Excellent - thanks so much. I’m happy to hear it’s not the nicotine content that matters - I’d like to cut that out ASAP.
I’ve used only the fake cigarette styles, and I get what you’re saying. The big ones just look so goofy to me, but since I’m seeing them more and more, I won’t feel like such a weirdo. 
I’ll stroll into the one of the several good vape shops we have around here and see what works for me. Thanks!
One of the beauties I’ve found with ecigs is it doesn’t matter, puff away until you are content. I know when I drank, I’d have a proclivity for chain smoking. and of course, the next day, I’d wake up with “leather lung”.
With ecigs, I can puff away obsessively and wake up the next morning feeling just fine. You only have to worry about nicotine overdose if you intend to drink the stuff straight from the bottle.
WhyNot, excellent explainer. Question: How do you come up with your flavors? I have found that I like adult, complex and multi-layered flavors, and I am not confident in my ability to replicate them.
I agree that something that is not actually trying to be or taste like a cigarette will not work for many people. E-cigs are NOT CIGARETTES. I figured early on that anything that simply tried to feel and taste like a cigarette was bound to fail me, since it would fall short and just leave me wanting to smoke.
Everyone’s mileage varies, but the key thing for me was and is really excellent and tasty juice. Once I found my sweet spot, I realised that smoking a cigarette was quite nasty, and inhaling complex, well-crafted e-juice negated the urge to light up.
Definitely you have to get used to a different type of nicotine-delivery because you can’t vape intensely for seven minutes, then be good until the next smoke break. Or at least, I can’t.
stui magpie, congratulations!
The person who was most instrumental in turning me on to e-cigs is a non-smoker with a husband who smokes. She told me that there was not only zero odor, but a nice odor depending on what he was vaping, and she didn’t mind him vaping in her new car. Because she smelled absolutely nothing, except maybe a hint of nuts or vanilla or cinammon or whatever flavor he was using at the time.
Bam Boo Gut, that’s hard to beat! Although cost wasn’t on my radar when I first quit - health issues were the thing. After a while I figured I was spending about $200 a month on smokes, and about $80 on average vaping. So cost was a nice side benefit.
“37 years with e-cigs”? Wow, you must have been in the earliest test group! 
J/K…congratulations, and best of luck in the future!
I haven’t really tried to replicate anything yet. I buy my flavors from vaporshots.com (again, there are plenty of other places; I can say that these guys have excellent customer service, but I’m not trying to throw them business by naming names) The flavors are concentrated premixed, and I’ve been pretty happy with all of them so far. My favorite is their copycat version of Tribeca, which was also my favorite off-the-shelf flavor. It’s one of those called “tobacco” but which don’t actually taste like tobacco to me. (None of the ones called tobacco taste like tobacco to me, but I like the taste anyhow.)
I made one blend from their flavors - I think it was DeKang tobacco blend with chocolate and a splash of caramel - and it was really dreadful. It tasted, of all things, like pure cinnamon. wtf? I learned from that to make singles of each flavor and then play with mixing them in my tank. That way I don’t waste a whole 10mL of something I end up hating. They’re all okay as singles, and when I find a combination of singles that taste good together, then I’ll write the recipe down and start working on a blend in a single bottle.
I’ve got a couple of essential oils that I will vape, but those have to be very very very well diluted. They’re also not soluble in water, pg or vg, so if you’re using essential oils, you need to add a little high proof grain alcohol to the liquid to act as a solvent and emulsifier. Eucalyptus and grapefruit (essential oils) is not exactly tasty, but boy does it clear out the lung gunk in no time flat. I use it when I feel a summer chest cold coming on (I get one every July when I go camping for a month.)
There’s a lot of good information on mixing your own eliquids over here: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/74109-guide-diy-flavoring.html#post1097230
[Insert large disclaimer here: Almost NOTHING has been tested and approved for inhalation, expect for menthol. Proceed at your own risk. If it gives you pneumonia and makes you grow a third eye, please post pics of your third eye.]
I don’t believe one can smell the vapor unless it is one of the strangely flavored ones.
Once again, I am very annoyed at the position taken by Health Canada on this matter (they have held that e-cigs are a ‘medical device’ requiring a licence, which they will not grant, as it has no health-related indications: effectively, they are outlawed).
I quit smoking cold turkey many years ago; but I look at e-cigs as a perfectly valid harm reduction mechanism for those that cannot. I do not see a justification for forcing people to keep smoking the most harmful possible way, if there is a much-less-harmful alternative.
19-year smoker here. (Holy crap, that’s the first time in a while that I’ve calculated that! Not good.)
Anyway, I’ve tried cold turkey, nicotine gum, patches, and Chantix. The Chantix had me quit for a year and a half, but I was told it turned me into a real asshole.
This thread has really inspired me. I’ll probably roll down to a highly Yelp-rated vape shop in town next paycheck.
The advice I’m hearing in this thread is to not try to find real tobacco-flavored juice, right?
I haven’t read the entire thread but at the risk of contradicting anyone I would recommend you get a couple of tobacco style flavors to try them out, and several others to try too.
In my experience most people I’ve known who start out vaping to quit or reduce tobacco use are 100% sure that they will need tobacco flavor and that they absolutely won’t like any other flavor. Over time they start to experiment with various other flavors and usually find that they do like some of them after all. With most vape flavors you will either love them or hate them right away but I have found a few that grew on me over time and a few I liked at first but don’t anymore. There is a lot of personal taste and temporary whim involved. Right now I am enjoying a mix of a Turkish tobacco flavor mixed with another flavor called “red and wild” (?), mixed with just a dash of watermelon. Hey don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
I mentioned this video in another e-cig thread a while back. It is a great starting point for an introduction to basic vaping concepts like resistance vs. voltage and various types of tanks, atomizers, batteries, etc. The specific brands and juices mentioned are probably a bit out of date by now but the basic concepts haven’t changed.
Didn’t work for me - there are so many amazing flavors out there to try, tobacco-flavored juice is IMHO besides the point.
Your mileage may vary though. It’s great that you have a brick and mortar vape shop near you, hopefully it’s one that lets you sample flavors. Good luck!
ETA, what CrazyHorse said, too.
Non smoker here. I’m with phouka. Yay for vaping! Such in improvement in every way.
As I said when I had a gastric bypass to lose weight (still the best decision I ever made) if it won’t happen in the way it “should”, then it should happen in a way that will.
When you go to the vape shop, they will probably have a hundred or so little bottles out for sampling. They will give you a disposable tip on one of their tanks for hygienic reasons, and they’ll show you how to vape and let you try all the flavors you like. So plan on spending some time there on your first visit. Also bring a notepad so you can jot down your favorites as you’re trying them.
And to clarify: my favorite flavor is indeed a tobacco flavor, as they are categorized and described by vapers. I just don’t personally think it tastes much like tobacco.
You know how watermelon candies don’t taste like watermelon, but they taste good anyhow? That’s how tobacco eliquids are for me. YMMV.
So I only smoke when I drink. I would like to stop this horrible habit. Would an e-cig vape thing be a good idea for me? And it seems I’d want the tobacco flavored “juice.” I would want it to be the most like a real cigarette as possible.
I’ve got several friends who only smoked when they drank who have successfully switched to vaping. YMMV, of course.
Give it a shot - buy one of the disposables (I see them in gas stations everywhere now), leave your cigarettes at home and see how it feels. I started out with disposables and leaving the house for short periods of time without my smokes (an anxiety-inducing exercise, at first!) Such as a three-hour excursion for dog training class, or just running errands. I found that quite manageable.
As said upthread, vaping isn’t just like smoking. There’s a different rhythm to it that doesn’t work for everybody but you won’t know until you try.
I tried the NJoy (or however it’s spelled) and it didn’t work at all. There was no “throat burn” and hardly any smoke came out when I exhaled. Didn’t keep me from smoking at all!
Yeah, they didn’t work for me in the long run for me for the same reasons. However two-plus years ago, there were only none or two disposable e-cig options, now I see all sorts of brands. So perhaps there are better disposable options out there now.
Or you could buy a “starter kit” and some juice, which shouldn’t set you back any more that $50. I’d recommend the KGO 1100 mAh kit - I use this vendor a lot but you may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.
Yeah I think I need the starter kit. I am weird about smoking. I haven’t had a smoke in two weeks, but the first time I am in a bar setting and I’ve had a few I start fiending.
If it doesn’t work out for you, send me a PM - I use KGO batteries and I’d buy them from you.
Awesome, thanks.