Unfortunately due to the PACT act with Snus I started to use dip a lot. This caused gum recession very quickly, so I now try to stick with my snus when possible.

As far as e-cigarettes go, I still take a puff every now and then, but it’s really uncommon and only when I’m really stressed or something, I get a craving for a cigarette and just puff on that. I haven’t touched a cigarette for 2 years or so now, but I have smoked cigars, very rarely.

Pretty much I use my moist snuff or snus and that’s it all day, and I’m fine. I will be quitting that in the future as well, though I’m not sure about how to approach it.

So yes, the “harm reduction” path has worked for me, but who knows something else other than tobacco may kill me, it’s the risk you take living life. Stress, anxiety, and depression has caused me 100x worse health effects than cigarettes ever did.

A number of things point to e-cigarettes being relatively safe (however there needs to be more research done) and I have used them for months, guess what? My lungs have cleared up, I can finally breathe again. I feel good, generally.

I’ve heard about snus being a pretty healthy alternative to cigarettes as well, and some people combining it with e-cigarettes to finally “lay down” cigarettes completely. One day I had no batteries for my e-cigarette and I was out and about, so instead of buying a pack of cigarettes (which would’ve broke my 3 month long cigarette free streak) I opted to pick up some camel snus. I felt something familiar, a “good feeling” not like when I vape on my ecig to kill withdrawal, that’s a completely different feeling. Then I remembered that there are MAOI’s in tobacco, and that’s what I was probably feeling more than anything. Remember, I didn’t use these MAOI’s for 3 months, however I think they were the problem. I was still holding on to my old cigarettes because I really felt something was missing from my e-cigarette, and it was bothering me.

Later on I decided to try swedish snus, and man is that ever stronger than camel. I had an “MAOI” rush. (I had been puffing on my e-cigarette like normal until the package came, and had just put it down prior to popping in some swedish snus.)

All of a sudden, I feel much better, and feel like I used to when I smoked. This resulted in me throwing away all my cigarettes (finally). I had been holding them because I wanted that MAOI feeling back. I missed it. I was going to ignore it as much as possible and try to get over it, however this makes me feel safer. Now I can say for certain that I don’t have any need to smoke.

Note: You have to realize that smoking is the WORST POSSIBLE WAY to get nicotine, period. I know a lot of people are brainwashed into thinking that smokeless tobacco is WORSE for you than cigarettes. That’s completely FALSE. Unfortunately, cigarettes have the highest rate of all cancers. Oral, lung, pancreatic, etc. Yes there are risks to snus, however those risks are very small in comparison with smoking. (90% – 98% safer)

Conclusion

In my opinion, combining e-cigarettes and snus is going to be the absolute best combination for anyone to quit smoking. Some people don’t care about the MAOI’s much, others do. However, I think e-cigarettes and snus are great choices for anyone willing to stop smoking. Pick up a blucig and see if e-cigarettes are right for you. Otherwise check out northerner.com.

Still, I would like to quit nicotine/tobacco completely, but I’m a pretty big addict. The least I can do is try to be healthier with my habit, and it’s so nice that the “powers that be” shield all harm reduction is secrecy.

The first thing I was most concerned about was the switch. This thing fires every single time since I’ve had it. The button also feels pretty good, and the locking feature is a nice touch.

I did try out the i3 atties and I thought they were pretty good, but I still like 510′s more. 510 @ 6V + 24 – 36MG PureSmoker e-Liquid seems to give me the most “cigarette” like experience. (Not sure how much VG/PG PureSmoker uses, but it usually does pretty well for me, I have some TastyVapor 10% VG and it doesn’t produce nearly as much vapor.) Vapor production in the GGTS VS Prodigy V2: HUGE DIFFERENCE. GGTS provides more vapor quicker. Taste seems to be very close but a little less than the V2.

I only have cr123a batteries (left over from the Prodigy V2 and I also picked up another set) so I can’t really comment on how it functions at 7.2V, 7.4V, 3.7V, and with different batteries. I’ll get to testing 7.4V with an i7 in the future probably, but I won’t use it all the time. I prefer being able to use regular atomizers, and at 7.2 – 7.4V you need the high volt atomizers all the time.

So far, I haven’t noticed much wrong I can really complain about. The GGTS has just “worked”. Oh wait.. there is one thing the brass/aluminum seems to get dirty easily, to keep it shiny you’d have to polish it a lot. Not really going to call this a drawback though.

So long as the GGTS holds up I really don’t think I’ll be buying more mods. I could, but I don’t think I really want to. Unlike the V2 I can’t find anything wrong with it, and it’s easy to handle and adaptable. Only thing I’m going to do is play around with different battery combinations and atomizers/cartomizers, and of course try more e-liquid. Yea, the GGTS is that good. I’ve almost got a “sweet spot”. Only “mod” I see myself possibly buying would be the AFS, and maybe some more imeoatties.

Anyway, on with the review.. All in all, I was pretty pleased with this device. (I’m using a 510 atomizer.) However, I’ll go over the negatives first. The biggest problem on this device is the switch. Mine worked fine for about a week, then I had to press harder and harder to get it to work. Eventually, I took it apart. Lost the spring right away (still haven’t found it). I replaced the spring with a pen spring, of course that doesn’t fix the issue I was having. At this point I didn’t really know how to fix it so I got my multimeter out and tried to figure out how to get it working again.

After awhile I figured out that it was the o-ring, wasn’t fat enough or something, because the washer wasn’t making contact with the 2 points in the switch. I did a little more reading on e-cigarette-forum.com to see if this issue was really wide spread. Apparently, it is. There were a few suggestions on how to fix it, the way that worked for me was taking some pliers and moving the contact points from the flat side to the round side.

About a week later, the button was doing the same crap again. The metal they’re using as contact points must be soft or something because it looked like one side flattened out. Did the same thing again, moving the contact point to a different round side. Result: fixed again.

What I’ve gained from this experience is that on the Prodigy V2 you don’t want to push too hard on the button, ever. That’s what causes it to get screwed up from what I can tell.

I’ve had no other issues with this device except for the fact I can’t stand using 3 – 3.7V anymore If they would fix the switch, I think this would be a really good device.

Vapor production is great, as you’d expect running 5V to a Joye 510 atomizer, been using it non stop since I got it. Very satisfying feeling compared to 3 – 3.7v. I go through about 2 sets of batteries per day, so about 7 hours per set.

My RYO cigarette tubes/tobacco hasn’t been touched for three and a half weeks. I intend to keep it that way.

Totals

Affordability – 9/10 – Well within range for most people to be able to pick one up.

Build quality – 5/10 – Problems with the switch, as I noted above. Otherwise, I’d say it’s pretty solid, but really the switch is pretty important so 5 points off.

Looks – 8/10 – Looks decent, especially with a silver atomizer and t-tip.

Usability – 8/10 – So long as the switch is working, it’s fine. Switch still doesn’t always work though, so 2 points have been taken off. Batteries last 7 hours per set (for me) so very good amount of time

Overall – 7.5/10 - Would still recommend to people *if* they don’t mind messing with the switch here and there or modding it with a fatter o-ring.

Right now I’m waiting on a GGTS, supposed to be very good build quality. Is $212 too much for something like this? Well the way I looked at it is if it lasts a long time who cares? The thing can handle almost any bat/atty combination so there won’t be any reason to buy different mods, unless it’s something unique like the juicebox (well, the GGTS actually has an auto feed system… ) or a double barrel silver bullet. Will write a review of the GGTS after I have about a month with it, same style as this one.

Not getting rid of the Prodigy V2 though, will be my back up device. The back up for that is the Janty eGo.