Maintaining your vape.

 MY VAPE TRIED TO KILL ME!

So you know exactly how the science of vaping works. However when using your vape there’s a couple of ‘house cleaning’ rules when it comes to maintaining your vape. You hear lots of things on the news about vape kits exploding or setting on fire and 99% of the time the blame isn’t on the actual equipment. It’s the user not looking after their vapes and making sure they vape safely. So hopefully ,without sounding like a nag , this guide will give you a few tips on how to keep vaping safely

Battery safety: So first things first. There are many mods out there that have an in-built battery and if that’s the case you have very little to worry about. The only house cleaning rule when it comes to in-built batteries is that you need to make sure you never charge your vape through a mains plug unless the charging kit is designed to be used in a mains plug. This is primarily due to the fact the batteries can’t be charged too quickly as it shortens the batteries life-span. Our advice would be to charge your vape through a computer, games  console or even a TV via USB. These appliances use less current while charging your batteries and doesn’t damage it overtime. There is a bit more to be mindful of if your vape uses external batteries, where you can take the batteries out of the mod. The batteries that are used in vaping are high-drain (meaning they put out more current than standard AA batteries) and slightly bigger in size. The most widely used battery is called an 18650 battery, however in recent times vapers have started using mods that use 20700 or 26650 batteries, that have more battery life and offer a higher maximum output. External batteries like this can be charged the same way via USB if your mod has a charging port. If not, you have to use an external battery charger, which works better as many chargers have a lot of features that extend your battery life, like stopping the batteries from overcharging etc. Also with external batteries its good to regularly check whether there are any tears on the outer material or the battery has some cosmetic damage because the exposed metal that shows through the tear can cause a short in your mod if your not careful. However you can find replacement skins or “battery wraps” that can come cut to size for your batteries and it’s easy to replace. The material is basic shrink wrap so all you need to do is take the old plastic off, place the new wrap over the now naked battery and use a hairdryer to cause the material to contract and form a tight seal round the battery. Simple and very satisfying to watch as well as you being able to use your batteries safely again. So to sum up with batteries, Don’t charge them through a mains plug, check your batteries for damage regularly and vape safe as well as happy.

Regulated and Un-regulated: So you’ve played around with the settings on your box mod and your vape is working perfectly. What you’ve been using, and what most vapers use, is a regulated box mod. That means that your mod has a chipset that gives you a lot of features and functions explained in the last post like being able to change the wattage, temp mode and in some higher end mods that use DNA chips or similar, being able to add custom images and all kinds of crazy things. But most importantly, Regulated mods come with an array of safety features and fail safes to make sure nothing overheats or even worse explodes. Most regulated mods will not let you vape if there are any loose connections, the resistance is too high or low, the mod is overheating or has been firing for too long or if the battery is too low or the batteries are damaged, your regulated mod will save you from setting your pocket on fire.

Now some vapers still want the High wattage and cloud production of a good box mod but still want the simplicity of just pressing a button and getting a good vape. However these vapers know full well what they’re doing when it comes to the UN-regulated mods. The difference between the regulated and un-regulated mods is in the name. In an un-regulated mod, you get no control over your wattage and don’t get any of the features or customizability.  Essentially the power supplied to your vape comes directly from the battery so the power that goes to your vape is only dependant on the resistance of your coil. Different resistance coils will draw different amounts of current out of your battery and this is where the “MY VAPE TRIED TO KILL ME” tabloids come from. For people who aren’t experienced with building coils (see next post) using an un-regulated mod is a definite no-go because if you don’t build safely with a good knowledge of how un-regulated mods work your mod could short, the battery could vent and ultimately explode. Un-regulated mods have no safety features included. This is all due to the fact the internals of an un-regulated mod included connectors, a gap for your battery and a switch….that’s it.. Un-regulated mods also come in lots of different styles. Box mods that are un-regulated usually are the safer option as some of them use circuit components to stop the mod firing if too much power is being used. However a fully mechanical mod (or mech for short) doesn’t even have any connectors for the battery. A mech mod has a switch at the bottom of the mod and all it does is lift the battery, making a connection with the bottom of your RDA (see next post). Aside from that if they have no safety features. So surely unregulated mods are more like cheaply made grenades that will explode whenever a gust of wind hits the fire button? The only reason this isn’t the case is because most vapers that use them have a lot of experience. They understand the risks when it comes to un-regulated mods and know how to operate them without running the risk of any of the problems listed above. So why would vapers use them even if there is a risk? Because when the power is un-regulated it gives a harder hitting vape and some say an improved quality of vape. It’s for this reason lots of vapers who like to take part in competitions will only use mech mods because it gives them more cloud to make big displays of tricks and so on. Another thing to know about un-regulated mods is that you can only use re-buildable vape kits with them. In the next post we’ll explain what that means in detail and give a tutorial on how to build your own vape.