You’ve studied the information available, and you’ve decided that making the switch from smoking to vaping is the right decision for you. We may not know everything there is to know about the health implications of vaping yet, but what we’ve seen so far looks extremely promising. Regardless of whether vaping is or isn’t safe over the long term, it’s indisputable that vaping costs dramatically less than smoking. Switching to vaping also means that you’ll no longer smell like smoke, and everyone around you will be truly thankful for that.
Why the Switch to Vaping Can Be Difficult
Before you take your first puff from an e-cigarette or vape pen, the most important thing to know is that nicotine isn’t the only active ingredient you get from tobacco cigarettes. You ingest thousands of chemicals when you consume tobacco smoke, and those chemicals alter brain chemistry in ways that we still don’t fully understand. For example, did you know that tobacco smoke is an MAO inhibitor that messes with your brain’s reward system and reinforces your addiction to nicotine?
You’ll still get the nicotine when you switch to vaping, but it’ll take a bit of time for your body to stop craving the other chemicals it’s no longer getting. During that time, you may still crave cigarettes. If you know that going in, it’ll make the switch that much easier. Switching from smoking to vaping is much easier than quitting smoking with a traditional nicotine replacement product, but that doesn’t mean you’ll stop thinking about cigarettes forever after you’ve had your first puff from a vape pen. You may, in fact, experience some pretty strong cigarette cravings for at least the first few days. So, how do you ensure that your vaping experience is good enough to get you through that transition? That’s what we’re going to discuss today.
Make your switch to vaping a successful one with these 4 tips.
Keep It Simple
Online vape shop owner Jason Cugle of Triple 7 Vaping says, “My new customers generally experience the best results with vaping equipment that’s user friendly while still allowing them the freedom to choose their own e-liquid flavors.” While pre-filled e-cigarettes such as the JUUL are the most popular vaping options for novices in the United States, you’ll have a much better experience overall if you buy a simple one-button vape pen with a refillable tank. That’s because no pre-filled e-cigarette has more than a handful of different flavors available. When you use a vape pen with a tank, on the other hand, you can choose from hundreds of different bottled e-liquid flavors. Since bottled e-liquid costs far less than pre-filled pods, using a refillable vape pen also means that you’ll pay much less to vape.
Although buying a refillable device is the most surefire way to have a great vaping experience, it’s unwise to buy one of the big, fancy box mods crowding the shelves at your local vape shop when you’re new to vaping. That’s partially because an advanced vaping device is more complex than you probably want at this stage and partially because the large tanks included with advanced mods are designed for a direct-to-lung inhaling style that you most likely will not prefer if you’re new to vaping.
Use the Correct Nicotine Strength
When you buy bottled e-liquid, you can experience the enjoyment that comes with choosing the exact flavor profile that you want your vaping experience to have. The one challenge when you buy bottled e-liquid, though, is that you also have to select the correct nicotine strength for your needs – and when you visit a vape shop for the first time, you’ll find an enormous variety of different nicotine strengths available. Choosing the right nicotine strength isn’t easy if you’re new to vaping. If you select the wrong strength, though, it’ll become obvious to you fairly quickly. If your nicotine strength is too low, you’ll have difficulty controlling your cravings. You’ll also drain your bottles of e-liquid rapidly. If your nicotine strength is too high, you’ll have difficulty vaping at all due to throat and lung irritation. With a small vape pen, it’s generally a good idea to start with a nicotine strength around 16-25 mg and make adjustments depending on your needs.
If you’re switching to vaping after being a long-term heavy smoker, you should consider trying a nicotine salt e-liquid. Nicotine salt e-liquid has a pH closer to neutral than that of standard e-liquid, and the lower pH makes nicotine salt e-liquid easier to inhale at high nicotine strengths. Nicotine salt e-liquid makes it possible to have a higher-nicotine vaping experience without sacrificing smoothness.
Inhale Correctly
One of the things new vapers seldom realize until it’s too late is that compared to a cigarette, a vaping device requires far less air pressure when you inhale. When you smoke a cigarette, you’re probably used to inhaling with short, firm puffs. The harder you puff on a cigarette, the more quickly it burns. Thus, if you want plenty of warm smoke, you’ll puff harder. Vaping, however, requires a different inhaling technique because puffing too firmly can cause the e-liquid in your tank to flood the coil and enter your mouth. If you want your device to produce big, satisfying vapor clouds, you’ll need to take longer puffs while using only the amount of air pressure necessary to draw the vapor into your mouth.
Buy Plenty of Spare Coils
Nothing ruins the vaping experience more quickly than an old coil that’s burned out and no longer delivers an acceptable flavor. Depending on factors such as the type of e-liquid that you use, you can expect a vaping coil to last anywhere from a day to multiple weeks before it starts to produce a burned flavor. The sweeter your e-liquid is, the less life you can generally expect to get out of your coils. You do not want to get caught with a burned out coil and no spares available, so buy more coils than you think you need.
