When people first switch from smoking to vaping, one of the first things they notice is how much less money they’re spending on nicotine. Vaping really is dramatically less expensive than smoking. Many people even find that vaping costs less than what they’d spend on traditional nicotine replacement products. After a while, though, things often begin to change.
There’s a natural progression that many vapers experience. When you’re new to vaping, you’ll use a higher-nicotine e-liquid and will probably vape about as often as you would have smoked. Over time, though, you might begin to realize that your priorities have changed. Once you’ve gotten to the point where you haven’t smoked in so long that you rarely even think about cigarettes anymore, you might begin to think about vaping less in terms of the throat hit and more in terms of enjoying big clouds and bold flavors.
Once you reach the point at which vaping is more about cloud chasing and flavor enjoyment than satisfaction and throat hit, you’re going to start spending more on vape gear – and in particular, you’re going to spend more on e-liquid. There’s no way to avoid that when you’re upgrading to ever more powerful vape tanks and reducing the nicotine strength of your e-liquid to compensate.
So, have you finally reached the point at which you’re no longer comfortable with the amount of money that you spend on e-liquid? Maybe you even wish that you could “turn back the clock” and return to the simpler experience you enjoyed when you first started vaping. If you’re tired of running out of e-liquid constantly – maybe you’re a bit tired of the constant drain on your bank account as well – you might appreciate these simple tips that you can use to make your e-liquid last longer. You’ll also save a lot of money in the process.
Try a Higher Nicotine Strength
The way to make your e-liquid last longer is by using less of it. That, however, is often easier said than done. Unless you change something else about your vaping setup, vaping less often will mean that you’re using less nicotine, which could be an unpleasant experience that leaves you feeling irritable. That’s certainly one way of making your e-liquid last longer, but another way is to increase the nicotine strength that you’re using.
Try buying the next strength up from what you currently buy. If you find the e-liquid unpleasant to use, it probably means that your vape tank produces too much vapor to work well with that nicotine strength. You’ll need to switch to a lower-power tank. The benefit of increasing your nicotine strength, though, is that you’ll naturally vape less often because you’ll reach your desired level of satisfaction more quickly. If you switch from a nicotine strength of 3 mg/ml to 6 mg/ml, for instance, you can expect your e-liquid to last about twice as long.
Switch to a Lower-Output Vaping Device
It’s possible to use less e-liquid by increasing your nicotine strength while switching to a slightly less powerful tank. If you really want to cut your vape juice usage dramatically, though, you should try a completely different vaping paradigm. Consider switching from your sub-ohm vaping setup to a pod-based device. A pod system will produce significantly less vapor per puff than the sub-ohm tank you’re using now, but that’s exactly what you want if you’re trying to make your e-liquid last longer. Pod systems usually work best with nicotine salt e-liquid, and with those kinds of nicotine strengths, you’re going to use dramatically less vape juice than you do now. Nicotine salt e-liquid usually comes in two different nicotine strengths, and we suggest starting with the lower strength if you’ve already switched fully to vaping. The higher strength is best left to those who haven’t quit smoking successfully yet.
Try a Different E-Liquid Flavor
If you’re completely happy with your vaping equipment and the nicotine strength of your e-liquid as they currently are, you might not be particularly excited about the idea of doing anything that requires you to change either of those things. If that’s the case, you might find that switching to a different e-liquid flavor will help to make your e-liquid last longer. Try changing your e-liquid flavor from a sweet one to one that’s savory and offers a stronger throat hit. One of the problems with sweet flavors is that, once you’ve activated your palate’s sweet receptors, it isn’t easy to shut them off. That’s why it’s so hard to stop eating candy once you’ve started. If you switch to something that doesn’t stimulate your sweet receptors in the same way, you may find you’ll naturally use less e-liquid without feeling any less satisfied.
Use a More Coil-Friendly E-Liquid
The final way to make your e-liquid last longer is simply by not wasting it. Today’s high-end vape coils generate enormous clouds. To have that kind of cloud production, the coils need to be very wide with dense cotton wicks. A high-end coil needs to hold a large volume of e-liquid in its wick, or the wick may run out of e-liquid and burn when you take a very deep puff.
So, how does a dense wick lead to wasted e-liquid? With some vape tanks, the wick alone holds several milliliters of vape juice. You’ll see it if you install a new coil without priming it and fill the tank. Let the tank stand for several minutes, and you’ll see that the level of e-liquid in the tank reduces by about half as the coil’s wick begins to saturate. You’re losing that much e-liquid every time you discard a coil – and if you use heavily sweetened e-liquid, you’re discarding a coil almost every day.
Sucralose has become extremely popular as an e-liquid sweetener, and it’s reached the point where almost every mainstream vape juice has at least a little of it. Sucralose, however, is the thing that’s making it necessary for you to throw your vape coils away constantly because it leaves a residue behind that turns your coils black. If you use an e-liquid that’s unsweetened or only lightly sweetened, your coils will last longer – and that’ll lead to less wasted e-liquid.