As you've noticed, in the space of just a few short years, mankind has produced more different varieties of e-cigarettes and various vapor ingestion devices than Stephen Hawking has brain cells.
Newcomers to the ECF forum are immediately plunged into an endless welter of alphanumeric soup, clever names and all different shapes and sizes - of an item whose function depends on connecting two or more parts to each other, and not all interchangeably.
As if things weren't complicated enough, because the industry is so new, most of those letternumber soup ingredients you see are neither brand names nor companies. I'm not sure what they are, but for us, it doesn't really matter.
Some well-meaning soul even made a chart, with the intention of sorting out some of the confusion, but for most people, even those playing with a full deck, the chart itself might as well be written in that variant of Linear A that they didn't either decipher yet, not really, and for those of us who live with various flavors of neuro-crap, and/or take pills that make us do things like offer tea to the neighbor's cat and try to brush our teeth with a mascara wand - well, let's be polite and say it's less than helpful.
Another thing you'll notice right away is that the people here are, to begin with, wonderful. They're sincere and caring and supportive, inclusive and encouraging, and - just generally fabulous.
If they've found a device that works for them, they're naturally enthusiastic about it, and they can also be a bit evangelical. Newcomers who ask "What should I get?" are showered with fervent pourings-forth of glowing praise of each writer's chosen device, literally dozens of devices, each one more baffling than the next.
This isn't sales hype or viral marketing. These are real people sharing their own truths, the kind of heartfelt testimonials that could not be bought even if Oprah, The Sultan of Brunei, and your niece's orthodontist pooled all their money.
File away all those recommendations, and for now, make it easy on yourself. If so inclined, you have the rest of your life (thanks to e-cigarettes, Now Improved! Longer Than Ever!) to discover and explore the ever-growing number of "vapor delivery systems."
If you're a science lover, a tinkerer by nature, Oh, what plump barrels of fun await you!
Equally plump funbarrels await the rest of us, too - the fun of doing other things and having no idea how our e-cigarette works, nor interest in taking it apart to find out or reading reports about electrons and wattage and ohms oh my.
Many of our ECF brothers and sisters have found in all that stuff everything from a hobby to a small business to an all-consuming passion, while others simply exchange tobacco cigarettes for their device of choice, and integrate e-cigarettes into their lives as seamlessly and autopilotically as they did the tobacco ones.
For now, though, we all share one single driving force, the thing that brought us here in the first place - reducing our tobacco cigarette consumption. That's it.
So ignore all those people who know what they're talking about, and take my advice instead.
Get a KR808d-1 electric hookah-doodle, a wall rodent, and at least one wireless KR808d-1, and a charger for those, and some cartomizers.
(Shopping list, in both expounded-upon and tldr versions in Canto II)
To use your electric hookah-doodle, you screw one cylindrically shaped object onto another, longer cylindrically shaped object, plug it in, and smoke it.
To use a wireless one, you plug it in and let it charge - just like you do your cell phone, but in a different charger, and when it's charged, you screw one cylindrical shaped object onto another, longer cylindrical shaped object and smoke it.
I have low vision and nerve-trashed fingers, and I can do it. I've performed several tests with my eyes closed, and can confirm that even if you have no vision, you can do it.
I'm going to assume we are all non-nerds here together and suggest that you plug your electric hookah-doodle only into the wall rodent that came with it. It might work with another company's wall rodent, or your grandson's sweetheart's cell phone charger, or it might not, and we don't know what might happen if it doesn't have the right amount of electrical mitochondria or something.
What the cylindrically shaped objects are:
The "battery" is the thing we're liable to think of as the e-cigarette itself. KR808d-1 ones come in different lengths, ranging from just a little longer than a cigarette to nearly as long as a ball-point pen.
To this you'll be adding the "cartomizer" which in our befuddled minds, would take the place of the filter, but in the world of e-cigarettes, it's the cartomizer that contains the magic - the stuff we're actually going to inhale. KR808d-1 cartomizers are about as long as one and a half Marlboro red filters.
What this means is that no matter what length tobacco cigarettes you smoke, even the shortest e-cigarette is going to be a little bit longer than what you're used to.
The electric hookah-doodle is permantly attached to a cord, which can be plugged into your computer, or a wall rodent.
Just like your cell phone, unless they're being charged, the wireless ones aren't attached to anything. You can slip them into your pocket, an ornamental case, or behind your ear and take them wherever you go.
Both electric hookah-doodle and wireless KR808d-1s are also available with buttons you push before every puff.
That sounds just awful, but you'll be surprised how quickly you get used to it. It took me about 20 minutes.
Once we move up into the Advanced Class, we'll talk about the erudite monographs that experts have given us, on the subject of pushybutton vs pick-up-n'-smoke, but for now, if you don't want to bother with a pushybutton, don't.
All wireless KR808d-1s light up on the end when you puff. The electric hookah-doodle doesn't, because the end that would light up is attached to the cord you plug in.
People who are active and on the go prefer longer batteries, because they stay charged longer, but We the Aged and Infirm could care less about that, because our electric hookah-doodle is always "charged" and ready to smoke!
In fact, I find that after a while, the longer ones begin to feel a little heavy. Of course even the shorter electric hookah-doodle weighs more than a Marlboro, but it's light enough so that I can hold it for hours without my hand feeling tired. (I don't know if it's made of a lighter metal, or if the cord somehow supports some of the weight, or even if it's psychological, but I don't really care).
Carto-what?
The cartomizer (the smaller cylinder) is the thing with the stuff in it. They also come "blank," so that you can add the stuff yourself, but that's for the Advanced Class.
As Beginners, we're going to start out with cartomizers that are already filled with stuff.
To keep things as familiar as possible, get a variety of flavors in the tobacco family, in different nicotine strengths, and a few non-tobacco flavors.
We've all been told that if we stop smoking, our ability to taste and smell things will improve.
This was illustrated to me rather dramatically when I puffed a pineapple-flavored e-cigarette for nearly an hour, and was unable to perceive any taste or smell at all, pineapple or otherwise.
Mr -lol- a non-smoker, took one tiny puff and remarked on what a nice pineapple flavor - and aroma - it had!
So especially if we've spent the last few decades as "extremely heavy," meaning chain, or near-continuous commercial cigarette smokers, it's possible that all those yummy flavors people keep talking about will be among those things that we'll understand when we're older - literally.
This means that the cartomizer flavor that's most likely to become our first go-to, our tobacco reduction BFF, will be a tobacco flavor one.
The one I like is called "RY-4." (I have no idea what that means). What's interesting is that the Cuban Cigar flavored cartomizers, while they smell just scrumptious, have very little taste, and the RY-4 is the one that tastes most like a Cuban Cigar - and in a strange and inexplicable way, also like a Marlboro.
Maybe it tastes like yesterMarlboros, and is not-quite-calling up near-forgotten sense memories, collecting dust in my medulla oblongata or somewhere? Who knows? I don't care.
As long as I'm able to enjoy the RY-4 on the end of my electric hookah-doodle, I'm happy.
Almost every e-cigarette store will have something called "starter kits," but these are intended for the largest market segment, not us, and generally, do not include an electric hookah-doodle, and while there are electric hookah-doodle kits, they do not generally include a wireless e-cigarette.
For our special needs, it may be more economical for us if we assemble our own "kit."
Continued in Canto II
Newcomers to the ECF forum are immediately plunged into an endless welter of alphanumeric soup, clever names and all different shapes and sizes - of an item whose function depends on connecting two or more parts to each other, and not all interchangeably.
As if things weren't complicated enough, because the industry is so new, most of those letternumber soup ingredients you see are neither brand names nor companies. I'm not sure what they are, but for us, it doesn't really matter.
Some well-meaning soul even made a chart, with the intention of sorting out some of the confusion, but for most people, even those playing with a full deck, the chart itself might as well be written in that variant of Linear A that they didn't either decipher yet, not really, and for those of us who live with various flavors of neuro-crap, and/or take pills that make us do things like offer tea to the neighbor's cat and try to brush our teeth with a mascara wand - well, let's be polite and say it's less than helpful.
Another thing you'll notice right away is that the people here are, to begin with, wonderful. They're sincere and caring and supportive, inclusive and encouraging, and - just generally fabulous.
If they've found a device that works for them, they're naturally enthusiastic about it, and they can also be a bit evangelical. Newcomers who ask "What should I get?" are showered with fervent pourings-forth of glowing praise of each writer's chosen device, literally dozens of devices, each one more baffling than the next.
This isn't sales hype or viral marketing. These are real people sharing their own truths, the kind of heartfelt testimonials that could not be bought even if Oprah, The Sultan of Brunei, and your niece's orthodontist pooled all their money.
File away all those recommendations, and for now, make it easy on yourself. If so inclined, you have the rest of your life (thanks to e-cigarettes, Now Improved! Longer Than Ever!) to discover and explore the ever-growing number of "vapor delivery systems."
If you're a science lover, a tinkerer by nature, Oh, what plump barrels of fun await you!
Equally plump funbarrels await the rest of us, too - the fun of doing other things and having no idea how our e-cigarette works, nor interest in taking it apart to find out or reading reports about electrons and wattage and ohms oh my.
Many of our ECF brothers and sisters have found in all that stuff everything from a hobby to a small business to an all-consuming passion, while others simply exchange tobacco cigarettes for their device of choice, and integrate e-cigarettes into their lives as seamlessly and autopilotically as they did the tobacco ones.
For now, though, we all share one single driving force, the thing that brought us here in the first place - reducing our tobacco cigarette consumption. That's it.
So ignore all those people who know what they're talking about, and take my advice instead.
Get a KR808d-1 electric hookah-doodle, a wall rodent, and at least one wireless KR808d-1, and a charger for those, and some cartomizers.
(Shopping list, in both expounded-upon and tldr versions in Canto II)
To use your electric hookah-doodle, you screw one cylindrically shaped object onto another, longer cylindrically shaped object, plug it in, and smoke it.
To use a wireless one, you plug it in and let it charge - just like you do your cell phone, but in a different charger, and when it's charged, you screw one cylindrical shaped object onto another, longer cylindrical shaped object and smoke it.
I have low vision and nerve-trashed fingers, and I can do it. I've performed several tests with my eyes closed, and can confirm that even if you have no vision, you can do it.
I'm going to assume we are all non-nerds here together and suggest that you plug your electric hookah-doodle only into the wall rodent that came with it. It might work with another company's wall rodent, or your grandson's sweetheart's cell phone charger, or it might not, and we don't know what might happen if it doesn't have the right amount of electrical mitochondria or something.
What the cylindrically shaped objects are:
The "battery" is the thing we're liable to think of as the e-cigarette itself. KR808d-1 ones come in different lengths, ranging from just a little longer than a cigarette to nearly as long as a ball-point pen.
To this you'll be adding the "cartomizer" which in our befuddled minds, would take the place of the filter, but in the world of e-cigarettes, it's the cartomizer that contains the magic - the stuff we're actually going to inhale. KR808d-1 cartomizers are about as long as one and a half Marlboro red filters.
What this means is that no matter what length tobacco cigarettes you smoke, even the shortest e-cigarette is going to be a little bit longer than what you're used to.
The electric hookah-doodle is permantly attached to a cord, which can be plugged into your computer, or a wall rodent.
Just like your cell phone, unless they're being charged, the wireless ones aren't attached to anything. You can slip them into your pocket, an ornamental case, or behind your ear and take them wherever you go.
Both electric hookah-doodle and wireless KR808d-1s are also available with buttons you push before every puff.
That sounds just awful, but you'll be surprised how quickly you get used to it. It took me about 20 minutes.
Once we move up into the Advanced Class, we'll talk about the erudite monographs that experts have given us, on the subject of pushybutton vs pick-up-n'-smoke, but for now, if you don't want to bother with a pushybutton, don't.
All wireless KR808d-1s light up on the end when you puff. The electric hookah-doodle doesn't, because the end that would light up is attached to the cord you plug in.
People who are active and on the go prefer longer batteries, because they stay charged longer, but We the Aged and Infirm could care less about that, because our electric hookah-doodle is always "charged" and ready to smoke!
In fact, I find that after a while, the longer ones begin to feel a little heavy. Of course even the shorter electric hookah-doodle weighs more than a Marlboro, but it's light enough so that I can hold it for hours without my hand feeling tired. (I don't know if it's made of a lighter metal, or if the cord somehow supports some of the weight, or even if it's psychological, but I don't really care).
Carto-what?
The cartomizer (the smaller cylinder) is the thing with the stuff in it. They also come "blank," so that you can add the stuff yourself, but that's for the Advanced Class.
As Beginners, we're going to start out with cartomizers that are already filled with stuff.
To keep things as familiar as possible, get a variety of flavors in the tobacco family, in different nicotine strengths, and a few non-tobacco flavors.
We've all been told that if we stop smoking, our ability to taste and smell things will improve.
This was illustrated to me rather dramatically when I puffed a pineapple-flavored e-cigarette for nearly an hour, and was unable to perceive any taste or smell at all, pineapple or otherwise.
Mr -lol- a non-smoker, took one tiny puff and remarked on what a nice pineapple flavor - and aroma - it had!
So especially if we've spent the last few decades as "extremely heavy," meaning chain, or near-continuous commercial cigarette smokers, it's possible that all those yummy flavors people keep talking about will be among those things that we'll understand when we're older - literally.
This means that the cartomizer flavor that's most likely to become our first go-to, our tobacco reduction BFF, will be a tobacco flavor one.
The one I like is called "RY-4." (I have no idea what that means). What's interesting is that the Cuban Cigar flavored cartomizers, while they smell just scrumptious, have very little taste, and the RY-4 is the one that tastes most like a Cuban Cigar - and in a strange and inexplicable way, also like a Marlboro.
Maybe it tastes like yesterMarlboros, and is not-quite-calling up near-forgotten sense memories, collecting dust in my medulla oblongata or somewhere? Who knows? I don't care.
As long as I'm able to enjoy the RY-4 on the end of my electric hookah-doodle, I'm happy.
Almost every e-cigarette store will have something called "starter kits," but these are intended for the largest market segment, not us, and generally, do not include an electric hookah-doodle, and while there are electric hookah-doodle kits, they do not generally include a wireless e-cigarette.
For our special needs, it may be more economical for us if we assemble our own "kit."
Continued in Canto II
