Permanent Filter

I've been using this for a few years now. Here are some tips I've found that are helpful: 1) Hold the fully assembled TarGard, and blow into it. Blow hard. This will dislodge tar through the tiny hole, and you can then clean it out with a Q-tip. Keep repeating this until air is flowing easily in and out of the TarGard. Eventually you'll be able to blow hard through it and no tar will be visible in the metal base. If you really want to keep it up to par, do this after every cigarette. It'll prevent hardened tar from clogging your TarGard, which then requires more intensive care to fix. Yes, it's a pain, but the way I think of it, the time I spend cleaning out the TarGard is less time that I might have to spend in a hospital having tar surgically removed from my nose. I've heard of this having to happen and that put the fear of god into me. Apparently not enough to stop smoking but the TarGard is better than nothing. Keeping the TarGard in top shape also encourages you to smoke much less, which is a good thing. It's inconvenient to keep clean but much better than smoking without it and piling up tar in your airways. 2) If it's completely jammed, soak it in grain alcohol. You can use a baggy, or simply stand the TarGard up against anything you have handy, metal side up, and pour the tiniest amount of grain or rubbing alcohol into the metal base. It'll pool up and likely sit there, seemingly doing nothing, but it's working. Slowly. You only have to do this if you neglect to care for your TarGard regularly between smoking. Eventually the alcohol should visibly start seeping into the plastic tip and dissolving some of the tar. You can pour it out, blow through the TarGard as I described earlier, and repeat. I had two that were completely jammed and this did the trick, though it took a couple soaks. 3) Clean, ideally, after every cigarette. A quick wipe down of the metal tip with a paper towel, then reassembling and using the blow method in tip 1, will keep it in top shape and a pleasure to use. Though this is ideal, I've found that doing this once a day, when I'm done smoking, is enough to keep it very clean and functioning properly. If you go out to a party and smoke a half or full pack it's gonna be loaded with tar, and I recommend cleaning it thoroughly as soon as you get home. Leaving it alone will just allow the tar to harden and make cleaning it much more of a pain. 4) The o-ring can be removed with a wooden toothpick. Stick the tip through one of the ends until you get part of the o-ring around the toothpick, and then you can use the toothpick like a lever to slowly work the o-ring off the metal tip. If you ever have to replace the o-ring, this is the simplest method I've found. A little tricky but effective and quick once you get the hang of it. Grain alcohol, paper towels, Q-tips, and wooden toothpicks for the o-ring. That's all. The blowing method is the real gem here and solves the most frustrating problem of the TarGard getting jammed and being unable to drag. Every time I thoroughly clean it with the methods I've outlined here I've gone back to having a perfectly functioning TarGard, every single time, and I still have the original ones I bought several years ago, and they work fine. Permanent indeed. If I smoke even one cig without the TarGard, I will be coughing the whole day and usually well into the following day as well. Nobody here is claiming that it makes it safe to smoke, but I think it's appropriate to say it makes it *safer* to smoke. It's hard to gauge how much safer, as I'd wager 99.9% of people who smoke cigarettes never use a TarGard, and only a small percentage of the people who use TarGards use them 100% of the time. If you're reading this you're gonna be smoking anyway, so my advice is: use your TarGard 100% of the time, and keep it in top shape by cleaning it regularly.

1. It collects tar: you can see it. Lot's of it (:d) 2. The draw. --Mechanically, it measures the volume of smoke drawn so that the thickest, darkest tobaccos will billow like the meekest generic light cigarette. If anything, this will be extremely helpful for chain smokers trying to quit. 3. Combination with other preventative measures. --If you're in the habit of wetting your filters, you'll already have recognized that the moisture draws much more tar than a dry one. Additionally, if you wet the tobacco itself (e.g. with coffee) maybe you've noticed a slightly more billowy volume of smoke, and less harshness with the cooling effect it has**. If these are combined with the filter, horrifying quantities of tar appear in the filter even after 3-5 cigarettes --just be sure that you don't over do it, or the filter will gargle with tar-liquid straight into your mouth (learn from my mistake! haha-) Summary: A great, cost effective tool. Invest in the permanent one, the disposables advantage only lies in sparing the user the inconvenience of cleaning -which really isn't altogether difficult or time consuming. The quantity of nicotine ingested is also reduced - if you absolutely need the 'buzz', smoke the first fourth and then apply the filter. Great purchase, get one. (**Note on Clove and Kreteks: These produce twice as much or more tar than standard tobaccos, though you won't notice because of the neurasthenic quality of the chemical the cloves give off when burned. This filter system can help ameliorate this idiosyncrasy and spare your health undue burden at the same time.)

I loved this when I bought a few months ago. The inside was metal. The new ones are all plastic. I use an adapter for thin filters and they don't work on these at all. Very disappointing!!!

Its a quality tip that does as advertised. It catches the tar in the filter and you can really see how much tar is collected. Makes you feel gross about smoking and helps quit. However, for someone who does enjoy smoking the occasional cigarette. Or maybe 1 ot 2 daily cigarettes, I find that this tip becomes a novelty item quick and gets lost, kicked to the side, or thrown in storage after 3 or 4 days. It just becomes a hassle to clean. To clean it you have to take it apart and use pipe cleaners or some other physical form of cleaning to get the tar out. 5 cigarettes will fill it up with tar and clog it. Tar is disgusting to clean gets all over your fingers and stains your fingers eventually gets on your lips and tastes disgusting. However it is a quality product and it does as advertised and is most definitley worth the very low price and im glad i bought it. I just dont use it after 3 or 4 days and i find that the average person wouldnt either because of the cleaning inconvience

I purchased TarGard’s Reusable Cigarette Filter/Holder because of Hurricane Season this year. We got hit pretty well here, by Mother Nature; and ALL of the stores in town were CLOSED DOWN, due to no electricity and property damage. I was very grateful that I buy my disposable filters in bulk online, as I actually realized how screwed I would have been, in this scenario, had I not bought them by the hundreds. Luckily, I had plenty of them during a very frustrating and inconvenient situation. Even if the stores were open, the only store in town that sells them is Walgreens, who sells them as 10-packs, and they don’t keep that many packs in stock. To make matters worse, even in “everyday”/“non-hurricane” times, there is a lady that goes there and buys every single pack that Walgreens has at the time, and she usually hits them up on truck-delivery days, as she knows when they are typically delivered. Thus, the filters are difficult enough to find and buy from the store, as it is, much less during times of natural disasters and the like. I started buying the disposable filters because I didn’t like the stains on my fingers from smoking. It seemed, and ended up to be, an effective remedy for the situation. When I saw how much nasty, toxic goo the filters kept out of my body, I liked them even more! Then I noticed how much more enjoyable my cigarettes were, because they actually tasted better! I smoke organic “light” cigarettes; so I was shocked to see how much stuff was filtered out of them! Those filters were a good idea, indeed; and I got to the point that I didn’t want to smoke without them! Need cigarettes? Need filters, too! So it was time to order some more disposable filters, by bulk, online. As I was searching for them, I found these “permanent” [as stated on the package] cigarette filters … and they were even by the same company! That company [TarGard] had never let me down; so I was THRILLED to learn that they made “reusable”/“permanent” ones! I had no idea! Of COURSE I bought myself a pack of them. I was excited, and couldn’t wait to try them! Upon receipt of my new “permanent,” reusable filters, I put the clear one to the test. I loved my first cigarette with the new filter. The second cigarette with my new filter was still enjoyable; but, of course, not as “fresh.” The THIRD cigarette — in the middle of it, I took a draw on it, and through that filter, I got a mouthful of YUCK! Holy toledo, it was NASTY! The filter wasn’t even very full! And … only 2-and-1/2 cigarettes? My disposable filters get WAY fuller than that “permanent” filter did, and I can generally have 10 cigarettes [1/2 pack] on ONE disposable filter! I would expect at LEAST the same, with the “permanent”/reusable one! So, after much gagging, washing my lips with soap and water, and then brushing my teeth, I was finally able to recover from THAT trauma, enough to tackle cleaning the filter … with a REALLY upset stomach, I might add. In cleaning the filter, wiping it off with a paper towel is certainly quick and easy. However, it really needed more than that; so I found the cleaning process to be a bit more involved. The paper towel, alone, leaves much residue on the filter, and the stench is nothing more or less than “gaggable!” Besides that, now you have a disgusting, gooey, stench-ridden paper towel that you have to discard. If you simply throw it in the trash, your entire trashcan then becomes the ultimate “stench diffuser,” with the lovely aroma of something way worse than a dumpster! So then you have to put the nasty paper towel in a ziplock baggy, just to throw it away, and in the process of doing that, you get all that nasty stuff all over your hands! Even still, there remains all of that residue on the filter, especially in the crevices around the base of the metal filter. You would think since it’s fresh goo, a WET paper towel might clean the rest of it off. Oh, no! I had to get out an old toothbrush, that I keep on hand for cleaning, dowse it with White Vinegar and Dawn, and scrub the heck out of that filter, carefully getting into those seams and crevices to actually get that thing CLEAN! Then I had to wash the toothbrush, itself, the same way … but just to be sure it was actually clean, I used _Clorox_ and Dawn, and scrubbed it all around on my gloved hand! So yes, I dried it with a clean paper towel; but then had to let it sit out to REALLY dry the rest of the way, for the remainder of the day … and I could still smell subtleties of that rank essence of nicotine and tar. After the whole process, I was exhausted. Realizing that this is what I’m going to have to go through with every other cigarette I smoke with that filter, I simply put the thing back into the package and into my junk drawer, with the resolve that it will just be my “emergency filter,” and I will just have to make sure that I stay well stocked-up on the disposable ones, with which I don’t have to endure all that nastiness and trauma. All I can say is that if you want to quit smoking, use this filter! I promise — you will not want to have to go through all that you have to go through — every other cigarette — to use it! I wouldn’t DARE use the black one, in the unfortunate event that you forget to clean it beforehand — you can’t see how full it is; and trust me — you do NOT want a surprise mouthful of that rancid goo! These filters have their purpose; but certainly NOT as a “permanent” cigarette filter. If you ask me, stick with the disposable ones — your life as a smoker will be much less stressful and much more enjoyable.

When I first started looking at this product I did a little poking around, looking for more information. I couldn't tell if the Targard Permanent Filter System was all you needed to buy. I saw links to some other products, like replacement O-rings ect. So I was a little hesitant to buy it, but I figured at the price they are asking, plus shipping...you really couldn't go too wrong. Plus the cost of the replacement part was very reasonable. So, let me start off by saying....this System is complete. You do not need to buy any other item to start using it right out of the package. That said, I believe even though it says "Permanent" filter system you may eventually obviously need to buy more O-rings. Why do I say "obviously"? Well they wouldn't sell replacement O-rings if there wasn't a need to replace them! lol. What are O-rings? They are the products name for the little rubber circle that goes on the metal part, its very small, barely noticeable but it provides the important seal between the metal and the holder (thats my best guess anyway). This system comes with two holders and 1 metal insert with an o-ring included. The metal insert is what actually does the filtering. It might be nice to have a holder by its self, but why not have the advantages of filtering at the same time? The metal insert grips the cigarette very nicely and I didn't once worry that it would fall out when I went to flick the ashes off. Now, for its actually usage.... I did two trials. One right out of the box. I took it and inserted my 100 length cigarette in the Targard system. I noticed right away that I needed to pull extra hard to get a inhale from the cigarette. I didn't like it. Who wants to look like they are stuggling to be able to inhale?? So the next trial I cut a filter down to the length of a King size cigarette. This worked beautifully! I was able to inhale and smoke, the taste was the same, it didn't feel hotter like it sometimes does with the shorter filters and it didn't burn my fingers since the holder added the length I am normally use to. My Actual Personal Results- The first trial I did with the 100's length filter attached- When I finished smoking my cigarette I waited for everything to cool down. Then I took the metal insert out of the holder to look at it. It had a noticeable amount of brownish material around the small hole at the top and the "barrier slot" at the bottom. My best guess, without laboratory equipment to scientifically prove it, is that this brownish material is tar and or nicotine combined. This would normally have gone instantly into my lungs! I cleaned the filter system thoroughly and was disgusted (but overjoyed) at how much it had actually gotten from only one cigarette! The trial with the shorter king length filter- I again started with a very clean metal insert and holder. I placed the cigarette in the insert with holder attached. I smoked the cigarette and then once again waited for it to cool down. (just to be on the safe side, you know?) I had very similar results. I could not tell, without tiny calibrated machines, if there was less or more brown material. It appeared to my naked eye as if the Targard Permanent Filter System had caught the same amount of tar no matter the length of the cigarette filter. I would, only from my own nonprofessional experience, recommend that you use this with a King size filter. It seems to be a smoother experience and without any of the normal drawback of using a King size filter. It didn't taste or feel any different then if I was smoking my normal 100's length. I will absolutely continue using this product and if I need to occasionally replace the O-ring, then I count that as a very tiny price to pay for the added benefits I am gaining. I give this product 5 stars! A++ for ease of use and completeness. On a tiny sidenote: The instructions for how to clean the metal insert and holder are on the back of the package. Normally when opening the package these would be ripped or damaged. With a little careful prying you are able to leave these instructions undamaged. However, in all honesty, read the package once and you should be able to take it apart,put it together again and clean it with no difficulty.

Not as good as I was hoping for. Very cheap!

I definitely found the sweet spot with these little things. I used to rip cigs hard, I’d be done with a dart in like 2 minutes. I also smoke cigars, but I am an incredibly SLOW cigar smoker, well over 20 minutes longer than any suggested smoke time. The Targard is the perfect middle sibling that has allowed me to slow down on my cig puffs, the tobacco isn’t too hot, no more inch long cherries, and I can actually taste any form of nuance that was ever supposed to be in a cigarette. I have been using these for years and I have ordered these from many different locations, I have never had a cigarette “fall out”, sure its “gross” but what do you think your lungs look like? If you can write a negative review over this thing being gross, youve got a long road ahead of you in this life. You wouldn’t write Maxipad a negative review of it being gross AFTER USE would you? No!! Of course its gross dude, but YOU did that. All in all, give these things a try, slow down your smoking (sip on it, don’t try to inhale the same amount of smoke through that tiny little hole as you would through that big ole filter!), Buy 2!!!, you’ll want to have one clean when your other one is drying. Use the clear plastic so you can actually tell when it is time to clean. Move up to 100s if you don’t feel your getting the same amount of nic. If you don’t like these for smoking, that’s obviously fine, just don’t complain about it like you deserve the best smoke of your life since you spent 9 dollars on a piece of plastic. Also, this is kind of a ridiculous suggestion, but maybe if you really want these to work, you may want to switch up your cig of choice. I never had this problem, I smoke Marb Reds and I enjoy them with the Targard but id imagine if your smoking some dirt cigarettes, a Targard wont do anything for you. I don’t want to sound like a jackass but maybe improve your tobacco quality and you will understand this product? I don’t know, I wouldn’t switch up MY brand to introduce another product into my life, it all just works together naturally for me fortunately.