Hey!

[Triptamine]

Hello everyone,

Long time vaper. I've been away from rdas and mods for about 4 years mostly just using pods and salt nic.
With the Aus import ban kicking off in march I thought it was time to find a good community and get an idea of what mods and rdas/rta are popular and hopefully find some rebuildable tank or other solution to fill the pod role.

Looking forward to joining the community.

 

[Daniel Forsyth]

Welcome to ECF

 

[bombastinator2]

I don’t know what is popular anymore. The CDC BS thing seems to have been effective enough to more or less strangle development at around the 2015 level as far as I can tell. I’m vaping a pulse2 squonker with an RDA and a squonk pin atm. I understand GeekVape got into problems and their quality went down, and smok bought wotofo and their quality on at least some products went up. I’m not sure how far up by (so I still don’t know if that level is “acceptable” or not, before it certainly wasn’t) or what products. I still consider smok suspect myself. The tank I most like the look of atm is still an aromamizer plus that steamcrave is still selling. It doesn’t have a price or time of delivery though which says to me “we’ll do another run as soon as we get enough orders”. The thing is tricky and non-intuitive to wick. I do it by twisting points on BOTH ends of cotton, feeding then through the kidney shaped holes in the deck and then trimming them on the other side so the cotton is forced to fill the holes. Use that system and keep an eye to the thing maintaining vacuum and it doesn’t leak. Fail to follow the vacuum requirement though and it will. A lot (it’s got a big tank) It’s got a huge chamber though so you can put big coils in it and DIY coils will keep up with cartridges then. It’s a big device though. Too big for some. As far as RDAs go it’s more or less anything with decent build room you can get a squonk pin into to squonk with. Drilling a solid pin for squonking is also possible. I did that with this odd old RDA that had 4 coils and no option for a squonk pin so I can squonk it anyway.

 

[Darksand]

Welcome!!!
I would suggest to buy something that is sturdy and will last you a long time.

Buy backups.
Also try to look at it from an angle in where you could find yourself repairing the device if it breaks.
Buying multiple of the same devices /tanks does make repairs maybe easier.

Maybe have a simple mechmod as an extra? Those are mostly indestructible if you buy a simple one.

Rebuildables should be a no-brainer, you do not have to buy coils for them. Just get some spools of wire and nice cotton, will last a long time

Kayfuns are pretty long living tanks.
Most regulated (especially the cheaper) devices do break easy after a while.
There are some exceptions, but the ones I know of are already very old. Not even sure if brands like Pioneer4You still exist.

Of course always go for devices with external batteries.

Last but not least, buy a freezer, fill it up with your flavorings, PG/VG and Nic.

 

[bombastinator2]

I would suggest to buy something that is sturdy and will last you a long time.

Buy backups.
Also try to look at it from an angle in where you could find yourself repairing the device if it breaks.
Buying multiple of the same devices /tanks does make repairs maybe easier.

Maybe have a simple mechmod as an extra?

Kayfuns are pretty long living tanks.
Most regulated (especially the cheaper) devices do break easy after a while.
There are some exceptions, but the ones I know of are already very old. Not even sure if brands like Pioneer4You still exist.

Of course always go for devices with external batteries.

A backup is a good feature. It doesn’t have to be a great mod, and even though I’ve got 2 (long story. Ordering online has its problems) because I modded my main with an AirTag I find I don’t need the backup nearly as often, misplacing the thing will happen and a backup is handy when you just don’t have time to look for it atm.

 

[Elrafau]

Hi

 

[BrotherBob]

Hello everyone,

Welcome and glad you joined.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

Really hard to recommend stuff without some preference data to start off. Becomes even harder when the clock is ticking so loudly (from what I understand).

If this gets postponed, take that as a blessing and a signal to get off your .... and get to stocking up ASAP.

 

[somdcomputerguy]

Welcome to ECF, Triptamine.

 

[Triptamine]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes and advice. It's given me a lot to think about.


@UncLeJunkLe
Haha, yeah I understand there's so much variety it's hard to make generalized suggestions. I guess a reliable mod with decent battery capacity (ideally at least 2 18650s) so I don't mind it being big. Maybe a cheaper single battery mod as well to replace pod devices when out and about.

I have been grabbing 10% nic and stocking up since late November. Mainly salt nic because some regulations changed so the previous "up to 500ml 3-100mg nicotie liquid per 3 months" aren't allowed so I had a choice of 100mls of freebase or 250 of salt. My understading is that the salt nic is more stable so that doesnt seem terrible though I couldnt find much information on using it in place of base at say 6% with a 0.15Ω or lower coil.


@Darksand
I bought a chest freezer for storage and I'll try to get a few more batches of base nic. I'm not sure how much air tight amber bottles are needed but I figure I can still buy those after march so I'm focusing my funds and time on getting other things before then. Nic, Xros pods, some mods and rta rdas + diy flavour concentrate. I'm even stocking bottles because those are also going to be prohibited for sale or importing. No idea how they plan to enforce that one really.
I should still be able to get flavour concentrates used for other things but anything marketed as vape concentrate is out.

I'll definately be following your advice and getting a few duplicates of the mods and tanks. 2-3x A reliable high end mods with good chip, high current and if feasible sqonking support. Another 5 cheaper mods that are a bit more portable and will work for most things. I used to have some voopoo drags for covenience so thats what im thiking. I was considering a tube mod for mtl for when I run out of pods though the mech mod idea is definately a keeper so a tube mech mod for backup/something less cumbersome than a regulated box mod.

Is there a particular kayfun rta you would recommend? The few places here showing stock have the Svoemesto Kayfun X 22 RT at $220 ($145 USD) compared to ~$70 for the Aromizer Plus v2. The quality of the rta is going to be very imortant whe I cant use an rda so I am prepared to spend a bit ad have some duplicates for repair purposes but what exactly makes it so much better.


@bombastinator2
Thanks very much for all the info. That seems like a very nice setup.
It's good to know that you can get compareable flavour from an rta. I tried a few times years ago while I was happy with coils when dripping I didnt stick with an rta for long. I think that was around when mesh atomizers became common and the difference was too much. I never did get into sqonking which seems to be a good solution and a lot more convenient. How durable are the squank bottles for the mods out of curiosity?

Big is fine.
Is there a huge difference between the v2 and v3 Aromamizer Plus tanks or the suprememe/titan lines? Looking at local au suppliers the v3 plus is harder to find than the v2 plus or the v3 supreme/titan so I'm guessing that's the one you use? If they are all pretty comparible I'll just pick whichever I can find with a few in stock and enough spare glass to last me a decade.

The stock might not be the best indication because all the domestic places are clearing and closing. As log as I'm not ordering from China during CNY I shouldn't have a problem getting what I need elsewhere so long as I order before too long.

Thanks again for everyones input.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

I can't give you any specific recos on hardware because my stash is old or relatively old and mostly out of production or hard to find. But regarding RTAs as it applies to vapocalypse prepping, my personal opinion is to try to stick with RTAs that only use regular old orings for seals rather than proprietary seals. That eliminates something you need to stock up on. Not to mention most of the time you can't buy a proprietary seal so you have to buy a whole tank for it.

As far as dual batt mod, I know vaporesso has the new Armour mod out that takes dual 21700 bats, which means you can use 18650 instead (I'm sure it comes with reducer sleeves). Too toyish and blingy looking for me but you might like it. But unfortunately it's new so hard to say anything about longevity.

For hardware, I personally would go to a site like Sourcemore or HealthCabin to see what you like that's out there, then do research on those specific mods.

I can't even begin to tell ya how to shop for a pod system lol. I'm a 510 vaper all the way baby.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

As log as I'm not ordering from China during CNY I shouldn't have a problem getting what I need elsewhere so long as I order before too long.

Things aren't that bad. It's not like US Customs is about to ban vape any time soon (that we know if anyway.

Also I've been keeping track of the more popular vape sites in the USA and none of them show any signs of going out of business.. As a vapocalypse prepper, I say the sooner the better but at the same time I say you have time to make informed buying decisions, assuming things are to go south.

Also, keep in mind that USPS regulations now require vape to be shipped with Adult signature required so that's something to keep in mind. China sites do not adhere to this rule. However I have seen that some US stores offer PUDO point shipping options so that makes things a bit more convenient. But most don't offer this.

Sorry, scratch all that. I forgot you are in AU. Things do appear to be THAT bad if the media surrounding AU vape is to be believed. Better hurry

 

[Triptamine]

I can't give you any specific recos on hardware because my stash is old or relatively old and mostly out of production or hard to find. But regarding RTAs as it applies to vapocalypse prepping, my personal opinion is to try to stick with RTAs that only use regular old orings for seals rather than proprietary seals. That eliminates something you need to stock up on. Not to mention most of the time you can't buy a proprietary seal so you have to buy a whole tank for it.

As far as dual batt mod, I know vaporesso has the new Armour mod out that takes dual 21700 bats, which means you can use 18650 instead (I'm sure it comes with reducer sleeves). Too toyish and blingy looking for me but you might like it. But unfortunately it's new so hard to say anything about longevity.

For mods, I personally would go to a site like Sourcemore or HealthCabin to see what's you like that's out there, then do research on those specific mods. I can't even bigin to tell ya how to shop for a pod system lol. I'm a 510 vaper all the way baby.

Cheers for the site suggestions and raising the point about proprietary seals. Didn't even consider that.

I understand the 510 love. I only started using pods and salt while in public because I was sick of smokers telling me how dangerous me vaping was every time I went to a smoking area >.< and at least without the cloud it was less frequent.

Before/during your flavor ban I ended up getting 4x my juice order supplied. that was before the first ban happened so I just kind of stuck with it.
I'm looking forward to returning to some nice tasty clouds.

 

[Darksand]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes and advice. It's given me a lot to think about.

Is there a particular kayfun rta you would recommend? The few places here showing stock have the Svoemesto Kayfun X 22 RT at $220 ($145 USD) compared to ~$70 for the Aromizer Plus v2. The quality of the rta is going to be very imortant whe I cant use an rda so I am prepared to spend a bit ad have some duplicates for repair purposes but what exactly makes it so much better.

Good question and now I think of it, I also have the same problem that mine are all pretty old and not sure they are still for sale. I use a Kayfun 5 now, which is awesome. This is a MTL tank. I also have the Kayfun 5 Squared. its bigger and can be used for DL, but in my opinion it is not the greatest, or at least I can not get used to it. I also find it not the best for MTL. That being said, the build quality of all of them are great!

I like to do some DL but I am a mouth to lung vaper 99% of my time. I did try many tanks and RDA's, but for DL I always like the prebuilds more (convenience, like I said, my DL sometimes isn't used for multiple weeks, and when I want to use it, it is usually rank, so it is easier to just screw in a new coil than rewicking) . But if you are primary DL vaper, Simple drippers are the most reliable and best tasting, even the cheaper ones. Can't help you with any recent advice on DL rebuildable tanks.

 

[Daniel Forsyth]

There's a handy Review Section in here that keeps up to date with all of latest vaping hardware, there's also some excellent reviewers on board as well. You may be interested in checking it out Reviews

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

I understand the 510 love.

Well TBH, I started stocking up many years ago when pods were not a thing. Had I not, I'm sure I would have stocked up on some pod systems. I just never had a need to bother with them.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

BTW: Not trying to run you outta here, you are definitely welcome regardless. But I wonder if getting help/advice and tips for your coming vapocalypse from AU vapers might help you out more. I know there is a subbreddit called aussievapers with over 20K subscribers. Might be worth checking out. As you may have figured out already, 99.9% of ECF members here are US vapers (yet started by a brit lol)

 

[Triptamine]

@

Well TBH, I started stocking up many years ago when pods were not a thing. Had I not, I'm sure I would have stocked up on some pod systems. I just never had a need to bother with them.

That makes sense. I think pods are damn good at what they do and at least from the friends of mine who tried to use vaping to quit the pods with salt worked better than when we grabbed a nautilus and a mech mod maybe 5 years earlier.

With the fancy mesh coils or whatever the latest tech is they deliver a lot more flavour than the early ciglite things or the tanks i used early on before going dtl sub ohm.

Haha, I actually came from the subs your talking about but I wast having much luck when it came to figuring out which rta's or mods are reliable and vape well.
The aussie vape subs don't have too many active people for general vaping questions or discussions unfortunately. Very useful for news about whats going on as well as suggesting the phone services to get scipts (because most gps wont do them) or talking about the stores in nz that have good nix to import. Also for venting about murdoch propaganda, tobacco lobbies and politicians , I would guess the number of unique users is under 100/day.


@Daniel Forsyth Thanks for that link. Just what I was after.

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

The aussie vape subs don't have too many active people for general vaping questions or discussions unfortunately. Very useful for news about whats going on as well as suggesting the phone services to get scipts (because most gps wont do them) or talking about the stores in nz that have good nix to import. Also for venting about murdoch propaganda, tobacco lobbies and politicians , I would guess the number of unique users is under 100/day.

Yeah I noticed that after I suggested it. Seems more of a sub for vape politics and news more than actual vaping.

 

[bombastinator2]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes and advice. It's given me a lot to think about.


@UncLeJunkLe
Haha, yeah I understand there's so much variety it's hard to make generalized suggestions. I guess a reliable mod with decent battery capacity (ideally at least 2 18650s) so I don't mind it being big. Maybe a cheaper single battery mod as well to replace pod devices when out and about.

I have been grabbing 10% nic and stocking up since late November. Mainly salt nic because some regulations changed so the previous "up to 500ml 3-100mg nicotie liquid per 3 months" aren't allowed so I had a choice of 100mls of freebase or 250 of salt. My understading is that the salt nic is more stable so that doesnt seem terrible though I couldnt find much information on using it in place of base at say 6% with a 0.15Ω or lower coil.


@Darksand
I bought a chest freezer for storage and I'll try to get a few more batches of base nic. I'm not sure how much air tight amber bottles are needed but I figure I can still buy those after march so I'm focusing my funds and time on getting other things before then. Nic, Xros pods, some mods and rta rdas + diy flavour concentrate. I'm even stocking bottles because those are also going to be prohibited for sale or importing. No idea how they plan to enforce that one really.
I should still be able to get flavour concentrates used for other things but anything marketed as vape concentrate is out.

I'll definately be following your advice and getting a few duplicates of the mods and tanks. 2-3x A reliable high end mods with good chip, high current and if feasible sqonking support. Another 5 cheaper mods that are a bit more portable and will work for most things. I used to have some voopoo drags for covenience so thats what im thiking. I was considering a tube mod for mtl for when I run out of pods though the mech mod idea is definately a keeper so a tube mech mod for backup/something less cumbersome than a regulated box mod.

Is there a particular kayfun rta you would recommend? The few places here showing stock have the Svoemesto Kayfun X 22 RT at $220 ($145 USD) compared to ~$70 for the Aromizer Plus v2. The quality of the rta is going to be very imortant whe I cant use an rda so I am prepared to spend a bit ad have some duplicates for repair purposes but what exactly makes it so much better.


@bombastinator2
Thanks very much for all the info. That seems like a very nice setup.
It's good to know that you can get compareable flavour from an rta. I tried a few times years ago while I was happy with coils when dripping I didnt stick with an rta for long. I think that was around when mesh atomizers became common and the difference was too much. I never did get into sqonking which seems to be a good solution and a lot more convenient. How durable are the squank bottles for the mods out of curiosity?

Big is fine.
Is there a huge difference between the v2 and v3 Aromamizer Plus tanks or the suprememe/titan lines? Looking at local au suppliers the v3 plus is harder to find than the v2 plus or the v3 supreme/titan so I'm guessing that's the one you use? If they are all pretty comparible I'll just pick whichever I can find with a few in stock and enough spare glass to last me a decade.

The stock might not be the best indication because all the domestic places are clearing and closing. As log as I'm not ordering from China during CNY I shouldn't have a problem getting what I need elsewhere so long as I order before too long.

Thanks again for everyone’s input.

Generally with any old rta you need prebuilt fused claptons to make it equal to or surpass cartridges or pods, or whatever. Didn’t used to be that way, but things evolved. There are a few RDAs or rdtas that have as much power with a diy simple wire coil as modern cartridge stuff. Generally it involves wrapping an unusually large coil though. (Which means you need the space to do so) that’s DL though. MTL is a whole other kettle of fish. There RTAs still rule. A kayfun or a Russian is still a kayfun or a Russian. And they still cost a Benjamin for a real one. For cause. As far as squonk mod durability goes it’s never been the actual squonk bit that’s given up on me. If you’re reasonably careful with them the other parts will die first. I’ve worn through a couple lostvape squaonks in about 5 years. The bottles aren’t the part that goes bad. Silicone is tough stuff.