How To Vape: A Beginner's Guide

One of the most common questions beginner vapers ask is, “How do I vape?” While it might seem simple enough, there’s a steep learning curve that turns away many beginning vapers or discourages potential vapers. Your best bet is to start out with something simple and gradually work your way up to the more advanced devices. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the simple devices are inferior or are of less importance. Think of it like training wheels until you’re ready to go to the next level.

STARTER KITS

Whether you buy your vape online or visit your local vape shop, there are countless options that are considered basic starter kits. The only difference is price range. You should consider your first setup to be something within the $20-$60 range. That way, if you decide vaping isn’t for you, you haven’t blown an insane amount of money and you won’t feel like you’ve wasted your time as well as your money. You have four different categories of vape starter kits to choose from. Pod vapes (which are either in disposable cartridges that are prefilled with an e-liquid flavor or one that you can refill with your own e-liquid), AIO’s (stands for All-In-One. Refillable devices that you can replace the coil), e-cigarettes (disposable cartridges that come pre-filled or can be refilled), and disposable e-cigarettes (disposable devices that are pre-filled and only intended to be used one. For this article, we’ll be talking mostly about AIO’s, since that’s one of the most popular options.

VAPE E-LIQUID

This is one of the tricky parts about vaping, because everyone has different taste buds and flavor preferences. You can check out reviews of a certain flavor if you’re buying online, or ask the store clerk what he recommends if you’re buying in a store. Next, you’ll need to choose your nicotine level. The most popular level of nicotine in e-liquids is 3MG, because it has a good throat hit, satisfies many former smokers’ cravings for nicotine, and keeps you from repeatedly puffing on your vape. The flavor of the e-liquid may taste different depending on your nicotine content, so make sure you figure out which nicotine level you prefer before buying multiple bottles. If you’re a former smoker, you may be more comfortable with 6-12mg of nicotine, best used at low power. If you’re new to vaping, 0-3mg of nicotine is your best bet, and you can vape these nicotine levels at medium to high power.

HOW TO INHALE

Many former cigarette smokers are accustomed to taking quick drags with quick exhalation, while marijuana smokers are accustomed to taking deep drags, holding it in, and then releasing it. Vaping is a bit of a combination of those two methods, and if you don’t do it right, you can find yourself coughing uncontrollably or feeling lightheaded because of too much nicotine. One method is called Direct Lung, or DL. It’s often compared to a “bong hit” When you take your first inhale, it should feel as natural as breathing, gentle and smooth. Don’t suck the air through the vape, as you can pull e-liquid through the chimney and you’ll end up with vape juice in your mouth. Once you’ve reached the end of your inhale, smoothly release the breath through your mouth and watch the clouds unfurl! You can also exhale through your nose, but you might feel the vapor condensate through your nostrils and you’ll feel like you have a runny nose.

There are other ways to vape, such as Mouth-to-lung, which involve a tight inhale and a holding of the vapor in your mouth for a few seconds. This is usually the method that Juul pod users and Logic e-cig users utilize, and usually feels more like a cigarette or cigar drag. This method is also used for high-nicotine content, as it imitates the drag and rush of nicotine as a cigarette does.

You can use either method or a combination of both methods. Most tanks come with adjustable airflow slots, which you can make as wide or small as you want. The wider the airflow slot, the smoother the inhalation will feel. If you’re wanting a tighter pull, similar to a cigarette drag, keep your airflow slots somewhat closed so that air is restricted through the slots.

Lastly, you can use a method called the cigar puff. Just like you’d puff on a cigar, rapidly with large plumes of smoke, you can puff on either a low or high powered vape device. The only difference is that little to no vapor is inhaled, but nicotine is still being absorbed into the mucus membrane.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF LIQUID THAT SHOULD NOT BE VAPED

You might come across liquids that look like the same consistency as vape juice, such as CBD oils, weed concentrates, and essential oils. Vape juice has a very specific ingredient list that is designed to deliver flavor, clouds, and nicotine to the user. While certain weed waxes and oils can indeed be vaped, they usually require specific vaporizers designed to process these types of weed concentrates. Unless your vape states that it can be used for weed oils or waxes as well as vape juice, don’t try to use your vape for these substances.

Other liquids that you should never try to vape include anything liquid from your kitchen cupboards or refrigerator. Vape juice may often contain VG, short for vegetable glycerin, but that doesn’t mean you should pour some vegetable oil in your tank for the hell of it. Don’t try soda or syrup either; you’ll clog your coils, and may end up damaging your vape kit as well as your mouth if you try to vape something that was never intended to be vaped. YouTubers have become famous for doing stupid stunts like trying to eat Tide pods, drink mentos and soda straight from the bottle, and countless other dangerous acts. Don’t become another statistic in the stupidity that ranges from comical and silly to dangerous and potentially life-threatening.

CONCLUSION

Now that you know how to vape and different methods of vaping, your next question is should you vape? This question has no answer, as vaping is a personal choice done for a variety of reasons. Many people start vaping because of peer pressure; all their friends are doing it, other vapers make it look so cool, and maybe vaping can make the user more popular. The best answer is if you’re smoking, you’re better off vaping; if you’ve never smoked, you don’t need a reason to vape. At one time, smoking was considered good for your health, and even children smoked! Now, we’re in a raging war if vaping should even be allowed, let alone smoking. Hopefully, this article has provided some input on the best ways to vape and how to get into it. If you have any questions, drop a comment below! If you’d like to get into vaping, but still have questions, you can always email us or call us and we promise to get you the answers to what you’re looking for. As always, may your clouds always be puffy and your tank forever full of delicious vape juice flavor. Check out our next article on how to clean your vape tank and coils to make your vape equipment last the longest!