Vaping in the UK: How Many Puffs?

We explore how many puffs on your vape equals a cigarette, and how long puffs should last.

New to the vaping world? Think you might be over or under using your products? We sought to answer questions regarding how many puffs you should use a day, to equate to one cigarette, and more.

How many puffs of your vape do you use at once? That’s the question we want to answer today. We know that too many puffs at a time can dry out our coil and lead to a burnt tasting hit. We also know that those who switch to vaping from cigarettes have cravings to fill – but don’t know when they have gone overboard.

How Many Puffs On a Vape Should I Use Per Day?

Let’s talk about vape juices for a moment. Vape juice bottles average 10 ml here in the UK thanks to restrictions. A 10ml bottle contains enough vape juice to give you 1000 puffs at about 100 puffs per 1 ml. If you vape 100 puffs, that’s about the same as 10-15 cigarettes. The difference is that the vapour is far less toxic.

How Many Puffs is Heavy Vaping?

If you are puffing more than 10ml of liquid a day, you are vaping heavily. That’s more than a thousand puffs. There are different methods of vaping, too, which can impact how many puffs is considered heavy vaping. A sub ohm device will produce far more vapour than a pod device. This means your clouds of steam are larger. This leads to a heavier vaping experience if you take the same number of puffs.

To put heavy vaping into perspective, to vape 10 ml per day using a pod device with 2 ml cartridges, you would need to use five per day. That’s a lot of packets of pods.

How Many Puffs Equals a Cigarette?

If you have switched to vaping from smoking, you will need to know how many puffs equals one cigarette. Although vaping can feel better for your lungs, you don’t ‘end’ a vape like you end a cigarette. This means you can become carried away.

Typically, manufacturers advise that 10 puffs on your vape are about the same as 10 puffs on your cigarette. They further speculate that 10 puffs are all you take on one cigarette. Of course, this varies based on how big your puffs are, how strong your vape device is, and how much nicotine you are using.

Some device manufacturers claim that their vapes and juices are equal to 15 puffs per cigarette. If you are unclear, you can find a vape device and juice that specifies exactly how many cigarettes equals how many puffs.

Can You Take Too Many Puffs?

Yes, you can take too many puffs. If you vape too quickly using multiple puffs, the vape juice doesn’t have enough time to saturate your coil. The coil is the part of the device that heats up the e-liquid and produces the vapour. If it isn’t saturated when you take the hit, you will experience what is known as a ‘dry hit’. You can learn more about dry hits, and how to prevent them, in our previous article.

Secondly, you can take too many hits and make yourself feel unwell. When we use a nicotine strength that is too high for us, we may experience symptoms of nausea. Vaping gives us a nicotine rush and a little buzz when we use it but get the strength too high and persist in using that vape juice, and you will only make yourself dizzy and/or sick. It is similar to the feeling of smoking a pack of cigarettes without eating any food.

Nicotine Poisoning and Vaping

There is such a thing as nicotine poisoning. It is as difficult to contract nicotine poisoning from vaping as it is to contract it from cigarettes. The CDC advise that between 30mg and 60mg is a high enough dose to kill half of all people, i.e. any adult under 150lbs. In some cases, it might take more than that to kill you, based on your biology. You should be safe from nicotine poisoning through vaping. If you accidentally ingest vape juice, however, you should head to the hospital.

How Long is a Puff on a Vape?

A vaping puff does not last longer than a second. An average puff researched by scientists showed a typical minimum puff duration of 0.75 seconds. This is difficult to measure as the person using the vape. You can see the full study here.

Where Can I Buy E-Liquid?

If you are short of vape liquid you will find some in our online store. You can come and see us in our Stacey Bushes or Milton Keynes store, where we will be happy to talk to you about choices. Remember, if you are finding you are dry hitting too often, you may need to decrease to a less powerful device. Similarly, ex-smokers who aren’t getting the hit they need might want to upgrade to something more powerful. You can brose our vape devices here, and our vape liquids here.