Welcome! I’m really glad to see people also using this community to help quit smoking. As a NHS certified Stop Smoking assistant, I can tell you, there’s no better way to quit smoking than to do it with someone else.
Public Health England came out with a study years ago that proved that vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking, Now obviously, nothing that we put into our bodies these days is completly risk free, however vaping is backed UK wide as a number 1 stop smoking tool. As far as statistics go, our Smoke Free representative confirmed that the highest numbers of people put through the scheme ( and mind you , it’s not only vape shops, it’s also pharmacies so people can use sprays, pouches, gum etc.) managed to quit smoking thanks to vaping. This is because vaping mimics the closest the action and feel of the cigarettes without giving you harmful chemicals.
Now, my advice is purely based on UK laws and regulations as those are what I am familiar with.
In cigarettes, there are over 1000 components, most of which are known to cause cancer. In the UK, we also have CO2 readers (at least the vape shops/pharmacies that work with the NHS do) that can determine how high the level is in your lungs. CO2, as we know is a by-product of burning tobacco, but also things like fuel so definitely not good for you. The NHS classes anyone whose CO2 level is above 6, a smoker as the lower levels are created by external factors like car exhausts in heavily populated areas and so on.
On the other hand, Vape liquid has got 4 ingredients - Vegetable glycerin and Propylene Glycol (Both also used in medicine like asthma medicine), flavourings (some companies will name more than 1 on the label, specially if a cooling agent like menthol is used) and nicotine. All reported safe to use.
Interestingly, contrary to popular beliefs, it’s not actually nicotine that keeps you addicted to cigarettes. Our brain makes a chemical very similar to it on its own. It’s actually other chemicals in cigarettes that keep you addicted. Nicotine on its own is on the same level of harmfulness as caffeine so not a killer but obviously still not good for you in high quantities. Obviously, don’t drink the vape liquid/ nicotine.
When we give up smoking, it’s important to replace the cigarettes with the right amount of nicotine. for lighter smokers ( up to 5 a day) 3 mg should be enough, up to 10 a day, between 3 and 10, 20 and over smokers I’d probably recommend freebase 12 or a salt 20 to start off with as nicotine is in the entire bottle compared to 7-9mg per 1 cigarette. So in reality, going over to vaping reduces your nicotine levels drastically straight away. The way to think of it, with 1 cigarette you consume the 7-9mg of nicotine in the 5 minutes it takes to have a fag, whereas if it takes you 3 days to go through 1 10ml bottle of vape juice in 20mg, you’ve only had 2 strong cigarette’s worth of nicotine. But you also don’t want to start off on a dosage that’s too low or giving up cigarettes with be impossible. on average, people go through about 3 10ml bottles a week, so even though getting the dose right can be difficult initially, I recommend aiming for that result, specially if you’re just basing it off of research and can’t pop into a shop to speak to a qualified advisor. After you’ve reached that level is when I’d start playing with the strengths a bit more as that’s when it turns into what you’re comfortable doing, and how you feel while doing it. If you want to save money, it’s worth going up, but bear in mind that that means you might experience nausea, coughing, sore throat. if you want to sit there and puff all day long, go for lower strengths so you don’t have to worry too much about over doing it. Obviously it’s still possible.
The first 2 weeks are always the hardest and that’s when I always recommend sticking to the same routine as you had with cigarettes. Use timers (or I used to use a kettle as I’d have a fag while making tea) if necessary but if you need to sit there with your vape for a bit longer than that or more frequently, that is fine as well as don’t forget, your nicotine lever will be lower than in cigarettes.
After the first week you should start noticing the differences in smells, food tasting better (or worse if you’re a horrible cook) and it should be a bit easier to breathe. I also found that since giving up smoking, I’m putting way less salt into my food which obviously is another good thing to your health.
You might also cough up some black stuff- it’s your lungs clearing yourself of the tar and carbon from the cigarettes and should go away after a week or 2. You might also notice soreness in your gums for a couple of days (again, when you’re smoking, the blood flow to your gums is restricted so when you give up they’ll start to heal and should only last about a week or 2).
Finding the right device is equally as important as finding the right nicotine level - you don’t want to put too much nicotine into a device that’s too powerful or you’ll cough your guts out. I’d recommend starting with the Xros range, as they’re super simple to use and offer coils that are just a touch more powerful than cigarettes without being too much, and has got plenty of growing room for your journey.
if anyone’s got any more questions, feel free to ask or message me 
Stoked you decided to jump in—quitting cigs is a huge move, and switching to vaping helped a ton of us here. Here’s the lowdown from my experience (3-year smoker, 1.5 packs a day at my worst):