Our Favourite E-Cigs and Where to Find Them in Ireland
You can find e-cigarettes at the shopping centre and at a growing number of local outlets here in Ireland, but if you’re dead set against moving from the couch, do look through the large selection of products found online. There is a growing community of vapers in Dublin, and many of the vape shop owners will let you try out different devices and e-juices and give you their advice and preferences on the latest models. In any case, we have some pointers to get you started.
Look For the Brand Name
Currently, there is no central administration setting standards for vaping devices and associated products, so it is wise to be a bit cautious on the world wide web especially with anything that seems too good to be true. There are a handful of e-cig review websites that will rank the top brands and weed out the bargain brands for you. A quality e-cig company like Vaper Empire or South Beach Smoke won’t be stamping their label on loads of generic products coming from China. Your best e-cig is also not going to be one found off the racks at the local petrol station because you’ll be left with a shoddy battery and no control over the nicotine level. You might end up with a nicotine level 200% or 300% more or less than the amount you’re getting from your current cigarettes.
E-Cig Cartridges and Cartomizers
E-cigarettes take either cartridges or refillable cartomizers. Regardless of what you choose, you can still enjoy any number of different flavours and combinations, but if you have pre-filled cartridges, cartridges from other companies may not be compatible with your battery. About 46% of e-cig users in Dublin end up switching to cartomizers once they become more familiar with vaping because it offers a more personalised vaping experience. Cartomizers and clearomizers often hold more e-juice and have lower resistance for those cloud chasers searching for more vapour production. In fact, clearomizers can hold more e-juice, and they are clear enabling easier refills.
E-Cigarette Battery Power
Batteries are by far the most important accessory because a good one will define your vaping experience. Batteries come in a large range of colours and usually are available either as manual or automatic. A manual battery will allow you more control but can be tricky to operate while an automatic one engages as soon as you inhale and will last a little bit longer as a result. E-cig batteries generally are available in 650 mAh, which will last about 6 hours, 900 mAh, 1100 mAh, or 1300 mAh, which lasts 12 hours. Voltage will vary from about 3.2 V to just under 5V, and some batteries even offer variable voltage so that you can choose your own desired power. “A battery that lasts all day is going to cost you, but if you spend more on anything when buying a vapouriser, spending on the battery will give you the best returns,” explains self-proclaimed vaping aficionado Julie McLeod.
Irish Favourite Vape Juice Flavours
If you head out to some vaping shops in Dublin, you won’t only find a selection of your newest vape mods and batteries. You might also find a vaping cafe and your barista ready to mix you up a cocktail of e-juices for you to try over a cup of coffee and the Irish Independent. Here are a list of our very favourites we think you must try.
A classic tobacco is always a solid choice, but if you’re a gourmand, don’t shy away from some of the more elegant mixes. We love Vaper Empire’s inventive Artisan Collection with e-juices such as “Ragtime Raconteur,” tobacco and mocha cappuccino tinged with sweet caramel; “Velvet Elvis,” sweet and tender gummy bears, bubblegum, and skittles; and “Salvador’s Siesta,” a take on a classic Spanish dessert of creamy hazelnut custard.
Today we love tropically inspired flavours like fruity mango and coconut blends. VaporFi, known for their high-quality e-liquids, wrote in to tell us their top-selling flavours: Grand Reserve Havana Beach has a tobacco base infused with coconut candy, cream, and a thick caramel. Their other top flavours include Grand Reserve Island Frost, a delightful concoction of coconut and pineapple mixed with mint, lime, and blueberries as well as Grand Reserve Maui Menthol, icy menthol harmonizing perfectly with guava, jackfruit, honeydew, and papaya.
When you choose your flavour, you are also going to choose your desired level of nicotine. Regular smokers would probably find 18mg about equivalent to their usual dose, but chainsmokers might want to increase to 24mg and light smokers would probably be satisfied with 6mg. Of course you can always mix e-juice to your liking by purchasing a container with either a stronger or weaker concentration of nicotine and adding as necessary. Some companies offers e-juice with up to 36mg, but do note that anything above 20mg might be confiscated at customs when ordered online. If you’re looking to wean yourself off of nicotine, you can gradually decrease to 12mg, 6mg, 3mg, and finally none at all.
Accessories for Vaping
There is a wide variety of accessories to improve your vaping experience if and when you are looking to make some updates. For starters, any basic kit will come with a wall adaptor, USB charging cable, and rechargeable battery, but you don’t have to stop there. There are car adaptors, elegant carrying cases, stylish lanyards, cartomizers, and of course more powerful batteries.
Proper Vaping Etiquette
Even though vaping is legally not equivalent to smoking in any way, please do be considerate in any public space where smoking is banned. That means hospitals, restaurants, schools, planes, trains, buses, etc., and even if you’ve been going to the same pub for years, you should still ask the owner whether it’s okay with him. In general, when in doubt, it’s always better to ask. Plus, inhaling someone else’s vapour is about just as appealing as a burps right in your face. Even if you are using strawberry short-cake e-juice, it’s still never as appealing the second time around. Also, non-vapers may not be well-informed about e-cigs, and even if you know that second-hand vaping is harmless, they may not. You don’t want to make any enemies, and respecting other people’s preferences ensures that you maintain the reputation of vapers overall.
Please also be courteous of other vapers. Do not ask to share your neighbours new vape mod. Even if it’s the latest model on the market, and even if you have your own drip tip, it’s best to mind your own business unless you’re invited. Secondly, we are all part of the same vaping community, and some of us are more experienced than others. So, if it’s you with the vape mod-nimbus 2000, it’s not your place to go sneering at the newbie using disposable cigalikes. It’s really none of your business.
Ireland’s Vaping Restrictions
Smokers turned to vaping in droves after the smoking ban was passed in Ireland in 2004 in the hopes of exploiting what seemed to be a fortunate loophole. However, the World Health Organisation continues to promote nicotine patches, lozenges, and gum.
Otherwise, e-juice still contains nicotine though, so even though it wasn’t included under the smoking ban in 2004, Article 20 of the Tobacco Product Directive put into effect on 20 May 2016 does restrict the size of containers and strength of nicotine in e-liquids sold in Ireland. The new limitations forbid tanks or cartomizers larger than 2ml and e-juice containers larger than 10ml. E-liquids may not contain a concentration of nicotine higher than 20mg and e-cig tanks must have a mechanism to ensure leak-free refilling.
E-Cigarettes are on the Rise
There are currently about 134,000 vapers today in Ireland and 80% of them started in the hopes of quitting. Surprisingly, only 29% claimed that it had to do with financial reasons, but in any case, 35% of vapers are former smokers who kicked the habit altogether. Even though the largest group of vapers, 27%, falls in the 25-34 age group, e-cigs have become much more socially acceptable here in Ireland over the past decade.
In comparison with other countries like the U.S. and continental Europe where the average vaper is in his/her early 40’s, the vaping community here tends to be led by the younger generation. Ireland was one of the first countries to ban smoking in public places, and so perhaps it is only natural that vaping took off so quickly. In any case, vapers are a community, and in a country the size of Ireland, the word on the street is bound to travel quickly, and now we’re passing it to you! Vaping is bound to only grow in popularity, and if you act now, you could be part of the tobacco transformation that’s sweeping the nation.