Sub ohm ========health hazard

Status
Not open for further replies.

Katya

ECF Guru
Supporting Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Feb 23, 2010
34,804
120,147
SoCal
The only health hazard in sub ohming is diacetyl, contained in certain flavorings. Diacetyl can be carcinogenic when super heated.
I always make sure the flavorings I buy are diacetyl free. Any decent flavouring sellers should be able to answer any question about diacetyl in their product.

Just for the record--diacetyl has nothing to do with sub-ohming; diacetyl is a common ingredient in may flavorings, mostly butter, cream, caramel, custard etc... It's present in some e-liquids at any wattage. See Dr, Farsalinos's study. And it's implicated in popcorn lung disease at very high levels.
 

Katya

ECF Guru
Supporting Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Feb 23, 2010
34,804
120,147
SoCal
Last edited:
Sub ohm vaping doesn't have to be a health hazard, but it can be. Only the individual doing the sub ohm vaping can make it safe or a hazard. It's all about knowing how, and sub ohm vaping is NOT for the person that doesn't know how.

As far as I know, no one has every written a book on the subject, laboratory tests have not been conducted and if they have, I have never read anything that came from such tests that would teach someone how to subohm vape. Subohm vaping in my opinion got started by people who continually have pushed the envelope of just how low you can go. There are so many doing it now that it has become its own method of vaping, but I don't think anyone ever wrote any kind of factual based instruction book on it.

So those who say that there is a "know how" and a don't know how is ridiculous. At this point, there is no concrete evidence that clearly proves that vaping in general is safe.

Additionally, there is definitely no scientific and proven evidence of what method of vaping is safer than another; if any of them are actually safe. If you vape your doing so at your own risk, regardless of how you vape. If you convince yourself it is safer than smoking than hopefully it is. If you think it is safer to use high wattage method to vape, then have at it. At the end of the day, if you vape by any method(s), how safe or dangerous it may be, is still just a mater of opinion.
 
if ya wanna avoid dry hits ... best to hit that in really short quick vapes :blink:

I disagree. Going from long draws to short draws will not eliminate the chances of dry hits. There is only one way to avoid burning your cotton and that is to regularly inspect it. Most people have a pretty good idea how many hits they can get with their rigs, prior to having to drip juice in to the RDA. By using your common sense and not being lazy, you can significantly improve your chances of not running the cotton dry.
 

Ryedan

ECF Guru
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Mar 31, 2012
12,869
19,652
Ontario, Canada
So those who say that there is a "know how" and a don't know how is ridiculous.

It is known that when juice is overheated it degrades and makes unhealthy chemicals. Not everyone knows how to keep juice temperatures down. I see questions regularly about that here. This is certainly not ridiculous :)

At this point, there is no concrete evidence that clearly proves that vaping in general is safe.

I agree, but we're talking about sub-ohm vaping here and 'cooking liquids too hot'. Personally I doubt power is a problem in an appropriately designed build (if you know how), but hopefully Dr Farsalinos will give us some good data on that soon.
 

Ryedan

ECF Guru
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Mar 31, 2012
12,869
19,652
Ontario, Canada
I disagree. Going from long draws to short draws will not eliminate the chances of dry hits. There is only one way to avoid burning your cotton and that is to regularly inspect it. Most people have a pretty good idea how many hits they can get with their rigs, prior to having to drip juice in to the RDA. By using your common sense and not being lazy, you can significantly improve your chances of not running the cotton dry.

It's not a dripper, LOL. Actually looks more like a Genisis RBA to me :D
 

Ryedan

ECF Guru
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Mar 31, 2012
12,869
19,652
Ontario, Canada
So why do you sub ohmers like it so much. Does flavor sacrifice like I hear it does, just for bigger clouds? I've heard its common to get a burnt flavor?

Sub ohm is a way to get more power (watts) into your vape with a mechanical mod. You can do the same by using a high power regulated mod at higher resistances and it's safer because you can't short your battery.

If you put too much power into a device you will get burnt hits. Single coil clearos (or tanks) cant take much power. Dual coil tanks can handle more. Then there are cartos, RBAs (rebuildable tanks) and RDAs (rebuildable drippers). I've had great flavor and vapor production at 25 watts and I think if you know how to do it you can go way higher than that but that's enough for me :)

For most people, sub ohm is more about the vape, not the clouds.
 
Last edited:

dchemist

Super Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Jun 3, 2014
310
164
Benton, Arkansas
vaping, when it comes down to it, is a simple matter of thermodynamics of liquids and their vaporization point. No matter how much energy one throws into the mix, that constant doesn't change, given the same air pressure.

True, if one can't wick enough juice to supply the greater demand, or supply enough air to move the vape flow and keep the heat down, then yeah, things can get nasty depending on fiber used, cause then ones not vaping but burning the wick, and or super heating the vape atmosphere inside the atomization chamber. , which can produce some very nasty chit that have no doubt ain't good.

frak things up and you be smoking and not vaping, and as we all know, smoke bad, vape good :D or something like that.



Vape long and Prosper.!!!
Thank you for addressing this with sound science! I'm glad at least one person understands what's really going on!
 

DoubleEwe

Ultra Member
ECF Veteran
Apr 1, 2014
1,047
1,015
Hiding up a tree
It seems that some people think that if your coil resistance goes below one ohm some magical transformation happens, you get transported into a world where physics, chemistry and common sense no longer exist.
In reality, what happens below one ohm follows the exact same rules as above one ohm. You supply power to a wire, it will heat up in accordance with its volume. The larger the volume the more power is needed to heat it up.

If you use high AWG wire to produce your sub-ohm coil then you are going to get an extremely hot vape (possibly producing carcinogens), whereas if you use lower AWG wire to make your sub-ohm coil then you can achieve a far cooler vape.

People need to realize that sub-ohming does not have to mean a hot vape.
 

Katya

ECF Guru
Supporting Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Feb 23, 2010
34,804
120,147
SoCal
Yup. Sub-ohming used to be a necessity in the past for those vapers who needed more watts to obtain a satisfactory (for their needs) wattage since they were limited by the voltages of their batteries. Now, with the introduction or high-watt mods, there is really no need to sub-ohm--unless one likes it (or loves his Caravela ;)). High wattages can now be achieved easily by high-watt regulated mods and high resistance builds. Some people prefer this method.

Even Dr. Farsalinos is not against sub-ohm/high wattage vaping because he understands its benefits.

You are exploring the issue of e-cigarettes from a political perspective, which in my opinion is wrong.
First of all, knowledge never hurts anyone. So, IF high wattage is unsafe, who will get hurt by knowing it? Science is not politics, and we do not work in such a way.
But allow me to expand to the political aspect. First of all, it is naive to think that if we do not study something it will never be revealed. A typical example is the diacetyl study. About 1 month ago i received a phone call from a US University (West Coast) informing me that they were funded to perform the exact same study, and they had even contacted the CDC to ask for advice on the analytical method used (and the CDC suggested our method). Of course, when they saw my publication they changed plans. So, if someone believes that by hidding something (or not researching a specific subject) we will be able to get away with it, not only he is wrong but the damage will be even worse. Do you think that, if an opponent examined the diacetyl issue, he would have ever mentioned the respective levels of diacetyl in tobacco smoke? I can reassure you: NO WAY. The study would have been headline news, and the damage would have been huge.
Moreover, there is no way that subohm or VW devices will ever be banned. Don't forget, these are just electronic and lithium battery products, so none can really ban them. Moreover, i do not see any reason to ban these devices. They have been proven to be most successful in substituting smoking, and till now i have found many reasons to endorse the use of such devices and no reason to restrict them.
 

Katya

ECF Guru
Supporting Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Feb 23, 2010
34,804
120,147
SoCal
if ya wanna avoid dry hits ... best to hit that in really short quick vapes :blink:

Well... the longer the draw, the greater the risk of the coil overheating and producing something undesirable--like a dry hit or worse. Theoretically, our eliquid will always start evaporating at its boiling point--around 380 F for our PG/VG/water blends--but if not enough eliquid and air are supplied to the coil fast enough to keep it cool, bad things begin to happen. And again, this can happen at any wattage and at any puff duration if the wicking is poor and there is not enough air flow--I got the worst dry hits of my life from an Aspire ET-S at 6.5 watts and very short draws. :facepalm:

Have you seen the crowdfunding text?? I SPECIFICALLY mention puff duration as a major determinant of toxins (probably). Wattage x puff duration = Joules, as you have mentioned.
That is why it is EXTREMELY important to realize that higher wattage means less puff duration in realistic use.
 
Last edited:

WillyZee

Vaping Master
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Sep 23, 2013
9,930
36,929
Toronto
I disagree. Going from long draws to short draws will not eliminate the chances of dry hits. There is only one way to avoid burning your cotton and that is to regularly inspect it. Most people have a pretty good idea how many hits they can get with their rigs, prior to having to drip juice in to the RDA. By using your common sense and not being lazy, you can significantly improve your chances of not running the cotton dry.

It was a joke in regards to the video ... not advice on how to vape.


Sent via iPhone
 

skoony

Vaping Master
ECF Veteran
Jul 31, 2013
5,692
9,953
70
saint paul,mn,usa
Well... the longer the draw, the greater the risk of the coil overheating and producing something undesirable--like a dry hit or worse. Theoretically, our eliquid will always start evaporating at its boiling point--around 380 F for our PG/VG/water blends--but if not enough eliquid and air are supplied to the coil fast enough to keep it cool, bad things begin to happen. And again, this can happen at any wattage and at any puff duration if the wicking is poor and there is not enough air flow--I got the worst dry hits of my life from an Aspire ET-S at 6.5 watts and very short draws. :facepalm:

the water in e-juice starts vaporizing at about 180 degrees F.
both PG and VG are hygroscopic.they attract water and will adjust
the amount of water they absorb relative to the humidity in the air
and any water that may be in the flavoring or nic base.
alcohol based flavorings are not 100 % alcohol there mostly water.
typically e-juice by absorption is naturally 2- 3 % water.
the imputities listed in PG and VG are 99.9% water.
because of its lower boiling and vaporizing temperature some
e-juice makers will add distilled water to further enhance the vapor
producing quality of their juice.
when you fire up the coil the water vaporizes atomizing what ever
else is in the mix and carries it away long before the other things
reach their boiling temperature.
the more current through the coil the higher the temperature,
thus faster vapor production until you run out of juice or the water
content is to low to effectively produce a satisfying vape.(you start to burn the juice)
:2c:
regards
mike
 

Alien Traveler

Vaping Master
ECF Veteran
Jul 3, 2014
4,402
5,789
United States
the water in e-juice starts vaporizing at about 180 degrees F.
both PG and VG are hygroscopic.they attract water and will adjust
the amount of water they absorb relative to the humidity in the air
and any water that may be in the flavoring or nic base.
alcohol based flavorings are not 100 % alcohol there mostly water.
typically e-juice by absorption is naturally 2- 3 % water.
the imputities listed in PG and VG are 99.9% water.
because of its lower boiling and vaporizing temperature some
e-juice makers will add distilled water to further enhance the vapor
producing quality of their juice.
when you fire up the coil the water vaporizes atomizing what ever
else is in the mix and carries it away long before the other things
reach their boiling temperature.
the more current through the coil the higher the temperature,
thus faster vapor production until you run out of juice or the water
content is to low to effectively produce a satisfying vape.(you start to burn the juice)
:2c:
regards
mike

I am sorry, it is completely wrong description of boiling (and atomizing) process.
Liquid boils as a whole thing, its components does not boil as separate entities.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread