Hi everybody,
First a little about myself. I am currently in my mid-to-late twenties and have been a smoker for almost 16 years. I started smoking when I was 12 years old. I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from buying that first pack with my friends, but that's not an option anymore. The reason I was able to start smoking at such a young age and buy cigarettes is because I grew up in The Netherlands, and at the time there was no real smoking age being enforced. Officially you were not allowed/supposed to be able to buy cigarettes if you were younger then 16, but it usually was not a problem to buy a pack of smokes as a twelve year old.
I switched from smoking filter cigarettes to roll-your-owns pretty soon, because it was much cheaper. A pack of tobacco used to cost the same as a pack of filter cigarettes, but you could get about 50 cigarettes out of a pack of tobacco, versus having 20 in a pack of filter cigarettes.
I have never been a really heavy smoker, but have always preferred a very heavy throat hit. I tend to inhale very deeply. I have never come across a filter cigarette that feels satisfactory, and whenever I bum a filter-cigarette off of someone, I always break the filter off and smoke it by lighting up the end where the filter used to be. If you put the end where you just broke the filter off in your mouth, you'll end up with flakes of tobacco in your mouth, which is pretty disgusting. I learned that pretty quick...
During my teens I would smoke an average of about 12-15 cigarettes a day. This went up slightly when I went to live on my own (since I could smoke in my own house) and I'd smoke about 20 cigarettes a day. Whenever I would have a (beer) party with friends and roommates, this could easily go up to about 50 cigarettes, but that happened maybe once or twice a month. The thing I remember most about those nights where I would smoke a whole pack of tobacco, was that horrible taste in my mouth the next morning. As if a rat died on your tongue, and someone rubbed ash on your teeth...Yuck.
The worst part of living on my own was that I created a habit of smoking my last cigarette in bed; needless to say my bedroom and sheets must have smelled awful.
Not that I would know, because smoking has completely destroyed my sense of smell. I can barely smell anything nowadays.
Now that I am married, moved to the United States (officially immigrated) and living with my (American) wife - who HATES my smoking more then anything - I smoke seven cigarettes a day. Yes, seven. I know the exact number because I have put myself on a smoking diet. I smoke one in the morning on my way to work in the car (my wife also HATES driving my car or being a passenger in it, because of the smell), one at 11 am, two during my lunch-break (beginning and end), one on my way home, one after dinner and one before bed.
My wife is very unhappy with my smoking, because when we first met I actually had quit smoking so she didn't know I smoked. After 8 months of being a non-smoker I ended up at a birthday party, got drunk, lit one up and it went down hill from there. One week later I was smoking again. Buying that first pack of tobacco after so long felt like a humiliating defeat. I succumbed...again, to those nasty cancer sticks.
Even though I don't smoke that much, I just cannot seem to quit. I have tried 8 times, with varying success. The longest time was 8 months, which was also when I met my wife. I think personally for me it's not even the nicotine I am so addicted to, but the throat hit you get when smoking a cigarette.
In my quest to kick this nasty nasty habit, I ordered an e-cig about a year and a half ago. I ordered it on Ebay from some weird Chinese web-shop, and it was a horrible experience. I'd only get the throat hit with the first two puffs (after that it was like inhaling air), the cartridges leaked all over the place, the battery died and I ended up throwing the whole thing (plus 15 unused cartridges) in the trash.
Now, a year-and-a-half later I really want to give this another try. The reason I have decided to try this again is my wife's complaints, my own health, the horrible cigarette smell in my car and on my clothes, to get rid of that nasty smokers cough I have developed lately and gets the worst at night, and to (hopefully) restore some sense of smell. Not dying of lung cancer in my early 50's would also be a big plus, though I realize nobody actually knows if and how much safer e-cigarettes are. But they can't be any worse then real cigarettes, right?...
I want to do it properly this time though so I am seeking some advise. I have read a lot on this website, but I still have not been able to make a decision on what to buy.
I can justify spending about a 100 bucks to start off with.
From my research so far I have already decided on a few things:
- I like to be able to refill my own cardridges
- I don't care if it looks like a cigarette. An e-cigarette might look like a real one from a distance, they don't "feel" like a cigarette at all. It feels like holding a heavy, thick pen in your mouth. So I am not trying to emulate a cigarette, I just need the "kick" when I'm inhaling.
- I want whatever I end up getting to have the little push-button, instead of it being an automatic one.
- Battery life is really not a very big concern, because I don't smoke all that much anyway. If it lasts a day, I'm good.
- I am looking for something that approaches a traditional tobacco flavor and has a good amount of throat kick.
Now, that last thing is the most important to me. Whether it looks like a cigarette or not is really not that important.
Could someone point me in a good direction somewhere? Right before I registered on this forum I was about to hit the "order" button on an 'Eversmoke e-cig". but then decided against that, because I have a feeling that is going to turn into a disappointment again.
Also, if you have read this far; thank you, and I hope you will be able to give me some advise on this.
First a little about myself. I am currently in my mid-to-late twenties and have been a smoker for almost 16 years. I started smoking when I was 12 years old. I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from buying that first pack with my friends, but that's not an option anymore. The reason I was able to start smoking at such a young age and buy cigarettes is because I grew up in The Netherlands, and at the time there was no real smoking age being enforced. Officially you were not allowed/supposed to be able to buy cigarettes if you were younger then 16, but it usually was not a problem to buy a pack of smokes as a twelve year old.
I switched from smoking filter cigarettes to roll-your-owns pretty soon, because it was much cheaper. A pack of tobacco used to cost the same as a pack of filter cigarettes, but you could get about 50 cigarettes out of a pack of tobacco, versus having 20 in a pack of filter cigarettes.
I have never been a really heavy smoker, but have always preferred a very heavy throat hit. I tend to inhale very deeply. I have never come across a filter cigarette that feels satisfactory, and whenever I bum a filter-cigarette off of someone, I always break the filter off and smoke it by lighting up the end where the filter used to be. If you put the end where you just broke the filter off in your mouth, you'll end up with flakes of tobacco in your mouth, which is pretty disgusting. I learned that pretty quick...
During my teens I would smoke an average of about 12-15 cigarettes a day. This went up slightly when I went to live on my own (since I could smoke in my own house) and I'd smoke about 20 cigarettes a day. Whenever I would have a (beer) party with friends and roommates, this could easily go up to about 50 cigarettes, but that happened maybe once or twice a month. The thing I remember most about those nights where I would smoke a whole pack of tobacco, was that horrible taste in my mouth the next morning. As if a rat died on your tongue, and someone rubbed ash on your teeth...Yuck.
The worst part of living on my own was that I created a habit of smoking my last cigarette in bed; needless to say my bedroom and sheets must have smelled awful.
Not that I would know, because smoking has completely destroyed my sense of smell. I can barely smell anything nowadays.
Now that I am married, moved to the United States (officially immigrated) and living with my (American) wife - who HATES my smoking more then anything - I smoke seven cigarettes a day. Yes, seven. I know the exact number because I have put myself on a smoking diet. I smoke one in the morning on my way to work in the car (my wife also HATES driving my car or being a passenger in it, because of the smell), one at 11 am, two during my lunch-break (beginning and end), one on my way home, one after dinner and one before bed.
My wife is very unhappy with my smoking, because when we first met I actually had quit smoking so she didn't know I smoked. After 8 months of being a non-smoker I ended up at a birthday party, got drunk, lit one up and it went down hill from there. One week later I was smoking again. Buying that first pack of tobacco after so long felt like a humiliating defeat. I succumbed...again, to those nasty cancer sticks.
Even though I don't smoke that much, I just cannot seem to quit. I have tried 8 times, with varying success. The longest time was 8 months, which was also when I met my wife. I think personally for me it's not even the nicotine I am so addicted to, but the throat hit you get when smoking a cigarette.
In my quest to kick this nasty nasty habit, I ordered an e-cig about a year and a half ago. I ordered it on Ebay from some weird Chinese web-shop, and it was a horrible experience. I'd only get the throat hit with the first two puffs (after that it was like inhaling air), the cartridges leaked all over the place, the battery died and I ended up throwing the whole thing (plus 15 unused cartridges) in the trash.
Now, a year-and-a-half later I really want to give this another try. The reason I have decided to try this again is my wife's complaints, my own health, the horrible cigarette smell in my car and on my clothes, to get rid of that nasty smokers cough I have developed lately and gets the worst at night, and to (hopefully) restore some sense of smell. Not dying of lung cancer in my early 50's would also be a big plus, though I realize nobody actually knows if and how much safer e-cigarettes are. But they can't be any worse then real cigarettes, right?...
I want to do it properly this time though so I am seeking some advise. I have read a lot on this website, but I still have not been able to make a decision on what to buy.
I can justify spending about a 100 bucks to start off with.
From my research so far I have already decided on a few things:
- I like to be able to refill my own cardridges
- I don't care if it looks like a cigarette. An e-cigarette might look like a real one from a distance, they don't "feel" like a cigarette at all. It feels like holding a heavy, thick pen in your mouth. So I am not trying to emulate a cigarette, I just need the "kick" when I'm inhaling.
- I want whatever I end up getting to have the little push-button, instead of it being an automatic one.
- Battery life is really not a very big concern, because I don't smoke all that much anyway. If it lasts a day, I'm good.
- I am looking for something that approaches a traditional tobacco flavor and has a good amount of throat kick.
Now, that last thing is the most important to me. Whether it looks like a cigarette or not is really not that important.
Could someone point me in a good direction somewhere? Right before I registered on this forum I was about to hit the "order" button on an 'Eversmoke e-cig". but then decided against that, because I have a feeling that is going to turn into a disappointment again.
Also, if you have read this far; thank you, and I hope you will be able to give me some advise on this.
Last edited:
