Welcome to Vape 101

Starting The Vape Journey

In order for you to understand where to start on your journey, it is important to understand the product that you are preparing to use. These next few sections are going to help you understand the parts to vaping. To start you off, let’s take a look at a basic setup. The basic setup typically has three parts:

Rechargeable battery: Most models use a power button that must be held during operation. An LED in the button or on the end may also be employed to indicate activation. Charging is commonly done with a USB charger that the battery attaches to.
Clearomizer, or Tank: Meant to be refilled with bottles of e-juice
Coil/Atomizer: small heating element responsible for vaporizing e-liquid

Who should use a basic set up?

If you are looking for help to stop smoking, this is the way to start. You can always upgrade the tank or the battery to gain longer battery life or a tank that lasts longer.

Mods

Mechanical Mod

A mechanical mod is a basic tube of metal, such as stainless steel, aluminum, or brass. Along with the tube, there is a firing pin which allows for the current in the batter to reach the atomizer. The coils then heat up and vaporize the juice.

Who should use a mechanical mod?

If you are looking for stronger flavor and increased vapor production, have a solid understanding of ohm’s law and battery amperes limits, then go for it! If you don’t, but still want a mech mod, make sure that you do your research and stay safe.

Why a mechanical mod?

Even with the battery dangers of mechanical mods mechanical mods are incredibly popular as well as a logical step to pursue once you have gotten into rebuilding your atmomoziers or clearomizers. Building coils are a cost-effective way of keeping your device up and running and you vaping. However, electrical devices have safety protocols that require any coils used to be able to handle a certain resistance or above. This is why many heads are listed as 1.5 ohms or higher. If you are rebuilding devices for electrical devices, you are rather limited as to how low your coil’s resistance can be. With mechanical mods, you are not limited to this. Since there are no electrical circuits, there is nothing keeping your mod to fire no matter how low your coil’s resistance is. The lower the ohms (resistance) of the coil, the more amps it draws from the unregulated battery which causes more power to be delivered to the coil causing juice to be vaporized faster. This gives stronger flavor and more vapor. Depending on the mod, you can be limited to the battery size that you use. Of course, if you acquire a mod that is telescoping, then you can use multiple battery sizes, making your mod far more versatile.

Mechanical mod pro-tips:

Always make sure that there is a lock for the firing pin/button.
Check your mod for air-holes.
Make sure your batteries aren’t overcharged or undercharged. Run them too low repeatedly and they have shortened life, way too low and they are toast. Be aware of the mod’s temperature during use. Any part of it heating up is an issue that needs to be resolved, or it can become serious.

E-liquid

e-Liquid or e-Juice is normally composed of up to 5 ingredients (not main ingredients with a giant list of other stuff, all ingredients) :

VG (Vegetable Glycerin) The Base makes up 80-90% of e-juice and is composed of 100% VG or a mix with PG. Common ratios are 100% VG, 50/50 PG/VG, and 80/20 PG/VG. It is widely used in all types of food and personal care products like toothpaste.
PG (Propylene glycol) Commonly mixed with VG as the base for e-juice. This is a solvent that’s used in all sorts of things. Along with being a solvent, its mainly known for its use in fog machines. A higher PG mix e-juice will produce thicker clouds of vapor. However PG can dry out your throat and even cause mild allergic reactions in some users.
.Flavor 10%-20%. All the e-juice I’ve seen uses Food grade flavorings originally intended for baking or candy making.
Nicotine 0%-2.4% depending on strength.

Battery Basics

Do not overcharge or over-discharge.
Recharge batteries with a resting voltage below 3.6V as soon as possible. Do not short circuit your batteries.

Short circuiting can cause a huge surge of current that will potentially burn out your battery, damage your mod, or even you! Short circuits happen when the voltage from a battery is discharged through a low resistance wire at a discharge rate that exceeds the battery’s upper amp limit. Short circuiting a battery is very close to what a mechanical mod with a sub-ohm coil is doing, except you are trying to keep the resistance under the upper amp limit – there’s a fine line that you have to be careful of when sub-ohming. Do not let your batteries touch each other or other metallic items. Keeping your batteries loose, such as in your pockets, is a good way to have your batteries fail and seriously harm you. There are battery holders and covers to keep your batteries safe. Determining Your Maximum Discharge Rate The most important specification to pay attention to is the “Max. continuous discharge rate” for each battery. Each battery has a number and a letter, either measured as A or C (30 Amps or 15C). Look at the IMR18650-1600 for example. If your battery has a maximum continuous discharge rate of 15C, this means the battery is rated for 15 times the capacity of the battery measured in amps. So a battery that sits at 1600mAh, which equals 1.6Ah will have a max continuous discharge rate of 15 X 1.6 = 24A. There is a chart below which has the max continuous discharge rate in Amps of some common batteries. You should always determine what your max continuous discharge rate is in Amps (which many of the new and popular batteries have already) to keep your math consistent and mind at ease.

Atomizers

Rebuildable atomizers

A rebuildable atomizer or an RBA is an atomizer that allows the user to assemble or "build" the wick and coil themselves. These atomizers are divided into three main categories; rebuildable tank atomizers (RTAs), rebuildable dripping atomizers (RDAs), and rebuildable dripping tank atomizers (RDTAs).

Rebuildable Tank Atomizers(RTAs)

are similar to clearomizers in that they use a tank or container to hold and bring liquid to the coil. They usually hold significantly more e-liquid.

Rebuildable dripping atomizers(RDAs)

are atomizers where the ejuice is dripped directly onto the coil and wick. They typically consist only of an atomizer "building deck", commonly with three posts with holes drilled in them, which can accept one or more coils. A "top cap" to cover the coils with airflow holes and a hole at the top where a mouth piece can be attached. Modern dripping atomizers can have raised edges forming a cup or "juice well". This allows more wick to be used and helps stop leaking. Some atomizers have heat sink fins to help dissipate the heat from the coil before it reaches the mouth piece or "drip tip".

Rebuildable dripping tank atomizers(RDTAs)

are a combination of both RTAs and RDAs. They usually consist of a RDA build deck with a tank over the deck held up by a spring. The user pushes down on the mouth piece and liquid is then dripped onto the coils and wick.This is unlike a RTA that continuously feeds liquid to the wicks.

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