You have decided to quit smoking electronic cigarettes, it is a good idea! The e-cigarette is indeed the nicotine substitute most adopted by smokers today. It is tremendously effective in quitting smoking peacefully, and even with pleasure.
But when choosing an e-cigarette, the matter becomes complicated: there are dozens of models, how to choose the right one?
Four essential selection criteria for making the right choice
As you know, to choose, you have to have criteria that define what you ideally need, and an order of priorities. So what are the criteria you need to keep in mind to select the right kit for you?
There are four main ones, in this order of importance:
- Delivering familiar sensations to ease your transition to vaping.
- It has an autonomy adapted to your needs to accompany your day without depleting its battery.
- Be simple enough to use, so you don’t have to worry too much about technique while you discover the vape.
- Offer ergonomics that suit you and a design that you like, to use with pleasure.
Let’s detail the sets to make your choice easier.
- Choosing an e-cigarette kit: Familiar sensations
Electronic cigarettes offer a large choice of different sensations. The vapour can be soft or intense, moderate or voluminous, and the inhalation can be direct or indirect.
Kits for indirect inhalation
Most smokers smoke in two stages: first, they take a puff in their mouth, cupping their cheeks a little, and then they inhale. In vape, this is called indirect inhalation (or MTL, for “mouth to lung” in English).
If you smoke this way, select e-cigarettes that offer this type of MTL inhale. They produce a moderate volume of vapour, equivalent to smoke, and feel very familiar.
Choosing the right nicotine strength is important when starting out and with these kits, you will be able to use the strength you need. This is a very important element, you can read the linked article to find out how to determine the appropriate nicotine level for you.
Kits for direct inhalation
Some smokers smoke all at once: they inhale the smoke directly. This is quite rare with cigarettes, but it is for example how we smoke shisha. It is therefore a direct inhalation (or DL, for “direct lung” in English).
If you know this is the type of inhaling you need, then you can select e-cigarettes that offer a DL vape. They produce large volumes of vapour and strong sensations.
These kits do not allow the use of nicotine levels above 3 or 6mg. Beyond that, the hit would be too strong for this volume of steam.
- Choose an e-cigarette kit: Appropriate autonomy
Electronic cigarettes vaporise e-liquid by drawing their energy from a rechargeable battery, and there is nothing worse than running out of fuel, far from any charger.
The autonomy of the battery is therefore a very important criterion in the choice of a kit.
The autonomy you need
It depends on how often you vape, and therefore how many cigarettes you smoke. On the product sheets, the capacity of the batteries or rechargeable batteries is expressed in milliamperes hour, denoted mAh.
For an electronic cigarette MTL (indirect inhalation) the rule is simple: you need 100 mAh of battery per cigarette. So, for example, if one day you smoke:
- 5 or 6 cigarettes: you need a battery of at least 600 mAh.
- 12 cigarettes: you need a battery of at least 1200 mAh.
- 20 cigarettes: you need a battery of at least 2000 mAh.
- 28 cigarettes: you need a battery of at least 2800 mAh.
With a DL electronic cigarette (direct inhalation) it is more difficult to make a general rule, because the power used can be very variable, between 30 and 100 watts (even more). On average, aim for a battery three times more autonomous, or choose a model with interchangeable batteries.
Built-in battery or interchangeable batteries?
Depending on the model, the kits are equipped with an integrated battery or interchangeable batteries. Each has its advantages and limitations:
- The kits with integrated batteries are practical, simple and economical. If their autonomy is sufficient for your day, it is enough to charge them overnight to find them full of energy in the morning. On the other hand, if you break down during the day, and you don’t have a charger available, it’s uncomfortable. To avoid this, it may be prudent to choose a kit with a little more autonomy than your needs.
- Kits with interchangeable batteries make it possible to never break down: all you need is one or two charged batteries to replace the empty one. These kits also require a little organisation to recharge the batteries. The easiest way is to have an external charger to do so. If you need a range of more than 2500 or 3000 mAh, these kits are well suited.
- Finally, for those who choose direct inhalation with high power, there are kits whose battery accommodates 2 batteries, for more comfortable autonomy.
- Choose an e-cigarette kit: Simple use
When you start vaping, you often don’t want to worry about settings and technique, you’re already busy quitting smoking! And then some like the technique, others don’t, it’s quite respectable.
There are kits for all profiles: without adjustment at all, with simple adjustments, or with complete adjustments.
What does it change?
The settings allow, essentially, to vary the power of the vape. Thus, with the same kit, you can make more or less vapour, have a more or less hot vapour, and vary the intensity of the hit.
Is it essential at the beginning?
Not necessarily, but it’s very interesting to adapt the vape to your needs. In a day, there are indeed times when you need more nicotine. For example after a long time when we could not vape. In this case, increasing the power a little makes it possible to find satiety more quickly.
You can choose a simple kit, without adjustment if your nicotine needs do not vary, or as additional equipment, to go out light for example.
If you prefer a simple kit, which still allows you to vary your nicotine intake, choose an electronic cigarette with a simple power setting.
If you are comfortable with the settings and want to experiment with different ways of vaping, then choose an electronic cigarette with full settings.
- Choosing an e-cigarette kit: Design and ergonomics
Now we enter the subjective domain: all modern electronic cigarettes are well made and have good ergonomics. The design of a kit has no impact on the quality of the vape. It is above all a question of taste, habits and aesthetics. We could therefore say to ourselves, “it doesn’t matter!”. But no, it’s important: you will use your vape often, it must be pleasant for you.
For example, there are kits of all sizes, some are very small and can slip discreetly into a pocket, while others are imposing and offer a firm grip.
They can take three main forms: tubes, boxes or pods. You will recognize them in the photos we have associated with this article.
The tubes: the battery takes the form of a tube. They fit more easily in a bag or a pen pocket, but less in a classic pocket.
The boxes: the battery takes the form of a box, more or less rectangular. Their size is very variable, and they are often lower and more stable than the tubes. They fit easily in a pocket or bag.
The pods: what characterises the pods is not the shape of their battery, but their compactness and simplicity. They are generally small, light and very discreet, although today there are larger pods. Some even offer automatic triggering: there is no button, you inhale and the vape is activated automatically.
When choosing, indulge yourself of course, but first play the criterion of autonomy: it must be sufficient for your needs.
If you smoke 15 cigarettes a day and you choose a small 700 mAh pod, for example, because you like it and it’s light, you risk being out of order around 2 p.m. If you can recharge it during the day, that’s fine. Otherwise, perhaps it is necessary to take a more autonomous model or to acquire two.
The special case of AIOs
You will sometimes see certain kits called “AIO”, for All In One. These are “all-in-one” e-cigarettes.
All electronic cigarettes are composed of two elements:
the clearomizer, which contains the coil and the e-liquid it evaporates,
and the battery, which provides power.
In a classic e-cigarette, these are two independent elements: the clearomizer is screwed onto the battery.
In an AIO kit, the clearomizer is integrated into the battery. This makes it possible to make a more compact electronic cigarette.
For the rest, the Kit Aio has the same characteristics as the others. You can choose one or the other depending on your needs and tastes.
The change of resistors
When we talked about the ease of use, we talked about the electronic settings, but not about the change of resistance, which must be done regularly.
Indeed, this is not a very important criterion, because a modern electronic cigarette allows you to do it very simply. In general, it is enough to unscrew the atomizer from the battery, to unscrew its base. Then we remove the resistance, and prepare a new one, by putting a little e-liquid in it. All you have to do is put it all back together, it takes 2 minutes.
But you still have to take care of it regularly and some vapers prefer to avoid it, they want even more simplicity!
It was with them in mind that the pods were invented: not only are they light and discreet, but in addition, they are (for the most part) equipped with interchangeable cartridges, which integrate the tank and the resistance. There is, therefore, no resistance to change: when it is used, just throw the cartridge away and replace it with a new one.
There are even pod models that use pre-filled e-liquid cartridges: when a cartridge runs out, you replace it with a new one, and that’s it.
It’s an interesting solution for those who are looking for a great simplicity but beware: as they are small, the battery of these pods often offers a low autonomy. Check that this will be enough for you.
In summary
You now have all the keys to choose a first e-cigarette kit serenely. For example, you can use the filters on the shop pages to target the kits that suit you:
Type of inhalation: choose MTL or DL according to your taste.
Average consumption of cigarettes per day: This allows you to determine the autonomy required for your kit.
If it’s important to you, also choose between an interchangeable or integrated battery with the “battery type” criterion.
Technology: Determine if you want full or simple settings.
You can also choose the type of display, screen or LEDs.
Finally, the “ Browse our shelves ” filter allows you to choose the general design, tube, box or pod.
You can also consult the “ starter packs ”. They are developed by the Youvape team, which selects the most interesting materials, and completes them with a choice of e-liquids well suited to the needs of smokers to approach the vape.