Electronic cigarettes

This year I got my wife an electronic cigarette for Christmas. I would really like her to quit but this seems really hopeful that it may help her reach that goal eventually and, in the meantime it instantly cut down on the number of regular cigarettes she smokes a day.

An e-cigarette atomizes liquid nicotine and delivers it in a very smoking-like experience. The smoker actually inhales and exhales something that looks like smoke, but it’s actually just water vapor. There’s no smell and no tar or smoke particles like real cigarettes. If you refill the cartridges it can cost as little as $0.30 per cartridge. A cartridge equals roughly the same number of puffs as 1 real pack of cigarettes (also known now as analog cigarettes 🙂 ).

There are many different brands of e-cigarettes but I decided on the Blu brand. It got good reviews and can be bought at most Walgreen stores along with the supplies. A starter set consisted of 2 e-cigarette lithium batteries, a USB charger, a variety pack of 5 cartridges, and a pack that holds the 2 batteries and 5 cartridges. The pack itself also has built-in batteries that are charged up and can charge the e-cigarette batteries while you’re out and about.

One of the things I liked about the Blu brand is that it looks nothing like a real cigarette like some e-cigarettes do. The battery and cartridges are black and the light at the end of the e-cigarette (lights up when you draw on it) is blue, so there is no mistaking this for a real cigarette. My wife was actually able to smoke hers in a restaurant the other day, with their permission of course.

To operate you simple screw a cartridge onto a charged battery and draw on the cartridge end just like you would a real cigarette. The cartridges can be bought with different strengths of nicotine to simulate regular, light, or ultra-light cigarettes. There’s even liquid with no nicotine in the event you still feel the need to go through the motions while trying to quit.

The light at the end of the e-cigarette will flash when it needs to be recharged. To recharge you unscrew the cartridge and screw the battery into the charging port inside the e-cig pack or plug the e-cigarette battery into the USB adapter and plug that into any USB charging port. You can actually use your desktop/laptop to recharge them or buy the 12v to USB adapters they sell for cars for about $10.

Liquid nicotine is available on-line in a large variety of flavors and strengths. They even have (believe it or not) bacon flavor. There are a number of Youtube videos that show how to refill cartridges. Based on some of the videos I watched it takes about 4-6 drops to fill a Blu cartridge. An ounce of liquid nicotine is approximately 30 ml and 10 drops equal about 1 ml.

If you don’t smoke now I certainly don’t recommend you take it up in any form, but if you’re trying to cut down or quit this seems like a good way to go. The starter kit costs about $50 at Walgreens. An extra 5 pack of cartridges is $15, also at Walgreens, and an ounce of liquid nicotine (fills about 60 cartridges) will cost around $25 online including shipping/handling. If you’re a pack a day smoker paying around $6 a pack the e-cigarette and supplies will pay for itself in 2 weeks.

Aside from the money, even though the jury is still out on what the harmful affects of e-cigarettes are they at least eliminate the tar, the smell, and the smoke particles themselves.