Vivacious Vaper

Adventures (and Misadventures) in Vaping

[vivaciousvaper]

Pigeonholed!

Let me be clear about something…just because I’m a woman, does not mean that I want or need to vape on that girly cig-alike crap. I don’t even like vaping on e-go style batteries. Yesterday, I was approached by someone whose machismo was so overwhelming, I could immediately tell that he was the condescending type. And I was right. Let me start by updating you on the fact that I have officially started building sub-ohm coils! (yay me!) As a result, my clouds are the biggest I’ve ever blown. Woot. So there I was, minding my business and vaping happily along (after burning my finger btw) when this dude starts asking about my mod. Normally, the nerd comes out and I will enthusiastically and quite giddily explain what my mod is and how it works and that’s what happened…until he saw me blow a big cloud. And then suddenly, I was Joan of fucking Arc, trying to gain access to the sausage fest that is cloud chasing….J’accuse!!! He seem perturbed by my knowledge of the vaping world and that bothered me. I understand that a majority of the women that vape, are into the cutesy stuff—the slim, sleek, cig-alikes, the e-go style batteries, and the e-cig charms—but that is not me. I love the power that a mech provides and I have no shame in admitting that I feel a rush of pride when I blow these huge clouds. I know I said before that I don’t consider myself a Cloud Chaser because I’m more into flavor and that hasn’t really changed. Instead, I’ve just been able to find a great balance between the two. So back to rage-inducing encounter. We talked a little bit about the builds and setups….and wouldn’t ya know it—he didn’t even build his own coils! That made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. How dare he try to shove me into this sub-sect of vaping, where women must not know much about what they’re doing beyond what e-juice they like best?!?! Ultimately, it always goes back to not wanting other people to dictate how I vape. Especially, if you don’t even know how you achieve those big clouds coming out of your ignorant piehole. Ladies, whether you vape on something tiny or something big and powerful…don’t let anyone stop you. And now my little rant is over. My next entry will be an interview with a friend from Diamond Vapor! ‘Til next time, Sweeties! Vape on. =^_^=

[vivaciousvaper]

Here is my baby—my Kylin (it’s a clone of course, more about that later) and vaping on my all time favorite coil, the Tricro. I, personally, call it the Mickey Mouse but that would be because I’m a 7 year old trapped in a 23 year olds body.Anyway, the flavor I’ve gotten on this coil is phenomenal and the added airflow helps to provide a much cooler vape, which I absolutely adore. Now, I’ve built this coil in two sizes, more or less. The first, my two top coils were micro coils, with the bottom being a macro and that would come in at about 1.9 ohms. It took a long time to actually heat up as a result so I wasn’t pulling very much vapor. So I finally sucked it up and painstakingly built a new one…it sank into the swamp, so I built a second one–that one burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp…but the third one, the third one stayed up!!!! Well, I got it looking all gorgeous and what not. And I have to say…stabbing myself with that stupid pin while trying to wrap two nano coils on top of a slightly unstable micro coil, was so worth it. =^_^= The vape is beautifully cool, the flavor is amazing, and although I am by no means a Cloud Chaser, I must say (rather proudly ^__<) that I am producing some pretty badass clouds. It comes in at 1.3 ohms consistently with every build of this size so far. Which for me, is pretty perfect. As you can see, I gave in and tried Krankberry, and I can completely see now why everyone has dubbed it Crackberry!! It’s delicious. Like a blue raspberry slushie–coolness and all. It’s my current ADV but once I finish that, I know I’ll be going back to Grimm Creations’ Run and Hide. great pineapple exhale…if you haven’t tried it, I suggest going to find a bottle. It was my ADV for almost two months. Now, about my clone. I know there are a lot of people that are so anti-clone, they would bite my head off…but quite frankly, affording the real thing isn’t always easy. Now, the Kylin isn’t really all that expensive, actually it’s about twenty bucks more than what I paid for my clone (at least what I’ve seen from research). I’ve thought about getting it but truly, what’s the point now? It kind of goes back to not telling me how to vape. I’m all for supporting the real thing, don’t get me wrong. So for all of you purists out there, don’t flay me alive for using what I can afford. Eventually, I plan on buying the real thing. Pinky Promise!

Well, this post is pretty much at an end but I wanted to do a bit of a shout out. New to Jacksonville, NC is the Diamond Vapor E-CIg Lounge. They have an amazing staff that’s wonderfully knowledgeable. If you’re in J-Ville, stop in and let them help you out. It is a favorite hangout for my husband and I and we tell everyone we know to head there for their e-cig needs. ‘Til next time, Sweeties. Vape on. =^_^=

[vivaciousvaper]

Don't Tell Me How to Vape

I want to preface this by thanking my husband for his recent guest post “Vape Safe”.  Definitely agree that more people need to pay attention to vaping safety.

Now..I have always been stubbornly protective about a lot of things. Most particularly, things that I am passionate about. Vaping–well, I’ve definitely found a passion for it. One of the things that I have found infuriates me where vaping is concerned is when I hear people trying to shame someone else into vaping the way that they do. I started vaping casually when my husband decided to quit smoking almost a year ago (So proud of you baby =^_^=) and steadily, I grew as he did. And now, in addition to aiding the cessation of a truly awful habit, it’s become a mutual hobby. Now, I am all for people giving up the cancer stick and taking up vaping, but I can’t stand when some of the uppity people of the vaping community look down their noses at those that aren’t advanced enough for their liking. I’ve seen lots of people that start on mech mods right out the gate, simply because of peer pressure. In my opinion, mechs are more for hobbyists than newbs or those that just want their nicotine fix. The reason why, is that mechs are generally used with rebuildable atomizers and in addition to needing to have the know-how, they take time and care. Quite frankly, lots of people that are just quitting smoking, are looking for ease and convenience. Mechs and rebuildables don’t exactly provide that. Now, my husband, for example prescribes to a vaping method called subohming, I don’t. He does this mostly because he’s what the vaping community calls a Cloud Chaser— the lower the ohms, generally the bigger the clouds. I, on the other hand, have found that subohming isn’t really my thing. For one thing, it’s way too warm of a vape and the throat hit is killer. I prefer cool vapes and a focus on flavor. We don’t try to dissuade the other from our personal vaping preferences, but I have seen and heard lots of people try to diminish others’ vaping experiences with comments about it not being “done right”. You know what, to each their frikkin own! Just because you want to vape one way —say, using a mech—does not mean that someone who is vaping on an e-go for example, is behind or not vaping correctly. Mechs aren’t for everyone, conversely, e-go style batteries and tanks aren’t for everyone. I personally hate using an e-go style battery because I feel like it has no power to it, but I don’t judge those that do. I applaud everyone that tries and quits smoking. Now, don’t get me wrong, the vaping community as a whole is fantastic and as a whole, you couldn’t find a more supportive group of people anywhere. So, if you’re new to vaping or considering it, don’t be discouraged by a few of our bad eggs. <3 We have all sorts of people and accept all sorts of people. You’ll find that the vaping community is tight knit and you’ll always be able to find help or new ideas. Speaking of new ideas, I love watching the new coils that people come up with and definitely enjoy building my own. I’ve gotten good at it in a short amount of time because I enjoy it very much. While I enjoy learning to build more complex coils, I generally stay with one particular build, because it suits me. Again, it’s all about preference. ‘Til next time sweeties. Vape on. =^_^=

[vivaciousvaper]

Vape Safe

My friends. This is a guest post. I wanted to inform you all on the importance of safety while vaping. Whether you’re brand new and have an ego style device, or a current hobbyist with a mech mod, we all need to be safe with our hardware. The vaping community, as mentioned in the previous post, has been getting a lot of media coverage as of late, and it’s up to us to squash rumors and teach the uninformed.

First and foremost, battery safety. I’m sure everyone has heard about batteries blowing up in people’s faces. True and not true. I have never actually seen a battery explode, I have seen a battery vent though, which can cause extreme burns due to the temperature that lithium ion batteries can reach. The biggest thing you have to watch for while vaping is the amp limit on your battery.

Now vaping is all based around one of the most elementary laws of electricity. It’s called Ohms Law. A few things go into this. Power (watts), voltage, amperage, and resistance (ohms). The heating element that all these news stories talk about in e-cigs is normally a piece of kanthal wire. It’s a high resistance wire that causes electricity to slow, and actually heat the wire. It can get extremely hot. Now, on a non-regulated mod like an ego style device, or a mech mod, the battery while fully charged can put out 4.2 volts. Your power, and amperage are dependent on your voltage and resistance.

Try this really quick, go to http://www.ohmslawcalculator.com/ohms_law_calculator.php and plug in the following. In volts put in 4.2, and in resistance, plug in 1.5 ohms. You should come out with the addition of the other two boxes filling in once you press calculate. Your power (watts) should come out to 11.76, and your current (amps) should come out to 2.8.

Now amperage is nothing to play with. When you’re dealing with electricity, amperage is the thing that will kill, not volts. In this respect, never push your battery past its amp limit. If you’re a hobbyist, you probably already know the amp limit on your battery, you’re probably even using that nice little Sony VTC4 34 amp battery. That amperage rating is the MAX continuous discharge limit. Don’t every go over that if you intend to take long drags. That specific battery though, has also been rated for a burst discharge, which is up to 50 amps. DON’T DO BURSTS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING! As a new hobbyist, even I’m weary of anything over the max continuous discharge limit.

Just remember, if you have to ask yourself if it’s safe, it probably isn’t. For the moment, that’s all I have for you. I’ll be linking a video of my cloud chasing a wee bit later.

Keep calm and vape on my fellow vapers,

Vaping Linux Freak.

[vivaciousvaper]

Never Call It Smoking

I mean it. Hardcore vapers will get all over you for it. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen and you don’t want to be the cause of their vitriole. An electronic cigarette (e-cig), electronic vaping device, personal vaporizer, or electronic nicotine delivery system—whatever you may call it…it’s still not a cigarette in the traditional sense.

In recent times, vaping has taken an immense leap in sales and community growth. And while that’s a fantastic testament to the decline in smokers, it’s also drawn negative reviews from people that want to focus solely on the word ‘cigarette’. As the general belief goes–people will always be afraid of what they don’t understand.

Now, all these politicians and government agencies, even these anti-tobacco groups would do anything to dissuade people from using anything that looks like a tobacco product. Here’s the facts, when the first e-cigs came out, the most seen type of e-cig was one that looked like an actual cigarette, take Blu for example. (Boy did that raised some eyebrows.) Because of the visual similarities, people adopted the duck saying. If it looks like a cigarette, and blows smoke like a cigarette, it must be a cigarette.

Most politicians are trying to regulate these products for the same reason they tax cigarettes. MONEY. They see the decline in recent cigarette sales, and they’re afraid they’re not making the same money they were from big tobacco. The FDA wants to regulate these products because they don’t know the long term effects. The anti-tobacco groups want these products banned or at least regulated the same as tobacco, because THEY don’t know what’s in the e-liquids that are used in e-cigs. There goes that fear again.

Now, I’m not saying everyone that doesn’t understand this, is bad. In fact, though the FDA wants to place regulations on e-cigs (or at least the liquid in them that helps form those big, beautiful clouds. lol) they also want to make sure that these products are only available and legal for sale to adults of or over the age of 18. This age limitation is something the ENTIRE vaping community agrees with. We all know that any sort of addictive substance is hard to break from, and it’s even harder to break that habit longer down the road when you started as a child. Caffeine and alcohol, both addictive in their own respects, both able to alter one’s brain chemistry, are both hard substances to stop using. It’s the exact same with nicotine. The only difference here is that you have the ability, with e-cigs, to taper yourself off of nicotine. I guess all I’m saying here is that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover.

So ladies and gents, vape on. =^_^=