A beginners guide to Vaping
The Basics Before we get into tanks, cartomizers, different devices and what they do lets go over the very basics. Its always good to start at the beginning I guess. Hopefully we can get a general idea of how it all works, then I can confuse the crap out of you. Well lets hope not anyway. So to start, what is an E cigarette or vaping? An E cig is an electric device that vaporizes a liquid via a heating coil in order for it to be inhaled. Using such a device is considered to be "vaping" Hence the terms Electronic Cigarette and Vaping. Since an E cig produces vapor rather than smoke we prefer to be called vapers and not "smokers" . An E cig can be of various designs and is sometimes called a Personal Vaping Device, or a PV. The E cig name most likely came from the first designs that looked a lot like an analog cigarette. You will hear the term Analogs frequently in the vaping community, this refers to a regular tobacco cigarette you light up and smoke. As technology has progressed a lot of the current products look nothing like a traditional cigarette and get more high tech as the months go by. We will discuss this later. You can still get the small E cig kits and even disposables though. So how does it work? On a very very basic level it works like a flashlight. A battery is used to provide current to heat up a small coil. The difference being with a flashlight the coil is in a bulb and the heat is turned to light. With an E cig the coil is either surrounded by a wicking material or inside a tank with a wick running through the coil. When the coil heats up it vaporizes the liquid. The liquid is normally referred to as E juice. We will discuss Juice later, but to put it simply the juice is made up of PG, VG or a combination of both, flavoring, and nicotine in different choices of level. Unless you choose 0 nicotine, then there is no nicotine in the solution. The next obvious question would be is it safe? Well, I would say define safe. We are talking about a battery powered device that vaporizes liquid to be inhaled. And it is used to deliver flavoring and nicotine directly into your lungs. Could the batteries blow up? Sure, but so could your cell phone, laptop or vibrator. Is the vaporized fluid safe to breathe? Well compared to what, clean oxygen, probably not. Any doctor would tell you not breathing anything into your lungs would be the best bet. However is it safer than a regular cigarette, without a doubt. Is it safer to those around you, without a doubt. We have no long term studies on inhaling food flavorings of course, but initial testing has shown it is not harmful and if it is we are talking magnitudes lower than cigarette smoke. PG and VG is perfectly safe and has been used for years so that really isn't an issue. And nicotine, while it is a drug it really is not that harmful for you. Its a mild stimulant like caffeine. Nicotine does not increase your chances of getting cancer, that was the thousands of other chemicals produced when burning a cigarette. So nicotine really isn't harmful to you, it was the delivery method that sucked. Do keep in mind though nicotine in high doses can be fatal to humans and pets, so keep it in a safe place and use it in a way where a child or pet cannot drink it or lick it up if you spill it. I can't speak for all E juice, but all of it I have purchased had child safety caps on it. I cannot see anyway you could overdose or become inebriated by it once vaporized. Your body simply does not absorb enough of it fast enough for that to happen. No one in their right mind is going to tell you that vaping is “good” for you, that would just be insane. What we can tell you is it is much much better than smoking analog cigarettes. And this is not just hype or guessing, there have been actual studies. Most look at it as a safer alternative to smoking, or harm reduction. I would never suggest that someone that has never smoked a day in their lives go out and buy an E cigarette. I don't care how good some of the flavors are, just stick to candy if you have a sweet tooth. But if you are trying to stop smoking, on the fence, or looking for a safer way to do it then by all means this is worth looking at. What I can tell you for sure won't happen is that you wont fall asleep at night with a lit cigarette and burn your house down. Or drop an ash and burn your clothes, furniture or bed spread. Or flick a butt out the window and have it fly back in and burn your car seat. There are no lighters and nothing really burns. Not to mention you will smell better as well. One of my current favorites is a French Toast flavor. Now instead of my car smelling like an ashtray it smells like a Denny's. Which would you rather ride in? How difficult is it to switch from smoking to vaping? Well, that really depends on the individual and what you are willing to sacrifice, or how much you enjoy it. Some pick up an E cig and never look back. Other people will never quit smoking, period. It is engrained in them so deep they either can't or simply don't want to stop. To be quite honest if I went to the doctor and he said I had to quit eating pizza and steak my reaction would be “wow, guess I am going to die then.”. I think it is also going to depend on what type of smoker you are and what you are looking to get out of it. If you smoke 3 packs of unfiltered lucky strikes a day and want to duplicate that experience exactly it might be hard. If you chain smoke and inhale directly into your lungs it also might be difficult. If you are resistant to change it might be difficult. However if you are say someone that smokes a pack a day of ultra lights, and or inhales into your mouth, then breathes in and really wants a change I think it would be quite easy. Also if you smoke cigars or a pipe I think once you get over the differences you will love it. Actually I think where vaping really shines is comparing it to pipe smoking. If you currently smoke a pipe then getting a really nice PV and switching should be pretty easy and quite satisfying. Prices are comparable to a nice pipe, it is no less involved, just different. And the amount of flavors available are stunning. You can even get PVs that look just like pipes now. I am not going to sit here and blow vapor up your ass and tell you it is the same thing as pulling a pack of cigs out, lighting one and taking a drag. It is a mechanical and electronic device that holds fluid. There is a bit of tinkering and maintenance to be done. Unless you are using disposables. And the chances of you finding a flavor that tastes just like smoking a cigarette are probably pretty slim because most of the taste is burning paper, leaves and chemicals. That being said, there are thousands of flavors out, if you can't find one or two you like I don't know what to tell you. Don't tell me your first cigarette tasted good or was enjoyable, we all know better. This is something you got used to over time because you became dependent on nicotine. Imagine if you could get the nicotine, along with the behavioral habits of smoking but have it not make you dizzy, sick and tasted like butterscotch? Well guess what you can, the problem is it isn't EXACTLY like smoking a cigarette, but its darn close. Oh and guess what, it probably won't kill you or give your pets and family cancer. You never know though, 10 years from now we might find out inhaling food flavoring causes you to go blind or something. Well they used to say masturbating would make you go blind too, I sure didn't stop doing that lol. And if I remember correctly years ago they said chocolate chip cookies could cause cancer. I assure you if you put a plate of cookies in front of me I will eat them. Two more things I want to discuss before getting into the more technical stuff is Throat Hit and technique. First of all is Technique, by this I mean how you draw the vapor into your lungs. Most smokers take a drag on a cigarette and breathe it directly into their lungs. Where as with a cigar or a pipe you suck it into your mouth, then inhale (or not). Vaping tends to be more like a cigar or a pipe. You suck on it like a straw drawing the vapor into your mouth, often taking a few primer puffs, then breathe it in and exhale. Some breathe directly into their lungs, but this produces a stronger throat hit. Throat hit is that feeling you get on the back of your throat when you inhale and exhale. It is what makes you cough. Much like a cigarette where you can feel it absorbing the nicotine. However the throat hit is “different” with an E cig, I can't explain how, it just is. The majority of people I have seen use an E cig for the first time cough because of the throat hit. Especially if they breathe directly into their lungs. And just like with analog cigarettes, you get used to it and don't notice. Again, another sacrifice you have to make. And many things can effect this. One being nicotine level, higher levels equal more throat hit. It can also depend on the current and ohms of the devices, we will talk more about that later. Basically if you increase the current on your device, or decrease the resistance on your coil it will draw more amps and the coil will get hotter. In some cases this is good, it gives you more vapor and flavor. On the down side it can also give you more throat hit. And if you go too far you will actually get a burnt taste. Also higher levels of PG tend to give you more of a throat hit where as VG gives you less. It is a give and take though, PG carries flavor better and VG tends to mute it. My guess would be it also carries the nicotine better as well. I could be completely wrong about that though, I am not a scientist or chemist. Another thing to quickly comment on is vapor production. From what I have noticed almost all E cigs are going to produce more vapor than the amount of smoke a normal cigarette will produce. But really it is all subjective and greatly varies depending on the device, settings, liquid and how you use it. Some could care less about vapor production, others want that huge cloud of full thick vapor. Keep in mind when you see someone using an e cig either in person or in a video it is very easy to control the amount of vapor depending on how you inhale and exhale. If you take a large slow inhale and exhale it right away it will produce much more vapor. If you inhale and hold it in your lungs for a moment it will greatly reduce the amount of vapor. You can even exhale with no vapor production at all if you do it right. So watching someone else use a device or fluid really isn't a good gauge unless you know they are doing it under a controlled situation. I could easily trick you into believing a product that is capable of producing massive amounts of vapor isn't by simply altering how I draw and exhale when using it. You can do the same with an analog cigarette. Suck it into your mouth and spit it out and you will get much more smoke. Breathe it in and hold it for half a minute and you will get almost no smoke. And obviously in both cases this will determine the amount of nicotine your body will absorb. For most once they get bit by the "vaping" bug they want to disassociate themselves from the "smoking industry" and anything that goes along with it. I feel we want to be viewed as doing something more healthy than smoking and promote it as such. And others could honestly care less, they just want to get off cigarettes. That being said let me make this perfectly clear. E cigarettes and vaping is NOT marketed as a quit smoking or cessation device or product. There are some recent studies that show they are quite effective at this, especially compared to what is currently being used. And there are thousands of personal testimonies as to how people have used E cigs to switch or quit. Even with that in mind there is no company marketing or making claims that E cigarettes are a cessation device for smoking. Currently I don't feel there is enough scientific proof to make a solid case. A really good case, but not sure about a solid case. And marketing E cigarettes as such might cause the FDA to regulate them as a drug instead of something less restrictive. Something you won't see a lot from me is politics on vaping, or regulation and that sort of thing. I can however get you in contact with those that are and link you to sites that follow the regulations, advocate for vaping and discuss the politics. Ok, now that all this out of the way, lets start looking at some of the specifics. Next up: Atomizers, Cartomizers and Tanks. Click any of the buttons that say Atty's and tanks to continue. |