While research shows that vaping is safer than smoking traditional cigarettes, that doesn’t mean there aren’t potential dangers that come with vaping. Luckily, the majority of risks associated with vapes can be avoided by using your device properly and avoiding some common mistakes. Here are some simple tips to help you stay safe while you vape.
- Work to Prevent Battery Explosions
While the instances of vape battery explosions are extremely rare, they do happen, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has some quick tips for how they can be avoided. First, unless you are a highly experienced vaper, you should stick to regulated mods vs. unregulated devices. Regulated mods contain circuit boards that regulate how power is distributed throughout the device. This greatly reduces the chance of a battery shorting or overheating. Regulated mods also often contain additional safety features that can prevent overcharging and alert you to battery issues early on.
Second, it’s important to always treat your batteries well. This means using the charger provided with your vape – not your phone or laptop charger – and replacing them if they have gotten wet or damaged. Also, you should always use batteries that the vape is designed to go with. While it may be tempting to use higher power batteries to give you vape an extra boost, you should only be attempting this type of vape mod if you are an extremely experienced vape user who is very familiar with unregulated mods.
Finally, you should never carry extra batteries in your pocket. If you’re a heavy vaper, you may have gotten into the habit of carrying around extra batteries in case yours start to die. While this is a great idea, you should always carry batteries in a case, not in your pocket where they could interact with loose change or your keys or any other metal objects.
- Know Your Vape
Once your purchase a device, you should read all of the materials that come with it, research it on the internet, and talk to your local vape shop owner to get tips on how best to use and care for it. Every vape is different any many require different types of maintenance in order to keep it running smoothly. It’s your responsibility to learn how to safely and effectively operative your vape, to reduce the risk of malfunctions.
- Only Use Real Vape Juice
The tank in your vape may seem like it can handle any type of liquid, but in reality it is only designed to hold vape-juice. Putting any other liquid in the tank, unless it’s water to clean it, could not only damage your device but could increase the chances of shorting the circuitry inside.
- Pay Attention to Temperature
If you use your device often, it’s not uncommon for it to start to feel a little warm to the touch, like the bottom of your laptop. While this isn’t something to be overly concerned about, if your vape starts to feel very hot to the touch, you should turn it off and set it aside for a while to let it cool off, just as you would with your laptop or smartphone. Many regulated mods have safety features designed to regulate temperature. It’s also important to keep your vape in a cool, dry area when you’re not using it, especially in the summer. Leaving your vape in a hot car in the summer is one of the fastest ways to damage it, so always keep it safe from the heat.
- Stay Hydrated
Vaping has the ability to dehydrate you and cause some serious dry mouth. This is why you should always hydrate regularly while vaping, especially in the summer. If you start to feel parched, lay off the vape for an hour or so and drink plenty of water to keep yourself from getting too dehydrated.
- Keep Your Vape and Vape Juices Away from Children and Pets
Vapes are designed to be safely used by responsible adults, but they need to be kept away from children and pets. Some vape juices contain high levels of concentrated nicotine that can be deadly to small children and pets, even in small doses. Remember, delicious, fruit-flavored vape juices may seem like candy to children, which you have to be extremely careful to store them in a safe place, out of the reach of kids.
- Clean Your Vape Regularly
A clean vape is a happy vape. Within a week or two of heavy use your vape coils can become coated in gunk, and it’s important to clean and replace your coils regularly to keep your vape working properly reduce the risk of damaging the batteries. Vape coils need to be replaced when either the coil is looking worn out or the wick has burned. A good rule of thumb is to replace them every two weeks, but if you are a heavy vaper you may want to increase that to once a week. If your vape tastes funky, it’s a sign that it’s probably time to change your coil or clean your tank. If you’re unsure of how often you should be cleaning your tank and replacing your coil, consult any instructions that came with your vape or look up the model online. You can also go into any local vape show and ask the employees for their expert opinions on the best way to care for your vape.
Conclusion
Staying safe while using a vape is not hard. Modern vapes have been designed with a variety of safety features to keep both you and your device out of harm. Follow these tips, and you should be able to vape on while enjoying maximum peace of mind. What are your favorite vape juice flavors? Leave us a comment in the section below.
