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Electro Sex with ElectraStim

By on May 22, 2020

Electro sex has been a popular form of stimulation in the BDSM and fetish communities for years, but UK-based ElectraStim are on a mission to show everyone how versatile and pleasurable e-stim can be, no matter your experience level. Claire Blakeborough, Marketing Manager at ElectraStim explains.

What is Electro Sex?

At its simplest, electro sex stimulation (e-stim, or EES) is the use of electrical currents to stimulate the nerve endings and surrounding tissue to create pleasurable sensations. Every sensation you feel is a result of your nerve endings firing in some way, so by manipulating these nerve endings, electro-sex can produce a huge range of different responses all over the body. Whereas a vibrator stimulates your nerve-endings by vibrating the surrounding skin and fat tissues, electro-sex toys take a direct route to the nerves (and the pleasure centres of the brain) for a unique and more intense experience.

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Safety

As an electrical current is involved there are obviously some safety guidelines to take note of before e-stim is used. If you have any sort of heart condition (including a pacemaker), are (or could be) pregnant, have epilepsy or are suffering from any sort of penile or vaginal disorder we do not recommend using electro-stimulation. Stimulation should be confined to below the waist at all times for all users; besides, the best bits are down there anyway!

Electro-stimulation can provide an enormous variety of sensations that are unique to each user, but it is often described as a tingling, buzzing, or ‘internal vibration’ at lower levels. Once you progress to higher intensities, the muscles are also stimulated to produce muscular contractions- much like the tightening sensation you feel before climax. Electro-sex can replicate this pleasurable sensation over and over for more intense orgasms when you reach your peak. Part of the fun of electro-stimulation is that your pleasure threshold will often change depending what accessory you’re using and how you feel that day. For example (odd as it sounds) if you’re dehydrated, you’ll may find the stimulation to be ‘spikier’ and less smooth than if you’ve had a lot of water to drink that day. Water is a fantastic conductor, so the more you have in your system, the more easily the stimulation can hit those pleasure thresholds.

One of the most interesting features of electro-sex is that the stimulation can be shared between partners making skin-to-skin contact. With an accessory touching you, and a separate toy attached to your partner, your bodies complete the circuit to produce incredible electro sensations whenever you touch. We tend to use conductive pads as an example here as they’re inobtrusive during sex, but of course you can combine any accessories you wish such as some cock rings for one person and a butt plug for the other.

Many users will also find that electro-sex ‘overrides’ their normal response to pleasurable stimulus with surprising results. For example, users who experience ED may find that e-stim is an effective method of encouraging a stronger, longer lasting erection during use. Electro-sex can also give your pelvic floor a workout depending on the placement of the accessory as your kegel muscles contract and pulse with stimulation.

The myths

Electro sex is a an incredibly broad and fascinating type of stimulation that is often misunderstood; either by people who have never tried it, or those who have had a bad experience with a sub-par product. There are a number of myths surrounding electro-sex that we aim to dispel every time we conduct a demo or talk to a new user!

The difficulty is that it’s natural to hear ‘electro’ and instantly think of the negative connotations or dangers around electricity. In reality, neuro muscular stimulation like ours is conducted at very low levels that are safe for use and extremely pleasurable. As long as you follow the safety guidelines mentioned earlier, e-stim is a fun and versatile type of stimulation that is definitely worth a try.

Of course, electro sex has a lot of love in the BDSM community where pain and pleasure are often intertwined, so don’t get us wrong- electro sex can hurt. But- and this is the key- only if you want it to! In terms of what you can expect to feel; it runs on a spectrum from light tingles at low intensities to sharp, deep and intense contractions at the higher levels. No other sex toy can produce such a varied range of sensations- even between play sessions.

Based on our experience with customers and stores, the majority of the people we demo to for the first time tell us that it doesn’t feel like they expected. We’ve always been very proud of our BDSM roots and the fetish community has done incredible things with our toys, so not we want to also show the more vanilla side of the community just how subtle and sensual electro can be.

What to use

Electro sex equipment is comprised of two elements; a stimulator and at least one accessory. ElectraStim’s toys range from adhesive pads that stick to the skin, silicone dildos and prostate massagers, fetish implements or metal butt plugs. Most accessories are designed for use either solo or with a partner, but we do have a couple which are much more fun with another person such as our electro spanking paddle!

How to do it

Electro stimulation gear can be used solo with multiple accessories, or with one or more partners, depending on how many outputs your stimulator has and what accessories you own. For the most flexibility, we always recommend a Dual Channel stimulator as it allows you to play with more accessories at once. ElectraStim’s Flick Duo, Flux, SensaVox and AXIS stimulators all have dual outputs so they can handle two bipolar or four unipolar toys at any one time.

When doing demonstrations, one of the first things we explain to people is that electro-sex revolves around surface area. The larger the surface area that is touching the toy- whether that is a dildo, a pad, or your partner’s body- the more area the sensation has to spread through. This means that the stimulation will feel subtler and more nuanced. Reduce your surface area though and the sharper/more intense the sensations will be. For example, dildos and butt plugs will feel incredibly intense on entry, so we recommend fully inserting or positioning toys before turning on the stimulator, then slowly increasing the electro intensity level.

Experiment, experiment, experiment!

Perhaps one of the most exciting things about electro-sex is how different the experience can be for each person, and how different it can be each time you play. Experimenting with combinations of accessories and different stimulator modes can give you an enormous range of play options. Just to put it in perspective, our AXIS stimulator has 7 play modes, each with multiple patterns or settings AND each channel has 99 intensities for each mode/pattern- that’s an enormous number of play combinations you can try out. Way more combinations than my mental arithmetic can handle!

If you prefer your stimulation on the softer side, accessories like the Silicone Fusion Infinity Pinwheel or even just the conductive pads supplied with all stimulators are a great way to enjoy the stimulation at lower levels. However, if you’re looking to push yourself, we also stock a wide range of metal toys that not only look gorgeous, but pack a real punch when paired with Flux, SensaVox or AXIS (our three most powerful stimulators).

The science

ElectraStim was founded by Andy Smith in 2001, when he decided to use his background in neuromuscular stimulation to develop products for pleasure. Prior to forming ElectraStim Andy developed technology for use in medical electro-stimulation devices like pelvic floor exercisers and feedback from patients revealed they were enjoying some unexpected pleasurable results! From that, Andy decided to explore electro-stimulation within the adult pleasure products industry and ElectraStim was born.

Andy’s background and specialist experience means that ElectraStim ensure that all our stimulators comply with the European General Requirements for Safety of Medical Electrical Equipment (EN60601-1 and section 2.10 for nerve and muscle stimulators), although technically electro-sex stimulators are not regulated in the same way. This attention to detail means that users can be assured of safe, pleasurable stimulation that has been rigorously tested in ElectraStim’s UK-based workshop. We recognise that customers have a choice as to which brand they place their trust in, so to help people decide when buying electro sex devices, you should be confident that the unit is compliant with the following points for the best possible experience:

Consistent Output IntensityIf you intend to use your stimulator with a partner, it is important to know their stimulation intensity limits to keep play friendly- unless they prefer the element of surprise. You can only do this effectively if the intensity range, from 0% to 100%, is stable no matter what your battery level otherwise level 45 might not always feel like level 45! 
Output Intensity Linearity This basically means if your intensity level setting says you are on 50% then you should of course be at around halfway to maximum.  For instance, some stimulators might say that you are at 50% whereas in fact you are more like at 90%.  This means that for the remaining 50% of adjustment you’ll feel very little difference. 
Interpolated/Interleaved OutputsWhen using a dual output (2 channel) stimulator with both outputs being used it is important that there is no cross-channel interference.  For instance, if a butt-plug accidently came out during play you would not want to get a large current surge to your cock rings – ouch! In this instance, if you increase the power to the butt plug, the power in the cock ring will simultaneously decrease, meaning that you constantly have to compensate. All ElectraStim stimulators prevent this by having a minute gap between stimulation pulses on each channel- don’t worry it’s so fast you won’t be able to feel the delay.   
Hi-Flex Output CablesTo ensure you get maximum life from your output cables (the cables that connect your stimulator to your chosen accessory/electrode) ensure that your stimulator is supplied with hi-flex cables.  These are often called Tinsel Wire Cables due to their construction which incorporates a fabric cord for strength and has copper threads running through it. 
Responsive Intensity ControlsFor reasons of comfort it is important that you have full control over the stimulation intensity level just in case you go a little too high before you’re ready.  This can typically happen on stimulators with dials (potentiometers or digital encoders) as these can easily get accidentally knocked.  It is therefore important that your intensity controls are responsive when turned quickly.

It sounds a little complex, but all of these guidelines revolve around giving users the safest and most pleasurable device possible. Although the ElectraStim products are for pleasure purposes only, we’ve always stuck to the principle that our toys should meet the medical guidelines regardless. All of our stimulators and accessories also carry the mandatory CE mark.

ElectraStim items

We’re always developing new products and pushing the boundaries of electro-sex toys; the last couple of years have been extremely busy for us with some of our most ambitious releases yet. The high-end AXIS stimulator (released in early 2019) marked the start of us putting some of our wildest ideas into a production unit. AXIS not only has more power and more features than any other ElectraStim stimulator but also features exclusive motion, proximity and gesture control modes. USB updatable at home for free, AXIS will evolve over the coming years in response to customer feedback and to introduce new modes. We’ve got big plans for the future of AXIS; users will be notified every time we have new firmware to install. 

Hot on the heels of AXIS, our Silicone Fusion range of accessories was launched with the aim of creating a selection of toys that no one had seen before from an electro brand.

Historically, electro toys have come in plain black or metallic shades, so when we decided to bring bright red and black silicone to our collection, we knew it was going to make a statement. The spicy shade of red is designed to not only be eye-catching but is a gender-neutral tone that is a nod to our kinky roots while sitting comfortably alongside more mainstream sex toys.

The Silicone Fusion range currently includes multi-function dildo Komodo, prostate massager Habanero, silicone pinwheelInfinity and the newest addition, bipolar cock shield Viper. Additional accessories are already in development so the Silicone Fusion range will continue to grow over time.

In response to the amazing feedback to AXIS, we’ve also added the Flux stimulator to the line-up of ElectraStim stimulators. Designed for more experienced users who want high power and simple operation; Flux has a basic monochrome aesthetic and powerful internal processors that provide some of the same ground-breaking modes as AXIS.

Users can expect to enjoy over 30 Wave/Pulse patterns alongside Tilt/Flick motion modes and Line-In/Microphone audio control. For the user, the choice between Flux and AXIS comes down to how they intend to play. Flux offers a fantastic selection of modes and intense power for intermediate to advanced users, but the true electro-aficionado will get the most from an AXIS.

Whereas the units may appear similar in design, the Proximity/Gesture sensor in AXIS provides play opportunities that aren’t possible with any other stimulator on the market. In the coming months and years, the gap between Flux and AXIS will widen as AXIS is updated and upgraded to unlock a number of new features that are already built into the hardware. At ElectraStim we’re not ones for taking the easy road and as these new features are extremely ambitious, they are top secret for now!

However, if you’re a complete beginner to electro sex then this variety of choice could be overwhelming. Luckily, ElectraStim have all levels of experience covered. The flagship ‘Flick’ stimulator is one of the smallest and lightest rechargeable electro sex stimulators on the market and keeps things simple with a single channel, 24 intensities, 7 patterns and motion controlled ‘Flick’ mode that can be used for ‘virtual spanking’.  Flick can be paired with any ElectraStim accessory and is the perfect introduction to this incredibly versatile type of stimulation.

The entire range is available online or ElectraStim stimulators and accessories can also be found at selected high street/online retailers around the world. Stockists can choose from a wide range of POS for in-store and will have access to a library of imagery and marketing assets. We’re also happy to create bespoke display solutions bricks and mortar retailers, so please get in touch to discuss.

www.electrastim.com

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