Any e-cigarette users?

[mnealtx]

As the title says...

For those unfamiliar, an e-cig is a device that uses a small coil to vaporize a nicotine bearing liquid. Think 'dance club fog machine' writ very small. :p

I smoked 1.5-2 packs a day for 30 years. After London decided to implement a 'no smoking at all' policy in their airports, I started looking for other options and ran across an article talking about e-cigs. Ordered one and I'm about a week shy of 3 years cigarette-free.

My current equipment is a homemade battery pack pushing 5v through a 510 atomizer.

[SecondsCount]

As the title says...

For those unfamiliar, an e-cig is a device that uses a small coil to vaporize a nicotine bearing liquid. Think 'dance club fog machine' writ very small. :p

I smoked 1.5-2 packs a day for 30 years. After London decided to implement a 'no smoking at all' policy in their airports, I started looking for other options and ran across an article talking about e-cigs. Ordered one and I'm about a week shy of 3 years cigarette-free.

My current equipment is a homemade battery pack pushing 5v through a 510 atomizer.

Congrats on quitting.

A guy that I shoot with has one. It looks fancier than those white sticks that imitate a cigarette, resembles a screwdriver handle with a short shaft. He has been using it for over a month and it seems to be doing the trick.

[mnealtx]

Congrats on quitting.

Thanks - there's still times even now when I *really* want a cigarette, but I manage.


A guy that I shoot with has one. It looks fancier than those white sticks that imitate a cigarette, resembles a screwdriver handle with a short shaft. He has been using it for over a month and it seems to be doing the trick.

Mine is built off an emergency battery pack for charging USB devices. Unfortunately, it's coming to the end of it's service life after 2.5 years - it's not firing consistently and, frankly, I'm tired of pulling it apart to replace parts because it's such a pain to get everything tucked back in place afterward.

So, I'll be spending the cash on one of those screwdriver types - it's variable voltage where mine is fixed at 5v. I'll have to physically swap batteries in the 'handle', but that's not a huge issue.

Bonus - it doesn't set off aircraft smoke detectors (or so I'm told). ;););)

[DanH]

i wish i had heard of these things back before i quit, it would have made it a lot easier.

that said, its been almost 5 years smoke free for me now and its amazing how much easier i can breathe. if you are trying to quit smoking, try EVERYTHING, its worth it to get rid of the things.

[vaglocker]

Speaking of quitting nicotine, don't dismiss the latest drugs out there to help. I used Chantix to quit dipping and it's a freakin wonder drug as far as I'm concerned. I was hardcore, and had a dip in pretty much every waking minute (and swallower to boot). As soon as I started Chantix I had zero cravings and have been nicotine free from almost 3 years. Never once been tempted to go back.

[Zhurdan]

I smoke about a half a pack a day (still stupid, no matter the amount) and have an e-cig from Modern Vapor. I'm down to a half a pack a day by using the e-cig. It's been hard, but it's helping to slowly cut back. By October, I hope to be able to be completely off the real cigs and cut the dosage back on the e-cig too and be done by December.

They do tend to make my throat itchy because of the vapor though.

Had a buddy who took Chantix. Happiest go-lucky guy you'd ever meet. Wanted to kill himself after three weeks on Chantix, literally. Be mindful of the side effects if you take it. Three days after he stopped taking it, he was back to his normal happy self, but it came damn close to the cure killing him faster than the disease.

[SouthNarc]

Chantix bumped my aggression to an unacceptably high level.

[vaglocker]

Yea, it really sucks that Chantix affects some people that way. I'm lucky to have been one of the best case scenarios and came through fine.

[JAD]

Chantix bumped my aggression to an unacceptably high level.
Man that seems like a bad idea.

I quit with Chantix and stayed off for a year (after 25 years of a carton of PallMalls a week). When I fell off the wagon, I found myself using Cx to smoke one cigarette a day. I never quit again successfully, and still fool with it. I need to just white knuckle it.

[jslaker]

Yeah, take the warnings about not consuming alcohol with Chantix very seriously. I had a buddy on it and he just completely lost his mind after a couple of beers. Acted like a huge jerk, did a number of things pretty out of character for him. Bad news all around.

[SouthNarc]

Man that seems like a bad idea.



Yeah it was. And I smoked anyway.

My agents that worked for me and most of the local crack dealers were all happy when I stopped taking that shit. Harmony resumed....

[mnealtx]

I've heard some pretty nasty stuff about Chantix. Doc wanted to put me on it and I told him "hell, no"!

I'm trying to step down my nicotine content now - currently use 24mg/ml juice and going to try to go to 18mg. Smoking, I would have one every 45 minutes or so. I smoked 100s, so that was about 15-20 drags. With the e-cig, I still go about as often, but don't take as many puffs. You don't absorb as much nicotine through the vapor as you do through 'normal' cigs, according to what I've read.

Some more info-dump for those interested:
E-cig batteries in and of themselves are usually very small - the size of a cigarette or small cigar (350-600mAh). Then you have an atomizer (a tube containing the heating coil and threads to attach to the battery) and cartridge with a filler material to contain the juice, or a cartomizer, which has the filler material inside an outer tube while the vapor come up a center tube. You fill up the cartridge or cartomizer, attach it to the battery and vape away (within reason - you can't 'chain-smoke' an e-cig or you're dry out the filler and overheat the coil).

Many people get tired of having to carry several of the small batteries with them - they don't last that long due to the demands on them, so you need spares. That's where the 'mods' come in, like the screwdriver type mentioned above. You have the same battery connector, but a much larger battery, so that you don't have to change them out nearly as often during the day, if at all. Some are variable voltage, where you can adjust the output to where the juice tastes best to you.

There's disadvantages - you have to carry extra supplies with you. Extra juice, a spare atomizer/cartomizer, maybe extra batteries. You can't let the atomizer/cartomizer get too dry or too wet. It's 'fiddly'. Advantages are that you get your sense of smell/taste back, you don't get the 'smoker's bronchitis' anymore (or at least not as badly) and you can get your nicotine fix in flavors other than tobacco and menthol.

Like most hobbies, getting started can be expensive. For anyone interested in trying it, I recommend the Janty Ego kit. For about $70, it gives you a couple batteries, a couple atomizers and several filled cartridges to try it out. Add a small bottle of juice and you're set for a few weeks to give it a fair try. NB: It *will* taste differently than a cigarette, and you *will* cough at first until you get used to the vapor.

I was dissatisfied with having to carry several extra batteries to get though the day, so I built my own battery pack - parts were about 100 bucks. Atomizers run about 6-8 bucks apiece depending on how many you buy. Juice runs about 30 bucks/100 ml. For me, an atomizer usually lasts a couple months and 100ml of juice about 6 weeks, so it averages out to about $40/month for supplies - that's less than I spent in ONE WEEK on cigs.

Now, I'm changing over to another device and a different supply system. The PV with extra capacity batteries (twice the mAh of the standard ones), 3 batteries and a top of the line charger is going to run me about 350 bucks with shipping. I'm going to be using cartomizers instead of atomizers (hard to beat $46 for 50 cartomizers vs. $30-40 for 5 atomizers). It's variable voltage, which will be nice for 'dialing in' the taste and 'throat hit' I prefer. And, I'm going to experiment with a tank system. This goes around the cartomizer and feeds juice to it though a small hole in the cartomizer body. Carries enough juice for a full day of use, and makes sure the filling of the cartomizer stays wet, so no overheating.

All told, it's going to run about 500 bucks absent juice orders - and I'll be 'back at zero' regarding cost in about 2 months vs. cigs, even at PX prices.

[JAD]

It's been over two years now since my last Lucky Strike. .
'Grats, Erik. As my boss told me during one of my successful phases, "you stink less."