I recieved my new atomizers. I notice that they are putting out about the same ammount of vapor as my 2 week old atomizers. So poor atomizer performance isn't the issue. I'm getting reasonable ammounts of vapor from both. Contrary to my hopes, the new atomizers don't give any more of a nicotine kick than the old ones. However, I should point out that I'm mostly tobacco free after several weeks of vaping.
I don't expect e-cigs to magically wipe out my desire for tobacco since there's more than nicotine in them... however there may be good reason to up the nicotine content. I remember reading that the half life of nicotine in the body was 30 minutes. I look around on the internet and find similar quotes, one suggesting that the brain is mostly nicotine free 40 minutes after the cigarette is put out.
What this means is that if you can't quickly consume the ammount of nicotine your body wants, it will be extremely difficult to smoke enough to satisfy that urge. If it takes 30 minutes to vape the same ammount of nicotine you get from 5 minutes from an analog, then you're basically looking at a perpetual vape to satisfy that urge.
Of course, if the idea is to lower your body's need for nicotine over time, vaping is GREAT. And for me, and I imagine a great many others, from an experiential perspective, this is both good and bad. Good because it's just as or more effective than nicotine gum (I quit chewing the gum because my jaw muscles were giving out) and actually keeps me off regular cigs, Bad because I'm constaintly vapeing. At least with gum it was a once an hour affair.
At the same time, it may happen that with constaint use my body will adjust and not need those same nicotine levels. I don't think the gum was doing anything to reduce my dependency on nicotine.
I've currently got about 60ml of juice, some 24mg and some 18mg. In the next couple weeks I will place another order for some 36 and 48. In theory, vapeing 48 would allow me to reach a desired nicotine level in a shorter ammount of time, and at the end of the day it's possible that my total nicotine consumption would be lower than constaintly vapeing 24mg. Also, it would save battery life, atomizer life, and there would be less juice usage.
So, I think the idea of using high strength juice has merit. Sticking it out with the suggested strengths has merit too. Rather than conjecture, more testing on my part is required before I can come to a reasonable conclusion. It may be the case that a constaint stream of low level nicotine will reduce dependency, whereas getting a dosage that's comparable with an analog may provide more satisfaction, yet maintain dependency. Whether being addicted to vapeing indefenantly is desirable or not is a matter of preference, though it seems a life of vapeing is preferable to a life of analogs.
I would guess that in order to experience a 4 minute vape that provides the same nicotine absorption of a regular cigarette would in fact require higher nicotine ratios. I can vape on 24 for 20 minutes and feel somewhat satisfyed. This would suggest that 96mg would provide a 4 minute smoke... however, keeping in mind the short half life of nicotine in the body, the actual figure should be substantially less. It's possible that 48mg would provide a 4 minute smoke. In theory, from the perspective of experience, 48mg should feel more than twice as strong as 24. If 48mg doesn't do the trick, the exact figure would still be less than 100/200/etc.
Another option would be to use a mod that produces more vapor. If you can vape as much 24mg in 4-5 minutes with a mod, as you can with a mini in 20 minutes, that same 24mg compressed into 4 minutes would produce much higher nicotine levels in the brain than spreading it out over 20 minutes.
Just some stuff to think about. Main thing is to stay off analogs, and if 18mg vaped in a mini all day keeps you off tobacco while also lowering your body's need for nicotine... that might be the best way to go about it. Finding the ideal mg to fully satisfy the urge may only perpetuate the addiction, though it's worth considering that a fully satisfying vape would be absent all the other chemicals in tobacco. So I think it's worth it to play with dosages and see what I can come up with.... at least to try 36 and 48 and see how it affects my vapeing habits.