New to Vaping with so many questions. Please help!

[Hawise]

Welcome, kashif. Here's my tip:

Don't worry about nicotine levels until you've successfully switched to vaping and aren't really craving cigarettes anymore. The limited evidence we have indicates that nicotine alone (as opposed to nicotine with all the other nasties that come in smoke) isn't particularly dangerous. If you try to minimize your nicotine from the beginning, you're less likely to succeed in switching. Start by taking the nicotine as high as you need to feel comfortable without cigarettes, and keep it high as long as you need it there not to relapse.

I don't mean to suggest that cutting nicotine isn't a good goal: it's an excellent long-term plan, there's just a right time and place for it. Many (although not all) people find that it's relatively easy to lower their nicotine levels if they wait until cigarettes lose their appeal. I dropped from 28 mg/ml to 3 mg/ml over a year or so without any particular distress, but I don't think I could have switched in the first place if I'd been trying to limit nicotine from the start.

I'll also note that there are roughly three types of vaping at the moment, and the nicotine level you start with depends on how you vape:

• Direct Lung (DL): High power and high juice consumption, lower nicotine concentration. Coils are usually below 0.5 ohms. People often start at 3 - 6 mg/ml.
• Mouth-to-lung (MTL): The medium option. Moderate power, airflow, juice consumption and nicotine concentration. Coils are around 0.7 - 1.8 ohms. Starting nicotine level is usually around 12 - 18 mg/ml.
• Pods: Low power offset by high or very high nicotine concentration. Nicotine level can be up to 50 mg/ml (a.k.a 5%) or even higher.

Nicotine consumption is probably quite similar whichever route you take. With DL, you'll go through an awful lot of low nicotine liquid. Using a pod over the same period, you'd consume a small amount of high concentration liquid.

Good luck, and I hope you find a system that works for you.

 

[kashif]

Hi and welcome,
With a device like the Infinix, a nicotine level of 20mg/ml or higher is needed.
I have a Justfog minift pod and a Vaporesso Zero, I use freebase nicotine in both at approx 25mg/ml. IMO, throat hit is mild.
Since pods are small coil, small wick devices, juices with 70% or less VG tend to work more reliably. When mixing for pods I aim for 60%-65% VG.

I smoked for almost 30 years.
I've been vaping for the last 7 years, I started at 24mg/ml and dropped to 6mg/ml three years ago.
I like nicotine and don't plan to reduce my intake.

I don't think vaping is "safe", per se, but it is much less harmful than smoking.


Welcome to the ECF.
I

Welcome to ECF kashif

I was a heavy smoker for 35 years, and started vaping before salts were a thing, at 24 mg/ml.

My goal is not to be nic free, but over time I needed less nic. I now vape mostly 6 mg freebase, and occasionally use a pod type thing with 25 mg salts.

So 1) you should be able to tell when you’re ready to decrease. And you may taste a little difference, but it won’t be much, as low as your nic is now.

2) What pg/vg ratio you need is dependent on the atomizer and ohms if the coil. Salts can be used in anything, but the commercial ones tend to be higher pg than sub ohm tanks can handle.

If the ohms if your coil are .8 or less - and this isn’t carved in Stone, but a close guess- you’d want higher vg. 50/50 is fine for .8 and higher. And the higher the ohms, the lower the watts.

If you’re happy with your device, then it’s right for you. I would say get a back up or two.

3) I believe vaping is vastly safer than smoking. I’m careful about batteries, I take care of my gear, I keep my atomizers clean, I make my own coils and juice. So I have as much control over what I’m vaping as possible. I also try to stay informed on all aspects the best I can.

I’ve been vaping over 5 years and I don’t notice any ill effects.

I will say I may be a bit biased on the subject as I watched my husband of 31 years die of lung cancer. I saw the effects of smoking up close and personal, and it would take some major evidence to convince me that vaping could be anywhere near as devastating.

1) Nicotine to no nicotine is your own path to follow, however you think you can get there.
I personally started with 48MG almost 7 years ago. A month or so later, I was down to 36. Several months after, down to 21 (which at that time was the one of the 2 main strengths you could get easily) A year or so later, 18. About 3 years ago, I started using sub-ohm devices - Down to 12 - 9 - 6 pretty quickly to 3mg. I still have a flavor I bump up to 5mg and I know when I vape that one too much as I start to get Nic sick (The sweats, nauseous, rapid heartbeat) and I lay off for a bit.
I do not plan to go nic free, but you never know....

2) The ratio of your eliquid is up to you, regardless of the device. Some devices (toppers) will not like too much PG, some won't like too much VG. For the PG hating devices, add some VG until it works good. For VG hating devices, if you do not want PG in the mix, you can add small quantities of Distilled Water (DW) to thin it down.
I normally mix what is called Max VG eliquids, meaning the only PG in them is from the flavors I use, if they have it. I do mix up 20PG and 80 VG mixes though.

3) Vaping almost 7 years now, after smoking for 36. While I have gotten a lung full of formaldehyde now and then (Dry Hits) and thought that would cause me to cough a lung out, I never did. Don't get me wrong, I have issues, but none of them are from vaping. I felt I was almost at the end of my rope with the smokes I just couldn't quit 7 years ago. I have actually gone days without a vape where if I was smoking I wouldn't last 2 hours. Some nights I would wake up after a few hours just to smoke.. I do not have that problem with vaping.

Just my experience. Higher ohm coils don’t seem to wick thicker liquid as well. Mind, I use drop ins for those. If you make your own, that may not be true, but almost all of my RBAs are dl.

And those do better with a bit thicker liquid because it helps prevent dry hits and leaking. I have a couple RTAs that require max vg or they’ll leak like mad.

That said, you seem to have different atties than I do- I only have a couple that take pre made mesh coils and I hardly use them. And whatever works for you is fine. I prefer the vape I get from a 25pg/75vg and I tend to go for atties that handle it well.

1) Nicotine causes a burning sensation in your mouth and throat. You may miss this as part of your vaping experience, but if you reduce the nic level slowly you may not miss it at all.

2) VG is quite viscous (thick) and PG is quite runny. If the atomizer is quite small then the juice will need to be appropriately runny to allow if to flow into the atomizer correctly. This is also dependent of factors like airflow and the amount of power you use. It can require some trial and error to get this balance right with any device.

3) Most people here consider vaping as harm reduction, putting anything in your lungs other than fresh air is not desirable. However the Royal Collage of Physicians have publicly stated vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking. So as an alternative to smoking which is known to cause sickness and eventually death, the numbers are pretty good.
I smoked for over 30 years, and I have been vaping for over 9 years. When I smoked I would get debilitating bronchitis at least twice a year. Since I started vaping I have not been properly sick even once.

Links to the RCP articles -
E-cigarettes inquiry
Nicotine without smoke: Tobacco harm reduction

Welcome to ECF, kashif.

Welcome and glad you joined.
I vape zero nic and I have no problems with bad nic or the expense,hassels nic can produce. Go for it. As for the other questions, you might want to try the ECF search function located in the upper right hand corner of this thread. You may get more information than you might want.

Been vaping 8 years and its truly incredible how my body has healed from 30 years of smoking...there is no doubt in my mind that vaping is the best way to stop smoking. One thing I see alot is new vapors immediately saying they want to reduce nic , which imo shouldn't be something that you should really be concerned about now. One should totally focus on quitting smoking, period, no matter the nic. Perhaps next year when you feel that cigs are pretty much behind you, then perhaps make a plan...when that time comes, if you can reduce nic without increasing juice consumption, that's ideal, but if you lower and at the same time vape much more juice, then you probably aren't lowering anything. You also have to think about daily nic intake at that time and if you are vaping 4mls at 20mg per day let's say, that's 80mg daily . Now if you lower to 10mg juice, but now are vaping 8mls per day, it's really the same nic, but now your inhaling more chemicals......getting to zero at the same mls is fantastic if you can do it, but your still vaping chemicals, no matter if there's nic or not....the best of luck

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

The reason why high-VG liquids (70% and up) are popular in sub-ohm setups is simply because the PG throat-hit can be quite harsh otherwise.

I can only speak for myself here, but my overall health since switching to vaping has never been better. I had high cholesterol and was also about to be diagnosed with COPD. I don't have the faintest hint of a wheeze now and my cholesterol levels normalized so I don't have to take meds. To be fair, I was a decades long smoker who was smoking about 3 ppd by the bitter end.

Vaping is much safer than smoking. I don't plan to quit nic anytime soon. I have heart attacks and Alzheimer's in my family and I will take the heart attack (nic may help with the big A it's not ALL bad.)

Also, and no offense intended you may want to actually quit smoking before worrying about how you will get to zero nic.

Anna

I dont sub ohm (well I do, but vape mtl at 20 watts) or use drop ins, but there may be a little truth in sub ohm using higher vg. Some of those monster drop ins have huge juice holes and it can be possible that thinner juices can be a little gurgling. Also I do think thicker juices hold up a little better at major wattages...again, I dont know this for sure because it's not my vaping style, but from reading posts here and there, it might have some truth to it..I'm not saying you cant vape a 50/50 at 150 watts with a smok sextuplet coil, but a thicker juice might perform a little better....

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

I use to be on cholesterol meds a couple years back, but stopped going to doctors since then . I really need to go back and get another check up and am hoping that my numbers are better because of perhaps the pg. That would be so awesome if I no longer needed that medication.....when I started vaping I was only hoping for 2 things, one was to never smoke and the other was for my ailments to not get worse. What I didn't expect was for my ailments to go completely away!! Truly amazing

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

You should have a blog, these posts are really good.
They're helping me and other people, and the original guy.
Thanks.

I was off meds for about two years (couldn't afford them or labwork) and when I went to my first PCP checkup with labs I fully expected to be scolded, put immediately back on the medicine.... NOPE. I'm so glad I couldn't afford it I guess cigarettes were the TOTAL culprit because it's all I changed.

It was pretty sweet. Good luck if you GO!!

Anna

Welcome, kashif. Here's my tip:

Don't worry about nicotine levels until you've successfully switched to vaping and aren't really craving cigarettes anymore. The limited evidence we have indicates that nicotine alone (as opposed to nicotine with all the other nasties that come in smoke) isn't particularly dangerous. If you try to minimize your nicotine from the beginning, you're less likely to succeed in switching. Start by taking the nicotine as high as you need to feel comfortable without cigarettes, and keep it high as long as you need it there not to relapse.

I don't mean to suggest that cutting nicotine isn't a good goal: it's an excellent long-term plan, there's just a right time and place for it. Many (although not all) people find that it's relatively easy to lower their nicotine levels if they wait until cigarettes lose their appeal. I dropped from 28 mg/ml to 3 mg/ml over a year or so without any particular distress, but I don't think I could have switched in the first place if I'd been trying to limit nicotine from the start.

I'll also note that there are roughly three types of vaping at the moment, and the nicotine level you start with depends on how you vape:

• Direct Lung (DL): High power and high juice consumption, lower nicotine concentration. Coils are usually below 0.5 ohms. People often start at 3 - 6 mg/ml.
• Mouth-to-lung (MTL): The medium option. Moderate power, airflow, juice consumption and nicotine concentration. Coils are around 0.7 - 1.8 ohms. Starting nicotine level is usually around 12 - 18 mg/ml.
• Pods: Low power offset by high or very high nicotine concentration. Nicotine level can be up to 50 mg/ml (a.k.a 5%) or even higher.

Nicotine consumption is probably quite similar whichever route you take. With DL, you'll go through an awful lot of low nicotine liquid. Using a pod over the same period, you'd consume a small amount of high concentration liquid.

Good luck, and I hope you find a system that works for you.

Thank you everyone for so many replies and help. I read all the replies and I am extremely grateful and thankful to all of you. DeloresRose I am very sorry to hear about your loss and very sorry to everyone who are having other problems like high cholesterol or heart diseases. I wish you all good health and happy. My plan is not to go low on nicotine right now as you all suggested. My goal is to first smoke free and then worry about the nicotine. I am happy with the 6 mg strength so far. I am not a heavy smoker. I smoke like 10 cigs a day only. I am also not smoking something very hard like Marlboro. My brand is Benson and hedges. So I think for me its not very difficult to switch to vaping because of my low nicotine needs and less cig smoking.

After reading all the replies in detail I want to ask some more questions:

I can buy a tank system. I found some very easy to use systems where I only need to change coils and don't have to do any other mods but I kind of prefer something sleek and simple. I need to use it in stealth mode because of family reasons. So a pod systems is very convenient for me. So what I understand so far that thicker juices tend to make coils bad in a pod system. I like black note only after trying so many and black note is 50/50 PG and VG. What will happen if I use it in some device like Vaporesso Aurora Play which has a 1.3 OHM Coil (9 to 12.5 Watts option). I really love that device. It will satisfy my urge to carry a zippo. But I didn't order it yet to first ask from you guys if I can hit black note in it which is 50/50 PG VG. The bad impact is on coils only or if I won't get the perfect flavour or if I won't get the proper nicotine? In short what I will miss if I use a freebase juice in pod instead of a salt.

2) A 50/50 PG VG on a pod system will be harsh on throat because of the low wattage of system? I actually don't get it. I thought it would be vice versa.

3) I often have juice spill to my mouth when I hit black note with Smok infinix. What is the reason? Is it because juice is very thick or maybe I am doing something wrong like not enough juice or low charge or something?

Once again thanks to everyone for helping me. I hope I quoted all messages. If I miss any please excuse that. You all are very helpful.

 

[Nancy D]

Wow, that’s some post! lol It’s impressive to me that you’re doing this so seriously. If a pod is what attracts you, you should give it a go. They’re not so expensive that you’ll be stuck with it forever.
I would’ve said the Geekvape Flint with VV. But it’s a low watt vape like a pod would be. Pods are disposable in the end, so you’ll be able to replace it or not, depending on how you feel. Juice is important and the right nicotine level, as you know. So ask here at the Forum. Stay well.

 

[HigherStateD]

I'd say the Smok Trinity alpha might be a good fit. Its a little bigger than a Zippo, but about the same in the hand. The 1.4ohm MTL coil works well for low power, but will be a bit better than the infinix. you'll get coil choice too. It has variable voltage, so you can turn it down if it's too much, but that will save battery. As for the spitting you're getting now, it sounds like your coil may be going, but could be too thin juice. I know the alpha takes 70/30. With the flavor, it's good you found something you like, but consider changing it up a bit from time to time in the future. Was there a flavor in tobacco you likes? I know for me I found a slight nutty, earthy flavor in some tobaccos I liked.

 

[vapdivrr]

Black note is a very good juice and at 50/50 it's not to thick, not to thin, so it should be fine in all devices you mentioned imo. If you enjoy black note, which are net tobacco's, another one is heathers heavenly vapes who does some really good tobacco nets and there you can order any pg/vg ratio you want...

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[vapdivrr]

Although black note is a net tobacco, it is a very clean net, saying this, I dont think its thickness is an issue in the devices you mentioned, but because nets tend to gunk coils faster then regular juices, you may not get the coil life of a regular juice .

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[Opinionated]

Hi everyone,

Trust you are fine. This message is going to be long so I try to be as brief as possible. New to vaping and still smoking. I smoke Benson and hedges. Its been a very tough ride to find a flavour which actually tastes like a cigarette. Tried many which claimed to be pure tobacco but to me they tasted sweet. I then tried Black Note Quartet and found it close to a real cigarette so that issue is now solved. My questions are:

1) My plan is to go nicotine free over time. Started as 6 mg ejuice and will lower the nicotine strength gradually and ultimately take it to nicotine free vape but will continue to vape to don't feel deprived. So with a lower dosage of nicotine or then with completely nicotine free will I feel a difference in taste of the juice or if it will taste same to me? What is your experience when you lower the nicotine strength in your ejuice?

2) I use a basic Smok Infinix device but someone told me that this device is good only for Nic salts and not for juices. How true is that and also someon else told me that if I have to use it I must use a 50/50 PG and VG. But why its like this because of the low wattage of the device? Please explain and if Infinix is not recommended what kind of device shall I use? I don't like the big tanks. Prefer something sleek and easy like infinix is. But kindly let me know if I need to switch then what device is good for me which is safe and looks elegant and sleek (money is not a problem. I just need a good product)

3) This question if for vapers who have been vaping for years that how safe vaping you find than the conventional smoking?

I hope to get many replies. Thanks for your time.

You raised several good questions so let me answer from my own perspective.

I have been vaping almost 5 years, and am now nicotine-free. I haven't used nicotine at all since February of 2018. Prior to my 5 years of vaping I smoked 2 PAD for 32 years - I was a long term heavy smoker.

When you first start vaping you need the nicotine to make the switch. I used 18mg of ejuice for the switch and still went through fairly severe withdrawals.

There is a lot more in cigarettes that we are addicted to than only nicotine, as your noticing I'm sure seeing as how your still smoking, therefore dont be afraid to use enough nicotine to get through the withdrawals.

You can decrease your nicotine level slowly and as your able once your through the initial switch and cigarette free. But the most important thing for you right now is to get some solid distance between you and your last cigarette and it's far more difficult without much nicotine.

You absorb nicotine less effectively through vaping than you do from smoking, so even if a dosage seems to your ears to be higher, it may not be. Your body is quite adept at telling you when your getting too much..

I recommend on low powered devices you try 18mg and see if that's enough for you, or if you need to go higher or lower..

Everyone will have something to say about the device your using so I'll leave that topic aside and just speak on your last topic - health.

My health has improved phenomenonally since I quit smoking... before i began vaping I couldn't make it to the mailbox without being in respiratory crisis, needing rest breaks along the way. My lips were turning blue from doing simple housework... I was in bad shape. By the time I was vaping instead of smoking for 6 months I could breathe better than I could even remember breathing.. and my doctors were all thrilled.

There are many such stories from long term smokers on this forum, I'm far from the only one. It's not "healthy", but the difference between this and smoking is like night and day..

 

[charlie1465]

Welcome to the friendly bunch Lots of good advice here already

 

[Baditude]

Nicotine 101: The Truth About What It Is and What it Does

I've been vaping over 7 years now. Since I quit smoking I very rarely get the flu or a cold. I no longer cough up a lung when I wake up every morning like I did when I smoked. I might stink, but I don't stink of cigarette smoke and ash trays. Studies are beginning to show without a doubt that vaping is safer than smoking.

 

[somdcomputerguy]

Nicotine 101: The Truth About What It Is and What it Does

I've got the same link on my vapin' page..