Converting to E Cigs with regards to Nicotine content.

[Catanonia]

I thought i would post this in this section as it is more pertinant to newbies.

When we convert to ecigs, we always try to work out how many cartridges we should use, how much the equate to in normal cigs and what level of nicotine cartdriges to go for.

Let me put my reasoning after my 1st few weeks and days.


The sellers advertise that there cartridges are the equivalent to 20 cigs or a packet.

This true and untrue depending on your take on it.

Untrue if you consider the amount of puffs you would take during a packet of cigarettes. Most people would say a typical cartridge from say a 901 style ecig will last between 6 and 10 cigs depending on how you smoke.

True is the mg of nickotine a cartridge will supply compared to a packet of cigs. A typical packet of 20 will contain about 22mg of nicotine. A typical high nicotine cartridge will contain about 18mg. Almost a full packet.

How should I set my level and avoid too much nicotine

If you were like me, I smoked 20 - 30 cigs a day, equivalent to around 35mg of Nicotine per day.

However moving to ecigs, I used them as a direct replacement for the old method and found I puffed on it at least 20 - 30 times a day for 5 - 6 puffs at a time. This would get me through about 4 - 5 cartridges a day equating to about 72 - 90mg per day !!!!!

This is probably how I managed to quit immediately the old cigs and move to a much more addictive equivalent without too much stress.......

That is 72 - 90 mg of nicotine intack compared to about 35mg on normal cigarettes because I am smoking them the same.

Now I have 2 choices,

1. Do not puff so much on ecig, but this will fail as I want a direct replacement or

2. Reduce the nicotine content in my cartridges.

A quick calculation after a few days gives

I smoke about 4 carts on average and need to replace 35mg of Nicotine for the normal cigarettes.

So 35 / 4 = around 9mg per cart therefore = 9mg strength (or nearest) nico juice / cart strength.

Simple calcs like this can save you loads of money and stop you overdosing or becoming more addicted to Nicotene.



I hope this has helped.



Admins, you might want to make this sticky for new users.

 

[HopelesslyAddicted]

Very nice! If there's anything I don't want to do, it's increase my nicotine addiction. Don't get me wrong, I love the stuff.

Thanks to you, I won't be accidently doubling or tripling my daily nicotine dose!

This definitely deserves to be stickied, or at least in a sticky.

 

[Skad]

This is probably how I managed to quit immediately the old cigs and move to a much more addictive equivalent without too much stress.......

I've been thinking the same thing Cat. I don't think I could have done without the analogs as easily if I hadn't been taking in so much more nicotine. I used to put away 40-45 cigs in a day. I'm not sure how much juice I'm using now, but I'm sure I'm getting more nicotine then I used to.

I'm continuing to use my 18mg juice during the day at work, when I'm puffing less and have more stress to deal with, but when I get home, I'm cutting some 18 with glycerin and flavorings, down to about half strength because I'm puffing a great deal more when I'm just sitting around on the sofa watching TV.
I need to find a way to track exactly how much juice I use during a day. Any suggestions?

 

[Catanonia]

I've been thinking the same thing Cat. I don't think I could have done without the analogs as easily if I hadn't been taking in so much more nicotine. I used to put away 40-45 cigs in a day. I'm not sure how much juice I'm using now, but I'm sure I'm getting more nicotine then I used to.

I'm continuing to use my 18mg juice during the day at work, when I'm puffing less and have more stress to deal with, but when I get home, I'm cutting some 18 with glycerin and flavorings, down to about half strength because I'm puffing a great deal more when I'm just sitting around on the sofa watching TV.
I need to find a way to track exactly how much juice I use during a day. Any suggestions?

Best way to do it is assume a cart (if 901 style) is the mg of Nicotine.

Ie a cart of 18mg = 18mg towards your daily total.

The if you drip you need to work out your drip count and how many drips make a cart.

So assume it is 8 drips of 18mg to fill a cart.

That is 8 / 18 = 0.4mg per drip.

So add you number of carts (if smoked dry) + the number of drips you do.

Or just add the number of drips or the ml you consume a day on average. Give you a clue (not totally accurate) as to your intack per day.

I might create a spreadsheet to work it all out for people if there is interest for it.

Cat

 

[Catanonia]

Please bare in mind, this is NOT an EXACT science and is only a quick rule of thumb to keep you in balance.

I am sure someone will come along and pick holes in it soon.

Cat

 

[booboo]

So is the mg of nicotine in e-juice for each drip or the whole bottle or some other amount?

 

[Catanonia]

So is the mg of nicotine in e-juice for each drip or the whole bottle or some other amount?

nah forget the bottle or drips. Work on the cartridge and the claims the manufactor makes.

I speak for 901 cartridges, but they say that the cart is equivalent in mg to 1 pack of cigs.

Average pack of cigs is 22mg and you know your cart strength.

You only need to mess around with drip % if you drip.



You have to do it this way as your only gauge is the way you smoked analogues and you are trying to match to digital.

Therefore if you smoke 2 pack analogues a day and smoke 4 carts a day of 36mg then your are massively over what you used to be in terms of NG content. About 8 times to be precise

2 packs at 22mg == 44mg

4 carts at 36mg == 144mg !!!!!!!!!!!! now thats almost what I was doing

Hence my reason to cut my stuff and knock myself down to 12mg carts and allow me to smoke as I used to on analogue.

 

[Skad]

So is the mg of nicotine in e-juice for each drip or the whole bottle or some other amount?

It's the number of mg per ml, so for a 10ml bottle of 18mg juice, there is a total of 180mg of nicotine in it.

 

[booboo]

I do only drip now! And can't figure out why I just sucked down 2 15ml bottles of JC Tennesse Cured 18mg, in 4 days.....when I thought the 24mg lasted a couple weeks? Seriously, does anyone know if it is the whole bottle for mg or per drip? I mean if you had a 30ml bottle of 18mg would you have to suck down 60ml of juice a day to get 36mg of nicotine out of it? That doesn't sound right. Somebody help me, I am chemistry-challenged! lol

 

[booboo]

It's the number of mg per ml, so for a 10ml bottle of 18mg juice, there is a total of 180mg of nicotine in it.

oh, thanks, I was freaking out, lol! So I sucked down almost 540 mg in 4 days?.................. oops! No wonder I feel like sh*t
roflmao........
damned crack-head is what I am, can't stop laughing now.............
Anyways, any idea how many drops makes a ml?

 

[HopelesslyAddicted]

Just to throw some more numbers in the mix, it's about 20-25 drops per mL... or so I've read and heard in several places. But then again, I haven't even vap for the first time so what do I know?

 

[Skad]

oh, thanks, I was freaking out, lol! So I sucked down almost 540 mg in 4 days?.................. oops! No wonder I feel like sh*t
roflmao........
damned crack-head is what I am, can't stop laughing now.............
Anyways, any idea how many drops makes a ml?

Wow. 30ml in 4 days? That's a whole lotta juice. And by my math (not to be fully trusted this early in the morning) that comes out to be the equivalent of 5.75 packs of cigs a day.
Yeah, that'll make you ill.

 

[Catanonia]

Just to emphasis... My reasoning of it is that the mg given has been set to give you the equivalent mg per average cartridge to match the average packet of analogs.

Yes this is a very simplist view of it and not totally acurate, but just a guideline.

Lets work out the 30ml in 4 days.

Holy feck,

30 ml = about 750 drops.

Lets say 15 drops per cartridge (much to high i guess) == 50 cartridges.

Remember each cartridge is spose to be equal to an average packet of analogs at 22mg..

ouch dude, that is 50 packs of analogues in 4 days....

Or should we actually say, that is 50 packs worth of Nicotene in 4 days. Assuming around 18mg strength juice

Easy to do if all you do is puff concentrated nico all day.





Another way to look at it is.

1 cart = 1 pack of analogs in nicotene content.

If you smoke a cart like you do a normal analog ciggy, ie till it is dry you are effectively increasing your nicotene content daily by 20 YES TWENTY TIMES.

Even if you use the other figures of 1 cart = 6 - 8 cigs and ignore the mg per cart per pack guidelines, you would be increasing your Nico intake by 6 - 8 times if you smoked a cart like a real cig.

 

[HopelesslyAddicted]

Lets work out the 30ml in 4 days.

Holy feck,

30 ml = about 750 drops.

Lets say 15 drops per cartridge (much to high i guess) == 50 cartridges.

Remember each cartridge is spose to be equal to an average packet of analogs at 22mg..

ouch dude, that is 50 packs of analogues in 4 days....

Even though consuming that much nicotine in 4 days is not funny at all, I couldn't help but laugh. I think your reaction sent me over the edge 'ouch dude'

 

[Catanonia]

Even though consuming that much nicotine in 4 days is not funny at all, I couldn't help but laugh. I think your reaction sent me over the edge 'ouch dude'

Me too dude

If I consumed that much my .... would be tighter than a snails chuff on a frosty path.

 

[HopelesslyAddicted]

I can't even imagine.... I remember how awful I felt after chain smoking two packs of analogs at a bar (I was wasted)... But holy **** that's alot of nicotine. Honestly, I think he's lucky he didn't have a heart attack or anything.

 

[HopelesslyAddicted]

Or to quote Thank You for Smoking...
DOCTOR: "No non-smoker could have ever withstood the amount of nicotine you had in your bloodstream. I hate to say it but... cigarettes saved your life."

 

[katink]

I think your first post was near enough to reality to be very helpful for new members, Catanonia, thanks! (Just... better not try to transform what you said there into 'drops-measurement', I think - just far too variable as measuring unit, one 'drop' can easily be 2x, 3x or more as big or as small as onother 'drop' (from another kind of bottle for instance)).

In all things measusuring-wise: my conviction (and knowledge) is, that you should be using STANDARD-measuring units - not variable measuring units, let alone widely varying units...


P.S. Very easy way to measure how much you are using when dripping: fill a small bottle, say 5 ml, with e-liquid. Use it and see how long it lasts you, then divide those 5 ml by the number of days it lasted (or do the same with a bigger bottle during longer if you want even more exact numbers of course).
If you also used pre-filled cartridges along with this dripping: find out how much your kind of cartridge holds (in ml) (I think the 901 for instance uses 0.5 ml per cartridge? - anyhow, that number varies per kind of cartridge; penstyle is indeed around 1 ml).
Know how many cartridges you used per day. Multiply that number by the ml's per cartridge and you have the day-usage in liquid-ml for your cartridges. Add dripping day-total to your cartridge day-total, and you know exactly what you are taking each day in ml. And mg nicotine is 'per ml' - so you also have a straight answer to how much nicotine you have taken per day.
I think the OP explained that quite well in the first post.

 

[chokmah]

In regards to carts, I always have liquid left over in them. I drain my wick/fillers and reuse if possible or replace so even though you may go through 4 carts a day you should still have liquid left over in the filler that can be drained and used when re-filling the carts. Hope this helps rather than causes more confusion.

 

[Wolf]

I believe Jaaxx at JuicyLiquid made a chart with cigarette nicotine amounts and what would be comparable to e-liquid. Maybe you could PM him and ask him to post his results.