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Hi all
I have only just recently started vaping to try and quit smoking. And by started, I bought a vape pen, some nicotine liquid and some flavour. But after mixing and trying several variations, I just dont feel like im getting the nicotine hit i need to stop smoking aswell.
I bought the Innokin T18 II.
12mg Nicotine Liquid.
A couple of flavours.
The nicotine mixed 50/50 is only 6mg. When my cigs are more than that. So after vaping for a bit, I still feel like I want a smoke.
I'm a bit confused about the flavours. Do you have straight flavourings or vape liquids without nicotine? Flavourings themselves usually make up about 3 - 10% of a mix. Pre-flavoured vape liquids, on the other hand, might be closer to 50%.
About the nicotine level of your cigs, you can't really compare cigarette nicotine levels to vaping levels. There are too many differences in how it's absorbed, how much of what's there is absorbed and how other substances in the cigarettes affect the way nicotine works. All you can do is say "at this level I seem to be craving more/getting enough/getting too much so I'll increase it/keep it here/lower it." The good news is that nicotine is definitely one of the less harmful substances in cigarettes (barring certain circulatory conditions), so feel free to bump it up to whereever you need to get off the cigs.
1. Can i vape the 12mg straight, without putting flavour in.
Yes. Does it say what proportion of PG and VG is has? If the nicotine is 100% VG it might not wick very well in your device. If it's a problem, you could try adding a drop or two of distilled water.
2. Should i buy some 100mg nicotine and mix with flavours as per calculators.
Sure. That might be a better approach for you since you're looking for a higher nicotine concentration.
3. Are salts better, and in that case would i need to mix VG/PG in it, as it seems you can only buy it with either 100% PG or VG?
Salts aren't better or worse overall, they're just more appropriate for high concentrations. Salts have less throat hit. As a quitting smoker, you'll probably want some throat hit to get the feeling you're used to with cigarettes. To figure out what's best for you, you might want to start with a small bottle of a higher concentration of freebase (not salt) nicotine. You might mix some up at about 12, 15 and 18 mg/ml. If one of those levels works for you, great. If you find you're starting to get too much throat hit but still don't have enough nicotine, then it's time to try salts.
If you're experimenting away and you find you experience some or all of:
- Hiccuping
- Nausea
- Headache
- Dizziness
Then it's time to take a break because you've had too much nicotine. As I understand it, it's very hard to harm yourself by overdosing on nicotine by vaping. It affects you so quickly that you'll notice the unpleasant symptoms and quit vaping long before you damage yourself. (Drinking it's another story, so keep your nicotine base away from kids.)
You will probably want to mix your nicotine with PG or VG. With your device, you might be aiming for about 70% VG and 30 % PG, but there's a lot of flexibility there. 50/50 might work too. If your VG gets too high the liquid will be really viscous and won't wick well. If your PG is too high, it's likely to be harsher and it may leak.
Another thing that you should know about is MTL (mouth-to-lung) vs DL (direct lung) vaping. MTL is more like smoking. You suck vapour into your mouth and then inhale. MTL devices have higher resistance coils and lower airflow than DL devices, and they're usually used with higher concentrations of nicotine because they vaporize juice more slowly. Your Innokin T18 II is an MTL device, and I took that into account when I said you might want to try 18 mg/ml juice or higher.
With DL, you inhale directly into your lungs. The airflow is higher, the coils are bigger and you go through juice a lot faster. You would not want to use 18 mg/ml juice in a DL setup. As a very rough guide, you'd want to drop your nicotine by at least half if you were to try a DL device.
You thought you asked too many questions, but I think I've just provided too many answers (half of which have probably generated new questions!) Feel free to ask about anything that's unclear or just come to mind, and we'll hope future answers are more concise.
Good luck with switching, and congratulations on your efforts so far.
