Newbie Vaper needs a lot of questions answered

[Schyzo]

*Questions Below the wall of text for the TLNR people*

Hi,
I'm a Dutch vaper and in this country info about vaping isn't really available because big tabbaco doesn't like it.
I started vaping after a few years of very limited smoking this because I used to smoke a lot untill I got struck down by Hodgekins, a form of cancer.
I kicked it's arse but it did leave me scarred ( as in 20% lung capacity thanks to the chemo therapies ).
So I used to smoke just when I really needed it, and then I had a buddy introduce me to ciggalikes he asked me to try it out and how it worked out for me.
I was very carefull at the start, but started increasing my usage after I found that it didn't impact me as heavily as smoking normally.
So I started looking at vids on YT to try and educate myself but unfortunatly person A tells you OMG Nickle coils will kill you , Person B tells you Nah it's pretty harmless.
With my volunteer work for the Red Cross I found co-worker who couldn't stand me using ciggalikes and was nice enough to give me a Eleaf Istick 40w that he wasn't using anymore with a GS Air tank.
After smashing the tank by accident bandaging a casualty of a fire, I managed to scrape enough together to get me a Kangertech CL 2.0 seeing as it's a metal encased tank and seemed more secure.
But living of benefits ( thanks to the chemotherapy I can't work normal jobs or full time jobs ) What are decent yet cheap solutions.
But seeing this wall of text I will just put all my questions in a summary below:

1: Is using nickle in TC mode really as harmfull as Ron Kaufman tells us ?

2: What are cheap and decent mods / tanks that will survive a tumble or 2 ?

3: Somehow I don't get the clouds I see most people on YT getting *( I usually vape @ 25W on 45/30 store bought liquids )

4: How do I stop my setup from spitting juice ?

Sorry for the long post here is a picture of a Yoda congratulating you

 

[DED420]

1: Is using nickle in TC mode really as harmfull as Ron Kaufman tells us ?
2: What are cheap and decent mods / tanks that will survive a tumble or 2 ?
3: Somehow I don't get the clouds I see most people on YT getting *( I usually vape @ 25W on 45/30 store bought liquids )
4: How do I stop my setup from spitting juice ?

1. Nickel, when heated past a certain temperature, will start to give of Nickel Oxide fumes and whatnot, which is obviously bad. That being said, the temperatures we are using don't reach high enough to start bleeding toxic fumes (pretty much all TC mods limit to 600f, nickel needs 700+f IIRC). Another reason for Nickel warning is due to allergies, with a rather large number of people seeming to suffer from it. So the answer is Nickel is safe to vape on, unless you have a nickel allergy.

2. This is the toughest question for a number of reasons. There are plenty of cheap reliable mods, but they may not be suited to your style of vaping. Mod factors would be: Wattages (what you'll use it at) / Battery Life / Size (pocketable?) / Weight (light enough for you to carry around?) / TC or no TC / ETC. Same goes for tanks: Capacity (how much juice) / MTL or DL / Juices (VG or PG ratios) / Size (tall or short tank) / Coils (premade coilheads or handmade coils) / ETC. It's easier to narrow down the options when you have a rough idea of what you're looking to achieve (It sounds as though you don't have alot of experience with different mods and tanks, so you probably aren't quite sure where you'll settle yet)

3. There's alot of factors here. First off, you're vaping at 25W, which is considered low for trying to achieve clouds. Alot of the vids you see are of higher power mods running higher wattage coils than what you're using (SubOhm Tanks with SubOhm Coilheads or Coil Builds (in RTAs). The type of coils makes a large difference. Some coils are built specifically for flavor, and others are built specifically for vapor volume, so different coils can achieve different results. Yet another factor is technique, and not just in lung control, but also lighting. Alot of YT reviewers have backfill/background lighting, which when viewed from a 3rd person perspective, can make a relatively small cloud appear much bigger on camera (not to say they do it on purpose, but it is a factor, clouds blown at you will appear larger than clouds your blowing away from you). So take the fact you're vaping at low wattages, with low VG liquid, and have previous lung issues, yeah, you're probably not gonna achieve clouds with your current vape setup.

4. Spitting juice can be controlled in a variety of different ways, depending on the root cause of the issue. Some solutions are:
- Try a higher VG eliquid, higher PG liquid are runnier, and can over-saturate the coils and cause spitting.
- Alternatively, try running higher wattages, this can overcome the over-saturation by vaporizing the liquid faster (the more excess liquid on the coils, the more opportunity for spitting/popping).
- Depending on the tanks, some come with juice control (allowing you to close down the juice flow more for runnier liquids, mostly found in RTAs, but a few tanks also have this feature too).
- You could also try adjusting the AFC, allowing more/less air over the coils can sometimes help combat spitting.
- You could also try purging the tank before taking a hit if the mods been sitting for awhile (quickly blowing some air out through the tank while fire it for a second or two, a similar technique to RDA users too).

A little FYI, I haven't broken a mod or tank yet to date, so I can't really give you any recommendations on durable gear for the most part, but 2 of my favorite setups ATM are my Evic VTC Mini (fully updated/customized) with my Crown tank (pretty much solely in TC SS mode), and my Reuleaux RX200 (fully updated/customized) with a Griffin RTA (not really for beginner level users). No issues from any of them, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend any of them.

Hopefully that helps a bit, tried to answer them as best I could right now, hope all works out for you, and Welcome to