There can be much to consider when you’re new to vaping, sure; especially if you’re coming to it from having been a long-term smoking who’s looking to leave the harmful tobacco-filled ciggies behind. One of the chief things to think about then is striking the right balance in terms of your nicotine consumption. Get it wrong and, at one end of the scale, you could end up absorbing too much into your body (which would do any good physically and is hardly going to help you kick the nicotine or tobacco habit) while, at the other end of the scale, you could end up getting too little, which may cause you to reluctantly crawl back to cigarettes for that reliable, satisfying and uncomplicated hit.
So how to get that nicotine hit right from the e-liquid you start out vaping with? Well, the reality is that nicotine levels when vaping may, indeed, affect how much you enjoy a vape and how much satisfaction you derive from it. So, when you’re trying to find that perfect nicotine level, what should you always consider...?
- The taste- and throat-hit – stronger nicotine levels tend to lend e-liquids a harsher tang and, in turn, give the vaper a stronger throat hit; for this reason then, some prefer lower nicotine levels so they get smoother hits and a more enjoyable flavour sensation
- How much you vape – those who vape less during the day might want to favour a higher nicotine level, while those who choose to vape across longer amounts of time may want to cut back on their nicotine intake (yes, too high – that is, too much nicotine – may cause dizziness or even nausea)
- Smoking equivalency – to start with, would-be-ex-smokers are well advised to find a harmony between the nicotine level they’re used to smoking at and the level they start vaping at; this equivalency is important as it’s a balance that’ll need to be struck so they receive a similar amount of nicotine (certainly not too little but not too much either) from their early vaping experiences and, thus, don’t give up on vaping immediately but stick with their vape shop London-derived e-cigs and e-liquid and not an immediate return to conventional cigarettes and their carcinogenic toxin-packed tobacco tar.
How to achieve nicotine strength equivalency
Fair dos, it’s not immediately obvious and so a bit tricky and requires a bit of thought and effort to strike your ‘smoking equivalency’ in terms of nicotine strength. Not least because, like it or not, the manner in which nicotine’s absorbed by the human body is different for each vaper. And this is determined not just by the specific volume of nicotine that the body’s given to consume but also other factors too, such as the frequency it’s inhaled (i.e. absorbed) and the size of the individual inhalation (that is, the size of the nicotine ‘hit’ itself).
To that end, discovering the ideal nicotine level for your vaping will naturally come through trial and experimentation; be patient and don’t try to force it too much – and while you’re working away at it, bear in mind the above tips and these following (general) e-fluid nicotine levels and their equivalence to nicotine consumption via tobacco smoking:
- 0mg/mL – advised for those who’ve descended from higher e-juice nicotine levels to the point where, obviously, they want to enjoy a nicotine-free vape
- 3mg/mL – advised for those looking to descend from higher vape nicotine levels or those who are/ were relatively light smokers (10 or less cigarettes a day)
- 6mg/mL – generally advised for rookie vapers or those who are/ were light-to-moderate smokers (of ‘light’ cigarettes)
- 12mg/mL – generally advised for rookie vapers or those who are/ were heavy cigarette smokers (up to 30 cigarettes a day or smokers of ‘unfiltered’ cigarettes).