Is UK Vaping Getting More Expensive Than Smoking Real Cigarets?

[Bugsy]

I usually buy my supplies in bulk and at the cheapest I can get it. My observation, which has probably been covered umpteen times before, is that I get the feeling that vaping in the UK is generally catching up with real cigs in cost. For instance I treated myself to a UK homegrown 10ml bottle of e-liquid, nothing fancy, but a purportedly quality brand and flavour, costing £5.36 inc. p&p. However my bulk purchase from China of Dekang works out at £1.05 per 10ml inc. p&p! I get through two tanks of e-liquid a day, which is probably about 20ml ( is that too much?!! ), and if I were to use the 10ml bottles of e-liquid purchased in the UK, my daily cost would be over £10, excluding the other stuff needed to vape. A packet of cigarets cost about £7.50 in the UK so the attraction of vaping as a cheaper option than smoking real cigs has certainly waned ( and of course not considering the real health benefits of vaping ).

In relation to cost again, I know there are factors of quality, etc. but I would prefer to buy my bulk supplies closer to home and at attractive prices. Why can't any UK suppliers compete and supply at these prices? Most UK suppliers have even got rid of their bargain 50ml and 500ml bottles of e-liquid, which I used to buy instead of buying from China. I even have now bought my replacement vaping device from China as it it is half the price of the similar device in the UK ( I think if one buys from a reputable supplier in China one can also maybe dispel, to a degree, the worries about quality of the juice and the reliability of the vaping device ).

ps That's my tuppence on my soapbox for today and I may have overlooked that a UK supplier does supply bulk e-liquid - if so please tell me where!

 

[Ref Minor]

Vaping 20ml a day is a lot but yes, the UK is very expensive for vaping supplies compared to the US, never mind China. That's why I was so relieved to discover FastTech where virtually everything is 1/3 the cost. Now I just treat myself to the occasional good juice from the Uk. To be frank it is almost insulting that I can buy 30ml of Dekang from FT for £3 and they ship it 10,000 miles for free whereas in the UK they charge me 3 or 4 times as much for the same item and then have the nerve to charge me an extra £3 to ship it 100 miles.

 

[jpargana]

For me, 20ml a day is way too much! I usually spend 30-40ml a month... and I used to smoke about a packet a day (15 - 25 cigarettes). So, I think you are trying to compare things that are, in fact, totally different. Let me put it this way: to spend 20ml, you must surelly be chain-vaping all day, right? How many packets a day would you need, if you were chain-smoking?? One packet would last for what? Two hours, top? You would then need to buy 4 or 5 packets, and then vaping would still be much cheaper...
I spend around 30 Eur/month on vaping, when I could be easily be spending maybe 160 on tobacco... and a pack 'only' costs around 4 Eur here... when I last checked, our government took 2.80 Eur in taxes for each pack sold at 3.50 Eur, at the time. E-juice is (still) free of the 'sin tax', so, in identical circunstances, I don't think it's even possible for vaping to ever be more expensive (or even cost the same) than smoking. Just my 2 cents...

 

[Bugsy]

Oops, I was slightly inaccurate with my vaping mls per day! I've just remeasured my tank and it fills with 4-5ml and I use two tanks per day, so really I use about 10ml of e-liquid per day, taking into account wastage. I am equating 10ml e-liquid would equal the 20-25 cigs I would smoke per day if I was on analogs ( which I'm not, thank goodness! ). However my observation still rings true to a big extent in that I believe UK vaping is getting possibly more expensive than smoking analogs. In my original post, UK e-liquid 10ml = £5.36 and then I have to buy the other stuff needed to vape, so with a packet of cigs costing about £7.50 in the Uk, vaping is quite possibly more expensive here. Everything in the UK is taxed silly and I note the very cheap price of a packet of cigs, stated by jpargana in Portugal, which clearly makes vaping much cheaper than analogs there. I am a great fan of vaping as it has stopped me smoking for about five years now but there is a marked discrepancy in prices in the UK for vaping supplies than in other countries and I was just observing this.

I reckon if a UK supplier started bulk e-liquid supplies at reasonable prices there would be a flock of takers. After all I just spent about £160 on e-liquid from China and that's good custom lost to the UK economy. As I asked in my original post does anyone know of any uk bulk suppliers

 

[Plum]

I don't use that much liquid and my cigs were nearer £9 a pack, so I am saving a lot of money.
Have you considered DIY ? For example 125 ml of 54mg nicotine at £18.50 from liberty flights.

Unflavoured Eliquid

I don't know what level of eliquid you are using, but if my calculations are right this would make 375 ml of 18mg liquid when mixed with vg/pg. VG is cheap as chips in boots or loyds pharmacy. Then you can get some flavourings from the same company, or one of the many others, get the right recipe, from the section on DIY here, and it works out much cheaper.
I do some DIY, but as I have found premade flavours that I really like, and I'm not using as much, I only do it occasionally.
Hope this helps.

 

[Bugsy]

I've never felt confident with DIY but may give it a go! Thanks Plum!

 

[Plum]

I find it's the level of flavouring that's tricky.
Good luck

 

[artt]

I was always careful on buying juice on sale and in larger amounts but the savings really increase with diy. My taste is for tobacco type blends which probably aren't as complicated overall. For myself with the same "confidence" anxiety I was surprised to find that diy isn't "rocket science" and way cheaper.

 

[Orb Skewer]

I've never felt confident with DIY but may give it a go! Thanks Plum!

Get yourself over to here Bugsy-very easy going forum and one of the friendliest-these people will 'fast -track' you into affordable DIY'ing

Home | ALL ABOUT E-CIGARETTES UK

 

[hazarada]

diy juice comes to around £4 per 100ml(at 12mg) including shipping and flavoring from germany, poland and romania. Even less(my last order worked out at £2.7something / 100ml) if you order in bulk so i consider £1 for 10ml expensive and £5 for 10ml just ridiculous. Self mixing isn't that difficult either, it can take a while to get a feel for it but once you do, anything you can think up can turn out amazing or at least vapeable. At this point i have around 100 flavorings and havent vaped the same exact mix for months. I'm refining a couple mixes i really like on a weekly bases and rest of the time just experiment.

 

[Myk]

I'm glad you fixed the ml usage, I was going to have to question that 20ml claim

It's all in how you do it.
I recall conversing with someone in the UK and we equated my smoking costs to RYO in the UK. Using eGo batteries and eGo-C attys with $20/30ml liquid I came out $1000 ahead last year.
I compared how much DIY supplies I got to how many empty bottles I had from last year and I paid half of what I spent on liquid last year for about 5 years of DIY stuff. Then I've switched to large mod batteries (over 50% cheaper) and rebuildable coils (pennies vs dollars). I could easily double my $1000 savings for future years.

 

[ppeeble]

Being a Britisher i have to agree that the costs in the UK are outrageous. We pay a minimum of 50% more for juices than our transatlantic cousins.
I too, after 9 months of paying £15 for 30mls (lasts about 3-4 days), have taken up DIY.
It's surprisingly uncomplicated to mix and there are loads of flavourings that can be purchased premixed and ready to add to the base.
Definitely worth trying and there are loads of guides here on ECF.