Hello All,
I'm a couple weeks into vaping, and I have to say I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Before I get into the details, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone in this thread--you all have provided an invaluable source of information with a special thanks to Scottie and broken.english for specific instructions and "how-tos." Thank you, thank you.
Setup and Solutions
1) I bought the Vaporesso Luxe X Pro; 250 ml of 100mg/ml nicotine in vegetable glycerin solution; 1/2 gallon of VG from centralvapors and picked up a gallon of distilled water from the market. All in it was about $100. The Luxe came with two 5ml pods: 0.4 and 0.6 ohm.
2) I started with a 50/50 h2o/VG and 10mg/ml target nicotine solution. My 12ml non-needle syringe worked fairly well, but attempting to do small 5ml test batches proved challenging since the "resolution" of the syringe is not great at those volumes, but I managed a rough approximation to the targets.
3) Once I figured out how the Luxe X worked (the manual is awful--I relied on youtube videos) I was able to fill a pod and start vaping. The 0.6 ohm pod worked well then started leaking after I was about halfway through the fill. The luxe was getting wet in the battery area, and I couldn't get the device to work again to the point where I thought I would have to send it back. Found this blunt but effective link to fix the problem:
vaporesso_xros_pod_leaking (reddit). Got everything working again except for the 0.6 ohm pod and am using the 0.4 ohm pod instead. I just haven't gotten around to retry filling the 0.6 ohm pod, even though I prefer it.
4) The 10mg/ml target solution seemed a little light on the nicotine, so in the next 5ml batch, I targeted a 15mg/ml nicotine in a 50/50 h2o/VG solution. Halfway through that, I decided it was too heavy on nicotine and have since switched back (permanently, it seems) to the 10mg/ml nicotine solution.
Results/Findings
5) I picked up a couple of 15ml plastic fill bottles from Amazon and now make 30ml at a time and fill up both bottles. After 11 days, I'm almost done with the first bottle. I just started tracking my "puff" count because it seems highly likely that I'm getting more nicotine than I did when smoking cigarettes. It's an odd concept trying to convert one cigarette into a puff count, though.
6) If I recall correctly from this thread and from the transcripts, the C's have said that there is 5mg of nicotine per cigarette. I don't recall/know whether they were referring to the amount of nicotine in the cigarette or if that is the amount absorbed. From what I have read online, it looks like the amount of nicotine that is absorbed is dependent on a number of factors and that the nicotine in a cigarette, depending on brand, ranges from 6 to 28mg, but only 1-2mg of nicotine is actually absorbed--so maybe 20%?--hard to tell from those numbers.
7) On a satisfaction score, I think vaping is not quite as "satisfying" as smoking, but the
massive cost savings more than offsets this minor detractor. Good cigarettes (organic American Spirit is what I buy) are very expensive in comparison, and I don't have the desire to roll my own.
8) I have noticed a tickle in the back of my throat that appears a couple times a day at random times. It was there prior to vaping and may be exacerbated somewhat by the vaping--it's not really clear at the moment. It's manageable with drinking water and doesn't last more than a couple minutes.
9) I don't know if this is recommended or not, but I have also been smoking three cigarettes per day. I do this primarily because, if I remember correctly, the C's do not recommend stopping smoking due to the damage to the lungs doing so may cause. I don't know if that cessation issue applies if smoking is replaced by vaping or not.
10) Regarding coughing, I think it has come down due to what appears to be reduced phlegm. Although I will say that drawing too much vaper in one shot will produce a cough when, in contrast, smoking rarely, if ever, did so when drawing.
All in all, I'm optimistic about the results so far and will continue vaping...