Yet another noob asking about nicotine strength

[sagehw]

...and sorry for that. I just can't afford to buy a bunch of different to do the trial and error thing.

Smoked for 47 years now. Marlboro Red or Player's, the last 8 years have been 100% tobacco native smokes (no additives).
About 1.5-2 packs/day. I'm an endurance runner (yeah, I'm a freak) and am finally starting to have issues with it due to smoking. I want to quit for good but do not want the severe withdrawals that I have gotten in the past. (headache, shaky, sweating, nauseous, irritable - my DT's mimic severe hypoglycemia) And no, they don't go away - they are like labour pains, they come faster and harder and last longer - even 3 months later.

I have a smok nord2, 40W and 0.4 ohm, and use Mocha-flavoured VG juice in a 4.5 ml pod. It was recommended to start at 6 mg/ml and I am finding it nowhere near satisfying. I am down to about 6 cigs a day (waking, bedtime, after eating) but still craving more. I vape a full pod and a bit per day. I can chain vape working at the computer and even still, every couple hours have to fight off having a cig. I don't get lightheaded or nauseous, and I don't get a buzz from the cig. And even with the cigs, I want 2 or 3 not just one.

I must say though that I am a very, very shallow inhaler. I can't do more than 0.5 secs MTL - which gives no taste, no feel and no vapour. Even my DTL is less than a 2 second draw. I get a badly burned throat at any more than that. I have to keep the heat setting down well below 30 (usually 27 in the morning and about 22 evening). Lower means even less satisfying.

So throat hit means nothing to me, I don't want one. All I'm interested in is the motion and a nicotine replacement that I can feel, then I can incrementally drop it later. I have been reading a lot on here and seem to find that 12 or 18 mg would probably be a better place to start. Would that be safe to assume?

I would love any and all comments, suggestions and ideas. Sorry for the book but it saves the "yeah, but..." clarifications later.

 

[Beeker]

...and sorry for that. I just can't afford to buy a bunch of different to do the trial and error thing.

Smoked for 47 years now. Marlboro Red or Player's, the last 8 years have been 100% tobacco native smokes (no additives).
About 1.5-2 packs/day. I'm an endurance runner (yeah, I'm a freak) and am finally starting to have issues with it due to smoking. I want to quit for good but do not want the severe withdrawals that I have gotten in the past. (headache, shaky, sweating, nauseous, irritable - my DT's mimic severe hypoglycemia) And no, they don't go away - they are like labour pains, they come faster and harder and last longer - even 3 months later.

I have a SMOK nord2, 40W and 0.4 ohm, and use Mocha-flavoured VG juice in a 4.5 ml pod. It was recommended to start at 6 mg/ml and I am finding it nowhere near satisfying. I am down to about 6 cigs a day (waking, bedtime, after eating) but still craving more. I vape a full pod and a bit per day. I can chain vape working at the computer and even still, every couple hours have to fight off having a cig. I don't get lightheaded or nauseous, and I don't get a buzz from the cig. And even with the cigs, I want 2 or 3 not just one.

I must say though that I am a very, very shallow inhaler. I can't do more than 0.5 secs MTL - which gives no taste, no feel and no vapour. Even my DTL is less than a 2 second draw. I get a badly burned throat at any more than that. I have to keep the heat setting down well below 30 (usually 27 in the morning and about 22 evening). Lower means even less satisfying.

So throat hit means nothing to me, I don't want one. All I'm interested in is the motion and a nicotine replacement that I can feel, then I can incrementally drop it later. I have been reading a lot on here and seem to find that 12 or 18 mg would probably be a better place to start. Would that be safe to assume?

I would love any and all comments, suggestions and ideas. Sorry for the book but it saves the "yeah, but..." clarifications later.

I started at 12mg and it didn't work. Tried again at 24mg and that did the trick. Same as you I did Cowboys and Winston Reds for Centuries. Smoke free since 2015 and I'm now down to 8mg Vape.
Oh and BTW, I keep my mod dialed down to between 15 and 17 Watts (.2 to .5 Ohms) and rarely go above 30 unless I'm using a ceramic coil. Good luck.

 

[Territoo]

I would definitely recommend going higher on the nic, at least 18mg/ml and probably 24. Get a 24 in the same flavor as your 6mg. You can use the 6mg to dilute the 24 if that is too much. Also get your nic in the form of nic salts, as that is smoother than the nic base and has less throat hit. You might even want to temporarily try disposables as they are usually 50mg of nic salt. Just save the Nord for later as you dont want to stay on disposables. They are just too expensive. You could start with a disposable until you are totally of cigs, then alternate with your Nord, saving the disposable for when you are having cravings

 

[Beeker]

I would definitely recommend going higher on the nic, at least 18mg/ml and probably 24. Get a 24 in the same flavor as your 6mg. You can use the 6mg to dilute the 24 if that is too much. Also get your nic in the form of nic salts, as that is smoother than the nic base and has less throat hit. You might even want to temporarily try disposables as they are usually 50mg of nic salt. Just save the Nord for later as you dont want to stay on disposables. They are just too expensive. You could start with a disposable until you are totally of cigs, then alternate with your Nord, saving the disposable for when you are having cravings

Absolutely agree on the NIC Salts. I never had a problem with throat hit @ 24mg regular Nic but Nic Salts are definitely smoother.

 

[rob33]

I had a 2+ pack a day red cowboy killer habit. I tried along with vaping to quit, but became double addicted. It wasn't until the equipment got better then I gave up the analogs. It was an RDA and mixing 18mg that I quickly could tapered down to 6mg after I matched my nicotine level. Actually gave up the analogs in 3 days after getting the RDA.

 

[sagehw]

I started at 12mg and it didn't work. Tried again at 24mg and that did the trick. Same as you I did Cowboys and Winston Reds for Centuries. Smoke free since 2015 and I'm now down to 8mg Vape.
Oh and BTW, I keep my mod dialed down to between 15 and 17 Watts (.2 to .5 Ohms) and rarely go above 30 unless I'm using a ceramic coil. Good luck.

Congrats and thank you for the input. Everything helps in the decision-making.

 

[Coyote628]

I would definitely recommend going higher on the nic, at least 18mg/ml and probably 24. Get a 24 in the same flavor as your 6mg. You can use the 6mg to dilute the 24 if that is too much. Also get your nic in the form of nic salts, as that is smoother than the nic base and has less throat hit. You might even want to temporarily try disposables as they are usually 50mg of nic salt. Just save the Nord for later as you dont want to stay on disposables. They are just too expensive. You could start with a disposable until you are totally of cigs, then alternate with your Nord, saving the disposable for when you are having cravings

That's not a half bad idea there

 

[bombastinator]

...and sorry for that. I just can't afford to buy a bunch of different to do the trial and error thing.

Smoked for 47 years now. Marlboro Red or Player's, the last 8 years have been 100% tobacco native smokes (no additives).
About 1.5-2 packs/day. I'm an endurance runner (yeah, I'm a freak) and am finally starting to have issues with it due to smoking. I want to quit for good but do not want the severe withdrawals that I have gotten in the past. (headache, shaky, sweating, nauseous, irritable - my DT's mimic severe hypoglycemia) And no, they don't go away - they are like labour pains, they come faster and harder and last longer - even 3 months later.

I have a SMOK nord2, 40W and 0.4 ohm, and use Mocha-flavoured VG juice in a 4.5 ml pod. It was recommended to start at 6 mg/ml and I am finding it nowhere near satisfying. I am down to about 6 cigs a day (waking, bedtime, after eating) but still craving more. I vape a full pod and a bit per day. I can chain vape working at the computer and even still, every couple hours have to fight off having a cig. I don't get lightheaded or nauseous, and I don't get a buzz from the cig. And even with the cigs, I want 2 or 3 not just one.

I must say though that I am a very, very shallow inhaler. I can't do more than 0.5 secs MTL - which gives no taste, no feel and no vapour. Even my DTL is less than a 2 second draw. I get a badly burned throat at any more than that. I have to keep the heat setting down well below 30 (usually 27 in the morning and about 22 evening). Lower means even less satisfying.

So throat hit means nothing to me, I don't want one. All I'm interested in is the motion and a nicotine replacement that I can feel, then I can incrementally drop it later. I have been reading a lot on here and seem to find that 12 or 18 mg would probably be a better place to start. Would that be safe to assume?

I would love any and all comments, suggestions and ideas. Sorry for the book but it saves the "yeah, but..." clarifications later.

The problem is the scale changed and the scale for salts is totally different. To make that one more fun it depends on the atomic weight of the binding acid which is not mentioned and therefore changeable without notice. Also there’s bioavailability. At the end of the day what matters is blood serum nicotine level. And the advantage ecigs in theory(but not always in practice) have is with them it’s a lot more controllable with ecigs. They’re also less lethal than cigarettes…not harmless just less lethal. the old scale, which used only unprotonated nicotine and dealt with packs (20) cigarettes said a pack of full flavor filters had the equivalent of 20 milligrams of nicotine in it (filterless had 24) A pack of lights had 18, ultralights had 12, and juice was available generally in 24, 20, 18 12, 9, 6, 3, and 0. All cigarettes sort of had the same amount of nicotine in them but either burned at different rates or had holes poked in the paper to introduce more air (which could be covered with fingers or lips effectively making an ultralight a light)
People using vaping to quit cigarettes would often work their way down to 0 and then quit. In theory. In practice it often didn’t work that way because the really right way to do it was to titrate the other strengths with 0 to make things like 7, 5, or 2.75. The modern system is NOT based on cigarettes. It’s not milligrams per ml but percentages. My understanding is a cubic centimeter (so a ml) weighs pretty close to one gram. like 1100mg or something. Barely heavier than water. So 100mg/ml base is about 10%. Which makes a full flavor filter about 2%. I hope that helps. My understanding of the new system is a bit shaky. If this is incorrect someone please say so.