Whether it be your first vibrator or you want to add to your collection, here are three secrets about how sex toy vibrators work to help you choose the best ones for you. Other useful secrets will be revealed in future articles.

Go into a sex shop or onto the internet to buy a vibrator or any sex toy and in the majority of cases you will be offered a bewildering array of choices with very little to help you choose the right one for you. Sometimes you can ask questions but rarely do you get trustworthy answers.

Why is this? Well, often it is due to the shop assistant or website owner not really caring. People tend to see something that looks attractive and exciting and buy it anyway. A few retailers want to give a good service, gain a good reputation and develop a loyal customer base -- but even then it can be difficult for them to give good advice because information about the products, even from the manufacturers and wholesalers is usually pitifully limited and often just plain wrong.

The vast majority of vibrators depend on an electric motor and a weight on the motor's shaft that is intentionally unbalanced. As the motor rotates the weight tries to rotate around its centre of balance and so the shaft, the whole of the motor and the vibrator it is attached to, rotate or try to rotate, in a small circle. Imagine you are swinging something heavy on the end of rope around and around while standing on the spot. You find that the top of you has to lean backwards to offset the pull of the weight and your shoulders and head move in a small circle, while your feet have to push the ground in the opposite direction to stop you falling over. Of course with a sex toy the vibrator motor turns much more rapidly giving the sensation of a vibration rather than a slow circular motion.

It is this small circular motion of the vibrator that provides the stimulating vibration that you feel. Many vibrators have a variable power controller that controls the speed of the motor and therefore the frequency of the vibration.

It is important to note that a high speed is not necessarily the most stimulating for you. It may well be that you would find high speeds too intense for you to bear, possibly irritating or even painful. And although your sensitivity can reduce over time, this may reduce the sensitivity of you erotic zones (like getting deaf from loud noise) and lower your enjoyment of sex generally. It is not recommended you use a very powerful vibrator frequently for long periods.

You may not have realised this but there are actually three variables that affect the vibrations (assuming the rest of the vibrator remains the same):

1) As we have just seen, the speed of the motor affects the frequency of the vibrations. The effectiveness of a vibrator depends greatly on matching the frequency with the response in your nerves. By experimenting you will find certain speeds are much more stimulating than others.

Vibrators with variable power adjustment offer control of the speed of the motor. Sometimes to adjust the power of the vibrator you have switches which select off, slow and one or more faster speeds. You may find that one of these options suites you, but maybe you would prefer a setting between those available. A continuously variable power controller provides for this by giving smooth adjustment over the whole range from slow to fast.

There are also some with more sophisticated 'hi-tech' vibrators that provide escalating and pulsating speed patterns. These vibrators can be very effective and great fun. However if you wish to select a constant speed they usually only provide a selection of two or three discreet speeds rather like multi switch controllers.

2) The size of the weight affects the strength of the vibration. A more massive weight will push harder making the vibrations feel firmer. This effect has quite a large impact on the feel and strength of stimulation of the vibrator.

3) How much the weight is out of balance affects the distance the shaft, and therefore the vibrator, is trying to move for each vibration. How this feels is difficult to describe. The more out of balance the weight, the further the vibrator is trying to move so it really has the most effect when you touch yourself very lightly with the vibrator on a soft part of your body.

How can you use these secrets to choose between vibrators? Only the speed of the motor is adjustable on vibrators with a controller as the size and balance of the weight is fixed in any particular design. However different designs of vibrators do have different weights and settings of the balance, so you will find the feel of different designs vary too.

Unfortunately there is little information available on particular vibrators to indicate to you how these things will effect the feel of a vibrator to you personally. If the vibrator is described as 'powerful' it is likely to have a heavier than average sized weight. But sometimes the term 'powerful' is used to describe a design that runs at a high speed (on full power). In many cases the term 'powerful' is used as a tempting description based on nothing at all!

In the end it is worth going to a store or shopping online where they attempt to check, test and describe their products themselves rather than depending just on the manufacturer's or wholesaler's description.

When you have tried a new (or your first) vibrator out try thinking about how it could be improved and see if other models look like they might satisfy your needs better. Since we are all different, each of us needs a different combination of factors to get the best sensations from a vibrator. Experimentation is the best route to satifaction.

Above all, have fun in your search for the sex toy of your dreams!