I used to smoke and quit properly (after many attempts, some successful for a while) in 2014 after my husband bought us both an e-cig. I was sceptical initially. I used to smoke menthols so naturally I went for a menthol flavoured juice, which was nice. I think the first day or so I vaped but had the occasional roll-up and then I just stopped and switched completely to vaping. It was a fast transition because vaping is so akin to smoking it wasn't hard and I haven't once craved a cigarette or wanted to go back to tobacco. I didn't and haven't to this day even used a tobacco flavoured juice after trying my husband's and disliking it. I can't actually stand the taste of smell of tobacco smoke anymore. It's just disgusting to me.
We started off on the basic set up, but we now use RBA's, which are rebuildable tank atomisers, where you build your own coils. The flavour is more intense and depending on the sugar content of your juice, they usually last longer. You have to rewick (the cotton part) fairly frequently especially if you're juice is particularly sweet as the sugar clogs them up. You know when to do this as they tend to leak brown juice and taste burnt. We both also use the new SMOK procolour mods, which is an upgrade from the SMOK Alien. Both fabulous mods with nice digital displays which you can alter literally everything to suit your needs, so watts, ohms, voltage, puff limits and the strength of it. These mods are £50 with an extra £20 for batteries. Don't allow the batteries to touch each other or they explode apparently (obviously I haven't tried this out lol).
I would start out with a basic set up unless your husband knows how to do rebuildables (they aren't hard to get the hang of, though, and there are many YouTube videos about them).
Regarding juice, vapeclub is amazing if you can't find what you want locally, and also Washington Vape are excellent with many reduced premium juices. The good thing is because you won't require nicotine (usually the reason for having a sore throat and/or a dry cough if you vape) you can avoid the TPD limitations of the 10ml bottles and buy the 30-100ml bottles because in order to legally sell these (if you're in the UK) they have to sell the nic shots separately. So you won't have to worry about this. I have found many local shops don't stock 0% juice so you may find you have to order online.
With your husband if he buys any juice that require a nic shot to be added it's worth remembering some of the flavours require time to steep after adding the shots, so the fruity flavours tend to require only a little time to steep with a good shake, usually an hour maybe, whereas the cakey or any dessert flavours will require a few days at least. I bought Pancake Man Deluxe (by Vape Breakfast Classics) which required a shot (I'm currently down to the lowest 3mg nic level, you can find 1.5mg but these are harder to come by) and it tasted rubbish for at least a week. The flavours started to come through after this time.
Stick to the premium juices. The cheap juices tend to have a chemical taste to them, some of the expensive juices do too, but less so usually. You could also safely make your own which would be cheaper and means you can tweak them to precisely how you like them. Dark Star stock a good range of flavours and bases to make your own. It's easy to do especially if you're not using nicotine. But you will have to leave them to steep for a while before using.
Some lovely flavours I have found are Kilo's Apple pie and their birthday cake, the chocolate flavours are generally pretty disgusting - I have yet to find a chocolate flavour that actually tastes like chocolate. Apparently white chocolate flavours actually taste like white chocolate and I know Kilo do a strawberry & white chocolate flavour.
Vape Breakfast Classics original Pancake Man is lovely, this is a mix of buttery American pancakes, syrup, strawberries and cream. Their Deluxe version mixes in marshmallow, ice cream and fruity pebbles but I think it's gross. Their Mr Blintz is a mix of pancakes, ricotta and apples but I'm not too impressed with it. They also do French Dude which is french toast with blueberries cream and something else ... it's nice anyway. They also do a peach cobbler and unicorn cakes which sound lovely but I haven't tried these yet as they are hard to come by in the UK, even online.
The OMG! blue one (bubblegum & taffy) is lovely, their purple one is berries & soda which is also nice and tastes like fruity sherbet.
Great British Vape Off do an Arctic roll which is lovely, they also do trifle which I'm not so impressed with, there's also a ginger flavour and a sticky toffee pudding but I haven't tried them.
Dinner Lady do a nice range except for their rice pudding which was disgusting! But their cornflake tart is lovely, as is their strawberry custard and lemon tart (lovely flavours but incredibly strong, the lemon tart is lovely but I can't use it as it gives me a headache!), they also do a summer range with coolada in it which gives a menthol taste. Their honey mango is divine.
Waffl is another lovely range. They do strawberry, blueberry, caramel almond and lemon waffle flavours which are all lovely. My favourites are strawberry and the caramel almond, the blueberry is good, haven't tried the lemon. Only thing is they're coil killers because they're so sweet. But if it's a sweet treat you want, these are amazing.
ANML is also a beautiful range. Reaver is like coconut, pineapple, mango and cream and is definitely an all day vape, as is their Thrasher which is peaches and cream. The one with the gorilla on the front (can't remember the flavour name!) is a banana pudding flavour which tastes like banana bread and is lovely but imo not an all day vape as it gets a little much after a while.
I have a coconut cake to try out once it's done steeping, this is by Circus and is said to be lovely.
Lolly Vape do some nice flavours although all but the Split It (Solero flavour) I don't like personally, but my husband vapes these a lot. They do a Twister flavour, Screw Balls flavour and Rocket flavour, so all those childhood ice lolly flavours.
Crack Pie is beautiful if you can find it, as is their Raging Donut and also their Pound It (lemon drizzle cake). All of which are now 0% nic, but hard to find.
I would look online at different flavours and read reviews first as you can waste a lot of money buying flavours which aren't particularly nice simply because they sound appealing, I have done this so many times! YouTube you will always find a flavour review. I'm assuming clouds won't bother you since you don't smoke so won't be looking for nice clouds, which generally are satisfying to a smoker since obviously you expect to see something resembling smoke. But so you know, the higher the VG ratio the more clouds.
Oh, there's a brand called Milkman which is said to be good, I haven't tried them simply because I'm unsure if what I'm using can cope with the 99% VG ratio, but they have some good reviews and a wider range of flavours now.
I have heard many take up nicotine free vaping to curb their cravings for sweet things. I find it sometimes does the trick but other times it doesn't. I think it depends on the flavour, you really have to find the flavour that best suits your craving. It can be hard to find, but there are many out there now so you should find something you love. Make sure you have a few different flavours to hand though, as after a while of vaping the same flavour you tend to not taste it anymore. It's good to have a change even if you have found what at first appears to be the perfect flavour.
One more thing to bear in mind regarding flavours is there was a study done, shown in a documentary, that although in comparison to lungs of a non smoker a person who vapes their lungs repair themselves pretty much as quickly, a smoker's lungs won't do this, but when exposed to menthol flavours there's something about them that our lungs don't quite like as much. It isn't to say menthol is hugely damaging, but it has been shown to irritate lungs more than other flavours. They don't know why this is. If you find a flavour which contains menthol which you love I wouldn't let it put you off, but perhaps keep those for more occasional vapes and use other flavours as your staples
