A few days ago I got an e-cig - aka 'vape'. I started with one of those little models that look about the same size as a regular cig, then after using that a day or so I went out and got a slightly larger model with a 'tank' to put my own liquid in.
I typically smoke anywhere from 8 to 15 strong cigs every day. To do that I have to leave the window open and blow smoke out the window via a fan because I can't smoke in the house. This presents a problem in the winter - my fingers get pretty cold and after a while I have to go warm up my hand so I can use the mouse. Lol. I'd rather not be getting up from the desk one or twice an hour to go have a cig outside. So I decided to try the e-cigs to see if that might work to fill some gaps.
It works. For the past 2 days I've smoked only 2 and half cigs total, the rest of the time I've used the e-cig and it works to deliver the nicotine just fine. Plus, while I didn't think that I'd like having flavors, that turns out to be a very nice benefit so far. I can get liquids with regular tobacco flavors, and I can also get all sorts of bizarre stuff like coffee banana, orange creme, death by chocolate, vanilla, etc etc etc
Anyway, here's what I learned about this technology so far:
e-Cigs
- e-cigs are basically glorified vaporizers. They consists of a tip, a tank, and battery. Sometimes the tip and tank are combined into one tiny unit so you wind up with 2 parts. Otherwise you have at least 3 parts.
- The so-called disposable kind of e-cigs
can be reused. The supposed disposable notion is marketing crap to get people to keep buying new cartridges. Fact of the matter is that you can refill the cartridges with any kind of e-liquid you prefer. Just put a few drops in the end of it, let it stand there for a 10 to 15 mins, and you're good to go. The 'tips' are sometimes referred to as cartridges or cartomizers. Refilling cartomizers is easiest with a little bottle that has a needle tip that fits into the cartomizer's hole - available cheap at many e-cig shops.
- The battery storage of 'disposable' models typically hovers around 280mAh, not much overall.
- The reusable / refillable models with 'tanks' to pour in your own liquid are pretty good if you smoke a lot. The tanks are referred to as clearomizers because they typically have an entirely clear tank well or at least a portion of it is clear so you can see how much liquid is remaining.
- Most of the popular reusable models follow the 'eGo' design where the components are all fitted together using what is called 510 threads. So parts are usually interchangeable.
- Batteries can range from 650mAh up to around 2K mAh or more. Standard batteries are regulated to about 3.3v, some batteries have changeable voltage levels.
- Clearomizers are where the action takes place. The liquid is drawn into a tube via wicks where the current heats it up and turns it into vapor.
- Clearomoziers come in different ohm ratings. So based on standard electrical characteristics, when the ohms are combined with the various battery voltages you wind up with some level of current based on Ohm's Law. The more current, the quicker things heat up, and sometimes this equates to more vapor.
- Clearomizers can be either metal, plastic, glass, or a combination. The most common is the cheap plastic - which may leach chems depending on your liquid. Fruit flavors will leach chems out of the plastic eventually. If you want glass, check out Kanger's Pro Tech 2 or SmokTech's models - and don't be fooled by very similar very cheap imitations... if you want glass make sure it's glass.
- Same for batteries. There are loads of them out there. Beware of super cheap stuff, lithium ion batts can in fact overheat and hurt ya if they aren't made really good. Consider name brands and again don't fall for cheap imitations.
e-Liquids( aka e-Juice ) :
- liquids are made from either polypropylene gycol ( PG, also used in various mechanical applications as anti-freeze ), vegetable glycerine ( VG ), or both
- most off the shelf liquids are typically a mix of PG / VG, roughy 5% to 15% water, and 1% or more of flavoring. Nictone levels vary from 5mg up to 24mg or thereabouts, and you can pick the nic level you want usually when buying. For comparison, a typical American Spirit ( maroon pack ) has about 1.2mg per cig -- but I have not yet figured out how to derive how much nicotine is in a typical puff on a vape with something like 12mg nic liquid in it.
- VG and water are what creates the steam seen with some liquids. And VG is where the sweetness comes from in the vapor.
- PG does not create much of any steam, but produces what the vape aficionados refer to as 'throat hit' which is the punch that whacks the back of your throat when you inhale. Given that PG is used as anti-freeze, I'm not inclined to touch it with a 100 foot pole. Incidentally, I started with PG / VG mixed liquids. Those sort of hurt my throat and left my mouth dry. Switched to 100% VG and those aspects are now gone. 100% VG is a much smoother, has more moisture, and tastes better.
- There are a few companies that make organic liquids, and fortunately they also make 100% VG mixes - no PG. We've tried several flavors and they are typically really good stuff.
- 2 sites where you can find organic liquids are Virgin Vapors dot com ( their Coffee Monkey is spectacular! ), and Orb Vapors dot com. Both sites will let you buy small samples and / or make your own mix from available flavors. And Orb will ship overseas from the USA for $9 USD. Not sure what intl shipping price Virgin Vapors might have, but I did see ukecigstore dot com in the UK that sells their mixes.
- If you're inclined to make your own liquid, check out Vaping Zone - they sell bulk VG with nicotine already added at reduced rates. For example, you could buy 4 litres of VG liquid that has 100mg concentration of nicotine for roughly $400. You cut that down the 10 or 12mg ( typically medium level nicotine for a liquid ) and you wind up with 8 to 10 litres. How many years would that last you given that it's super hard to smoke even 0.5ml per day ? Quite a few I'd guess. Compare that to about $8 to $12 for a 10ml to 15ml bottle and you see just how extreme the price markup on e-liquid really is, and just how much money you can save in the long run - not to mention secure a way to get access to nicotine.

And of course you can find plenty of organic pure extracts on the net to make flavors if you want -- even various types of tobacco flavors.
That's about all I know about this tech so far. Very interesting way to get nicotine into the system. If you want a quick overview from another perspective check out these 2 pages:
_http://www.orbvapor.com/New_to_E_Cigs_s/1477.htm
_http://www.vapingapela.com/what-is-vaping/