About Electronic Cigarettes

I had been a heavy smoker for over twenty years and had tried various methods of giving up from ‘Cold Turkey’ through to patches. The closest I got was when my wife became pregnant, I gave up with her and used a product called ‘Micro tabs’ by Nicorette. I managed the nine months but soon I was back on the ciggies again.

March this year I saw a brief article on electronic cigarettes on the BBC news. So I did some research on the Internet and came across a forum called http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/. Here I found tonnes of advice and people willing to help newbies switch from analogue cigarettes to electronic cigarettes.

What are electronic cigarettes?
Electronic cigarettes or eCigs as they are known consist of three parts: A battery, a cartridge and an atomiser. The battery is self explanatory. The cartridge holds a liquid which contains nicotine which in turn feeds the liquid to the atomiser. The atomiser, when activated, heats up and vaporises the liquid. The vapour produced by the atomiser is then inhaled by the user.

ecigHow

Electronic cigarettes come in two forms, those that look like real cigarettes and those that don’t (known as mods). Like most beginners, I started off using the look alike eCigs but after a couple of months I moved on to the mods. The main problem I found with the look a likes is the batteries only lasted me a couple of hours, so if I went out for any length of time I ended up taking a whole bunch of kit with me to keep things going. The other problem was that the batteries had a very short life i.e. the length of time they lasted diminished. On top of that they were expensive to replace (around £8 each).

Mods on the other hand, whilst more expensive to buy upfront, take standard off the shelf batteries with much higher capacities. So for example, a fully charged battery for the mod known as the Screwdriver lasted me 6-8 hours and wouldn’t need replacing for a couple of months. The batteries for this mod were also cheap to buy (around £1.50 each). So the long term running costs of a mod would be cheaper.

What worked for me?
As I mentioned above I started using the look a likes and this worked in getting me to quit smoking. My first eCig was an Intellicig EVOlution which can be bought from around £25.00. You will soon need to get additional batteries though.

The more I read about eCigs the more I learnt and soon I wanted something with a bit more kick. You see the EVOlution activates (produces vapour) when you start inhaling. I found out that many preferred a manual option. I.e. you press a button to heat up the liquid and then inhale. So after much reading I decided to buy a product from Janty called the Dura-C. This in my opinion gave a much better experience and throat hit.

Screw Driver eCigarette

Screw Driver eCigarette

This lasted me a little longer than the EVOlution but eventually I gave up because again the batteries would not last long enough and they were expensive. That is when I found the screwdriver mod. Now this looks nothing like a cigarette, in-fact it is a modified mini torch. However, it works a treat. The initial outlay is around £100 but it will last you. Fully charged batteries were lasting around 6-8 hours each and were very cheap to buy.

The present
Although I have tried other mods such as the GG, the silver bullet, Janty Stick etc. I have always fallen back to the screwdriver. This is a workhorse of a device and simply works when you need it to not to mention the backup service which is second to none. I now have a second screwdriver mod as a backup – just in-case. So far I have not needed it.

No body knows for sure how safe these things are but what we do know is they have to be a whole lot better for you than cigarettes. eJuice contains a handful of ingredients (none of which are carcinogenic) compared to over 4000 chemicals found in cigarettes (several of which are known to be carcinogenic).

If you are thinking of replacing cigarettes with eCigs – I wish you the best of luck. It worked for me and I feel better for it, hopefully you will too.

Useful links

Electronic Cigarette Forum – www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum

Vapers World (A very friendly bunch of people) - www.vapersworld.co.uk

UK Janty supplier – www.ivapour.co.uk

UK eJuice supplier – www.ivapour-elixir.co.uk

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