Recommended Vaping Devices for Beginners
For beginners getting into vaping, the first step is crucial. It took me more than a year to go from single-battery box mods to dual-battery box mods and then to mechanical mods. I also moved from prebuilt tank atomizers to RTAs and then to dripping atomi
The first step for beginners getting into vaping is crucial. It took me more than a year to go from a single-battery box mod to a dual-battery box mod and then to a mechanical mod. I also moved from sub-ohm tanks to RTA atomizers and then to drippers. Along the way, I went from vaping alone to influencing dozens of people around me to put down cigarettes. Everyone has different budgets and preferences, so this is just a bit of personal experience from my journey as a beginner to an experienced user, along with some recommended vaping devices for beginners:
1. One box mod. I recommend a box mod in the 80W to 200W range; devices with instant firing are all good choices. The CKS Dagger single-battery box mod plus the Cleito atomizer was quite popular as an entry-level single-battery setup for beginners at the time. It was easy to carry, had a nice design, and offered variable wattage, temperature control, and even a mechanical mode, which was more than enough for beginners. As for the Cleito atomizer, as an entry-level cloud-chasing tank, its biggest advantages were large vapor production and a low price. However, prebuilt-coil atomizers are always somewhat limited in how well they bring out the e-liquid flavor, so after using it for about a month, I switched to the Merlin Mini RTA and started experimenting with DIY builds.
2. Prebuilt-coil atomizers: Avenger, General, and the Avenger 2 direct-lung atomizer. If you’ve just started and want a satisfying mouth-to-lung draw, you can skip these.
3. Most importantly, the e-liquid. From my own experience, heavy smokers tend to want tobacco-flavored e-liquid rather than strange fruit flavors. Whether you like vaping from the very first puff depends to a large extent on the quality of the e-liquid and the flavor itself. My direct recommendations are the Motorcycle Gold Award series, the Halo e-liquid series, the 526 tobacco series, and Little Red Riding Hood Black Star. Each brand has its own blends. Personally, I recommend Motorcycle Lucky 13, Halo’s Prime 15 and Tribeca, as well as No. 5 and No. 2 tobacco flavors.
Of course, if you usually prefer menthol cigarettes and your nicotine dependence is not very strong, then there are many more flavors you can try. For friends like that, I usually recommend starting with a bottle of Purple Duck (Malaysian e-liquid is pretty good), and once you gradually get used to it, you can try Red Wine Ice, Grapefruit Ice, or Lychee Ice. Red Wine Ice is especially recommended—it’s very good.
4. Nicotine strength is the key to satisfying cravings, but many people trying vaping for the first time cannot handle 6mg e-liquid (several friends I recommended it to reacted strongly). So you can buy one bottle of 3mg and one bottle of 6mg. For your first tank, start with 3mg, then move up to 6mg gradually, and later slowly reduce from higher nicotine strengths down to 0mg. That’s enough. I believe the pleasure of big clouds will soon make you forget cigarettes.
5. A few beginner-proof tips for atomizers: 1) With a brand-new coil, after filling with e-liquid, let it sit for at least 2 minutes so the cotton can fully absorb the e-liquid and avoid burning the coil. 2) After filling, remember to check whether the airflow inlet is open. 3) For first use, 39W is enough; after you get used to it, 50W to 60W is fine. (This only applies to the 0.2-ohm Avenger 1 and 2 atomizers.)
6. The above are basically some beginner suggestions. Veteran users can ignore this.
After I had more or less mastered regulated devices and tried various types of atomizers, I became curious about the final area of vaping: mechanical devices. I had heard that people who use mechanical mods never want to go back to box mods, but all the news about exploding mechanical mods also made me nervous.
Compared with regulated devices, what stands out most to me about a mechanical mod is how natural the output feels. Regulated devices tend to hit harder, while mechanical mods fire quickly and deliver a softer, smoother, and more natural output.
Before using a mechanical mod, I recommend becoming fully comfortable with DIY atomizer builds. Ideally, install the coil first and test it on a box mod to make sure everything works properly before using it on a mech mod. You must use genuine batteries with reliable quality. Be sure you clearly understand how the device works, as well as Ohm’s law and related knowledge. Safety first.
1. One box mod. I recommend a box mod in the 80W to 200W range; devices with instant firing are all good choices. The CKS Dagger single-battery box mod plus the Cleito atomizer was quite popular as an entry-level single-battery setup for beginners at the time. It was easy to carry, had a nice design, and offered variable wattage, temperature control, and even a mechanical mode, which was more than enough for beginners. As for the Cleito atomizer, as an entry-level cloud-chasing tank, its biggest advantages were large vapor production and a low price. However, prebuilt-coil atomizers are always somewhat limited in how well they bring out the e-liquid flavor, so after using it for about a month, I switched to the Merlin Mini RTA and started experimenting with DIY builds.
2. Prebuilt-coil atomizers: Avenger, General, and the Avenger 2 direct-lung atomizer. If you’ve just started and want a satisfying mouth-to-lung draw, you can skip these.
3. Most importantly, the e-liquid. From my own experience, heavy smokers tend to want tobacco-flavored e-liquid rather than strange fruit flavors. Whether you like vaping from the very first puff depends to a large extent on the quality of the e-liquid and the flavor itself. My direct recommendations are the Motorcycle Gold Award series, the Halo e-liquid series, the 526 tobacco series, and Little Red Riding Hood Black Star. Each brand has its own blends. Personally, I recommend Motorcycle Lucky 13, Halo’s Prime 15 and Tribeca, as well as No. 5 and No. 2 tobacco flavors.
Of course, if you usually prefer menthol cigarettes and your nicotine dependence is not very strong, then there are many more flavors you can try. For friends like that, I usually recommend starting with a bottle of Purple Duck (Malaysian e-liquid is pretty good), and once you gradually get used to it, you can try Red Wine Ice, Grapefruit Ice, or Lychee Ice. Red Wine Ice is especially recommended—it’s very good.
4. Nicotine strength is the key to satisfying cravings, but many people trying vaping for the first time cannot handle 6mg e-liquid (several friends I recommended it to reacted strongly). So you can buy one bottle of 3mg and one bottle of 6mg. For your first tank, start with 3mg, then move up to 6mg gradually, and later slowly reduce from higher nicotine strengths down to 0mg. That’s enough. I believe the pleasure of big clouds will soon make you forget cigarettes.5. A few beginner-proof tips for atomizers: 1) With a brand-new coil, after filling with e-liquid, let it sit for at least 2 minutes so the cotton can fully absorb the e-liquid and avoid burning the coil. 2) After filling, remember to check whether the airflow inlet is open. 3) For first use, 39W is enough; after you get used to it, 50W to 60W is fine. (This only applies to the 0.2-ohm Avenger 1 and 2 atomizers.)
6. The above are basically some beginner suggestions. Veteran users can ignore this.
After I had more or less mastered regulated devices and tried various types of atomizers, I became curious about the final area of vaping: mechanical devices. I had heard that people who use mechanical mods never want to go back to box mods, but all the news about exploding mechanical mods also made me nervous.
Compared with regulated devices, what stands out most to me about a mechanical mod is how natural the output feels. Regulated devices tend to hit harder, while mechanical mods fire quickly and deliver a softer, smoother, and more natural output.
Before using a mechanical mod, I recommend becoming fully comfortable with DIY atomizer builds. Ideally, install the coil first and test it on a box mod to make sure everything works properly before using it on a mech mod. You must use genuine batteries with reliable quality. Be sure you clearly understand how the device works, as well as Ohm’s law and related knowledge. Safety first.
