User technique
An ecigarette is used in a completely different way to a cigarette. The only similarity is that it is placed in the mouth - after that, everything is different.
You should try to develop a new and different way of using it that is not applicable to a standard cigarette. In fact, if you use an ecig as you would a tobacco cig, you won't get much benefit at all. It doesn't work, plain and simple.
Instead, do it like this:
Draw (ie drag or pull) very, very lightly in comparison to a cigarette.
Pull the vapor into the mouth, not the lungs.
Draw for an extended length of time - for at least 3 seconds. This because for a 1-second draw, the atomizer does not heat up fully, and also because there is not as much nicotine in the vapor as in cigarette smoke.
Hold the vapor in the mouth for 2 seconds, then inhale, then exhale very slowly through the nose.
If you have trouble doing a long pull with just the mouth, then draw using the mouth only for one pull, using the lungs for the next.
Use the ecigarette for twice as long as a tobacco cigarette lasts you.
An ecigarette probably has half or less of the available nicotine that a tobacco cigarette has. To compensate for this, it is used differently.
With a tobacco cigarette you pull on it hard, with a very short drag (maybe 1 second or so), and then it's finished in 5 minutes or thereabouts. An ecigarette is used in a totally different way, as you can see above.
These differences are because:
-- An ecigarette has a restricted air throughput and drawing on it hard will pull liquid into your mouth.
-- The tiny particle size in tobacco smoke means it travels immediately into the smallest pathways of the lungs, and you receive a nicotine 'hit' in around 7 seconds - which is very fast. In contrast, an ecigarette delivers the nic over an extended period of time. There is no instant hit because the mist does not go deep into the lungs.
-- Because the mist contains much larger particles of water vapor and nicotine than the particle size in cigarette smoke, and the vapor does not go as far into the fine airways in the lungs, it is not absorbed as well - and more may be absorbed in the mucous membranes of the mouth and nose than in the lungs, as a result.
-- The carrier liquid, PG and/or VG, tends to bind the nicotine so that it is not available as rapidly.
-- Because it has much less available nicotine in the vapor than a cigarette has in the smoke, you have to extend the time in use.
-- Experienced users, using a small-format standard ecigarette model, often use a highly extended drag in order to get sufficient hit: they draw (lightly) for 6 or 8 seconds. When you try this for the first time, you will realise that e-cigarette use is utterly different from cigarette smoking.
An ecigarette is used in a different way to a cigarette. If you don't know this, you cannot get an optimal result. This has been proved by research trials, as something more than one research trial agrees on is this:
If a new ecigarette user, with a new ecigarette, is deliberately isolated from expert advice as to how to specify the correct materials, how set up the product correctly and how to use it correctly, then they will get little or no nicotine in the bloodstream as a result of using it.
This is an extrapolation of the results of two trials that agreed on the final results, and where these factors were all ignored and therefore the results were poor. It is why it is a good idea for new users to buy some of the highest strength of nicotine liquid available, as well as some medium; and why they must be shown how to set up their equipment correctly; and why they must be clearly directed on correct and incorrect user technique. If these requirements are not met, then the final result may well be of little use to the newcomer.
As seen, it has been proved that a new user can often derive no nicotine at all from an ecigarette; but for the experienced user, as much nicotine is available as is required. This shows what must be done.