Like other consumer electronics, vape products often contain Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) batteries that can erupt into flames or explode when not handled with due care. Store vape products in ventillated areas, out of direct sunlight. Do not stow vape products in the main cabin of airplanes, which is unpressurized and can trigger flames and explosions.
Contents intended for adults only. Consume at your own risk.
Vaping is a modern twist on traditional smoking. In contrast to combustion, vaping uses a lower temperature--just enough to "atomize" substances into flavorful clouds.
Some ejuice vaping substances include classic flavors, such as tobacco, menthol, vanilla, cannabis, and so on. However, vaping carries different risks than smoking. For example, vaping is more likely to present harmful heavy metals than pipe smoking, hookahs, cigar smoking, or cigarettes. Just like smoking, it is probably better not to smoke or vape at all, than to do either one.
However, for overall oral health, vaping is considered by the community to offset the most hazardous effects of traditional smoking. Many smokers are turning to vaping as a way to improve dental and lung health.
The vaping consumption pattern is more continuous; even a small vaping tank can last for days on end, much longer than a cigarette. The fainter, pleasant aroma of vaping is less likely to stain domiciles and automobiles or offend nonsmokers/nonvapers. In time, society may very well adopt altogether new customs for vaping, given the many conveniences of vaping compared to traditional smoking.
The most common vaping substances are nicotine and cannabinoids. Due to the visual similarities of these two kinds of vaping products, it's always a good idea to clarify which substance is being vaped when sharing.
Nicotine, and to a greater extent, propylene glycol (PG), are both hazardous to pets and children. Keep vaping products away.
For adults, the most common daily risks of vaping include leaking ejuice onto skin, clothing, and so on. This can happen with poor quality vape products, or poorly wicked atomizers.
Expect some condensation when consuming vape products. This tends to gather around air intake sections on vaping devices.
In the event of a leak, wipe up the spill. If the problem persists, consult the manual or contact customer support for your vaping components.
Ecigs provide a straightforward transition from traditional cigarettes into the world of vaping. These are often sold in convenience stories. An LED lights up at the far end, mimicking the traditional glow of a lit cigarette.
Many disposables are suction activated; Simply start breathing in from the device and it turns on. When you pull away, the device turns off.
Vaping pod systems reduce plastic waste. These tend to feature a rechargeable battery, such as with a USB-C charge port. The vaper can quickly snap pods with assorted ejuice flavors, onto the base "mod" that provides power. Replace the pods when tired of flavor, or when the tank is empty.
Reusable vape devices tend to use a multiclick on/off system, such as 3 clicks or 5 clicks. Various models may include separate button combinations for controlling intensity and other settings.
Regulated vape mods furthermore often feature automatic power down after a period of inactivity.
Vaping systems with 510 pins at the connection between the ejuice atomizer and the mod reduce waste even further than pod systems. As well, 510 pin vapes offer a wider degree of customization and compatibility with additional vaping products.
510 pin vapes occur mainly in two form factors: vape "pens" and vape "mods."
Vape pens are quite small and thin, intended for disposable 510 pin vape tanks.
Vape mods are larger, often capable of holding long lasting 18650 or 21700 Li-Ion batteries, and supporting larger ejuice tanks.
Vape mods also support "sub ohm" tanks, a middle ground between disposable components and the highest degree of repairability. Caution: Never use a sub ohm tank on a mechanical vape mod. This is because too many sub ohm tanks have historically featured spring assited 510 pin connections, which introduces additional risk of short circuiting in mechanical mods.
Do not use salt nicotine ejuice with 510 pin mods or boro mods. The effective nicotine dosage may be too high, and the vaping hit may feel harsh.
Rebuildable atomizers elevate the quality of vaping components. Whereas sub ohm tanks and other disposable tanks are designed for use for only a few weeks or months, rebuildable atomizers can be serviced and reused for years.
Rebuildable atomizers come in a number of different form factors:
Rebuildable Drip Atomizers (RDAs) continue the style of some of the earliest vaping products to ever enter the market. After building the atomizer coil and wicking the tank, you can refill an RDA by simply squeezing some drops of ejuice into the wide opening. These are often incredibly simple to learn to use, and provide a fun way to sample a buffet of drips and drops of different ejuices.
Rebuildable Tank Atomizers (RTAs) operate like RDAs, but with an extra feature. RTAs include a reservoir tank to hold some extra mL of ejuice. An RDA may dry up in a few minutes of heavy vaping, while an RTA can continue to provide fluffy vape clouds for hours. Vapers who consume on long road trips may prefer RTAs, which help to keep your concentration on driving rather than fussing with too many vaping components. RTAs have a fill port or screw mechanism to access the reservoir.
Rebuildable Drip Tank Atomizers (RDTAs) provide the large drippable entrance of an RDA and the reservoir of an RTA. These can be topped off similarly to an RDA faster than accessing the RTA reservoir.
Rebuildable Boro Atomizers (RBAs) also have a reservoir tank. Whereas RTAs screw on top of vape mods, RBAs are designed to fit snugly inside of boro mods. This gives the entire vape a more compact form, and presents a window for the vaper to showcase and monitor the atomizer. Unlike RDAs and RTAs, RBAs do not fit most vape mods; again, RBAs only fit boro mods.
Mouth To Lung (MTL) and Direct Lung (DL) represent another dimension of vaping components. Mouth To Lung tends to narrow the airflow throughout the vape, while Direct Lung tends to open the airflow wide. RDAs, RTAs, RDTAs, and RBAs are often designed primarily for either MTL or primarily DL usage, though they can often be build arbitrarily with a specific MTL coil or DL coil configuration as desired.
Uniquely apart from sub ohm tanks and other disposable atomizers, certain rebuildable atomizers can integrate with mechanical mods. Unfortunately, mechanical mods have severe risks and are out of scope of this document.
Cthulhu manufactures a variety of vape products. Take, for example the Cthulhu AIO Delrin. The AIO and AIO Delrin models are boro mods, suitable for RBA vaping tanks.
The AIO and AIO Delrin are packaged as mostly complete vaping kits, with nearly everything one needs to vape. Notable omissions include vape grade batteries, integrated boro drip tips, a better RBA, matching boro tank, matching vape coils, vape cotton, ceramic tweezers, small wire cutters, Swiss army knife scissors, a whiskey flask funnel, unicorn bottles, and of course ejuice.
Continuing with the Cthluhu AIO Delrin boro mod, we can explore suitable RBAs and boro tanks. Cthulhu makes the Zen RBA and Kraken boro tank, both sold separately.
Vaping Bogan demonstrates rebuilding / rewicking the Cthulhu Zen RBA in one of his many interactive demo videos.
The Zen RBA's vertical coil design requires more cotten and care than other atomizers, but vapes like a champ once all is done skillfully. Note that the air intake electrical pin may be too wide for some boro mods. If desired, select a narrower intake insert, in order to provide more surface area for electrical contact.
Some may balk at the time and methodical attention required (of the Zen RBA, or rebuildable atomizers in general). Others may get a meditative kick out of the level of detail, like painting model airplanes, or crocheting.
The Zen RBA is tricky to setup the first few times. On the one hand, if you have never built or wicked a vape atomizer before, then you will need to do some (basic) math. Critically, Ohm's Law. This formula converts between voltage, current, and resistance. The maximum voltage of the battery, the Continuous Discharge Rate current, and the resitance of the coil must remain within the safe bounds of the component ratings. Or else the battery may erupt into flames, explode, or in the case of a regulated mod like the AIO / AIO Delrin, the mod may refuse to provide power to the atomizer, indicating an atomizer short (circuit).
In the case of the Zen RBA, you will want an "alien" coil with specifications about 3x29/37CCN80, such as the 0.2 Ohm 5 wrap Coil Clout Small Mass Alien with inner diameter 3mm. This provides a sufficiently high resistance for many kinds of atomizers, while still fitting nicely inside of the Zen RBA deck.
Mooch conducts tests on many battery models in order to evaluate how reliable they are for vaping purposes. His results provide evidence for models known to be safer or unsafe at specific ratings. For example, Samsung 30Q 18650 batteries are generally reliable for regulated and semi-regulated mods. However, some battery merchants are unscrupulous, so obtain Mooch-approved batteries from reliable sources.
To build the Ctulhu Zen RBA, start by removing the atomizer from the packaging. The Zen RBA arrives as a capital I shaped hunk of metal, in a spongy casing, along with a screwdriver and some replacement parts.
The Zen RBA is composed of three separable metal pieces: A single bridge piece on top with a sunken lip, a middle section with two vee / inverted pyramid honeycomb ejuice intake holes, and a bottom deck section with two suble ejuice intake holes and a boro / 510 compatible electrical connector.
Gently remove the bridge from the RBA.
Remove the middle section from the RBA's bottom deck. This step often requires more force and patience. If necessary, use some pliers to grab one of the solid walls to lift the middle section away from the deck. However, be careful not to damage the RBA.
Place the coil with the coil's tube wraps rising vertically out from the deck's large air intake hole.
The coil legs should reach both the lower and upper metal posts of the atomizer deck. The nickel chromium metal coil is an important part of the vape electric circuit, which operates like an electric stove to heat up ejuice. By physically connecting the posts to each other with the coil, we complete the circuit. When power is sent through the coil, then coil can get red hot and vaporize ejuice on some cotton, which we will accomplish after several more important steps.
Some coils may be made with the legs facing the same direction; If necessary, gently bend one of the legs to face the other direction.
Different atomizers will use different screws for the posts. The Zen RBA comes with a miniature screwdriver for its posts, similar to the screwdriver for a finger skateboard. Partially unscrew the post screws, just enough to allow the coil legs to insert into the posts.
Use a ceramic tweezer tine or another screwdriver, to center the coil vertically over the main air intake hole. The material of the ceramic tweezers is important, in order to reduce the chance of short circuiting or burning your fingers during maintenance.
Continue holding the coil centered over the intake while gently screwing the legs into the posts.
Screwing down the legs can shift the coil off-center. You can grab the insides of the coil tube with the ceramic tweezers and gently push the coil back into place, centered between the posts.
Now, center the coil roughly vertically.
Now, we need to ensure that the coil does not contact the bottom of the deck, which would risk an electrical short. Pinch the ends of the coil wraps and gently lift the coil at least a few millimeters above any deck components below, such as the air intake hole.
With the coil in place, the next step is to cut the leads of the legs sticking through the far sides of the posts. Like all vape maintenance, perform this step away from pets and children. Recommend wearing laboratory glasses for this step, in order to protect eyes from flying metal shards. As well, some vapers close their eyes before the moment of cutting the wires. Now, place your wirecutters flush against the far sides of the posts, and clip one leg's extra wire flush to the post. Then repeat the same procedure with the extra leg wire on the other post.
Inspect the deck. Ensure that the legs will not stick out far enough to contact the rest of the atomizer. The coil should not contact anything other than the posts, in order to provide a reliable electical circuit. Continue clipping both legs again, flush with the far side of the posts. If necessary, use ceramic tweezers to tuck the outside of the legs into the exits of the posts.
The process of wicking prepares a fresh or used coil for an optimum vaping experience.
In order to temper the coil, you will need either a separate, non-boro, 40W+ conventional 510 pin mod, or else an Ambition Mods 510 Boro Adapter 2.0. The adapter screws down in the tank section of a boro mod, allowing a boro atomizer to temporarily screw down on top of the boro mod for maintenance.
If the coil is very freshly built, then the coil will appear silvery. We will need to spend some more time and care galvanizing the coil into a bluish / purplish color.
Inspect the atomizer. Look for aberrations, particularly any coil legs detached from the posts.
If servicing an existing wick, remove the used cotton entirely. Use a napkin corner to sop up ejuice residue, especially in air intake holes and ejuice deck depressions. Look for scrap bits of cotton or other detritus. Remove detritus with ceramic tweezers. Any leftover cotton or paper bits can ignite and result in a nasty vaping experience.
Turn on the mod. Set the power to about 20W. This should be enough power to eventually get the coil glowing red.
After setting the power, apply short pulses of electricity through the coil. Repeatedly stroke the ceramic tweezers along the coil tube, from one end of the rungs to the other. Stroke evenly on all sides of the coil tube.
Pulsing this way helps to prepare the coil to heat the wick uniformly. As well, pulsing releases unsavory manufacturing oils, or unsavory old ejuice residue from the coil.
At first, when you pulse the coil, you may see some sections crackle red, while most other sections are dark. That's a coil with too many hotspots, which makes for a bad vaping experience. Continue pulsing and stroking the coil until the hotspots even out. The coil should glow from the middle out, the glow reaching about the far ends of the coil.
Measure the resistance of the coil, with a regulated mod or a dedicated vaping Ohm meter. The resistance should be within the supported specifications of all the vaping devices, including the battery, the atomizer, and the mod.
Turn off the mod and/or physically remove the battery. Let the coil cool off a few minutes. These steps protect the dry cotton from burning during the wicking process.
Cut a segment of vape cotton, approximately 4 cm long. Gently pull the segment into two thinner halves. Set aside the second half, which we will use as some of the honeycomb sealing wick later.
Take the first half of the segment and rub one end back and forth between your thumb and index finger. The goal is to make a fine point. Insert the point under the coil leg connecting to the high post. Pull the cotton halfway through to the other side.
Gently tweeze the wick into a U shaped coat around the coil. The top and bottom of the wick should nearly follow the top and bottom of the coil, similar to a sub ohm atomizer wick. The ends of the wick should face out over the two bottom semicircle air intake holes of the deck.
Use a small pair of scissors, such a those from a Swiss army knife, to cut the ends of the wick. The wick should trim down to just a few millimeters past the flush front of the deck.
Grab hold of the Zen RBA middle section. Ensure that the two honeycomb ejuice intake gratings are oriented in a pyramid / inverted vee position.
Certain atomizer components benefit from lubrication, making it easier to pull them apart for later maintenance. Lubricate all for sides of the bottom of the middle RBA section.
Holding the wick in place, begin settling the middle section onto the deck. The middle section is manufactured with quite a tight fit, so this may take some time. When the middle section is firmly pushed all the way down onto the deck, we can continue with the next wicking steps.
Tweeze the ends of the wick down into the bottom ejuice intake holes. If you can't easily see the white cotton from the bottom ejuice intake holes, then the bottom seal will be too loose, the atomizer will gurgle and spit hot ejuice, the tank and mod will leak over everything, and the vaping experience will be generally unenjoyable.
Pull apart the second half of the wicking segment into two, even thinner quarters.
Take one quarter wick segment and begin gently layering it on down atop the current wick. Don't pack the wick too tightly, or else the capillary action will have trouble drawing ejuice from the tank onto the coil. Regardless, you will learn with direct practice exactly how tightly and how loosely, how firmly and how gently, how articulated and how lazily, to perform all of these vape maintenance tasks.
The new upper layer should rest against the honeycomb ejuice intake gratings. As with the bottom ejuice intake holes, the honeycomb grating seal is only good when you see white cotton through the holes, instead of empty space.
Ensure that the cotton doesn't stick down inside the coil tube. Gently tweeze it up and over the coil. Recheck the honeycomb seals on both sides, adjusting if necessary.
Layer a final quarter segment on top, lightly packing it down, sealing the honeycomb grating, and tucking it around the outside of the coil.
When you are satisfied with the basic condition of the dry wick, it is time to apply ejuice. Squeeze out some ejuice onto the wick in short batches. Soak the main sides of the wick that you are able to access. Let the wick core inside draw the ejuice inward from the surface, lightening the surface. Continue applying wick until satisfied that it is appropriately wet. The Zen RBA needs more cotton, and so it needs more ejuice than other wicks. Again, with practice you will come to feel exactly how much or how little ejuice is needed.
Let the wick soak by itself a few minutes.
Take another resistance measurement, confirm the atomizer does not report "atomizer short" in a regulated mod. Pulse the wick once or twice, letting a bit of vapor release from the wick.
Attach the bridge to the atomizer.
Insert the atomizer in the tank. Note that Cthulhu unfortunately sells a confusing mixture of standard and proprietary atomizers and tanks. The Cthulhu Zen RBA does not fit in Cthulhu proprietary tanks, but it fits well in a standard form factor boro tank, such as a Cthulhu Kraken boro tank.
Lubricate the bottom of the tank with some ejuice.
Orient the tank to keep the fill port facing you.
Slip the atomizer up through the top of the tank.
Settle the bottom of the tank up against the tank. Ensure the bottom air intake section faces you, just like the fill port.
Turn the tank so that the honeycomb sides are roughly parallel with the wide front and back of the tank. This provides an aesthetically pleasing view, and may optimize heat dissipation across the expanse of the tank.
Push the atomizer down rest on the bottom of the tank. The top of the atomizer should have a snug fit with the top and bottom of the tank.
Remove any 510 pin adapters from the boro mod.
Wipe off any residue around the tank cubby.
Drop the tank into the cubby. Again, the top fill port and bottom air intake should face you. If necessary, reassemble and reinsert the tank.
Secure the tank in place by hand screwing a boro flush nut onto the mod. Such as the nut from a Protocol HLMT integrated boro drip tip. The nut may turn the atomizer to a new angle; gently turn the nut back a few millimeters until it is parallel once again to the main sides of the tank.
Assemble and orient the rest of the drip tip.
Replace Cthulhu AIO Delrin outer door panel(s).
Cover the carburetor on the atomizer outer panel with one of your fingers while vaping. Adjust the timing and amount of coverage to match your preferred lung draw.
Higher power settings, such as 40W, as well as regular cleaning and use, can also streamline flavorful cloud production.
Press and hold Fire + Up for a few seconds on Cthulhu AIO / AIO Delrin to disable most of the flashing lights during vaping.
Press and hold Fire + Down for a few seconds on Cthulhu AIO / AIO Delrin to toggle the screen on/off.
Some vape mods offer additional modes, such as temperature control modes. However, these may be finnicky in practice.
A freshly wicked Zen atomizer may not instantly pull smoothly. Reduce power, take small puffs, and gradually adjust power. The wick may take a few hours to reach that perfect draw. Each morning may reset the state back to a weak, spotty draw. Week after week, the draw will gradually lose the ability to become smooth. That's how you'll know it is time to rewick. Compared to more conventional, horizontal coils, the Zen does not appear to significanty burn the cotton. Instead, the cotton loses its capillary action, becoming permanently drenched, unable to generate smooth, milky vape clouds and flavor. Like many atomizers, the used wick will no longer deplete ejuice, and the level of ejuice will remain static.
Unlike conventional horizontal coils, the vertical coil in the Zen is susceptible to the wick being accidentally plucked out, especially the top layer. When cleaning the bridge between rewicking maintenance, be gentle.
Warning: Research ingredients before vaping. Don't mess with any ejuice or ejuice ingredients with Vitamin E acetate.
Common nicotine doses range from 0 mg(/mL) to 12 mg(/mL). When making ejuice, note that the initial VG and/or PG nicotine base strength will reduce somewhat, as the flavors dilute the nicotine base.
Recommend to use nicotine premixed into a base VG and/or PG liquid, at approximately the intended dosage. This reduces the risk of nicotine poisoning, by avoiding raw, undiluted nicotine.
Vegetable glycerin promotes cloud generation, while propylene glycol carries flavor. VG is thicker and requires vape mods capable of reaching higher power. Adjust the VG:PG ratio to suit your needs.
The Make My Vape Calculator automates some back of the envelope calculations when refining ejuice recipes.
The DIY ejuice subreddit discusses tips for recipes and basic ejuice making tips. For example, fruity ejuice tends to be "shake and bake," able to be vaped soon after mixing. On the other hand, some richer, tobacco-y ejuice tends may require steeping for several weeks in a cubbard before the flavors are able to mix throughly to taste.
Once mixed, store your ejuice in unicorn bottles. This makes them compatible with the widest range of vapes, many of which have very narrow fill holes.
Label your bottles. For example, with some creative stickers.
Share your results!