Reducing Nic levels????

[PilotNY]

Hi Everyone,
I am a newbie here. Have been smoking a little over a pack a day for 35 or so years, never thought I would quit. A friend of mine convinced me to try vaping. Went out to local shop and told them what I wanted to do. They suggested a KangerTech subox Mini for an entry level device and to start at 12 mg Nic. I picked up a spare Arctic subohm (0.5 ohm) tank and a few flavors at 12 mg and went on my way. The first day I had 4 cigs. The 2nd day I had 2. The 3rd day I did not have any. Today is the 9th day without any smokes. (Yeah for me!!!!! lol) I understand that at 12 mg's Nic, the vape can be a little harsh and will improve as I drop Nic levels so I keep my wattage way down (10 - 15 watts). I have NOT been 'Jonesing' for a cig yet! So here is my question.
After smoking for 35 odd years, how long should I hang at the 12 mg level before I try to drop to 6? I am sure someone out there has been in a similar situation. Dont want to make it this far and start having cravings lol.

Ya'll have a nice day now and Thanks for looking!

 

[oldvaporuser]

I would wait at least another month or two. As you stated you don't want to start craving because you dropped your nic level to fast. I would say after two months then drop it to 9mg and then after another month drop it to 6 and then a month later drop it to 3. If at any time you start to feel cravings then go back up for a week or two to regain you composure. Keep a bottle of the last nic level you dropped from so in case you need to you can hit some without being out of juice. So if you drop from 12 nic to 9 then keep a bottle of 12 nic in case of emergencies. When you do the next drop do the same thing.

 

[dcfluegel]

howdy! and welcome!

 

[rgerber]

Welcome home to the ECF Family. My advice for now is to defeat the Analog Monster. Ye

 

[Nightly_Paradox]

Depends on you as a person tbh. Like in my case I started out at 24mg on my Eleaf TC40w with a 1.6 ohm Aspire Nautilus. Which in turn ended up dropping down to a 12mg down the road when I had started doing direct lung inhales on an 1.8 ohm Aspire Triton. Now that I went sub-ohm (0.4 ohm) on an unregulated box I dropped down to 3mg liquid.

 

[PilotNY]

Thanks for the good wishes everyone.
oldvaporuser - I will keep your suggestions and try them. I figured I would take it easy and slowly unplug myself the cigarette machine. lol
rgerber and Nightly_paradox Thanks to you as well for help. I will let ya'll know how I make out. (Where do ya find 1 of those nifty signature "Smoke Free" counters at?)

 

[Bunnykiller]

Im still doing 36 nic and its been 2 yrs...

 

[sofarsogood]

I have been at 12mg almost from the start. Now that I'm going DIY I can tweak everything so I'll raise my nic a point or two and see if that lowers my daily ml's. Another thing I've already done successfully is lower the % of flavoring compared to the pre mixed liquids. Turns out less flavor is better for me. Be careful that you don't lower nic and just end up vaping more ml's.

 

[billgharley]

Hello and welcome to ECF. I too was a 30+ year smoker and went to vaping over 2 years ago. I stayed on 12mg nic for quite a while before I started to drop. I think that @oldvaporuser has a very good suggestion. I'm now down to 3mg and have gone to zero for a short period of time. By the way, the first day I went to vaping I never went back. I love vaping and nic level doesn't seem to be much of a factor for me. I can use 6 or 3 or 0 and still be fine. I love vaping and will most likely keep vaping. It's a hobby, as well as a way to keep away from ciggies.
Good luck and keep on vaping.

 

[Nightly_Paradox]

Thanks for the good wishes everyone.
oldvaporuser - I will keep your suggestions and try them. I figured I would take it easy and slowly unplug myself the cigarette machine. lol
rgerber and Nightly_paradox Thanks to you as well for help. I will let ya'll know how I make out. (Where do ya find 1 of those nifty signature "Smoke Free" counters at?)

I got mine from here

 

[Frenchfry1942]

Going from 12mg to 6 is a 50% drop. If you get a bottle of 12mg and a bottle of 6mg and mix them...9mg. That is a 25% drop. An easier step down.

For me, when I have stepped down, I figure that I might vape a tiny bit more, but life and being busy will get in the way and I will settle into the new level in a week or so. Then I just enjoy the juice that i have at that new level. When it is time to order juice again, I think about another step down.

No rush, no stress, no real urges. I am now at 3mg and sometimes I just forget.

I am now thinking to break-up my habitual moments where I reach for a vape.

No rush, no stress, no real urges.

 

[Ablonz]

Hello and Welcome to the forums!!! Glad all is going good for you. In my experience, I started on 24 mg nic and usually did about 4 ml per day (1.8 ohm coil). I then switched to 6 mg but do about 15 ml a day (0.6 ohm coil). I found that even though nic ingested (not actual be easy on the math) has lowered, I used more of it (juice). 4 ml @ 24 mg is about 96 mg of nic per day and 15 ml @ 6 mg is 90 mg per day. Over the last 11 months it has been going down slightly each way though. Everyone is different with what works for them. Hope this helps.

 

[speedy_r6]

What I would suggest you do is hang on to your old bottles you have used. If they have like an eye-dropper cap on them, you can typically remove those just by twisting the nipple off. You can use that for future juices. After you have gone your first bottle, but bottles of 6mg and 12mg of the same flavor. Fill that empty bottle about half way with 12mg, and then the rest of the way with 6mg. Assuming you are using 30mL bottles, this will leave you with 15mL of 6mg juice, 30mL of 9mg juice, and 15mL of 12mg juice. As you can see, this gives you multiple strengths. Just give the 9mg a shot for a while. If you don't feel like that is doing the job for you, go back to the 12mg. If you feel the 9mg is working fine, you can stick with it and just mix the remainder of the other two bottles together to have another 30mL of 9mg. If you still feel like you can drop down more, you can give the 6mg a shot. If it works for you, you can just start going with 6mg.

Personally, I wouldn't try to drop off too fast. You don't want that urge to smoke to come back. Dropping the nic levels at a comfortable pace will help ensure that you are more successful in keeping those urges at bay. There really is no solid answer of when you should drop the nic levels. Just do it at the pace you feel comfortable.

 

[randerson3213]

I got mine from here

Thank you so much, Paradox!

 

[Nightly_Paradox]

It's not a problem, enjoy!

 

[markfm]

I decreased in small steps, over time. I went 24 to 20 mg, then 2 mg steps after that down to 6. I gave myself about 3 weeks at a given mg before the next step, sometimes longer.

As mentioned by others, you might notice a bit of a bump in ml, but it's likely it'll settle back after a couple days if the decreases in mg are small enough.

Things have changed hugely in terms of mg people use over time, in part due to higher power setups being used. When I started most people used around 7 - 10 watts maximum, the rule of thumb was 24 - 30 mg for a heavy smoker, 18 mg for someone who smoked lights at about pack a day, relatively few people were candidates to start at 12 mg.

With higher power people do fine starting at lower mg, the trade being they often go through more ml of eliquid per day.

Unless eliquid prices have dropped hugely, fewer ml of liquid at higher mg, in a lower power device, is more economical, and the lower power setups (under 20 watts, cartomizers/tanks in the 1.5 - 3 ohm region) are pretty forgiving (fewer chances of things going wrong).

Good luck!

 

[Alter]

I see it as the lower the ohm of the coil the less nic your going to need along with a good delivery system is also a factor in your preferred nic level. Vaping gear has dramatically improved in the last 2 1/2 years my wife and I have been vaping. I started out with top coil CE4 clearo at 24 nic( that booted the cigs out). Bought a protank and the 24 was super harsh on the throat, cut down to 18 nic and vaped that for eons being a happy vaper. Got a kayfun, better delivery system and the 18 became harsh so cut down to 12 and vaped happy again. Both of us are tootle puffers, I'm not fond of sub-ohm so I keep my builds 1.2-1.6 ohm and my wife's 1.8 ohm.
I got her a kanger subtank to get her off the protanks she been complaining that filling several times a day is becoming a hassle. She told me the other day that her vape is a bit harsh (6nic) so I'll drop her nic level a point or two to see how it goes. DIY your juice gives you a freedom to be able to adjust levels in a whim without affecting the quality of your juice.
Depending on where you get your gear from, a clone or fake atomizer head can produce the same YUK results on your throat making you think the nic level is too high but in reality its a crappy head giving you the trouble... learn to rebuild those heads and you'll have a top shelf vape experience and no one to blame for a bad coil but yourself.

 

[VNeil]

It's important to understand that nic is no more harmful than caffeine. The only thing really bad about nic is the politics and propaganda. So please do not set arbitrary reduction limits that might cause you to relapse back to smoking, which *is* well known to affect your health. You are really way too early in this game to worry about nic reduction. Your only job is to stay smoke-free now.

Personally I stepped down something like this: 24-->18-->12-->6-->3-->0--->3-6 (yes, back to some nic because of life stress now). That over the course of a year or so, but we are all different so don't use my experience as any guide. I never stepped down until my body and mind was ready so I never experienced any discomfort. There is no reason to do that, unless you stay sucked into all the propaganda you've been buried with all your life.

When you get down to the point where you try 0MG you will start learning to distinguish the behavioral dependence issues from the nic dependence, if it really exists. It's a very poorly understood topic, in my humble opinion.

If you DIY, or at least buy 0MG commercial juice and add your own nic (preferably with 100mg concentrate to minimize dilution)... Then if you wanted you could reduce 1mg at a time (or even less when you get down to around the 6mg level). You will never notice the difference . I thought about that but it just wasn't necessary for me. DIY Rules!

 

[catsitter]

Your body will tell you when it's time to drop, just listen to it. Until then, as VNeil said, there appears to be no real harm from nic, so just take it easy because there certainly is harm from slipping back to cigarettes because you cut down too fast. My brother-in-law's got that problem. The ANTZ have him so convinced nicotine is the devil that he cuts back too fast, then slips back to smoking... Listen to your body and go at your own pace. Enjoy and much success on your journey!

 

[VNeil]

Your body will tell you when it's time to drop, just listen to it. Until then, as VNeil said, there appears to be no real harm from nic, so just take it easy because there certainly is harm from slipping back to cigarettes because you cut down too fast. My brother-in-law's got that problem. The ANTZ have him so convinced nicotine is the devil that he cuts back too fast, then slips back to smoking... Listen to your body and go at your own pace. Enjoy and much success on your journey!

That is just so sad.