certainly wouldn’t object if you skipped my referral in favor of Spit’s, or none at all. As a pack a day smoker, I’ve had 8 real cigs in 2 days. Haven’t missed the other 32 a bit.
Until recently and discounting the times I’ve quit, I’ve been smoking cigarettes for just over half of my life. I had no idea that there was really any other way to smoke. Out of curiosity, I just tried direct inhaling into my lungs. That doesn’t seem to work so well. It’s like trying to breathe through a constricted straw.
So if I’m also an anomaly, then maybe my “bad” battery is really good after all, and that’s another reason to get a manual. By “bad” I mean I have one that’s considerably harder to draw than the other.
Eh- not a problem at all. I am getting to where I only puff 2mg or 0mg, so I am almost off anyway. I just hope that y’all have the same success I had.
The big battery is what makes a Magma a Magma. The V-Pack is a smaller battery, which means less power, and a smaller hit. My current setup is nothing like the starter pack- You tend to start mixing & matching parts pretty quickly. Mine reminds me of the Johnny Cash song, One piece at a time.
They reduce evaporation. I carry carts that are preloaded with me in my pack, but I only use them when I cannot drip. Without the caps, i wouldn’t have much juice left after a week of them being in my pocket. They would also seep if the pack were upside down for a prolonged period.
This was answered already, but here is a link to the foam you want. I purchased mine from Petsmart (Or possibly Petco). 3 sleeves has lasted m6 months, with only 1 & 1/2 sleeves used.
If you want a bigger throat hit it might be better to try something other than a 501. My most used one is the Joye Stick, also known as a Janty Stick. You can find lots of reviews on YouTube.
That is not my review … just one I picked at random. Well, not entirely at random; I actually chose it because I can’t understand a word he is saying but he shows the vapor nicely.
The link to heaven-gifts is not an affiliate link – I recommend them only because they are a highly regarded supplier on the ecig forums and I have been entirely satisfied with their stuff and their service. Prices are very fair. Shipping from China means you do need to order enough to make it worthwhile. Orders tend to arrive in 3 to 5 days.
This goes for me as well, and I’ve been smoking for about 28 years. I’d never heard of trying to inhale directly through a cigarette, and I can’t imagine it would work very well (not about to try it).
Well, this is embarrassing. I’ve seen on the forums, and in a couple of videos, how to line up the cartridge when putting it on the atomizer. It turns out I got it backwards. :smack: With my latest cart, I did it correctly, and I’m actually getting some feeling when I take a drag, even beyond the first few hits. It’s still not as strong as I’d like, but I now have hope.
Link? I mean, as far as I can tell, there’s only one way to put the cartridge into the atomizer. Is there something more subtle that maybe I’m doing wrong?
I was doing it the other way. From a video I saw, I thought I was supposed to line up the “long” part of the cart with the length of the bridge. Then I looked at this again and did a :smack:.
Thanks, GESancMan. I’m not too sure I understand from the link, though. The carts that Volcano sent me are basically circular, with the two inhalation channels at opposed sides. I guess they’d get close to the wick, but the linked-to article mentions that it’s only a problem on the higher-voltage attys due to the higher temperatures. Are the Volcano attys higher temp?
In any case, my e-liquid and drip tips arrived yesterday! I’m now convinced that that’s the way to go. As a result, Volcano’s going to have a good month, because as a result I’ve ordered some manual batteries and some other goodies.
No smoking update: I’ve not thought of an analogue since Tuesday night when they ran out!
It took two weeks, but I finally got through my initial 25 cartridges, and started dripping and modding a cart today.
This rocks! Now I think I can say goodbye to cigarettes!
I think I put too much juice in my modded cart, though. When I’ve used it, I’ve had to quickly puff quite a bit before getting a decent hit, as if I’m smoking a cigar, and I can hear it gurgling. No problem, though - just remove the cart and put the drip tip on, and burn off the excess that way. I’m sure I’ll figure it out and get used to it.
That’s great news! My drip tips arrived just the other day, and I like them – a lot. It’s a pain when driving, though (well, would be; I’ll never try it). I did pick up some blue foam today, though, and modded my first cartridge. This is a definite improvement. If I do all of my cartridges, I may not have a reason to drip. I have a four-hour car trip tomorrow, so I’ll try to mod some more cartridges, even though my caps haven’t arrived yet.
Damn, my caps and USB passthrough and manual batteries are supposed to arrive tomorrow, but I won’t be back home until Thursday!
I have absolutely no desire to smoke an analogue since they’ve run out. This is my third time “seriously” quitting smoking, and although I realize I’m still hooked on the nicotine, this is by far the easiest (the last two times – and they stuck for a while – were with different drugs, which both altered my mood in negative ways).
Protip: (Which I may have mentioned before) Use a small piece of foam in your drip tip to catch the excess mist build up. It will wick back to the atty, instead of just sticking to the sides of the tip and being wasted.
Uh, they’re not legal in Canada? Today’s four-hour car trip brought me into Canada (Ontario specifically), and I was looking forward to going out for a meal pretty soon. Hope they don’t get taken away.
