My research guide and recommendations into making a great vape for a beginner

What a journey it has been trying to find my perfect vape.

For two years now I’ve been rolling my own cigarettes, unfiltered with American Spirit tobacco. I smoke about 10 to 15 cigarettes a day. It’s time to save money and live better (Walmart?) and I’m ready to get into vaping.

So, as someone that’s never vaped before, I had to do a lot of research. This is my research journey into my first experience buying a vape.

FIRST STEP: WHAT KIND OF VAPING EXPERIENCE DO I WANT?

The first video I watched was “Beginner’s Guide to choosing your first vape kit” by Vape Club. This is the most concise, informative video I’ve found for describing each type of vape.

I decided to go with a vaping device that requires a mod and tank. This is because I wanted to try the wide variety of ejuices, something with high performance in flavor and clouds, and as I advance in my vaping I wanted something that would advance with me.

I decided to go with a tank that has replaceable coils versus needing to replace the tank, because coils would be less expensive and as I get the hang of it, I can learn how to make my own coils versus buy premade ones, so I know in the long run this will become much cheaper.

NEXT STEP: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEMPERATURE CONTROL MODS VERSUS WATTAGE MODS?

Temp control mods use less battery, less juice, but are more difficult to find tanks and coils that are compatible with it. They tend to be more expensive, and really it seems to be a good safety net for those that tend to want their vapes cranked all the way up consistently. So for myself, I figure if I don’t ignore clear signs of a problem- i.e. it’s getting too hot or making a noise — I can be responsible enough for guiding myself using wattage.

Quite an assumption of myself, but I have to make a decision.

The higher the wattage, the more power your vape is going to have. From many videos I’ve watched, I see that having 60 Watt is a great enough power for the kind of clouds I want to use, so I decided to find a device that can go to at least a 100w as I advance into vaping.

NEXT STEP: SO WHICH MOD SHOULD I GET?

The criteria I needed to fulfill: Can it get to 100w? Is it durable/long lasting? Is it cheap?

And man, did I find the one! After many videos, the most helpful one was “Vaping: iStick 100 & iPV D2 Great Mods Under $50.00!!” by RIP Trippers. Thank you so much for this video! If you do prefer a temperature control mod, the IPV D2 is your best bet! For me personally, I preferred the Eleaf istick 100W.

And CAN YOU BELIEVE, I managed to find this mod for only THIRTY DOLLARS!! I paid an extra $6 for expedient shipping via Rock Bottom Vapes.

NEXT STEP: WHICH TANK SHOULD I GET?

Read through this article to learn the differences between subohm and regular tanks. Based on the fact that I want higher cloud production and an airflow chamber, subohm was the one for me.

Choosing a great tank was a no brainer for me once I came across the Uwell Crown tank.

My only criteria was: does it hold enough juice to last for a day? Would it be compatible with the Istick I’m intending to buy?

I didn’t want to buy a powerful mod but lose the ability to experience all that power due to a less powerful tank, so could my tank handle a 100W?

The Uwell handles all of this, plus is compatible with stainless silver coils (good quality to price ratio out of all coil types) and comes with 2 extra coils and an extra quartz tank for only $15 bucks! To learn all about its specs, watch another RIP Trippers video specifically about the Uwell Crown.

And you can buy it here on Ebay.

VERY IMPORTANT STEP THAT I MISSED: GETTING BATTERIES!

So silly me didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that vapes require a special kind of battery. Not everything runs on Double A, who knew? So when I finally got my mod and tank, imagine my disappointment when I realized I didn’t have batteries for it. It requires 18650 batteries.

So I bought some on Amazon. And guess what- they didn’t work!

At this point, I had my vape and liquids for 3 days while I waited for my batteries to be delivered, only for them to not work. Desperate, I went to my closest vape shop.

Turns out the batteries I bought were not powerful enough and can damage my vape if I tried to use it! I bought 18650 5000mAh 3.7v batteries…. If it sounds like I’m gibbering a bunch of numbers at you, I am. I have no idea what mAh stands for, but as it turns out, a higher value of mAh means that it’s less powerful. So at the vape shop I bought 18650 2500mAh 3.7V batteries. If you know of a cheaper place on the internet for these batteries, please comment it below! I bought 2 batteries for $21 from the shop, which isn’t too bad.

NEXT STEP: ELIQUID

The best website for buying eliquids I found was VapeMall. I got a starter pack of 5 different bottles for $10. It’s perfect because you can choose what amount of nicotine you want in your juice without fluctuating the price. They have a huge selection of flavors with the best prices I’ve seen in the whole interwebs!

The flavors I chose were blackberry, peach, cucumber mint, butterscotch, and coconut cream pie.

BUT DON’T MAKE THE MISTAKE I DID! I read this very misleading article about choosing my nicotine levels. Under its sub-column “helpful chart that displays nicotine levels”, it is not a helpful chart at all, as it states:

“18mg/ml Nicotine [is] the middle of the road in terms of nicotine. Most vapers who were former smokers enjoy this level because it delivers the perfect amount of nicotine in each vape”

So I figured that something this high would be perfect for me. To reiterate, I smoke 10–15 unfiltered cigarettes a day for 2 years. So when I chose my ejuices, I ordered them to be 15mg.

So moment of truth… I’m at the vape shop, I have my vape perfectly assembled, with the correct batteries.

I put in the juice, and I puffed…. And I couldn’t stop coughing. It was the worst sensation I have ever felt, tears were going down my face.

The guy who was helping me told me that I’m likely inhaling incorrectly, doing it as I would a cigarette, and to inhale deeper. So I tried it again- and oh god, I rather not describe the amount of snot and tears that came out of my face. The guy decided to try it and he had the same reaction, he looked intensely amazed and was crying too. And for good reason — turns out 15mg of nicotine is an absurd amount!

It’s at this point I need to give a shout out to the two fellas in this vape shop. Their names are Greg and Chris over at Life Made A Little Easier, and boy were they great at their job. Chris cleaned out my tank for me and replaced the coil, while Greg allowed me to sample a variety of flavors. They presented to me how to correctly fill my tank and replace the coils, and had very friendly conversation. It was genuinely one of the best shopping experiences I’ve ever had.

I bought a 3mg nicotine 15ml bottle of Frozen Strawberry juice, the new coil, and the two batteries from this place. I couldn’t have been more satisfied.

Now my vape is all well put together. So to reiterate: I now have an iStick 100w mod with an Uwell Crown Tank, stainless steel coils, 18650 2500mAh 3.7V batteries, and 3mg nicotine Frozen Strawberry ejuice.

The whole thing cost me $80, but keep in mind that I did buy a few things from the shop. Though it was more expensive, it was well worth my friendly, helpful experience. But otherwise if you look online, I’m 100% positive you can find the batteries for maybe $10 less.

I hope these articles and videos and recommendations help you on your vaping research. Please share what you decided to buy and what you like about it.