Why is there such a fixation with vapor production

[General Idea]

As an offline, OTC ecig seller, it is very important for me for a potential customer and complete vaping virgin to get a huge hit and vapor cloud on their first hit. I let them vape a demo unit with a fresh cart filled with any of 50 flavors free of charge (I try to direct them to a flavor similar to their analogs). I encourage them to stoke on it until they feel satisfied with their nicotine intake.

I stopped carrying the dse901 because of unreliable vapor production. some attys worked great, some really didn't. For those who need something that looks exactly like an analog (also a big first impression request - my 801's rock the house and they're cheaper but many people don't like the way they look) I sell them a white 510 with auto batteries and a red led instead of the 901.

I've actually started mixing in a small amount of VG into my demo/sample bottles to enhance the first impression hit, it smoothes it out and makes it more smoke-like. It's usually immediately after this first ever hit that they either say "cool, I'll take one" or "neat-o but I'm not so sure".

My point is that a lot of novice/virgin vapers will have a lot of preconceived notions about what they want and what would serve as a substitute for analogs to them. after the first week or month of use, either the novelty wears off and their ecig sits on a dresser or they continue their quest for a bigger hit, or better throat hit or the right flavor or longer battery life etc.

I personally need a big hit because I could suck down most of a 100 length analog in under a minute (from a former career in exotic car sales). You can still get bigger hits of an analog than most PV's.

 

[Liz!]

When I used analogs I hated the smoke -- so stinky and dirty. I never smoked in my house because of the stink.

Now I adore being surrounded by a big, luscious, plume of vapor. I fill my office with vapor and it hovers around me like a lovely velvety cloak. Then it's gone, the air is as clear as if the vapor had never been.

Sigh. I love it.

However, I do wish I had another, totally vaporless ecig, for stealthly times.

 

[nubee]

I read an article years back that tied the visual of smoking to the pleasure effect.

They suggested smoking with your eyes closed to 'feel' it first hand. I have to admit, without the visual, it wasn't the same for me - same for vapor.

I'm at a low, 18mg, nic level and really like the vapor more than the throat hit so clouds are key for me

 

[closetrockstar]

It's all about throat hit for me, then taste. I stealth vape at work and just hold it in so there isn't much if anything exhaled. If I know (by smell) that a patient is a smoker, I will pull it out and tell them about the e-cig. I've turned several people on to these things that way.

 

[crashtestjeep]

When I was a kid, I watched plumes of smoke flow from my mothers mouth and nose, and thought about how magical that looked to me. For years, i wanted to do it myself, but didnt know how, and knew I wasnt supposed to. When I was 9 yrs old, my parents left me alone for the first time. I was sooooo excited! I took a pack of smokes from my moms carton in the freezer, lit one up, and blew that plume of smoke from MY mouth and nose! From then on, I too, was a magician. To this day, Im still facinated w/the plumes, only theyre plumes of vapor! I still catch myself in the mirror sometimes, watching as blow out a huge cloud of vapor from my Chuck Thats my ONLY reason for smoking/vaping...Sounds kinda dumb, but its 100% HONEST!

 

[fester]

Rand:
"I like to think of fire held in a man's hand. Fire, a dangerous force, tamed at his fingertips. I often wonder about the hours when a man sits alone, watching the smoke of a cigarette, thinking. I wonder what great things have come from such hours. When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind--and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression."

And she was not the only one who looked at it along those lines:

"Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his finger tips still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him and his gaze directed upwards to the ceiling. Then he took down from the rack the old and oily clay pipe , which was to him as a counselor, and, having it, he leaned back in his chair, with the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of infinite languor in his face."

Holmes again, to Watson:
"It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes."

Or, we can remember the case in which Holmes needed a pound of the strongest shag tobacco to resolve the problem and stayed alone all the day smoking, and Watson found him in a sort of trance, in a room that "was so filled with the smoke that the light of the lamp upon the table was blurred by it and my first impression as I opened the door was that a fire has broken out".

If you can grab any positive significance from that, then you have might have an idea of what it means to me.

Excellent post by Kent C.

Yes...the contemplative nature of smoke. The affirmation of the process. The satisfaction of production. The particular form of solitude accompanied by the byproduct of the cause of that solitude.

 

[olderthandirt]

Throat hit is of no importance to me. The feeling of "full" lungs and plenty o' vapor are what flips my switch.

All the previous posts regarding the visual aspects and how that is a psychological factor of our addiction/habit are right on.

There's also the tactile aspect for me. Slowly exhaling large amounts of heavy vapor, slowly, gently enough so it drifts up the front of my face has a very meditative effect. Kind of along the Holmesian 3 pipes thing brought up by Kent.

I think it may have been started by liscab, but there was a thread a while back asking did you look in the mirror? Oh yes! And any other reflective surface. Makes me smile

 

[cliff5550]

I don't really need much vapor plume. Wife does. With me, it's all about the throat hit.

 

[just-a-nobody]

My dog seems to like the vapor more than I do, she'll sit on my lap and sniff every time I exhale vapor, she never did that with analogs...lol.

 

[RenaissancePuffer]

Aside from the pleasure of seeing the vapor, which takes the place of smoke, it's also a great way to diagnose problems with a PV.

 

[KermieD]

I really don't care about the visual effect of exhaling a lot of vapor, but when I am vaping a device that gives a lot of vapor production, it just feels like a more substantial vape, like it fills up my lungs a bit.

I need to feel it when I inhale and exhale. It's just more satisfying. If the vapor is weak, it just doesn't work for me.

This I understand and agree with. I guess I need to get my terminology straight, as I associated that more with the "throat hit" than "vapor" since I have gotten that experience with some drags that have produced very little in the way of visual vapor and not gotten it with some that produce tons of visual vapor.

 

[martha1014]

I like the vapor it produces but it is not as important as the throat hit.
I really would rather is not produce too much vapor so it would not bring unwanted attention.

 

[Kent C]

This I understand and agree with. I guess I need to get my terminology straight, as I associated that more with the "throat hit" than "vapor" since I have gotten that experience with some drags that have produced very little in the way of visual vapor and not gotten it with some that produce tons of visual vapor.

Good point. It is both the inflow and outflow. The outflow is like an exclamation point on the inflow. ;-)