Pretty much all I see in stores are either weak-ass homeopathic cigalikes at the grocery store, or overkill fog machines at vape stores. There's not much in-between. They sell battery mods that put out enough power to drive a kitchen appliance, and atomizers geared for multiple low resistance coils. The whole culture encourages chasing the dragon, maximizing obnoxious cloud production.
I'd rather chase flavor on a traditional single coil dripper (and not the kind designed for stainless steel microcoils). If I were in the market, I'd get a
genuine Achilles atomizer and pair it with an
ELA clone or whatever battery mod catches your fancy. Mech just has a more consistent flavor than electronic, in my experience. Grab 3 or 4
AW IMR 18490 batteries (assuming you choose the ELA clone, 18650 batteries otherwise) and whatever charger looks good to you.
This kanthal ribbon works exceptionally well in the Achilles, and a couple of inches doubled-up of
this hemp cord makes great wick once it's been boiled for 5 minutes or so. I generally rebuild my coil and wick once every day or two, but it only takes about 5 minutes including the time to disassemble, rinse, dry, and reassemble my atomizer. For juice, you can buy some pre-made at a vape shop, but it's much cheaper to mix your own. Head to onestopdiyshop.com and get some flavoring (Lucky Shot is the tits!),propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, 100mg nicotine, sweetener, a 100mL graduated cylinder, a few 120ml bottles, and a few 1 or 2 oz. dropper bottles. I mix 20mL sweetener, 6mL nic, 17mL flavor, 30mL VG, then top off with PG. A 120ml bottle lasts me about a month. You can use more nic and less PG if you prefer a stronger throat hit.
So, yeah, the initial investment does get into a little money; but for the cost of 3 months' worth of cigarettes you'll easily get a year or more of vaping. Then the following years are even cheaper because you'll only need to buy the kanthal, wick, and juice as needed.
