New and getting discouraged

[LM1]

Holy moley, what a response! As I sit here with my analogs until the fire in my throat dies down, you all have given me some real encouragement to keep trying. Like one of you described, it really does feel like strep! I could easily respond to each of you one at a time, and it's real tempting to, but I'd be here all day. This will be long enough as it is! (cue yawn smilie)

Low nic/VG is definitely something I need to try asap. And it looks like it will probably be on an ego ecig thanks to your recommendations. I presume it will be a good start to keep me at it anyway. I still need to make sure no signature will be needed since L.A. is so often an exception to anything, but it's sounding pretty promising! (This city is so screwy, the city council actually outlawed referring to "master" and "slave" clocking because of racial connotations. I always thought "co-dependent" might be a good substitute term for it around here)

A case to protect any manual switches might be the best idea so far but it might be difficult to find room for that in my pocket I run around all over at work and I stuff things into my shirt pockets constantly. There's only so much room. Keeping these in a pencil pocket worked quite well so far, but other larger or manual models might not be good with that. At home, a manual button would be no problem. I might need two different models to manage this.

So no one's made anything with a separate switch module? To swap out the pressure/auto switch for a manual button? In all these hours of surfing on the subject, I've not seen that one yet.

Another thing is no one is complaining about me using them at work, where there's millions of dollars of equipment. Even our resident asthmatic is okay with them. However, I do not plan on ever trying them in my friend's house where her kid has breathing issues from severe muscular dystrophy. I won't take even the slightest risk of disturbing the air there.

Smoke breaks haven't stopped, if only to see the sun since there's no windows. I still do want occasional analogs even if my throat isn't acting up. But instead of smoking two or even three if I'm talking to others, I only have one and then use the ecig. My boss, who's wanted me to quit forever, asks questions like "why do you feel the need to have a real one now", etc. He's trying to get me to analyze my motives, and I've had very few answers beyond "I just felt like having a real one". So I've been glad for the comments elsewhere about how it's not an exact replacement.

I also measure time with real ones, quite often actually. Like the pasta's ready after one real cigarette or the tub's filled after two. Don't get that with ecigs. Having a "permanetly lit" cig makes it harder to put the ecig down too. There's no definite terminater.

At Fry's last Saturday, I was there sooo long, I finally went into some low traffic aisle (hard to find there!) and used the ecig. Same at a big tack shop looking for new boots. Same at a drug store too when I had to wait an hour and a half for a precription. It's illegal to smoke in any park here too, or at the beaches, as well as many other outdoor places, and I've been yelled at for it in the past. So I do keep it real low profile when I use it in public, since I'll get yelled at long before I have a chance to explain it.

Money is an object, but for now, if it's not more than analogs (approx $55/carton for Marlboros here), I can live with it. I am fortunate enough to have a long term steady job for the foreseeable future. But if I get more big vet bills, since my elderly, currently cancer-free dog does tend to run those up awfully high without trying, I am likely to learn more about ecig savings real quick! (TheLook, is that a Crested in your photo??)

Thank you all!!!

 

[cskent]

I've got the eGo and like I said, I haven't had a problem with it in my pocket, I keep it in my shirt pocket like a pen when I'm not wearing cargo's. There is a button protector on the market, so obviously some people have had an issue. I don't know where to get one though but someone else will I'm sure. If you call a hardware supplier and ask about customizing a kit you might be able to get it with one manual and one auto battery. I customized my kit and it was a lot cheaper than piecing together what I wanted. You can pick up an eGo kit for less than the price of a carton of cig's, throw in about 40 ml of juice and you'll be set for a while. As far as the ability to convert an auto to a manual battery, they're kind of two different beasts. The pressure switch is in the atomizer end of an auto and there's a hole which allows air flow to activate it. With a manual there's no hole and the switch is external. I suppose you could convert either way if you wanted to, but it would probably not be worth the effort given the price of replacement batt's.

 

[DC2]

I had cut back to under a pack -- more than half! Within a day or so after that, the sore throat started. Feels like tonsillitis (yes I still have mine).

There are many potential reasons for sore throat, as you have heard.
And drinking more fluids is absolutely a must.

I'm going to throw one more out there that happened to me when I started...
I was sucking too hard and got sore throat muscles.
It did feel a little like tonsillitis.

I wasn't able to fix that problem until I got a manual battery.

I thought it was the much stronger nicotine in the e-cigs than what I was probably used to but had no luck finding really low cartridges to fit what I have.

You are not getting anywhere near as much nicotine from electronic cigarettes as you think you are.
And if you smoked two packs/day, you should be looking for higher nicotine strength, not lower strength.


The average amount of juice used is somewhere between 1ml to 5ml per day, with most people at around 2ml to 3ml per day.
Since the juice strength is mg/ml a juice that is 24mg strength will provide 72mg for a person using 3ml per day.

Now here is the part that most people who are worried don't know... we do not absorb all of that nicotine from vaping.

Some studies have shown that we get around 10% of the nicotine from vaping.
Others see flaws in those studies, have done their own testing, and feel we get more like 40% of the nicotine from vaping.

So if using 3ml per day of 24mg strength liquid, you would get anywhere from 7.2mg to 28.8mg of nicotine.
And that would equal about 7 to 28 cigarettes, depending on what cigarettes we are talking about, and how much we really absorb.

I would rather not use a manual battery since it's likely to get turned on in my pocket at work, and I do want one that at is at least close to cigarette size (100-120mm) and not too funky looking.

Do yourself a favor and get a manual battery to try.
It very well may solve a number of your issues.

 

[LM1]

There are many potential reasons for sore throat, as you have heard.
And drinking more fluids is absolutely a must.

I'm going to throw one more out there that happened to me when I started...
I was sucking too hard and got sore throat muscles.
It did feel a little like tonsillitis.

I wasn't able to fix that problem until I got a manual battery.

I'm not seeing how a manual battery can help my throat. Are they easier to draw on? I do drink a lot of water every day, often well over a couple of liters, so that's not an issue.

You are not getting anywhere near as much nicotine from electronic cigarettes as you think you are. And if you smoked two packs/day, you should be looking for higher nicotine strength, not lower strength.


The average amount of juice used is somewhere between 1ml to 5ml per day, with most people at around 2ml to 3ml per day. Since the juice strength is mg/ml a juice that is 24mg strength will provide 72mg for a person using 3ml per day.

Now here is the part that most people who are worried don't know... we do not absorb all of that nicotine from vaping.

Some studies have shown that we get around 10% of the nicotine from vaping.
Others see flaws in those studies, have done their own testing, and feel we get more like 40% of the nicotine from vaping.

So if using 3ml per day of 24mg strength liquid, you would get anywhere from 7.2mg to 28.8mg of nicotine. And that would equal about 7 to 28 cigarettes, depending on what cigarettes we are talking about, and how much we really absorb.

I was told there'd be no math! (yeah, I know you were probably waiting for that ) You're looking at it on per day basis, which I'd not considered. But given that there's no set measure for ecigs like "one cigarette", I suppose it's really the only way to look at it.

From what I'm finding, the ultra-light 100s I use are about .5-.6 mg nicotine per cigarette. Let's say that means at 2 packs, I'm getting about 11mg/day with analogs. (http://www.ftc.gov/foia/frequentrequests/foia2007-00482.pdf).

So, if I will only get about 40% out of an ecig, I need to aim for about 28 mg/day. If I'm getting only 10%, I would need to load 110 mg/day on ecigs to ultimately get the 11mg I'm used to. Huge difference. I have no idea how much I'd use, so I'll figure both for both 2 and 4 ml/days.

28mg/day: 7mg/ml juice in a 4ml/day. If I were to use 2ml/day, that would be 14mg/ml juice.

110mg/day: 27.5mg/ml juice in a 4 ml day, and 55mg/ml in a 2 ml day. wow.

So I could need anywhere from a 7mg/ml juice to 55mg/ml, according to these numbers! Am I doing this right? I guess I need try to measure my use, and of course I'll start with low mg/ml numbers. So far only Vapor King seems to hvae pre-filled VG cartridges.

Do yourself a favor and get a manual battery to try.
It very well may solve a number of your issues.

I wrote to cignot about delivery and they confirm no signature will be required. They have a starter kit with both. One for work, one for home

 

[DC2]

I'm not seeing how a manual battery can help my throat. Are they easier to draw on?

Based on the ones I've tried, yes.

From what I'm finding, the ultra-light 100s I use are about .5-.6 mg nicotine per cigarette. Let's say that means at 2 packs, I'm getting about 11mg/day with analogs.

Two packs per day of those would actually be about 22mg/day.

 

[StarsAndBars]

...can I ask what you went with, Stars? Am very curious as am researching what system to get next and heavy duty sounds good to me....

I got the Icon from puresmoker.com. Their devices and juices rock, but a bit of advice. I've never been crazy about their attys.

 

[LM1]

Yup, I realized I screwed that up only way later, LOL. I do appreciate you getting me to realize hows to think of the strengths, thank you!