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Comment by cnp | Hacker News Reader

In an attempt to quit smoking I just discovered the vaporization method and WOW -- I'm so impressed. Its actually enjoyable in the way that smoking is enjoyable, and the stimulant kick is very real.

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I also quit smoking by using a vaporizer. So did my brother, my mother, my step-father, and my friends. My cigarette consumption plummeted after I started using it... but it wasn't even a tiny struggle. There are some heavy-weights lobbying against the products, which is unfortunate because my vaporizer was the only thing that actually helped me quit smoking.

[shameless plug]

I had so much success with the product that I actually started a company selling them. I found that the market was much too complicated for somebody like my parents to enter, so a partner and I focused in on one great product for new users. You can check it out... If anybody has any feedback / constructive criticism / questions, please reach out to me at sean [at] vapesecret.com

http://www.vapesecret.com

spam

I started vaping this year. I love it. I've got a usb passthrough that just plugs in and I can sit in a co-working space and smoke and work. It gets some funny looks, but also starts some fun conversations.

Agree about the funny looks. I was on the 1 train last weekend, and someone took an e-cigarette out of her purse and started smoking. My first thought was, "OMG this is so illegal, I can't believe someone could think it's OK to light up on the train!" Then I realized it was an e-cigarette.

I imagine e-cigarette smokers must get this stunned reaction quite frequently.

Friend of mine switched to e-cigs a while back to try and quit. She seems to be doing pretty well. I met her at an airport terminal just before a transatlantic flight and she was complaining that the airlines don't let you use e-cigs on the plane.

I did double take when I saw her e-smoking in the terminal though. ;)

I overdosed myself severely when I first tried an e-cigarette. There's more nicotine per puff than a cigarette, at least in the brand I tried.

Sometimes I find new "ecig" smokers tend to puff on them (myself included initially) much longer then a regular cigarette. Such as, vaping all day or for hours (even if it is only once every 5-10 minutes over that time period).

Nicotine levels also vary and can be customized.

Chain-vaping is a potential problem. Maybe the e-cigs should have a signal to stop after a minute or so.

The carb (depending on your model) tends to get very hot when chain-vaping, so its a slight fix on its own. People just need to be aware of what they are doing, which is on the individual. I do not forses "good" education coming from PSA's or governments on eCigs, much like hookah [1].

[1] We have lovely billboards in SLC on 1 hour of hookah == 100 cigarettes, which is based on a poorly designed study by the CDC which measured volume of vapor in hookah as a comparative to "what if it was the same volume of cigarette smoke", as a paraphrase.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/tobac...

If I get a response, I'll have more time later to pick this apart.

Note many times the studies are based around "traditional" such as Tombak tobacco, which is placing the coals directly on the Shisha (tobacco), versus more standard practice (especially in US / hookah bars (across to Vietnam, etc.)) of tinfoil or steal as a heat diffuser.

vaporized liquid nicotine ? Where do you get it ? in Europe e-cigarettes are under scrutiny because the sold product is not guaranteed to be clean of toxic substances, otherwise it would be pretty great I guess.

I bought the eGO-T (meant for vaporizing plant matter) with a secondary nicotine adapter. In the US you can find both products at nearly every smoke shop.

One thing that really makes a difference is that the vaporized nicotine is actually somewhat hot, like cigarette smoke, when you breathe it in. Standard pre-packaged e-cigarettes didn't cut it for me specifically for this reason.

And the nicotine refill are pure nicotine ? no weird additives ?

You mean pre-packaged e-cigs provide a bad user experience with 'cold' vapor ?

It's not pure nicotine, but a mixture of propylene glycol or vegetable glycol, flavoring, and then nicotine.

Some of the off the shelf disposable / prepackaged e-cigs aren't powerful enough to have a strong vaporization of the solution. When you're refilling yourself, it becomes substantially cheaper (maybe a few dollars for a month of heavy usage?), and with the higher end kits you can program your voltage / amperage settings on curves for your preference as you in inhale.

Exactly. It gives you a lot of control over the smoking experience, where the prepackaged ones don't. I was a heavy smoker and enjoyed really bad (cheap) cigarettes; with the eGO cig you can really create a terrible smoking setup if you so desire, which is exactly what I needed quit :)

> One thing that really makes a difference is that the vaporized nicotine is actually somewhat hot, like cigarette smoke, when you breathe it in.

Too hot, I found, with the first such device I tried - way hotter than cigarette smoke. With the one I have currently (a bottom coil design, I think it's called, though I'm not into the technical side of the things really) it's pretty accurate.

Which is a really hilarious reason to be scrutinizing them, you have to admit.

Almost, but it's sane (pun half intended) to investigate any product even compared to very toxic ones, otherwise it's the same, people will ingest bad stuff, this time with the irony of thinking they were avoiding some.

They're easy to find, though -- I'm not a smoker or, uh, e-smoker, but I'm in rural central France, and there's an entire shop that seems to be dedicated to e-cigarettes in the closest major town (population 7K or so).

The name "vaping" is something of a shame, though, for something that's a much less harmful alternative for smokers -- it sounds to me like a combination of "vapid" and "gaping".

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