I bought an Egar a few weeks ago. It died a few days ago. I smoked it lightly, cutting back from about 25 smokes / day to 20 smokes / day most days.
I bought it from Benefits of Egar, who appears to be an air conditioner salesman (Optical Pty Ltd Split and Ducted system Heating and Cooling - based on domain registration details I'm 70% sure). The other options in Australia are eBay Australia Shop - Electronic e Cigarette Australia: quit smoking, alternative, electronic cigarette, who otherwise do shop fittings - Star Commercial Interiors - based on domain registration ownership I'm 90% sure. And The Original Electronic Cigarette. This one's bizarre - they seem to clean people's air using ozone: CleanseAir Inc. - How it works - based on the fact that most of the site is hosted at cleansair (50% sure). They don't exactly reveal this information in an About Us page.
The advertising revolves around the "fact" that you can " BEAT the smoking ban !!" and "Smoke Legally in Restaurants and Bars." There are videos of Australians re-enacting Gamucci ads. I bought it because I wanted to try to stop killing myself with Benson and Hedges.
The "egar" (I don't know what model it actually is) comes with two batteries and an atomizer, charger and three cartridges, only one of which is "Strong". I also bought 30 cartridges. It comes in a box with a picture of a man who appears to be blowing bubbles out of a stick, and is marked "Mini Electronic Cigarette". A piece of paper was glued over him that read "Egar".
According to the Egar site, "The Electronic Cigarette has been extensively tested, the cartridges have been toxicologically approved and producted in a laboratory which is EC [sic] certified." I'm not sure where the "laboratory" hehehe gets its "EC" certification from, or who has done the "extensive testing" on what they have "producted". The box did have *CE* and ROHS printed on it, but I would not be surprised if he purchased the boxes separately.
He bangs on about the "4000 chemicals in tobacco", as though e-cigarettes are organically grown fruit, but that's par for the course.
Pros:
- based in Australia, so shipping only took a few days.
Cons:
- vapour production is poor, (but please note I don't have anything to compare it to but 16mg tar death sticks with the "Special Filter" that ensures no air gets into the smog);
- one of the batteries started smoking while I was using it. I didn't like the taste of the vapour afterwards, so discarded it (after ripping it to pieces to see what was inside);
- batteries were rubbish out of the box anyway - he claims "one day", but I suspect this refers to their self-discharge rate. I found it was less than an hour when new;
- atomizer lasted about two weeks (you only get one). I think a connection came loose;
- Effectively no warranty ("older than 7 or 14 days - not clear which": voided warranty, "we believe it has been used heavily": voided warranty, etc);
- cartridges taste like crap, but so do cigarettes;
- no spare parts are available.
He claims "1 cartridge = 1 pack of 20 cigarettes." In my experience, it lasted for about two to three cigarettes until it wasn't worth smoking.
In Australia, a pack of 25 smokes costs around $13, so over a month on a pack a day you should expect to pay about $390.
According to his numbers:
Cartridges are cheapest if you buy them in packs of 30 ($80). Once you've bought your starter kit, a month should work out at $100.
According to my numbers:
You need to buy a new starter kit twice a month - actually more, as I only smoked it lightly - if you actually wanted to use it heavily you would probably need about four in rotation. (2 x 75 = $150). You would need around 250 cartridges a month ($660), so your monthly spend would be around $800.
I started eking the cartridges out with Johnson's creek, which tasted a lot better. I don't think this had anything to do with the atomizer breaking, though. Ohmmeter reading said broken connection; it didn't just get clogged.
I won't buy from egar.com.au again. I will buy (have bought) from Trog. But ymmv.
I bought it from Benefits of Egar, who appears to be an air conditioner salesman (Optical Pty Ltd Split and Ducted system Heating and Cooling - based on domain registration details I'm 70% sure). The other options in Australia are eBay Australia Shop - Electronic e Cigarette Australia: quit smoking, alternative, electronic cigarette, who otherwise do shop fittings - Star Commercial Interiors - based on domain registration ownership I'm 90% sure. And The Original Electronic Cigarette. This one's bizarre - they seem to clean people's air using ozone: CleanseAir Inc. - How it works - based on the fact that most of the site is hosted at cleansair (50% sure). They don't exactly reveal this information in an About Us page.
The advertising revolves around the "fact" that you can " BEAT the smoking ban !!" and "Smoke Legally in Restaurants and Bars." There are videos of Australians re-enacting Gamucci ads. I bought it because I wanted to try to stop killing myself with Benson and Hedges.
The "egar" (I don't know what model it actually is) comes with two batteries and an atomizer, charger and three cartridges, only one of which is "Strong". I also bought 30 cartridges. It comes in a box with a picture of a man who appears to be blowing bubbles out of a stick, and is marked "Mini Electronic Cigarette". A piece of paper was glued over him that read "Egar".
According to the Egar site, "The Electronic Cigarette has been extensively tested, the cartridges have been toxicologically approved and producted in a laboratory which is EC [sic] certified." I'm not sure where the "laboratory" hehehe gets its "EC" certification from, or who has done the "extensive testing" on what they have "producted". The box did have *CE* and ROHS printed on it, but I would not be surprised if he purchased the boxes separately.
He bangs on about the "4000 chemicals in tobacco", as though e-cigarettes are organically grown fruit, but that's par for the course.
Pros:
- based in Australia, so shipping only took a few days.
Cons:
- vapour production is poor, (but please note I don't have anything to compare it to but 16mg tar death sticks with the "Special Filter" that ensures no air gets into the smog);
- one of the batteries started smoking while I was using it. I didn't like the taste of the vapour afterwards, so discarded it (after ripping it to pieces to see what was inside);
- batteries were rubbish out of the box anyway - he claims "one day", but I suspect this refers to their self-discharge rate. I found it was less than an hour when new;
- atomizer lasted about two weeks (you only get one). I think a connection came loose;
- Effectively no warranty ("older than 7 or 14 days - not clear which": voided warranty, "we believe it has been used heavily": voided warranty, etc);
- cartridges taste like crap, but so do cigarettes;
- no spare parts are available.
He claims "1 cartridge = 1 pack of 20 cigarettes." In my experience, it lasted for about two to three cigarettes until it wasn't worth smoking.
In Australia, a pack of 25 smokes costs around $13, so over a month on a pack a day you should expect to pay about $390.
According to his numbers:
Cartridges are cheapest if you buy them in packs of 30 ($80). Once you've bought your starter kit, a month should work out at $100.
According to my numbers:
You need to buy a new starter kit twice a month - actually more, as I only smoked it lightly - if you actually wanted to use it heavily you would probably need about four in rotation. (2 x 75 = $150). You would need around 250 cartridges a month ($660), so your monthly spend would be around $800.
I started eking the cartridges out with Johnson's creek, which tasted a lot better. I don't think this had anything to do with the atomizer breaking, though. Ohmmeter reading said broken connection; it didn't just get clogged.
I won't buy from egar.com.au again. I will buy (have bought) from Trog. But ymmv.
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