Newbie question - What strength e-liquid is equivalent to Marlboro Lights/Gold?

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k3n1107

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Jan 18, 2011
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Hi everyone. This is my first post so please forgive me if I overlooked the answer to this question, previously posted. For my first e-cig I bought the Blucigs and was very religious with it, but as a few weeks passed and the cartridges ran low, I craved for something a little better and just recently purchased a Janty Ego (still in the mail). I hear it is very good with battery life and "vaperous". :)

Since I was so use to the cartridges, I have never purchased any e-liquids and am very baffled with the strength in MG. I am a Marlboro Light smoker and was wondering what will give me the equivalent or if not close to the same hit I get form that analog cig? Thanks in advance!

Any advice for a newbie is always appreciated!
 

MrNate

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I was under the impression from reading this forum that 24mg was about right. I bought a Bloog MaxxFusion, and they listed their 24mg cartos as "Extra High" nicotine. Yikes! Extra high? I didn't want that, so I went with 16mg, which was "High" by their classification.

After the first day I ordered a bunch of 11mg cartos, because it was clear that 16mg was too high. I don't know if it's my style of vaping, the equipment, inaccurate information, or what, but I would definitely pick up some lower-nic cartos to have around.

I was a Marlboro Menthol Light smoker, about 1/2 PAD. I read a lot on here about how nicotine absorbtion is so much lower with e-cigs, well... Let me just say that has not been my experience. The first few days I was vaping less than I smoked (fewer drags per day) and I really felt the nicotine effects. Even at 11mg. So in general I believe I am absorbing more nicotine than I did when I smoked, which I think is OK to start out. You don't want to go back to cigarettes because you need your fix, but at the same time you don't want to pound your body with nicotine either.

Edit: I should note that I am handling the nicotine differently at different times of the day. Mid-morning to afternoon, I'm tweaked out from vaping after the nightly fast. By evening, I'm vaping 24mg Wyatt Earp with no issues. YMMV.
 
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Kevin Freeheart

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I honestly don't think this question can be answered. Either due to the ineffeciency of personal vaporizers, personal chemistry, method of smoking/vaping or any combination of these, nobody is the same.

I smoked a pack and a half of Pall Malls or Marlboro Reds (depending on which were on sale) and went to vaping 36/mg. Some people with the same habit and brand were fine vaping 18 mg.

I'd say ignore what you used to smoke and follow the beginner's advice of getting a few different strengths and see what works best for you.
 

k3n1107

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Jan 18, 2011
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Thanks for the advice guys! I am a pack a day smoker and have been for 15 years, so hopefully this will help me eliminate the analogs all together. I will go with the 24mg and 18mg first and see if I need to either drop or move up in dosage. Now I just have to find my favorite blend of e-liquids. So many choices.... I guess half the fun is trying them all, lol. Any suggestions for a distributor that is reliable and good?

I should be getting my eGo soon, and very stoked about it.
 

wv2win

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Thanks for the advice guys! I am a pack a day smoker and have been for 15 years, so hopefully this will help me eliminate the analogs all together. I will go with the 24mg and 18mg first and see if I need to either drop or move up in dosage. Now I just have to find my favorite blend of e-liquids. So many choices.... I guess half the fun is trying them all, lol. Any suggestions for a distributor that is reliable and good?

I should be getting my eGo soon, and very stoked about it.

I would suggest you try Liberty Flights "Home Counties" flavor - a very smooth tobacco flavor. Nothing will be just like an analog but this is the closes I have come to Marlboro.
 

dormouse

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People who smoke lights typically need 16-18mg and some need 24mg

I don't think it matters how much you smoke per day if you plan to vape the same amount as you smoked or slightly more

I think those Marlboro gold are actually 1.1 or 1.2 mg nicotine per cigarette so you may need 24mg if you mostly smoke them. Are Marlboro lights different cigs? They are .8 mg which is more like the lights I smoked and I need 16-18mg.

You could get some of both levels and see what is right for you.
 

MrNate

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People who smoke lights typically need 16-18mg and some need 24mg

I don't think it matters how much you smoke per day if you plan to vape the same amount as you smoked or slightly more

I think those Marlboro gold are actually 1.1 or 1.2 mg nicotine per cigarette so you may need 24mg if you mostly smoke them. Are Marlboro lights different cigs? They are .8 mg which is more like the lights I smoked and I need 16-18mg.

You could get some of both levels and see what is right for you.

"Gold" is the FDA-mandated rebranding of Marlboro Lights. "Silver" is ultra-lights.

The thing I don't understand is what how much you smoked has to do with this. Seems to me like you want to (roughly) match the amount of nicotine per drag. If you chain smoke, chain vape. If you take 5 drags per hour, vape 5 drags per hour.

Not trying to be critical of advice here, but I personally found the estimations given here to be way, way off. Just as a data point, for me vaping even 16mg in about the same amount as what I smoked is clearly delivering more nicotine than Marlboro lights. 11mg seems like it might be a hair to high as well. To suggest 24mg seems really far off the mark to me, though I recognize there are individual differences.

In light of that recognition, however, I really think it would be prudent to suggest all new vapers initially purchase a pack of low-dose cartos as well as higher-dose. You do NOT know how your body will react, you do NOT know what your vaping habits will be. One thing I did that was a tremendous help is that I ordered a bunch of 24mg samplers from FSUSA. If you buy 6 or 11mg cartos and they're not cutting it for you, refill with some high-test to see you through. That way you're not wasting the purchase of those cartos and you get to keep it interesting with flavor experimentation. Much easier than trying to dilute the amount of nicotine in a carto.

Just a thought. Throwing it out there because I know I'm not the only one out there who would have been better off hearing more advice towards the lower end.
 

Tol

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I smoked about a pack and a half of Marlboro Red for years, then Lights or "gold" for the past few years. That "should" put me into the 24mg-36mg range. My first experience with vaping (my mini-mart ecig) was 18 mg that came pre-filled in cartos. Since my Riva got here, I have been happily vaping 8 mg juice and even some 6mg. I just got a few bottles of 12mg today and we'll see how that goes. The thing I found was, I vape a lot more than I smoked. So going low allows me to chain vape at will without getting sick from too much nicotine. The 12mg stuff will be for a quick fix, and I may even get some a little stronger than that to try out.

Personally, I would recommend people start lower and work their way up in strength, rather than the other way around. It just seems like a safer option to me. One thing for sure, is drink plenty of water!
 

WomanOfHeart

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I don't think there's a direct correlation between the brand or strength you smoked, how much you smoked and which nicotine you should be vaping. I was a 1.5-2 PAD Pall Mall Ultra Light smoker and I started with 18mg and that wasn't enough. I bumped it to 24mg and that worked. One of my friends smoked full strength Camels and she can only handle 12mg.
 

MrNate

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I'm frankly not surprised by the lack of correlation. I suspect that your actual smoking habits and methodology has more critical impact on the amount of nicotine actually absorbed by your body than the brand or amount smoked. I know plenty of 2 PAD smokers who constantly have burning cigarettes with them, but probably only take 2 actual drags off of each. Some people exhale quickly, others hold it in their lungs and mouth/nose for a good long while. These things have a significant impact.

My point is that since it does seem to be such a crap shoot, I think many would be better served by advice that covers the spectrum rather than leaning heavily towards high dosage, as the advice given on this forum seems to do almost exclusively. Shooting way too high can be just as detrimental as shooting way too low.
 

k3n1107

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Jan 18, 2011
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New York
First off. Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts and believe me when I say, that the advices were not given in vain. I just went to Backwoods Brew and purchased two 10mL of e-juice (24mg), (Casablanca and Honey Flue Nut). I figured if these are too strong I can always drop to the next one down, or vape less. I really don't want to chain vape so I didn't want to start with the lowest, after all I am trying to smoke less with e-cigs. :)

The insight provided was very helpful and definitely helped in my strategic approach, so thanks again.

Also, I just got my Janty eGo this afternooon and have been using it since I opened the package and needles to say I have only smoked 5 analogs today, which is great considering I am a PAD person. This thing definitely beats the Blucigs in all aspects!
 

dormouse

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It's so variable it's hard to help. Re my estimations, those are based on what I have seen many on this board start with relative to what they smoked. I spent a lot of time reading this board before I bought anything. And many have agreed with those estimations, However, anyone who had a different experience is ready to claim them invalid.

But everyone vapes differently, various attys and cartos vaporize a different amount of juice per second, and some people's mouths hold a lot of vapor, some hold a little, some hold their drags in for seconds, some don't. Different people with different PV's and different vaping behavior are going to get different amounts of nicotine from the same exact juice. In addition, some people have to rush out on a smoke break and get a 10-minute nicotine fix that will last hours. Others can vape whenever they want to keep a more even level of nicotine. So there will always be exceptions.
 

wv2win

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"Gold" is the FDA-mandated rebranding of Marlboro Lights. "Silver" is ultra-lights.
Just a thought. Throwing it out there because I know I'm not the only one out there who would have been better off hearing more advice towards the lower end.

For every one person who posts that 6mg - 8mg was fine for them to get off analogs, there have been about 200 that said the exact opposite and needed 24mg to 36mg initially to make the transition. The statistics speak for themselves. It is easy to lower your nic strength but you can't make it higher. Start with 24mg and move up or down depending on your personal needs.
 
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