Upgrade Time

[BigK]

I currently have an Ego twist with a mPT3 and an EVOD and as payday looms i find myself thinking about spoiling myself with new vape gear. I visited Vape King this Saturday and saw various members of this forum with their MODs and was fortunate enough to try some VK4 of one of them. It completely blew my mind and my taste buds. So now i find myself contemplating getting one but..... I have no idea where or how to start . What would i require ? How much would it set back my pocket ?

 

[Andre]

Are you talking about a mechanical mod with Rebuildable atomizer or a regulated mod with a commercial tank? For the former you need to build your own coils, do your own wicking, have the correct batteries, a good knowledge of Ohms Law and safety. And you need a charger for the batteries. For the latter just good batteries, spare coils and a charger.

 

[BigK]

@Matthee I'm thinking a regulated mod with a commercial tank. Skill set does not permit rebuildables as yet lol

 

[Andre]

Ok, I presume from Vapeking as you are near them.
If you can afford it, go for the Sigelei 20W, which you can use for rebuildable atomizers as well should you go there in the future. Otherwise, the SID. On top of that the Kanger Aerotank or the Aspire Nautilus. I prefer the former, but many are Nautilus fans.
Do know, however, that this combination will not really give you a better vape than your current setup. The mPT3 gives a great vape. For a discernible difference you will have to go to a rebuildable atomizer.

 

[Silverbear]

What are your requirements?

What are you looking for in a mod, size, capacity, VV or VW or both?

whats important to you in the tank, capacity or looks?

All the other stuff such as ohm's, cleaning' filling are important but each tank has it's own quirks and gimmicks.

For VTF (that's vapor, throat hit and flavor) well here is where the difference lies. Quality is another issue.

Sorry not trying over complicate the question, but the point I am trying to make is understand your usage requirements, from there you can be guided.

But for some one looking to start out in the more advanced devices, a good suggestion would be to look at the MVP v2 (any variant) and a kanger tank (mini or standard).

So knowing what style of vaping you do, where and when you vape and how much are the important questions to answer when you are looking for a good basic vape that does not require you to do a lot of DIY.

 

[BigK]

@Wayne the MVP does check all the boxes but I'd prefer something that does all of that but is in more conventional cylindrical shape

 

[shabbar]

most welcome to the forum @BigK

check out the svd .

 

[Silverbear]

Then my suggestion would to look at the devices mentioned above by @Matthee, but keep in mind that they are largish devices too. If what you are looking for is something a bit more stealthy, e.g. Evod looking but that give you the flexibility to choose your own settings then look at the new Vision Spinner II which has VV bit no VW. Top quality device.

 

[shabbar]

you will however require a charger and 18350/18650 batteries with that

recommended are nitecore chargers and samsung / efest batteries

 

[BigK]

@Wayne I was considering the vision spinner too. So my question is if i sacrificed looks and decided to go with an MVP would there be a big difference between the MVP and my current setup ?

 

[Silverbear]

Battery, Yes. I assume you currently have a standard 650mha Evod battery, if so that offers you no flexibility in settings and battery life is probably around 4 - 5 hours depending on how much you vape, with the MVP you will have the ability to check the ohm's on your tank, check battery level and then be able to set the power output of the battery and most importantly of all is you will have a much longer battery life. On the MVP, again depending on how much you vape you should get more than a day's worth of vape time out of the battery.

 

[Metal Liz]

sacrificed looks the MVP is beautiful and definitely a great buy, pass through, VV, VW, puff counter, Ohm reader, 1 and a half days constant vaping battery power... need i elaborate more hahaha MVP for the win

 

[BigK]

@Metal Liz I meant "sacrifice" lol. @Wayne i currently have the Ego C Twist 1300mha

 

[Metal Liz]

hahaha good save @BigK, you nearly gave me a heart attack there bwhahahaha my MVP falls in the same category as my love for Metallica, nobody must diss them in my prescence

 

[Silverbear]

Then you have good battery life already and variability of settings, so the next logical move would be to something like the MVP or on to more advanced tube style mods such as those referred to above and then you would need externally chargeable batteries and a charger

 

[BigK]

@Metal Liz Who's this Metallica you talking about ? Just kidding I'll definitely keep that in mind

 

[BigK]

@Wayne any take on the SVD ?

 

[Silverbear]

Awsome, great, solid, reliable. Very good choice, what I like about the SVD is that it is telescopic, so you can fit any size battery into it without any fuss, so you can vary it up to suite your daily requirements you are not lock into one battery size. So imo, the svd would be a good choice and a great place to start.

Now we just need to look at what tank you are going be be choosing.

 

[Reinvanhardt]

This is what @BigK tried on Saturday. Was nice meeting you my friend!

​

It's a mechanical mod powering a rebuildable atomizer.

The mod in question is a Sentinel M16. I bought this from Fasttech for $15. You will find similar success by using locally available mechanical mods too. Vapeking has quite a variety.

The atomizer in question is a Kayfun 3.1. They sell at Vapeking for R620 but you can get it cheaper by ordering from Fasttech here. Delivery is free but it takes about 6 weeks.

So it's quite a sophisticated battery in this here's tube mod. Vapeking and other local vendors sell reliable, good quality batteries, so that's easily available. Next you'll need a charger.

We end up building and customizing our own coils according to individual throat hit, flavour and vapour production preferences. This is not a route that all vapers take, but you have testified! There are a few stepping stones that you'll skip by going this route, as mentioned in the above posts, so you might consider enjoying the scenery along the road to mechanicals. The choice is yours.

Oh and we build our coils by wrapping kanthal around a round object of about 1 - 3mm like a drill bit. We test the resistance of that coil by using an ohms reader or a multimeter. And we wick the coils by threading cotton through it, preferably organic, purchased from Dischem.

Here's a picture of a coil after the cotton's been threaded through.

​

You'll be 100% capable of using this atomizer or another "dripping atomizer" on the SVD. The difference is that the SVD is regulated for safety reasons so you won't be able to use a coil quite as low, meaning you won't be able to generate as much watts through the coil. SVD is limited to 15w. You vaped at about 18w at that stage. Essentially a mechanical mod bypasses the regulation.

 

[BigK]

@Reinvanhardt was awesome meeting you buddy. So would it be possible to get a similar type of vape without going the rebuildble route ? I'm just looking for a stepping stone in that direction before I start building my own coils.

 

[Alex]

@Reinvanhardt that Sentinel M16 of yours is really awesome. I was impressed at just how solid it is. Almost as good as my sexy brass Nemesis

@BigK, hey man it was very nice to meet you on Sat. And my advice would echo @Reinvanhardt. And just to add that it's really not very complicated, all the coil building and stuff is easy and fun to do. So you need a few extra things like a battery charger and an ohm meter. But it's so rewarding to make your own device work, and in a way that you can customize to your own preferences.

For a dead easy setup that you will master in no time, get a Kayfun Lite or Kayfun 3.1. Add a mech mod like a nemesis/hammer/sentinel or whatever you prefer. There are tons of youtube tut's on building and wicking. Plus were right here to help you if you need.

 

[Andre]

@Reinvanhardt was awesome meeting you buddy. So would it be possible to get a similar type of vape without going the rebuildble route ? I'm just looking for a stepping stone in that direction before I start building my own coils.

That is why I recommended the Sigelei 20W - you can use it whilst enjoying the scenery on the road, but you can go quite far with it on the rebuildable road thereafter as well. A SVD ouputs max 15 W, whilst the Sigelei can go up to 20 W. The MVP does max 11 W.

 

[BigK]

@Alex it was great meeting you too. Fantastic to finally put faces to the avatars so to speak lol. One thing i really love about this community is how helpful and friendly everyone is. Makes this journey so much more fun and rewarding. I suppose i could try my hand at coil building as it doesn't sound too difficult. My only concern is that out of frustration i may ditch the whole setup if it doesn't work out.

 

[Silverbear]

Now we starting to talk tanks, as I mentioned above.

It is highly unlikely that you are going to get the same vape out of a stock tank, but you can get close.

With the type of device that @Reinvanhardt had you try on Saturday is set up to run at a much lower ohm which generates more heat from the coil, included in that is the use of cotton as his wicking material, and as @Reinvanhardt has correctly mentioned, this requires higher Wattage or volts to generate the kind of output to produce that type of vape.

With a stock tank and coil the best you can do on is with a 1.5ohm coil on the SVD at around 10 to 12 watts, this will give you very close experience. But if you want to recreate that vape, rebuilding is the only way.

 

[BigK]

Other thing is how reliable is Fastech ?