Answers to common questions about our e-cigarettes, e-liquid, and company policies. For more comprehensive guides and how-to information, please visit our Learning Centre.
Using Genecigs Products
Electronic cigarettes have no tar or health-destroying chemicals such as those found in tobacco cigarettes. Our products are manufactured from high grade raw materials and are compliant with CE, RoHS and SGS international safety and quality standards. See our Health and Safety page for more info.
Not quite. You must be over 18 to legally purchase and use e-cigarettes.
About 5% of people experience an unpleasant physical or allergic reaction when vaping for the first time. A small percentage of people are allergic to propylene glycol (PG), the main component of most e-liquids, and should use a vegetable glycerine (VG) based e-liquid solution instead. Allergic reactions to PG are not in the serious category of allergies, i.e. they don’t cause death or major physical impairment. If you are allergic to PG you will probably get a mild skin rash or just generally feel a bit “off” after vaping.
However, most of the 5% who have initial reactions to vaping will not continue to experience problems using electronic cigarettes. It’s simply a matter of letting your body adjust. Remember how you coughed the first time you had a tobacco cigarette? Some first-time vapers cough as well, even if they are heavy smokers, simply because vapour is of a different consistency to tobacco smoke and their lungs need to adapt to it.
While vapour has none of the thousands of carcinogens present in tobacco smoke, the fact that it’s basically just evaporated water makes it heavier and wetter than either smoke or normal air. So unless you live in the tropics and your lungs are used to humidity, you may find vaping slightly difficult at first.
The good news is, most people get the hang of it by their second try, and can live happier smoke-free lives forever after.
Jeepers, no. Don’t you know that tobacco smoke has cancer in it?? Our products are all completely tobacco and smoke-free.
Have no fear, each Starter Kit comes with an illustrated user guide to get you going in no time.
For more information including picture demonstrations and cleaning/maintenance guides, please visit our Learning Centre.
Automatic v.s Manual 510 Starter Kits
The only difference in components for the two 510 starter kit types is the type of battery. Automatic 510 starter kits come with batteries operate automatically. Manual 510 starter kits come with batteries that operate manually, i.e. you have to press a small button on the side of the battery while inhaling to produce vapour.
Pros: With an automatic battery, all you have to do to activate the vaping process is put your e-cig in your mouth and draw. And because auto batteries shut off after 5 seconds of each inhale, they’re impossible to overheat, drain, or short out prematurely. When you take another drag, the battery activates again. So they’re very user-friendly.
Cons: They can be a bit restrictive. If you ever feel like taking a longer-than-5-seconds drag, the automatic shut off system won’t let you. You’ll have to wait a few seconds before taking another inhale.
Pros: Manual batteries let you control the length and strength of each vape. Like the eGo-T, a manual 510 battery features a small easy-press button that you hold down while inhaling your vapour. You can get very big and satisfying clouds of vapour this way.
Cons: You could potentially shorten the life of your battery by repeatedly holding down the button for longer-than-5-seconds periods. Sort of like how car tyres wear out faster if you keep going over the speed limit.
All About E-Liquid and Nicotine
Instead of burning tobacco smoke, e-cigarettes produce vapour by heating a special liquid solution to the point where it evaporates and can be inhaled. This solution is known interchangeably as e-liquid or e-juice.
E-liquid is made from water, flavourings, and a base of either propolyne glycol (PG) or vegetable glycerin (VG). Both PG and VG are safe, unregulated chemical compounds. They are commonly used as thickening or preserving agents in everyday products such as medicines, foods and cosmetics. Some vapers prefer one type of e-juice base over the other, and some like to use a solution that combines both PG and VG.
At Genecigs we sell the PG variety of e-liquid in several flavours. We stock this variety because most users of our best-selling product, the eGo-T e-cigarette, report that PG produces more vapour and flavour than VG when used with the eGo-T.
‘Fraid not. Australian law prohibits any business to sell nicotine-containing e-juice to consumers within Australia.
However, it is legal for you to order a personal supply of nicotine e-liquid from an overseas provider. Australian law allows you to import up to a 3 month supply, but any more than that risks being confiscated and/or fined at Customs.
The online vaping community in Australia generally has good things to say about the Chinese company Heaven Gifts as a nicotine e-liquid supplier. Health Cabin is also popular.
We recommend buying unflavoured nicotine e-liquid, as this gives you the option to mix it with a variety of nicotine-free flavoured e-juices. If you buy a flavoured nicotine e-juice that you don’t like, you’re stuck with it.
Nicotine e-liquid comes in different strength concentrations, just like the nicotine in tobacco cigarettes can be strong, regular, mild etc. It is also available in different quantities, usually between 5mL and 100mL bottles.
The strength of nicotine e-juice is measured in mg (milligrams), which refers to the amount of mg of nicotine per mL (millilitre). For example, if you had a 10mL bottle marked as 12mg strength, there would be 120mg in the whole bottle. Which sounds like a lot when you consider that an average 20 pack of regular cigarettes contains about 22mg, but a 10mL bottle lasts longer than a pack of cigarettes.
Also bear in mind that if you mix, say, 10mL of 36mg nicotine e-juice with a 10mL of nicotine-free flavoured e-juice, the resulting 20mL solution will only be 18mg strength. You’ll be doing a bit of playing around to find the perfect nicotine and flavour combination for you.
When deciding on how much e-liquid to buy, you should know that e-cigarettes are less efficient at delivering nicotine to the body than tobacco cigarettes. Vaping will only absorb about 30-50% the nicotine of smoking a tobacco cigarette, so in general you will need to use higher strength nicotine e-juice to get the equivalent nicotine hit.
For instance, 24mg nicotine e-liquid is often labelled as high strength, but for most people it will not deliver the same effect as smoking a high strength cigarette. It’s more likely you’ll feel an effect closer to that of smoking a regular or mild strength cigarette.
That’s a “how long is a piece of string” type question. How much e-liquid you use will depend on a number of factors including nicotine strength and how often you vape, which will in turn be affected by your existing cigarette smoking habits. A two-pack a day strong cigarette smoker will go through more e-liquid than a half-pack a day mild cigarette smoker. Very generally, a 10mL bottle of 24mg nicotine strength e-juice could replace between 5-7 packs of regular strength cigarettes, but it’s different for each person.
Yes – don’t forget that nicotine is still a POISON. It won’t give you cancer like all the other crud in tobacco cigarettes, but it should be treated with appropriate caution. Think of it like you would any other poisonous liquid – don’t drink it or spill it on your skin, and keep it well out of reach of children and pets. Acute nicotine poisoining can be dangerous and even lethal.
Calm down there, soldier. It’d be pretty hard for you to seriously hurt yourself from vaping even highly concentrated nicotine. You’d have to vape non-stop for a very long time, and would start sweating, getting a headache and feeling nauseous well before you reached the point of nicotine poisoning.
Even if you spilled nicotine liquid on your skin, the solution is quite thick so it’s not easily absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream. If you do get nicotine liquid on yourself, just wipe it off as soon as possible and wash the area just to be safe. Just don’t drink it! And definitely keep it out of reach of children and pets.
On the plus side, there are no reports of anyone managing to seriously mess themselves up with nicotine e-liquid to date, and given that hundreds of thousands of people around the world have been vaping for years, the odds are that some very stupid and/or drunk people have had a decent go at it. We’re sure you’ll be fine.
Company Policies
Everything Else
No problem – we’d love to hear from you and will try our best to answer any questions you may have. Just give us an email at support@genecigs.com.au. We will endeavour to answer all communications within 24 hours.