As has been said, the crossover from smoking to vaping should be gradual and in most cases it will come natually. Some people take a couple of months, some a few days some a few weeks, then maybe there are some who do the instant crossover.
I agree that firstly it's all about finding the correct nic level strength to begin. That would depend on whether you were a light medium or heavy smoker. Using my example I fell into the latter category. My mistake if I could call it that, was using 15mg-18mg nic liquids/carts. It was a good initiation into vaping and I would unconsciously find myself spending more time with my PV/delivery device and less time with cigarettes. There were social factors at play too. Working in an environment where smoking is prohibited and where smoke breaks were few and far between made spending more time with my PV obligatory, and after a couple of months of fine tuning techniques like filling carts, trying different models, timing battery charging, and resolving spares issues like the dreaded dead atty, I wondered why I couldn't make the crossover completely. I still needed my analog fix, but only 2-3 per day as opposed to 30 odd per day two months previous. I didn't fight the analog urge, but allowed things to just "happen" but when I received some 24mg juice after a couple of days I simply said to myself, ok I've got the nic strength I need to do the crossover, and then that was it. I do remember my last few cigarettes as less than half smoked because by the time I crossed over to complete vaping, my brand of cigarettes no longer had the allure for me. They had less throat hit than my vaping and they tasted horrible.
The device one uses also plays a role in whether one can make that transistion. The minis won't help. Gimmicks don't work. Generics only serve to increase the frustration levels in an already pretty frustrating activity. You will always have a bad eday- something won't work whether it be carts, batts, liquid or atty-or a combo of everything, and murphys law will have it that your back up devices will also be hexed on a bad eday. Then everything will be smooth sailing again bar the bad eday hiccup now and then. You will find yourself sampling all the liquids in a frenzy trying to find The One. But it doesn't exist. Your nic levels will increase probably and you'll find certain flavours you can live with but ultimately you will be getting all the nic you require and you will still be missing the elusive "something" which has been defined by the Chemists here as Whole Tobacco Alkaloids of some sort. That's why it has been said that people resort to snus, snuff, dissolvables and even the occasional analog. It is inevitable it will happen to most previously heavy smokers. The jury is still out on the social and light smoker. It may be that these types of smokers can vape low nic happily for eons. Who knows? Maybe they have a different brain chemistry make-up.
So don't dispair, do one, some or all of three things. Change your vape device, get a minimum 24-26mg liquid -or even 36mg and if that doesn't help, then before reverting to tobacco cigarettes explore the snus, snuff or dissolvables option as supplementation to your vaping.
