Loving vaping but sick of faulty products - help!

[frilly]

Hello to everyone - this seems like a very friendly forum!

I tried vaping in February and haven't looked back, after smoking 20-30 every day for the last 40 years...sigh. I started with the VIP ones, then got a JacVapour version, which I still use sometimes - I like the handy charging case it comes with. Then I got various forms of the Ego/tank types. This seemed ideal at first but I've had umpteen problems. These fall into 2 categories: the batteries I've bought have been faulty, haven't charged properly or won't hold the charge, and the clearo tank thingies often leak or start to give a burnt, harsh taste, often after hardly any use.

I now have a selection of 'kit' - a couple of the batteries are ok but I seem to have 5 clearo's on the go, all of which perform in a mediocre way at best - some are ok for 10 mins then get hot and I have to change to a different one for a bit. As I sit at my computer all day, this isn't too bad, but obviously a real pain when I go out.

So.... the advice I'd like from you lovely people is what brand of kit I should upgrade to. After looking online, I've just ended up completely confused. The Vamo kit sounds good - where can I get one, or are there similar ones I should look at? Is it reliable/long lasting? Which brings me to a second question: as you may have gathered from the above, I'm pretty clueless about the various bits, particularly about how long they are meant to last - the manufacturers give very little guidance on this!

Looking forward to some suggestions - this seems like a great community!

[lal]

My tanks get hot when I use them too, is it a problem?

[Karma]

Hello frilly nice to meet you

Where have you been buying your gear from?

[frilly]

Hello Karma

Most of the faulty batteries came from ECigWizard (online) - they were really pretty ones but I had several and none worked well. I have to say though, that the company's customer service was excellent and I was refunded in full. Some of the bad clearo's came from them but I've bought more (including some from a local shop, others bought online) and seem to have problems with most - either leakage or burny taste.

[Chrissie]

Hello & welcome frilly

Have you tried lifting the pin on the batteries that aren't working?

[Karma]

Pleased that you got something sorted and customer service helped

I would suggest for an upgrade a Twist or Spinner

www.ukecigcabin.com/category/vision%20spinner,%20joyetech%20twist

your chargers and clearos will fit and you can adjust voltage to suit

a lot of people like these at the moment

www.ukecigcabin.com/product/kanger-evod-bcc-clearomizer

but my favourite clearo is this one, great price from here with free shipping

ebnferro.com/innokin-dual-coil-iclear-16-changeable-clearomizer-blue-2-0ohm

you can buy spare heads for both the Evod and iClear

use this thread to check for discount codes before you buy anything

allaboute-cigarettes.proboards.com/thread/2/cigarette-liquid-vendors-discount-codes?page=1&scrollTo=2

[Super-Shiny]

Hello and frilly

[markm]

Are they top or bottom coil clero - top coil ones will dry out quickly with chain vaping and you will need to try and keep them tilted up.
If the coils are constantly dry burning as you describe then that will discharge the battery faster and the coils drop resistance
a touch with high temperatures. Also if you get the voltage too low and don't recharge asap you will shorten the life considerably.

[frilly]

Hi Chrissie, yes - eCigWizard talked me through all that and were really helpful but in the end I had to send the batteries back - they turned out to be faulty, as were the replacements. Maybe they just had a bad batch.

Karma - I'm gonna check your links (thank you). I feel a little spending coming on here so I hope they're not all shiny and sparkly and desirable...

How long are batteries and clearo's supposed to last? Is there a general rule or are some brands really good and others naff? I don't mind paying a bit for reliable quality kit but obviously there's no point if the cheapie ones are much the same - opinions on this, anyone...?

[Karma]

You should expect to get around 300 charges out of a battery.

Clearos are a bit hit and miss and can depend on the juice you're using. Always have back ups. I would hope to get at least a week out of a clearo before replacing the head but would hope to get longer. Those iClear 16 are really good workhorses, seem to go on for ever

[markm]

Rebuildable cleros are better as you can not only just replace the coil but you also have
the option to take them out and give them a clean, if your realy adventurous you can even
have a go at wrapping a new coil in the yourself.
How long they last - as with most of the kit it depends very much how your using it. It also
depends on the juice you use - some gunk up coils much faster than others. As a rough rule of thumb
I would estimate anything between 25-35ml of ejuice per fresh coil.

[frilly]

Aug 21, 2013 20:15:35 GMT markm said:

Are they top or bottom coil clero - top coil ones will dry out quickly with chain vaping and you will need to try and keep them tilted up.
If the coils are constantly dry burning as you describe then that will discharge the battery faster and the coils drop resistance
a touch with high temperatures. Also if you get the voltage too low and don't recharge asap you will shorten the life considerably.

Top or bottom coil....hmmm....well, yes. Very probably. I have several - they all look the same from the outside but the central thingummy inside looks different on some    In other words, I don't have the foggiest, though I recall something about 'rebuildable or replaceable' being mentioned when I bought (some of) them.

Despite my total ignorance, I AM willing to learn. It sounds like replacing the coil/head/wicky-thing will save me some money, but I'm more interested in vaping the thing than pulling it apart and playing with it....

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

Hi and frilly.

Perhaps you could put pics or links up so that we can see which clearos you have.  That way we may be able to give you some tips or help with them.

[Super-Shiny]

Agreed as Phoenixflame (Julie) says, give links to the product or show piccys of what you have purchased as it is hard to fix a problem unless we see the item you are having problems with, some products even though they look the same and have the same name can be made by different manufacturers and give different results.

[frilly]

Good idea Julie! Here they are: