I come back to this thread after a few hours and theres like 12 new replies with huge posts and pictures. Man. I have a lot of reading to do. I saw someone's post on here and their coil set up and it kinda scares me a little lmao. I am very excited to try this out, building and such, but also a little afraid. Some of the pictures look like some crazy professional work
Bah, don't be discouraged by that. Although coil building can be a hobby with a lot of depth to it, getting a kick-ass vape doesn't have to be nearly that complicated. Some people do sell fancy coils, but most are not pros. We are the definition of "amateur." We're just regular people with perhaps a little too much time on our hands and a bit of an obsession. It happens. You don't even have to be unusually intelligent or go to school!
You start getting comfortable doing more intricate builds as your knowledge and skill increases. It's a very organic and personalized endeavor. It does take some time and focus to get to the advanced level, but you can very quickly hit a really satisfying plateau with beginner-level builds. Focus on those for now - just doing them will teach you lots. Simple is often best. Many experienced builders' favorite builds are simple single or dual coils... ...and for good reason. They consistently satisfy.
I just want to give you one word of advice on gear... ...if you're pretty certain that you're gonna be taking the full ride, you might as well look into getting a high-powered, temperature control, dual 18650 regulated mod. You won't need all of the power or features now, but later, when you're more comfortable with it, you'll appreciate already having what you will need as you progress to more advanced configurations. Better to save yourself some trouble and get something that you can
really grow into.
And now for some personal recommendations...
I personally do not have experience with the Jaybo 200w, but I wouldn't recommend one as your first high-powered box. They have great features, but they're not the most intuitive to use. For someone such as yourself, I'd sooner narrow it down to a handful of affordable, well-established manufacturers such as Sigelei, Asmodus, Pioneer For You, SMOKtech (the Koopor line, specifically,) or Joyetech. You really can't go wrong with mods from those companies. They all make very solid, top-tier-tech mods with a full range of power capabilities and form factors.
For RDA's, there's always the very popular Wotofo, Indulgence, and Compvape to start off your collection. They make a huge and widely-distributed assortment of different atties that are pretty well-crafted and perform excellently. The price for genuine ones ranges from $20-$60, so you can grab a few with little risk. They're just cheap, good atties that you can buy just about anywhere.
There are a lot of great domestic vendors out there. You can find a good selection of mods and rebuildable tanks/atties at places like
VaporDNA,
eciggity,
elementvape, and
101 vape.
Then, there are
Liion Wholesale (of our very own Jon@Liionwholesale) or
Illumination Supply for the best deals on top-performing genuine, high-drain batteries.
And then, there's always
Lightning Vapes for wire and all of your building tools. While they don't have the absolute best prices, they're still a very competitively-priced, 1-stop supply vendor with a very large customer base.
Of course, these are just a few that I can vouch for. They're all very well-known, well-respected mega-vendors with typical or even great prices and proven service/turnaround. There are also a great many smaller ones with equally good service and sometimes better prices, even if the selection is narrower. If you know what you're looking for, then google can quickly help you track those vendors down. And if a vendor is bad, there is usually someone talking about them somewhere.
You can actually find better deals on cotton, wire, and tools than those vendors offer over on ebay and amazon... ...again, provided you already know what you want going in. Cotton is especially cheap if you buy it straight from Japan on amazon. It takes about a month to arrive, but for $6-$15, you can have enough high-quality cotton to last you for a year - try Cotton Labo or Koh Gen Do. You could also try Muji for the cheapest rate it gets and no less quality
straight from them.
Just don't get your batteries on amazon or ebay. Stick to the vendors I mentioned, as they actually test and inspect their batteries to make sure that they're real and in-spec. Besides, they have the very best prices for Samsung, Panasonic, LG, and Sony... ...which, btw, are the four main battery manufacturers. Most other brands actually just stick their own wrapper on batteries made by one of those companies, exaggerate the specs, and charge as much as double the price.
There's really no specific youtuber who I think does it best, but for build videos, you can't go wrong with grimmgreen and rip trippers. Rip trippers' persona can be a huge turn off, but his build videos are great for all of the basic coils. A lot of times, you can also find build videos attached to video reviews of specific atties. Those can be extremely helpful because you can actually see someone do a build on the exact atty that you have in front of you. There are literally hundreds of youtubers out there with what are essentially build tutorials mixed into their reviews. The reviews themselves are also helpful in teaching you more about the features of different atties from people who really know what to look for.
Sorry if this went on too long or any of this has already been covered. Hopefully, this helps you figure some stuff out! Tip of the iceberg.
