Vaping for Beginners: Tips and Tricks for a Smooth Transition

If you’re a smoker who hasn’t switched to vaping yet, it’s possible that you haven’t made the switch because you’ve spent a bit of time reading about vaping and have found yourself feeling confused and overwhelmed. There are many different vaping products out there, and no two of them are exactly alike. In addition, you’re not just choosing your device when you buy your first vape – you’re also choosing your nicotine strength and flavour. Cigarettes, on the other hand, might taste different from one another – but they’re basically identical otherwise.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about making the transition from smoking to vaping, this article will help to simplify the process. Switching to vaping is simply a matter of buying the right product and learning how to use it properly – and after just a few days of vaping, you’re going to feel like an expert. These are the most important things that you’ll need to know along the way.

Make Sure You’re Getting the Right Device

The most important thing to know about switching from smoking to vaping is that your experience will be dictated in large part by the type of device that you use. With that in mind, buying the right vape for your needs is extremely important. If you’re not sure which type of device is the right fit for you, our buyer’s guide is packed with information that you’ll probably find helpful. To get you off on the right foot, here’s a summary of the three types of vapes that are most popular with beginners.

• Disposable Vapes: A disposable vape is a completely self-contained vaping device that’s ready to use as soon as you buy it. Disposable vapes are the easiest vaping devices to use, which makes them great for first-time vapers. They aren’t refillable, though, which means that you’ll need to replace a disposable vape when it runs out of vape juice.
• Cigalikes: Cigalikes are the only vaping devices that look like tobacco cigarettes and feel like cigarettes in your hand and mouth. A cigalike is the only type of vaping device that’s small and light enough to hold between two fingers. Cigalikes are rechargeable, and they store their vape juice in twist-on cartridges that look like cigarette filters.
• Pre-Filled Pod Systems: Pre-filled pod systems are a bit larger than cigalikes – and instead of using twist-on cartridges, they store their vape juice in drop-in plastic pods. Although pod systems don’t look or feel like tobacco cigarettes, they do tend to produce slightly larger vapour clouds than cigalikes. That might be an important factor for you if your nicotine requirements are higher than average.

Don’t Overspend on Your First Vape

Have you noticed that the types of vaping devices linked to in the previous section of this article are actually surprisingly affordable compared to some of the other vapes you may have seen online? There’s no reason to spend a lot of money on your first vaping device – it should actually cost about the same as a pack or two of cigarettes. Advanced vape kits cost more because they have features that experienced vapers sometimes require. The best vaping devices for beginners are often the cheapest ones.

Choose the Right Nicotine Strength

If you’ve decided to buy a cigalike, a pre-filled pod system or a refillable vape pen as your first vaping device, it means you’re going to buy your e-liquid separately in the form of cartridges, pods or bottled vape juice. In that case, you’ll need to choose the right nicotine strength for your needs. With the smallest vaping devices, it’s usually best to start with the highest available nicotine strength – typically 18 mg/ml or 20 mg/ml depending on the device – if you’re a pack-a-day smoker. Step down to the next lower strength available for your product if you feel like you’re getting more nicotine than you need. Read our guide on choosing the right nicotine strength if you need more help.

Experiment with Different Flavours

In addition to choosing your hardware and nicotine strength, you’ll also need to select at least one flavour when you buy your first vaping device. You’ll have no shortage of options because there are hundreds of different vape juice flavours on the market today. Read our flavour guide to learn more about the 15 delicious offerings in our range of VSAVI e-cigarette cartridges and bottled e-liquids.

As a smoker, you may want to select a tobacco or menthol flavour because you’re looking for an experience that resembles a conventional cigarette as closely as possible. With five tobacco flavours and three menthol flavours in our VSAVI range, we offer plenty of options that we think you’ll enjoy.

We also offer a wide selection of flavours that aren’t intended to resemble cigarettes at all, and we suggest trying some of those flavours when you order your first vaping device. One of the greatest benefits of vaping is that an e-liquid doesn’t have to taste like a cigarette – it can taste like anything you can imagine. Many vapers find that they prefer non-tobacco e-liquids.

Puff Gently When You Vape

Once you’ve selected and received your first device, it’s time to start vaping – and the most important thing to know when you vape for the first time is that you should always inhale very gently when you puff on your device.

When you smoke a cigarette, you can control how much smoke the cigarette produces by puffing more gently or firmly. Because a vaping device contains liquid, though, you can draw the liquid out of the device and into your mouth if you puff too firmly. That’s not an enjoyable experience.

Every puff-activated vaping device has an indicator light that turns on when the device produces vapour. When you use the device, you only need to puff as hard as is necessary to make the light turn on. If you want your device to produce bigger clouds, puff longer and more deeply – don’t puff harder.

Monitor Your Nicotine Consumption

One of the other major differences between vaping and smoking is that a vaping device is always ready to use. Smoking is self-limiting in that you only have so many cigarettes in a pack. With vaping, on the other hand, it’s a little harder to gauge how much nicotine you’re using because a refill cartridge or pod typically lasts a day or two. If you don’t pay attention to your consumption, it’s possible for the hand-to-mouth ritual to get a little out of control. To avoid using more nicotine than you need, try to use your device only when you want to smoke a cigarette.

Maintain Realistic Expectations

The final thing you need to understand about vaping as a beginner is that vaping only replaces the nicotine that you’d get from smoking a cigarette. There are thousands of other chemicals in cigarette smoke that vaping doesn’t replace. When you stop smoking and switch to vaping, it may take a few days before your body feels completely normal. To get through the transition as quickly as possible, we suggest that you try to avoid vaping and smoking concurrently. Vape as often as necessary to keep your cigarette cravings under control.