Choosing Your First Vape Kit

Assumptions - You are a smoker wanting to check out vaping. If you are after the Quick Start click here.

All of the modern vape devices we sell are good. They are all “sub-ohm” with good rechargeable batteries. They use standard micro USB cables to recharge (like on an android smartphone) and have refillable, top-fill e-liquid tanks (no expensive cartridges devices here).

Good quality "sub-ohm" coils which last longer and give you a good kick.
Rechargeable batteries, which use standard USB cables
Top fill tanks for ease of use
Good air flow to allow for greater control and strong to mild draw
E-juice or e-liquid, not expensive cartridges devices

Ok, so generally it comes down to five common factors which help guide you when trying to decide on a starting vape -

I call them the "five Ss". These are - "Smoke now", "Style", "Spend", "Sample" and "Strength"

How much do I smoke now? - This tells us which size of vape will work for you.
As a guideline, the more cigarettes you smoke per day the larger battery you will need in your vape. Vapes measure battery life in a really unhelpful scientific unit (unhelpful for most normal people) called mAh which stands for milliamp hours.

Number of cigarettes a day?

Less than 10 per day then --> ~1500 mAh vape device - Joyetech EGO AIO
10 to 20 per day then --> ~2,000 - 2,300 mAh vape device -
SMOK Stick V8 Baby, Joyetech eGo AIO, and Joyetech UNIMAX 22
Regularly 25 per day then --> ~3,000 mAh vape device -
Eleaf iStick Pico, Eleaf iJust NexGen
30+ per day then --> an advanced vape which allows for changing 18650 batteries in and out. You will probably wish to charge the batteries up externally on a dedicated battery charger.
SMOK Baby Alien AL85 Kit, SMOK Alien 220W Kit, and more in the advanced section

What this means is you want to get a vape which will work for you and not run out. To do this look at the table above and it will detail a "mAh" and you want to check out devices with this rating of mAh or above. So if the above table is saying 1500 mAh then all of our Move to Vape device will work for you, but if you are a heavier smoker and say it says 3,000 mAh then only some will work for you. So keep this guideline of mAh in mind when you are looking at a vape device.

How style or size conscious you are? - Again helps narrow the field of suitable vapes.
True for both men and woman - some guys want something with a bit of size and heft to it and not a small discrete vape, some woman and some guys care about a vapes colour or "skin". Others care about its shape being “pen style” (looks like an oversize pen) or “box mod style” (looks like a box with a tank sticking up on top). Often this comes down to "when I'm out on Friday night for drinks, will I feel like a dork".

Pen Style

Box Style

How much to spend?
When I was smoking I spent all my money on cigarettes and was broke all the time. I often paid well over $200 a week on smokes or over $11,000 per annum. When it comes to vapes and how much to spend there are two schools of thought:

Get a cheap basic vape and see how it goes and save some money by not purchasing smokes. Once you have saved yourself a few hundred dollars then relegate your cheap vape to the backup one in your car's glove box, as this is handy to work and home (fully charged with a small e juice ready to go) and get yourself a larger one for daily use with more features that make life a little easier.
As I’m going to be using it many times a day for months get a good one to start with.

Conclusion - So, as you move forward, keep these three "Ss" in mind as they should assist you. Write down the amount of mAh you are looking for, think about style, and sort out a budget. Writing them down means you can refer back to them later on.

A smokers guide to e liquid, e-liquid, e juice or juice

It simply goes like this - your vape juice should have 4 things in it - PG, VG, nicotine and flavour. If it has more, then it's crap. For a better explanation please read it on our "Guide to e Liquid" page.

As a smoker, a good starting place are these flavours

Ice Mango - 3mg of nicotine - Enjoy the taste of smooth and cold fresh mango flavoured vapour. It is cool in the same way that Menthol is cool, but contains none of the menthol flavour. An outstanding flavour as we head into summer.
Summer Strawberry - 3mg of nicotine - safe fruity flavour which you should be able to vape long term.
Jazzy Blueberry - 3mg of nicotine - safe strong flavour for your tired, worn out taste buds which you should be able to vape as your taste buds return.

How Do I Choose Nicotine Strength?

3 mg or 6 mg of nicotine.
OK so why 3 mg or 6 mg of nicotine? It's simple - it will help you to stop you craving cigarettes. For a better explanation please read it on our guide to e liquid page.

0mg, 3mg 6mg

Move to Vape e liquid scale

Vaping vs. Smoking: The Safety Debate

Done and dusted. The fact is, it's safer. Anyone that tells you otherwise is watching some "big tobacco" fake news, but don't take our word for it check out our blogs which has a report from the King's College London.