Analog to Vaper Nicotine level question.

[maustypsu]

It took me a couple of days for vaping to be enough. Giving up that one cig a day after my bourbon was tough, but that's probably a mental addication as much as any thing else.

In my early experience with disposables, I would suggest this may be part of the OP's BF problem. There is the 'new smoke' for your body and mind to get used to. Then there is the habit. I have been able to get thru with zero analogs until that 'good night cig'. I sit outside 350 nights out of the year - all but the worst. It is my wind down and me time without TV, phone, computer, TV, etc.

I'm sure your BF has some similar times of day when an analog will be the only thing that will satisfy him. Maybe it's OK if for the first two weeks he has one in the am, at lunch, dinner and before bed. Then every 2 weeks he gives up one of them. Don't know if that works but it's a thought because there is a chance it isn't the nicotine he is missing but rather the SMOKE/CIG.

 

[Bubba]

Just wanted to chime in here, since I just got off analogs about a week ago. I'm thinking that he needs to vape more often, and change the way he's doing it

With tobacco, I tended to smoke faster, if that makes any sense. I'd take a puff, exhale. Inhale, exhale, etc.

vaping is not like that. I have to take slower, more deliberate draws of the PV to get the same effect. If you try to vape an ecig like you smoke, it's not going to work. At least, not for me (or him, it sounds like)

Also, some have mentioned that vaping is more of an all day affair, and it is. With analogs, you have to go outside hurry and smoke, then run back in. You smoke as much as you can as fast as you can to try to get you through to the next time you can smoke.

With vaping, you can do that anytime, so no need to "load up" all at once, then go for hours without. I don't know that you can really do that in the beginning since you're not getting the same level of nicotine as you would from smoking (due to the lack of chemicals/additives)

As a point of reference, I smoked about 2 packs a day of Marlboro reds, and now vape less than 3mL per day of 24mg

 

[markfm]

The first one after waking up, after a meal, and getting in the car to go to work were the times I needed to go to the 30 or 36 mg/ml

I also made sure to have a very cig-like flavored eliquid for those times. Adding a little (and I mean little, just a few drops per 10ml of eliquid) Tobacco Absolute really gives an eliquid a ciggish, ashy, flavor.

 

[AaronM]

I haven't been vaping long now, so i can't speak from the experience of others. Only my own.

How long has he been vaping? When I started the 18mg was no where near enough for me. There is other things in cigarettes that is also addictive besides the nicotine. Some of them make the nicotine more addictive. I switched to better gear and 24mg juice. It was working great at first, still is. But I feel I could now get away with using 18mg for my daily vape. However I still have to keep around some 36mg for the weekend when I have to wake up for work at 3am and get little sleep because of two young children.

A big part of the issue people face, at least me anyways. Was adjusting to the delivery system and lack of other addictive chemicals and such found in tobacco products. I was constantly vaping feeling like I needed a cigarette, but I was only getting nicotine in the vape, not everything else I was addicted to aswell. Now my vape sessions last as long as before, but I can go longer between them. For the most part, other then for nicotine, my body is kicking the cigarette addiction.

 

[EvilOne]

I smoked anywhere from a pack to a pack and a half a day. I usually smoked camel lights or blues as they are now called. But have smoked the full flavored, the camel wides and used to smoke lucky strikes. When I was in the military I used to even smoke black and milds like cigarettes. But strangely enough I can get by with 12-6mg. My room mate and I smoked about the same but he needs 24mg. Only difference between me and him is the amount of time we had been smoking. Everyone is different good luck =)

 

[Lemonaid]

It's going well, he seems to be very happy with the switch and I have been able to drop from 36mg to about 30mg. been using a clearomizer so far but will try a tank carto system which is on order..

How's it going.. To add ... the device makes a big difference too. If he's not getting large clouds a diff device may be in order. When I went from stardust to kanger t3 on unregulated 650 I had to cut my nic back because I was getting such big hits. I was almost doubling my intake.. T2 or novas put out more it seems than ce 4 style. Even cartomizers are bigger producers.

 

[Lemonaid]

I was easily able to buy 48mg which I mixed down to 36mg (I bought 24mg earlier which he felt was too low) He quickly accepted a further reduction to something between 30mg and 32mg. and goes through maybe 2 to 4ml a day. depending on the day. some of his level is pain management oriented. Thanks for the information.

Minor correction

We allow a max strength of 36mg to be advertised here on ECF, vendors can sell what they like on their sites, for retail strengths (but not pure nic as the risk is too high for people who don't realise that it's as dangerous as opening a bottle of cyanide in their house, it needs a fume cupboard).

At some point we might move up to a max strength of 45mg allowed to be advertised on ECF, because there is now a body of clinical trials that show this is required for some persons in some circumstances. One vendor is about to get a pharmaceutical license for this and has produced evidence that it is safe, for use as directed. In other words if you need to go higher, then that's OK. Probably best not to start right at the top end, though.

As stated, registered vendors can do what they like on their sites apart from selling pure nic.

Note that there is a demonstrated difference in nicotine tolerance between individuals of a factor of 10 (shown first here on ECF), and it has no relationship at all to what a person smoked previously. In other words a few find 6mg the most they can handle, and in contrast a very small number of people cannot succeed with less than 60mg strength (and get no symptoms of nic OD at all). This is absolutely not recommended for anyone except experienced vapers. Actually it would probably be better to trial WTA liquid before going to such a strength.

There is a typical bell curve graph of nic strengths that people need, especially at the start: most are around 18mg. It doesn't matter if you need to go higher, if there are no indications of over-consumption - it just means you need more. It probably isn't a bad idea to reduce a bit over time; many do.

As the OP says, mixing low + high will get you somewhere in the middle, as required. Also you can use a lower strength at night, before bed, that way. Some need to go low in order to sleep better.

 

[Lemonaid]

Thank you, I was suspect of the sweets as being quite a lot higher that a cigarette. 36mg/ml seems to satisfy him in the mornings and then he has a second flavor for afternoons at about 30-32mg/ml. at 24mg/ml he seems to quickly empty the cartridge. I'm considering as mentioned above that a switch to menthol may not need as much nicotine. I'll start the menthal at 24mg/ml and see how he does. Thanks again.

1/2 pack a day of sweets might be equivalent to a multi-pack cigarette smoker, if someone is really inhaling them.

If it was me, I'd definitely consider trying the 30 or 36 mg/ml eliquid. Some heavy smokers absolutely need to go "high test". I used to use a bit of 30 and 36 mg/ml at strong craving points, though normally used 24 mg/ml early on.

Any headaches, rapid pulse, etc., absolutely cut down on the nic, but for a hard craving point, heavy smoker, the 30 - 36 mg/ml might be needed to get over the hump.

The rest of this post is background on nic content. I'm not a doctor or a scientist, this is an accumulation of some items from various places.

The nic label specified for a cig, say 1 mg, or 20 mg/pack, is the nominal absorbed/metabolized nicotine.

The actual raw, source, nicotine in a typical cigarette is apparently around 8 - 10 mg, based on a couple places I've looked at, meaning the rated value of 1 mg absorbed typical is about 1/10 the starting nicotine.

Swisher Sweets apparently have order of magnitude 10 - 15X the source nicotine of a cigarette, due to their being larger than a normal cig and being made from primarily the higher-nicotine-content tobacco leaf (cigs are made from pretty much everything in the plant). How much of that is absorbed would depend on how a person inhales, but it might reasonably be multiples of what is absorbed from a cigarette. A person smoking 10 swisher sweets could easily be smoking the equivalent of up to a couple packs of standard cigs.

The nic level of eliquid is source, not metabolized. Best values I've seen, from work by JF Etter, indicate that we absorb somewhere around 1/5 - 1/6 of the nicotine. There's variability based on particular gear and experience, but this is the ballpark.

Rule of thumb is that a full strength PAD cig smoker might use 24 mg/ml, 3 ml/day, on a standard KR808 or Riva/eGo. An unfiltered smoker, or much higher than PAD smoker, might need higher strength.

 

[craigsdocks]

Could very well be the device and atomizer/carto, I see alot of people now using Zen atty's and they all say they split their nic in half cause it was blowing their head off

I do not have one of those I have a AGA T2 which I have yet to get it wicked properly, but I was at least at 2 packs of Marlboro Reds for decades 16 days ago, thats when I stopped, which was the same day I got my Provari and my Vision Vivi Nova tanks 3.5ml versions and am using 24mg nic

Got to be something to the way different devices automize the nic cause all these people that use Zens cant be making this up, though they also use high powered devices with them, Provari, Evic, Vamo, Zmax and dozens of other high powered adjustable devices

I had no problems at all quitting with my set up and thats after 29 years of smoking non stop Marl Reds multiple packs a day

I am using 24mg Whitehorse from Provape and have alot of other juices as well but I pretty much only use that for right now, prolly about 3 ml a day right now