I have been vaping for about two and a half years now, and it has been one of the best things that have ever happened to me. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject, written in the form of a "how-to" guide. It may change as I gain more knowledge.
Like most people, I started with various odd contraptions of the kind that you receive as presents, and I quickly realized that the way to go is a specific more-or-less-standard type of device which, rather unsurprisingly, is the type of device that you most often see carried by people who have picked up the habit. It consists of a USB-rechargeable battery, a replaceable bit called the vaporizer, and a tank with a mouthpiece. These parts fit together by screwing one into the other, (the mouthpiece snaps onto the tank,) and the dimensions of all the junctions are standard, so you can replace each part as needed, and you can even mix and match components from different brands, since they adhere to the same standard.
Like most people, I started with various odd contraptions of the kind that you receive as presents, and I quickly realized that the way to go is a specific more-or-less-standard type of device which, rather unsurprisingly, is the type of device that you most often see carried by people who have picked up the habit. It consists of a USB-rechargeable battery, a replaceable bit called the vaporizer, and a tank with a mouthpiece. These parts fit together by screwing one into the other, (the mouthpiece snaps onto the tank,) and the dimensions of all the junctions are standard, so you can replace each part as needed, and you can even mix and match components from different brands, since they adhere to the same standard.
Standard versus non-standard
There exists a variety of other types of devices which either require their own special charger, or they store the fluid in a sponge instead of a tank, or they are different in this or that or the other respect which makes them incompatible with standard components. My experience says that it is best to stay as far away from them as possible. Sure, some of them look sleek and exclusive, but lack of interoperability results in an unreasonably high extra cost, for benefits which are usually only aesthetic. You might even find a one-of-a-kind system for a price which might seem comparable to the cost of a bulky and motley system put together out of standard components, but in reality the one-of-a-kind system is far more expensive, because if one aspect of it turns out to not suit you, or if one part of it gets lost or broken, the entire system must usually be tossed, while with standard components you only replace the part that needs replacement. If, in addition to all this, you consider the fact that certain components of electronic cigarettes (namely, the batteries) are known beforehand to have a limited lifetime, buying a special system which is guaranteed to have to be thrown away after a few months makes no sense at all, in my opinion.
Also, what does not help at all is the fact that usually, you cannot trust whatever assurances you are given by salespersons. You might ask "will I be able to find spare batteries for this very special model a few months down the road?" and you will invariably receive the answer "but of course!". You can tell that they are lying because if that was true, they would not have simply assured you, they would have actually shown you the wide range of replacement batteries that they stock. But of course, they don't. Nor do they intend to. When you go there a few months later looking for replacement batteries, it is not like they will blush, or show any shame or remorse; they will inform you with a completely straight face that your very special model was discontinued a long time ago and they do not even carry anything that might betray that it ever existed. Or they might follow the "always say yes" doctrine and tell you that of course they will order your replacement battery for you, and it will cost you twice the price of a brand new model, and it will arrive at about the same time that your grandchildren will be born. Same thing.
The beauty of using standard components is that you don't have to take anyone's word that they will carry them: you can see with your own eyes that everyone carries them. The standard kind of batteries have been around in their present form over at least three generations of tanks, (that many I have witnessed, they were probably preceded by more,) so in all likelihood they will continue to be around in this form for a long time to come. The demand for them is probably too high for any manufacturer to ignore.
The following discussion pertains only to components that adhere to the standard, and considers only variations within the limits permitted by the standard.
Jargon
Electronic cigarette companies use various fancy terms to refer to their products as if they were revolutionary new technology never seen before on the face of earth. You might hear preposterous buzzwords like atomizers, cartomizers, clearomizers, and what not. The good news is that you can safely ignore that gobbledygook. Virtually all of the technology that goes into electronic cigarettes today is old; remember the odourless white fog in the discos back in the seventies? That's basically it, and it was not even new technology back then. Not only nothing about electronic cigarettes is brand new, but also, none of it constitutes a noteworthy invention that was made specifically for electronic cigarettes. So, all this marketingspeak is completely unnecessary. You have every right to refuse to follow a discussion with a salesperson who insists on using buzzwords: demand that they speak plain English. (Or whatever language happens to be spoken where you live.)
The only component of an electronic cigarette which could, perhaps, have deserved a brand new name was the original idea of a piezoelectric ultrasound-emitting element that would supposedly vaporize a pressurized jet of vaping fluid. That sounds quite exotic, doesn't it? Luckily, it was pretty quickly discovered that the same end-goal (namely, vaporization) could be accomplished much, much, much more easily and much, much, much more economically with just a coil wrapped around a wick touching a liquid in a --thank goodness-- non-pressurized tank, so no such elements were ever mass produced, nothing of their kind is part of modern electronic cigarettes, and therefore no jargon is necessary.
The actual parts of the electronic cigarette are pretty plain and simple; here they are once again: the battery, the vaporizer, the tank, and the mouthpiece. It is that straightforward, really.
The battery
They come in various sizes and prices. A larger battery has the benefit of lasting longer without a need to recharge, but it is bulkier and it costs more. The higher cost is not to be dismissed, because every once in a while you will inevitably misplace one and lose it, so it is a lot better to lose a €25 device than a €40 one. My personal dogma with batteries is ‘the cheaper, the better’ since I have not witnessed any significant difference between the cheap ones and the more expensive ones. They all look like they come out of the exact same Chinese factory, regardless of the brand name printed on them.
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| Alter eGo 900mAh pass-through battery and the two ends of a standard-to-mini USB cable. |
Activation
There exist two types of batteries with respect to activation: push-button activated and breath activated. (Well, actually, inhalation-activated, or suction-activated.) I started with breath activated, and the switch to push-button felt unnatural in the beginning, but I have come to actually prefer the button. Why? Because due to heat stored in the system, the vaporizer keeps vaporizing fluid for a couple of more seconds after power has been cut off, (you can actually hear it fizzing even after you release the button,) so if you have stopped inhaling by that time, then that vapour is lost. With button activation, you can always continue inhaling for a second after the release of the button. (It is not so much the lost vapour that concerns me, as the energy lost in generating that vapour.) The fact that operating the button requires one of your hands is irrelevant, because you are going to need to be using your hand anyway to hold the device to your mouth. E-cigarettes are not small enough yet to be comfortably held by the lips or teeth.
Charging
There exist two types of batteries with respect to charging: batteries that charge via a regular USB cable connected to a standard "type USB mini" receptor located on the far end of the battery, and batteries that charge via a special USB-to-screw adapter which attaches to the near end of the battery. The first kind is also called "pass-through" and it has the significant advantage of being able to charge while you are vaping. The second kind cannot be charged while vaping, because at any given moment the screw at the near end of the battery can accommodate either the charger or the tank, not both. Needless to say, pass-through batteries are the way to go, because there is nothing more frustrating than being in the comfort of your home, and having all the equipment in your hands, and still not being able to vape because the stupid battery needs to charge. Also, that special USB-to-screw adapter is another special item that you have to worry about, while mini USB cables are so common that they can be found everywhere and they are practically given away for free. In light of all that, I do not know why non-pass-through batteries even exist. Duh, what were they thinking?
Variable voltage
There exist two types of batteries with respect to voltage: fixed and adjustable. I have tried an adjustable voltage battery, and I found it to be quite a disappointment. Standard wicks and coils are apparently designed for the voltage produced by regular non-adjustable batteries, so driving them with higher voltage seems to cause the wick to burn. (yikes!) Also, the one adjustable battery that I tried turned out to have an unacceptably low capacity, despite the fact that it was advertised as being of higher capacity than my fixed voltage batteries, and despite the fact that I used it at low voltage. Also, variable voltage batteries tend to not be pass-through, because the far end of the battery where the USB receptor would be located houses the adjusting dial. Variable voltage batteries might be useful for people who like to make their own wicks and their own coils, and there even exist vaporizers that are geared towards that audience, but the vast majority of people who are into vaping do not belong to that audience.
Screw threads
A careful examination of a standard battery reveals that in fact it has two sets of screw threads: a large outer thread (visible in the above photo) and a smaller, inner thread hidden within the top end. Batteries are built like this in order to accommodate both of the two predominant standards of tank screws. However, as far as I know, only tanks of the large screw type accommodate standard vaporizers, so the small screws are useless anyway.
Battery use and care
One of the ways in which vaping is very much unlike smoking cigarettes is that if you run out of cigarettes you can always go buy another pack at the nearest kiosk, while if you run out of battery, you are kind of out of luck. Some people can’t handle this, and the first time they run out of battery they go straight to the kiosk to buy a pack of cigarettes, even though up until that point they were on a good path to kicking that nasty habit. So, take my word on this one: once you start vaping, it is of paramount importance that you never, ever run out of battery.
The absolute best strategy for never running out of battery is owning at least two batteries and using one while charging the other. This strategy is not fool-proof, so for better results make sure that at least one of your batteries is pass-through.
If you want to be really frugal you can make it a point whenever you are sitting in front of your computer to use in pass-through mode an old battery which is past the end of its lifetime, so that you don’t consume the life of your good batteries. The more you use a battery, the more of its total lifetime you consume, but even when past the end of its lifetime, a pass-through battery is still perfectly usable in pass-through mode.
Always keep vaping until your battery is completely drained of energy, and always charge it until it is completely full. This is the optimal charge-discharge cycle which guarantees the best performance and the longest lifetime of modern Li-ion batteries. Of course, this only makes sense if you have another battery fully charged always on stand by, which is another way of saying that having more than one battery is an absolute must.
The vaporizer
This is the part which draws liquid from the tank and energy from the battery to vaporize the liquid. It just contains a couple of coils wrapped around wicks which are kept moist with liquid from the tank. When you press the button on the battery, electricity is applied to the coil, heating it up and causing the liquid on the wicks to evaporate. That's all, no magic here.
You need to replace the vaporizer every few weeks, depending on use, and it has a rather reasonable cost of around €2.50 apiece. This is probably about a hundred times more than the “real” cost of manufacture, but the companies that build and market and distribute and sell these things, and keep working on them to come up with an improved new generation of them every couple of years, must somehow stay in business, so I guess it is okay. Sort of.
When I first started vaping, the predominant type of vaporizer had long wicks which extended out of it and floated in the tank. That was pretty lame, and luckily it has now been replaced with dual-bottom-coil, hidden-wick 1.8Ω metallic capsules. Different electronic cigarette companies in my vicinity sell the exact same thingies in pill-like “blister packs” of 5, so again, they all probably come out of the exact same factory somewhere in China. Some call them wickless, but that’s wrong: they still have some material that plays the role of the wick, it is just neatly hidden inside the capsule. I will not bother you with what Ω stands for and how to choose the right Ω for you, nor with the details of why the old top-coil system was lame and why the new bottom-coil system is awesome, because the old system is not a choice anymore anyhow, and impedance appears to have now been standardized to 1.8Ω, so there is no choice there, either. If someone tries to sell you vaporizers with visible wicks today, just tell them they are so funny.
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| Alter eGo bottom-dual-coil vaporizer capsule. |
When you install a vaporizer for the first time, let it stand for a few minutes before vaping, for the wicks to pre-soak with liquid, otherwise you are going to be burning your wicks the moment you press the button. Even after pre-soaking, the first few puffs for some reason tend to have an awful burned smell, and you do not need an advanced degree to figure out that you better blow these puffs away without inhaling. Better yet, you can try blowing air into the mouthpiece instead of drawing air from it: the foul-smelling vapour will come out of the other end of the vaporizer without entering your mouth at all. After a few puffs the smell should be completely gone.
I have a bunch of used up vaporizer capsules which I have cleaned by boiling them in water and I am planning to see if they can be reused; I will update this text with the results of the experiment. Update #1: a complete disaster. The vapor has a burned smell which does not go away no matter how much I puff, and the entire device overheats. This vaporizer must be thrown away.
The tank
We live in the era of plenty, so there exists an astonishing variety here, too. First of all, whatever tank you buy, make sure that it fits standard batteries, and that it is built for the right kind of vaporizer, which, at the time of writing this, is the standard 1.8Ω dual-bottom-coil, hidden-wick metallic capsule sold by different e-cigarette brands. This most likely means that the tank will be fitting the large, outer screw of the battery, instead of the smaller, inner screw. Also, make sure that the tank accepts standard snap-on mouthpieces.
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| Alter eGo tank and mouthpiece. The top half of a fitted vaporizer capsule is also visible just below the centre. |
Air intake
Near the bottom of the cap are the air intake holes. (You can see one in the above picture, and there is another on the opposite side.) They are small, so as to strangulate the air flow, thus providing about the same amount of air resistance as a cigarette would. Unfortunately, they can be clogged with dust. If you notice that puffing has become difficult to the point where the edges of your mouth wrinkle in your effort to achieve suction, suspect them before you suspect the vaporizer. You can usually see if they are clogged by unscrewing the tank from the battery and holding the tank between your eye and a source of light, at a certain angle. Try it when you know they are clean, so as to already know what to look for when it is time to find out if they are clean. Unclog them with a sharp object. I use a sharp-ended wooden toothpick. If the holes are clear, and yet it is still hard to draw air through the device, then it is probably time to replace the vaporizer.
Sealing
Perhaps the single most important characteristic of a tank is how well it seals. Anything short of “perfectly” is not good enough. Make sure that the tank cap fits the tank with a metal-on-metal screw and a ring seal. Completely disregard any salesperson’s assurances that their exclusive ultra-tighto-fitto™ snap-o-magic™ neva-eva-leak™ patent is better than a screw. If something better than a screw ever gets invented, you will hear it from the news, not from a salesperson. Make sure both sides of the screw are metallic. I think all tanks today are like that, but I am mentioning this because in the past I have actually come across one tank whose clear plastic walls would end in a thread, and this plastic thread would screw into the metallic thread of the cap; that’s a no-no, because after a while it tends to break. The plastic wall of the tank must be press-fitted into a metallic ring, and the ring must be threaded, so that the threads are metal-on-metal. Also, just to be extra sure, somewhere in the area where the tank and the cap meet, usually on the cap, between the threading and the liquid, there must be a tiny ring seal made of rubber or silicone.
Most tanks are built exactly to the spec that I just described, so there is no need to resort to anything inferior to that. Given the fact that the vaporizers are replaceable, a single tank should last you for years, so there is no need to be frugal with it.
Millilitre scale
Some tanks have a millilitre scale printed on them, while others don’t. The printed scale looks kind of cool, but it is useless, so don’t worry about its absence if you see a tank that you otherwise like. You will always be filling the tank up to the brim, and you will always be vaping until the liquid-intake holes of the vaporizer capsule are almost exposed, so there is no need for a scale to tell you how many millilitres you have left. You might think that the scale could come in handy if you ever wanted to mix your own liquids, but as someone who is mixing his own liquids I submit to you that it will not, because a) you need a 20/20 eyesight to read the damned thing, and b) mixing minuscule quantities straight into the tank requires such incredibly high precision that it is impractical; it is far better to do your mixing in a larger container and fill up your tank from it. That having been said, it is worth noting that the tank with the millilitre scale is likely to have been manufactured by someone who values meticulousness, thoroughness, and overall quality of engineering more than the one that does not.
Transparency
Some tanks have transparent plastic walls allowing you to check the level of the liquid at a glance; other tanks are made of clear plastic with a coloured tint which makes things a bit harder; yet others are made mostly of metal, with only a narrow window along their length. I find anything other than transparent all around walls to be a nuisance: checking the level of the fluid is something that you do very often, so why hinder it even slightly?
That having been said, I realize that there may be reasons for choosing a not-completely-transparent-plastic tank that I may not yet be aware of; for example, some ingredient of the vaping fluid, perhaps the nicotine, might be sensitive to (decomposed by exposure to) light; and perhaps there is a case to be made for metallic tank walls because they dissipate heat better than plastic; I will amend this part as I become better educated on the subject.
The mouthpiece
The mouthpiece is the part that your lips touch. There exist two types of mouthpieces: round ones and flat ones. (Meaning, ones having a round cross-section, and ones having a rectangular or oval cross-section.) One might intuitively guess that flat ones must be better, since they are meant to fit between our lips, which are not exactly shaped like holes, but I personally hate the flat ones with passion, because they force me to hold the device to my mouth in a specific way, prohibiting any rotation. However, I am told that others strongly prefer the flat mouthpieces over the round ones, so what can I say, I guess everyone is entitled to have their own little perversions.
Luckily, the part of the mouthpiece that snaps onto the top of the tank is standardized, so if there is a tank that you really like, which comes with a mouthpiece that you don’t, you can always buy the tank, throw away that mouthpiece, and fit another one in its place. Just make sure beforehand that the shop which is to sell you the tank can also provide you with a mouthpiece of your liking: if they do not have individual mouthpieces for sale, then they should have some spare mouthpiece to give you for free. If they don’t, or worse yet, if they suggest that you also buy another tank that you don't care about, just so that you can have its mouthpiece, then perhaps they do not deserve your business.
Vaping fluid
The ingredients of vaping fluid typically are: Propylene Glycol (PG), Vegetable Glycerine (VG), water, nicotine, and aroma.
Propylene Glycol
PG emits a faint, almost transparent vapor, which causes a scratchy sensation (also known as “dryness”) in the throat, similar to the scratchy sensation caused by inhaling tobacco smoke. Both in the case of PG vapour and in the case of tobacco smoke, the scratchy sensation is caused by a mild, fleeting irritation of the insides of our throat. The fact that PG has this effect is the main reason why vaping is so surprisingly similar to smoking.
Vegetable Glycerine
VG causes a lot less of that scratchy effect, but its vapour is thick white, so it is used to make the emissions of electronic cigarettes more visually similar to tobacco smoke. Vaping pure VG does not work very well, probably because it is so much more viscous (less runny, thicker) than PG that the rate at which it permeates the wick is lower than the rate at which it vaporizes away from it, causing the wick to run dry and start to burn.
Water
Water is rather neutral as an ingredient, but it is useful for reducing the overall viscosity of the fluid. If you want to use less than 50% PG and more than 50% VG, you generally have to start adding water to keep the viscosity within a workable range. Of course you only have to worry about such things if you decide to start preparing your own liquids: in ready-made liquids all these issues have already been taken care of for you.
Nicotine
Nicotine is derived by processing tobacco plants, and it is diluted in the vaping fluid to levels that under normal use roughly correspond to the amount of nicotine that you would be taking in if you were smoking tobacco. Of course one size does not fit all, so each vaping fluid comes in various nicotine concentrations to suit different people’s levels of addiction. The concentration of nicotine is measured in mg/ml, (that’s milligrams per millilitre,) but scientific literacy does not appear to be the strong point of those involved in the vaping industry, so “mg/ml” is quite often wrongly printed as “mg” on the bottles, as if the entire nicotine content of the bottle was just a meagre “8 mg”, when in fact a 20 ml bottle at a 8 mg/ml concentration packs a rather reasonable 160 total mg of nicotine. (Of course it makes you wonder, if they can’t get something as basic as printing the units right, what else they may be failing to get right.)
Ready made vaping fluids usually come in bottles of 20 ml, which should last you about a week with heavy use, and typically in concentrations of 8 mg/ml (“low”), 12 mg/ml (“medium”), and 18 mg/ml (“high”). My advice is to start with low, and to try to stay there. If after several days of trying with “low” it seems like vaping does not feel right for you and you start itching to light up a cancerstick, then, and only then, go ahead and up the dosage.
Nicotine is generally harmless in the levels of dilution found in ready-made vaping fluids, but it is best to play it safe and avoid touching the liquid for prolonged periods of time, because it does get absorbed through the skin, and so you do run the danger of a nicotine overdose, which can be rather unpleasant, and may even require hospitalization. If your fingers become wet with fluid, do not let a very long time pass before you wipe them thoroughly or wash them. If a sufficient quantity of liquid gets spilled on your clothes so as to permeate the fabric and come in contact with your skin, change your clothes and take a shower. Never buy or keep around vaping fluid bottles that are not child-safe. As a matter of fact, companies that sell vaping fluids in non child-safe bottles deserve everyone's scorn (not to mention criminal prosecution) : don't buy anything from them. That having been said, you do not need to be paranoid about vaping fluid: you would probably have to swim in a pool of it and then sit by the pool to dry before you would die from nicotine overdose. Briefly getting your hands wet with vaping fluid does not constitute a medical emergency, and you can safely wipe small amounts of it with the outer side of your t-shirt without any harm. The fluids are not oily at all, so there will be no stain, either.
Of course, the above discussion about handling nicotine only pertains to concentrations of the kind that you find in ready-to-vape fluids. People who make their own fluid generally buy nicotine at higher, sometimes much higher concentrations, and the rules that apply there are completely different: nicotine in higher concentrations is a highly toxic substance which needs to be handled with great precaution.
Aroma
There exist two broad categories of aromas: those that imitate the smell of burning tobacco, (at varying levels of success,) and those that are not trying to pretend anything of that sort, and instead aim to offer completely unrelated sensations, such as chocolate, red apple, bubble gum, etc.
In my experience there exists a very small number of individuals who may be bothered by the tobacco aroma of your electronic cigarette, but virtually nobody seems to be bothered by a non-tobacco aroma. Still, if you want to be extra safe, and considerate towards those around you, (for example, if you want to be vaping in your workplace,) the best choice is no aroma at all.
Also, in my experience, the use of aroma has certain disadvantages. First of all, it is a major source of impurities and unknown substances in the vapour. Given the fact that electronic cigarettes are still largely unregulated, manufacturers are not accountable to anyone, so they can put any harmful substance they like in the aroma with complete impunity. It is said that aroma is a huge gray area where manufacturers can add whatever they please to the vaping fluid and simply put it under the aroma umbrella instead of having to list it as a separate ingredient. Secondly, I think that the use of aroma may be significantly reducing the operating life time of the vaporizers. What may be happening is that some of the substances that make up the aroma are less volatile than the rest of the fluid, so they stick to the wick instead of emanating away with the vapours, and over time the build-up of these substances clogs the wick and results in a premature end of lifetime for the vaporizer. I am not sure about this, but it is my suspicion. Furthermore, it is a well known fact that we tend to become desensitized to olfactory stimulations that persist over long periods of time, which means that after a couple of days of using a certain aroma we tend to sense its smell to a much lesser extent than in the beginning. Essentially, most of it goes wasted as far as our smelling pleasure is concerned, but all of it still passes through our lungs, with whatever implications that may have for our health.
Neck strap
The yearly cost of a vaping habit is only a small fraction of the yearly cost of a smoking habit, but there is one important thing to keep in mind: if you lose a pack of cigarettes, the cost of replacing it is generally not so high as to cause you to go bankrupt, but that is not equally true with vaping devices. So, it is best to never lose one. The one sure way to never lose a device is to buy a neck strap and hang it from your neck, if you do not mind the aesthetics of such an arrangement. There also exist pouches that hang from the neck, but they are ugly, they don't look very secure to me, and their use must be rather cumbersome. They are probably intended as a one-solution-fits-all for the multitude of non-standard devices out there, but for standard devices, (which are the only kind of devices that I advocate buying,) there exist neck straps that end in a special ring which nicely grips the neck of a standard battery, leaving room for the button. Again, you can buy them from different stores and they will all match, because they adhere to the standard. The neck straps that I have found in vaping stores tend to be outrageously expensive for what they are, (just a ribbon with a clip and a ring at the end of it,) and they also tend to be badly engineered, (no way to adjust, no way to fix if damaged, the clip sometimes unfastens,) so it is best to obtain one from elsewhere, or to make your own. But while you are working on that, do go ahead and buy a lame one from the vaping store, because a) its cost is still much lower than the cost of a single lost device, and b) you will probably need that special ring anyway.
Stores
If you are wondering how to get started with vaping, one simple thing you can do is locate a vaping store in your neighbourhood, walk in, and tell them that you are curious and want to try. Don't worry, they do not expect you to already have any prior knowledge of that stuff, nor do they demand that you simply state what you want to buy, pay, and get out; they are there to help. They have lots and lots of sample tanks containing fluids with different aromas and different ratios of PG to VG for you to try; they have throw-away mouthpieces so that your lips won't touch a mouthpiece that other lips have touched; they have the patience to keep screwing and unscrewing tanks on batteries for you to try different fluids to your heart's content; and they know that all this is part of what they have to do in order to generate more customers. So, don't be shy, pay them a visit.
Also, look around for shops in your vicinity and locate the one with the most knowledgeable and helpful personnel. The actual products don't have such huge differences from store to store as to really matter, but the salespersons can make a huge difference. Be suspicious of any claims pertaining to matters of subjective perception, such as flavour. Demand of the salespersons nothing less than thorough technical knowledge of the devices that they are trying to sell to you, plus the ability and wilfulness to transfer this knowledge to you in a clear and easy to understand manner. If a salesperson has a hard time explaining something, or if they sound not too sure of what they are talking about, then they are probably in the wrong business, which means that you are probably in the wrong store.
Versus smoking
I stated earlier that vaping is surprisingly similar to smoking. I should add that this is especially true if you consider that in actuality it has nothing to do with smoking: in one case you are setting dried plant leafs and paper on fire and inhaling their combustion by-products, while in the other case you are electrically heating up some liquid and inhaling its vapour. Literally, the only thing in common is that in both cases nicotine is involved. Therefore, it is not wise to expect vaping to accurately emulate the experience of smoking; instead, it is advisable to expect it to provide an (altogether different) experience which suits you as a replacement of the cigarette experience. Approach it with this attitude, and you will be pleasantly surprised by how familiar it will feel.
Now, if you still have issues with the fact that the vaping experience is not completely identical to the smoking experience, then you have to view it as a compromise and evaluate the benefits. If you are absolutely fine with spending a considerable portion of your yearly income on something which is ruining your health while making you stink, then understandably, you must see absolutely no reason to want, or accept, any kind of compromise. Apparently you are fine with the cancersticks, so continue with them, power to you. If, on the other hand, you happen to realize that there is a problem with this habit of yours, then obviously, freeing yourself from that habit must be worth a certain amount of inconvenience, right? Well, it just so happens that the inconvenience caused by the transition from smoking to vaping is so small that it really could not be any smaller. If this step is not small enough for you, then no step will ever be. They really have done everything they could to make it as easy for you as possible: it has the shape of a cigarette, it emits white fumes like a cigarette, it delivers nicotine like a cigarette, it has the aroma (but not the stench) of a cigarette, it scratches the throat like a cigarette, it even makes a fizzing sound like a cigarette. What else do you want from it? To even be a cigarette?
I once came across a lady who said that she had tried electronic cigarette and it was not bad, but she did not go for it because "it is too heavy." Heavy, as in, weighing too much. Seriously. Well, obviously, that lady never felt the slightest need to quit smoking. Vaping is for those who slightly do.
In the future I am going to write more about electronic cigarettes, mainly on the following two topics:
Health effects and related controversy around electronic cigarettes
Making your own liquid
There is so much more to learn about e cigarettes, people don't know how they will be in the future, also e-cigs & e-liquids, are getting to gimmicky, check out these flavours for example - kiss e-liquid, are they made to attract kids?
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