New vapers ask how to vape more often than they ask anything else. The answer is simple in outline, but the learning curve is steep enough that plenty of people give up early. The easy way in is a basic device first, with more advanced gear later once the basics feel familiar. A simple kit is not a lesser kit. Treat it as training wheels for whatever comes next.
Picking a first kit
Online stores and local vape shops both carry a long list of basic starter kits, and what mostly separates them is cost. Keep the first purchase modest, so that if vaping turns out not to suit you, you have not sunk much money or time into it. Starter kits fall into four groups:
- Pod vapes: they run on cartridges, either disposable ones prefilled with a flavor or ones you refill with e-liquid of your choice.
- AIOs: short for All-In-One. These are refillable, and the coil can be swapped out.
- E-cigarettes: they take disposable cartridges, sold pre-filled or refillable.
- Disposable e-cigarettes: pre-filled devices meant for a single use.
Most of this guide is about AIOs, which are among the most popular choices.
Choosing e-liquid and nicotine strength
Flavor is the hard part, since no two people have the same taste. Shopping online, read the reviews for a flavor. In a store, ask the clerk for a recommendation.
Nicotine strength comes next. 3MG is the level most people buy: it gives a decent throat hit and it stops you puffing on the device over and over. Higher strengths of 6-12mg are best used at low power. If vaping is new to you, 0-3mg is the range to start in, and those strengths work at medium to high power. Nicotine content can change how a flavor tastes, so settle on the strength you like before you stock up on several bottles.
Ways to inhale
People who smoked cigarettes tend to take short drags and breathe out fast. Marijuana smokers tend to draw deep, hold, then let go. Vaping sits somewhere between the two. Get it wrong and you may cough hard or feel lightheaded from too much nicotine.
Direct Lung (DL)
People often liken this one to a “bong hit”. The first inhale should be gentle and smooth, as natural as an ordinary breath. Do not suck hard on the device, because that can drag e-liquid up the chimney and leave juice in your mouth. At the end of the inhale, let the breath out smoothly through your mouth. Exhaling through the nose works too, though vapor can condense in your nostrils and feel like a runny nose.
Mouth-to-lung
Here you take a tight draw and keep the vapor in your mouth for a few seconds first. Juul pod and Logic e-cig users generally vape this way, and the feel is closer to a drag on a cigarette or cigar. It is also the usual method for high-nicotine liquid.
Cigar puff
The last method copies the way a cigar is puffed: quick puffs and big plumes, on a low or high powered device. Little or no vapor is inhaled, yet nicotine is still absorbed through the mucus membrane.
Airflow
You can stick to one method or mix them. Most tanks have adjustable airflow slots that open as wide or close as narrow as you like. Wider slots give a smoother inhale. For a tighter, more restricted pull, leave the slots partly closed.
Liquids you should not vape
CBD oils, weed concentrates and essential oils can look much like vape juice, but they are not the same thing. Vape juice is made from a specific set of ingredients meant to carry flavor, clouds and nicotine. Some weed waxes and oils can be vaped, but they generally need a vaporizer built for those concentrates. Unless your device says it handles weed oils or waxes alongside vape juice, keep them out of it.
Never vape anything out of the kitchen cupboard or the fridge. Vape juice often contains VG, or vegetable glycerin, and that is no reason to pour vegetable oil into a tank. Soda and syrup are out as well: they clog coils and can damage both the kit and your mouth. The original post compared this to dangerous online stunts such as eating Tide pods, and the point stands. Vaping something never meant to be vaped can be dangerous, even life-threatening.
Should you vape?
Knowing how to vape is a separate matter from deciding whether to. That is a personal choice, and people make it for many reasons, peer pressure among them: friends do it, or it looks cool. If you have never smoked, you do not need a reason to start vaping. Whether vaping should be allowed at all was being fiercely argued when this guide was written.
If something here is unclear, you can email or call us with questions. The follow-up article covers cleaning a vape tank and coils so the equipment lasts longer.