Vaping in the UK: How Many Puffs?

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, how many puffs 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.

Not only do ex-smokers require guidance as to how best to satisfy their nicotine cravings, but new vape users also have questions about puff length. What is the average puff length? What if you get a nicotine rush? Let’s find out.

Determining how many puffs per day you should take from your vape device is easier if we work it out in terms of cigarettes. So how many cigarettes in a vape device? To figure this out, we need to talk about vape juices for a moment.

Vape juice bottles average 10 ml here in the UK thanks to legal restrictions on the sale of vapes. Although a 10ml bottle sounds like a small volume, it 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 number of puffs as 10-15 cigarettes.

The exact equivalence of the number of cigarettes in a vape is a really hard task, as there are a lot of things to consider. But generally vape kits in the UK have a 2ml e-liquid capacity, depending on a vape type that's generally 200-300 puffs which equals to 20-25 cigarettes.

This is a rough estimate and it can vary depending on several factors, including vaping habits, specific e liquid being used and so on. But there is roughly a pack of cigarettes in a vape.

When considering how many cigarettes are in a vape device you must also consider the nicotine levels. For example, there is around 13% nicotine in each singular cigarette smoked. A 10 ml bottle of e-liquid might have 13mg nicotine throughout the whole bottle, plus the strength of that nicotine is limited to 20mg per 10ml.

If you are a heavy vape user, you run the risk of nicotine poisoning. Nicotine poisoning happens when you ingest too much nicotine, too quickly. It is often associated with smokers rather than vape users, but it can happen.

Fortunately, the UK government regulates those 10ml bottles of vape juice into a maximum of 20mg per 10ml. This means that you would have to work hard to poison yourself. The regulation of vape devices specifically caters to the safety of use of the product.

Nicknamed “Nic-Sick” and also known as nicotine poisoning, the symptoms include a feeling of nausea, an abnormal heart rate, dizziness, a headache, and confusion. These symptoms will progress into shallow breathing, low blood pressure, no appetite, and extreme fatigue and weakness.

Reported cases of nicotine poisoning range from those ingesting 1.8 mg to those ingesting 100 mg. Your tolerance level to nicotine will vary depending on how long you have used it for and what strength of vape juice you are used to.

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 existing 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.

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 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 vapour 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 10ml per day using a pod device with 2ml cartridges, you would need to use five per day. That’s a lot of packets of pods.

You must also take the experience of the nicotine rush into account. When you use your vape heavily, you are taking in more nicotine than your average vape user.

A nicotine rush is a sensation experienced by some vape users. It typically involves a quick onset of nicotine’s stimulating effects, such as increased heart rate, alertness, and a feeling of temporary relaxation. This sensation can vary among individuals and depends on factors like the nicotine content of the e-juice and the speed of delivery.

A nicotine rush is often more noticeable when using high-nicotine e-liquids or taking larger and more rapid puffs. It's important to be aware of your own sensitivity to nicotine and use e-liquids with nicotine levels that align with your preferences and tolerance.

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.

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.

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.

For those wondering how many puffs are in a cigarette for comparison, there are roughly 10-15 puffs in a cigarette. Usually these area spread out over the course of 10 minutes or so.

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.