Tag Archives: ecigarette

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Choices, choices, choices

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

In fact, we’re seeing an unprecedented deluge of mods and atomisers from that part of the world with new models being announced on an almost weekly basis. And this is a problem. Well, to you this might not be a problem. To you problems might be what kind of curry to order tonight, whether to go with wine or beer and the fact that the postman still hasn’t delivered your vapemail.

In life I have three main problems: firstly, now the weather is nice I have the doors of the lounge open while I work. No problem there, you say. Now factor in the neighbours who shout a lot, have screaming children they swear at and possess the worst combined selection of music any person could have inflicted upon them. Odds are that you have or had neighbours like this or, if you are my neighbours, turn the damn tripe down.

My second problem is quite a challenging one – I own fourteen mods. No man or woman can possibly use all fourteen at once, not even in rotation. But the constant updates on websites make it impossible not to buy more. I’m currently waiting for my invoice from Mikro Engineering for my Challenger Mk.II – that’ll make it fifteen. To be honest, this isn’t the real problem it’s what it leads to.

It creates problem number three. It is the one thing that vexes me most about vaping. I’ve got a toolbox; in the top compartments I store my charged batteries and my drip tips. On the wooden rack I built from part of my daughter’s ex-bed sit my range of attys. So the issue is that at any given moment I have to choose one from fourteen mods, one of three different battery sizes, one from fourteen attys, one from thirty drip tips and one from twenty four flavours.

That’s 423,360 possible combinations.

Four hundred and twenty-three thousand three hundred and sixty possible vape combinations! This ridiculous array of options for a man who struggles to decide whether to have a Jal Frezi or a Madras. When standing in the drinks aisle I can never decide between imported or home-brewed beer. This is the first time I’ve ever looked at this as a number, frankly I’m stunned.

But this problem doesn’t sit there, there’s the option of whether to go for Voodoowool, cotton, mesh, A1 Kanthal wire (which diameter?), ribbon (which width?), number of wraps, what resistance I think I might fancy and if to opt for single or dual wicks.

And then there are aesthetic considerations. For example, there is no way you could get away with a blue drip tip on a tarnished brass Kraken sitting proudly on a red aluminium Nemesis tube with a polished stainless switch & stealth cap and a polished brass lock ring. One minute you’re constructing a set-up to vape with, the next you’re looking at something as gaudy as a house covered in Xmas lights

I probably spend more time pondering whether or not the combination goes together than I do wicking and vaping the thing.

Life was so much easier when all I had was a Vamo and a Protank. I need a 21st Century Kepler to plan out a simple law of mod selection; either that, or a 21st Century Brahe to threaten to run me through with a sword if I don’t make my choice in 60 seconds flat.

I haven’t even touched upon the time spent online window-shopping.

 

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A little bit of politics

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

If you do remember Saturday Night Live then you’ll also remember Harry Enfield’s character screaming out the 80’s slogan “Loadsamoney!”

The stakes are high. The latest figures, from 2012, say that we as a nation spent £15.1billion on tobacco and the current estimate is that vaping will overtake smoking by 2023.

In Wales there are moves to ban vaping from enclosed public spaces and work areas. Consequently, if this interests you, you might wish to watch to the speech given by Kirsty Williams to the Welsh Assembly where she says that there is “no justification” for a ban in Wales. As speeches go, and I try to avoid them if I can, it is a good one. Passionately, logically she explained the logical fallacies to the other members, pointing out that people vape “to help them stop smoking or helping them stay stopped.”

In stark contrast to the goings on across the Atlantic, where a lot of media coverage is being given to the notion of vaping being a gateway into smoking, Kirsty Williams told the assembled that there is “no evidence” that this is the case.

Additionally, if you feel so inclined, Public Health England published independent evidence papers on e-cigarettes, on the 15th May, which will form part of the terms of reference for any impending laws. Worth reading if you are interested or suffer from insomnia.

Finally, if you are new to all of the comings and goings, or have just got lost, the arguments are summed up very well on the Saveecigs blog, in response to some of the points made during the debate in Wales.

 

 

 

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Sub-ohm Vaping

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

Batteries

There are many places on the Internet where you can find out about batteries but this counts for nothing if you purchase a clone by mistake.

Brand names like Efest, Panasonic, AW, Sony, MNKE should only be purchased from highly recommended suppliers. Some brands like AW will only sell through authorised resellers and there was a spate of clones on the market recently. In short, do your homework.

There are many good forums like Planet of the Vapes and UK Vapers where people will answer your questions.

A good vendor will be able to provide you with the performance details about the battery. The good news is that there are a growing number of batteries able to cope with a constant current of up to 30amps. With all vaping, ensure that your battery uses “safe chemistry” and follow Rule.1: Never scrimp when buying batteries.

Ohms Law

From when you first started coiling your atomisers you ought to have drummed V=IxR into your mind, where V is the battery voltage, I is the current in amps and R is the resistance in ohms.

To find out what current you are sending through your mod you need to divide the maximum battery voltage (commonly taken as 4.2V) by the total resistance.

When you are measuring the resistance of your atomiser make sure that you use a quality ohmmeter (like this one) capable of reading to two decimal places.

Parallel Coils

If you don’t know how to work out the total resistance when you place coils into parallel (dual/tri/quad) then bookmark this page and it will work out the total resistance for you.

Current from a fresh 4.2V battery

Resistance

Current

0.95 ohm

4.40 amps

0.90 ohm

4.70 amps

0.85 ohm

4.90 amps

0.80 ohm

5.25 amps

0.75 ohm

5.60 amps

0.70 ohm

6.00 amps

0.65 ohm

6.50 amps

0.60 ohm

7.00 amps

0.55 ohm

7.60 amps

0.50 ohm

8.40 amps

0.45 ohm

9.30 amps

0.40 ohm

10.5 amps

0.35 ohm

12.0 amps

0.30 ohm

14.0 amps

0.25 ohm

16.8 amps

0.20 ohm

21.0 amps

0.15 ohm

28.0 amps

0.10 ohm

42.0 amps

Juice

When you are vaping at low ohms you might want to consider using a lower nicotine liquid than you would normally vape. The volume of nicotine entering your body is greatly raised and you can suffer from headaches and nausea. Serious cloud chasers often opt for a zero nicotine high VG liquid.

*Warning*

As a final caveat, in some research carried out by Doctor Igor Burstyn and Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos it has been identified that acrolein and formaldehyde are formed at high temperatures/low ohms/high currents/high voltages. Although there is more research to be completed in this area, to discover at what quantities and how harmful, it is one reason why some people shy away from low sub-ohm vaping.

 

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Options

Posted on by Rob Ellard

 

Thing is, and there’s a truism from football, that form is temporary and class is permanent.

I’m not a dedicated follower of fashion and resolutely refuse to accompany my daughter shopping. She’s 13 and apparently clothes are important to 13yr-old girls. I know this because I stood with her for twenty-three minutes and nineteen seconds as she attempted to decide which top to buy. Once, never again, will I spend twenty-three minutes and nineteen seconds before leaving the store and go listen to the radio in the car.

It’s got to that stage at home where my teenagers mock me for my clothes but I’m OK with that, it’s all part of my anti-fashion/anti-brand stance. My teen punk ethos bleeding into my middle age spread. Or so I thought.

As much as I refuse to countenance paying more than a tenner for a shirt or £20 on shoes I keep finding myself pulled out by the rip tide of vaping fashion into deep waters. One minute I was happy paddling with my Kayfun-lite, the next I’m sitting looking at a Dome wondering how on Earth it floated onto my desk. And then it struck me that I am my daughter; I spend far more time flitting from browser tab to browser tab comparing vape gear than she ever does with clothes. I’m not knocking the KFL, far from it. As someone who was using Evods and learning to swim in vaping circles I was given an almighty push in the back to flounder about with it.

The Kayfun, in its present iteration, is still the only silica atty I keep going back to again and again. Yes it dribbles a little bit from the fill hole even though Svoemesto have now put an o-ring there but it doesn’t have the hit or miss quality of the Taifun or the ridiculous size. I got a GT because everyone was going on about how they were better than Kayfuns and, being more sheeplike than the ones that cartoon wolf tried to steal (only to be pounded by the dog), I followed the crowd.

Now it’ll sit here on the desk and be used once in a blue moon either because of its bulk or because the exact same wick and coil set-up will dry hit or leak. More than anything I’ve learnt that going with the pack only leads to frustration.

It’s not an easy thing to do if you are me and have my vast list of bad choices I’ve made. If I just reel off the unaided vehicle-based decisions I’ve made you’ll get the picture:

  • A Vauxhall Victor estate – 2 months, dead in the drive
  • A Polski Fiat – 1 hour, died after one mile
  • A Moto Guzzi – three days, shaft seized
  • A Leyland Princess – one month, died on the A1
  • A second Moto Guzzi – died while doing 80mph in the outside on the M6
  • A Volvo 440 – died during test drive when I was selling it
  • Trust me, it goes on…

So, I was quite proud of myself that I gave the Aqua a wide berth. Especially when I looked at how fussy it was inside at a recent vapemeet. That was a real bullet-dodging moment for me. It ranks up there with the time I avoided being arrested with my mates, for driving around Northampton throwing lit bangers out of the window, on the way back from the pub.

It seemed a great idea at the time. Stupid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

This is the person who has lived through two major housing-price crashes and both times they came days after I bought a house. It wouldn’t have been so bad had they been decent houses but I opted for quirky and unique. People don’t buy quirky and unique. I should be kept away from money, decisions and cheap Chinese fireworks.

The second proper mech mod I bought fell into that quirky subset. I loved the design in the way a mother loves her hideously ugly baby. After two large price drops on the vendors website I couldn’t give it away. Well that’s not true because I have just given it away, no one would have bought it.

When it came to mods there was one I resolutely stayed away from, I didn’t buy a thing from Atmomixani because the world and her husband had one, real or clone. For months I resisted until my birthday loomed and the wife wanted to know if there was anything I’d like.

Figuring that I would never pay for a Nemesis I suggested it. What do you know? I made a decent call for once. But then you already know that because you’ve probably got one. I guess when you make the volume of poor choices in life that I do then some of them will come good; it’s like the roomful of monkeys with computers.

I’m doing myself a disservice. For a start I’ve never read a Dan Brown novel, watched Titanic, listened to One Direction or dialled to have a contestant evicted from a televised house/jungle. Not all my choices have been stupid.

The mods and attys I have now may not be anybody else’s cup of tea but what does that matter? The wick in my Pulse-G may look like a monstrosity but it’s my disaster and it vapes brilliantly.

Living in the now and exploring is what makes vaping the journey it is because, like travelling, the wrong turn can often take you to the most interesting of destinations. Just don’t follow my lead.

Dave Cross

 

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The Internet Vaping Community

Posted on by Rob Ellard

Warning signs for me is if there is a ‘sticky’ greeting me, telling me not to spam the forum. This aim of such a message is to let you know this group is serious and takes the stuff within even more seriously; that the Internet is serious business.

I can almost guarantee that within three posts of almost all of them I will see at least one reference to a certain large vendor based in Hong Kong. That’s the point I pull the ‘Leave’ button. I’m not making a value judgement here; people do what they want with their money. It has got to the point where not even Let Me Google That For You can raise a smile on my face.

But then you have Facebook groups like Coil. And, given the website you are reading this on, Stealthvape being a home to lovers of wire; I’ll wager you’d find it fascinating too.

Coil causes me a problem. Firstly they have the spam message and secondly they let me join. I have a Groucho Marx philosophy towards places that entertain my presence.

I’ve remained a member simply because whenever I feel I am engaging in something utterly pointless I can go into it and watch people doing things with wire which, to someone like my wife, are devoid of any purpose whatsoever.

The artist in me finds the time spent bending wire into incredible shapes so wholly engaging, entirely beautiful and altogether pointless. It’s glorious.

We all start vaping from roughly the same point and we rapidly understand that there is a better vape to be had out there. Like the people who scour the lives of the rich and famous in Hello magazine, we know there is better than the vape we currently have – something more akin to that draw on a post-coital cigarette.

But FB Coil Porn arrives at that point, drives past it, sticks its arse out of the window while questioning your parentage and telling you that you have stupid hair.

This is the quest for the perfect vape taken to extremes. This is the film ‘Perfect Storm’ starring George Clooney with Mark Wahlberg… only they are in a boat made of Caesium with ten Godzillas and it’s raining knives while being infected with necrotizing fasciitis.

Absolutely bonkers.

The thing is Facebook is more than that for vapers. We feel compelled to take pictures of our mods and attys. We take these pictures and share them with the world. We take them placed in funny places, we record videos of us using them and we display our vaping-related injuries like badges of pride.

Given that half of the pictures I see on a weekend have a vaping device placed next to a can or a beer glass it is no surprise that these injuries keep cropping up.

I like football and am a member of a couple of club forums but nothing like this exists in this sphere. Sure, there are those who will post up from time to time how many grounds they’ve been to – but they don’t come accompanied with pictures of extreme spectating.

  • “Look! Here’s a picture of me watching the match upside down – the whole 90 minutes!”
  • “That’s nothing – here’s a picture of me standing on one leg for the whole game“

And football fans just don’t ask the same questions online either.

  • “Guys, do you know if I can get in to see City play by buying my ticket from HongKongFooty.com?”
  • “Hello, I’m new here, I just wondered what football team you people would recommend I follow? I tried supporting Coventry but found it a bit boring and not exciting enough for me. Ta“

As vapers we seem to be an utter league apart from most normal folks. Online forums are the same, threads dedicated to coil builds and what’s underneath the cap.

In my entire time on football forums I’ve never seen one single thread asking if anybody plays football or watches it while going to the toilet!

Vooping?

Really?!

Anyway, enough of this, I am compelled to show you a picture of my build on my dual-wick Vicious Ant Kraken using 0.3mm Stealthvape Kanthal A1 wire 😀