One of the benefits of e-cigarettes is that you can pick them up and vape whenever you feel like. If you just want a taste you can puff it once and put it away, or you can keep it close at hand and vape every few minutes if you choose. The cartridge won't run down when it's not being used, so you don't have to commit to vaping a certain amount every time you want to use your e-cig. Yet, this can make it difficult to gauge if your e-cig cartridges are truly the equivalent of one to two packs of traditional cigarettes, especially since the amount of vapor you take in at a time could be more or less than the average. If you want to know how much you're vaping in terms of packs, why not conduct an experiment?

Setting up your experiment
For this test, you'll need one new cartridge, a fully charged e-cigarette battery and a friend or colleague who smokes traditional cigarettes. Talk to your research assistant about his or her smoking habits to determine how quickly he or she goes through a pack of cigarettes. Ideally, you will want to choose someone who smokes a pack a day or more so the experiment doesn't take too long. The two of you can smoke and vape together until your cartridge runs out to get an accurate estimate of how long your cartridges last.

The testing phase
Once you're ready to begin, simply accompany your friend outside whenever he or she takes a smoke break. Bring your e-cigarette along and use it while the two of you gossip or stand together in silence, whatever the case may be. Try your best to stick with this habit for every cigarette your fellow researcher smokes, but don't sweat it if you miss a few trips, as you're really just looking for a ballpark figure. You will need to keep track of how many cigarettes your friend is smoking as well as the start and end times.

Conclusion time
Once your cartridge runs out, add up the number of cigarettes that were smoked by your colleague. There are 20 cigarettes in a pack, so you will most likely find that your friend smokes between 20 and 40 cigarettes, as a South Beach Smoke cartridge is equal to about one to two packs of cigarettes. If he or she smoked more or less than that, chances are that you are drawing either more or less vapor each time you take a puff.