Hey everyone,
I thought I'd make a post, since we are having a bit of a more relaxed trial with posting.
It might be nice to have a thread to request an FAQ Friday, and for anyone who feels they can write one up on any of the requests here to put their name in.
Link to the FAQ Friday wiki
I would love to see a faq Friday about common bases/profiles. For example, a thread on fruit combos like holy trinity, strawberry combos etc. not just a single flavor review but a combo flavor review I guess. Something to give people a start to play. Idio-t’s take on how he changed the blueberry holy trinity got me thinking. But even more interesting would be to see how people play with cakes, donuts, ashy cigarette, teas, colas etc. I was thinking about asking about these in my own threads just for myself and then maybe gathering all the links into one mega list of links. It could be included in the sidebar if people like.
I like this idea. I have heard about the popular bases you mentioned by floating around the sub for the past year or so, but collecting a thread of favourites would be great, and a nice resource to have.
I already have a bunch saved that I haven’t gotten a chance to look at for a while. I was going to try to sort through them and compile them by category and try to post with the changes in the forum. It seems that I learn most by discussion rather than reading. The greatest joy of mixing is meeting my own tastes and learning them. The fantastic part of the discussion is that experienced mixers can make suggestions based on even my lousy description of my tastes. This helps me to try new flavors and learn about combinations and making minor adjustments percentage wise can really speed up the learning curve. Plus I noticed I like it a %higher or lower than some vapers too!
So I’m going to try to repost/rehash/refresh some stuff. Keep an eye out!
I started working on one for common pairings, including bases and creamstones, etc but it was hard to make it at all objective or data driven and I tend to prefer that approach. Not saying it's not possible to compile a list of bases/profiles just that it seems everyone and their mother has their own take and the list would get really long without approaching anything like a consensus.
But I fully support you giving it a shot. Just PM me before the Friday you want to post it.
I’m not sure how I’d do that as one Friday faq. I was thinking more modestly as like maybe posting once a week or so on a particular profile and gathering all the advice into one mega list and submitting it as a sort of beginner guide to flavor profiling with links to discussion perhaps, that could open the door for some nuanced flexibility on a certain option.
But I also think a faq Friday on a topic such as cake bases could lead to people posting their versions and it would all be up to the community to fill in the gaps or post their spin on something.
Yeah, that's been the dilemma with more than a few ideas I've had; trying to make sure it's actually a Frequently Asked Question. I feel like I still have a lot more of those to cover before the less frequently asked questions like... "What's your favourite cake base?" Seems like that might work better outside the series, as it doesn't really fit the premise. But a few of those threads later and you'd have enough to answer the more frequent request for common bases/profiles.
Either way you choose to approach it all I ask is that you give me a heads up and maybe a peek at what you've got before posting (if you choose the FAQ Friday route). Mostly so I don't post on the same day but also so I can offer some input if I have any.
How about a flavour stone group review, along the same lines as SFT reviews, by anyone who cares to join?
If people were up for mixing up the same stones and reviewing them, it would be interesting to get a few different viewpoints.
My personal request is someone that could explain coils/tanks. I've been vaping for a few years now, but I've always stuck to a tank and premade coils.
I'm interested in making my own, but I have always put off the research. It would be great if someone could do a rundown of the pros/cons, the price difference (I'm currently paying £12 for 4 Uwell Crown 3 coils, and can get through 4-6 a month) and the difference in the vaping experience (flavour, wicking etc).
The easiest way to do this is just commit! Get yourself a nice clone rda, or a cheaper authentic... you can look at quality brands like sxk and shenray on ecr sub.
buy yourself a coilmaster kit with everything you need, get yourself some wires... I recommend domestic kanthal, stainless steel, and Maybe ni80 wire. Kanthal is what you use now, stainless is the greatest flavour ever, and ni80 ramps up super quick.
The only difficulty is getting dual coils to glow and heat at the same time. A mixture of playing with the clamps, strumming hot spots and a few other tricks can fix this.. but it's only really solved through experience and research. There's plenty of material on YouTube. When you find an atomizer you really like the sound of, I'm sure you'll find recommended builds on there too!
RDAs are awesome, classic dripper, you juice the coils on top directly and get great flavor. Tons of options for coils, both in material and design as well as wicking materials, from organic unbleached cotton to braided silica rope. Super cheap to maintain, super easy when you get used to it. Biggest downsides are the constant redripping and having a bottle of juice on you everywhere you go, plus it does get kind of annoying burning off your coils and rewicking every other day. Come in a million and one designs and are generally pretty cheap. Squonk mods are nice and allow you to redrip your coils from a tank underneath the RDA in the device, although most of these are unregulated and probably better as a second purchase and not a first.
RTAs are rebuildables with a tank these don't need to be dripped. Are a bit trickier and are a bit more likely to leak unless you get the wicking just right or get one with top airflow. Many tanks sell RBA coils for traditional tank mods so it might be worth getting one of those before buying a new tank. Not as good flavor as RDAs most of the time because the way they wick, but there are many good ones and can be pretty convenient out and about.
RDTAs are a dripper deck on top of a tank that gets rewicked through holes in the base of the build deck. These are the best of both worlds and my current personal favorite.
All in all it is super easy and cheap to start, I would go with precoiled wires first to get used to installing before you throw in the extra work of building your own. This will also let you test out different metals and builds before you try and replicate any fancier ones.
Dead rabbit clone is good starter rda
obs engine 2 is a little more expensive, but a rood rta and nice if you are used to a tank.
Coil Father king is my favorite tank right now. Bonkers how great and cheap this thing is.
Coils prerolled are super cheap like 100 for $5, or get a variety pack from SS to Kanthal to NiChrome
Cotton Bacon v2 is generally regarded as the best cotton, it's pretty cheap and lasts awhile and there are even great clones of them.
For tools at start you can get away with a pair of nail clippers, some scissors and whatever little tool comes with the tank or you can spend a few dollars and get a little tool kit. hell buy this set, these coils and a dead rabbit for about the same price you would for a month of coils and that is enough to last a few months before you need more cotton.
wow that got long and rambley, let me know if i just made you more confused.
Wow, that's an awesome amount of info, thanks! I'll have a look through and see what looks good. I'm definitely going to get some prebuilt and some wire, just to have a play around and see how it all works.
Thanks again.
one thing I didn't touch on, but is kind of important if you are going to make a bulk order of coils is resistance. It can be easy to accidentally go to low on the resistance, doubly so in dual coil builds. I would recommend trying to keep your resistance somewhere between .3-.8 ohms. So for dual coil builds you would need the coils to be rated .6-1.6 to get your resistance in the sweet spot. This is mostly for battery life and convenience rather than a big safety concern, although that is still something to consider.
Going for super low resistance vaping <.2 ohm can be dangerous, you will have to consider amperage discharge rates and pay close attention to battery levels and ohms law. But it will also blow through your batteries in like an hour and require tons of back ups being carried around. Going for >.7, will cut down your vape production and flavor, ok for MTL, but not as satisfying for DL vapors.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask, I've only been building a year now, but I think I have a pretty good handle on things.
I also have a Uwell crown 3 and it is a decent tank, but you get such better flavor from RDAs. You might also want to try washing the coils if you just want to save a few dollars. Soak them in rubbing alcohol for a few days and then rinse them with warm water. You can then reuse them, doubling or tripling their life. But if you are going to go to that much effort just drop the 15 pounds on an RDA set up.
I wouldn't mind something similar. I'm making my own SS coils and it's easy enough to build one to a certain resistance (more or less) but I've come to a point where I'm not finding it easy to learn more. Does lower resistance create more flavour, or in a non-mech situation is there any difference between 0.8 and 0.2? Is there a difference in flavour between two coils with the same resistance but with smaller/wider diameter?
Seems a bit out of the scope of this subreddit but it could be useful to have tips on how to maximise flavour seeing as that's what we're all about.
Your question can pretty much be summed up by this: more metal in contact with juice = more vapor.
Knowing this, you can figure out the causality. A wider diameter allows for more metal and also more surface area in contact with the wicks. Dual coil is more metal than single coil, lower ohm means more metal, etc.
Proper airflow is vital though, it should hit the coil directly and you don't want any cotton to touch the outside of the coil. And of course temperature matters, etc etc. But maybe I should save this for the FAQ? :)
Yeah I didn't think about the fact that it may be out of our remit. Good point.
Another separate idea would be one on genuinely hazardous materials.
to add to this, maybe flavor concentrates that are used but may not be as good for you, such as fw yellow cake containing fructose, and I've heard CAP SS having some funny things in there? I'm not sure about others but I bet having a list of things that are a bit more risky would be good for everyone
I'd love to see something about the various ways people mix using premade bases and such. For example, I always mix using a calculator and weigh each ingredient out as I add it. Some people instead use a premixed bottle of pg/vg instead of adding each separately. I've also seen some people who mix just off a list of flavor weights for a specific size bottle and fill in the rest with their premixed base. I don't use premixed base too much except for priming coils. Mostly because I can't wrap my head around how to do it in a way that won't mess with my ratios if I go from something at 10% total flavor to something at 7%. I'd love to see a thread about transitioning over to "easy mode"
A lot of people on here, definitely the most vocal, will tell you they don't and that it's a waste of time.
I've asked this very question myself and got shot down swiftly XD
I mean, I have gotten quick enough with mixing that I can get a bottle done pretty quick. So there could be some truth in that there isn't much extra time saving to be had, within reason.
I think the upshot was basically that even though you've premixed a flavour base... when you add to it, you still have to steep the end result after the fact too. That's what put me off in the end
There is also the nuances that might work in one mix and not the next...
I'm still intrigued by the idea but it could end up being like buying a 120ml in a b&m and pouring it down the drain!
I only ever premix for a specific total flavor percentage. So I'll whip up a batch of base for 6% total flavor (great for doing quick 1-2-3 recipe tests, also useful for my RY 411) and another batch for 8% total flavoring (for use in prepping SFTs). Otherwise, the only way to use a premade base is by assuming it's 75 (or 80) percent of your mix, and to add enough VG to your flavoring to bring the total amount added to the premixed base to 25 (or 20) percent.
Alright that makes some more sense to me now. For example, if you wanted to mix a 100ml bottle that you already know is going to be 6% total flavor. You would just take (100ml - 6%) 94ml of your base and add the remaining 6ml of flavor. Where would you factor in adding nicotine, if desired?
Basically, I'd make a batch such that 94ml would contain 300mg of nic, to allow 3mg/ml final mix after adding flavor. It's not saving much work, except in instances where you plan to do a large number of mixes at once (that all use the same total flavor percentage) it can reduce the job to weighing out flavors and one base, rather than weighing out the separate ingredients for the base for each mix.
edit: fixed a number spellwreck fucked up
If you have several recipes you make regularly - you can mix up a single vg/pg/nic base. The trick is how you mix your flavor bases. If you have recipes (flavor bases) at 10%, 8%, 7%, and 5% flavor - just add 0%, 2%, 3%, and 5% PG to bring them all up to 10% pg solution. Then all your flavor bases can be mixed with the same vg/pg/nic base at the same percentage.
There's already a FAQ Friday for Premixed bases. It was the 4th or 5th one I wrote. I do plan on going back through all of them at some point and doing updates based on comments or new information, so feel free to point out what's missing or what questions you still have after reading it.
I premix PG and VG, it's just super convenient and you will not notice the slight variation in ratio between recipes. Using a premix with nicotine however leads to a variation you will most definitely notice, on top of crippling you in terms of control over nic strength. This is probably why premixes have a bad rep.
So, when I mix, I add flavors, nic, then just top the bottle off with premix (don't need to look at the scale anymore), just leaving some headspace for shaking. If you mix in VG separately, you'll have to contend with the viscosity, not an issue with a premix, and do a lot more shaking to mix it evenly. The only time I ever deal with viscosity is when I make the premix. And yea, it's cheaper to make your own.
I'm a big proponent of keeping mixing simple and fun. No reason to complicate things.
I would really love a mint flavour thread. As someone who isn't really into desserty flavours and vapes mostly mint/sweet mint/minty lemonade store bought liquids it's really hard to find a recipe that's worth making
Best damn pink lemonade by /u/vurve is amazing with some added FA Polar blast. Polar blast isn't mint but it is coolings so I'd recommend trying that out. I usually add 0.3-0.5%
Failing that, there is the Flavour of the week thread, you can request that mint be a FOTW. In fact, it has been before:
Oh, and it will be FOTW in a mere 12 weeks time!
Excuse me, I've got a grasshopper cocktail recipe to start working on...