A Straight Talking t’Northern Vape Reviewer Who Tells It How It Is!
In the second of our meet the EcigClick team interviews, we chat with army veteran and married father of five, vape reviewer Ian aka Neash Vape.
He’s a tough, straight-talking Northerner who really does tell it how it is on both his excellent YouTube channel and of course through his written reviews for us…vape and juice companies beware!
We chat about his extremely demanding job, his beautiful family, and of course his and his wife’s vaping journey and how their kids convinced them to quit smoking…well done guys!
So, how did he get into the vape review scene? What’s the worst and best vape gear he’s ever reviewed? What does he describe “as an unbeatable RTA” and what does he think of the current vape review scene?
Reader warning: this interview includes a photograph of a young man wearing a mankini and fake moustache…you have been warned 😛
First up a little about yourself – how old are you – are you married – single – looking – kids?
I’m 48 years old, 49 this year and my youngest is constantly telling me I’m ancient, good job I don’t feel it.
She even used to ask me, when I was younger, if everything was in black and white.
I’m married to my lovely wife Kerry and have 5 children.
The eldest Jordan who is 22 and works as a CNC press operator, Rebecca who 19 and is studying Psychology at Sheffield University, Sophie is 16 and currently doing her GCSE’s and going to college to study childcare.
Jack who is 12 and in Year 7, wants to be a game designer when he’s older and AmyGrace who is 9 going on 22 and just wants to be a YouTuber lol
What’s your current job?
I am currently working as a care worker, working night shift caring for people who are “end of life”. I’m the kind of person you don’t really want looking after you because if I’m at your home, it means you haven’t got long left.
It’s a very hard job at times but it is also very rewarding indeed. I’m there to make the clients last months, weeks, days or hours a little more comfortable. It’s not a job you fully get used to, just something you cope with.
On top of all that, I’m what you call a house husband. I clean and tidy the house, do all the washing, drop off and collect the kids from school and all the cooking. My wife works around 65 hours a week so all she is left with is the ironing for household chores.
When did you start smoking and how long did you smoke?
I started smoking at the age of 15, it was the cool thing to do and I can’t think of many people that didn’t smoke back then. At the age of 15, I perhaps smoked around 5 or 6 cigarettes.
At the age of 16, I joined the Army, the Junior Leaders Regiment and was smoking around 20 cigarettes a day. Out of a group of 30 odd 16-year-olds, there was only a handful of lads that didn’t smoke.
By the time they worked out you got more “smoke breaks” as a smoker than normal breaks as a non-smoker, I don’t think there was many of us that didn’t smoke by the end of it.
I continued to smoke around 20 cigarettes a day for many years, sometimes switching from time to time to roll-ups. It was back in 2001 when cigarette prices seemed to be climbing, around £4.30 back then, I decided to go cold Turkey and quit. I was successful in quitting for 5 years. In 2006, I started again, just like that.
When and why did you decide to quit and was vaping your first choice?
I am a little blurred as to when but around 2014 both myself and my wife decided to quit cigarettes. The price of cigarettes, around £9.00 and the constant badgering from the children, we both decided to quit with the help from these electronic cartomizer cigarette things, it didn’t go well and after a few weeks we were on the roll-ups.
We went between cigarettes and cartomizers for a few weeks then changed to something like they sell in B&M’s now.
There wasn’t a great deal of choice out there at the time, well, there certainly wasn’t a good vape shop around at the time where I lived.
What was your first vape kit and nic strength juice?
My first proper Vape Kit was the KangerTech Subox Mini back in 2015. This actually felt like a real vape and I used a 6mg strength nic.
How long did you MTL before moving to DTL?
I probably only stayed on MTL for a few months when I was fumbling between smoking cigarettes and the pathetic starts kits that were around then.
What was your first DTL set-up?
My first DTL set up was the KangerTech Subox. It felt like I was a real vaper lol
What was the first rebuildable you used and did you find building easy?
Back then, it seemed like vaping information was sparse to say the least. One of my first rebuildable’s was the Velocity RDA, I still have it now and bring it out of the box to have a look at it from time to time.
I bought a spool of pre-made wire online, just some simple Clapton wire and wrapped it around a small screwdriver.
I followed the online tutorials, stuffed it with Muji cotton and burnt the stuff on my very first try.
It was a bit hit and miss to start with but seemed to get the hang of it quite quickly.
How did you get into reviewing and why?
Reviewing was something I sort of stumbled across. I got a shortfill from Driphacks and loved it so put a small 1 minute review out on Instagram.
I had just started putting Vape gear pictures onto my Instagram at the time, so thought, why not, it might be a good idea to let people know what I thought of it.
That first one went out on 24 May 2018
Not long after that, a new Vape shop opened up in Bolton, Vapewise, so I popped down for a look. I started talking with the owner, talking about Instagram etc and he noticed I had done a shortfill review on Instagram.
He has his own e-liquid line and asked if I would review it, but on YouTube. I was a bit unsure but I said I would review a couple of my own bought e-liquids and see what they turn out like.
I got a few followers from that so said I would review his e-liquids on YouTube for him.
I now have something like 176 uploaded videos and the rest they say, is history!
What’s the worst and best item you’ve reviewed?
The worst item I have reviewed is an e-liquid, I bought a few e-liquids for what I thought was a bargain.
I reviewed them and they were all terrible. One that stood out was a Cream Coffee, Caramel Latte, I was nearly physically sick reviewing it.
The worst piece of hardware I have reviewed has to be the Vandy Vape Mesh RDA, I absolutely hated reviewing that because no matter what I did, I got dry hits galore from it and I nearly lost a lung in the process.
The best item is a hard one, there is an awful lot of good hardware out there so it’s difficult to choose. I would say it has to be the Exvape Expromizer V4.
This RTA got me on to full-time MTL vaping whereas I had only dabbled in the past. A truly excellent MTL tank though that will certainly be exceeded by a review next week.
[Watch Ian’s review of the Exvape Expromizer V4]
What would you really like to review and why?
There isn’t a single thing that stands out that I would like to review, I like reviewing everything vape related, even the horde of Pod Systems out there.
I would really like to go back to the dawn of vaping though and review the very first pieces of vaping hardware. You would truly get a great view of where vaping is now compared to where it started out from.
What’s your go to vape set-up right now?
Right now, at this very moment, my go-to set up is the QP Designed Fatality M25 RTA on top of the Voopoo X-217.
An unbeatable RTA sitting on top of a cheap, reliable Mod
What are your thoughts on the UK vape review scene?
The UK Vape scene is no different to any other market out there, there’s good and bad in everything. There is certainly drama by the bucket load from time to time and there’s no getting away from that. You just have to keep your head down and get on with things. I do find that the UK vape scene is, how shall I put it, very clicky.
On the whole though, there is a great bunch of people out there in the vape world, and, on the whole, everyone is out there to help out others, after all, we all have one aim and that is to knock the dreaded cigarettes on the head. I have talked to people that I never would have if it wasn’t for vaping and made some great friends.
Before I started reviewing, I perhaps watched a handful of reviewers, both here in the UK and across the Pond. I never knew there was so many out there until I started reviewing myself.
What’s the future of your YouTube channel?
The future, who knows. I will continue to do what I do but will be looking to put out my reviews in a different way. Like everything, I just wish there were more hours in the day to get everything done.
One thing I would like to do is be able to get on live shows more often, what with family and work commitments, that’s very sporadic to say the least at the moment.
My aim in the first year of my channel was to hit 1000 subscribers, that’s all I ever wanted and I’ve hit that mark.
As to the future, I’ve set myself no targets, I just want to improve on what I have at the moment in terms of the quality of the reviews I put out there and that will come in time.
How does your partner feel about the amount of time spent on vaping and do they vape?
My wife vapes and has done for as long as me, it’s a journey we’ve been on together. She isn’t overly concerned with the time I spend on vape and reviews as long as it doesn’t come between time with the family.
I try as much as possible to plan ahead and get the vape side of things all done during the day before the family are back home.
What’s the future for vaping in general?
Public opinion on vaping is still very mixed. I still get people telling me it’s bad for you and smoking is safer. I still get some jaw-dropping moments when I talk to people. The media in this country doesn’t help, there are some very misleading stories out there and hardly any of it is good.
It’s good to see the UK as a whole playing an active role in vape studies and the NHS playing an active role in it all. The NHS is certainly actively pushing vaping over smoking and telling people it is a safe method to quit smoking cigarettes.
As with anything, even the most active organisations can be pressured to meet another agenda and at least over here in the UK we aren’t at the stage they are over the pond in the US, that really is an utter shit storm. I just hope we don’t follow suit as we do with most things from the US.
Anyhting else you’d like to add?
Last but certainly not least, a big thank you to everyone out there who has subscribed to my channel, joined me on Facebook , ever read a review I’ve done for ecigclick or sent me messages of encouragement, without you all it certainly wouldn’t be what it is so a massive thank you!
Also to my wife, she does put up with a hell of a lot. I talk to her about vaping, she really isn’t that interested as long as she has a decent vape, she humours me and nods her head with encouragement but she’s been there with me all throughout this journey.
To all the venders out there who have messaged me, who have sent me e-liquid or hardware to review, a massive, massive thanks!
Who knows what the next 12 months holds, one things for sure, I will almost certainly be attending an Expo!
Thank you all for believing!
Where can people find you on social media?
On behalf of myself and Jonny, I’d like to thank Ian for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule to take part in this interview – cheers mate!
The Neash Vape YouTube channel has just passed 1000 subscribers – an incredible achievement in a year and down to his no-nonsense straight talking honesty…if it’s a shit product he’ll tell you in no uncertain terms!
Right, it’s over to you guys to push his subs even higher and do check out his latest video review and tutorial on the Ambition Mods Gate RTA and of course his detailed written review.
OK thanks again mate and we’ll have another interview with one of the EcigClick team very soon…
