What Types of Electronic Cigarettes Are There?
1. Disposable E-Cigarettes
The key benefit to disposables is they are readily available – and there is no faffing around with them. Instead, you just pick one up, inhale, and enjoy.
However, you need to be careful with disposables. They sound like a great way to test electronic cigarettes without laying out for a kit, but the problem is the quality can be poor (and they are very rarely as good as a good starter kit.) Their best function, IMO, is for when you run out while on a trip and can hopefully pick one up in a shop.
Disposables can cost anything from about a fiver to eleven or twelve pounds. A few quid may sound like too much, but if you compare the value of a kit which you can carry on using every day for a year or more it’s really very expensive.
2. Cigalikes
Three Part and Two Part Electronic Cigarettes
Electronic cigarettes used to consist of three parts, consisting of a battery, an atomiser and a cartridge. The atomiser was screwed onto the battery, and the cartridges were either screwed or pushed on to the atomiser.
While a great improvement on smoking, the main problem was that the atomiser was prone to failure. Nowadays, atomisers are now built into disposable cartridges. Not only do these seem to be more reliable than the original atomisers, they are less fiddly. And if you do get an atomiser going wrong you have only lost a single cartridge.
How Do You Use a Cigalike?
Getting Started
As soon as you get the kit, give it a good charge. Batteries may come with some initial charge, but by giving it a long charge you condition the battery. Then screw a cartridge into a battery, lift it to your lips, inhale – and enjoy
Position it is held in
Ideally, you’ll hold your electronic cigarette in a roughly horizontal position. This will avoid any danger of e-liquid leaking out of the cartridge. (As technology has improved this now rarely happens.)
When to change batteries
A standard e-cigarette battery will last an average vaper two or more hours under typical use. Once the battery is ready for a recharge, the LED tip will flash and will no longer activate. Simply attach the charger to the battery and connect to a power source. The charger will indicate when the battery is recharged.
When to change cartridges
Unlike batteries, cartridges do not have a visual indicator to let you know they’ve run out of e-liquid. Rather, it’s up to you to realize when it’s happened. There are a few different things you may notice when the e-liquid has become depleted.
You may notice that there’s simply not as much vapour coming out of the e-cigarette as before. In some cases vapour may cease to come out at all! In some extreme cases, you may notice a harsh, burnt taste. That is an indicator that the cartridge has run out of e-liquid and the internal atomiser is now burning through the material in the cartridge. Stop using the cartridge immediately in this case.
Replacing cartridges is simple, just remove the old one and recycle it, then screw a new one back on and resume your puffing.
3. Refillable Electronic Cigarettes (Tank Systems)
Refillable e-cigarettes (usually called tanks) come in a variety of styles ranging from regular e-cigarettes with refillable cartridges to highly specialized handmade devices designed for hobbyists. The most popular systems currently on the market are often called tank systems because of their high-capacity clearomisers or glassomisers.
Most tank systems consist of:
i. A Battery – Usually between 500 – 13000 mAh and re-chargeable.
ii. A Tank (also called clearomiser) – These house the atomiser and are the refillable part of the tank.
iii. USB charger – The batteries can be recharged on the computer or via a USB adaptor to a mains socket. The plug needs to be 5 volts 1 amp
iv. E-liquid – Most starter kits will give you a bottle of e-liquid for free.
If you’re looking for something with a bit more than an e-cigarette, then a tank system is definitely the way to go. With a much higher capacity and a huge variety of strengths and flavours, it’s not a surprise that tank systems are quickly becoming a most popular alternative to both tobacco cigarettes and regular e-cigarettes.
