Smokers considering switching to vaping for all of the obvious reasons, such as health benefits and cost savings, may find themselves wondering what it’s actually like to make the switch. This guide, written for Aus Vape by a former cigarette smoker who made the switch to vaping years ago, details what it’s like to switch over to vaping after years of smoking cigarettes.
The Search For A Proper E-Cigarette
The process starts with searching for a good e-cigarette to use. This can be as simple as going to a local vape store and picking one up, but it can also involve painstaking research in the form of reading written reviews and watching video reviews of various vaping products. For Australians, the choices locally are quite limited, but online there is still an abundance of e-cigarettes to choose from. For this vaper, it all started with a pod vape, which is a type of e-cigarette that is essentially a step-up from the ordinary cig-a-like, providing a bit more power and a type of nicotine called nicotine salt, which delivers nicotine to the user faster than the freebase nicotine used with most cig-a-likes.
If you’re in need of a good pod vape, take a look at the Viggo Series by Vaper Empire. It’s one of the best pod vapes available to Australians and it comes in more than a few different flavours.
Finding The Right E-Juice Flavour
At first, some smokers will think it wise to start with an e-liquid that tastes like tobacco. For obvious reasons, this does work for some new vapers, but for others, it’s less than ideal. There are actually quite a few different tobacco e-liquids these days, which cater to those who appreciate the tobacco flavour or simply believe that it will help them make the switch from smoking tobacco to vaping with an e-cigarette.
To get started, it’s probably best to buy and try at least a few different flavours of e-liquid. Once you’ve found one or more that you actually like, you’re going to be in relatively good shape moving forward. Keep in mind that not all brands use the same ingredients so if you see a spearmint e-liquid from one company, it’s not necessarily the same as the spearmint e-liquid that another company offers. Keep that in mind because if you like a particular flavour but aren’t impressed with the one you bought, there might be something better for you out there.
For help with choosing the right e-liquid, take a look at Aus Vape’s e-liquid buyer’s guide.
Choosing The Right Nicotine Strength
There are definitely different ways to look at things when it comes to which nicotine strength to start with. If you’re a heavy smoker, you will probably want to start off with a high nicotine concentration e-liquid. One thing to keep in mind is that if you’re not getting enough nicotine from your e-cigarette, there’s a chance that you’ll think vaping doesn’t work for you and go back to smoking cigarettes. But it does work. Vaping absolutely works, however, you need to get the right amount of nicotine from your e-cig and that can be a bit tricky. It may be easiest to start off with a high concentration of nicotine and if it’s too much, simply move to a lower strength. You can also do this in reverse by starting off with a lower nicotine strength and moving up if it’s not enough.
There are countless guides online covering the topic of nicotine strength that can help you decide where to start, but in the end, it’s up to you to decide what’s right for you.
What To Expect When You Start Vaping
Once you’ve settled on an appropriate nicotine strength for your preferred e-liquid flavours and a proper vape kit to get started with, you should be well on your way to making the switch. However, you may not realise this yet but vaping, while similar to smoking in many ways, is quite different. The sensation of vapour entering your lungs is different from the smoke that you’re accustomed to and this is something that you should prepare for.
That First Puff
Upon your first inhale of vapour from your new e-cigarette, you may find it unpleasant. For some, it’s immediately satisfying, but for others not so much. If you can remember when you first started smoking, which may have been many years ago, you may recall an unpleasant experience the first time you took a drag. There’s a good chance you coughed, possibly a lot. With time, however, you became accustomed to the smoke entering your lungs. Vaping, for some, is similar in that the first puffs aren’t necessarily the most pleasant, but they can get better. In some cases, perseverance may be key to a successful transition from smoking to vaping.
Maintaining Your Vaping Supplies
Smoking cigarettes doesn’t require much as far as supplies are concerned. A packet of cigs and a lighter or some matches is all it takes. With vaping, however, there’s definitely a bit more to the picture than that.
Keeping Your E-Cig Charged
With an e-cig, you need to keep the battery charged, which can be as simple as plugging it into a wall outlet or a USB port. In some cases, you won’t even have to do that much as with disposable e-cigs, you simply toss or recycle them when they’re done and start in on a new one. One tip that may help some new vapers is to keep a spare e-cig battery on you at all times so that you can quickly switch batteries if one of them runs out of power.
Ensuring You Have E-Liquid
You can’t use a vape without vape juice, which is why you will need to make sure you have e-liquid and that it’s accessible when you need it. If you’re in Australia, buying e-liquid with nicotine in it isn’t as easy as running to the store real quick to pick some up. Instead, you have to order it online from an overseas vape shop and have it shipped to you, which obviously takes some time. For the most part, it will take you at least a few days to get the e-liquid that you need, assuming that it’s being delivered to your home by a courier service such as DHL. This is why you should plan ahead and make sure you have plenty of stock to get you by until your next order arrives.
Making Sure You Have All Your Parts
Depending on which vape you’re using, you may need some parts like coils, atomisers, cartomisers, and vape pods. Whatever it is that you need to continue vaping, make sure that you have it when you need it. If you’re not sure what you need, you can always contact your vape’s manufacturer or the store from which you bought it to find out.
The key with all this is to make sure you always have everything that you need when you need it. If you’re trying to switch from smoking to vaping, which can be quite difficult for some, then you never want to find yourself in a situation where you don’t have everything that you need to vape.
