Vape Starter Guide: How to Switch From Smoking

Thinking about switching from cigarettes to vaping? Good move. The NHS says vaping is one of the most effective ways to quit smoking for good. This guide covers what you need to make the switch without overcomplicating it.

Want to see the evidence for yourself? I broke down the latest Cochrane review comparing nicotine vapes with patches and gum in our News section.

Step 1: Pick the Right Kit

For most people switching from smoking, a pod kit or mouth-to-lung (MTL) starter kit is the best place to start. They’re small, simple and give you the same tight draw you’re used to from a cigarette. Big sub-ohm “cloud” kits work differently and can be a bit much when you’re starting out.

Step 2: Choose Your Nicotine Strength

Match your nicotine strength to how much you currently smoke:

• Light smoker (under 10/day): 3mg or 6mg freebase, or 10mg nic salt.
• Average smoker (10 to 20/day): 12mg freebase, or 10 to 20mg nic salt.
• Heavy smoker (20+/day): 18mg freebase, or 20mg nic salt.
• Already off cigarettes: 0mg or 3mg, then taper down.

Not sure? Start one notch higher. In my experience, not getting enough nicotine is one of the biggest reasons new vapers end up back on cigarettes.

Step 3: Pick a Flavour You’ll Actually Enjoy

Lots of new vapers start with tobacco flavours because they expect them to taste like cigarettes. They don’t. Most people I see soon move on to fruit, menthol or dessert flavours. Try two or three different 10ml bottles and find your favourite.

Step 4: Get the Inhale Right

Most starter kits use a mouth-to-lung draw. Pull the vapour into your mouth first, then breathe it into your lungs, just like a cigarette. Direct-lung (DL) kits work differently. It is one straight, deep inhale, a bit like sucking through a straw on a smoothie. Read our MTL vs DL guide if you’re not sure which suits you.

Step 5: Look After Your Kit

• Prime new coils with a few drops of e-liquid before first use, then leave to soak for five minutes.
• Top up before you hit empty. Dry hits ruin coils fast.
• Charge your battery from a quality plug, not a fast phone charger.
• See our five tricks to make coils last longer.

Common Beginner Questions

Is vaping cheaper than smoking?

Usually, yes. A 10ml bottle of e-liquid costing £2.50 to £5 lasts most vapers as long as 100 to 200 cigarettes.

How long do coils last?

Anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks depending on the kit, the e-liquid, and how often you vape. You’ll know it’s time to change when the flavour drops off or it tastes burnt.

What’s a shortfill?

A larger bottle of 0mg e-liquid with space left at the top to add nicotine shots. Cheaper per ml than 10ml bottles. Full explainer here.

Still Stuck? We’re Here to Help

Send us a message on Facebook any time between 12pm and 7pm, six days a week. We’ve helped thousands of people make the switch. We’ll point you towards the right kit for your situation, with no upselling.

Your taste buds are coming back, and that’s a good thing

Smoking turns the volume down on your sense of taste and smell. Most smokers don’t realise how much until they stop. Then it comes back, often faster than people expect. Within a month you may notice flavours getting brighter, food tasting more like it used to and your morning coffee suddenly being a thing again. By three months in, many people are close to where they were before they ever lit one up.

What this means in practice: if you start on a bold tobacco like our British Tobacco because lighter flavours feel too weak, don’t be surprised if a month or two in it starts feeling almost too strong. That’s not the e-liquid changing. That’s you getting better, and it’s a good sign. Most people who have vaped for a long time naturally drift down to something softer like RY4 or Virginia over the first year, and when they do, the new flavour feels every bit as satisfying as British did on day one.

Why you might cough at first, and why it isn’t always the vape

Some people cough a bit when they first start vaping. It is easy to blame the vape, but sometimes it isn’t the only reason. Part of what may be happening is that your lungs have noticed years’ worth of tar and gunk and decided to do something about it. Tiny hairs called cilia line the airways and sweep debris out. Smoking paralyses them. When you stop, they wake back up and get to work. Coughing is how the work gets done. If you’d quit smoking without picking up a vape at all, I suspect you may still cough. The vape just happens to be in your hand when it starts.

It usually settles within a week or two, but if it hangs around longer, try a lower nicotine strength or a smoother e-liquid. Also check that you’re not pulling too slowly on the vape.

A note for COPD sufferers

The most important thing to understand here is that with fags, the harder you pull, the harsher it gets because you’re giving it more oxygen. Your e-cig works the opposite way. The harder you pull, the smoother and milder it can feel. Smokers learn to take a softer drag of a fag to make it milder. When they do the same with an e-cig, the opposite can happen, so try filling your mouth as quickly as you can. It may make your vape feel ultra mild. Think of it like a power shower. Faster airflow means less heat is applied to each part of the inhale. Turn up the temperature on an electric shower and the water comes out more slowly. It is the same amount of energy heating less water.

Anyway, this bit reflects conversations I have had over the years while working the counter. It is not medical advice, and I cannot promise that you will respond in the same way. If you’ve got COPD, switching can feel harder than it should at first. Oddly, the quit rate I see among customers with COPD turns out to be one of the best. Here is what I think is going on. Lungs damaged by COPD are deeply suspicious of anything new. They’ve spent years on fags, so cigarettes feel normal to them and anything else can trigger a reaction. The job then is simple: get your lungs to trust vaping instead. Once that happens for them, the relationship flips. Cigarettes start making them cough and vaping doesn’t. At that point, the switch tends to stick on its own.

A few things I have seen help. Start on nic salts rather than freebase. The throat hit is much smoother for a lot of people. If you want a throat hit for reasons I cannot even guess at, menthol seems to help some people get used to vaping and settle that awful cough more quickly. Drop to a lower nicotine strength than you think you need for the first couple of tankfuls. You can always bump it back up. Once you switch to the vape without the reaction, your lungs and your old cigarettes are unlikely to be on speaking terms again. Obviously, if you’re concerned, speak to your GP.