Hey it's my blog.
I'm allowed to ramble.
Electronic cigarettes. One way to stop inhaling a vast wad of lung blackening gack. On the surface of it, not a bad idea at all! But here's some insight from a relatively recent tester...
It works.
I went from my regular intake of roll ups down to 1, maybe 2 a day. I didn't buy the first ecig with an intent to stop either. I was intrigued and thought I'd give one a try. How fast it replaced smoking is pretty impressive.
Little side note here. This could be because it's a healthier way to pump nicotine in me at potentially massive doses. That "Oh E-Cigs!" urge could just be "Oh! Pure nicotine!". Which when you think about it, might not be such a brilliant plan.
Put that aside though. Potentially, it's a much healthier and far cheaper way of improving on a tobacco habit. So what's the blog post about?
Initial smoker looks at e-cigs and wants something roughly cigarette like. Something roughly the same size and not that weird please. I did. First kit I got was just a tiny bit larger than a standard superking cigarette. So what's wrong with that?
A couple of things. At that size you're limited by the power of the battery which seems to peak around 300mAh, many being much lower rated. That's the power that heats the coil that gives you the vapour. At this kind of level it's something that will last a few hours with a low power "atomiser". That's the bit that heats the fluid in to the vapour you inhale.
Trouble is, low power, small sized atomisers aren't all that great. You don't get a big fluid reservoir so you have to keep topping things up. You don't get a big surface area of heat because your battery won't take it, so topping it up is even more important for a consistent vape (smoke) experience.
Enter the world of "shiny".
Shiny is what E-Cig forums call all the bits and pieces you then buy to improve on your initial vape. A word of advice here. Keep track of every penny or cent you pay out on e-cig land. Match it up against what smoking was costing you. I reckon it'll take you at the very least 2 or 3 months to begin to break even given the savings on tobacco in the UK.
You get tied to the initial battery format you bought, trying to find the best atomiser / fluid combination for the batteries you spent money on. You also start sampling the range of flavours to find you really don't like quite a lot of them. If you're lucky, you've found a site that only sells top quality items. But a majority of this stuff is mass produced from China, and in my limited experience, sometimes barely meets the test of "suitable for purpose".
Why mention that? Because some of the shiny you'll end up buying sooner than you thought will be replacements for parts you thought might last a few months, but now it's failed on you after two weeks, it feels too late to return it, but it's still useless.
Still. You're determined to stay off the evil tobacco toxins, you stick with it. (Like me). And about £250 later ... hopefully. Still behind breakeven on the fluids and different combinations of systems I've tried. I might have something that will work.
It's nothing like that initial "I want it to look like a ciggie" perception. It's four times the battery power. Manual switched not automatic. More like a cigar than a cigarette, and I have no idea if it'll finally be "the solution" or not.
I've got a worrying theory this straight hit of nicotine habit is enabling some hefty spending in search of an optimal method that doesn't actually exist in E-Cig format. That... Or maybe I'll strike lucky this time and end up with something that will last a few months and make the breakeven worthwhile.
Oh and something else they don't tell you. E-Cig fluids are VG or PG based, or a mix of the two. Some cartridges and tanks will work fine with pure PG, some work far better with a stronger VG ratio in the mix. Basically, expect leaks, burnt atomisers and disappointing taste while you figure all of that out on the way.
Point is? Unless you were a casual smoker anyway, you have to expect figuring out a reliable E-Cig alternative to smoking will cost you a LOT more than that initial kit you may be looking at. Still. How much value do you put on zero tar and 99% less carcinogens while you figure it out? A fair bit apparently. So I'll keep trying...
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