Beginner’s Guide to Vaping - What’s an E-pipe?
Electronic pipes… what are they, and what are they like to ‘smoke’?
I suppose the first thing to say is that they aren’t like normal tobacco pipes. It sounds obvious but it’s worth remembering. They haven’t been designed to replace your trusty briar or favourite blend of pipe tobacco – after all what could ever do that?! Rather, they are a new form of ‘smoking’ that hopefully one day will be socially acceptable and recognised as being harm free, and if that’s the case then they are definitely worth trying out and keeping in your rotation. Smoking in the pub again with a favourite pint of English beer to hand… sounds good doesn’t it?!
So what is an electronic pipe, vape pipe or e-pipe?
Well put simply it is a battery, a small heating element surrounding a conductive material such as cotton, a container for e-liquid and a simple mouthpiece. They can be automatically activated or more commonly physically activated by pressing a piece of metal against the battery to create an electric circuit. This then powers the wire coil surrounding the cotton, which in turn has become drenched in the liquid of choice. Depending upon the resistance of the coil it will become more or less hot, effectively cooking the liquid and turning it to vapour which is then inhaled. Simple isn’t it?
In the ever more acceptable world of vaping this would be called a personal vaporiser, with the bowl part containing the battery the ‘mod’, the heating part the ‘coil’ and the liquid container the ‘atomizer’ or if clear, the ‘tank’. The stem is called a ‘drip tip’. And like with most things vaping, they are adjustable, modifiable and customisable. But we’ll leave that for the more serious vapers…
So, once you’ve decided to give it a go and then decided what type you want (we only stock reliable e-pipes after a number of years of testing the market and can highly recommend these Kamry models) it’s time to choose your e-liquid.
This really is down to personal preference, with hundreds of different brands and flavours available to choose from. In the early years e-liquids focused on being cheap to rival the amount of money smokers were spending on cigarettes in particular, but now that the industry has matured and isn’t just about diverting smokers to vaping the trend is heading more towards the well made, more expensive brands such as Red Vape and Vype. With tastes ranging from pipe tobacco replicas to energy drink flavours, you’re bound to find something you like. And there are even Vape Clubs like our esteemed Tobacco Club if you fancy a regular, hassle free order…
And what is in e-liquid? Again there is a lot of detail we could go into here but let’s save that for another time, but as a simple guide here’s something the highly esteemed ‘Wired’ magazine recently published on the matter (with the usual scary caveats).
So that’s it really… nothing to get too worried about. In fact, there’s a whole new world out there should you wish to explore it, but if not then just settle down with your new e-pipe and count your blessings that someone has finally found away to combat these crazy anti-smoking laws. For now…
