An electronic cigarette, also known as a e-cigarette or personal vaporizer, is a device that has been designed to give the user doses of nicotine or non-nicotine vaporized solution through inhalation. They are often designed to resemble actual tobacco cigarettes, although many also look like ballpoint pens.
Electronic cigarettes came onto the market as an alternative to the regular tobacco cigarettes, cigars and pipes. They are able to provide that same physical feeling that is felt when smoking a regular cigarette. One thing that electronic cigarettes can provide that tobacco based products cannot is flavor.
How Do They Work?
When a person inhales through the electronic cigarette, a heating element is activated. In the mouthpiece of the product, a flavored liquid solution is stored. When the heating element is activated, the heat vaporizes the solution in the mouthpiece. Hence, the user can then inhale the vapor.
Some electronic cigarettes are automatic and some are manual devices. The automatic ones have a sensor that detect when inhalation occurs and delivers the vapor instantly. Manual electronic cigarettes require that a button is depressed in order to turn on the heating element.
A lot of models have an LED on the end opposite where you inhale from. This LED activates during inhalation, simulating a regular cigarette. It also is there to provide and indication that the product is in use. Many start with a disposable electronic cigarette to get use to using it before they invest more money into the rechargable types.
Consisting of the basic components of a mouthpiece, a heating element and a rechargeable battery, the electronic cigarette is really quite a simple design. As most electronic cigarettes are reusable devices, they require a fully rechargeable battery. This battery is what powers the heating element.
It is the replaceable cartridges that delivers the vapor to the user. At the least they contain water, propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin and a flavoring. They also have a membrane that holds the ingredients within the cartridge. The choice of flavors is growing more and more every day. From the basic tobacco flavor, through to menthol, through to chocolate, coffee or vanilla, the choices are endless, and serve to provide a much nicer reason to use electronic cigarettes over regular cigarettes or cigars.
Who Uses Electronic Cigarettes?
For people who are trying to break the physical side of the smoking habit, the electronic cigarette can help. Some people just enjoy the flavor and the action of smoking but not have to worry about the thousands of deadly chemicals that are in traditional cigarettes.
Due to the many smoking bans in places across the world, lots of people are getting around this by using electronic cigarettes. It can be very handy to still be able to get your nicotine at work via an electronic cigarette that you could have in your office, rather than have to leave the building.
Lots of people from all different walks of life are now turning to the electronic cigarette. A lot of the benefits outweigh the detrimental effects of traditional cigarette and tobacco products. To understand how they work can help you to decide that they may just be worth trying, for your own health and the health of those people around you.