The first three weeks

Status
Not open for further replies.

Timbow

Full Member
Jan 24, 2013
10
3
Birmingham UK
Three weeks analogue-free, yippee!!

Last year I picked up a couple of nicolites disposable 1-piece ecigs and tried them out on holiday. They didn't really work for me then. Three weeks ago had another crack at it. One 'orrible icy sleety night I'd run out of fags, was fed up with the coughing etc and the nicolite kept the cravings at bay for an evening.

On day 1 I popped to the local shop and bought an E-lite 2-piece automatic, USB charger and a couple of spare cartomizers. This kept me going for the day and I quickly realised that I needed a second battery (for while the first recharged) and additional cartomizers. These did the job for the first week, while I looked around for something better (and went through withdrawal - not nearly as bad as cold turkey but certainly noticeable).

Nicolites - Mild slightly vanilla taste, preferred these to the E-lites, but useless when finished - OK to try on a whim while still smoking but not for much else.

E-lites - Found them quite harsh (red cartridges) and even managed to overdo it a little I think. Cartridges last a good while (allegedly 40 cigs equivalent but more like 20 to me) but expensive to replace - £8 for 2. Occasional cart failed to work (blocked maybe?)

Next up was the 510. I bought a manual starter set from juicycigs together with spare e-liquid. These are nicely made, a much better 'vape' and of course refillable. The downside for me was that the cartridges have a small capacity so don't last very long, certainly nowhere near a working day. I wasn't keen on refilling away from home, so decided to refill my used cartomizers from the E-lites. This worked alright, I levered the while end-piece off and refilled the 'wadding', careful not to get liquid into the central tube. So I've been using the 510 for 'quality vapes' while the refilled E-lites were in reserve for longer use and desperation.

510 - Really nice vape, lots of vapour produced when full, cartridge holds too little liquid. Convenient, easy to refill, looks like a small pen or laser pointer. I'd be happy with these if it weren't for the low capacity.

E-liquids - all from Juicycigs own range-

Tobacco 18mg/ml - bought in case I wanted something tobacco-ey, works fine, but I'm not loving the tobacco taste anymore - this is progress!

Apple 12mg/ml - originally thought it had a slight 'chemical' taste like apple sours and not so keen, this may have been due to the 510 getting too hot or my dodgy technique, seems better in the old E-lite. Alright but not my favourite.

Vanilla 12mg/ml - really nice, quite sweet but maybe too mild a flavour.

Cappucino 12mg/ml - fab stuff, definite favourite. Even when the 510 runs hot it tastes like roasted coffee which is all good.

The next step....

Just ordered an eGo W from Juicycigs. I see it has a much larger capacity and longer battery life than the 510, some negative reviews on fiddliness of refilling and robustness but some very good reviews. Also more liquid - 2x flavour vanilla and cappucino, and a banana one out of curiosity.

Will let you know how it goes!
 

hellcat

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Jun 2, 2011
163
74
GA
Congrats on being 3 weeks analog free! I have had several attempts myself. Just passed the 2 week mark. I made it 4 months once and the only reason I think I went back to analogs again was that I was having extreme equipment failure and got tired of spending $$$ on stuff that wasn't working. I decided to give it a go and just got some new gear and I am feeling really positive that I won't ever go back to analogs.

I love ego batteries!!!! as far as smaller batteries go I don't really see the need to look elsewhere. They last all day for me and I never seem to put my pv down. I have said this in other posts, I will say it again, I am not crazy about attys that come with kits. I have moved on to clearos, cartos and tanks. The verdict is still to be determined on cartos for me but right now I am smitten with my vivi nova tank. I
am sure you are going to love the ego. I don't have to fill them as frequently and they are really consistent. Again, congrats and I hope your ego works out, I have no doubt that it will. However, if you start having difficulties, not sure if you got the c or the ce5 model but if you got the c and start having any issues, don't despair a clearo or tank (very inexpensive options) will get you right back on track. Just made the switch this week and I wish I had done it sooner.
 

PickyJuicer

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Nov 11, 2012
186
124
51
Buffalo, NY
Welcome!!

Sounds like you're getting this all figured out pretty quickly. When I first started, I only got the pre-filled V2 cartos. I was scared to do anything else. I wouldn't even refill them. I thought that the "prefilled" was the only way to go and that "refilling" was weird. The fact that I was spending 100 bucks a month on prefilled cartos got to me though. That, and the tons of spent cartos that I'd find EVERYWHERE really made me re-evaluate the situation. I didn't know any better.

Then I found ECF... the rest is history!
 

SPM3

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Jan 28, 2013
142
54
North Fort Myers, Florida
Congrats Timbow on getting off the analogs, and welcome to ECF :D

Seems like you are well on your way to exploring the wonderful world of vaping :thumbs:

And you have come to the right forum for info on vaping. Tons of info and great contributors that honestly try to help and answer any questions you may have.

Keep on vaping :vapor:
 

Timbow

Full Member
Jan 24, 2013
10
3
Birmingham UK
Many thanks for the kind welcome all!

I'm certainly feeling the benefit of ditching the smokes, found lung capacity that I didn't even remember having :)

ECF certainly seems comprehensive, in a way there's just too much information to take in for a newbie. But then I found the Infozone part which helped simplify things.

One of the things I've had difficulty with is estimating in the day how much I'm vaping compared to what I used to smoke. It's not as easy as counting cigarettes. Going weekly it seems similar, I USED TO [ ;-) ] smoke 'light' cigs, probably 20 a day at 0.5mg = 10mg a day and think I've used about 12ml of 12 mg/ml eliquid over the last 2 weeks, perhaps a little more. So in 2 weeks 140mg cigarette nicotine, versus approx 144 mg vapour nicotine. So on the face of it about the same, but in that 2 weeks I've avoided 1400 mg of tar (and 1400mg carbon monoxide) plus a load of other nastiness, ie escaped from more than a gramme of carcinogenic gunk.

One thing I'm not sure about is what proportion of the nicotine I absorbed from 1mg's worth of cigarettes versus the proportion I absorb from 1mg nicotine's worth of eliquid. I guess this could vary the answer either way, anyone know more?
 
Last edited:

hellcat

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Jun 2, 2011
163
74
GA
I am right there with you. The amount of gear and information out there can be overwhelming. It really doesn't take too long to find your way around though. As far as actual nicotine intake via vaping goes.... It's really hard to get an accurate comparison. It frustrates me too mainly because I definitely seem to vape a lot more than I probably should. For some reason the little voice that is supposed to say "hey you have had enough" never seems to speak up. I definitely have those days where I have had way too much nic. The only way to combat it that I have found is to switch to low nic or the dreaded 0 nic towards the evening and end of the day. I have also noticed that when I vape sweeter stuff I am less likely to crave sweet foods so maybe if I vape sweeter stuff more often the voice will also speak a little more loudly so I know I have had enough. Maybe someone else has more insight into this conundrum, I would love to hear input on this as well.
 

Timbow

Full Member
Jan 24, 2013
10
3
Birmingham UK
Hi hellcat, I've been looking around the site and found this on the Infozone section:

"An ecigarette has around about half or slightly less of the available nicotine that a tobacco cigarette has. The carrier liquid, PG and/or VG, tends to bind the nicotine so that it is not available as rapidly. Because the vapor from an ecig has less available nicotine than a cigarette smoke has, an ecig must be used for longer"

So this might be answering the question, on the other hand it's a little ambiguous, so it might not! If I'm reading this correctly it says that 1mg of analogue cigarette is roughly equivalent to 2mg of e-liquid. I'd imagine there must be lots of different factors that affect this though, the type of setup, smoking and vaping technique, how much you 'hold in' and for how long and how much gets 'puffed out' without reaching the lungs etc etc.

This 'back of an e-cigarette packet' calculation is surely pretty approximate, but I guess shows me that I'm not outrageously ramping up the nic, and more likely reducing it a bit.
 

hellcat

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Jun 2, 2011
163
74
GA
Hi hellcat, I've been looking around the site and found this on the Infozone section:

"An ecigarette has around about half or slightly less of the available nicotine that a tobacco cigarette has. The carrier liquid, PG and/or VG, tends to bind the nicotine so that it is not available as rapidly. Because the vapor from an ecig has less available nicotine than a cigarette smoke has, an ecig must be used for longer"

So this might be answering the question, on the other hand it's a little ambiguous, so it might not! If I'm reading this correctly it says that 1mg of analogue cigarette is roughly equivalent to 2mg of e-liquid. I'd imagine there must be lots of different factors that affect this though, the type of setup, smoking and vaping technique, how much you 'hold in' and for how long and how much gets 'puffed out' without reaching the lungs etc etc.

This 'back of an e-cigarette packet' calculation is surely pretty approximate, but I guess shows me that I'm not outrageously ramping up the nic, and more likely reducing it a bit.

Timbow- since I ran across your initial post I did some digging myself and came across several threads on the nic absorption issue, some of which get fairly technical. However, even the big studies mentioned leave too many questions and are ultimately inconclusive as to what the actual absorption rates are compared to analogs due to too many unknown variables. I will post the links to threads containing the links to the studies I found as soon as I can switch from the ipad to my Mac. I think in short, no matter what the studies say... is that it is a safer bet to reduce concentration levels especially when it seems like the PV is glued to your hand all day) to avoid overconsumption. Most of us are here at ECF for our health. Yes ecigs are better than analogs, clearly(from the vapers point of view)! now that vapers are more health conscious I think we all are more concerned with what we put in our bodies. I just find it fascinating that the industry has escalated to the point that it has and the government regulated agencies are pushing so hard to shut it all down, yet no real definitive evidence exists to prove or disprove the claims from either side. Vaping is new to a lot of people but the rate to which it is reaching the masses is growing exponentially by the day. With that said why are there no conclusive answers to the all important questions??? It's obvious why regulation should occur but an all out ban isn't the answer without the proof to back it up. Even still cigarettes are proven bonafied killers, if vaping is even the slightest bit less dangerous, that option shouldn't be taken off the table.
I have a feeling this thread may be bumped to another category. We've kind of steered ourselves onto another hot button topic.lol!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread