ZNA vs. Vamo

I've been mulling over this post for a while now, and I wanted to get my thoughts out there on my new, high-end mod, the House of Hybrids ZNA, especially in comparison to my old, faithful KSD Vamo V3 that I've had almost since I started vaping.

As I said, I've had my Vamo V3 for a long time, about a year at this point. I saw the reviews on it, the features, the looks, it had all the goodies I could want in a mod, especially when I got the full kit for under $50. It was a phenomenal value, and I will never understand why I don't see more of them. The only downside to the thing was the shiny finish and how easily it can scratch and chip, but I knew that before I hit the "Purchase" button, and to this day I say it just gives it character. I have beaten and bruised this thing. It's been dropped, knocked over, gotten wet, covered in juice top to bottom, gone hiking with me, left in the sun and sub-zero temperatures, gone on roadtrips, everything. It has never once failed me. The Vamo has out-lived and out-performed everything I've bought to date. The only negatives I have to say for it are nitpicky little things, like how the 510 connection is slightly too high to flush mount anything, and that the threads are kinda squeaky. Overall, I absolutely love my Vamo, and when it inevitably dies, it will either be framed and hung on the wall or given a Viking funeral. Well done, KSD, this thing's almost a perfect 10.

Like most people that vape, I am always looking for the next best thing, so I got a ZNA last month as an early Fathers Day/One Year Smoke Free present. I'd wanted one ever since I first saw it. Zen talked of perfection, durability, engineering, and how it was painstakingly made from all American materials, etc. Lucky me, Sky Vapor in Everett had one when I went looking to get it. No resellers from eBay for me! I paid my $300+tax for it, plus new batteries since I didn't have any 18490s (I didn't like the extension tube purely because of aesthetics). I was happy, I was excited, I finally had a quality device (according to propaganda apparently)!

Cut to about a day later. I was taking a good look at my ZNA and I noticed that the battery meter looked a little weird on the screen. I pulled up a picture of the DNA30 display screen and sure enough, my screen had a row of dead pixels running across the battery meter. Well that's not the perfection I paid for... I came across a post somewhere that said that you can sometimes turn a device on and off quickly to try to reset the screen, but that didn't work. It did allow me to notice the scratch that my battery cap came with though. I didn't send it back to warranty at this point, I had a vape meet coming up in two weeks!

Two weeks went by, and I figured I should clean off the threads on my ZNA, I didn't want gunk on my precious before the meet. My battery tube was surprisingly hard to remove. After slowly putting it on and taking it off a few times, I discovered that the threading wasn't the problem, it was how the threads on the ZNA were pointing. It was off center just enough to rub up against the body. I was kind of hoping it was the tube, but alas, it was not. I tried my tube on a fellow vapers ZNA at the meet and there was no problem with it. But it was ok, right? Just a minor annoyance on a product touted for its attention to detail.

Another week goes by and I'm taking a break at work when I think hey, I'm gonna bump up the power half a watt and see how she goes. I went from 10.2 to 30 with a single press of the button. It stuck. What made it better was that I didn't notice and got an awful burned hit from my kayfun. I was hoping it was a fluke, but when I tried to turn it back down, no luck. I had to pull the battery out before it would let me turn it back down. After a day I just didn't even mess with it, and for whatever reason it was fine. Ok, weird, but better not happen again. Once again, I didn't sent it back to warranty at this point since the issue seemed to self resolve, and I did really enjoy using it.

Last Saturday is when the final straw came that seriously shook up my faith in buying high-end products. My friggen fire button got stuck, while I was driving in heavy traffic no less. What the hell? Why was I having all these problems with my ZNA? I pulled out the battery and put it back in, hoping it would be like the wattage button problem and kind of take care of itself, and it did, for about 5 minutes. I now had a very expensive stainless steel paper weight. Off to warranty!

I kept wondering if I had somehow managed to mistreat this thing. I knew I hadn't done anything harmful to it. I kept it on my desk at home, not even out in my garage like the rest of my gear. I never dropped it or knocked it over. I wiped it down with a dry cloth daily. At work driving around I kept it in a little bed I made out of a beanie and a cup holder. I only used my kayfun on it since my igo-w4 is built way too low, so I know I never got juice in the internals (which I understand aren't sealed at all) as only the slightest bit ever even got on the 510 connection. I used the recommended batteries. I babied the hell out of this thing, and it still quit working after less than a month. Overall, I regret purchasing this device. It has failed to live up to the promise that is a Zen product. I could have bought any other DNA30 powered device and got the same vape quality, not to mention nice things like USB charging and the ability to use batteries other than nipple-top AW IMRs. Perhaps my opinion of the ZNA will change once it gets back for repair, but if all the problems aren't addressed, you can be damn sure I'll be letting you all know about it.

Now let me vent my frustrations. Skip this last paragraph if you don't want to read hatred. Why in the holiest of fucks did my brand spanking new, highly sought after, and allegedly phenomenal device turn in to a massive piece of worthless SHIT after such a short time? How the hell did this thing get out of the fucking shop with all these flaws, when it comes straight from your mouth that you won't sell ANYTHING with the slightest defect? I call bullshit on you, House of Hybrids. Buying this device wasn't a frivolous purchase from a collector with a large disposable income that just wants it to display. I didn't buy it for bragging rights. I bought it to FUCKING USE IT! I had to save for it. I had to beg my wife to let me get it. I had to get extremely lucky just to find the god damn thing! It was a huge fucking deal to me. I don't buy things for myself very often, and usually put extravagant purchases off by the way-side so I can make my family happy. I sacrifice for them all the things I want so they can have the things they want. You can imagine my anger when, not even after full month, this thing that people treat like it was shat out by God Himself stopped working. You assholes had better fix it right, and all of it. If you're just gonna sell mods to people just so they can say they have real Zen shit, then maybe consider putting a disclaimer on everything saying it's not actually meant to be used and in fact isn't worth its weight in pig vomit. I would definitely go as far as to say you were outdone by China, Zen. My allegedly low quality, cheap piece that you elitist types look down your noses at has been by and far more reliable and trustworthy than the snake oil you're peddling. Sure, it's made of chromed brass. Sure, the chip is in about a thousand different mods and makes a weird sound when it fires. Sure, it's mass-produced on a large scale. But you know what else it does? It works right, which is more than I can say about my ZNA. I feel better now. Rant over.

My hardware collection slowly expands!

So I haven't done anything but the MBV reviews lately, so I figured I'd fill some people in on what I've been using hardware-wise. I keep picking up new toys, and I'm definitely not regretting any of them!

The most recent thing I've bought is a copper Nemesis clone that I'm in love with, even though it's only been in my hands since Memorial Day, where I picked it up at the Tobacco Joe's vape meet in Everett, WA. I'd been wanting a new mechanical, since my love-hate relationship has been a lot closer to hate lately with my Kamry K100-101. I picked up the Nemmy and loved it, and even more when I put the magnets in instead of the spring. It's got the lightest button press and always fires, which is a lot more than I could say about the crap K101 button. Its already starting to develop a nice patina. I haven't checked voltage drop on it yet, but I'm sure it's better than what I'd been using.

For my early Fathers Day gift I was allowed to go buy myself a House of Hybrids ZNA, which I picked up at Sky Vapor, also in Everett, WA. I love 90% of it. The only thing I have a gripe with is that the screen for the DNA chip has dead pixels that run right across the battery meter. Is it performance impacting? No. I did pay $300 for the damn thing though, so it's gonna be perfect once I get it shipped back for warranty repair. Other than that, it's solid, heavy, durable, and lets not forget beautiful. The dual-adjustable positive pin is fantastic and I've been able to flush mount absolutely everything I put on it. It does look like it might be uncomfortable to use, but the opposite is true. It fits in the hand very nicely, and the fire button has been very nice to use as well. Even though it uses an 18490 battery I still get almost a whole day of vaping in before needing to swap batteries. I could have got the extension tube, but I decided against it purely due to aesthetics.

As far as atomizers go, there are only two I use at the moment. On the ZNA I use a Kayfun Lite Plus "Black Edition" clone. It has adjustable airflow, SS construction, come with the extra metal tank section, so on and so forth. Cost me about $50, and worth every penny. I haven't had a single issue with it. I have it built with a 1.5 ohm microcoil and wicked with cotton, and I generally run it between 8 and 11 watts. On my mechanicals I've been using a Igo-W4 drip atty with a dual twisted 28ga microcoil setup that comes in at 0.34 ohms, so around 50 watts on a fresh battery. I was using regular microcoils, but the twisted wire gives me more vapor and flavor. I wick it with cotton. I run the wick over the top of the center post and through the coils, so when I drip in to it gravity works in my favor and keeps the liquid in the coils, and if the juice gets in to the well the little ends of the wick that stick out soak it up, so it's been very juice efficient. One of my friends changed from a cotton cloud to the setup I use, and he mentioned he was getting more flavor my way. I also drilled out the airflow to 2mm holes. For a cheap-ish atomizer it's kicking some ass.

That's about all I got at the moment. In the next week I hope to write up some other things besides the juice reviews. If anyone has a specific suggestion, post in the comments, tweet me, or email me at vapifier@gmail.com.

The Great Mt. Baker Vapor Review: Cake (Yellow)

Yellow cake, the classic Betty Crocker boxed cake mix. Who hasn't had that? Usually with some chocolate frosting and "Happy Xth Birthday!" written on the top, sometimes with those god-awful hard candies that no one really likes, but they look nice.

That was the image that came to mind when I ordered this juice. It's not a tank cracker, so that's a plus, but it is a bit of a darker juice that will gunk up a coil. That means it's going in my dripper, and that means it's going to be max VG, because clouds are fun!

Upon arrival, the juice was sweet smelling with notes of, well, cake. Upon the first vape it was pretty tasty, and it definitely had a cake flavor, but it was more cake batter than the finished confection. I didn't have a problem with that, since I don't think it would be terribly easy to make something taste exactly like a cake. Also, the thing about every yellow cake I've ever has is that I couldn't precisely tell you what the cake alone tasted like. It seems to me that yellow cake is more of a transport device to get the frosting to your face without eating it out of the can.

Throughout the course of the bottle, I could definitely tell when the juice was starting to gunk up my coils, because the sweetness was greatly overshadowed by a charcoal taste. Not a big deal, juice gunks up. After a wick change everything was OK, and I only had to change it every 5ml or so. Not too awful really.

Overall, I'd have to go with a 3/5 on this one. Tasted like yellow cake, and I have no major complaints about it. Now, if you could make it taste like the cake with chocolate frosting and those stale candies...

The Great Mt. Baker Vapor Review: Cola

This juice... I wanted to like it so bad. I tried, I really did, but it didn't happen, and that makes me sad.

When I got this juice I cracked it open and took a whiff, and it smelled like, well, cola. I figured we were off to a good start here. Then I looked at the juice itself, and noticed it had seemed to have seperated, all the flavor floating on the top. I'd seen that before, so I let it sit. This steeped for around a week before I got around to vaping it.

Since it was a tank cracker, I decided to drip it. I got the full bore flavor out of it and the best description I have for how it tasted was from my brother. He said it's like a spicy store brand soda. I say it tasted like straight Soda Stream syrup. We both agreed that it was missing a vital component to a cola: sweetness. The distinct cola flavor was very prevalent, but there was way too much of it. I figured I would try it in my kayfun and see if lower power helped with the flavor.

With my metal tank on my kayfun, I filled it up and had a vape. First thing that happened was it now tasted like some kind of lemon, not really cola at all. I'm clueless as to why this happened. Second thing that happened was the juice burned. I've never had an issue with juice burning using the kayfun. Same setup I'd been using for months (0.8 ohm microcoil on a magneto). I figured maybe I wicked it funny, so I drained, rewicked, and refilled. Same problem, until my battery got down to about 3.6v, then I could vape it like I normally do with little to no issue. And before you ask, no, the juice wasn't separating anymore at this point. I checked before I filled it up. I still shook it for good measure though.

Overall, I'd have to put this juice at a 1/5. I've never had a juice just burn like this unless I was roasting a near-dry wick. The flavor was either super overpowering or wasn't cola at all, depending on the atty I used. I also got the unpleasant side effect of wicked throat irritation. I do not have a sensitivity to many things, but this crap made my throat feel like I had a mild case of strep. I can't say either way if there are better or worse cola flavors in the world, but I can say I wouldn't recommend this one.

The Great Mt. Baker Vapor Review: Peach

What can I say about Peach? More than I thought, apparently.

I received Peach as a freebie on one of my orders. It was clear, smelled like peaches, and it was STRONG. Since this flavor is a known tank cracker, I decided to use it in my drip atomizer that, at the time, was a 0.7 ohm dual microcoil. It was super overpowering in there until my battery was on its way to dead. What I decided to do was dilute it with pure VG by a little more than half, and it was pretty close to perfect. No exact science here, folks. If I mathed right it ended up at about 4mg and about 60% VG, but that's an approximation.

The flavor on this was, as I said, really strong straight out of the bottle. So strong in fact I could taste it in my mouth for some time after I'd finished vaping it. It comes off as an artificial peach with none of the tang you usually get from a real peach. It also became very tiresome after about a half an hour. It definitely did have a bit of a weird flavor that I couldn't really put my finger on, almost like it was a green, unripened peach. After I had the epiphany of diluting the juice, it got a lot better. More of the peachiness came through, and less of the greenness (best word I can think to describe it). Plus I got bigger clouds, and that made me happy :)

Overall I'd have to give this one by itself a 2/5. If, however, you dilute it it would go up to a 3 or 4 if you mix something with it, like that white tea I got an order or two back. I think that would have ended up pretty good if I had any white tea left to try it. Oh well, maybe I'll try that out at some point in the future. Either that or you MBV guys can make a tea line and name it after me, I wouldn't object. In any case, I'll say it's a decent juice, but it's too damned strong, and unless you like to challenge how much peach you can handle, DON'T GET EXTRA FLAVOR SHOTS! But if you do, max it out and send me a video of you trying it.

The Great Mt. Baker Vapor Review: Bananas Gone Nuts

Bananas Gone Nuts is exactly what the name implies, bananas with nuts. It is NOT banana nut bread, as I kind of figured it would be. Thanks to my wife, I can say for sure they are different flavors since she has the Banana Nut Bread flavor.

The banana component of the juice isn't quite a candy banana flavor, but very close to being one. As far as what kind of nuts, I largely got walnut, maybe a little bit of almond but I could be imagining that.I didn't get any weird off flavors or unidentifiable tastes, so that's a plus!

Overall I'd give this one a 4/5. It was pretty enjoyable from start to finish, didn't destroy my coils with gunk, and I didn't tire of it too quickly. Definitely a solid juice.

The Great Mt Baker Vapor: Get Razzled

I'm going to start this review off by saying it's probably unfair. When this came around in my rotation my allergies decided to kick in, so my taste very well could have been compromised.

Get Razzled is a raspberry milkshake flavor. I really like milkshake flavors when they're done right. Surprisingly my favorite one is some off-brand juice from a local smoke shop, but they only have banana strawberry.

The smell on this was like a (surprise) raspberry milkshake. It reminded me of the real ice cream shakes you can get at small mom and pop drive in type places in small towns. You know the ones, they dump a bunch of soft serve in to a cup, dump a big scoop of fresh berries on it, and blend it up.

I had some issues with the flavor on this one. Again, allergies may have been a contributor. My first few puffs would be about average for what I'd expect. Sweet, berry, and a little creamy. After maybe four the flavor would just be gone, except a little bit on the exhale, but other off flavors would come in. There was a pretty strong artificial taste that would come through, as well as a complete lack of flavor with what I can only describe as being like when you get water up your nose on accident.

Since I was all congested and junk, I can't fairly review this with certainty, only share what I experienced. Under heavy allergies, I'd give it a 2/5. I would estimate that if I could taste and smell properly, it would likely move up to a 3.5/5. I may have to revisit this one in the future.

The Great Mt. Baker Vapor Review: Coffee

I skipped over doing this review when I finished this juice, mostly because it's a really easy review to do, but also because I got the wicked Candy Cane Coffee and I had to share that one immediately since DAMN, it's great.

What can I say about Coffee? It tastes like coffee. No on-the-burner-all-day taste, no I'm-eating-coffee-grounds grossness, and no super bitterness like I've had in other straight coffee flavors. It also satisfied my curiosity of how gunked up my coils would get with a juice that's a 5 on MBV's Shade Rating chart. The answer is extremely gunky very quickly. Out of curiosity I kept dripping it until I barely got any vapor, and when I opened up my atty I found crazy gunk build-up, I should have taken a picture.

I'd like to take a second to thank MBV for the extra info they provide you. I really like that Shade Rating chart they have for each flavor. Out of the 10 juices I've gone over so far, it's been spot on. I never have to say "I wonder what this will do to my Kayfun?" If it's 3 or higher, I drip it. They also put a note in the juice descriptions if it cracks a tank or not, which is a valuable piece of knowledge. Most people know that strong cinnamon and citrus flavors will crack a tank, but did you know that Banana can too? It's a good thing to know.

Overall I'd give the Coffee a strong 3/5. It's simple and it tastes like what it's supposed to. It isn't anything mind-blowing, but it's enjoyable. Just remember, don't put this in a tank atty, just use a dripper that's simple to rewick/clean, otherwise it'll be a huge hassle to vape.

The Great Mt. Baker Vapor Review: Candy Cane Coffee

I don't usually jump the gun on my reviews, choosing to do them one at a time as I finish the juice off, but this is a special exception. Candy Cane Coffee is truly a diamond in the rough.

I've been through my coffee flavors. I got hazelnut coffee on my first round of juices from MBV, and plain coffee the next (I need to write that one up still), not to mention coffee flavors from a few other places, some good, some godawful. I was done with coffees. Then Random.org did it's job and Candy Cane Coffee was on the list. I considered re-rolling it, but if I did that every time I got a flavor I might not like I'd end up not trying everything out. I'm extremely glad I didn't do that.

The first thing I thought with this juice upon taking a whiff was that it didn't smell bad at all, not too strong coffee, and not too strong peppermint. Good start. I figured since I was finishing off my 925 Coffee from Good Life Vapor I could just transition over to this one without rewicking (I'm SOOOO lazy). On my first pull, it was an instant "WOW!" I was blown away. I had my wife try it and she loves it, and she doesn't even vape. She's drooling over it now, in fact. Apparently it tastes like a mint chip frappachino from Starbucks, I say peppermint mocha, but same thing pretty much.

This juice is a solid 5/5. The only think I don't like about it is the same thing I don't like about all coffee flavors... they gunk up my coils. This one's worth it, though. I think at the end of my journey of reviews this one is going to be in my top 10 list for sure, and I can't imagine it not being in the upper portion of those 10 juices.

The Great Mt Baker Vapor Review: Vanilla Custard.

I'm sorry to say, this is the first juice I've gotten from MBV that I truly disliked. I was really looking forward to this one too, since custard flavors are all the rage these days.

I was excited when this juice came up on my random list of what flavors to order. I've been hearing left and right about custard flavors and I hadn't had any yet, plus I don't know if I've every had a really good vanilla, so hope were high. The color was pink, as many vanillas I've seen tend to be, and it smelled like, well, sweet vanilla, like I expected. I loaded up my Kayfun, took a pull, and... metal. It tasted like some kind of metal, like sucking on a penny. It was awful. I'd only experienced that once, and it was when I got a bottle of that Puro crap they sell in smoke shops. It was pumpkin pie. It's also one of the two bottles I never vaped through.

After my immense disappointment, I figured maybe I just hadn't ever had any real vanilla custard. My wife made me some to compare it to, and if it did indeed taste like what my wife whipped up, it would have been amazing stuff. I started wondering what might be in common between what's essentially pudding and a pumpkin pie, and I think it's nutmeg, which, according to my 5 seconds of internet research and the late, great Julia Child's recipe, doesn't go in vanilla custard, unless it's spiced vanilla custard. I don't think the spice flavor being used, whatever it is, translates well to a vape.

I had to be sure it wasn't just me that had an issue with this flavor, so I took it to my panel (wife, brother, two co-workers). One of them I didn't tell anything about it other than what it was supposed to be. He took a long pull, slowly exhaled, frowned for 5 seconds, and simply stated " Ew. I don't like it." No one liked this one.

I did save this one for last out of my last batch so it had about a week and a half to steep, and maybe it could have gotten better with age, but I'm not really one to want to wait that long to vape something. I tried my best to like it, but even after all 15 mL, I only occasionally tasted vanilla, and that metallic spice thing going on never went away. I did find that it was pretty good if I drank a Coke along side it, strangely enough. I have to give this one a 1/5. Doesn't taste at all like vanilla custard, and I think it would be prudent to put "Spiced" in the name of this juice. Back to the drawing board, guys. I know you could make a killer custard, but it isn't this one.

The Great Mt Baker Vapor Review: White Tea

This juice had me a little curious when I received it. It didn't have any real noticeable smell, was totally clear, and if my knowledge of Snapple commercials is correct, then it was going to have a light flavor as well. I'm proud to say I was right about the flavor being light, but the problem for me was it was too light. When I first put this in my Kayfun, I wasn't entirely sure my mod was firing until I exhaled, the flavor was that light. After I knew what the flavor was, I could taste it more easily, but it was easily overpowered by almost anything with a strong scent. It's a very light, delicate tea flavor, not sweetened or anything. It's the closest thing I've had to an unflavored eliquid.

Overall, I wasn't a huge fan of this one, and would probably give it a 2/5 by itself. Now, you put in a little fruit flavor with this? BAM! Potential for a 5/5 with a cherry on top. Especialy peach, that was my favorite Snapple white tea, I may mix and match a bottle of that in the future. It's a definite background flavor and doesn't shine well on its own, but maybe if you really like white tea, would like it to mix other juices with, or are a cloud chaser that doesn't need really strong flavored juice, this one might be for you.

The Great Mt Baker Vapor Review: Ocean Breeze

This is about the shortest review I think I'll ever have to do. Pina Colada. DONE. I'll go ahead and give my thoughts anyway.

 This juice, for me, started out strong as a pretty tasty, enjoyable vape, occasionally kind of suntan lotiony, but it a way that doesn't seem gross (does that make sense?) As the days wore on I started to notice a bit more pineapple than coconut. It got old pretty quick though, and by the end of the bottle I was certainly itching for a new flavor. In this case I got to try another Ocean Breeze my buddy ordered as well, but with the extra flavor shot. The pineapple was even more pronounced in his.

I noticed that my throat would begin to get irritated after a couple pulls. The same has happened to me with a few other juices, usually with a citrusy component to it, like lemonades and such. It didn't really put me off on the juice, but over the last few months I haven't had a juice that did that so I was caught off guard a little bit. Then again my friend never had an issue, so it's probably one of those person to person things.

Overall I'd say this is definitely a decent juice, I'd put it around 3.5/5. I don't know why it isn't just called Pina Colada, but maybe it's different somehow. One day I'll get them both side by side and compare. I'd also like to point out that after the full 15 mL I still had a nice clean cotton wick, so that was a nice added bonus since I am a very lazy person sometimes. Most times. Always.

The Great Mt Baker Vapor Review: Blue Ice

For those unfamiliar with MBV's Ice flavors, all you need to know is MENTHOL. My God, so much menthol. I've vaped on their Extreme Ice flavor before when I had a cold and it cleared my sinuses up faster than Vicks Vaporub ever could. Blue Ice is that Extreme Ice with a touch of blueberry.

The blueberry flavor of this juice was hit and miss with me. Sometimes I could get a nice ripe blueberry flavor, other times it was more like a candy. Sometimes it was completely overwhelmed by the menthol. The blueberry really seemed to come out if I was drinking something while I was vaping, and on the first few pulls after I hadn't vaped in a while. If I had to venture a guess, I would think my taste buds just became overloaded by the menthol at times and then I couldn't taste the blueberry.

Overall I'd say the juice in general is pretty good. No weird flavors, just menthol and blueberry. If I was more of a menthol vaper and was used to it, I'm sure the blueberry would have been a refreshing change of pace from straight menthol. I think the best part of using the juice was that even after the full 15mL was run through my Kayfun Lite (clone) my cotton wick was still as white as the driven snow. I'm lazy, so this appealed to me. I would give this juice a 3.75/5. It's not quite a 4 because it's a simple blend and the flavor doesn't have a ton of depth, but it certainly isn't a 3 because it is definitely one that I would recommend for someone that likes menthol and wants a little something different.

The Great Mt Baker Vapor Review: Hazelnut Coffee

Hazelnut Coffee... Sounds perfect since I use hazelnut creamer all the time, but my past with coffee juices has been less than great, with three of the four tasting like burned grounds (or worse) and the other tasting amazing sometimes and flavorless others. Needless to say I put this into my dripper not expecting much.

Surprise! This is hands down the best coffee flavor I have yet to try. It's sweet but not overpoweringly so, and the coffee flavor isn't a burnt or grounds flavor, but more like an actual cup of joe. It isn't the same as a cup with the flavored creamer in it, but more like that flavored coffee with say 2 packets of sugar in it. Overall I was pretty happy with it until I put it in my Kayfun...

Holy gunked up coils! I wish I had a pic to share of how much crap built up on my microcoil after a day of vaping in my KFL. Probably a good 2mm of char on top of the coil. Even in my dripper I could only get about 2-4 hours of vaping out of it before needing to rewick. Sure, a quick dry burn and a new piece of cotton and I was back on track, but I am a lazy man. Let it be known that the fine folks at MBV do put a Shade Rating chart on each flavor of juice to let you know how fast it can gunk up coils and such. This was a 4/5 on that scale, so no small wonder the coils gunked up. I'd like to find a 5/5 to see what happens then.

If I was a huge coffee fan it would be worth it, because as I said before, this is the only coffee flavor to not let me down. Maybe I'll get it as a standby in the future and wick my dripper with silica so I don't have to change out cotton twice a day. Overall, I'd give the juice a 4/5. Good flavor, not burned assy taste like coffees usually are.

The Great Mt Baker Vapor Review: Butterscotch

Welcome to my first installment of The Great Mt Baker Vapor Review. I'm ordering every flavor MBV has to offer, three bottles at a time (plus the freebie), vaping through the whole 15mL, and letting the world know what I think of it. I'm kicking this off with my first freebie and one of the flavors I wasn't looking forward to; Butterscotch.

I received Butterscotch as my first freebie, and it came in as a 12mg 80/20 pg/vg as all of the MBV samples do. I have never liked butterscotch anything for as long as I can remember. I figured I would just get this one out of the way immediately and move on. Luckily, either my tastes have changed or this didn't taste like butterscotch. I found it to be sweet and generally enjoyable. It made my van smell like a Werther's, which lead me to believe it tasted right. I had my brother and a friend try it out as well, and they both said it was indeed a nice butterscotch flavor.

I vaped through the entire bottle with no troubled. It didn't gunk up my coils super fast, but more often than some juices. It was a decent, caramelly sweet vape that was once mistaken for a pancake. The nic content and pg/vg ratio weren't my standard 6mg 50/50, but it's a freebie so I can't complain. Once I got used to that bigger throat hit I was almost sad to run out of this one, but then I remembered it was butterscotch and moved on. I'd give the juice 3/5 stars, not anything amazing but not bad, and 5/5 for being the first thing that was butterscotch and didn't make me gag!

Next up: Hazelnut Coffee.

Coming back!

Hello all, been a while since I've done a post, personal life caught up with me and I just let this slip by the wayside. But no more! I've still been busy vaping and trying things out, namely I've got an RDA finally, as well as a Kayfun (clone. I'm poor). I'm also going to be systematically going through everything Mt. Baker Vapor has to offer, since I can never choose a juice easily I thought I'd try them all! I'll go over that in a separate post, and it's going to keep me busy for a while. That's it for now, look for a new post in the next day or so, soon as I figure out which thing I need to write about!

Microcoil on SS in a Genesis

I've been curious about whether or not you can put a microcoil on stainless steel mesh for a few weeks, so today I decided to see if it works, and how well.

First I found the drill bit that fit in my RSST, 1/8 inch fit the bill.

Next I made the microcoil, did ten wraps.

Checked the resistance with the Vamo, came out to 2.3 ohms. I already had a wick that worked perfectly on my normal setup, so I attached the coil and fed it down through. Ended up a bit crooked on the coil. Checked resistance again and it had dropped down to 1.4 ohms. Hmm...

Test fired, looked somewhat promising.

 Tested the vape. Clouds, but the flavor was off.

I vaped on the setup for about an hour to break it in a little bit and see if the flavor improved. It didn't really change much. I used it on my Vamo and my Magneto, but the Vamo worked better since I could pump up the power. At 15 watts it had clouds of vapor, but so-so flavor, and the wick didn't really keep up very well at all. I kept checking the resistance throughout the test and it jumped around constantly, going up to 2.5 ohms and down to 1.3. 

I've come to the conclusion that microcoils don't play nice with SS mesh. If I had to guess, the coil makes just too much contact with the wire and shorts out, sending the power through the wick instead of the coil. If I'd used a genny without the insulated wick hole I wouldn't be surprised if it had never got it to work. Another downside is that building a microcoil with a 1/8 inch diameter bit isn't nearly as easy as on a 5/64th bit. It likes to slip around a lot when you're trying to squeeze the coil and torch it. I don't think I'll ever try that one again, but it satisfied my curiosity. 

To-do list!

Here's a few things up and coming for future posts.

Microcoil on SS in a Genesis (Hopefully later tonight)
K100-101 Review
Greenman Ejuice Paladin Orange Review
Smok Magneto Review
Vamo V3 Review
A Look Back: My First Device
Aspire BDC Review
RSST Review
ProTank Review
I-Atty Review
Batteries and You
Vivi Nova Review
Freedom Juice Milkshake Review

There's more besides that, but this is what comes off the top of my head.

The History of (My) Vaping Part 3

When I discovered that the Blu cartridges fit in my old Joytech 510 battery, I was vastly unaware how far the world of vaping had progressed in a scant 4 years. I didn't know it could get any better. Boy how wrong I was!

I craved more variety in my flavors than my local gas station could supply with Blu carts, as well as more flavor and vapor production. I was pretty much clueless where to go next. The Electronic Cigarette Forum had an endless depth of information, but I got lost in the talk of things like ohms, amp draw, mechanicals, and a whole slough of other over my head pieces of information. Eventually I decided the next logical step was an Ego battery, an atomizer of some sort, and of course, eliquid/ejuice.

After snooping around online seeing everything that there was that I understood, I stumbled upon http://vaporjoes.com/, which I still check out every day for the best deals in vaping. I forgot the exact post that was put up, I think it was about the Kanger ProTank, but most importantly it steered me to two places that jump started my vaping interests: http://www.fasttech.com/ and http://www.tasteyourjuice.com/.

Fasttech was significant because that's where I bought my next two devices that got me a lot more in to vaping. I ordered a 1100mAh eGo battery with a CE5 clearomizer and 4 juices for a mere $21. Later on I would order my trusty Vamo V3, and although she's a little beat up after 6 months of constant use, still works like the day I bought it. Nowadays I don't order from them much, if at all, but that's mostly due to personal preference to support USA vendors and my impatience (It took over 2 weeks to get my other orders, but I couldn't turn down the price).

TasteYourJuice is hands down my favorite vaping site in the whole wide world wide web. Phil Busardo has done the community a huge service in providing all of us reviews, advice, and knowledge. I personally have seen every single one of his many, many videos, from the first joke video about the vapor pen (I didn't get it then) to the Hurricane Juice review. I don't buy much of anything, hardware-wise, that hasn't been reviewed by Phil. Why did I buy my Vamo? It got a thumbs up. ProTank? Thumbs up. Aspire BDC? Thumbs up. The way he goes over everything is extraordinarily useful, if even just to see how something works hands on. If he didn't live on the opposite side of the country, I would seek him out and shake his hand.

Now back to me!

I was pretty happy with my CE5 and my eGo, but I'd read about how some juices can eat away at plastic tanks. That to me sounded like it could be terrible in every way, so I looked in to glass tanks and it seemed to me that the Kanger ProTank was the way to go. It had rave reviews, even if it did leak a little bit from time to time, and it was simple to change out the coil heads, even rebuild them for pennies. After convincing my wife it would last forever, I got my ProTank, and it's still my go-to clearo.

Now armed with a small amount of knowledge and a nigh-indestructible tank, I headed out with my new fancy (albeit top-heavy) setup, and confused my coworkers even further.

Juice Review: Good Life Vapor Zombie Blood

My first official juice review!

I've ordered from Good Life Vapor a few times now, and every time I get a 4x10mL sample pack to check out flavors I'm curious about. It's $20 and well worth doing, in my opinion. I'm not the type of person to order just one thing repeatedly, but if there is one I particularly like I'll order a bigger bottle. I'll get to the other flavors I've ordered in time, but today I'd like to take a look at the stand-out flavor from the last sample pack: Zombie Blood.

For review purposes I use a 1.5 Ohm bridgeless drip atomizer I ordered from Nhaler (http://shop.nhaler.com/510-and-306-Bridgeless-Atomizers-bridgeless.htm). I don't have a particular preference for this atomizer over any other since I haven't used other drip atomizers, but the flavor is true and it works well enough that I'll likely order another once this one dies.

Steep time on this one is only about 3 or 4 days.

Color: The color of the juice is nearly clear with just the slightest hint of red, or maybe orange. Not cloudy or foggy at all.

Scent: First thing I always do as soon as I get a new bottle of juice is smell it to see what I've gotten myself in to, and compare it to the actual flavor I get. Smells like cherry gummy bears.

Flavor: If you went to a candy store and bought a bag of red gummy bears and stuffed a fistful in your mouth, that's what this tastes like. Maybe a few of those white/clear gummy bears with the nondescript flavor on the exhale too. You know the ones, sweet and possibly pineapple. No weird off flavors, no bad aftertaste. 

Vapor: Seems good enough to me. I haven't seen a juice that didn't have decent vapor in a long time.

Throat hit: Pretty solid, I'm happy with it. It gives a good hit in the back of the throat. I only vape 6mg juice and I can tell it's there without a doubt. 

Overall I would give the juice 4/5 stars, it's going in the ProTank, and there's a pretty good chance I'll order this one again.

See it here: http://www.goodlifevapor.com/zombie-blood/

*I received no compensation for doing this review, and I ordered the juice with my own hard-earned money. Same goes for the atomizer.

The History of (My) Vaping, Part 2

In 2009 I bought my first device, a Joytech 510 Manual. I shelved it after a month and went back to smoking a pack a day. I had left the vaping world behind and wasn't planning on ever returning to it. I was constantly trying to quit smoking. I tried cold turkey with horrifying results, I tried reducing how much I smoked gradually with limited success, and I went to the patch, I thought successfully. I completed the 3 steps they have you go through and, except for the occasional cigarette, finished the program. It only took about 3 months to relapse.

What happened? A mildly stressful day. Nothing world-breaking, just run-of-the-mill work stress. I was convinced I would never be able to ditch tobacco. I was smoking in the middle of the night so my family wouldn't see me doing it (they knew anyway), otherwise I wouldn't smoke at home. It was a dirty secret. I was ashamed, I was disgusted at myself, and I was unable to stop. It certainly didn't help that the state had upped their famous Sin-Taxes and I was spending about $8.25 daily when we were short on cash.

Fast forward to mid-March of 2013. I was working out in the Sultan, WA area and my pack had run empty, so I swung in to the local smoke shop. Since I had been out there last they had put up a new sign. A Blu sign. I was intrigued. I had seen the Steven Dorff commercials, and I figured hell, if the bad guy from Blade likes them, I might as well give it a try. I bought two disposables for about $16 (still the lowest I've seen those things around here) and right there in the shop the clerk had me test them to make sure they worked. And boy did they work!

You've probably heard a lot of people bad-mouth Blu for various reasons, be it they didn't like the flavor or they didn't like the gimmicky Social Cases or whatever they are, but the simple fact is that the disposable that I bought was light-years better than the previous experience I'd had, and I was impressed with it. It was warm, tasted like hazelnuts, and had a very smooth feel to the vape. This was the catalyst to reintroduce the world of vaping to me.

After a good two week stretch of largely using the Blu disposables, I had an epiphany. What if my old Joy 510 worked with their cartomizers? I wasn't sure, being that there was a 4 year separation between them and that there was no such thing as a carto when I had tried vaping before. To my delight they fit, and I was fairly satisfied.

That was April 15th, the last day I was a smoker, and the first day I was a vaper.

How (and why) To Clean Your Device

I spent some time this morning cleaning up my Smok Magneto and thought I would share how and why it's done, by me anyway.

First and foremost, there's more than looks involved when you're cleaning up your device, especially when it's a mechanical. On any device, you want to regularly wipe out your atomizer connection. If you've never done that, go get a paper towel, napkin, or a tissue, twist it up, and spin it around on the threads a few times. I'll wait for you to do that.

Done?

See that black crap? It's your enemy. What exactly it is I'm not 100% sure. Some of it's eliquid, some of it's dust and dirt, and some of it's a tarnish. Probably dead skin too. Even on a device that never leaks, you'll get that gunk in there. You'll get it anywhere there's metal to metal contact. Basically what you're seeing is a side effect of electricity running through metal.

Other than being generally gross, the main reason you want to clean up your device is to reduce voltage drop as much as possible. That gunk impedes the flow of electricity between your battery and your atomizer, which leads to poor performance and angry, unsatisfied vapers. Also, it makes it shiny. People like shiny things.

I personally have two types of cleaning I do. For general upkeep, I use a microfiber cloth to buff up my mod a little bit and use paper towels to wipe out the atomizer connection. I generally do this daily when I fill my tank back up. It takes 5 seconds and keeps things looking alright. Once a month or so I do a more thorough cleaning for my mechanicals. It's a multi-step process that takes me about 45 minutes, but so far has been pretty effective, and you can do it with stuff just lying around the house, no special stuff or runs to the hardware store needed here!

DISCLAIMER:
Do not follow this word for word if you're using a regulated device (Vamo, Provari, and about a billion others these days). If you immerse your control head your device will stop working and you'll need a new one. You're probably ok to clean your battery tubes and end caps this way though.

First thing you want to do is assemble your supplies.

Mix 2 tablespoons of the distilled white vinegar and table salt into 2c of hot water. I use a small food storage container.

The next thing I do is disassemble my mod and immerse it in the solution for about 15 minutes.

After the parts soak, scrub the threads with a toothbrush. Get any other nooks and crannies that you can too. My Magneto has a Smok logo and some design on the top cap that get gunked up so I pay a little extra attention there.

Next, empty your container, fill it back up with clean water, and rinse out your parts. You don't need the salt hanging around on your mod, it can cause spots and possibly corrosion. Rinse thoroughly and set on a paper towel.

Blow out all the pieces where water can collect, like vent holes, end caps, and buttons. Now you've got two routes you can take. One, air dry. Two, an oven set to a low temperature. I have a toaster oven so I'm going to use that. I arrange my pieces thusly...

and put them in the oven, set at 150F for 20 minutes. (The baby spoon is not involved). Note: The button magnets seems to be glued in place on the Magneto here. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't put the bottom tube or the button in the oven, just in case. Live and learn.

After the ding, wait a few minutes for the parts to cool off, reassemble, buff with a cloth, and you're back to a nice, shiny piece.

Yes, I have a Protank on my Magneto. I still need to clean my RSST.

An optional step a lot of people take is to lube their threads with Noalox, a conductive lubricant, after they clean. A little dab will do the trick. I don't have any right now so I didn't do that.

Now lets say you've had your mech for a very long time and have never, ever cleaned it. If there's still a bunch of gunk on your battery contacts and your atomizer connection after the process, or want a super-deep clean, I have another tip. Make a solution as above, but mix in some all-purpose flour until you have a paste. Not too thick, just enough to stick to the parts. Coat the parts and let them sit for several hours or overnight, rinse off all the goop, scrub it with a toothbrush to get it all out of the threads, and see if that does the trick. If the paste is turning green/black, that means it's working.

There are a lot of ways people clean their devices. There's obviously store-bought metal polishes and polish rags, but I'm cheap and don't have any of them. As an added bonus, you can use this method to clean a lot of other metal objects you may have around the house.

Do you have a special way to clean your mod, get rid of that gunk, or want to make fun of my Protank on a Magneto? Leave it in the comments!

The History of (My) Vaping, Part 1

Back in the days of 2009, the internet rumored of a newfangled device called an "Electronic Cigarette." (This is a term that I now hate, I will explain that in a later post). I, being a new father of a baby girl, was very interested in an alternative to cigarettes, not only to keep her safe, but to ensure I would be around for her as long as possible. After justifying the ridiculously high price of $85 to my wife, I made an order for my first device, a Joytech 510 manual starter kit, from some vendor who is probably long out of business.

For those that are unfamiliar with this ancient piece of history, the Joytech 510 manual was a battery, roughly the size of a 100mm cigarette, with the little light on the end to simulate the ember cherry. It had an amazing 150mAh battery and could go almost a whole 3 hours without needing to recharge. Luckily the kit came with 2 batteries, and for people that were really fancy you could get a personal charge case, which was basically a bigger battery to charge your smaller battery. You could be good for almost an entire day on the go! (This is where you see BluCigs technology at today)

After patiently waiting what seemed like forever for my new gadget to arrive, the kindly UPS guy dropped it off and I started playing with it almost immediately. After figuring out how to prime the atomizer and fill the cartridge I gave it a go. I was impressed with the flavor (at the time). It was a sweet tobacco, nutty with a touch of caramel. I also got mango. I thought to myself "I can live with this, I can't see how I wouldn't like it!"

And then...

Dry hit. The worst dry hit EVER. After a whole 20 minutes or so of puffing on the thing, my throat caught on fire and my eyes watered. What the hell happened? Isn't a cartridge supposed to be the same as a pack of cigarettes? I took the cart off and it was bone dry. Oh well. I filled it back up and kept a close eye on it, putting in a drop or two every 10 minutes or so. I can live with this, I say.

The next day I take my new toy to work to show my curious smoker-buddies. Most of them laugh at it, one commends me for trying it out. The guy that chewed though it was sweet, go figure. He rode with me in my rig for the next few days since he was just back from a long disability leave and got a good idea for how well it did (and didn't) work.

At home my 510 was great, not so much on the road. On a long drive from one place to another I could easily need to refill on the run, but luckily I had a passenger to do it for me for a few days. The flavor of a burned filler is pretty damn annoying when you're trying to drive. Eventually I learned when the thing was about to go empty by taste, and it wasn't too bad if I paid attention.

Between the constant refilling and getting juice on my hands all the time I was getting pretty annoyed with my new savior of a gadget. I was doing my best to keep with it, I hadn't had a real cigarette for a week. Then I ran out of my tobacco flavor and switched over to my bottle of mango. Holy crap was it bad. It tasted like ashes and sugar. It was a demoralizing blow to my psyche.

Getting more and more angry with my 510, I decided to see what help I could find online and discovered the Electronic Cigarette Forum. After coming across a lot of things I didn't understand, I found the post that put the nail in my vaporizers coffin (temporarily). The tea-bag mod for cartridges. Long story short, there was a thread that explained how to fold a Liptons tea bag a certain way to hold more juice and feed the atomizer better. Then I found the one for using blue aquarium foam for filler. At that point, between the leaking, constant dripping, bad flavor, and the fact the damn thing didn't work as well as it could out of the box without learning origami, I shelved my brand new toy, picked up my Camels and my Bic, and had a smoke.

To Be Continued...

Welcome to Vapifier!

Hello and welcome to Vapifier!

My goal here is to help whoever I can, whenever I can, with their vaping questions. The world of vaping can be very confusing to a beginner, and even more confusing once you think you know something that turned out to be wrong. The best thing I can do to help out is to share my experiences, good and bad, with anyone that will listen. 

While I'm not a genius when it comes to some things, like how many amps are safe to draw off of what battery (yet!), I do have the means to find that information and pass it along to you, my internet vape-buddies. If there is a question you need answered, be it mundane or you're just too exhausted in your search to continue, reach out to me (vapifier@gmail.com) and I'll do what I can.

For the next little bit I'll mostly be focusing on posting here at Vapifier and customizing the website to my liking (pretty new to all this blog stuff), but in the near future Youtube videos will follow, maybe some sort of live streaming as well. I'm pondering doing that once a week once I figure out how.

That's all I've got for now. I'm looking forward to getting in to reviewing, ranting, and, most importantly, doing what I can to keep everyone vaping happily.

(Catch-phrase currently in development), 

-Vapifier