I’m doing some research prior to starting vaping. I’ve never smoked. I’m interested in vaping to increase my productivity as I’m in a bit of a slump and a short productive period is going to pay off a lot for me in the long run. (long story short)
Anyway, I’m going to try vaping to help.
These are my starter questions
Hopefully, I will be going abroad to Asia soon. So I don’t want want to be stuck with some compromise solution that is specific to UK legislation.
I think the device I want is a sub ohm device. I don’t want to simulate smoking.
Do people import equipment or vape juice abroad for special reasons, or can I get everything in the UK?
I spoke with an Australian guy who said they can only buy weak vape juice, and he had some problem customs siezing juice be bought from China sometimes.
If I get a vape kit, like the Kroma 217 Z-Force, what do I need except for the vape juice, and perhaps batteries?
Being in the UK, retailers have to stick by the TPD restrictions which limits tank sizes to 2ml and eliquid bottles containing nicotine are limited to 10ml. I’d imagine most physical vape shops will stick to these rules but obviously I don’t know that for sure. Most of the big online retailers in the UK (ecigone, ultimate juice, vaping101, ukvapekings, vapeclub) have ways to get around these rules by supplying tanks larger than 2ml in a separate box so for this reason alone I would highly recommend buying online from one of the big stores. When it comes to juice, they have a way around that too. They now make what are called, amongst other names, ‘shortfills’, which you can buy in bottles in sizes up to around 200ml and you buy the nicotine in separate 10ml bottles (of course, this is if you want nicotine in your juice) If you’re not going to use nic then you don’t need to worry about any of that, just buy whatever you want. Just don’t buy ‘one-shots’ as they are just bottles of concentrate which require you to add the base liquid to yourself (VG/PG).
So now that wall of text is done…
Depending how long you will be away for and availability of supplies where you are going, you will likely need a bunch of spare coils to fit in your sub-ohm tank.
You will of course need batteries and preferably a charger as charging with them inside the mod is not recommended. I tend to have double the amount of batteries that the mod requires so you always have a set to charge while using the other set.
You can import anything you want. I buy a lot of stuff from China as they produce a huge percentage of the worlds vape gear and it can be a lot cheaper, though the shipping times can be a pain. They also tend to have more stock of items that can be hard to find in the UK.
Do a lot of people mix up their own vape juice? So, they buy nicotine (providing they use it), and then add it to flavor / medium stuff to mix it into?
Do people stick to hardware from China, or do a lot of people buy nicotine / flavor from China?
I take what you say about having an extra battery and spares on board. Makes sense.
There’s definitely a lot of people on this forum that mix their own eliquid, me being one of them. You’d need to buy a bunch of different concentrates, base mix, which is either VG or PG or usually both at varying ratios depending on how thick you want the finished juice to be and how much of a throat hit you want. Then there’s the nicotine, if you want to use that. You can buy it in 10ml bottles on most vape sites or you can buy it in a more concentrated form from a couple of sites.
You’d also need bottles for your finished juice and depending on the mixing route you want to take, you’d need syringes and measuring equipment or some decent accurate scales for measuring by weight (recommended)
Mixing your own juice has lots of advantages like overall cost and how you can tailor your mixes to your own tastes but it also comes with drawbacks too. You need to leave most finished mixes to steep for varying lengths of time depending on the concentrates used, so the flavours get chance to mingle with each other properly. Also, it can be a steep learning curve. getting to know your flavours enough to come up with new recipes isn’t easy by any means.
I wouldn’t recommend a beginner to vaping to start mixing their own juice from day 1 as it will likely lead to unfavourable results which could well put them off vaping completely. It can also be costly to get started due to all the gear you’d need.
I don’t know of anyone who buys juice or nicotine from China. I’m not even sure it’s available from there. I do know that certain concentrates can be hard or even impossible to find in certain countries so people will often order those from abroad. Nicotine is usually available anywhere as far as I know but I could be wrong. I have never had to buy any nicotine or concentrate from outside the UK yet.
Sorry don’t get why your going to try vaping seeing as you’ve never smoked or addicted to NIC .vaping in Asia has bans everywhere on flavors and if researched you should find the local laws that are there
I don’t get it either tbh but I do know people who vape who have never smoked before.
Also I’d imagine there’s plenty of people who vape without nicotine, just for the flavour. I will eventually reduce my nicotine in my juice to zero but I won’t stop vaping.
It can also be a great time waster. I’ve literally turned vaping into a hobby by the amount of time I spend mixing/building/researching etc etc
I’ll tell you whatever your reasons might be. Rather try vaping than smoking.
I know a few guys that started smoking late in their lives that struggles to kick the addiction
Call me crazy but this is what I did. 4 years on and still never bought a juice from a shop. A bit of luck, a bit of arse but I also found some good mixers early on to follow. @woftam is one to name and shame here. he saw about 500 of my strawberry recipes in the first 12 months
I don’t use sub ohm very often, but I normally tailor recipes for the device I’m planning on using to a certain degree. For example I only do candy mixes in pods.
If I fully develop a recipe I test it on different devices.
I’m in Australia, so my places won’t be of any help.
I have not tried it, but the sub ohm kits are a lot better now than a few years ago.
Keep in mind there are a million and one different sorts of devices. What you think you may like on paper may not be the case and it may take trying a few different ones to find a sweet spot.
But that one will do everything you need it to, I’d imagine.
You do know that you‘ll be getting into an addiction? Check with laws wherever you‘re traveling to in Asia. Vaping is strictly prohibited in many Asian countries. Small clouds won’t help you when going through customs. Don’t forget, you‘ll need approximately one coil a week. Sometimes there are duds in a pack, sometimes you‘ll get dry hits and burn out your coil. Sweet eliquid also causes gunking. If it’s a pod device, you may also need spare pods. You‘ll want to get 50/50 eliquid (VG/PG) for pods, thicker won’t wick quick enough in most cases and cause burnt coils.
Be aware that vaping is not safe. Flavors aren’t safe, as a matter of fact, they contain a lot of irritants as well as harmful compounds. It’s safer than smoking, but not safe.
I don’t often pull punches, so I’m not going to do that here.
This is a terrible reason to pick up an addictive habit. It will NOT increase your productivity, unless your job is to review flavors of e-liquids. You will have to stop doing whatever it is you do to take a few puffs, during which time you could have just stuck to your task. I would much sooner recommend some vitamin supplements. B12 would be a good start.
That said, if you’re hell bent on vaping, maybe forego an expensive foray into all things vaping and just grab a disposable. See if it helps. That way if it doesn’t, you’re only out the cost of a single throw away.
Now to get really real with you, to me this would be like someone taking methadone who has never used heroine. I know, I know…an extreme comparison, but valid nonetheless.
No mathematician either, but when I first started with ecigs they were cigalikes…looked like a cigarette and had wadding in what would be the cigarette filter, and that was soaked in e-liquid. Back then the “normal” strength was 36mg. Nowadays, those have essentially been replaced with those disposables, and around here, they’re 5%…or 50mg/ml. Very high IMO. I buy them now whenever I will be traveling for a day or three. And they do take a little getting used to, but for me that’s fairly quickly. I also find when I return home and go back to my standard 1mg (for subohm) that I don’t get withdrawals. However, part of that may be due to being a nicotine junkie since around 1978.
To dovetail into my previous post, I would not recommend nicotine to anyone who doesn’t have a habit already. It’s pointless IMO. But if a person is determined, then I say what difference does it make? Going from zero to any amount of nicotine intake is still nicotine intake.
but this is what I did. 4 years on and still never bought a juice from a shop. A bit of luck, a bit of arse but I also found some good mixers early on to follow. 
he saw about 500 of my strawberry recipes in the first 12 months 
