Vaping with eCigarettes

[luckton]

Since this thread's a bit on the stale-side, where would be a good place to start now in 2013 with the e-sig trend?

[schild]

Do you already have ecigs or are you trying to quit smoking?

[luckton]

Neither?

Edit to elaborate: I'm not a cigarette smoker by any means.  If I'm out with friends and it's smoke time, I'm breaking out the cigars.  Was just curious about e-cigs, really.

[schild]

I mean, I don't see a reason to start ... "vaping."

[luckton]

Ah, fair enough.   

[schild]

Mostly because nicotine is one of the habit forming parts of smoking, and while it's a goddamn wonderdrug when isolated, it's still a habit-forming thing.

[Ingmar]

Which seems odd to me since a hipster can get 24k gold plated bizarre fucking mods that would fit their lifestyle better than goddamn Lucky Strikes.

They can also afford better beer than PBR, etc.

[apocrypha]

That's awesome Schild, nice one.

[schild]

Which seems odd to me since a hipster can get 24k gold plated bizarre fucking mods that would fit their lifestyle better than goddamn Lucky Strikes.

They can also afford better beer than PBR, etc.

Oh, they're well into the I DRINK AT BREWPUBS AND ONLY THE MOST LIMITED BATCH ROGUE-ALIKE IPAS.

Basically, fuck'em.

[schild]

I just ordered an eRoll from Joyetech to see what the latest tech in cig-alikes is like. Once I get it (week or two, ordered it cheap from Hong Kong), I'll make a thread about what I consider to be the best stuff out there at each level (cig-alike, ego sized, 18350 sized, 18XXX+ sized) and each price point (which imo is $7 (NJoy King), $30, $45, $70, $100, $150+).

[Engels]

My story's similar to Schild's. I quit cold turkey from half a pack a day. I started with a 36 mg nicotine dose and now I'm down to 6 mg. All the benefits are as he says. I can run, I can smell, etc.

I don't know if I will quit. Even with such a low dose, going even 3 hours without a puff makes me anxious. It may be nothing more than oral fixation, but I don't think so. Nicotine is NEVER worth starting for the sake of starting something. Its got some serious hooks.

[schild]

HOWEVER, Nicotine on its own - which ecigarettes are at this point - is not harmful. So, like, for us "used-to-be-smokers" - ecigs are a fucking godsend. Just the second coming of christ himself. I mean it, nicotine is awesome.

For everyone else, they're just like, not even worth considering.

[Ingmar]

Well, there are some caveats to that. Pregnant women should stay away, for example, because nicotine is harmful to the fetus.

[Yegolev]

Nicotine is awesome for ex-smokers or for everyone?  I'm getting a mix of words.

[schild]

Nicotine is just awesome. OBVIOUSLY NOT FOR PREGNANT WOMEN.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine

[MahrinSkel]

There's a reason that one of the biggest reservoirs of smoking is high-stress, high-precision careers like doctors and air traffic controllers.  Nicotine is a potent neuro-stimulant, even its toxicity points this out (your heart works itself to death). 

Nicotine is fucking awesome for anyone who want to think fast and integrate a large amount of knowledge into action without hesitation.  It will probably shorten your lifespan, but only through acceleration.

Me, I didn't have any withdrawal, I can switch back and forth without issues but after a few days of smoking I can feel my lungs clogging up again.

--Dave

[Furiously]

Damn.... You guys are making me feel bad for sticking with my 36 mg nicotine level stuff....

BECAUSE NICOTINE IS AWESOME!!!!!

[schild]

36? Holy fuck.

Edit: You do realize Marlboro reds are like, 24-28 right?

[MahrinSkel]

Yeah, I run 24-25, which is strong enough to make me twitchy if I get carried away.  But the VG/PG balance matters, too.  I use 20% VG, which absorbs a lot better than pure PG.

--Dave

[schild]

I run 70%+ VG @ 18mg when playing a competitive game.

6-12mg at 50/50 otherwise. It's a range because certain atomizers and such yield stronger vaporization of the nic fuel my body needs.

[Teleku]

Which seems odd to me since a hipster can get 24k gold plated bizarre fucking mods that would fit their lifestyle better than goddamn Lucky Strikes.

They can also afford better beer than PBR, etc.

Oh, they're well into the I DRINK AT BREWPUBS AND ONLY THE MOST LIMITED BATCH ROGUE-ALIKE IPAS.

Basically, fuck'em.

Eh, I lived in the hipster holocaust that is Oakland for awhile, and I'd say the crowd still leans predominantly towards things like PBR and other random iconic type shit.  Alot fewer of the hipsters hung out with us beer nerds who only go out to drink at brewpubs, heh.  Though exceptions exist, such as Beer Revolution, which while having an amazing beer selection, is filled to the fucking brim with hipsters all day and night.

More on topic, there is one guy I work with here that has one of these e-cig things.  People started seeing him smoking it when we go out for the nights, and asked him about it.  Now there are about 6 other people at the embassy with them, and more seem interested.  So many closet smokers out there!

[MahrinSkel]

I run 70%+ VG @ 18mg when playing a competitive game.

6-12mg at 50/50 otherwise. It's a range because certain atomizers and such yield stronger vaporization of the nic fuel my body needs.

If I used one of the rebuildable atomizers I'd probably go heavier on the VG and lighter on the nicotine.  Anything else, it's the VG residue that builds up and chokes it out.  25% is about the max for cartomizers if you don't want to be replacing them weekly, at 70% in dual-coils make that daily.

--Dave

edit: If I need to be sharp, I just puff more.  Like I said, at 24mg/20%, I can make myself twitchy.

[Engels]

I think there are other factors as well in what glums up cartomisers. My anecdotal experience is that the more sweet/syrupy the liquid, the faster it glops up a coil. I've found that the liquid from Mrs T's is exceptionally clean and only when I start to mix it in with other brands does it start to glom stuff up. I've gone 5 weeks with the same coil for a CE5 using Mrs T's and I hit on that thing constantly throughout the day, even at work.

[Ratman_tf]

Oh, hay vaping thread.

After my Yeti starter, I dropped vaping for a while, and recently started picking up Blu disposables. They do me just fine, despite the vapesnobs seeming to look down their noses at them.
No refilling, no filler, no charging. Just puff away at it for a few days then toss it in the trash.

But I'm sure I can get cheaper by getting a real setup. So what's good lately? I'd really like something that I can recharge, pour the nicjuice into a resevoir and go. Also, I introduced my mom into vaping, and she's doing the Blu's as well, so it would be nice to find a simple setup for her to adopt. She's in her 70's and doesn't want a high maintenence rig.

[Engels]

Er, you know how I just said that Mrs T's Bakery was the least congesting of eliquids I've tried. That may be the case, but yesterday I got some lemonade flavored liquid from her and it dissolved my CE5 cartomizer. The black plastic from the drip tip was completely dissolving into the liquid and I was smoking black plastic. Awesome.

[schild]

Heavy fruit, sour, citrus, and menthol flavors can wreck the shitty polypro used for clearos.

Get some protanks for those. It's a universal problem with liquids.

[schild]

Ratman, the answer might be the eroll. Mine is currently on a plane from Hong Kong. It seems like the best cig-alike but I need to get one before commenting further.

[Signe]

I haven't smoked tobacco in a really long time.  Geez, it's become so complicated since then!

[Nebu]

HOWEVER, Nicotine on its own - which ecigarettes are at this point - is not harmful.

There are many negative side affects of nicotine use beyond it being a stupidly addictive substance.  They're just subtle and often occur in patients with secondary neurotransmitter issues.  It's quite clean as far as drugs go, but I'd hardly call it harmless.

[Engels]

Get some protanks for those. It's a universal problem with liquids.

On your previous suggestion from a few days ago I have one in the mail.

[schild]

HOWEVER, Nicotine on its own - which ecigarettes are at this point - is not harmful.

There are many negative side affects of nicotine use beyond it being a stupidly addictive substance.  They're just subtle and often occur in patients with secondary neurotransmitter issues.  It's quite clean as far as drugs go, but I'd hardly call it harmless.

What part should worry me?

[Paelos]

What part should worry me?

My guess would be blood pressure issues, but if it's not an issue with your health anyway then not much.

[K9]

HOWEVER, Nicotine on its own - which ecigarettes are at this point - is not harmful.

For the sake of nitpicking, tiny amounts of Nicotine are relatively benign; Nicotine itself is more toxic than arsenic and cadmium, and has some particularly nasty properties such as the capacity to be absorbed through the skin.

[Nebu]

What part should worry me?

Here are a few (of many) examples.

Smokers tend to suffer depression at greater rates than nonsmokers.  It's difficult to determine cause/effect correlation though (i.e. do depressed people become addicted to nicotine more easily or does enhanced levels of nicotine cause depression, etc.).

Germ cell alterations in rats (testes, etc) caused by nicotine (BJU International, Volume 88, Issue 6, pages 622–626, October 2001)

This paper discusses the chemical basis for nicotine toxicity: Iminium metabolite mechanism for nicotine toxicity and addiction: Oxidative stress and electron transfer; Medical Hypotheses, Volume 64, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 104–111
 - It includes a discussion of generated oxidative stress affects to multiple organ systems.

Cardiovascular Toxicity of Nicotine: Implications for Nicotine Replacement Therapy

There are also many nicotine-drug interactions that can be quite serious.  Since I doubt that you're being treated for Schizophrenia, this isn't a major concern.

[Nebu]

For the sake of nitpicking, tiny amounts of Nicotine are relatively benign;

I agree.  That's why I stated that it's a relatively clean drug.  Very dose dependent though.  After a point, it gets nasty fast.