Anyone have any recommendations? A friend is having success with Njoy, but she only smokes in the evening when she drinks. I’ve maxed out on 20 - 30 strong cigarettes per day on a bad day and would like to substitute with these e fags, any comments would be helpful particularly as I would have to be mail ordering overseas and wouldn’t want to run the risk of running out mid-quit.
My Mom uses V2cigs and likes them very much. They are US based though.
I read a review somewhere of several different kinds, (sorry, don’t remember where) and the consensus was that N-joy tasted the most like “normal” cigarettes.
There are quite a few options out there, and it really depends on what you are looking to substitute. Do you want flavours that match cigarette flavours? Or do you want something that will give you the same sensation as sucking down smoke?
I recently got an e cigarette kit after sick of smelling like smoke and feeling like crap that I spend $50 a month on cigarettes. I wasn’t a heavy smoker, but all the negatives were enough to make me quit. I found that just a few weeks before I quit, I really hated the taste of cigarettes, so getting e juice flavours in chocolate and mango is really working. I got a version of the Ego series… but what I did, since there was a restriction on nicotine juice in my country is get the hardware from a Chinese vendor, and got the juice in-country instead of paying inflated prices for the hardware AND juice. If you live in the States and can wait for international shipping delays, you can cut costs by ordering everything from China.
Check out the E Cigarette Forum. There are many experts there that will be able to give you better answers about this than people here.
I’ve used E2, NJoy, Blu and Mistic.
E2 was great, but I don’t like relying on internet ordering and paying shipping. Our mail is unpredictable sometimes, and I live with a smoker, so I don’t want to be out of carts and waiting with tobacco in the house taunting me with its nicotiney goodness…
NJoy I found to be too “airy” with a noisy draw and not very good throat hit. Shame, since it’s sold at the store literally steps away from my door.
Blu is convenient to buy (Walgreens, a large drugstore chain, carries them), but the battery life is a joke (the batteries are small and they rely on a charging case, rather than a decent battery size - you charge the case and then use the case to charge the batteries, but it means swapping batteries out many times a day) and most of the batteries (4 now) have lasted less than 2 weeks before the draw becomes incredibly hard and only works every 2 or 3 “puffs”. Plus, the carts are glycerin based, and I like propylene glycol, in terms of flavor, vapor production and throat hit.
Mistic is my favorite for taste, battery life, vapor production and throat hit. It’s only available at Walmart that I can find, though, and I live in the only place in America without a convenient Walmart (city of Chicago). Still, I prefer it enough that I try to stock up on carts when I’m near a Walmart, and I keep the Blu as a backup for when I can’t get the Mistic.
So I’d suggest E2 or Mistic, of the four that I’ve tried. But it’s kind of like suggesting a cigarette brand: people like what they like, and if you suggest Marlboro to a Newport fan, they’re going to think you’re insane. Try a couple, and see what you like. Don’t be turned off the whole idea of them if the first one you try doesn’t do it for you.
On the flavors: I don’t feel like *any *of them taste like tobacco to me, but apparently I’m in the minority there, as other vapers will hand me an ecig all excited that “it really tastes like tobacco!” and I try it and think, “No, not really…” But I find that I don’t care if it tastes like tobacco, I like the flavor, whatever it is. And I enjoy some of the funky flavors a lot more than I thought I would (Cola? Really? Yes, really) while I’m not a fan of the ones I thought I’d like (Chocolate has been mostly disappointing for me.) So don’t assume you know what you’ll like before you try it. ETA: I was a menthol smoker before ecigs, but I don’t like any of the menthol ecigs.
Pay attention to throat hit as well. I’ve wasted some money on ecigs that have a pull like a Carlton. Try Greensmoke for one that has a good, strong pull that mimics a cigarette.
Also, do not be intimidated by people who talk about “vaping” and say you’re not doing it right if you don’t have a $300 kit where you fill cartridges by hand and have a hand-tooled leather case for your “gear”. There’s nothing wrong with just starting with filled cartridges and a regular ecig that looks like a cigarette. The forums are bad for this, and may lead to confusion and intimidation.
You don’t need to be worrying about overfilling a cartridge and getting liquid nicotine on your lips right now - just focus on switching habits. That’s hard enough as it is.
Good luck!
Absolutely agree! Like any niche, there are some people who just get crazy technical with this stuff, and can scare the potential user away. I have refilled carts, and it’s kind of fun and much cheaper and I’ve even played a little with blending my own flavors*, but 90% of the time I prefer to use an off the shelf cart for convenience, and I *like *the “looks like a cigarette” kind! Cigarettes are a classic shape for a reason - they work.
*Got sick with the plague once since I started vaping, and I put a couple of drops of eucalyptus essential oil in a cart along with some menthol/mint eliquid. Bam! - instant portable Vicks vaporizer! Broke up all that lung gunk in less than 2 hours. (Note: this is not medical advice and I probably gave myself 12 kinds of cancer in doing so. Didn’t care, I could breathe again.)
Be aware that virtually all nicotine AFAIK is imported and although it’s been a few years since I’ve researched this, I’m fairly certain the source is virtually always China–as it is with so many other unregulated chemicals.
I once had the temerity to raise this issue on an e-cig forum and was promptly banned.
If you raise the issue with various suppliers, the responses tend to vary from outright honesty to evasiveness, with their being heavily skewed to the latter. And that assumes that you actually get to talk to someone who might know the answer to your question.
I did eventually find a UK supplier that uses GCMS to screen their input components and it was worth it to me to go the extra mile so to speak. However I suspect that I am in a very tiny minority.
Any thoughts on Volt? I read some forums a while back and decided to give them a try. I picked up two sampler packs. One that was fruity flavors and one that was tobacco flavors. Of all of them, the only one I really cared for was Watermelon so I just picked up some Watermelon juice from them so I could refill it. I also picked up 5 empty carts so I could pick up the e-juice from other places as well.
Originally I was going to try Blu or Johnson Creek because the E-Juice is made about 50 miles away from me, but they only got so so reviews. Blu uses Johnson Creek E-Juice.
The other mistake I made was getting ones with no nicotine. I’d drag on the e-cigarette for 20 minutes and then go outside and have a real one. When I ordered the refill I got the one with the lowest amount of nicotine in it. I can go all day without a cigarette, but puffing on something and not getting the nicotine apparently messes with my head (as does the crackling sound).
I’m curious. Are the benefits of switching to an eCig primarily economic? Or are their health benefits as well?
Does it help people quit nicotine use completely or just wean them off smoking?
My chronic gunky lungs are a thing of the past, along with smoker’s cough and pain in my chest. I sometimes get a tickly annoying throat cough that last a few minutes, but it’s not nearly so uncomfortable. ETA: My endurance and activity tolerance have increased too, unsurprisingly.
I’ve got friends who weaned down and eventually quit the ecig as well. I’m not particularly interested in that (unless they make them illegal, which is a real danger) because I enjoy it. I was one of those smokers who would quit for 6 months* or a year or even longer and then give in to a trigger and start again. And living with a smoker, the triggers are near constant. I’d rather enjoy this and keep using this than go back to cigarettes.
I like the nicotine, and I do keep watch on my blood pressure and heart rate to make sure I’m not becoming prehypertensive. If I do, I’ll switch to no nicotine carts. Until then, it helps control my appetite: I’m down 53 pounds since I started the ecig in May. (Not just because of the ecig, but it helps.) 
I wish I could recommend the ecig to my smoking patients who want to quit, but as it’s not FDA approved as a smoking cessation device, I can’t.
*My latest experience was about a year ago. In Sept 2011, my SO was scheduled for major abdominal surgery. I convinced him we should quit smoking together to shorten his time on a ventilator and speed his healing. We both quit; he started smoking again in January. I stayed quit until May when we went camping for Beltaine. Then I gave in to the sitting-around-a-campfire-with-smokers trigger and bummed 2 smokes off him that night. The next morning my lungs felt like they were on fire, and I knew I had to go into town and find an ecig to stave off bumming more smokes. Been happily vaping since.
There are definitely health benefits - all you are inhaling is water vapor and nicotine. No tar, no smoke, no uranium, etc. Very rarely, someone has an allergic reaction to either the propylene or vegetable glycol, but then they can switch to the other kind.
The best thing when compared to the patch or gum is that is replicates so much of the smoking experience, like the inhaling and having something to do with your hands. So much of what the addiction is for many people is the process of smoking, which gum and patches don’t address. There are lots of people who use an ecig, and use non- nicotine cartridges.
I don’t understand why there is such resistance to approval of ecigs, and it betrays a huge misunderstanding on the part of non-smokers about addiction.
Since it would essentially be a new OTC medication, wouldn’t you need to go through the standard Phase I-III clinical trials? In which case, who would pay for that?
And what ingredients would be used in the study? Nicotine obviously, but what about the glycol? Sure that’s used in theatrical smoke generators but technically it’s not intended for long term use as an inhalant. And what about flavorings?
Also, the FDA would then have to regulate and oversee the manufacture of the nicotine as well as the other ingredients. That would be great, but I don’t know if the FDA is really looking to do more with less.
Are you kidding? They’re new, but lots of studies have been done, particularly in Europe, and the health effects are slim, including a study that found an much reduced effect on heart health vs. cigarettes, studies that found only trace amounts of chemicals found in cigarettes and studies that say no carcinogens or toxins are found in ecigs.
In addition, the glycol compounds used in ecigs are the same as those found in asthma inhalers. That’s where the technology came from.
There is no reason to classify ecigs as a “drug” and thereby subject it to FDA regs. It is just a “tobacco product” with no tobacco and should be treated as such. Smoking is deadly, deadly, deadly, and if we could magically convert all smokers to ecig users, the savings in health and lives would be tremendous.
I got so pissed at people like you, who I assume is a non-smoker, who want to issue edicts and shame smokers. You want to cut what could very well be a lifeline to an addict? Why?
I’m not sure what you’re problem is but all I did was ask a legitimate question. Were nicotine lozenges and gum subjected to an FDA approval process? IDK, but I’m betting they were. If so wouldn’t it stand to reason that e-cigs would have to be subjected to at least that same standard.
Beyond that, as something that is inhaled, there is a greater risk of infection and negative health consequences due to the simple fact that one’s lungs do not have the same same robust defenses as say the gastrointestinal tract. That’s the main reason that glycol would have to be scrutinized for long term use as an inhalant.
As for my personal history, that’s none of you business but I’ll give you hint. Why the fuck to you think I know so much about this shit? Take a wild fucking guess.
Fair enough - I apologize. But the bullshit surrounding ecigs makes me crazy. I’ll stop littering up the thread with this hijack. But I encourage you to look at the research that’s already been done - there’s lots of it.
Hmm, now I’m feeling more confused. Need to work out how many puffs equals what because I’ll need to order a goodly amount on the first go, probably ship directly from China
For most brands, one prefilled cartridge is roughly equal to one pack. If you refill a cartridge, using 1mL of fluid fills it back up to roughly equal one pack. I used to be a pack a day smoker, now I’m a cartridge a day vaper.
But I would not recommend ordering a goodly amount on the first go. You’re likely to end up with something you don’t like, a bunch of wasted money and a blazing resentment against e-cigarettes. I know it’s a pain to do more than one order and it’s more expensive with shipping, but I don’t know *anyone *who fell in love with their first brand and didn’t switch at least once.
Thanks Why Not and everyone else who responded. So just get something to get the ball rolling you think? I like the ones that look like cigarettes. If you run out I suppose you just go back to smoking fags, or do you find you have the odd fag anyway?
Volcano Inferno.
I went through the whole realism thing and progressed to the Inferno pretty quickly. You don’t need pretty, glowing tips, slim designs, or tabacco taste. All you need is throat hit and a plume of vapor. The Volcano Inferno will make you happy. Oh, with Clearomizers.