What is an electric cigarette? How does it work?
Well basically an electric cigarette is simply that... A cigarette that runs off electricity. It acts just like a real cigarette would except it doesn't produce smoke nor does it have any combustion. But it does make a vapor that looks like smoke!
The electric cigarette consists of 3 parts. The first part is the long white part with the glowing led end... This is actually a battery. The battery in a electric cigarette can be a variety of voltages but is typically a lithium battery, most electric cigarette kits include a battery charger to recharge this part. The LED light on the end of the electric cigarette can also be a variety of colors. Many companies out there will have the typical orange or red led. But some of the ecigs out there will can have blue, purple, green, white or any other color in the rainbow as the LED end. This will let people know you are not smoking a real cigarette but vaping on a electric cigarette.
The second part of the ecig is the part that vaporizes the liquid into the mist. This is essentially a small heating coil and it's name is typically referred to as an atomizer. The atomizer has a small wick on the end of it and literally soaks up the liquid nicotine into its wick and vaporizes it into a mist. All electric cigarettes will contain an atomizer, while some of the ecigs will have the atomizer built into the cartridge called a cartomizer, some will be a seperate piece all together.
The last part of the electric cigarette is the cartridges. The cartridges are the components that include the nicotine liquid. The nicotine cartridges can be sold in different levels of strengths and mg's. Typically you will find 16mg as high all the way down to no nicotine cartridges. You will also find a chemical called propylene glycol in the cartridges with the nicotine. Be careful though where you purchase your electric cigarette from because companies like smokingeverywhere.com have been found to contain diethylene glycol which is poisonous! So always make sure the company you purchase your electric cigarette from is reputable and doesn't have that chemical in their ecigs.
So how does it work?
Well the electric cigarette cartridges will be attached to the end of the atomizer. In doing so the atomizer's wick will be in direct contact with the e-liquid nicotine solution and will soak it up into it's wick. The wick will then attach to the atomizer coil. When you puff on the electric cigarette a small micro-processor built into the battery portion will tell the atomizer to fire up and it will heat up and rapidly steam out the eliquid into a mist. This is a instant process and it literally transforms the liquid into vapor immediately. Then when you puff on the electric cigarette it looks just like you are smoking a real cigarette but it is just the eliquid vapor. This vapor is extremely safe compared to traditional cigarettes and is missing many of the chemcals normally found in real cigs.