Nicotine Salts Offer MTL Vapers a Bold, New Experience

One of the strongest attractive forces that draws enthusiasts worldwide to vaping is the electronic platform. Vaporizers are able to bring your choice e-juices up to the point of combustion without exceeding the threshold. Thus, end-users are able to enjoy substantially cleaner sessions than would be possible with traditional, analog devices.

 Almost universally, enthusiasts who have tried vaporizers have adopted the “digital revolution.” The vaping industry simply offers much more options and solutions that fit virtually every enthusiast’s needs. Moreover, vape manufacturers are constantly pushing the envelope, driven both by their desire to top the competition, as well as bragging rights in delivering new innovations.

 While this drive and impetus has skyrocketed vaping’s popularity, the reality remains that most innovations are geared towards hobbyists, cloud chasers, or flavor-lovers. These individuals invariably deploy the straight-to-lung or direct-to-lung (DTL) style of vaping. Where are the innovations for those that prefer mouth-to-lung (MTL) vaping?

 Recently, the industry has promoted nicotine salts, which are earning rave enthusiast reviews. Nicotine salt e-juices, or nic salts, are specialized liquids designed for low-powered MTL devices. They deliver a much more satisfying experience for MTL vapers, further increasing their popularity. The majority of these devices compatible with nic salt liquids are pod systems. But how do nicotine salt e-juices work, and what are their benefits? Additionally, do vapers need to be aware of specific protocols with nic salts? These pressing questions are answered in the write-up below:

 What Makes Nicotine Salts Tick?

 MTL vapers almost always comprise former smokers seeking a cleaner platform. This core functionality of the vaporizer is accomplished by its very nature. As previously mentioned, digital devices incorporate vaporization, not combustion, of choice flavors, thus avoiding the analog platform’s nasty side effects.

 But the overall experience for MTL vapers has been shaky for many. While cleaner, earlier vaporizer models did not accurately translate throat hit and nicotine delivery. Many devices required significant operation time before any nicotine impact was perceived. This significantly compromised the vape platform’s mission purpose, which is to replace analog methods.

 As a result, ex-smokers looking to transition to vaporizers have transitioned back to traditional cigarettes. Frequent, pack-a-day smokers crave nicotine. Without a similar nicotine-delivery magnitude, vaporizers and e-cigarettes end up becoming unnatural, unintuitive gimmicks.

 Why haven’t vape manufacturers figured out a solution earlier? The problem was the e-juice’s composition. Prior to the introduction of nic salts, nicotine-based e-juices used a specific compound called “freebase” nicotine. This is a type of nicotine that’s not bonded to anything else and therefore has a more volatile characteristic.

 This volatility is desirable in e-liquids because freebase nicotine is easier to vaporize. Additionally, cigarette manufacturers utilize freebase nicotine to increase nicotine content in their products. Unfortunately, “freebasing” in the vaporizer format isn’t nearly as effective and powerful as the analog format.

 To offer an equitable platform for ex-smokers and MTL enthusiasts, work began on nicotine salt e-juices. Unlike the freebase variant, nic salts utilize the natural form of nicotine found in tobacco leaves. They’re much more stable than freebase nicotine, and under vaporization, they have the ability to deliver nicotine quickly to the end-user.

The Rising Popularity of Nic Salts

 Initially, vape enthusiasts were reluctant to adopt the nicotine salt e-juice innovation. For starters, it was a dramatic shift away from the standard (and proven) protocol of using freebase e-liquids. Furthermore, the claims that nic salts delivered nicotine more quickly and effectively were untested. If proven true, nic salts could only be used in specially designed vaporizers that operated under low power.

 The latter point is something that nobody can control. Because nicotine salt e-juices are engineered to satisfy nicotine cravings, utilizing excessive power is extremely dangerous. Therefore, it’s absolutely critical that vape and MTL enthusiasts who want to give nic salts a try use only vaporizers that explicitly state that they’re compatible with nicotine salt e-juices.

 But the other concerns, particularly that nic salts would find very limited usage, have been completely unfounded. Nicotine salts and their purported benefits were once theoretical. However, Pax Labs conducted several tests with multiple formulations to prove that certain nic salts were superior than freebase nicotine in delivering the substance to the end-user’s bloodstream.

 Though the findings were surprising at the time, blood-nicotine level analyses confirmed the test subjects reports. With the scientific data in hand, Pax developed the Juul vaporizer, which was specially engineered to utilize nicotine salt e-liquids.

 Quickly, the Juul jumped in popularity due to its first-to-market advantage. Additionally, at the time, it was the only platform that gave ex-smokers the true, authentic experience of using an analog cigarette, but without combustion’s nasty side effects.

 With dramatically increasing revenues from MTL customers, Juul’s advantage didn’t last long. Several manufacturers, including Eleaf, Aspire, and Suorin, developed lower-wattage pod system vaporizers that are geared toward nicotine salt e-liquids.  Devices such as the Aspire Breeze, Eleaf iCare 2 and Suorin Air and Suorin Drop of the more popular examples of this.  Furthermore, the vaping industry has shifted its focus towards the needs of MTL enthusiasts. Although sub-ohm vaping takes center stage for the majority of vapers, the analog industry is still a massive, multi-billion dollar sector. In order to take market share from this segment, vape manufacturers must offer digital devices that accurately represent the unique smoking experience. Given the tailwinds for MTL, nic salts have a very bright future ahead.

 Benefits of Nicotine Salt E-Juices

 As previously mentioned, the primary benefit of nicotine salts is the authenticity of the experience. It’s very difficult for enthusiasts to transition out of a drawing style that they’ve been accustomed to most of their adult lives. Additionally, many sub-ohm vaporizers are not necessarily intuitive for ex-smokers.

With nicotine salt e-juices, you quickly feel the nicotine rush as well as the rich, robust throat hit that analog cigarettes provide. With MTL devices that are not specific to nic salts, it takes considerable effort to deliver the nicotine, similar to “turbo lag” in performance vehicles.  Due to the combustion process, the nicotine delivery curve is sharper and more linear; that is, higher amounts of nicotine content equate with a stronger sensation. That linearity isn’t quite as evident in standard MTL vaporizers that utilize freebase nicotine e-liquids.  But it’s not just the fact that nic salts deliver nicotine faster than freebase; you can also use higher-nicotine content e-juices than would be practical or possible in standard freebase variants. The reason is the chemical composition of nicotine salt e-liquids. Due to the addition of benzoic acid, nic salt vapors have a lower pH content. This directly equates to a less harsh hit.

 Increase nicotine content in freebase e-juices result in a higher pH in the vapor, creating harsher draws. Thus, it’s technically possible for standard e-juices to replicate an analog cigarette’s nicotine delivery. Unfortunately, this also requires the vaper to have inhuman pain tolerance, defeating the entire purpose of vaping.

 Another important benefit is longer shelf-life. Because nic salts are compositionally more stable than freebase, they hold their “shape” better. Therefore, nicotine salt e-liquids can be placed into longer-term storage without degradation.

 Finally, because nicotine salts should only be used in devices that are designed for them (essentially, lower-wattage vaporizers), you don’t have to have the biggest and the greatest. Indeed, an overpowering device can lead to nicotine poisoning, which is an obvious danger.

 Instead, vapers should consider opting for MTL pod system vaporizers with low wattage, which are much less costlier than ultra high-powered devices. Furthermore, nic salt specific devices are typically smaller and more discreet, perfect for enthusiasts who to enjoy the best of vaping with a lower profile.