Posts Tagged ‘e-cigarettes’

If you just started with e-cigarettes, you already swallowed e-liquid accidentally several times. This happens when e-liquid leaks from the e-cigarette cartridge, through the mouthpiece, and into your mouth, while you’re smoking. It’s probably more unpleasant than dangerous—e-liquid tastes bitter and it stings.

A number of things can cause your e-cigarette to leak e-liquid. Here are some tips that can help you avoid swallowing e-liquid:

• Avoid refilling your e-cigarette cartridge to overflowing. If you do, use a napkin to absorb the overflow and clean the e-cigarette cartridge before sliding it back into the mouthpiece.

• If you don’t have a napkin or if you want to make sure there’s no e-liquid inside the mouthpiece that leaked from the cartridge, after you slide the cartridge inside the mouthpiece, blow several times into the mouthpiece against the cartridge inside; you’ll see a mist of e-liquid spraying on the other side of the mouthpiece.

• When you smoke your e-cigarette, you should keep it horizontal between your fingers. You can swallow e-liquid if you keep your e-cigarette in a vertical position when smoking.

If you don’t have enough e-cigarette supplies, you’re going back to your old smelly friend for sure. I didn’t realize how thin the line between e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes is until my only spare atomizer died. I lasted only a couple of hours before I started craving for nicotine and I feel ashamed that I had to purchase a pack of cigarettes.

E-cigarettes are advertised as a way to quit smoking and they are not. They are just a healthier substitute—at least they seem to be. Avoid my mistake: have at least two spare atomizers, two brand new cartridges, and enough e-liquid.

One of the most effective ways to clean an e-cigarette atomizer is using steam. If you do it right, your e-cigarette will make as much smoke as it did when it was new. Steam effectively cleans the inside of the atomizer—the coil and bottom—removing the sticky residue of e-liquid that builds every time you smoke. The residue holds back the smoke, and is unhealthy. For best results, use a portable air compressor after the steam cleaning to unclog your e-cigarette.

Equipment: Home Espresso Machine and Tweezers and Napkin

You need a home espresso machine-one that has a steam nozzle for frothing milk. If you don’t have one and like hot espresso drinks—there are good home espresso machines that go for about $100. They all have steam nozzles. To hold the atomizer under the nozzle, you’ll also need a pair of tweezers.

How to Clean

After you turn on the espresso machine, hold a cup under the steam nozzle to make sure that steam, and no hot water, is coming out into the cup. When there’s enough steam, for a minute hold the atomizer with its open side facing the steam. After the cleaning, blow on the side of atomizer that connects to the battery, over a napkin. You’ll be able to see the yellowish residue that comes out the chamber with the heating coil. Leave the atomizer with its open side down on the napkin. Let the atomizer drain and dry out overnight.

If Atomizer Doesn’t Make Smoke after Cleaning

The atomizer has to dry out after steam cleaning or it won’t work. Some people use hairdryer. But I found that the atomizer will start working after sucking on the mouthpiece repeatedly with the e-cigarette assembled. You don’t have to do it all at once—you’ll get a sore mouth. I know it sounds funny but that’s how I got my atomizer working every time after I cleaned it with steam or unclogged it with compressed air.

Yesterday Mark, a reader of e-cigarettepedia.com, asked me the following question:

I was wondering if it was possible to use plain water (or distilled water or perhaps a ‘home made’ mixture) in place of the e-liquid. I have seen the zero nicotine e-liquid.  I would assume that since it has zero nicotine, there is no risk of chemical addiction?  I was looking for information on atomizers, because I was trying to figure out if I could use plain water with one.

Mark’s question made me curious, so I did an experiment:

Experiment Using Water Instead of E-liquid for E-cigarettes

It’s important that I used an e-cigarette atomizer that had been used previously. Used atomizers have deposits of e-liquid that cannot be cleaned completely. And this affected my initial results.

In my experiment, I used a new cartridge, the one without e-liquid, and my super mini e-cigarette. I filled the cartridge with sink water instead of e-liquid. At first my e-cigarette worked as if it was filled with e-liquid—weaker taste, lots of smoke. But after 10 puffs, the smoke tasted more and more like pure water vapor. Ten more puffs and less and less vapor. It also became harder and harder to suck on the mouthpiece.

What Did These Results Mean?

• It is possible to use a dilute e-liquid since deposits of e-liquid in atomizer chamber and water from cartridge produced a lot of vapor.
• You can’t smoke water with your e-cigarette. The e-cigarette might produce a very small amount of water vapor, and you have to suck on your e-cigarette  like a hungry baby at her mamma’s breast.

Let’s try to explain the atomizer technology of the e-cigarette in plain English. The atomizer is the part of the e-cigarette that converts the e-liquid into water vapor. The atomizer is a small metal tube. Inside it, there’s a tiny c l uster of metal wires—the heating component, and a micro pump. Depending on the model of the e-cigarette, atomizers vary in shape and size.

The Process of Atomization During E-Smoking

When a smoker takes a drag from an e-cigarette, a sensor (located inside the main body of the e-cigarette) activates the circuit board (also inside the main body). The circuit board, powered by the battery, sends two electrical currents—one to the pump and one to the heating component of the atomizer. The pump forces the e-liquid through the atomizer where the heating component starts vaporizing the e-liquid.

To most people, this sounds confusing because the atomizer comes before the cartridge with e-liquid. And suction goes in opposite direction—from the atomizer to the cartridge. If you want to solve this mystery, and the mystery of scientific writing, check my source—the European patent office. Who knows, you might come up with your own atomizing device.

Atomizer is the Most Sensitive Part of an E-cigarette

Every new e-smoker, sooner or later, learns this. It’s a good idea to keep a supply of spare atomizers, because most atomizers have a short life; and if your only atomizer dies, you risk going back to conventional cigarettes.
PS: Updated June 17, 2009

The model for how the e-cigarette works comes from information I found at the website of the European Union Patent Office. Many e-cigarette enthusiasts claim there’s no micro pump and that it exists only in the patent to confuse future competition.

Smoking is addiction. Don’t start smoking e-cigarettes if you shouldn’t. I use e-cigarettes because they helped me quit smoking regular cigarettes, which are more harmful. I’ve tried everything else—patches, gums, regular gums. Within weeks, I was back to my old nicotine friend. And although with my e-cigarette I’m still addicted to the habit of smoking, I’m not polluting my lungs with tar, at least

Quitting Smoking Cold Turkey

“Quitting cold turkey is the best way to do it….If you hang on to anything you will always risk going back. Just stop period. You have to tough through the addiction to beat it,” commented one of my readers on my hubpages.com article. Do it his way if you can. Many people did.

Kick Habit or Slip

Consider e-cigarettes as a healthier way to quit smoking. You might be better off quitting cold turkey. It’s easy to let things slip if you didn’t kick the habit, and here’s why: the hot tobacco will always taste better.

Here’s a tip for new users of e-cigarettes: buy cartridges or e-liquid with lower doses of nicotine—as precaution against chain-smoking. Gradually increase the doze until you find the amount of nicotine you are used to.

Chain smoking is a problem often discussed on e-cigarette forums. Many e-cigarette users are apt to continuously smoke their e-cigarettes until the battery dies. One reason for this could be the feeling of closure associated with putting out regular cigarette into an ashtray. Every long-time smoker knows this feeling. E-cigarettes don’t burn out, so putting out a cigarette, an important part of the smoking experience, is out.

And e-cigarettes are more available than regular cigarettes: you can smoke your e-cig at places where you have never though of smoking before—the living room, the bedroom, the mall. You don’t have to go outside anymore.

I often chain-smoked myself. Once in my hand, I couldn’t let go of my mini e-cigarette, until the cartridge was dry. That’s why I started counting my drags—now I stop after 20 drags. Though I was an e-cigarette chain smoker, I rarely felt any of the discomforts of regular smoking. On one occasion, after a night of continuous e-smoking, I remember I had difficulty breathing.

Difficulty breathing, as I learned, was a nicotine overdose symptom. In forums, I found many e-cig smokers who have experienced nicotine overdose. Nausea, diarrhea, weakness, sweating, pallor, stomach pain, and seizures are other common symptoms of nicotine overdose.

Smoking e-cigarettes, or e-smoking, is the closest thing to conventional smoking. Smokers  know that nicotine gums and patches are not very effective, especially the nicotine patches because they have nothing to do with the sacred act of smoking. Chewing gums at least keep your mouth busy, but still, it’s not the same.

Smoking e-cigarettes has a great advantage over other ways to quit conventional smoking. The reason is that both experiences, e-smoking and conventional smoking, are very similar—you’re taking time alone doing something, you’re holding a cigarette between your fingers, and you’re smoking, and the most important is the act of smoking.

When you smoke an e-cigarette you feel many of the same pleasant and unpleasant sensations of real smoking. And although you inhale water vapor instead of smoke, the taste of good smoke juice is like that of cigarette smoke and, sometimes, even better.

The great similarity between smoking and e-smoking is why I never went back to smoking real cigarettes, even after I accepted a cigarette by a friend at Starbucks when I hadn’t smoked a real cigarette for three months. The real cigarette didn’t taste as good as my e-cigarette. It was too bitter.

E-smoking Doesn’t Produce Cancer-Causing Substances Found in Traditional Smoking

There is a good reason why e-cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes: In the United States, traditional cigarette manufacturers use 599 additives approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Yet, when burned-these safe additives change into harmful cancer-causing chemicals. Some of these chemicals are:

Arsenic-cases cancer, damages the heart and the blood vessels

Benzene-linked to leukemia and other forms of cancer

Cadmium-causes cancer and damages the arteries and kidneys

Formaldehyde-linked to cancer of nasal sinuses and leukemia

Tar-a mixture of harmful chemicals that builds in the lungs

E-cigarettes don’t contain such substances-thus, the health risks related to e-smoking, if any, are limited.

Caution: E-cigarettes Not Yet Officially Approved

Although the argument in favor of e-cigarettes is strong, the World Health Organization (WHO) hasn’t yet approved e-smoking: “WHO knows of no evidentiary basis for the marketers’ claim that the electronic cigarette helps people quit smoking.”

“Indeed, as far as WHO is aware, no rigorous, peer-reviewed studies have been conducted showing that the electronic cigarette is a safe and effective nicotine replacement therapy.”

An e-cigarette, or electronic cigarette, is an electronic device that converts nicotine liquid into water vapor. The e-cigarette has three main parts: a battery, atomizer, and cartridge. The battery, the largest part, has an indicator light on one side and it screws onto the atomizer. The heart of every e-cigarete is the atomizer, which converts the e-liquid into smoke. The cartridge, a cylindrical inhaler that contains the e-liquid, attaches to the atomizer.