Personal Vape LearningTips

WARNING: This post has to do with vaping. If you are under age, please know that I do NOT encourage smoking or vaping for minors and this post is not intended for you.  I don't encourage nicotine use of any kind for anyone. This post has to do with my personal experience as I attempt to stop using nicotine.



This is not a post recommending that you use any particular vape shop. I am just sharing my personal shopping method when looking for vape devices and vape supplies. There will be a little bit of ranting too...

Decent Shop Listings Are Hard To Find

Let's start with a rant: Whenever I do a search for "best vape shop" or "best price on (fill in the blank)", etc. I don't feel a lot of hope. Most lists of "bests" and "recommended" seem as if they were written in exchange for something. Maybe the author is getting some free or discount devices? Maybe they are being paid? And there is nothing wrong with that - as long as there is a lot of honesty. Here are some recent listings that I found to be more credible-seeming than others:

• This is one list that I like a lot. They give decently objects Cons along with the Pros (even though each item is linked to a purchase page..)

Yep. One list. I found a LOT of lists but most were so obviously suck-up sell jobs that I just grew tired of looking. Let me know if you have seen any decent compilations.

MY List of good vape shops

• Electronic Tobacconist (good products & service & site is well-designed)
• Element Vapor (my newest spot; they have more variety than the others)
• Breazy (my first & forever)
• Vape Wild (if you don't have to pay the extra USPS cost for signing)
• EC Blend Flavors (fun juice lab)
• E Juice Club (no longer delivers to my area because of stupid laws)

Now for another rant: It's hard to find good YouTube vape reviewers who are a) not completely silly, childish, annoying, or just plain show-stoppingly narcissistic. I don't mind being entertained while watching the review, but I really do want to know more about the device. Tell me what you like about the device instead of showing off how wild and crazy you are. And be honest. I didn't stop at your channel to listen to you suck up to a brand so that they will send you more free stuff...

MY list of helpful video-reviewers of vape stuff

• Zophie Vapes (She's fun but knows her stuff & does detailed reviews.)
• Wendy Vapes (She sometimes seems a little bit biased, but she does really detailed reviews)
• Vaping With Twisted (He does great reviews & this is the most useful one I've seen for newbies)
• Jai Haze (He can be a bit... intense but he's one of my go-to channels when I'm checking out a device) 
• Speaking of videos, here is one from New Amsterdam Vape on "progressing in vaping" that is old but I think is super helpful for newbies. It's nice to see the parts and accessories that the narrator is talking about. Of course, there are more devices now than then, but basic info never gets too old. Be sure to check out the NAV playlists.

Rant Number 3: Why aren't there more easily accessible online helps for newbies? Here are some concerns I once had or now have that might seem silly, but I bet I'm not the only one:

1. What's more important - the tank or the device? I have great devices that do much better when I replace the tank (I see you over there, Smok, taking over for the Sigelei Shikra...)
2. Is there a list of the most popular coils and the devices they work with? I hate having to hunt around to figure out if there is another brand of coil that will work with one device or another. Often I would like to get one set of coils that will work across devices but I have trouble understanding compatibility.
3. How do I know if an online vape shop is or is not possibly legit?
4. Why does every vaping tutorial on shop sites care more about selling to you than teaching???

MY list of helpful info for the very novice vaper 

• Vape Wild's Info Hub - This was the first help site I used (and still do). It's broken up into sections that you can scroll through. My first stop when I started out explained the difference between PG and VG.  Do check it out.
• Mig Vapor did a nice job giving a brief history of vaping and explaining basics about device and juice types. I love that they were more concerned with educating the user instead of just pushing a particular product.
• Expert Vaping is a site I discovered a few days ago so I'm not sure about anything else on it, but the guides here are nice. This is one of their charts: 

• This chart is from Vaping Hardware (and now I have to go and see what else they have!) They test and review products so it might be a place to check out when trying to decide on a device...

• This similar chart is from Mister E-Liquid (another site I have to check out now! Dang!) 

So, yeah, there are plenty of charts but you more than get the idea. Let's move on to the last (for now) rant. 

How can I figure out if an online shop is legit and decent with good customer service and support, or is possibly scam-ish? Shopping online is always iffy. I do have a few methods for checking out a new vendor before I trust them with my orders and info.

MY tips and tricks for not getting jammed up

• I use sites like Trust Pilot (search by name or type of vendor) and the BBB (search by name & location or just by name). A UK site called Reviews UK is very, VERY similar in looks to Trust Pilot. There are US companies you can review (ie: I reviewed Vape Wild), but you have to verify either and order number or invitation email to post a review. Trust Pilot is my favorite to check up on sites.
• Ask Redditors for their feedback. I generally either search on Reddit, or I will add "Reddit" at the end of a Google or Duck Duck Go search. Redditors will give you the outright down and dirty.
• Do a general search "is -insert company/site name- legit/scam". 
• Another thing to do is look up the About Us info on a site.
• Check where the vendor is located. I'm not telling you what to do but I tend to avoid sites that ship from warehouses or straight out of China. I don't want the Wish version of a vape device...
• Check your browser address bar to check the site's security. There was a time, HTTPS indicated a site was secure. These days, in Chrome at least, I look for the little lock symbol to click on because it will indicate whether or not your info is secure.
• If at all possible, I try to use any debit or credit card payments via PayPal. This is a little more secure, IMO.
• As much as I hate Facebook, if I still used it for other than posting my blog, I would check with people in groups to see if they know anything about a company. You do know there are groups for vaping enthusiasts on there, right?
• If in any kind of doubt, don't use a site. You are giving them a chance to take your money and... do what they will with it. I tend to stick with my proven-safe vendors.

My final tips for you:

• Don't become a vape junkie. Listen, I was a hair product junkie and that was expensive enough to make me go to rehab. Vapes and vape supplies are fun but, like with a lot of products, there is always going to be the next newer and nicer thing.
• Instead of buying new vape devices, just upgrade your tanks or get some nice clean coils or pods to use. 
• See if a friend wants to swap out vapes with you for a while. My SIL and I check out each others vapes all the time. This is how I learned that, while I really like the Smok pod devices, I don't want one enough to buy one.

I hope this helped. Maybe at some point, I will remember to come back to do an update for 2020. In the meantime, enjoy this brand new year we are in.

Peace

--Free

I thought it would be fun to nod back at my former smoking days. This clip is hilarious and I remember watching it when I still smoked, God help me. This is now the way I feel about vaping...

Take it away, Bebe