Category: Success Stories

Hi Phil,

First of all I want to thank you. I was a smoker for 22 years and I quit and
switched to vaping after watching your videos and videos by GrimmGreen. I have been
cigarette-free for about three months. I was so excited to find something that
actually helped me quit smoking (I tried all of the “FDA approved’ methods) that I
even started my own YouTube channel dedicated to vape reviews and tutorials under
the name “CageClouds”. I only have about 240 subs right now after about two months,
but I am just so excited to share my experience about vaping with others. I just
wanted to let you know that you changed my life, and I wanted you to know that what
you are doing IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE in people’s lives. I know are very busy, but I
would love to get some feedback on my channel from you. Any help would be very much
appreciated. Thank you again..

Kevin

Hey Phil,

Thought of you today as I ordered an ISub Apex. Last year I emailed you for help on how to get into mods and tanks and you were just so helpful with your suggestions. You helped me settle on the MVP 20w and an Aspire Nautilus. I have used that set up for over a year now and as I await the Apex and a new battery for my KBox, I realize that the MVP 20w is going to get retired.

Your recommendation kept me off the stink sticks through some really difficult times, family deaths, employement issues, finacial issues, all things that would send me right back to Big Tobacco. I was Tobacco free for a year before you suggested the MVP/Nautilus combo but I highly doubt I would have made it through the rest of 2014/15 on the eGo cheapos I was vaping.

I just wanted to thank you again for the work you do, helping to keep this industry alive and giving hard data to users in a way we can understand and enjoy. So thanks for your work and keep it up! I’ll be keeping an eye on your videos to decide on what Mod I want next because the KBox is kinda boring!

Much respect and Love,
Your friend,
Dave

I just read the story by William and I am sitting here with tears in my
eyes. My Mom passed this June after 60 years of smoking and I don’t know what was
worse the day she died or taking her for chemo all those months. I have written to
you before but I am now over one year cig free and I swear if it wasn’t for you and
a select few of other You Tube reviewers that have guided me, I don’t know where
things would be. Again thanks Phil for everything

Phil,

I just want to thank you very much for all your help and dedication. I have made a
decision a week ago to give up vaping and it has been a week since I stopped. Since
I won’t be following you as much as I used to in the past, I just wanted to show my
appreciation for everything you have done. Vaping helped me quit smoking, and now
I’ve been able to give up vaping as well, and thanks to you for keeping us out of
smoking. Again thanks you and I’ll be checking on your videos every once in a while.

Sincerely,
Andre

Hi Phil,

Eight months since the email exchange below, I just wanted to quickly reach out to you.

Vaping has become a very enjoyable hobby for me.
Right now I am in Montreal Canada for a business trip and I’ve managed to visit 5
B&M’s while here. (I don’t have many in NL)
I’m enjoying every minute of this.

The main intention of this email is to give you my whole-hearted thumbs up!
I watch every single one of your videos, and I feel I should again commend you on
your efforts.
Your visit to china and especially the recent visit to flavourart (imho) really show
the world to what, the right players, are doing to bring this movement further.
Thank you sooo much for all your efforts!

I also follow other vaping content. (vp live and many other youtubers) I know they
tend to make fun of you at every possible moment.
Even though I feel you don’t care I wanted to voice my opinion that you _really_
shouldn’t care about them…

Since the last email exchange I have converted 5 smokers to full-time vaping, your
efforts help me (and them) to have a voice.
I do understand that this is really a sacrifice you are making, the youtube
monetization doesn’t compensate what you are losing in family time.
As a father of two I value this even more.

So hereby a big old man-hug from me….

Sincerest gratitude,

Bastiaan

Phil, Thank you, for all you do for the vape community/family! I had my last Camel Bold Crush on November 14 2014. This November 14 2015 will be my first year cigarette free in 22 years.

Yes that is right! I smoked for 22 years and the day I started vaping I never touched another cigarette. My very first set up was a Vamo V5 with an aspire nautilus and 18mg juice. Since then I’ve moved on to dripping and sub ohm tanks and even lower nic level to 6mg and on 11-14-15 I’m going to drop again to 3mg!

The reason I quit smoking cigarettes was due to my youngest son Sam. He was born premature at 27 weeks weighing 2lb 1oz and 21inches long he fought for his life for 3 1/2 months in the local hospital NICU. When he finally got to come home he was on oxygen periodically because his lungs were still not fully developed. I started thinking one day while outside lighting a cig that if Sam can fight for his life being so small that I can fight for my life and give up these damn cigs so I can be around for him.(Literally seconds after being born he almost died)(Look close on his arm that’s mine and my wife’s wedding band that’s how small Sam was)I tried numerous things for 3 yrs to give up smoking, patches, gum, prescription medication blah blah blah, nothing worked Phil. I googled vaping, started reading, watched some of your YouTube videos and the next day I was vaping and never touched another cig. So MY SHOUT OUT IS FOR MY SON SAM!!! I owe my new release on free breathing to him and you for your videos and advocacy for the vape family.

Thank you for your time I really hope you get time to read this, because vaping saved my LIFE and my son Sam saved my LIFE.

Some stories are too good to keep on the Success Stories page, so this one will be posted here as well.

It’s a wonderful story and a good message. If you don’t want to quite smoking for yourself, think about quitting for all of those people who care and depend on you. I’m sure they’d be quite happy to have you around longer in life.

And William, don’t go dropping your nic level at the expense of vaping a bunch more liquid!!  🙂

Thanks for sharing this William and WAY TO GO SAM! Glad you’re both doing so well!

Hi PBusardo!
My name is Damir and I live in city of Zagreb, Croatia.
Since april last year my wife and I stop smoking and start vaping. After months of
trying and learning about vaping, modes, atomizers etc., I find one of your’s videos
on Youtube ( I think it was abot Kayfun 3.1). Since then whenever I become couriose
obout some atomizer, first thing that I do is watch yours rewiew. So manny people
put there rewiew’s on you tube, but honestly, and that’s my opinnion, your’s are the
best and the only that I watch whenever I want to try something new. I am writing
this mostly because I was wiewing your’s rewiew abot Rose V2 atomizer and finaly I
have it. It’s exactly like you explaned, something that you let to give to you, not
suck from it, and I am more than satisfied with it.
To meke longer story short, thank’s for you rewiews witch I will watching in the
future, offcourse, and wish you all the best in your’s both bussinises and private
life!
Best regards
Damir

This (hopefully) brief email is to thank you so, so much for all your hard work in bring information to light for us, the masses, and in particular, to me and my wonderful wife. I’ll try to be brief, as I know you’re a busy man, but I will likely fail. Sorry about that.

I know you think of yourself as just some guy on the net, and are humble as the day is long, but you helped two people in Wilsonville Oregon throw out their cigarettes. Credit where it is due, you didn’t do it alone. Richard Mallard, Matt Culley, Ruby Roo, GrimGreen, etc. you folks are all fantastic advocates and are changing people’s lives. Seriously. You’re changing lives. For the rest of my story, read below. I hope it doesn’t trigger a nap or something.

I was a smoker off and on (mostly on) from the time I was 17 until a few months ago (thirty years, as I’m 48 now). I quit a few times, twice cold-turkey, and once using a well-reputed cigg-a-like company’s products (V2, in case you wondered). The latter wasn’t particularly satisfying, and in all cases I eventually went back to cigarettes, usually within a year or two.

I smoked the organic tobaccos, fooling myself into believing they were “better” for me, but I knew it would eventually kill me if I kept going in the direction I was headed. No male in my family had lived beyond their mid-fifties for over a century, and I woke up one morning realizing that milestone was just around my celestial corner. Heart disease, cancers, were all in the road map I was staring at.

I finally decided I needed something different. Something satisfying, intriguing (I’m a computer science and engineering guy for 25 years now), and above all, something that I truly enjoyed to the point I would find returning to cigarettes hideously loathsome. Vaping, real vaping, was it. Being an engineer, I started doing research. Tons of it. I searched videos, read articles, reviews, research papers. Name it; I investigated it in one form or another. Without ever setting foot in a vape shop I honed in on your reviews particularly, as they are monstrously informative and frequently very engineer-centric. My wife was interested as well, and was willing to give whatever I settled on a try. And so….

My first real vape rig:
– SX Mini M Class,
– Kanger Subtank Mini

Wife’s Rig:
– Aspire Nautilus Nano Kit with 1000mah battery.

It took me about two minutes to warm up to the new style of vaping. The moment I hit home I knew, I **knew**, this was it. I finally found it. Something that I was confident from DAY ONE would work. I’ve not touched a cigarette since. My wife wasn’t truly satisfied with here smaller rig, but didn’t want something that had complicated bells and whistles like my rig. She was still 50/50 on cigarettes. She was willing to try a small box mod and a larger atomizer (22mm) like mine. She wanted something she could forget charging for a day or two and would still have power to spare. A little more research, including more time in your videos, and I settled on a rig update for her:

Wife’s Rig (Part Deux)
– ELeaf I-Stick 50W. (the VW/VV is super simple on this mod)
– Kanger Subtank Mini (she wanted a larger tank that hit harder)

Running a 1.5ohm coil she only has to charge the thing about twice a week, and absolutely loves it. The flavor, the hit, all good and she’s no longer 50/50-ing with cigarettes. She’s 100% in the vape world and loving it. We’re both currently at 6mg (in fact, started there), and very happy with that.

Finally, clouds-bro’ was fun, but really just wasn’t my thing. I needed something different as well. Mind you, I didn’t need it, but I certainly wanted it, and perused mouth-to-lung satisfaction. Once again, I turned to research; once again, your videos. Not shocking, I decided to give a Kayfun v4 (authentic, directly from Svoemesto) a try. It is amazing (and occasionally frustrating). I currently run a 28-awg kanthal 7-wrap micro-coil at 1.4 ohms and 15 watts. Great battery life, tremendous flavor, thick, dense vapor (you used the term “juicy”, and it is quite-accurate). It is a complicated atomizer, and frankly I accidentally flooded the air-flow-control at least a dozen times in the first week alone. I finally found a process that works very well, and am now simply amazed by this device. The only real drawback is the weight when coupled with my SX Mini M Class. Good God that’s a dense rig for such a small handful.

Thank you Phil. I mean that. THANK YOU. I simply cannot wait until a vape expo comes somewhere near Portland Oregon and I can finally meet you and thank you in person.

Craig

hey there mr busardo, i just felt it was time to say thanks.
it was almost three years ago that i had my last cigarette! i went into my local b&m
bought a shitty little 650mah stick with some shitty kanger tank, now i say shitty
because well, they were shitty. what i did when i bought that setup was to leave my
half pack of cigs in my car which were readily available to me at any time. 2 days
went by with no smokes, a week went by with no smokes, then on the third week the
novelty started to wear off. i wasn’t getting satisfaction from my setup, and i was
thinking of having a smoke. needless to say is that i did not light that cigarette
up, it was not because of willpower to quit or because my kids nagged me, it was
because i realized that i was a slave to the cigarette! a fucking slave!! with my
new job i was allowed three breaks throughout a ten hour shift to got out for a
smoke and initially i huddled in the canadian cold like all the other slaves to suck
away as much as i could before it was time to go back in. back to that third week
when i went on my break to get some fresh air i instinctively walked to the smoke
shelter and realized that i did not need to go there, i did not belong there, i did
not want to go there. i decided to go to my car and open that half pack of
cigarettes and take a good look at them. i decided then that i was done with being a
slave to cigarettes. six seven months later my brother told me about yours and
grimms shows which triggered my curiosity, fast forward two years being cigarette
free i am vaping with not so shitty gear. following the trend in tc made me wonder
if youtube reviewers were smoking crack because i tried to build and vape similar
builds and could not get a good vape. then i realized that i also went through the
learning journey that most people who have been vaping for about three years, i
learned how to modify mechs to work, i learned how to chuck clouds safe, i learned
about how to enjoy vaping but more important is i learned to build what works best
for me. today i built my kayfun4 with ni200 reading .24 at 17w and 300f
and it is hands down the best tc vape i have had. i know its a high build to whats
out there but the flavor is fantastic. this morning i realized that i quit smoking
almost three years ago, my clothes do not smell, i do not smell, my kids do not
smell, my cars do not smell and most important i am not a slave to cigarettes.

i don’t think i have ever heard you give a shout out but if you ever do please give
a shout out to my brother paul pastras, it was his comments and help that kept me
cig free.

thank you for everything you do, it is very much appreciated

with much respect
angelo

just a big ty for all you do . off ciggs for 2 weeks with the eleaf i stick
50 and aspire nautilis ! never looked back. The first vid i saw of you caught my
attention as you were wearing a Montauk t shirt. i grew up on LI. as it seems we are
relative neighbors, im from Waterport …about 45 minutes from you. i can’t stop
watching your you tube channel. you were a GOD send to me . Thanks So very much !
all my best, David