What I have learnt about vaping and DIY

GregF

GregF

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A few things I have learnt so far on my journey.

What I have learnt about vaping
I have learnt….
….when you start vaping you will spend an enormous amount of money trying out different setups and juices but in the end you will find the one that works for you and the spending slows.
....there is a huge support group/forum with a lot of friendly people.
....if you think you spent a lot of time on Facebook wait till ecigssa bites you.
....FOMO is a real thing and needs to be controlled.
....you don’t necessarily need to fog up a room or create rain clouds to satisfy your needs.
….the same juice does not taste the same in different tanks/mods/mechs or with different vaping styles.
.…my best flavour will be another person’s worst.
….not having a spare battery can turn you into a raving lunatic.
....vaping will replace your smoking when you find what works for you.

What I have learnt about DIY
I have learnt….
.…a scale changes the game totally.
.…it is a lot cheaper than buying commercial juice.
.…making something acceptable is easy, making something nice is difficult, making something fantastic is close to impossible.
.…subbing hardly ever works.
.…flavour profiles in your head don’t translate to flavours in your mix.
.…steeping often needs to happen and cannot be rushed.
.…what I think is a masterpiece, nobody else likes.
.…not to buy concentrates thinking that they will be used some day, they won’t. Buy them when you need them or have an idea for them.
….not to buy bulk concentrates from a closing down sale, it will most likely go off before you get through half of it.
.…it is a lot of fun.

What have you learnt?
 
Last edited:
I can add onto that:

...don't underestimate the value of a spare mod as well. You don't want to be caught with a mod failure and no alternative

...do your research before you start the next round of spending (it is the natural progression for most once you discover the joys of vaping). There are plenty videos on YouTube - but don't forget that to each his own



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Great thread @GregF !

Some of the things I have learnt about vaping:
  • It beats the heck out of smoking!
  • If you get into vaping - the rabbit hole is very, very deep - more like a never ending abyss. But a glorious one ;-)
  • I agree with @GregF that if ECIGSSA bites, it makes other things like FB seem quite tame - lol - I think that it may be more addictive than the vaping itself
  • In order to succeed at vaping one needs two/three reliable setups with a few juices that one LOVES. There is no one size fits all, you need to try out a few devices and plenty juices to find what works for you. The experimentation is part of the fun though.
  • The rule of 1 in 10. If you like 1 out of 10 juices you try, you are doing very well
  • Although I am a bit biased, I have found that the members on ECIGSSA are amongst the friendliest and most helpful folk I have encountered. Vapers generally stick together and we mostly have one great thing in common - the fight against the stinkies.
 
What i checked so far...

1 blowing perfect circles, is a lot harder than it looks (still chucking ghostpop looking okes)
2 bigger, isn't always better.
3 starter kits are addictive
4 ecigssa vapemail thread will make you broke :-D
5 this forum is the best.
 
What i have learned feom smoking Hookha before to vaping now.

1. The rabbit hole is very deep when you start with everything.

2. Whats good for another might not be good for me and my liking.

3. Ecigssa members are helpfull and will make the rabit hole even bigger and deeper than expected with the vape mail.

4. Vape setups are so cutomizable that finding an average setup among the vapers is impossible.

5. Vaping is alot safer, better tasting and alot more portable than Hookha smoking.

6. Diy with everything vaping related is the way to go if you want to curb the spending but that opens up a new tunnel of extreme spending and testing.

7. Vaping is the future of "smoking", stinkies is part of a history now.
 
What I have learnt about DIY is that I am falling further and further behind. Honestly, I listen to people like Jerry and Vurve one month and I kinda know where they are and are coming from. Then I listen to them the next month and I realise they have moved much farther ahead in the intervening month than I have. So the knowledge gap is growing, not shrinking. That is not how it is supposed to work. The top guys are supposed to find it harder to learn new things, and thus give n00bs a chance to catch up. But unless you are mixing all the time (which I'm not) you just can't keep up, let alone start to close the gap.
 
The other thing I've learnt about DIY is this: be eclectic i.e. select the best from all sources. DIY is not like music or sports. You don't just listen to opera or just watch tennis and everything else sucks. I see DIYers wanting to make recipes with only one brand of flavours and it makes zero sense to me. It's hard enough as it is, why place such an unnecessary limitation on yourself? Every brand has hits but every brand also has bombs and gaps - profiles they don't produce. Leverage the best of every brand while avoiding the worst.

As loath as I am to say it and as much as he has done for the DIY community, HIC's Notes are a major source of this. When I started DIY, HIC's Notes was the most accessible and complete information resource available. While it helped me greatly, it also held me back. It gives the impression that there is daylight between FA and the chasing pack, and the only reason to use another brand's flavour is if FA don't make that particular profile. It is a huge hindrance to overcome and it resulted in me buying a bunch of very meh FA flavours that are far from 'best of breed'.

FA Red Touch Strawberry, as an example, is a decent strawberry and it has its uses. But it is far from the best strawberry on the market and even further from "the only strawberry you need". If you want to make varied and effective strawberry recipes in which your strawberries have different characteristics (authentic, candy, sweet, syrupy, juicy, jammy, etc) you need at least five or six different strawbs in your stash.

For the same reason, I have long since stopped making HIC's FA-centric recipes. It is possible to make a great juice with only one brand of flavours. Skiddlz did it with God Milk which only uses TFA. But it's the rare exception, not the norm. HIC does have some good recipes. But if he hadn't limited himself so strictly to FA, they could have been so much better.

Look at any top-rated recipe on ATF, it will use flavours from several different brands. With fruits particularly, they will also often use similar profiles from two or more brands to create a 'complete' profile. ID10-T, for example, uses up to four different mangoes to create the exact mango profile he wants. If you're only using one brand and thus only have one mango at your disposal, you can't do that. Making a recipe with only one brand is like servicing your car using only spanners or only screwdrivers. If you're not using the full range of tools at your disposal, you can't attain peak results.

If you're just starting DIY, don't take everything from one source. Don't only buy one brand of flavours. Don't only make HIC's or Wayne's recipes. Don't only use HIC's or Wayne's or ConcreteRiver's flavour notes. Don't only use ELR or ATF. Don't only watch Wayne's or Fresh's or Steamroom's podcasts. There are a lot of tools and resources available. Use the best from each. Nobody has the monopoly on DIY knowledge. It is a collective effort.
 
RichJB said:
The other thing I've learnt about DIY is this: be eclectic i.e. select the best from all sources. DIY is not like music or sports. You don't just listen to opera or just watch tennis and everything else sucks. I see DIYers wanting to make recipes with only one brand of flavours and it makes zero sense to me. It's hard enough as it is, why place such an unnecessary limitation on yourself? Every brand has hits but every brand also has bombs and gaps - profiles they don't produce. Leverage the best of every brand while avoiding the worst.

As loath as I am to say it and as much as he has done for the DIY community, HIC's Notes are a major source of this. When I started DIY, HIC's Notes was the most accessible and complete information resource available. While it helped me greatly, it also held me back. It gives the impression that there is daylight between FA and the chasing pack, and the only reason to use another brand's flavour is if FA don't make that particular profile. It is a huge hindrance to overcome and it resulted in me buying a bunch of very meh FA flavours that are far from 'best of breed'.

FA Red Touch Strawberry, as an example, is a decent strawberry and it has its uses. But it is far from the best strawberry on the market and even further from "the only strawberry you need". If you want to make varied and effective strawberry recipes in which your strawberries have different characteristics (authentic, candy, sweet, syrupy, juicy, jammy, etc) you need at least five or six different strawbs in your stash.

For the same reason, I have long since stopped making HIC's FA-centric recipes. It is possible to make a great juice with only one brand of flavours. Skiddlz did it with God Milk which only uses TFA. But it's the rare exception, not the norm. HIC does have some good recipes. But if he hadn't limited himself so strictly to FA, they could have been so much better.

Look at any top-rated recipe on ATF, it will use flavours from several different brands. With fruits particularly, they will also often use similar profiles from two or more brands to create a 'complete' profile. ID10-T, for example, uses up to four different mangoes to create the exact mango profile he wants. If you're only using one brand and thus only have one mango at your disposal, you can't do that. Making a recipe with only one brand is like servicing your car using only spanners or only screwdrivers. If you're not using the full range of tools at your disposal, you can't attain peak results.

If you're just starting DIY, don't take everything from one source. Don't only buy one brand of flavours. Don't only make HIC's or Wayne's recipes. Don't only use HIC's or Wayne's or ConcreteRiver's flavour notes. Don't only use ELR or ATF. Don't only watch Wayne's or Fresh's or Steamroom's podcasts. There are a lot of tools and resources available. Use the best from each. Nobody has the monopoly on DIY knowledge. It is a collective effort.
Click to expand...
http://vapingunderground.com/threads/hics-lemon-lasagna-using-only-clean-capella-flavors.339628/
Now we need him/her to start mixing it up a bit!
 
If he/she (is this gender thing still going on? :D ) is working with other brands now, that is most welcome. I'd love to read HIC's notes on other lines. Not necessarily because he/she would be right but just because it's another informed and experienced opinion into the knowledge database.
 
Two other lessons learnt.

1. Less is more. If a flavour is good at 1% does not mean it will be fabulous at 5%, increase in small increments.

2. Taste individual flavours, learn what they taste like so you have a better idea how they will work together.

The only exception to the above is CAP Lemon meringue pie, awesome by itself at 12%
 
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