New in Toronto! (Just Quit Smoking & Never Vaped)

[rachelcoffe]

Hi everyone! My name's Rachel & I live in Toronto, Ontario in Canada. My best friend & I just quit smoking together. It's been 5 days for me, 2 weeks for her (she started her quit before telling me). And by quit, I mean we've quit - no nicotine, no anything - cold turkey. Nothing now but clean air, fresh coffee, delicious sandwiches, and the like. :huggy:

Alas...it's certainly helped that I've been broke this week. I'm concerned that once next week arrives & I have money again, that the cravings will go crazy. I'm really gonna try to stay completely cold turkey - and my best friend says she agrees & wants to do the same. We discussed the electronic cigarette & felt that we wanted to try & completely cut out all the habits - the nicotine, the 'smoking' (be it real or e-cig), the whole deal.

So yeah. But - if, if the cravings ever get the better of me & I suffer a relapse, I figure an electronic cigarette will be the best option. Preferably with the nicotine-free cartridge (0mg). 5 days of cold turkey has shown me that I think the nicotine can be beaten. It's the physical habit - the desire to be puffing/smoking/doing something - that's still driving me crazy.

I've spent the last few days looking into electronic cigarettes. So far, GreenSmoke (greensmoke.com) looks to me like it's the most well-made, with the safest manafacturing conditions etc too.

My questions are: has anyone in Toronto (or barring that, anyone in Ontario) ever ordered from GreenSmoke? Was it successfully delivered in a timely manner? What did you order from them (startup kit, etc)? Have followup orders of their cartridges been successfully delivered in a timely manner? Also:

- Is there anywhere in Toronto, preferably within walking distance of downtown, that sells cartridges (nicotine or non-nicotine) that are made to fit the GreenSmoke electronic cigarette? We understand a new atomizer is built into every cartridge, making the GreenSmoke ones a bit different.

- Is there possibly even a retailer somewhere in Toronto with legitimate GreenSmoke electronic cigarettes for sale (starter kit, cartridges, etc etc)?

It's my hope that if I do try using an electronic cigarette, it'll be temporary to help me pass through the worst of the cravings from quitting smoking. And that it'll then make a perfect gift for my dad's fiancee (who needs to quit smoking too & would be quite receptive I believe)! But yeah...if I'm gonna do this, I just want to make sure I'm not throwing away a lot of $$$ on something that'll never arrive in the mail...or on something that we won't be able to regularly, conveniently get fresh cartridges for. "vaping" may be just a temporary tool for me, but my dad's fiancee will probably want to switch from her smoking habit to a vaping habit.

Thanks in advance for your posts...and thanks for this lovely forum! :huggy:

P.S. Why no :huggy: smiley in the forum? This forum uses the same smilies & layout style as another forum we regularly frequent. Here's what it looks like (just copy & paste):

i.imagehost.org/0653/huggy.gif

Would be nice to see it added here : )

 

[mini_art]

In the first place skip the Green Smoke ,, they are way overpriced for the same thing which is the vapor king from value4life. They are in the suppliers list on this forum.
If you are looking for a 2 piece system it is a pretty good one.

If you can skip all of it then that is great! But if you cant I would recommend the Ego kit.
Cignot.com is my favorite supplier for them, but many others sell them too.
It doesnt look like a cig, but the battery life is great on them and they look good too.

All of the cig types have a short battery life and involve a lot more charging then the EGo.
Good luck with skipping the whole thing

 

[TWolf]

Congratulations on quitting. Personnally I enjoyed smoking and never want to quit vaping, but if it works for you that's great.

Greensmokes are just a more expensive, and possibly less reliable, KR808. Do yourself a favor and shop around if and when you decide to vape. There are many reliable, recommended suppliers on this forum to choose from.

 

[rachelcoffe]

In the first place skip the Green Smoke ,, they are way overpriced for the same thing which is the vapor king from value4life. They are in the suppliers list on this forum.
If you are looking for a 2 piece system it is a pretty good one.

If you can skip all of it then that is great! But if you cant I would recommend the Ego kit.
Cignot.com is my favorite supplier for them, but many others sell them too.
It doesnt look like a cig, but the battery life is great on them and they look good too.

All of the cig types have a short battery life and involve a lot more charging then the EGo.
Good luck with skipping the whole thing

Thanks dear but the price doesn't seem to be that different from GreenSmoke - we're talking about roughly 20 dollars difference - and the GreenSmoke e-cig actually looks like a cigarette, it's the same size as a cigarette, etc etc. That's something that's important to us if we're gonna spend like $100+ on this thing, lol. But thanks!

 

[rachelcoffe]

Congratulations on quitting. Personnally I enjoyed smoking and never want to quit vaping, but if it works for you that's great.

Greensmokes are just a more expensive, and possibly less reliable, KR808. Do yourself a favor and shop around if and when you decide to vape. There are many reliable, recommended suppliers on this forum to choose from.

Hi TWolf! :huggy: Thanks for the congrats. Both my best friend & I enjoyed smoking, a lot (too much, lol). It's just that now that we've actually quit, we've elected for a "out for a penny, out for a pound" kinda deal. We wanna be clean & free now. Hence my hesitancy to even vape - and if I do, it'll almost certainly be with 0mg nicotine-free "cigarette tobacco" flavoured cartridges.

OK so anyway -the GreenSmoke e-cig is a KR808 you say? OK thanks, we don't know any of the terminology or codes or whatnot around here. Is the KR808 electronic cigarette specifically built to handle cartridges that each have their own built-in atomizer (like a new one in each cartridge)?

Anyway yeah, so ...same questions as in my first post please, but expanded to include KR808 (we think, lol).

Though we'd still prefer to go with the GreenSmoke-branded KR808 I think. We are absolutely not interested in some "made in China" thingie. We'd feel even better if GreenSmoke e-cigs were manafactured here in Canada...but made in the U.S. is a good second best. : )

 

[TWolf]

Honestly you'll get a much better deal for your money by avoiding the whole Greensmoke deal. There are no ecig manufacturers in the US... only a few people handmaking mods. Greensmokes are chinese made as well I'd be willing to bet.

I recommend you read the Wonderful World of Vaping located in the ECF Library to gain further info on vaping in general, including some of the terms and models.

Oh... and you are referring to cartomizers which are sold many places.

 

[rachelcoffe]

Honestly you'll get a much better deal for your money by avoiding the whole Greensmoke deal. There are no ecig manufacturers in the US... only a few people handmaking mods. Greensmokes are chinese made as well I'd be willing to bet.

I recommend you read the Wonderful World of Vaping located in the ECF Library to gain further info on vaping in general, including some of the terms and models.

Oh... and you are referring to cartomizers which are sold many places.

Thanks, TWolf. The terminology threw me a bit. I was basically thinking of the e-cigarette as the long white part (which I think also has the battery?) .... and then the atomizer & liquid as the "cartridge" (the filter part). I guess "cartomizer" is the correct term rather than "cartridge" when it has the liquid + atomizer together in one, right?

Anyway...so we're reading up a bit here, and some people are saying that GreenSmoke electronic cigarettes are E9 models. An E9 battery for the long white part...that works with E9 cartomizers (??). Is that right?

The place of manafacture is a concern too, TWolf. I want to be able to relax knowing that the e-cig and the cartomizer + its contents were all produced safely with decent oversight in a country with good safety & manafacturing laws. (Not China!)

Anyway...same questions as in the first post, folks. As a Torontonian, I'd still like to know the possibilities re: GreenSmoke...and also re: the E9 model (the availability of the E9 starter model & E9 cartomizers, preferably to purchase in person, in Toronto...or barring that, to safely & frequently order via mail in Toronto). Thanks!

 

[TWolf]

Sorry... Not real familiar with E9s so I confused the two. Both are basic battery and cartomizer 2 piece models. Virtually all commercial ecigs are manufactured in China as far as I know. That is where ecigs originated. Also there are very few actual stores that sale ecigs, being mainly available online.

 

[rachelcoffe]

P.S. Does anyone know the actual approximate battery life for the "long" battery that GreenSmoke makes? The long one is larger so we assume it lasts longer than the "short" one. But we're having a devil of a time actually finding out how long it lasts before you need to charge the thing again. : )

P.P.S. TWolf, apparently GreenSmoke now manafactures all their stuff in New York?? We found a few references saying that was the case as of early 2010. Would want to verify it with them of course...but it sounds like it must be true, since they brag on their site about high manafacturing & safety standards...things that simply don't exist in China.

That said, if there's a way for me as a resident of Toronto to significantly save money on a (non-Chinese) generic e-cig that's just like the GreenSmoke one...I'm open. : )

 

[rachelcoffe]

OK it seems like all the Canadian suppliers are obsessed with variations on the Joye 510 model, and to a lesser extent the M-401. Neither of them appeal to me - the 510 is manual, and if I'm paying a pretty penny for this thing I'd rather not have to press a little button each time I want to vape.

As to the M-401, it looks very nice but it is incompatible with cartomizers. When I first read up on GreenSmoke, the "new atomizer in each cartridge" aspect of their product appealed to me. I don't want a separate atomizer that will be re-used over and over with different cartridges.

Why don't any Canadian suppliers offer KR-808 or E9 starter kits?

 

[inkedcanadian]

Why don't any Canadian suppliers offer KR-808 or E9 starter kits?

Because they suck? lol.. the 510 is the best you'll find without going to a mod.

Everyone is saying stay away from Greensmoke because once you get it you'll be sick of it dying on you all the time and putting out little vapor.

The 510 comes in BOTH Automatic and Manual. Automatics have the potential to act up on you, i.e. not lighting when you want it to, lighting when you don't want it to, usually has an un-sealed battery so easy to get juice in there by leaks.

I guess what people are trying to say to you is... don't spend $100+ on something because you think it "looks cool".. when it doesn't work as well as ones priced even LESS, you're making a mistake.

For example.. look at Electronic Cigarette by blu E Cigarette - Home .. i'm sure you'll think these look great too. Truth is they are probably one of the worst out there.

We are just trying to save you money... Lots have gone the Greensmoke route and ended up buying something else within weeks.

 

[bornagainst]

The hard part isn't the battery, its the PRE-FILLED CARTOMIZER issue. You won't find them sold in Canada. You can get blanks, and get liquid which you can fill cartomizers yourself.

You can get an automatic 510 battery, with 510 cartomizers, and you will have a model which will perform just as well as any GREENSMOKE (kr808/E9, etc)

I own both models, and to say the 510 looks less like a cigarette than a GREENSMOKE is incorrect.

 

[THE]

Though we'd still prefer to go with the GreenSmoke-branded KR808 I think. We are absolutely not interested in some "made in China" thingie. We'd feel even better if GreenSmoke e-cigs were manafactured here in Canada...but made in the U.S. is a good second best. : )

They are ALL made in China.. as far as I know.. or I thought that they were.. good ol' Leaford mentioned an American manufacturer? I'm not aware of them.. but anyway, have a look:
[youtube]OWR65NTH9B4[/youtube]

 

[THE]

P.S. Why no :huggy: smiley in the forum? This forum uses the same smilies & layout style as another forum we regularly frequent. Here's what it looks like (just copy & paste):

i.imagehost.org/0653/huggy.gif

Would be nice to see it added here : )

Maybe this will work:

I think you should let go of the greencig or whatever it is idea.. The KR808 is very good and if you want a 510 auto they're available just about everywhere online.. If you want something with batteries that'll really last a long time there's the tornado/riva/ego ... I think they use 510 atomizers. You can also get 510 cartomizers.

I think all KR808D-1 are cartomizers. That means they have the atomizer in every new cartridge .. just like you want ..

If you're beating the nicotine addiction, stay with it. People who've been addicted to it can go back to it years later with so much as one drag or one cigarette.

Get some 0 nic juice and vape away and be happy to be free of nicotine and especially to be free of CIGARETTES!

 

[TexasT]

Hi rachelcoffe and welcome to ECF,

I started out with Green Smoke and overall I think they have a good product, but what everyone is telling you is correct ... they are way over-priced compared to the equally good products you can get from other vendors.

My wife, who smokes far less than I took the Green Smoke and I got a KR808D-1. I recently ordered more pre-filled cartomizers from Green Smoke for her and although she hasn't used all of them, I'd guess that 30 to 35% of the new cartomizers were either dry, she was unable to draw through them or, in three cases the plastic cap on the end was shoved half-way down into the carto making it useless.

Generally, when you purchase carto's - they are yours and there is no return or refund on them. So we just threw away a considerable amount of money on the pre-filled carto's from Green Smoke.

The small Green Smoke battery used to last me two or three hours of rather heavy use and it takes a very long time to recharge them (2 to 5 hours). I had one Green Smoke battery go dead on me and they did replace it with no problem or hassle.

I hope you'll listen to the advice your getting here and consider a KR808D-1, eGo or Riva. I can tell you from experience that you'll be much happier with it. If you want to do more research on any of these, click on Search at the top of this page and type that name in the search box for this site.

Good luck! Oh, regarding Smilies, if you'll go to "Go Advanced" below the Reply box, I think you'll find them there.

Ron

 

[Buzzy]

You might want to look at the ecig available at this link:

Vapor4Life- Electronic Cigarette: Vapor King Ultimate Auto Starter Kit

Others have mentioned vapor4life. Their vapor king is a version (modified) of a KR808D-1 (there are other vendors). It is available in white, if you want it to look a bit more like a cigarette, though it is a little longer than a cigarette. The cartomizers don't really last as long as they are usually promoted to last, but they are refillable for 3 to 10 times or more.

Good luck!

 

[Switched]

*SNIP

Why don't any Canadian suppliers offer KR-808 or E9 starter kits?

Because they are JUNK.

I have read two pages threads of basically the same thing. The best connection to get bar none is the 510 connection, notice I haven't talked about anything else here. Why? think of it as a AA battery, available any and everywhere.

Beware of claims that it is USA made or Made in USA. Outside of "battery mods", everything related to "ecigs" comes from China, including the liquids. Nicotine is not manufactured in North America. Think of it this way. With the current ban in both the US and Canada, which do indeed regulate industry. Do you think they will grant a license to set up shop? The US are indeed making strong claims towards Made in USA, the cold truth is, it is all marketing.

The E9 battery is indeed a proprietary battery, like many else. IOW it will only accept certain things. To further confuse you and add to the problem. The E9 is not a KR808 connection which BTW is a 808-d1 connection (1st generation) the E9 is a KR808d-2 connection (2nd generation) and good luck finding parts for those. Yes speaking from experience. Whilst the d1 connection we affectionately call the KR8 connection does have an adapter for it, the d2 does not.

I admire you will power to go cold turkey. Bravo! 4000 plus chemicals in cigarettes and nicotine is the least addictive, of all the chemicals. It takes 8-10 days to totally rid our bodies of nicotine. Monoamine Oxidase Inhibition on the other hand has long term effects 10-12 weeks. The combination of others have even longer lasting effects. If not, quitting would be a cake walk.

I will make an early prediction that at week 4 or 5 of your cessation, you will suffer a major psychological and physical trigger. It is not that you are weak, the tobacco industry is telling you, "Hey where's our cash"?. That trigger is the results of the many little time bombs they have installed in your neuro-system over the years.

I was a 40+ year smoker. Smoked 20-30 cigs a day. The longest I ever lasted was 5 weeks (with laser therapy) I am now a few days shy of 6 months without analogs. The ride even with nicotine has been rough. I did not pic up vaping or e-cigs as an alternate lifestyle. I am using e-cigs as a smoking cessation device.

I started out at 14-16mg (too weak) and switched to 24-30mg (30 is my demon tamer). I use to smoke 1-2 cigs with my morning coffee. That was replaced with 10-12 hits of RY4 at 24mg. I have reduced my nicotine intake in that time frame from 24mg to mostly 18mg, with the odd trip to 24mg. I often see myself go 1/2 hr to 45 minutes without a toot in the morning, and then its 18mg. The hardest part of the day is from noon until 5. Most of the time it is at 24mg. I'm retired, therefore lots of time on my hands. I am sure I would be furthe ahead if I was working. Because when I am busy, I simply don't think of vaping as I have no cravings. After supper I like my dessert. It is usually a sweet vape. That session is probably 2 cigs worth. The remainder of the evening I might hit my PV 10-20 times at 18mg, which roughly represents 1-2 cigarettes (a cig is worth 10-15 puffs, 12 being average).

My consumption has drastically decreased (noticeable by my wife). She also knows when I am having a rough day. You ride the wave. Sometimes it is not the whole day, sometimes it is (most times now) a passing moment/period.

My first ecig had to look like a cig. It was a Safe Cig. Performed well, was overpriced and although reduced my smoking, did not keep me off analogs. The day after I received my 510 kit, I became "smoke free".

I understand the psychological effect of the "thing" looking like a cig, trust me, that will soon pass. The last thing you want is your PV looking like a cig especially when stealth vaping or vaping in public. It is easier to explain an e-cig that doesn't look like a cigarette, than trying to explain on that does. Folks just say to me that's on of them electronic thingies ain't it. We usually wind up in a long explanation etc... My first kit was sold to my neighbour, at least I recuperated some money. He luvs it. He only somked 3-5 cigs a day.

Auto vs manual batteries? Well you have heard it here as well. Autos have some conveniences, but manual is the way to go. Autos do not perform as well in my personal experience, and as many have previously stated.

Wrt mAh ratings. Depending on the individual, expect 1-1.5hr of usability for every 100mAh. The average batt (not the shorties) have a mAh rating of 180mAh while the megas (long) have a mAh rating of 250mAh.

When we started, there wasn't as many options as there is now. It is unbelievable the leaps the ecig industry has taken even in my short time as a vaper.

The best bang for your buck is the eGo with it's 650mAh battery. One batt will last you 6-8hrs, more than enough to see you through the day. It can accept both normal carts, 510 cartos and KR8 cartos with an adapter. It can also accept an 901 atomiser (with adapter(same one as the KR8 cartos)).

Vaping and Satisfaction - E-Cigarette Forum This explains some stuff. It is not original to me, as there is a lot of discussion about it on the net.

Goals! Don't set yourself up for failure. Take baby steps. The fist goal is to remain smoke free, the second is ridding yourself of the addiction. If you do, do nic, decrease over time. If insufficient, increase to get over the craving then, go back to lower mg levels etc... You are a smoker and will be one for the rest of your life. To think otherwise is only fooling yourself. Last WE we had our annual BBQ. One of our attendees has not smoked for 25 years, and he still gets carvings, not as bad mind you, but still does. Talk to any long term ex-smoker, they will openly admit it. BTW he is 48 and quit when he was 23.

A new day, a new way!

In closing, you have been given some pretty solid advice here, compared to what other folks have received in the past (finding the forums after purchases). You are doing your research and that is good. You can either follow the advice given, or join the many others that took short cuts only to find out, they should have listened in the first place.

We are here to support you. Any cigarette avoided, is a good cigarette.

 

[inkedcanadian]

They are ALL made in China.. as far as I know.. or I thought that they were.. good ol' Leaford mentioned an American manufacturer? I'm not aware of them.. but anyway, have a look:
[youtube]OWR65NTH9B4[/youtube]

That lab is a brand new one built by Dekang, you can see the vats around the 3 minute mark say BOGE on them.

Probably one of the only ones in china that looks like that.

 

[Madmann]

I just bought a kit from my local smoke shop for $55 and don't have any complaints so far. The brand is smokefree and their web site is smokefreenow dot com Worth a try imo.

 

[inkedcanadian]

Like we said in the other thread Rachel, come to the GTA meet Aug 10th! You will get to see a bunch of different models and have a better idea of what you want. Plus everyone is real cool.