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Hey, folks, and welcome back to Legion Vapes! I'm your host, Steve, and today we're gonna talk about five things, five things that every brand new vaper must know.

So five things that every new vaper has to know, must know, you must get this down. These are things that are gonna keep you safe. These are things that are gonna make your vaping journey much more enjoyable and much more successful. And there's an awful lot to get into here, but I'm gonna try and condense it as much as possible. So if I do miss something, or if you're unclear of something, please do leave a comment down below, I'll do my very best to get back and answer any of those as fast as I can. I don't wanna leave you hanging in any way, and I'm always available. Anyway, five things, I'm gonna start with what is probably the most important and most complex, and then we're gonna work our way back through. They're gonna get easier and easier until we get to the end. Okay.

So starting off, hybrid connections. Hybrid connections are not for new vapers. Boom. There's your headline right there, bam! Anyway... See, this just gets really complex and it's really tricky to explain. I've got some pictures though, I will share them with you. This is a hybrid connection. As you can see, it's a metal tube. On the top, there is a hole, the hole has threadings, and you can use it to connect your atomizer, your tank, your RDA, whatever you have, you can connect to that device. The hole in the center goes all the way through and there's nothing on the other side. When you put your battery in, it connects to the center pin of your connection, here.

This is a 510 connection. You can see the threading around the side, that would be your negative connection. You can see that center pin going up through the middle, and that is your positive connection. That directly contacts with your battery in a hybrid connection, such as the one you see. This is a... Well, it's a regular 510 connection, it's on a regulated device. And as you can see in the center, it has a center pin of its own, it's called a floating adjustable pin. Sometimes they're spring-loaded, sometimes they're on little sort of rubber grommets, they move a little bit. They're much more durable, much safer, and they reduce the risk of short circuiting altogether.

This is a regulated mod-safe 510 connection on a tank. As you can see, that center pin is much, much lower. I'm gonna go and show you the first one again now, and you can see the difference there. Now, here's the thing: If you put that second tank with that short pin on a hybrid connection, there is an extreme, extreme chance that the positive and the negative will short out at that point. If it shorts out, your mod can overheat, your battery can vent, the whole thing can go into thermal runaway, and it could explode in your pocket, in your hand, and all sorts of places. It's not a good idea.

So first rule: Never put anything like that second tank on a hybrid connection. And second rule: If you're new, stay away from hybrid connections altogether. I don't wanna scare you. They can be used safely, they can be used fine if you know what you're doing, but until you are comfortable with building, until you know your battery safety, and until you are comfortable with checking every atomizer every time you put it on a device, stay away from them. Yeah, and that's pretty much it. Hybrid connections are not for new users. And that is why, and if you see someone using a hybrid connection with a regular prebuilt coil-style tank, take a few steps back and then tell them to stop it. It's not a safe thing to do. It's dangerous for everyone around. And when it inevitably goes wrong, it damages all of us. It damages our industry, it damages our public perception. Bottom line, every single explosion that you have ever, ever heard of related to E-cigarettes in the news has been down to someone not knowing how to deal, properly, with a 510 connection.

Moving on. Variable wattage, it's not so scary. A lot of people have something like this. It's a great starter kit, it's very simple, it's very easy. You don't have any batteries to put in. You put in a coil, you put in some juice, you push a button, and it vapes, and it's quite nice to use. It's a very, very simple device. And the quality, the intensity of the vape is determined by how much power there is in that battery. There's no way to turn it up or turn it down, it is what it is. A lot of people get stuck at that level. They get kind of scared of the more complex and fancy devices, things like... Well, this isn't that complex. But yes, it's got multiple buttons, and a screen, and a menu, and all sorts of things to get into. And, yes, you can get into temperature control and all that later, but to start off with, the first place you're gonna hit is variable wattage, and they don't know what to do. It confuses a lot of people. So I'm gonna tell you just everything you need to know to get started.

First of all, look at your coil. Look at your coil before you even put juice into it. Go to somewhere with lots of light in your house, 'cause that printing is tiny, it's tiny, it's on the side of the coil. It's going to tell you what the wattage range recommended for that coil is. That's your first key, it's gonna say 40-80 watts, it's gonna say 60-100. It's gonna have some sort of range on there. Use your variable wattage device, set the wattage to the lower end of whatever the coil said, and vape for a little while. Just keep going, just take a puff, take another puff. Let that thing get warmed up and worn in a little bit, and then decide for yourself, I want it a little bit warmer, I want a little bit cooler. Bump up the watts 5 watts. That's all you need to worry about, five at a time, up or down. Find your sweet spot, that's the point here. Variable wattage is about finding your sweet spot. Everyone, everyone has a different taste. Everyone likes things just a little bit warmer, or cooler, or denser. Some people like different flavors, like more menthol, which I don't like, or more fruity, which a lot of people like.

So the same goes with the intensity of your vape. Start within the lower end of what the coil says, move up or down to taste. It's very simple, but it is one of those stumbling blocks that does get a lot of new people. They... Where should I set it? There's no should set it, there's just what you like. Start within the range, work from there. Boom, that's number two, done and dusted. We're moving on.

The third one. This one's kind of weird, kind of complex. There's a lot of acronyms in vaping. There's a lot of little... RDA, RDTA, all sorts of stuff, little strings of letters. Two of them that get a lot of people when they're beginning is MTL and DL. What do they mean? How do they work? What is this stuff? I'm confused. MTL means mouth-to-lung. MTL is smoking like a cigarette. It's a very, very tight draw, it produces a smaller amount of vapor and you suck it into mouth, inhale it into your lungs, and then breathe it out. It's kind of like this. Very small.

Okay. DL stands for direct lung or deep lung. There's some variation on that, and it's the more... It's more vaping. It's the more common way, these days. And it basically is breathing an awful lot of vapor directly, bypassing the mouth, down into the lungs, holding it for a sec, and breathing it out. It is usually done with a lower wattage or lower resistance coil, it produces a lot more vapor. You don't need to hold in your mouth, you can breathe it out through your nose, or your mouth, or whatever you want, and... Yeah. Just two different styles of vaping. Whatever works for you is important, and that's the point here. There's no right way or wrong way, there's the way that you like. But what is important is that you get devices from the actual power device, and the coils, and the actual mouthpiece, and the air draw, that suits what you like. So the main point here is if you... What you get is not working for you, if your first device doesn't work for you, you need to start looking at direct or deep long and mouth-to-lung, see where you are and what that device is, and maybe move to the other side.

My example being that, if you got something that was too intense and way too powerful, and it just made you cough all the time, and you tried it for a week or two and it's still not working, you might wanna move more towards a mouth-to-lung device. On the other hand, if you got something smaller like this, and you're like, This is great, it's satisfying me, it's doing the job, but I'm just not... I'm just not completely satisfied with it, I want something more, you probably wanna move more towards something that is deep lung. More air flow, lower resistance. It's gonna go through more juice when you do that, that just... Be aware that direct lung or deep lung goes through more E-liquid than mouth-to-lung just because it consumes it faster, but it tends to be more like this. Personally, I find a direct lung a lot more satisfying than the mouth-to-lung, and weirdly enough, that's the way I smoked when I was a smoker, so it pretty much matches. Anyway, that's that one done and dusted. Let's move on.

And number four on my list of things that every new vaper needs to know. This one might seem like a no-brainer. It might seem very, very simple, but it is something that I see a lot of new vapers get caught up on, and it's gotta be said. When your vape starts tasting nasty, if it's not giving you as much flavor as it used to, if it's starting to produce less vapor, it's time to change your coil. Change your coils. Every now and then, you're gonna have to do that. The more experienced of us, the ones who have been around for a while, a lot of us have gotten into building our own coils. So basically, it's a wire and wick, and we do it ourselves, but when you start, the chances are, most likely, that you're gonna be using a non-rebuildable coil. They are replaceable, they're prebuilt. They screw in, they've got a little metal housing, you prime them up by getting them nice and saturated before you use them, throw in your e-liquid and vape, and for a lot of people, that's where it ends, and they just keep using it.

And like I said, they are a perishable or disposable product, they do wear out over time. And it might seem weird that the wire is still fine, but the cotton has just burnt, it has got residue from all the E-liquid that's gone through it, and it's just not performing as well as it used to, and you can't actually get in and pull out the coil properly, or the wicking, and replace it properly. You do need to replace it.

So once you have a device that works for you, once you're happy with it, stock up on those coils. Get them... Get some extras, keep them to the side, in the cupboard there or whatever, and replace them as needed. Don't worry about it. It's a very, very simple process, but it will solve an awful lot of your early problems when you come across those issues: Nasty flavor, muted flavor, less vapor than I used to, it's not satisfying me. Yeah, replace your coil. I have heard stories of people running their coils for months and months on end, and not even noticing, or just getting used to that dirt flavor. That's not what vaping's supposed to be like. It's supposed to be enjoyable. Worst case story I heard was someone was running their vape for a year straight, and they'd never even put any E-liquid in it, they were just burning a coil and inhaling burnt cotton. That's not healthy. That's not nice. Don't do that. Change your coils out and, yeah, you'll be fine.

Moving on, number five, the last on the list. We're almost done, guys. Shop smart. Here's the thing, something I see time and time again is people going through Reddit, going through Facebook, trolling through different stores online, trying to find the perfect device. Oh, my gosh. I need to get into vaping, I have to stop smoking, I want the perfect device. There's no such thing as a perfect device. And whatever the perfect device is for someone else probably won't be perfect for you. You'll probably end up moving on. 90% of people, that's a made-up figure, but most people who buy a device to start vaping, even if they stick with it, even if they love it, they move on fairly quickly to another device, something that suits them more.

I talked earlier about mouth-to-lung and direct lung or deep lung, and that's one of the things people find, Yeah, I've got this device and it's working, it's satisfying me, I've quit smoking, but I want more, I want more power. You get the same... You get people, I bought this thing, it's nice, it works, but man, it's just too much for me. I want something a little bit more gentle, and they move on to another device. Some people decide they want fancy, they want Stab Wood, there's all sorts of reasons why people will move on to another device. And the important thing to understand, with all my rambling here, is that you're probably not gonna stick with your first device, so don't spend six months agonizing over it. Find something good enough, get started, get in the door, find out how you feel about it, and then start looking for the next one. You don't have to be like the rest of us and have that. You can have two, you can have three and stop there, that's fine, but you're probably not gonna stop with the first one, anyway, so don't... It's more important to get in the door than it is to do it right. You're gonna have to redo it anyway, so don't let that stop you. I hope that was clear.

I feel like I stumbled on that, but I'm gonna let it go. Because part of shop smart is also find a reputable dealer. There's a lot of places out there. I've seen devices on sale, like $70 for the kit, and over here, I've seen it for $68, and that guy's got it for $69, and that guy's got it for $142. Don't buy from him. Look around. Shop smart. Shop in different places. Find out where the best deal is, but also find out who's gonna support you, who's got great aftermarket service, who's got great customer service, who's really involved in the community and is more than happy to answer your questions and replace things, if need be, and just to take care of you. Those are the things that we wanna pay for. Don't get caught up in one of these places that are just gonna rip you off and then give you nothing for it afterwards. And while we're on the topic of ripoff, the final part of shop smart, don't do eBay. Just don't do it. It's not worth it. Look, I'm sure there's lots of people on eBay selling things that's, it's worthwhile: An old jacket, a vintage record, all that kind of stuff, it's awesome on eBay. But vape things, it's just not a good scene.

Look, there's an awful lot of fake products. There's an awful lot of stuff that is just priced exorbitantly beyond what it should be on the shelves. There's an awful lot of things that are just not what they advertise themselves as. Find a good dealer, stick with him. Local dealers, to you, are great. National dealers who sell online are great. There are a lot of good international dealers, although I usually recommend people try to stay within their country, just 'cause you can get that personal connection, but yeah, stay away from eBay and don't pay too much, it's not worth it. Anyway, I'm done, guys. That's my five things that you need to know. Like I said, I started off at the most complex one and sort of pattered down to some basic stuff.

If I've been entertaining, if I've amused you, if I've educated you, if I've helped you in any way, there's buttons down there, you the usual story. Smash that button, like that button, comment, whatever, all that stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna get out of here. I'm gonna edit this, get it all online for you guys. Welcome to the family if you are a new vaper. I hope that I've not scared you. It's not difficult, it's not hard. There's just a couple things that I felt that would make things easier for you. Now, with that said, vape on, vape safely. See you guys next time.