When I quit smoking and started up Vaping, I was lucky enough to be guided around the pitfalls and kept on the straight and narrow by a good friend who owned a vape shop. And as an experienced Vapor and blogger on the subject, I find my self being asked for guidance, by friends and family, as well as followers on twitter all the time. Passing on this knowledge and recommendations is very rewarding, when you know you helping someone literally change their life.When people ask me how do I start Vaping, and more importantly how do I stick with it. I always try and guide them through the most common mistakes to avoid. To hopefully make there Vaping experience as enjoyable and sustainable as possible.
1 – Buying the wrong kit to start with.
Buying your first ecig or starter kit is an important decision , and choosing incorrectly is one of the biggest reason why people fail in switching over to Vaping.
Avoid buying a cheap ecigs or starter kits, the type you see for sale in the market or at a petrol or gas station. Saving money is one of the biggest benefits of switching to Vaping, but trust me buying a cheap kit isn’t going to save you money. As you’re much more likely to run into issues, have it not perform as it should or even just stop working one day. You could end up with dry hits, uncontrollable leaking or a wide range of other annoyances. And as soon as it stops working – you will find yourself reaching for the fags.
I often get people saying, I want to start Vaping and I want a kit like yours…
Don’t buy an advanced set up as your first kit. It will be to complicated, and will Cloud the water. To start with most new Vapors are just looking for something that replaces the Nicotine, that you were getting from the fags.
I always recommend something with a good balance between simplicity of use, and a good satisfying level of performance. Starter kits such as the Joyetech eGo ONE VT Starter Kit – 2300mAh and the SMOK Stick V8 Starter Kit With TFV8 Big Baby – 3000mAh offer a great level of performance, high build quality and long lasting battery life, either of these kits are going to give you a great start to your Vaping journey.
2 – Buying the wrong Ejuice.
For ejuice or e-liquid, buying the cheapest blends can be good, but you may well find that most of them won’t hit the mark when it comes to flavour, in the short term and more importantly in the long term. I would always recommend finding a couple flavours that you like, from a brand you can trust. Your local vape is a great place to start, as they will make recommendations, and also allow you to try before you buy. Don’t just assume that you have to have a Tobacco flavoured ejuice, there are literally thousands to choose from.
Once you have chosen your favourite couple of flavours, you then need to ensure that you choose the right nicotine strength for your needs. If you go with too high a nicotine strength, you might find vaping really harsh on your throat or you might start to feel sick after just a few puffs.
And if you go too low, you might find that you miss the “throat hit” from the nicotine, but more likely, you just won’t get enough nicotine to make vaping satisfying. If asked, I would always recommend that anyone using a basic starter kit, coming off a 20 a day habit should go for a 1.8% (18mg/ml), or if you are looking at something that puts out a bit more Vapor like some of the Sub Ohm Starter kits, then 1.2% (12mg/ml) would be a better place to start. It may be worth getting a couple of different Nicotine levels and see which you prefer
The other major thing to consider when buying e-juice is the ratio of PG to VG in the liquid. New vapers may unknowingly buy a high VG E-Liquid, which will not be suited to their device, due to the thickness of the liquid, and will subsequently have a negative effect on it performance,
I would always recommend to begin with using a standard 50/50 blend with equal amounts of PG and VG. This will then work well in all types of Atomisers , with a good balance between the throat hit and flavour from the PG, and the Vapor production from VG
3. Vaping Like a Smoker.
One of the biggest differences you notice between smoking and Vaping, is the way you inhale. When you smoke a cigarette, short, sharp inhales work well. However, when Vaping you need to adjust the way you inhale, going for more of a gentle, slower longer puff, will definitely give you a more satisfying Vaping experience. If you try and vape it like your smoking it, it normally causes that new Vapor cough. It’s nothing to be embarrassed by, it just means you need to adjust your technique.
Also try not to fire the device until you have it up to your lips, then fire and puff.
To start with I would always recommend having the airflow turned down, (less airflow) this with give you a more familiar smoking experience. And allow you to continue to inhale Month to lung. Don’t try direct lung inhales until you are more confident and feel ready.
4. Low battery Issues.
Even as an experienced Vapor running out of battery power is a real issue, but as smoker just switching to Vaping it becomes a serious issue. And is one of the main reasons I catch my friends having a crafty ‘Fag’ – ” Arrr I ran out of battery, and I needed a smoke, so I went to shop and picked up some fags”
So how do you avoid this? The best advice is to have a back up plan, and have a spare fully charged battery or starter kit set up to hand, I alway keep my back up kit in my glove box in my car. And always tend to fully charge my device before I leave the house, and also keep a spare USB charging cable in the car.
5. Forgetting to Prime your Coils
Forgetting to “prime” your coil, can ruin the coil before you even get started, When you get a new coil, the cotton wick inside the Atomiser head, it is completely fresh and dry. So don’t be tempted to press the fire button before you have “Primed” it, as if you do, rather than vaporising the ejuice you will just burn the cotton.
To “prime” the coil you simply need to drip ejuice onto the exposed cotton, on the coil. Through the wicking ports around the sides, then install your coil into you tank, and fill up with juice, allowing about 5 mins for the ejuice to fully saturate the coil.
6 – Not looking after you kit and Coils.
To maintain your kits level of performance , and life span, you need to make sure you keep on top of its cleaning an maintenance.
The tanks can be simply taken a part and washed out in warm water, to remove as ejuice residue that may we’ll build up.Whilst the tank is removed, it is the perfect chance to clean out and wipe out you 510 connection, to ensure that ejuice doesn’t work its way down in the mod.
The coil with in your tank will need changing out as and when required, depending on Juice, and amount of Vaping, a coil will last for between 7 to 10 days, after this time the flavour will begin to change, and start tasting a bit off, you can wash and dry your Coils in water to refresh them, but ultimately they will need changing. So it worth keeping a spare to hand when out and about.
Conclusion.
Hopefully if you start your Vaping journey a bit more prepared, and try and avoid some of these common mistakes and pitfalls, you will have a long and health Vaping experience, and continue to be smoke free.
Dan Pierce
I’m a Blogger based in UK, I stopped smoking in October 2013, at which point I set up my own Vaping review blog, www.myvapingreviews.co.uk to help me record and share my Vaping journey. A real hobbiest Vapor, who not only enjoy the Vaping experience, but loves the technology and design behind it.
