calling Circe & luckystar112! can we talk e-cigs part 2?

[vip0802]

i happened to stumble across your old topic, and i just wanted to see how you guys were doing with your e-cigs and quitting.

i'm approaching my 30's, and i've changed my eating and exercise habits (i recently lost 30lbs), so it just makes sense that my next step is to quit smoking. BF wants to quit also, which i think is great since we can support each other. we've tried the gum, patch, and going cold turkey in the past and none of them have worked for us. he now wants to go the Chantix route but i'm not totally sold on it. after reading about e-cigs, i feel this might be the best route for me. i know that the FDA is "panicking" over e-cigs, but honestly, i don't see how it's more harmful than real cigarettes.

from the old post i saw that you guys were using Njoy and the Yeti brands, and i wanted to know your experiences about them as far as battery life, cartridge replacements, etc...

i've been reading up on the "e-cigarette-forum" for reviews and such, but it's overwhelming! so far, i'm looking into getting the Joye-510 (which i believe is the same thing as the Yeti). luckystar, i saw that you got a manual Yeti (with a button) and with the Joye-510, there's an option for an automatic. do you like the manual? from what i've read and the videos i've seen, a lot of people like it because of the good vapor and the starter kits are priced really well. others that i've looked into were Blu and Njoy, but i'm still confused as to which one to get.

also, what are your experiences with e-juice? any brands and/or flavors you recommend? also, what nicotine level did you choose when you started?

thanks in advance, and if there's anyone else here that has e-cig experience, please share!

 

[Circe]

Hey, Vip0802! Good for you for deciding to quit!

I have to say, my head is spinning reading your post - juice! multiple brands! - which is sort of the same feeling I had reading Karl''s thread (he also used e-cigs, and has a thread in Healthier Lifestyle, if you want an additional perspective). I''m lazy, so I just bought the first kit I came across, the Mini-Cigarette. It worked great and I didn''t smoke a single real cigarette after I bought it, which led to two weird days of sleeping badly, but no other real difficulties with the transition. The Mini-Cig worked, but the set-up struck me as kind of low-rent (misspelled instruction booklet, package shipped from overseas in a rather flimsy package), and I hated the idea that I might get halfway through quitting just to discover that they''d gone out of business or something (to give credit where credit is due, they still appear to be going strong, and they''re a bit cheaper than any other companies I''ve found).

So that''s when I did some research and found N-Joy - based in America, informative website, good reviews. I continue to LOVE those people: they have, hands-down, the best customer service that I''ve ever found. If a part breaks, they replace it, no questions asked: they''re happy to answer questions, their shipping prices are awesome, and they keep customers well informed of new studies and legal developments. I recommend them really highly.

With their stuff, I started out using the strong cartridges, telling myself that anything was better than cigarettes, if one cartridge was equivalent to a pack, that was fine, I''d been smoking a pack a day anyway. But I also tried to stretch it out to see how long I could get a cartridge to last ... and when I was only using one up every three days or so, I''d switch to the next lowest strength. Going that way, it took me a year and a half to quit altogether.

I can''t lie: when I''m stressed out or upset, I still miss smoking, but just knowing the e-cig is there is like having a pacifier; since I know I have an alternative, I can''t really justify the whole damaging-my-health and upsetting-my-loved-ones thing.

Oh, P.S. - according to NJoy''s latest e-mail, the FDA is planning to outlaw flavors aside from "traditional" and "menthol." Having tried a few, I preferred strawberry and apple (they weren''t like candy - it was more like mildly sweet tobacco), but the "traditional" flavor is fine. Menthol, I''m less a fan of, but that goes for the real thing, too.

If you have ANY other questions, don''t hesitate to ask - like any obsessive, I can rabbit on for hours. Just look at the length of this post!

 

[Karl_K]

Joye-510 is the best one to start out with.

Everyone I know likes ECOpure English toffee
I make my own equivalent.
light smoker start with 18mg, heave smoker 25mg

cignot.com is an excellent vendor for a starter kit and ECOpure

Joye 510 NO BOX 2 ecig special is a very good buy from them.

 

[Karl_K]

I ended up going generic zyban + e-cig about 3 weeks ago and am not 100% off reg cigs yet but getting there.

 

[vip0802]

Circe - many congratulations on quitting, and thank you so much for all the info! this is the first time that i felt that i actually want to quit and not feel like i''m being forced to. i''d say i smoke about a pack a day, and sadly, most if it is due to boredom and the fact that i actually enjoy smoking. i love having my coffee and cigarette, smoking after meals and when i''m in the car. nowadays, i''m trying to limit them by popping a piece of gum or munching on veggie sticks, but let''s face it - it''s just not the same.

which is why i''m finding all of this e-cig stuff so fascinating, and i literally spent all day yesterday reading and researching on them. trust me, my head was spinning too! all i wanted to find out was what brand to get, and found so many different reviews, posts on mixing juices, how to modify your e-cig and even how to bejewel them (really?!). i guess i''m appealed that i can actually do smoking "actions" without really doing it - in your words, an excellent "pacifier". after talking to BF about them, he totally supports my decision and says i should definitely try it if i feel that it''s going to help. he still doesn''t seem sold on e-cigs since he thinks you''re not truly quitting and you''re still spending a good amount of money on carts, atomizers, etc..., but i think otherwise. i think in the end, i''ll be spending A LOT less money and i obviously am not going to expect myself to quit immediately, but i feel it''ll happen over time.

trust me, i''m sure i''ll have other questions for you so i''ll keep you posted!

Karl - thank you for the info and for sharing your experiences on you e-cig thread! i happened to be looking at cignot.com when i started this thread, and i just placed an order for the Joye-510. i got the NoBox with USB Passthru starter kit (i tend to sit in front of my computer for the majority of the day) and i picked out one manual and one automatic battery to see which one i preferred. i took advantage of the free shipping and got some extra blank cartridges, and a variety of juice flavors (english toffee included) in different nicotine levels to try out. i''m really excited about this and i hope i got everything i need for a while. congratulations on your achievements so far!

 

[Karl_K]

kewl
The Ladies at cignot are sweethearts.
best of luck to you!!!

 

[Circe]

Date: 3/26/2010 11:00:07 AM
Author: vip0802
Circe -

i guess i''m appealed that i can actually do smoking ''actions'' without really doing it - in your words, an excellent ''pacifier''. after talking to BF about them, he totally supports my decision and says i should definitely try it if i feel that it''s going to help. he still doesn''t seem sold on e-cigs since he thinks you''re not truly quitting and you''re still spending a good amount of money on carts, atomizers, etc..., but i think otherwise. i think in the end, i''ll be spending A LOT less money and i obviously am not going to expect myself to quit immediately, but i feel it''ll happen over time.


trust me, i''m sure i''ll have other questions for you so i''ll keep you posted!

I don''t know what the prices fir cigarettes are like out by you ... but where I am, a pack costs $10. A cartridge costs $2, and if you mix your own "juice," it costs even less than that. So you should amortize the initial cost within one to two weeks.

In my experience, the important thing was to go over to the e-cig whole hog immediately: I recommended this to a few people in my dept. who smoked, and the ones who went half-and-half or who planned to taper off the real thing sort of ... didn''t. And it honestly is easy to get used to: prior to this, I was the sort of hard-core addict who smoked through pneumonia and asthma. If *I* can make that transition, I think anybody can. I hedged it psychologically by telling myself I could use the e-cig as much as I wanted to, as many cartridges that I needed, it would still be better than ingesting all of the other crap in cigarettes.

I wish you so much luck, and I look forward to seeing what you think when you get your order!