Out of Pod Experience

Little late to this convo.

Congrats on losing the sticks Op. I've been vaping for almost 2 years now after smoking a pack a day (Marbs) for the better part of 25 years.

Obviously, I can breath much better, and my sense of smell and taste has improved tremendously. The amount of energy I have has greatly increased, and gone are the disgusting coughs in the morning etc... I wouldn't even consider going back to the smokes.

Half the eCig battle is finding a liquid that suits you. I can't stand the tobacco type liquids anymore, and i tend to lean towards the some of the fruity ones, and some of the sweet ones. Puffing on a great lemon custard flavored one that i hit with a few drops of mint concentrate and loving it. Freaking yummmm x10. For nic strength, use a liquid that just about gives you what you need, then try dropping the strength when you become used to it. I'm at 6mg per ml now.

The other half of the eCig battle is finding decent gear to use. Those little plastic tank starter kits with the eGo battery are great for trying out vaping, but they mute the flavors quite a bit. (Not to mention reloading the 1.6ml tanks, dry hits or burn hits, tight draw, etc...) My current 'out and about' rig is an Aerotank v2 on an eVic mod. With a 2 ohm coil and set to 8 watts, it vapes real nice and holds almost 4ml's of liquid. At home, I have an iTaste 134 and a Russian 91% (1.8ohm micro coil, cotton wicked, @ 9 or 10 watts) to puff on. This beast is about the size of a light sabre and it runs great, but I keep it indoors as not to scare the general public and get the National Guard involved in my nicotine consumption.

Hope ya stick with it and good luck. If I can help answer any questions, feel free to drop an evemail as i tend to lose track of these threads.

o/

The main problem with these things are they are so new that there are no regulations to cover their manufacture.

The result is that some are literally ticking time bombs.

The main problems being shoddy chargers, poor designs or total lack of instructions or warnings over how they are charged.

Daily Mirror - Watch e-cigarette EXPLODE and set fire to barmaid in busy pub

Fox 13 Salt Lake City - Child burned after e-cigarette explodes in car charger

So if you want to use them as a route to help give up, make sure you buy a recognised brand or at least from a reputable shop or company that will refund you if it does explode!

Alerts from our small sector alone in the UK this year has so far had

one exploded while being charged from the office PC USB socket, burning papers on the desk and melting the plastic wood desk surface, no one hurt. The second was a charger caught fire as it was not designed to be left on when there was no e-cigarette plugged in, smoke damage up wall and lost time due to fire alarm evacuation.

Yeah, scare tactics.
You're probably just as likely to get hurt by a laptop, smartphone, or tablet - anything with rechargeable batteries, basically.
And I don't really see anybody throwing those away out of fear.


Wow, has it really been more than a year since that thread?
I highly recommend anybody curious about ecigs to parse that first

By the way, 1037 days since last "analog" cigarette over here (and about 5k USD saved, give or take)
(I was probably smoking somewhere about 500 packs of cigarettes per year before, Pall Mall, mix of lights and regulars)


I use about 400-500 ml per year myself at 24-36 mg/ml
I've switched over to home-made liquids exclusively a few months ago, as I was finding it harder and harder to find decent flavours in 100% PG liquid.

The advantage of 100% PG bases (and by the way, you can find enough of various nicotine concentrations, from 6 mg/ml up to over 60 mg/ml) is that they're so pure that if you add your own flavours in small enough quantities, whenever you exhale after holding the vapor in even one second, you can barely see anything at all.
I call it "stealth vaping"

Also, I really don't mind the nicotine, quite the opposite - it generally replaces coffeine for me, and also doubles as an appetite suppressant (which I can really, really use, given my weight and propensity for gourmet binges).
Therefore, for me at least, it's actually a welcome habit which I'm not likely to quit any time soon even if it wouldn't taste nicely.
So anyway, why not have a pleasant taste/smell to go along with it then?


P.S. Besides, with next to none of the drawbacks of regular smokes, not to speak of some of the benefits (for some people) and a drastically reduced cost, why would you actually want to quit?
Also, whoever said vaping is a gateway thingy for smoking doesn't really have a clue what he's talking about. I wouldn't go back to regular cigarettes even if you gave me a free lifetime supply.

PG is actually both antibacterial and antifungal.
Only liquids with a significant VG component are prone to cause any microbial contamination, with pure PG, no chance.
Even if flavours would be a decent growth medium for any infestation, the fact you only use such a tiny quantity in pure PG makes it next to impossible to have any problems.

I don't really like any particular commercial flavour either.
I used to mix several commercial liquids before to get one that was satisfactory taste-wise.
Nowadays I'm just mixing different amounts but still minuscule quantities of up to a dozen different flavours into the pure PG base.

Last batch was something like:

~9.5 ml 36mg/ml pure PG base
PLUS
1 drop (~0.025ml) menthol flavour
1 drop blackberry flavour
1 drop raspberry flavour
1 drop strawberry flavour
2 drops orange flavour
4+2 drops honey flavours (two different types)
1 drop yellow melon flavour
3 drops grape flavour
2 drops vanilla flavour
1 drop black pepper flavour
1 drop oregano flavour
= ~10 ml home-made liquid of ~34 mg/ml nicotine
...and the flavours are (not at all surprisingly) mostly pure PG themselves with the relevant aromatic compounds thrown in
:P

Side-note:
IF that's what you do want (as I said, it was never my intention to begin with), it is a lot easier to give up nicotine (or at least drastically reduce it) after a successful transition from smoking to vaping.
That's because you have already managed to break a few of the more annoying to give up habits:
- the "fetch and light up a new cigarette" reflex - a pretty powerful one too (I was still reflexively grabbing after a cigarette nearly two months after the transition)
- the "morning wooziness kick" - there's none of that with vaping, the "satiated with nicotine" sensation slowly builds up with vaping, it's not a sudden WHAM like with cigarettes


As to WHEN you should start lowering your nicotine content (without a major risk of "fall-back", that is)?
I'd say whenever you find yourself simply forgetting to draw any puffs from your vaporizer for a few hours even if it's somewhere handy, and whenever you start being repulsed by the smell of fresh "regular cigarette" smoke.
That could be anywhere between 2 months to 6 months after switching, I guess it depends on the person.