Posts Tagged ‘electric cigarette’

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 your favorite nicotine liquid (e-liquid) flavor doesn’t taste the same and your electric cigarette gives you a weak throat hit, you might have developed some tolerance to the  flavor. That’s why using at least three nicotine flavors is a good practice.

My first nicotine liquid, very high on nicotine, felt as though I smoked a conventional cigarette—taste was strong and felt good, and the throat hit hit as hard as it should. I liked it so much that I wanted to smoke only that flavor.

But by the time I finished half the 30ml bottle, the taste and throat hit started to feel weak. After alternating  my favorite flavor with another for two weeks, my favorite flavor felt as good as when I first tasted it.

And remember that when your electric cigarette tastes too light,  tolerance to your favorite nicotine liquid flavor can be only one of the reasons. Always charge the batteries, clean the atomizer, and use fresh and properly-stored nicotine liquid.

Nicotine liquid, also known as e-liquid or e-juice, is a liquid mixture for the electric cigarette. Nicotine liquid comes in a variety of flavors and a few basic nicotine levels.

Flavors of Nicotine Liquid

From the many nicotine liquid flavors offered by different manufacturers, two seem to be more popular: tobacco and mint. These two flavors have different names and slightly different tastes depending on the brand—names like Original Tobacco, Cured Tobacco, or Arctic Mint may be names for the same flavor or variants of the flavor.

There are nicotine liquid flavors made to taste like those of traditional cigarettes, for example, Marlboro, Camel, Winston, or Kent. The most common of those is Marlboro.

Smokers using the electric cigarette have a better choice of flavors than those who smoke traditional cigarettes. While it is rare for traditional cigarettes to have flavors of coffee, vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate, most nicotine liquid and electric cigarette makers and sellers offer those flavors.

Nicotine Liquid: What Is It Made of?

All main ingredients in nicotine liquid are food products generally considered as safe. There are two common main ingredients in it—propylene glycol and nicotine. Nicotine liquid can be 80 to 90% propylene glycol and 0 to 6% nicotine. Other less common ingredients are menthol—for the mint flavor, glycerol, and even pure water that can be about 10% of the solution.

The addiction topic aside,  the electric cigarette (also e-cigarette or electronic cigarette) doesn’t contain tar and other harmful substances produced when smoking regular cigarettes. Though some electric cigarette cartridges come without nicotine, most users smoke nicotine liquid.  Besides nicotine the electric cigarette liquid contains mostly propylene glycol; it also contains other substances like glycerol. So, the big question is:

How much safer is the mixture of nicotine and propylene glycol (e-liquid) when smoked with the electric cigarette?

Answering this question is like saying how much healthier is the electric cigarette, compared to the conventional—since common sense already tells us that no tar equals no health problems related to tar. Here are some other things to consider:

Is Nicotine like Caffeine When Separated from the Conventional Cigarette?

Until the invention of the electric cigarette, everyone knew that nicotine is harmful because it leads to smoking conventional cigarettes. What about nicotine itself? Is it like caffeine—good in small doses but harmful in large? Is nicotine by itself, a harmful substance? If pure nicotine is safe in small doses, what is the safe dose?

Are Propylene Glycol and Other Ingredients of E-liquid Safe?

Propylene glycol, a common food additive, is generally recognized as safe. But because smoking an electric cigarette is as addictive as smoking a conventional cigarette, how safe is propylene glycol when used daily? The same applies to other ingredients of e-liquid like glycerol, also a food additive.

Is Nicotine and Propylene Glycol Mixture Harmless When Vaporized and Inhaled?

Note–I said when vaporized and inhaled. The first reason for this question is because they might change their chemical qualities when they vaporize. The second is that some parts of the electric cigarette ( the mouthpiece and its polyester core in particular) are made of less durable materials, which could emit fumes because of the heating.

What Doses of Electric Cigarette Smoking Are Harmless?

Say nicotine, propylene glycol, and other ingredients found in e-liquid are safe when inhaled. But how much inhalation is safe, compared to the conventional cigarette?

This was a question asked by one of the readers of e-cigarettepedia. If I have to give a direct answer: many times, depending on how you take care of your cartridges. I bought my first e-cigarette four months ago, and I’m still using 5 of the original 10 cartridges that came with my Super Mini E-cigarette (RN4981) Kit.

When Do You Know that Your E-cigarette Cartridge Needs to Be Replaced

Most e-cigarette cartridges are reusable. You need to purchase e-liquid separately to refill. But the outside shell of a cartridge, the mouthpiece, is made of plastic, and after time the heat from the atomizer deforms its shape until the shell gets cracked. Once the plastic cartridge is cracked, get rid of it or you risk swallowing e-liquid. Besides a damaged cartridges produce less smoke.

The other main part, the piece of polyester batting that holds the e-liquid inside the cartridge, accumulates residue of e-liquid. So, keep an eye on the color of the polyester core. When the core gets darker, you should change the cartridge.

Clean Cartridges in Hot Water

The best way to clean your cartridges is soaking them in hot water. Don’t boil them—they’ll turn pale and start melting. A couple of minutes in hot water is enough, and make sure the polyester batting is completely clean.

Throat Hit Origins

Throat hit is the tingling sensation smokers feel at the back of the throat. It is felt when the inhaled smoke hits the throat. The term is more relevant to e-cigarette smoking because by their very nature e-cigarettes taste lighter than conventional cigarettes. Throat hit is a major concern for e-cigarette smokers because most of them converted from conventional smoking and they are used to the stronger throat hit of a burning tobacco leaf.

So, the stronger the throat hit, the better because  it’s closer to the real thing. Let’s look at some of the factors involved in producing stronger throat hit, starting from the most important.

Throat Hit Factors

#1 E-liquid Quality: Overall quality of e-liquid is cited as the most important factor in producing stronger throat hit. First time buyers of e-cigarette should research the brands that offer e-liquid that ranks high in throat hit.

#2 Nicotine Dosage in E-liquid: The dosage of nicotine can also affect throat hit. High dosage equals stronger throat hit, but again it depends on the overall quality of the e-liquid.

#3 Condition and Proper Maintenance: Life of equipment and maintenance may determine throat hit. Often uncharged batteries and clogged atomizer may cause weak throat hit; so do defective ones.

#4 Device Parts Quality: Throat hit also depends on the quality of the separate parts of the e-cigarette: atomizer, batteries, and cartridges. The model, batch, and brand play a part too.

#5 Smoking Technique: Smoking e-cigarettes takes some time to learn. It is about three times harder to draw on an e-cigarette than on a conventional cigarette. Plus getting more vapor and throat hit depends on the particular way an e-cigarette is drawn on.

E-cigarettes are a  new product, which is why manufacturers didn’t think of a universal carrying case for keeping parts and e-liquid together. The perfect case for an e-cigarette is light and compact, one that fits into a pants pocket and carries at least a spare battery and a 10 ml bottle of e-liquid.

The homemade carrying case I’m using is an aluminum box from ALTOIDS. The metal box even comes in two sizes, both of which I find useful depending on the situation.

Basic Carrying Case for E-cigarettes

I use the smaller ALTOIDS box, the box from 20 piece ALTOIDS chewing gum, to carry one battery, one cartridge, and one atomizer, plus one 10 ml bottle of e-liquid. This carrying case, the more compact of the two, is ideal when you have to be out for a couple of hours. The case will fit into any pocket. I use a folded tissue paper as padding to keep the e-cigarette parts tightly packed and protect them from hitting each other.

Basic Carrying Case for Your E-cigarette

Travel Carrying Case for E-cigarette

When traveling, you can use the larger ALTOIDS box. If you have a super mini e-cigarette, you’ll fit as many as 4 batteries, 2 atomizers, 2 cartridges, and two 10 ml bottles—enough supplies to last you for two days without using the charger.  Remember to use a soft tissue or soft cloth as padding to protect the parts.

Of course you can choose different combinations—you’ll learn from experience what exactly to include in your metal box. In the image bellow, the box contains 2 batteries, 1 atomizer, 1 cartridge, and 1 10ml bottle of e-liquid.

Larger Case for E-cigarettes

To find out how to store your e-liquid and why I’m using a 10 ml dropper bottle , read this recent post: Tips for Storing E-liquid.

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.

The atomizer is the heart of your e-cigarette, and you should take a good care of it if you don’t want your e-cigarette to have heart problems. The least you could do is to leave your atomizer upside down (side that connects to battery up), at night, to drain deposits of e-liquid.

I’ve researched and found many ways to get rid of the deposits that clog an e-cigarette atomizer. But, for now, I find an air compressor the most effective. Note that this article is based on two successful attempts (read the Important Notes at the end of article).

Where to Find a Portable Air Compressor for Cleaning Your Atomizer

Portable air compressors are very easy to find—just do a quick search online or go to your local Pep Boys store. Price varies from $30 to $100. You don’t need a very powerful compressor—thus the most affordable should be good enough.  The device I’m using is a portable, all-in-one power station that has a built-in air compressor. I keep it in my car. The compressor is for inflating car tires.

portable air compressor for cleaning the atomizer of your e-cigarette

Please note that this method of cleaning might not work with all models of atomizers. I tested it on the atomizer of a super mini e-cigarette.

• Take the air compressor hose and join the air outlet valve to the side of the atomizer that attaches to the battery. See how the valve and atomizer fit. If they don’t, try using the air valve fitting—the one you use to inflate your tires.

connecting e-cigarette atomizer to air outlet valve

• Start the air compressor. Force air through the atomizer’s chamber, but don’t overdo it—just enough air to get the e-liquid deposits out.  Force air only from the side of the atomizer that connects with the battery. If you use the other side of the atomizer (the one that connects to the cartridge, you risk damaging it.

Cleaning your e-cigarette atomizer with air pressure

If your e-cigarette works as good as when it was new, congratulations—you cleaned your atomizer. If it doesn’t, the problem might not be a clogged atomizer.

Important Notes:

Make sure you have a spare atomizer if you decided to try the air compressor.

The first time I used this procedure, I successfully unclogged an atomizer. I forced air through the side of the atomizer that connects to the battery, and I used the compressor for less than a minute.

The second time, my atomizer started working two days after the cleaning. I cleaned the atomizer from both sides, and I used the compressor for more than two minutes. The reason why the atomizer wouldn’t work for two days was probably because some mini part (that was supposed to be dry) got wet during cleaning. So, remember to force air through the side that connects to the battery.