Do 0 Nicotine Vapes Help You Quit? (In-Depth Look)

Quitting smoking isn’t easy. Just ask anyone who’s tried to do it. That fact has people looking for tools that can help, and nicotine-free vapes are often among the tools at the top of the list. But do 0 nicotine vapes help you quit?

Below, we discuss the pros and cons of using this approach to help you quit and give you some pointers on how to use zero-nic vapes to help you ditch cigarettes for good.

Do 0 Nicotine Vapes Help You Quit?

When used correctly, no nicotine vapes can be one effective weapon in the arsenal that helps you quit smoking. These devices have a few positive things going for them — features that other options for quitting smoking simply don’t have.

The main benefit of nicotine-free vapes is that they can address some of the physical and psychological aspects of the smoking habit without bringing the addictive properties of nicotine to the party.

Mimics the Hand-to-Mouth Action of Smoking

One of the primary benefits is that using no nic vapes effectively mimics the hand-to-mouth action of smoking cigarettes.

This action can trick your mind into thinking that you're still inhaling tobacco smoke and nicotine when you're not, which in turn can help alleviate the restlessness and anxiety many people experience when they try to quit.

Think of nicotine-free vapes as similar to an inhalable fidget spinner.

Along those same lines, the inhaling and exhaling behavior that comes with vaping is very similar to the breath work you perform when you smoke cigarettes. Such breath work helps satisfy any psychological needs you have for the “ritual” of smoking.

You Can “Step Down” Your Nicotine Intake

Although we’re talking here mainly about vapes that are completely nicotine-free, many manufacturers make vapes with varying levels of nicotine. This variability can be a great way to decrease your nicotine intake gradually.

So, for example, a company might make a vape in a flavor you love, offering nicotine strengths ranging from 5 mg through 3 mg to 0 mg. A slowly decreasing dose can be a less traumatic way to eliminate nicotine cravings and break a nicotine addiction than quitting cold turkey.

No Exposure to Cigarette Smoke

Another plus? Vaping doesn't expose you to the thousands of chemicals that you find in cigarette smoke, at least 70 of which have been proven to cause cancer.

The only drawback to using non-nicotine vapes to help you quit smoking is that you could potentially just replace one bad habit with another.

Vaping of any kind isn’t without at least a few risks. And if you're using vapes with nicotine, you're just replacing one nicotine delivery system with another.

But if you stick with reputable manufacturers and only use vapes that contain zero nicotine, these diffusers can be an effective tool that helps you give up cigarettes.

What Are The Best Nicotine-Free Vapes To Help You Quit Smoking?

We discuss this more extensively in our article on No Nicotine Vapes to Quit Smoking, but no single vape will be best. A lot will depend on your personal tastes and preferences.

However, we can give you some guidelines to help you evaluate vapes independently.

Here are some factors to consider when you're looking for vapes that can help you quit smoking:

Consider vapes that help alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal. Many vapes contain ingredients that "do stuff.” These devices are known as “functional vapes” and can contain anything from vitamins and amino acids to herbs and supplements.

This variety can play to your advantage if you choose a vape that includes ingredients that can help mute withdrawal symptoms.

For example, our MELO vape juice contains melatonin, a powerful and natural relaxation chemical your body produces naturally.

Taking a few puffs from a MELO vape may help you relax and alleviate some of the anxiety and restlessness that often accompany nicotine withdrawal. MELO also makes our list of best nicotine-free vapes, and this ameliorative effect is one of the reasons why.

Device type. Vapes come in two main categories: disposable vape pens and reusable pod-based systems. Pod-based vapes generally offer more customization options but are also slightly more complicated to use.

Disposable vape pens are easy to use, convenient, and often preferred by beginners. Many disposable vape pens also more closely resemble traditional cigarettes than their pod-based counterparts.

So, if feeling a “cigarette” (or cigarette-like device) in your hand is important, and you'd like your vape to deliver that feeling, a disposable pen is probably going to be your best bet.

Flavor options. For any vape to help you quit smoking, you have to want to use it, and that means you're going to have to enjoy the flavor.

Flavors in vapes run the gamut from traditional tobacco tones, like dark roast or menthol, to intensely fruity flavors and even flavors based on desserts like birthday cake or drinks like the popular tropical piña colada.

Suppose you're coming from traditional tobacco cigarettes. In that case, you may prefer a vape that offers the same kind of tobacco flavors that you're used to as a less-harmful substitute for the taste you get from a cigarette.

Or you can go in a completely different direction and choose a vape that's utterly unlike anything you've tried before. This decision is entirely personal, but just know that plenty of options are available.

Do 0 Nicotine Vapes Give You A Buzz?

The short answer is, “It depends.” It depends on what's actually in the vape. Although your vape doesn't contain nicotine, that doesn't mean it won’t contain other ingredients that can give you a buzz.

For example, some vapes contain THC, which is the active compound in cannabis and responsible for the hallucinogenic effects one experiences when using that drug. So, if your vape contains THC, it could most certainly give you a buzz.

Beyond prominent ingredients like that, there’s a wide range of other ingredients that some manufacturers might put into their vapes that could conceivably give you something of a buzz.

Our HELO vapes, for example, contain e-juice loaded with caffeine. If you typically get a bit of a buzz from a strong cup of coffee, you might get a bit of a buzz every time you puff a HELO.

Beyond ingredients like these, however, non-nicotine vapes aren't going to give you a buzz in the traditional sense. Most of the effects that people describe when they smoke come from nicotine, and since nicotine-free vapes don't contain that chemical, you're certainly not going to get that nicotine buzz.

Are 0 Nicotine Vapes Addictive?

Addiction is a somewhat complicated phenomenon, which we cover in-depth in our article Are Nicotine-Free Vapes Addictive? But we’ll summarize our thoughts here.

You need to keep in mind that even when a vape doesn't contain nicotine — the chemical in cigarettes primarily responsible for their addictive qualities — it doesn't mean that you can't get hooked on non-nicotine vapes.

It’s important to distinguish between true chemical dependency and simple habits. A dependency means that your body is physically dependent on specific inputs to maintain regular function.

Over time, as you take in more and more nicotine, your body comes to rely on its availability to function normally. Once nicotine is removed, you get all of the standard withdrawal symptoms that you're probably used to — irritability, shaking, headaches, restlessness, and so on.

That's your body physically needing nicotine.

Because nicotine-free vapes don't contain that chemical, there’s no risk of an actual physical dependence. But that doesn't mean that you can't become reliant or dependent on the behaviors surrounding the act of vaping.

The hand-to-mouth action, the inhaling and exhaling, and the repetitive nature of both behaviors can become a habit — and a well-ingrained one. People may describe such a habit as an addiction, but it doesn't meet the actual definition.

Many people turn to nicotine-free vapes for this exact reason. Vaping without nicotine enables them to continue the habitual behaviors they enjoy from smoking while removing the addictive compound.

In theory, this can make it easier to quit because people are not forced to tackle both nicotine dependence and habitual behaviors at the same time.

So, the short answer is, “No, you cannot become addicted to nicotine-free vapes in the same way you can get addicted to something that contains nicotine, whether that be a cigarette or a nicotine vape.”

However, you can certainly develop a habit, which can also be challenging to break.

Are 0 Nicotine Vapes Safe For You?

No one can say with 100% certainty that any vape is entirely safe, whether it contains nicotine or not. Vaping is a relatively new activity, and there haven’t been many — if any — long-term studies that have definitively proved whether or not vaping is free of any health consequences.

What we can say with almost complete certainty is that zero-nicotine vapes are going to be safer for you than vapes that contain nicotine. Nicotine comes with its own huge set of risks that encompasses everything from cardiovascular trouble and increased blood pressure to the addictive properties that we talked about above.

Non-nicotine vapes don't carry any of those same risks. Along the same lines, we can also say that zero-nicotine vapes are going to be safer for you than cigarettes. That's because, as we mentioned earlier, cigarette smoke contains a lot of other terrible chemicals in addition to nicotine.

There are hundreds of other chemicals, dozens of which have been directly linked to cancer, that are present in cigarette smoke but not in vape clouds.

So, 100% safe? We can't say. But safer? Almost definitely. For more insight, check out our article, Is 0 Nicotine Vape Safe?

What Are The Potential Side Effects Of Vaping Without Nicotine?

Even though they eliminate the side effects associated with nicotine, nicotine-free vapes can induce potential side effects of their own.

You should check out our articles on the pros and cons of vaping without nicotine and the benefits of vaping without nicotine for more in-depth discussions of this topic, but here are a few of the more common side effects:

Airway or respiratory irritation. Even though you’re not inhaling cigarette smoke or nicotine, you're still inhaling a vaporized liquid.

There's always a chance that doing so can irritate your lungs and airways and cause symptoms like coughing, wheezing, or shortness of breath — particularly if you're new to vaping.

Headaches, dizziness, nausea or lightheadedness. These are other side effects that are more common among people who are new to vaping. For some people, vaping anything — whether it contains nicotine or not — can cause headaches or a feeling of lightheadedness.

This side effect is often associated with “overdoing it.” It's always important to follow the manufacturer's directions when vaping.

Allergic reactions. Reactions are a side effect you may experience from either nicotine-loaded or nicotine-free vapes. They should also be easy to avoid just by reading ingredient labels.

It should go without saying that if you are allergic to something when it's not in a vape, you will probably be allergic to it when it is in a vape. So avoid any vapes with substances that you know you're allergic to.

What Are Vaping Alternatives That Can Help You Quit?

Lots of people use nicotine-free healthy vape alternatives as one tool to help them quit smoking, but not the only one. Using a vape that doesn't contain nicotine is a great way to satisfy your brain’s desire for the repetitive actions that come with smoking.

But a nicotine vape does nothing to help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms associated with quitting nicotine cold turkey.

That's why some people choose to combine nicotine-free vapes with some sort of nicotine replacement therapy, such as patches, lozenges, or gum.

By taking a double-barrelled approach like this, you can get your body used to lower levels of nicotine over time while satisfying the oral fixation component of the smoking habit. For more nicotine-free vape options, check out our nicotine-free vapes collection page.

Here’s to a Cigarette-Free You

There you have it. Zero nic vapes — especially when used in conjunction with nicotine-replacement therapy — can be an effective weapon in your battle to never buy another pack of cigarettes.

Give vapes that help dull nicotine cravings a try as well — vapes like our popular, delicious, and anxiety-quelling MELO. Let us know how it goes, and share your success stories so others can find inspiration from your victories!