Privacy Policy
Website privacy notice
- INTRODUCTION
This privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our site [https://vaping101.co.uk].
By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 18 years of age.
Vaping 101, which is a Trading Name and part of the Mackenzie Stuart Group Ltd are the data controller and we are responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).
- WHAT DATA DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU, FOR WHAT PURPOSE AND ON WHAT GROUND WE PROCESS IT
Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It does not include anonymised data.
We may process the following categories of personal data about you:
- Communication Data that includes any communication that you send to us whether that be through the contact form on our website, through email, text, social media messaging, social media posting or any other communication that you send us. We process this data for the purposes of communicating with you, for record keeping and for the establishment, pursuance or defence of legal claims. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to reply to communications sent to us, to keep records and to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.
- Customer Data that includes data relating to any purchases of goods and/or services such as your name, title, billing address, delivery address email address, phone number, contact details, purchase details and your card details. We process this data to supply the goods and/or services you have purchased and to keep records of such transactions. Our lawful ground for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps at your request to enter into such a contract. We do not have access to, store or share any financial transaction details. These are all processed through 3rd party payment providers with the highest levels of security assured.
- User Data that includes data about how you use our website and any online services together with any data that you post for publication on our website or through other online services. We process this data to operate our website and ensure relevant content is provided to you, to ensure the security of our website, to maintain back- ups of our website and/or databases and to enable publication and administration of our website, other online services and business. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business.
- Technical Data that includes data about your use of our website and online services such as your IP address, your login data, details about your browser, length of visit to pages on our website, page views and navigation paths, details about the number of times you use our website, time zone settings and other technology on the devices you use to access our website. The source of this data is from our analytics tracking system. We process this data to analyse your use of our website and other online services, to administer and protect our business and website, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and to understand the effectiveness of our advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to enable us to properly administer our website and our business and to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
- Marketing Data that includes data about your preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences. We process this data to enable you to partake in our promotions such as competitions, prize draws, sales, offers and free give-aways, to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of this advertising. Our lawful ground for this processing is our legitimate interests which in this case are to study how customers use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to decide our marketing strategy.
- We may use Customer Data, User Data, Technical Data and Marketing Data to deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you (including Facebook adverts or other display advertisements) and to measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve you. Our lawful ground for this processing is legitimate interests which is to grow our business. We may also use such data to send other marketing communications to you. Our lawful ground for this processing is either consent or legitimate interests (namely to grow our business). [NOTE SEE SECTION 4 BELOW]
Sensitive Data
We do not collect any Sensitive Data about you. Sensitive data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. We do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
Where we are required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract (for example, to deliver goods or services to you). If you don’t provide us with the requested data, we may have to cancel a product or service you have ordered but if we do, we will notify you at the time.
We will only use your personal data for a purpose it was collected for or a reasonably compatible purpose if necessary. For more information on this please email us at info@vaping101.co.uk. In case we need to use your details for an unrelated new purpose we will let you know and explain the legal grounds for processing.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
We do not carry out automated decision making or any type of automated profiling
- Data Collection
We may collect data about you by you providing the data directly to us (for example by filling in forms on our site or by sending us emails). We may automatically collect certain data from you as you use our website by using cookies and similar technologies. Please see our cookie policy for more details about this https://vaping-101-uks-number-1.myshopify.com/pages/cookie-policy.
We may receive data from third parties such as analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU, advertising networks such as Facebook based outside the EU, such as search information providers such as Google based outside the EU, providers of technical, payment and delivery services, such as data brokers or aggregators.
We may also receive data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU.
- MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
Our lawful ground of processing your personal data to send you marketing communications is either your consent or our legitimate interests (namely to grow our business).
[Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, we may send you marketing communications from us if (i) you made a purchase or asked for information from us about our goods or services or (ii) you agreed to receive marketing communications and in each case you have not opted out of receiving such communications since. Under these regulations, if you are a limited company, we may send you marketing emails without your consent. However, you can still opt out of receiving marketing emails from us at any time.
Before we share your personal data with any third party for their own marketing purposes we will get your express consent.
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or OR by emailing us at info@vaping101.co.uk at any time.
If you opt out of receiving marketing communications this opt-out does not apply to personal data provided as a result of other transactions, such as purchases, warranty registrations etc.
- DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below:
- Service providers who provide IT and system administration services.
- Professional advisers including lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers
- Government bodies that require us to report processing activities.
- Age verification agencies.
- Third parties to whom we sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets.
We require all third parties to whom we transfer your data to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We only allow such third parties to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
- INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
We are subject to the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulations that protect your personal data. Where we transfer your data to third parties outside of the EEA, we will ensure that certain safeguards are in place to ensure a similar degree of security for your personal data. As such:
- We may transfer your personal data to countries that the European Commission have approved as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data by; or
- If we use US-based providers that are part of EU-US Privacy Shield, we may transfer data to them, as they have equivalent safeguards in place; or
- Where we use certain service providers who are established outside of the EEA, we may use specific contracts or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe.
If none of the above safeguards is available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You will have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.
- DATA SECURITY
We have put in place security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, altered, disclosed, or accessed without authorisation. We also allow access to your personal data only to those employees and partners who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they must keep it confidential.
We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach if we are legally required to.
[NOTE: THIS PARAGRAPH IS NOT MANDATORY BUT IS GOOD FOR REASSURANCE. YOU CAN DELETE IT IF YOU WOULD LIKE]
- DATA RETENTION
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
When deciding what the correct time is to keep the data for we look at its amount, nature and sensitivity, potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure, the processing purposes, if these can be achieved by other means and legal requirements.
For tax purposes the law requires us to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they stop being customers.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
- YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
Under data protection laws you have rights in relation to your personal data that include the right to request access, correction, erasure, restriction, transfer, to object to processing, to portability of data and (where the lawful ground of processing is consent) to withdraw consent.
You can see more about these rights at:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at info@vaping101.co.uk.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive or refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you.
If you are not happy with any aspect of how we collect and use your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We should be grateful if you would contact us first if you do have a complaint so that we can try to resolve it for you.
- THIRD-PARTY LINKS
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
- COOKIES
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see https://vaping-101-uks-number-1.myshopify.com/pages/cookie-policy.
Information we collect from other sources*
Who we share your information with*
New to Vaping? Your Beginner's Guide from Scotland's Number 1 Vape Shop
Thinking about making the switch from smoking? Curious what all the fuss is about? Or maybe you've landed here after the disposable ban and you're wondering what on earth you're supposed to buy now.
Wherever you're starting from, you're in the right place.
We're Vaping 101, the UK's most award-winning vape store, based in the heart of Aberdeen City Centre and trading since 2016. We've helped thousands of people move off cigarettes and disposables onto proper, long-term vaping setups. No hard sell & no nonsense, we provide honest, practical guidance from a team that vapes every day and runs a real shop with a real face behind it.
This guide is everything we'd tell you if you walked through our door and said, "right, where do I start?" Grab a cuppa, have a read, and by the end of it you'll know exactly what you need to buy, why, and how much it'll actually cost you.
Let's get into it.
What actually is vaping?
Let's strip it back before we go anywhere else.
A vape, whether it's a sleek pod kit, a prefilled pod, or a bigger sub-ohm setup, is simply a device that heats e-liquid until it turns into an inhalable vapour. That vapour carries nicotine (if you've chosen a nicotine-containing liquid) along with flavour. You inhale it, you exhale it, and that's the whole show.
Every single vape in the world, from the cheapest prefilled pod to the most expensive mod, works on the same four ingredients:
- A battery to power the device
- A coil (a small heating element wrapped in cotton) that heats the liquid
- E-liquid, flavoured, with or without nicotine
- A pod or tank to hold the liquid and the coil
That's it. If anyone makes it sound more complicated than that, they're either trying to sell you something expensive you don't need, or they don't really know what they're on about.
Is vaping actually safer than smoking?
We'll be direct with you because that's what we do.
Yes. According to Public Health England, the NHS, and Cancer Research UK, vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking cigarettes. The commonly cited figure is around 95% less harmful. That's why the NHS actively recommends vaping as a tool to help smokers quit, and why "Swap to Stop" schemes have been rolled out across the country.
Vaping is not risk-free, and nobody at Vaping 101 is going to tell you otherwise. But if you're weighing up continuing to smoke versus switching to vaping, the science is clear: vaping is by a country mile the better option for your health and your wallet.
If you want the detail, we've covered the NHS and Cancer Research UK position in our piece on why vaping saves lives and our article on why people choose vaping over smoking.
The one decision that matters: refillable vs prefilled
Before we talk about brands, flavours, or anything else, this is the big one.
There are two main types of beginner-friendly vape on the market today: refillable pod kits and prefilled pod kits. Almost everything else (ongoing cost, flavour choice, hassle factor, even how satisfying it feels) flows from this single decision.
Let's break them down properly.
Refillable pod kits
A refillable pod kit is a small, pocket-sized vape where you buy the kit once and then refill it yourself with e-liquid whenever it runs out. The pod has a replaceable coil inside that you swap out every couple of weeks.
This is what we recommend to the vast majority of our customers, and here's why:
- It's dramatically cheaper long-term. A 10ml bottle of nic salt costs around £3–£4 and lasts most people the best part of a week. A pack of replacement coils is typically £8–£12 and lasts a month or more.
- You get total flavour choice. Hundreds of flavours, from fruits and desserts to tobacco and menthol.
- You choose your nicotine strength. Usually 10mg or 20mg nic salt for beginners, with options to step down when you're ready.
- It's future-proofed. Once you've got the hang of a pod kit, you can change your liquid, your pods, or eventually move up to something more advanced without starting from scratch.
The downside? There's a tiny learning curve. You need to fill it the first time, prime the coil, and remember to swap the coil when the flavour starts to drop off. Honestly, you'll get the hang of it in about ten minutes.
Browse our full range of pod vape kits or jump straight into our starter kits.
Prefilled pod kits
Prefilled pod kits are the simpler, and since the disposable vape ban, the modern alternative to disposables. You buy a little battery unit, click a prefilled pod onto it, and vape. When the pod runs out, you pop it off and click a new one on. No filling, no coil changes, no fuss.
They're a good shout for:
- People who want zero setup
- Nights out (drop it and you haven't lost a nice kit)
- A backup for when your main kit is charging
- Anyone who genuinely cannot be bothered with refilling
The downside, and we'll be straight with you, is cost. Prefilled pods typically cost £4–£5 each and last a heavy vaper a couple of days. Over a year, you could easily spend £500–£800 on prefilled pods for the same amount of vaping that would cost you £150–£250 on a refillable kit.
If you know you want simplicity and you're happy to pay for it, prefilled is completely fine. Have a look at our range of prefilled pod vape kits.
So which one should you actually choose?
Honestly? If you're coming off cigarettes and you want to save money while still getting a proper nicotine hit that satisfies a craving, go refillable. Every time.
If you've been on disposables for years and the idea of filling a pod yourself feels like one step too far, prefilled will get you over the line and away from combustible tobacco, which is the thing that matters most.
And if you decide six months down the line that you want to switch from prefilled to refillable, you can. Most of our customers do eventually, once the running costs of prefilled start to sting.
If you're going refillable, here's what you need to know
This is where most of the confusion lands for new vapers, so we're going to walk you through it properly.
Pod kits: what to look for
A pod kit is a small, lightweight device, usually about the size of a car key fob or a pack of chewing gum. It has a built-in battery, a pod on top that holds your liquid, and a coil inside the pod that does the heating.
The leading pod kits in the UK right now come from brands like OXVA, Vaporesso, Uwell, and Voopoo. The differences between them come down to:
- Build quality - some feel more premium in the hand
- Battery size - a bigger battery means fewer charges
- Features - some have screens and adjustable wattage, others are dead simple push-to-vape
- Pod compatibility - some ranges (like OXVA's XLIM line) have cross-compatible pods, so your pods still fit if you upgrade the kit later
For a first kit, simpler is usually better. You don't need a screen, you don't need variable wattage, you just need something that works reliably and feels good to hold. We've written a full beginner's guide to vape kits and a more tailored piece aimed specifically at new vapers asking what vape should I buy.
Nic salts: what goes in a pod kit
This is the bit that trips everyone up. You cannot just pour any old e-liquid into a pod kit.
Pod kits run at low wattage (usually 11–25W), which means they need a thinner, more responsive liquid. That liquid is called nic salt, sold in 10ml bottles, usually in 10mg or 20mg nicotine strength, with a 50/50 VG/PG ratio.
Nic salts are designed for pod kits. They wick properly in low-power coils, deliver nicotine quickly and smoothly, and give you a throat hit that feels familiar if you're coming from cigarettes.
What you don't want in a pod kit is a big 100ml shortfill. Shortfills are high-VG, thick, and made for bigger sub-ohm kits that run at 40–80W. Put a shortfill in a pod kit and you'll burn coils in a day, get rubbish flavour, and generally have a miserable time.
If you want to go deeper, we've covered what 50/50 e-liquid is and the full difference between nic salts and freebase nicotine in separate guides.
Which nicotine strength should you start on?
Quick rule of thumb:
- 20mg nic salt - if you smoke 10+ cigarettes a day, vape disposables, or want a strong throat hit
- 10mg nic salt - if you're a lighter or social smoker, or stepping down from 20mg
- Lower (3mg or 6mg) - only once you've been vaping a while and want to ease off the nicotine
Most beginners coming off cigarettes get on best with 20mg nic salts. It gives you the hit you're used to and stops you chain-vaping looking for satisfaction.
Have a browse through our full range of nic salts, or check out our mix-and-match 4 for £9.50 nic salt deal if you want to try a few flavours without committing. For flavour inspiration, our roundup of the best nic salts to try is a good starting point. If you're worried about getting a nicotine rush when you start, our guide on how to avoid the nicotine rush when vaping is worth a quick read.
Coils
Coils are the small replaceable heating elements inside your pod. They don't last forever. Typically 1 to 3 weeks, depending on how much you vape, what liquid you use (sweeter dessert flavours gunk them up faster), and how well you look after them.
When your coil is on its way out, you'll notice:
- The flavour gets weaker
- A slightly burnt or harsh taste appears
- Vapour production drops
At that point, you swap the coil for a fresh one. A pack of replacement coils costs a few quid and usually contains 3–5 coils, which will see most people through a month or two.
For the full rundown, our beginner's guide to vape coils is a great next read, along with our guides on how to prime coils properly, how to know when your coil needs replacing, and how to make coils last longer. When you're ready to stock up, you'll find coils for every major pod kit in our replacement coils collection.
If you're going prefilled, here's what you need to know
Prefilled pod kits are, by design, a lot simpler.
You buy the battery unit, charge it, click a pod onto it, and vape. When the pod's empty or the flavour drops off, you pop it off and put a new one on. No filling, no priming, no coil changes.
The main things to look at when you're picking a prefilled kit are:
- Battery size - bigger battery, fewer charges
- Pod capacity - pods are capped at 2ml in the UK by law
- Flavour range - some brands carry a far wider flavour selection than others
- Build quality - some feel like a jumped-up disposable, others feel like a proper piece of kit
Leading prefilled brands in the UK right now include SKE, Elf Bar, Lost Mary, and IVG. They all do roughly the same job, so it usually comes down to personal preference on feel and flavour.
Browse our full range of prefilled pod vape kits, or have a read of our guide on upgrading from disposables to your first vape kit if you've landed here after the disposable ban.
How much does vaping actually cost?
Let's talk numbers, because this is where vaping really pulls ahead of smoking.
A pack-a-day smoker in the UK is looking at around £15+ per day on cigarettes, which works out to roughly £5,500 a year. Switching to vaping, the maths changes dramatically.
On a refillable pod kit:
- One-off kit cost: £20–£40
- Nic salt e-liquid: £3–£4 per 10ml (lasts most people about a week)
- Replacement coils: £8–£12 per pack (lasts 1–2 months)
- Total yearly running cost: roughly £150–£250
On a prefilled pod kit:
- One-off kit cost: £10–£25
- Prefilled pods: £4–£5 each (lasts a heavy vaper 1–3 days)
- Total yearly running cost: roughly £500–£800
Either way, you're saving thousands compared to smoking. But there's a clear gap between refillable and prefilled if running costs matter to you, and for most people, they do.
We've broken the numbers down in detail in our is vaping cheaper than smoking article.
Your first week of vaping: practical tips
Here's what we tell every new customer before they walk out the door.
Prime your coil. Before you take your first puff, put a drop or two of e-liquid directly onto the cotton of a fresh coil. Then fill the pod, and wait five minutes before you hit it. If you skip this, you'll burn the coil on your first draw and wreck it before you've even started.
Don't chain-vape. When you're fresh off cigarettes, there's a strong urge to puff constantly. Resist it. Take a few draws, wait a minute, take a few more. You'll feel more satisfied and you won't give yourself a nicotine headache.
Give flavours a chance. Sometimes a new flavour tastes a bit off for the first bottle or so while your taste buds adjust, especially if you're coming off cigarettes, which dull your palate. Give a flavour a few days before you write it off.
Keep your kit upright. Leaving a filled pod lying on its side for hours can cause leaks. Stand it up when you're not using it.
Charge before it's flat. Lithium batteries last longer if you don't let them fully discharge. A top-up every day or two is kinder than running it flat every time.
Common beginner questions
You need to be 18 or over in the UK. We age-verify every order we suspect might be underage, no exceptions.
Legally, yes. Vaping isn't covered by the UK smoking ban. But most venues, pubs, trains, and workplaces set their own rules, so check signage before you spark up.
Mouth-to-lung (MTL) is the puffing style you use with cigarettes: draw into your mouth first, then into your lungs. Direct-to-lung (DTL) is a bigger, deeper inhale straight into the lungs. Pod kits and prefilled kits are all MTL. Big sub-ohm kits are DTL. For the full breakdown, our MTL vs DTL vaping guide covers it.
Yes. Nicotine is highly addictive. But the harmful bits of smoking aren't the nicotine itself, they're the tar, the carbon monoxide, and the thousands of other chemicals in cigarette smoke. Vaping gives you the nicotine without most of the harm.
Step your nicotine strength down gradually. Start at 20mg, drop to 10mg after a few months, then 6mg, then 3mg, then zero nicotine. Most people find this a much smoother way out than trying to quit cigarettes cold turkey.
Honestly, a refillable pod kit with 20mg nic salts. It satisfies the cravings, keeps costs down, and gives you room to step the nicotine down later. Our guide to the best vapes to quit smoking goes into more detail.
We know you've got plenty of options when it comes to where you buy your vape gear. Here's why thousands of UK vapers choose us.
UK's Most Award-Winning Vape Store.
We've collected more industry awards than anyone else in the UK. That's not marketing fluff, it's years of recognition from the vape industry for our product range, service, and expertise
5-Star Rated on Trustpilot & Google.
Thousands of genuine customer reviews, independently verified. Read them before you buy. We're proud of every single one.
Price Match Promise – Always Save With Us.
Find one of our products cheaper on another legitimate UK vape retailer and we'll match the price. Simple as that.
UKVIA members since 2021.
We're proud members of the UK Vaping Industry Association, which holds us to a strict code of conduct on product safety, age verification, and responsible retail.
A real shop with real people.
Our store in the heart of Aberdeen City Centre has been serving customers since 2016. If you're ever in the city, come in and say hello. Prices online match prices in-store.
Genuine expert guidance.
Whether you're messaging us through the site or standing at our counter, you'll get honest advice from people who vape every day and know the products inside-out. We'd rather spend five minutes helping you pick the right kit than sell you the wrong one.