A question about refilling with e-liquids

[sailorman]

I'll be leaving in 1 month and 4 days, and I was afraid that it wouldn't be adequate time to do an assessment (I have to also take into account ordering and delivery time). I'll definitely be trying it out when it arrives but yah, I'm not sure if less than a month is enough time for me to figure out what I'm even doing with this.

Unfortunately, a month is just about how long it will take to realize that you might not want to spend an entire year with the kind of mini-cig you are o.k. with at the very beginning. By the time this dawns on you, you'll be up against the wall in trying to do anything about it unless you can have a replacement mailed to you. Again, this depends on the law in HK because it's not that expensive to mail from the U.S. and China is just around the corner.

Is there a site that you'd recommend that I buy all the mods that you've recommended thus far? I certainly don't mind missing out on the light at the end if it means I can save a lot of money, although I'll have to try automatic myself and see just how bad it is before I make a decision on that. The whole looking like a cigarette thing is sorta important to me though since I'm using this as a medium to quit smoking the real thing. (Besides, a pack of cigs is expensive in HK! It's $6.5 a pack, roughly.) Also, to be honest I don't understand the entire first paragraph of suggestions you gave me in your first post, I guess I'll just have to look up the info since I"m still out of the loop.

See the above post for an explanation of that first paragraph.
It's not so much that you'll find an automatic battery to be "bad". It's just that the manual batteries are far superior in terms of reliability and the control you can get over your vape. Auto batteries rely on suction, so they can't be completely sealed. This means they can get liquid in them and fail. Autos are commonly susceptible to being set off by loud noise and even wind noise, such as when driving. Autos have a cutoff time and cut you off in mid drag if you exceed it.

Manual batteries only take seconds to get used to and become second nature in a matter of hours. They allow you to take a drag without a "primer puff" to get the heat started and you can take as long a draw as you like. You can preheat a manual battery by pushing the button a second or two before you take a draw. This improves the vapor. If you look at any of the mods or any APV you will see that none of them have automatic batteries. There is a reason for that. The first is that it's difficult or impossible to make an automatic that takes a generic battery. The second is that almost nobody wants an automatic battery after their noob initiation rite.

As for the whole legal issue, Dave, thanks for your concern, but it's not illegal to use e-cigs in any way in HK. It's simply illegal to sell them because they haven't figure out how to categorize it yet. Now that you mention it, for that matter I will probably be able to buy the liquids there so perhaps I won't need to be so anxious about that part after all. As for the batteries, I might be able to find some there but I'm guessing my options will be limited and it's highly possible that many would be of poor quality.

Since most batteries are made in China anyway, I wouldn't worry so much about poor quality ones in HK. Your options are not likely to be limited either. Worst case scenario is that you use protected Trustfires you can order from Dealextreme and have them shipped free from China. HK isn't some third world hellhole. They're pretty sophisticated when it comes to electronics and high quality batteries should be no problem to find there.

 

[sailorman]

Ooooo... That's UGLY. Or maybe not.

E-cigarettes containing nicotine and marketed as nicotine replacement therapy are pharmaceutical products under the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance and must be registered before sale.

That part's not so bad and leaves open the possibility that they could be sold with a prescription or they are not pharmaceutical products because they are NOT marketed as nicotine replacement therapy. This is actually similar to US law where they can be sold but not as NRT.

The possession or sale of unregistered pharmaceutical product, and the possession without authority of the inhaler which is a Part I poison, are both liable on conviction to a $100,000 fine and 2 years’ imprisonment.

Same thing here. I would want to find out if the law considers them a pharmaceutical product if they aren't marketed as NRTs. The part about the inhaler doesn't apply, I would think. Inhalers are NRT products and not e-cigs.

 

[Formaltide]

Wow, that's ten times more a detailed explanation than I was hoping for, thanks a lot for all your time on this. I don't think I could possibly go wrong with all these links and information.

I've actually been living in HK for 2.5 years at this point, and yes, it's precisely because of that bolded section of your paste of the TCO that I see people running around with e-cigs on the street. (Well, not that many, real cigs are still WAY more popular there). It sounds a lot worse than it really is in effect. It is good to be concerned about it, though -- the police are really, really scary. I would hate to be on their bad side for any reason.

I keep purchasing defective devices from around there so I guess I'm a bit wary of the market, I get duped too easily by some of the tricky merchants there and I've learned not to purchase a lot of products that have too many parts in them, but you're right, batteries should be totally fine for purchase. I've looked around and I can only see one brand of e-cig being sold around there, and after seeing it in action it looked ludicrously poor and inefficient to me so I decided to purchase one here instead, which is why we have this whole fiasco in the first place.

Thanks a lot for your detailed explanation of everything, sailorman. You seem absolutely convinced that I will dislike the autos based on all the negatives compared to just pressing a simple button, but I suppose since I've already made the purchase I will just have to brace myself and deal with it. Perhaps I will simply ship a better model to HK after all when the time comes.

 

[Jim66]

Oh right, I should've posted such basic information in the first place. The starter kit I got is from AquaVaporCig. Despite all the advice about everyone telling us to get manual over auto, we want to use this as a quitting smoking device and as such, my friend and I decided that it needed to feel like a cig and this was the recommendation we got for an auto, not to mention the size and look are also similar to that of a real cig.

I understand what you are saying here. I felt exactly the same way when I first started vaping. However, as others have already stated, you may be surprised to find you completely change your mind within 3 to 5 months. As you become more experienced, you will quickly learn you want and need more than those batteries can offer. I haven't touched my 510 manuals or my 4081's in a very long time. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to discourage you from using them. I just don't want you to realize 6 months from now that you need something different that you can't get because of availability.

Oh and one very important note about automatic batteries. They can be ruined in a heartbeat if e-liquid gets inside the battery. Manual batteries are sealed at the battery connection. Auto batteries have an air hole for the auto function.

Juice + an auto battery air hole = dead battery

So if you choose the auto battery, make sure you fill the cartos when they are unscrewed from the battery.

 

[Formaltide]

Thanks Jim, I was aware of that due to some previous warning given by friends, but if I hadn't known it would have been a terrible surprise for me. Well, given the terrible battery life everyone is saying it has, I suppose it won't matter in the long run, but it will save me some grief at least.