Terms and Tips

I figured I'd explain some things for new users to help them ease into the e-cig world, like defining common terms. If you've ever heard the terms "batty," "atty," "condom" or "cart" in relation to e-cigs and were totally confused, this post is for you.

(1) Cart: Cartridge or cartomizer. A cartridge is different from a cartomizer in one way: the latter also houses the atomizer, whereas the former is separate from it. "Cart" refers to both styles.
(2) Batty: Pretty straightforward, a "batty" is the battery, or the part that has the LED and screws into the atomizer/cart.
(3) Atty: Atomizer, the part that heats up the nicotine liquid inside of the cart.
(4) Condom: My favorite e-cig term, the condom is the plastic sheath that goes over the top and bottom of carts

PCC: Portable/Personal Charging Case. Above are two examples of PCCs from leading companies blu and Vapor4Life. A PCC allows the user to screw a battery into it which charges it on the go. They usually have space to hold a few spare carts as well. After charging a dead battery a few times, the PCC itself will need to be plugged in and charged. The PCC is a lifesaver for those who are away from home most of the day.

With definitions out of the way, there are a few tips that can really help a new user have success with e-cigs. My first tip is this: get a cart sampler pack from whichever manufacturer you choose. Vapor4Life offers a lot of sampler packs of various themes (smoke shop, menthol, etc), and blu offers a sampler pack as well. Why do this? You may buy a set of carts in one flavor and end up disliking the flavor, which could lead to you reverting to analogs for the time being. This is common when first transitioning, but it's common because new users don't know to try multiple flavors at once.

Along those same lines, I recommend you get carts in various nicotine strengths at first. You may decide to be conservative and get, say, 8mg carts, then find yourself craving analogs. If this happens, you need to up the nicotine strength. Get the strength you think is right for you, then get one strength higher as well. You can primarily vape with the average strength carts, and if you have strong analog cravings, screw in the high nicotine carts to get through the rough patch. This will be a lifesaver and keep you from lighting up an analog.