What is the difference in the experience from the point of view of the smoker? Taste, relaxation, the buzz, addictiveness, cost, the coolness factor? (I grew up in an era when smoking was very cool.)
Full disclosure: I smoked cigarettes for a few months about 30 years ago, but I don’t remember much about it. It never became a habit.
Misunderstood the question. Nm
To me, smoking a cig is much more satisfying and relaxing than vaping. It’s not just about the nicotine delivery, it’s the ritualistic and social connections associated with smoking that was key for me.
Sharing a smoke with someone is more satisfying than hitting a vape pen whenever you feel like. And smoking a cig actually sets a time limit on the activity (outside of chain smoking of course).
I know people at work who sneak a hit of a vape pen in the bathroom. It just seems like an secretive activity more associated with drug use in that aspect. Not social at all.
Explain this aspect of vaping. There’s nothing comparable to lighting a cigarette and then when it’s done, you’re done for the moment?
There’s definitely no coolness factor. In old movies, there’s nothing sexier than a man lighting a woman’s cigarette. That would not carry over to a vape pen.
What about cost? I know cigarettes have gotten very expensive. When my dad bought a carton of ciggies at the PX in the 1950s, I think the carton cost 2.50. Ha! Of course, gasoline was .20 per gal well into the early 1970s, so there’s that.
Discourse has helpfully interpreted the text between your 2 Dollar signs
as MathJax.
To prevent this, put a back slash in front of them…
\$ 2.50 Ha! Of course, gasoline was \$.20 per gal
$ 2.50 Ha! Of course, gasoline was $.20 per gal
For me, the main difference is flavor. I’ve tried vaping, but the cloying flavors of most of them are just disgusting. The ones that attempt to be smoke flavored taste almost, but not quite, entirely unlike cigarette smoke.
That, along with the difference in sensation between a vapor and smoke is what has kept me on cigarettes or a pipe, and away from vaping.
I have a few friends who vape. It’s definitely not about being cool or sociable for them; it’s about nicotine delivery that doesn’t impose disgusting smoke on the people around them and doesn’t make them and their clothes smell like an ash tray.
For my son it’s thenot chugging out smoke, and odor. And holy crap at this point its much cheaper. Also, no butts, or dirty ashtrays. It slso doesn’t stain his fingers or the wall. He likes the flavors.
I like him doing that better than smoking but I wish he would quit.
Thanks. I usually know to do that, but I didn’t reread after I posted it
I have a spreadsheet from 2011 (three years after starting vaping) where I attempted to calculate the price difference. At that time cigarettes were 3 times the cost of vaping.
I don’t know if the OP meant to include cannabis in this discussion, but if so: convenience, convenience, and convenience. A (tobacco) cigarette will last you, what, five minutes? A J will last 45. If you smoke an entire joint, especially with the type of cannabis that’s on the legal market today, in five minutes, you’re going to pass out.
I’m not 100% sure what you’re asking here. Are you just asking how vapes work? There’s nothing analogous to lighting a cigarette; you just suck on the vape and it immediately heats up and delivers the vapor. When you stop sucking, the heating element shuts down. You can immediately stick the vape in your pocket, and take the next hit five seconds later or five hours later. Some vapes do have a button to preheat the element before you inhale, which increases the amount of vapor somewhat, but I’ve never seen one where it was necessary to use the button.
I didn’t particularly, but I welcome all comments.
I guess I was. Your answer is explanatory. I didn’t know if there was some sort of canister that you suck on until it is empty or what. What is the source of the heat in the heating element? The process does sound really convenient.
Yeah, I could google this, but I like getting answers from people. So sue me.
I have Ego-t ecigs, whatever that stands for. They have reservoirs of fluid connected to a tubular battery with a switch on the side. The fluid is vaporized by a filament powered by the battery. The general shape is that of a small cigar. My wife has rectangular boxes that work on vaporizing fluid from a sponge with a battery. There is switch that is activated by inhaling from a mouth piece.
A smoke break as pointed out not timed by the cigarette, I give it five minutes or so.
My wife has flavored e-liquid, I searched the world over and found an e-liquid that tastes like tobacco. My fluid has nicotine, hers does not.
You haven’t mentioned vaping here …
And no one has mentioned dry herb vaporizers.
I used to smoke tobacco. Then tobacco + cannabis. Then tobacco started to make me feel sick, so I switched to cannabis + rolling mix (first Greengo , then dried marshmallow leaves).
Then someone suggested I try a dry herb vaporizer, which is much smoother.
I put neat weed in it. No rolling mix. No chemicals. No combustion, so no
smoke. No coughing. No cigarette stink on clothes.
I tried vaping very briefly, didn’t like it.* The people I know who vape do it because they want to give up smoking but are struggling to do so. So they vape, and still have the occasional cigarette because vaping doesn’t quite cut it. The enormous downside to this is that they are vaping much more than they ever smoked because, as you rightly pointed out, there’s no shut off, so their nicotine addiction is going through the roof. Which makes it even harder for them to give up smoking.
I think vaping is going to turn out to be one of the worst things we’ve created since cigarettes were invented - we have almost no idea of the potential harms to health. I would ban them alongside tobacco.