My family and I found ourselves in a vape lounge one year ago with little to no knowledge of E-Cigs other than what we had heard from friends. The staff there was about as helpful as tits on a boar hog, and worse, I hadn’t really done any research at that point so I didn’t even know what questions to ask. Through a whirlwind transaction, we had two E-Cigarettes, enough liquid for, the guy there said two weeks, but in reality for two people it was about three days, with an enormous bill to pay before leaving. Shown below is one of the units we purchased that day.

I had no idea about the fluid except that the guy there said I needed it. He did however allow me to pick the flavor. Wasn’t that nice of him? Turns out it was a 60/40 blend with Propylene Glycol on the high side and Vegetable Glycerin on the low. My Nicotine level was at 18 mg. and it was supposed to simulate a Marlboro cigarette.

One week later it failed, and I took a trip down to the vape store where I was informed about the filter coil needing to be replaced. They hadn’t said a word about that when I purchased it. I was okay with buying them periodically, but I wasn’t okay with only hearing about it after the unit failed. Needless to say, I went on an all out campaign to learn everything about my new endeavor, and kicked myself in the butt for not doing it sooner. I knew better . . . well I thought I did.

What I’ve learned from all of this…

This kind of e-cig was a newbie money pit that was probably okay for the occasional smoker, but not for a person who was trying to depend on it for the total cessation of analog cigarettes. The battery which is listed in milliamp hours (MAH) on this unit was 450, or in the real world about 2 hours and will need a charge. The filter coil as it turns out was a big deal. It’s the “doojigger” that heats the liquid and causes the vapor that you breathe in. It didn’t take too much longer to realize I needed to purchase better equipment, and that the first round of hardware was what I thought I wanted, but was definitely not what I needed.

Join me next week for round two of this vaping saga as I explain where my excitement took me after I became a bit more knowledgeable. In the meantime, I encourage you to comment below and share your experiences and what you’ve learned about e-cigarettes!