Giving up, with the help of E-Cigarettes

MikeTV

I know there is already an e-cigarette thread, but as a newcomer to e-cigarettes, I found it to be nothing like what I was expecting - and with all due respect to the contributors, it was like entering some weird alternative sub-culture where people fetishize over their inhaler paraphernalia! Not wishing to be rude to anyone - it's just that I personally don't want to be drawn into viewing nicotine inhaling as a hobby. I want to break any psychological addiction, as well as my biological one! But each to his own.

So, if the moderators are happy, I'd like to start a thread for anyone who is interested in giving up nicotine using e-cigarettes - ie. experiences, advice, etc.

I am about a week without the fags (long-term smoker - 15-20 per day). First, I got a disposable, and since that worked, a recharger from Tesco. I prefer it for the health benefits, even though it's not quite the same as actually smoking, it satisfies my cravings. And it's much cheaper!

I have questions for others, though:

Am I paying too much? I don't really want a solution that requires too much faffing about - I don't even refill my own printer cartridges, and so I don't really want to be refilling my e-cigs.

I've ordered (and received) some "UltraVape" capsules, because they claim to be equivalent to 200 cigarettes for £10. Am I a mug? Should I stick to the Tesco ones (about 100 cigs for £6.99)?

I'm disappointed at the battery life of the Tesco rechargeable - because it's less than a day. Is there a better one? I've now got two of them, because of this.

There are no instructions with these things. Am I doing it right? I tend to inhale fairly slowly until the end starts to blink. Perhaps I'm overdosing!? Or is that how it works? I know it flashes when the battery is dead - but that's different.

It's taken a while to figure out how to inhale. What I've found is that you don't have to inhale hard - that may even be less effective.

How do you know if a capsule is spent? - just the change in flavour, or nicotine effect?

Are you worried about increasing your nicotine addiction? Is there a danger? Do these things increase that?

Are you worried about any unknown long-term health consequences?

Have you successfully given up nicotine entirely using e-cigarettes? How did you go about that? How long did it take, etc. ?

Any advice, tips, etc.

My advice to any smoker that wants to give up, but doesn't want to go cold turkey, is to try e-cigs - because I imagine it has to be healthier than smoking. My experience so far (only a week!) is that it has been incredibly easy to switch to e-cigs, compared to say using gum or patches.

Iccz

My Mother has recently started the whole E-Cig thing, after following/moderating the E-Cig thread I had a reasonable idea about everything. Ended up going with the Rok Starter kit (ROK Premium Electronic Cigarettes). Seems to be good and she seems happy with it and is slowly moving over to this as a full time replacement.

I don't really know the details about when a capsule is spent or other consequences, but it removes all the harmful chemicals from smoking which has to be a plus.

Toasty

I know someone who has just switched to e cigarettes, I don't know if it will help him quit, but his thoughts after a couple of weeks is that he 'smokes' more now than he used to because he can now smoke inside public places, eg work, whereas he was restricted to popping out for fag breaks. An interesting slant to things.

MikeTV

Although I read somewhere that nicotine itself might be a carcinogen. But the scientific consensus seems to be that it is healthier than cigarettes (probably significantly so) even if the long-term effects aren't well established yet.

MikeTV

That's probably true for me too, so far. One thing you notice is that it doesn't give you the same immediate hit, which is probably due to the dreadful chemicals that they put in ciggies (like ammonia, etc) designed to heighten the effect - like mixing red bull with vodka!

As long as you don't stress about that, you find the nicotine craving subsides as it would with a ciggy, just slightly more slowly.

It might make sense to go outside for e-cigs, as you would have done. The only probably then is that you might be surrounded by ciggy smokers.

NewfieDrool

Mike feel free to join the other thread as those cigs that claim to last like 200 are nearly always rubbish.

The beauty with filling your own device and its very simple depending on what you go for is that you are able to control the amount of nicotine in the liquid.
you can purchase very low nicotine content to 0 nicotine and to be honest I can only see these working if over a period of time you cut the nicotine level down slowly.

Ecigs are not meant to help kick the habit, they are not classed as medication which is why many forums have sticky little posts saying these are not devices that help to stop you smoke.

MikeTV

Cheers. I haven't got a problem with the other thread, and I have taken a look - it's just all a bit overwhelming for a newbie. And I am trying to avoid thinking of this as a pastime. So it's not entirely compatible with my mindset at the moment. But that's just me.

MikeTV

I think the important point here is that they don't want to be classified as a medication, for commercial reasons. So the companies are not allowed to describe them as helping to stop you smoke, and they obviously don't want to get banned. That's the politics of it.

It's a bit like nutritional supplements, in that respect. The last thing Holland and Barrett want is the government to classify any of their products as health remedies - because the standards required for certifying medications are incredibly stringent. So instead, they are classified as food - which is a far less strict classification - but then can't be sold as having any medical benefits at all.

The law on e-cigs (from what I've read recently) is quite a grey area at the moment. I expect it to change in the coming years. They are not subject to the same scientific or medical scrutiny as patches or gum, or other "stopping" products. They'd be far more expensive, and much less widely available, if they were. But that could change with new legislation at some point.

IronGiant

This thread's fine as it is Mike If they start overlapping we may need to sort something out, but let's leave it as is for now.

MIghtyG

Im the same as the OP, dipped in and out of the ecig thread and found it a little overwhelming

I was in Houston a while back and they had a big smoking shop 'Smoke alley' sold anything and everything smoking related and helped me pick an ecig.

I ended up going for the joyetech eGo-T Joyetech eGo-T, Tank System starter kits

I also bought a couple of 'clearomisers' I think they are called, basically a tank that screws into the top of the battery of the ego-t (not needed but I thought it looked cooler)

With the ego-t system though its just a case of buying whatever fluid you want, topping up the tank on the top and away you go. I got two batteries with mine and I get 2-3 days from a single charge at the moment and the fluid is pretty cheap and easy to refill with.

The benefit of going with the tank systems is you can chose whatever fluids you want, go for tobacco flavoured stuff or sweet stuff (I have water melon atm) and you can chose the nicotine content and slowly wean yourself off. Im using 16mg nicotine stuff at the moment but will buy 12 next time then 8.....then 4.....then 0