I converted my husband and my sister successfully. However, it took quite a bit of work to do it. My husband would still be smoking if I wasn't living with him and maintaining his equipment for him. My sister kept going back to cigarettes the moment anything went wrong with her set up, and I live about an hour and a half away from her, so it's been harder with her. Neither my husband or my sister like to tinker with gadgets like I do. I'll continue on about my sister though, as my husband is just lucky to have me to do the troubleshooting for him.
I got my sister started on the same starter set that I used. iVape.net's variable volt, 650 mAh, ego style, passthrough express starter kit that came in a blister pack with a plastic, bottom coil clearo. They have since upgraded the kit with an actual Evod, rather then one that only took Evod coils. It's a great, simple, starter kit with a lot of features for $14.95. The only drawback is that it only comes with one set up, and I always recommend that someone start out with two. So really, the kit cost $30 because I insisted that she needed to have two of them. It's still a great price for all that it does. I prefer to recommend that a new vaper start out with a bottom coil clearo, as those seem to be simpler to maintain. I prefer the taste from top coil clearos like the iClear 16, but in my experience, top coil clearos leave more room for user error then bottom coils. Also, with a bottom coil, a newbie can keep the liquid in the tank as they switch out their coils, which saves on e-liquid until they can build up their supply. I also prefer to recommend a variable volt battery, which came in handy when I first switched. I found myself cranking up the power to vape my way through stronger cigarette cravings. This allowed me to keep my e-liquid at 18 mg nic level, rather then buying juice at varying levels and needing to keep a clearo filled with a higher one.
My sister is not tech friendly, so there was a rather lengthy tutorial when she got her equipment via text. I even sent her pics as I was teaching her. We live a fair distance apart, so I couldn't just pop in to show her. I also directed her to various youtube videos on dry burning Protank coils. It's helpful to pick a clearo that has been out for a while, or uses the coils of a clearo that has been out for a while due to the number of tutorials around the web on them. Still, she didn't quite understand, and within two weeks she was back to smoking cigarettes as her coils gunked up and stopped working. Also, this was before ivape upgraded that kit to include actual Evods, and the original clearos were pretty cheap and poorly made. The plastic started coming apart from the metal in the base from one of them. Also, there was a slight learning curve to selecting the next voltage setting on her batteries. It was a 5 click to the next setting to allow for the passthrough feature on the bottom, rather then an easier dial on the bottom. However, as the fire button changes color when the next setting is selected she soon figured that all out.
Eventually I did make it to visit her after she went back to smoking. I then gave her one of my Mini Protanks to use, a pile of replacement coils so she didn't have to worry about dry burning and cleaning them, and gave her a hands on lesson along with some better juice then she currently had (she started vaping right after I started, so I was still learning myself!). This worked longer for her. At least until she lost one set up and the other one started to act up. It wound up that she got a dud coil, but rather then change what she thought was a perfectly good, brand new coil, she decided the battery was broken and went back to smoking AGAIN. This time, my mother called me (she's a student and still living at my parents) and clued me in. I had to trek back out there again, and get her back up and running.
This time, I had started looking into cigalike set ups, which are a ton easier to handle. I got my husband a Smokeless Image starter kit with a personal charging case for his baseball games. He was a little embarrassed to whip out his iTaste VV v3 in front of his friends. I also picked up a few other 808D-1 batteries for myself, as my stealth vape set up. All I had were 2 MVP's at that point, and there's nothing stealthy about those. I brought a couple out to my sister, got her a personal charging case for them, and some prefilled and blank cartos. I also got her remaining ego up and running. This way, she had a very simple and easy to use back up system available for her to fall back on when she couldn't figure out her ego. For the less then tech savvy, I recommend they get a cigalike along with an eGo for the same reasons now. It's a simple screw on the carto and take a drag set up. Smokeless Image, Halo and Bloog are some of my top recommendations in this category. I also love Bedford Slims, which have a unique little light up mustache on the ends. While reasonably priced at $10 per battery however, they aren't sealed batteries like Smokeless Image. For a newbie, I recommend only using prefilled cartos for unsealed auto batteries.
We made a deal before I gave her all this new equipment. The deal was that I'd ship her the juice I didn't fall in love with and keep her supplied with coils for a while until she graduated beauty school and was able to get a job (she's near to graduation). Within reason of course. She would no longer fall back on cigarettes, and would call me with issues BEFORE she didn't have a choice. My mother agreed to call me if she cheated. It's finally working. She recently had her one month anniversary for quitting smoking. She finally made that final decision to really quit smoking when she made that deal with me, and as a result, figured out how to clean and maintain her coils along with how to refill her blank cartos. Unfortunately, I do think that someone stole her ego set up though. She lost it at school and has been relying on her cigalikes for the last week or so. Even with only those though, she's managed to get by without a cigarette! She's keeping her end of the deal.
I just sent her my Petal MVP last week, to celebrate her one month anniversary and replace the stolen eGo. I also sent her a few more difficult tanks to deal with, but produce way better vapor. The original iClear 16b in Petal that came with the MVP, an iClear 30b and an Aspire BDC ET-S. I also sent any remaining coils I had for the clearos, as both my husband and I have switched to cartotanks and rebuildables. She's doing well with it all so far, and even when she isn't she has those nearly error proof cigalikes to fall back on. She even now understands the difference between watts and volts and what those functions are for on the MVP.
