Ecig Vaping, The Electronic Cigarette Purchasing Experience And Replacing Tobacco Smoking For Your Health

Vaping Is Better And Will Be Safer When As Forced Improvements Are Made

Written By James Allan | 1-16-2018

I am fairly new to vaping. I purchased 2 ecig brands here and there over the past 2 years and was disappointed. It's to bad that I didn't try to find out more because my first two attempts that failed is now a success on my third try. My third try turned up an ecig that was satisfying to my needs and got me off of regular tobacco for good.

My first attempt at e-cigarettes was purchasing a starter kit on a promotional deal. I paid the promotional price of $5.00 through my credit card and the starter kit was mailed to me. I was happy with the way the package looked but as it goes looks are not everything and I found out the bad was in play. Soon afterwards I received another small package with refills I had never ordered. I went and looked at my credit card charges and this ecig company charged me $99.95 for the promotional starter kit and the two packages of refills. Of course I went to my bank and told them this ecig company ripped me off big time. My bank refunded me the $99.95 and said they took away the companies ability to use their credit card for any reason. The bank customers would not be able to use their credit cards with this ecig company anymore. I found out later that many people were duped by this ecig company and had the same problem. The name of this ecig company is, "E-Cigs" and "E-Liq". I was left with the starter kit and didn't even bother to try them fearing I was going to get poisoned if I did.

My second try at ecigs was with "Vuse" which is owned by R.J. Reynolds. I purchase a started kit for $10.00 at a smoke shop and it worked fine except for the taste. I was looking for a tobacco taste since that is what I smoked for years with regular tobacco. A light smooth flavor. What I received with Vuse is a raunchy horrible taste that made me cough worse than burning real tobacco. Every time I took a puff off of this Vuse I choked and coughed like I had just been down wind of a burning garbage dump. I let the Vuse sit in its case for over a year and just kept smoking regular tobacco.

On my third try I picked the brand "Blu" to try. I was really lucky with this pick as the taste was smoother and the drawn is clean. I could drawn as little or as much as I wanted with no raunchy taste and coughing. I learned later the term used to describe the draw from an electronic cigarette is, "Throat Hit". OK, Blu produces a heavy or light throat hit. You can draw a little or draw a lot.

Most ecigs have an electronic chip in them that cuts off the draw within 4 to 6 seconds to stop overheating of the heating element. Blu has a chip that cuts off vapor flow after 10 seconds and you can get a really good throat hit.

I haven't tried any other brands yet. I do have a couple of orders in for other brands. I've been researching ecigs at this time and decided to stay with the Blu brand while I'm making my inquiries. There are some other good brands on the market that have hard core followings but it gets quite expensive to experiment. You may spend $200 to $500 dollars experimenting with brands and devices until you find the one that suites your wants and needs. Finding a device that works really well for you is secondary to finding the right taste. It's the right taste that you will spend most of your money on trying to find.

You will read ecig reviews from websites that get ecigs sent to them for free to review and individuals whom are satisfied with a brand they came across regardless of price not having tried more that a few popular brands. As I stated I didn't find a good brand until the 3rd try that may or may not be expensive according to how long the e-juice and batteries last.

With so many ecig manufacturers appearing now the most popular companies are engineering their prefilled ecigs with enough E-Juice to get anywhere from 300 to 400 puffs if you don't do heavy throat hits. So far with a newer "Blu" ecig I've been able to make it last two evenings. I try to back off vaping during the day with only an occasional heavy throat hit or two from time to time. But come evening I do some puffs often and the Blu cartomizer keeps putting out. I have to charge the battery every few hours but the puffs keep coming.

List Of Electronic Cigarette Manufacturers

E-Cigs And Their Parts

There are two names for the containers that hold the E-Juice. The names are "Cartomizer" and "Tank". Actually it's called a "Cariomizer Tank" but very rarely used as two words together. Most of the time you will read or hear "Cig-A-Likes" with the "Cartomizer" and "E-Pens" with the "Tanks".

Cig-A-Likes are just vaporizers that are in the size and shape of tobacco cigarettes and E-Pens are larger vaporizers with the size and shape of a writing pen. There are cigar size vaporizers referred to as "Mods" and "Pods" for those who like deep and heavy throat hits that are for chain smokers. The large box vaporizers are commonly referred to as, "Mods" Or "Pods" also.

Cig-A-Likes

The real difference between the Cig-A-Likes and the E-Pen is the size of the juice tanks and batteries. The Cig-A-Likes with the Cartomizer holds approx. 1 ml of vapor juice. The E-Pen with the E-Juice container called a "Tank" or "Clearomizer" if it's clear holds approx. 2 ml of E-Juice. The "Mods" which are customizable can hold large amounts of E-Juice over the Cig-A-Like and E-Pen. 1 ml of E-Juice can last you a full day if you are a light vapor. If you vape a lot 1 ml of E-Juice will not last all day. E-Pens with their 2 ml tanks are more suitable for people that like to take deep throat hits and blow vapor clouds all day.

E-Pens

The next difference between the Cig-A-Like and E-Pen is the battery size. Cig-A-Likes have smaller batteries that can make it a full day but it's very unlikely and they are not guaranteed to last for any extended period of time. If your not a heavy vapor, Cig-A-Likes will do for you. If you are a more upbeat vapor you'll most likely want to go with an E-Pen because the batteries are larger with most guaranteed to last at least a year before they cannot be charged anymore.

On all E-Cig device types the coils always have to be cleaned or replaced. With the "Cig-A-Like" e-cigs the coil is built into the E-Juice cartomizer tank so when the cartomizer runs dry the coil and E-Juice get replaced as one unit. Some models of Cig-A-Likes have refillable cartomizer tanks that can be refilled up to 3 times or whenever the coil burns out or gets gunked up enough to cause a bad taste. With the E-Pen type vaporizer it's recommended that the coil gets replaced after 10 ml of E-Juice. With the very large mod or pod type e-cigs you can actually clean the coil or replace it. The mods have several parts and are for advanced vapor users.

Mods or Pods

There's many Electronic Cigarette manufacturers and plenty of them produce quality products. Many that were new startups years ago had many problems with bad batteries, leaking tanks and faulty coils but in today's marketplace these problems are being solved. Of course with mass manufacturing there's always going to be a few defective products but for the most part the leading manufacturers have evolved their products to work properly without defects that are not due to normal wear.

When you are out shopping around and testing your sure to run into some bad manufacturers that are still around and I for one have run into a few. Customer service is also bad with these ecig businesses.

The ecig companies Blu and Halo did have some past problems with a product line or two but they have taken care of the defects. Halo had bad reviews on their "Titan" line and now have introduced the "Titan II" which are the fixes. Blu had some bad reviews also but the reviews were just with the taste. Blu just introduced a new product line of E-Pen not to long ago that is redesigned and I just made an online purchase of one since they offered me a 20% discount and free shipping. You can find coupons on the internet if you type in the companies name and "Coupon".

These ecigs do get expensive. I started off purchasing the throw away's for $8 to $12 dollars each and am still puffing on them. I do have a refillable E-Pen ordered through Blu that should lower my cost to a couple of bucks a day because I'm learning how to stretch out my puffs on the disposables I'm using now. The batteries on the E-Pens won't have to be replaced often if they come with a warranty. The coils on the E-Pens should be replaced after every 10 ml of juice but may last somewhat longer. We'll see.

E-Juice

E-Juice is made with Propylene Glycol, Glycerine, Water, Nicotine and Flavorings.

Propylene Glycol is mostly used as a food additive in ice cream, frozen desserts, coffee based drinks, liquid sweetners, whipped dairy products and soda. It's also used medical vaporizers, artificial tears, oral and injectable medications and topical creams. It's also used in veterinary medicine to treat some animal aliments. In humans this chemical gets converted through normal reactions into carbohydrates and plays apart in supplying energy to cells by reactions with other body chemicals. 

Glycerine is used in the food and medical industry also. It's made from plants and attracts moisture. Glycerine is used in so many everyday products consumed and not consumed I'm not going to list them all here.

Nicotine is of course a poison only in regards that it causes blood vessels to contract and is addictive. When eliminating nicotine from your body you will experience depression.

Flavorings are used in the E-Juice and this may be a problem depending on if the flavorings are derived from food sources or chemical. I have not been able to find enough information on flavorings produced for Electronic Cigarettes as of yet. I have found information stating some of the flavorings used in E-Juices are most likely a safety concern. E-Juices are regulated now by the FDA. The problem with the flavorings is they can be chemically made. Flavorings that are naturally made should only be allowed. If you pick an E-Juice that is produced outside the U.S. you may be inhaling a chemically made flavoring that will eventually harm you.

Health Concerns

Electronic Cigarettes do not have any proven health risks. All that can be said at this time through statements is some metallic particles come off of the manufactured Electronic Cigarette parts and get inhaled. Metallic particles are produced from the heating element coming in contact with certain compounds in the E-Juice. The compound reactions are most likely from the flavorings.

The only real toxicity comes from the manufactured flavorings produced for taste. The main components of E-Juice is non toxic but the flavorings made from chemicals could be a problem even though this hasn't been proven yet. All Electronic Cigarettes right now are made in China. Even the Propylene Glycol and Glycerine are produced in China. Most Electronic Cigarette manufactures claim their flavorings are produced in the U.S.A. and mixed with the imported E-Juice main liquid compounds. Testing has produced some results that show toxic and non toxic Electronic Cigarette vapor with the toxic being from the flavoring.

Electronic Cigarette Flavorings 

Other health concerns just involve exploding batteries, fires, children getting ahold of them, bad manufacturing, etc........ Most mechanical problems have been fixed over the years with safety features including automatic shutoff micro chips and manual shutoffs. Most of the safety problems are in the larger "Pod And Mod" batteries from overseas manufacturers whom produce substandard batteries on the cheap. Most battery explosions are rare though if you look at the millions of people that use ecigs now. The smaller "Cig-A-Likes" and "E-Pens" have no reported problems of exploding batteries or overheating.

A Few E-Cig Companies With Good Reviews And Reputations:

Blu  Owned by Fontem Ventures Netherlands

Halo Ecigs   Owned By Nicopure Labs

Vapor 4 Life   Family Owned Steve Milin

South Beach Smokes   Owned By Eversmoke

Vuse  Owned by R.J. Reynolds

The Reviews Below are not for price and liquid flavor. I only list ecigs that tend to be poorly made, dangerous or just outright scams.

Bad E-Cigarette Companies I Have Found:

E-Cigs and E-Liq.  This company puts out promotional items then charges your credit card for the full price. After you get your credit card charged for 10 times the promo price they send you out products that are of sub standard in quality and performance.
Complaints:  https://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/ecig.html

V2 Cigs based out of Miami FL. Uses cheap immigrant labor and products are sloppy construction that leak and won't work for any extended period of time. There's a higher chance of getting a defective product from this company than most.
Complaints:    https://www.consumeraffairs.com/e-cigarettes/v2-cigs.html

As I learn more I will update this article from time to time.