A Beginner’s Guide to Sub-Ohm Vaping
**Disclaimer: All vaping products are meant for adult consumers. Please use products responsibly**
Over the last decade, vapes have become popular and attractive to people who enjoy rich flavors and blowing big smoke clouds. Some vape for pleasure, others for competing by cloud chasing, and even some of us use the vape pens in a case to stop or reduce the number of cigarettes which are unhealthy.
What Is Sub-ohm Vaping?
Whether you are new to vaping or have been doing it for years, you have probably heard of sub-ohm vaping. If you have ever tried it, you know that it is an excellent way to take your vaping experience to a whole new level. If you have never heard or tried it, then you have come to the right place.
Before we continue any further, we have to remind you that sub-Ohm vaping is not for everyone. So depending on your goals, there are many things you should consider before you decide to try sub-ohm vaping, and we advise you to be as educated as possible when cloud chasing.
What Is Ohm’s Law?
Before you understand the concept of sub-ohm vaping and how it works, you need to know how Ohm’s law works. It is a mathematical equation related to voltage, current, and resistance and their relationship found by Georg Ohm. But don’t freak out, because we will give you just the main things and some basics, and nothing else.
Why Is It Important to Understand Ohm’s Law?
If you are new to cloud chasing, you probably have some questions about Ohm’s law relationship to vaping? Continue reading to get Ohm’s law explained, and it will all get clear why this law is so essential for sub-ohm vaping. Before deciding to use vape devices that have atomizers with lower resistance coils, you must know how to calculate each of the elements in the equation.
Image Source: https://www.powerelectronicstalks.com/
Our goal here is to show the formula of Ohm's Law and hopefully give you a better understanding of the relationship between voltage and current related to vaping devices. The final concept you need to understand before you tackle Ohm's Law is resistance, which is a measure of resistance to the current flow in an electric circuit.
The picture above represents Ohm’s Law triangle, where V is voltage, I is current, and it is measured in amperes, and R is the resistance, which is illustrated as the omega symbol. In simple words, voltage (V) is the pressure between two electrical points of the circuit. The current (I) is the rate of electrons that flow, and basically, make the electricity. The resistance (R) measured in ohms represents the opposition to the current flow.
Ohm’s law simply says that I (the current) = V (voltage)/R (resistance).
We can rewrite the Ohm’s law equation following the math’s rules to create these two equations. As a result, you can input any two variables and determine the third. Or just work in reverse order:
· V = I/R
· R = V/I
Ohm’s Law in Vape Pens?
So, in all vape pens, the voltage pushes electrons from the battery through the atomizer to the resistance coils and heats them, causing the liquid to vaporize and produce big clouds of vapor. Keep in mind that resistance coils are unregulated devices, and sometimes they may be harmful to the battery. Some people have even experienced battery explosions because of not using the vape gear properly.
Pros and Cons of Sub-ohm Vaping
Now that you know the basics of Ohm’s law and how it works, we can get back to our main topic and introduce to you the pros and cons of sub-ohm vaping.
Pros of Sub-ohm vaping
The Biggest Cloud Production
Ohm vapes are known for their big cloud production. As a result, they are considered to be the best vape pens for cloud chasing. You can manage to do some impressive tricks with the thick white smoke. If you aim for the biggest cloud production, then you should try sub-ohm vaping.
Fast Heating
Sub-ohm vapes heat rapidly thanks to the lower resistance coils, which vapor the e-liquid fast. It all comes from the voltage. So if the voltage is high, the heat increases, and your vape device produces more smoke, which leads to a rich and aromatic flavor.
Best Flavor
Sub-ohm tanks produce a richer, thicker, and more aromatic vapor due to higher wattage vaping with a lower resistance coil. However, you need to remember that sub-ohm tanks need larger quantities of e-liquid compared to regular vape tanks. So it is vital to choose the right e-liquid with a higher VG to PG ratio and lower concentration of nicotine.
Smooth and Warm Hits
Sub-ohm tanks provide the right amount of airflow to make your vaping experience pleasurable and ensure that each hit is smooth and warm enough.
Cons of Sub-ohm vaping
Vape Battery Life & Safety
Vape battery life and safety are the most critical factors of sub-ohm vaping. Some vapers experienced battery overheating and even explosions because they did not measure the battery resistance level correctly. Use the power formula and Ohm’s law we outlined above to do your math and work within your battery’s limits to avoid accidents.
Short Coil Life
Coils’ life may be short, depending on what power they absorb. When they are heated, they slowly burn, which becomes the main con of sub-ohm vaping. If you want big clouds, you need to vapor the e-juice at a higher temperature, burning the resistance coils. Coils play the most important in cloud production, so be careful not to overheat and burn them. It may also cause battery damage and cost you money.
Not the Best Option for Mouth-to-lung Vaping
There are two ways to smoke or vape. The first one is mouth-to-lung, and another way is direct-to-lung. If you smoke regular cigarettes, you must know that it is mouth-to-lung smoking. Ohm vaping is a direct-to-lung type. You can also try ohm vaping mouth-to-lung, but it won’t be a good experience because you may start coughing hard. However, it also depends on the e-juice you are using. The percentage of nicotine is a significant factor and may make the smoke heavy and unpleasant. As a rule of thumb, most sub-ohm vapers choose e-liquids with no more than 6mg of nicotine. More nicotine can cause a little nausea and discomfort.
What is a Sub-ohm tank?
To help you better understand the sub-ohm tank’s anatomy, you must know the difference between the two main categories of vape tanks.
Standard Tanks
Many new vapors use standard thanks, so they wonder why their cloud production is not that impressive. It is because standard tanks have a smaller atomizer resistance of 1.0 or above Ohms. These tanks are the perfect pick if you are trying to cut off the number of cigarettes you smoke because these tanks work well with e-juices that contain higher concentrations of nicotine. If your goal is professional cloud chasing and advanced vaping, you should get a sub-ohm tank.
Sub-ohm Tanks
Freemaxvapor’s Fireluke 2 Tank
Sub-ohm vape tanks offer you a fantastic vaping experience that is superior to most standard vape tanks. That’s why they are also known as cloud-chasing tanks. These tanks can guarantee you the biggest smoke clouds you have ever seen. This is due to the larger atomizers with a resistance of less than 1.0 Ohm. These tanks allow you to use lower nicotine percentage e-juice and to have a smooth experience, so you can inhale as much as you want.
The sub-ohm attenuation requires higher heat and wattage to set the coil in motion, which in turn evaporates more juice. Steaming with a 1 Ohm coil in the same device produces a considerable amount of vapor compared to the coils used, and it increases the overall taste, as you inhale much more flavor than with a top Ohm device. Also, the coils in sub-ohm tanks tend to heat quickly. As a result, more liquid is vaporized, such as vegetable glycerol, which has a high boiling point.
Therefore, ohm vape tanks are the right choice for advanced vaping and for someone who plans to reduce their nicotine intake. So if you are not one of the newbies in sub-ohm vaping, you may be interested in developing your vape mods to take your cloud chasing to the next level.
Is sub-ohm Vaping Safe?
Sub-ohm vaping is safe as long as you do it right and take safety precautions. Sub-ohm vaping is not for everybody, and you must do proper research. For example, before trying sub-ohm vaping, you must choose the right battery for your vaping device.
Battery
As we mentioned earlier, sub-ohm vapes require a larger amount of power to reach the resistance coil’s right heat. This power comes from the battery, and you must choose it carefully. Forget about cheap batteries or second hand. If you want to blow big clouds of vapor safely, you must invest and buy a new top tier battery that won’t overheat or explode. The biggest enemy of the best vape pens is overheating, which is the main reason for cloud chasing problems.
Air Ventilation
It is essential to ensure the right air ventilation. If your vape mods are well vented and provide the required airflow, you will enjoy a safer sub-ohm vaping experience. The airflow helps the air intake and also provides an escape to some unwanted gases.
Temperature Control
If you still don’t have a sub-ohm vape and you are researching to find the best one, then you should take a look at the vapes that support the option of temperature control. It is one of the best features that the new vape mods offer, and it can save your coils for a little longer. On most of the vape devices, you can change the wattage. More wattage means more heat. More heat means more vapor, but without proper temperature control, it can burn your resistance coils and even the wick.
Build Your Sub-ohm Vape?
As part of our beginner guide for ohm vaping, we strongly recommend new sub-ohm vapers to use regulated vape mods. Most of the problems with safety come when you build a vape mod on your own. If you are not a professional, please don’t try it, because it may lead to explosion and injuries.
Maintenance of Sub-ohm vapes
The best way to preserve any device and keep it ready for work is regular maintenance. If your vape to serve you for a long time and enjoy aromatic clouds, we recommend you to clean it and maintain the battery regularly. If your vape is freshly cleaned, you don’t have to worry about any airflow problems. Keep your device charged and clean if you want to be cloud chasing all the time. Clean vapes always improve the experience, but when it comes to sub-ohm vapors, cleaning your pen, maintaining battery, vaporizer and other components of the device prevents things from clogging up and not working.
E-juices for Sub-ohm Vaping
Getting the proper kind of e-liquid is probably the most important thing for the smooth sub-ohm vaping experience. If you understand the ingredients of your e-juice, you can have a good experience with the nicotine content you prefer.
The e-liquid has some main ingredients, such as nicotine concentration, VG/ PG ratio, to guide you to the best decision. You can easily look at the bottle of e-juice to read the list of ingredients and then decide if the juice is good for you or too heavy.
Vegetable Glycerin (VG)
VG is one of the most common ingredients in every e-juice. It is a clear liquid, usually made of palm oil, soy, or coconut, and it is one of the main components in most beauty products, such as shampoos and toothpastes. This ingredient is responsible for the big cloud production of sub-ohm vape pens.
Propylene Glycol (PG)
Like VG, PG is also a clear liquid, but its base is derived from sugar and is super sweet. This ingredient is used in toothpaste and sometimes in ice creams. PG is what makes the flavor of the vape juice so intense.
Flavor
As you already know, the PG is responsible for the sweet flavor, so you will need the type of PG-based flavor that is used in the production of most candies. There are e-juices in a wide range of flavors that meet consumers' different preferences, including different concentrations of nicotine and zero nicotine options. All the e-liquids are available in various flavors such as sweet, fruity, spicy, sweet, and bitter. This type of e-juice is made with a carrier liquid, either PG or VG, or, in most cases, a combination of both.
Nicotine content
The typical e-juice content can vary from 0 mg nicotine and can reach up to 50 mg, with some nicotine-free collections containing up to 1.5 mg or more. You can start with an e-juice with 2 - 4% nicotine, making it the right choice for those who like the taste. But also, you can experiment and start from the lowest nicotine content and keep increasing it until you find the best ratio for you.
Best E-liquids for Sub-ohm Vaping?
Now that you know the roles of VG and PG, you can choose a product with the ideal PG-VG ratio. When selecting an e-juice for sub-ohm vaping, you should look for one with a balanced ratio of VG and PG. If you want to have excellent steam production during sub-ohm vaping with temperature control, we recommend a ratio of 90: 10 (VG: PG). If you are not looking for cloud chasing and would like to have more flavor, the 80: 20 ratio hits the sweet spot for the aromatic vaping experience. If you know the components of your e-juice, you can achieve the best vaping experience, regardless of the nicotine strength you prefer.
Sub-ohm vaping and cloud chasing
Have you ever seen these guys who are into competitive vaping with their fancy, advanced vaping kits? Of course, we all have seen them, and some of the tricks they do are impressive. Now we will introduce you to this exciting world of the giant clouds of vapor.
Competitive Vaping
Cloud chasing has become a competitive sport since 2012. This sport gets more and more complicated because mods, vape rigs, and atomizers are always developing, and the clouds get bigger and bigger every year. In a cloud contest, each player is randomly selected to stand back to back, hold their vapor devices by the hand and muffle with both hands. Then the rivals blow various forms of clouds and push them in different directions by creating the airflow with their hands.
The annual Cloud Championship of the Vape Capitol is one of the largest and most prestigious vape competitions in the United States. They also have a trick contest and steam contest where you can participate to show off your cloud chasing skills.
We expect more and more steam competitions to be held in the coming years, not to mention the increasing prizes and rewards. So, if you want to become one of the big names in the world of vape competitions, give it a try. If you master complicated tricks after some practice, you may have the chance to win in some of the cloud-chasing events.
Conclusion
After reading this article, you know that sub-ohm vaping the best way to produce giant clouds of vapor and enjoy rich flavors. But before you give sub-ohm vaping a try, you must understand the anatomy of the vaping device and how to use it properly. To know how sub-ohm vaping works, you must grasp the basics of Ohm’s law, which we explained earlier. This law is a fundamental part of sub-ohm vaping.
So get educated about your vaping device and maintain it regularly to prevent any harmful accidents, avoid explosions, and extend your battery life. Remember that you have to check your battery and the coils often enough to ensure that your device is functioning correctly. Don’t forget to keep your vaping device air-ventilated to prevent any unwanted clogs.
You also learned how to pick the right e-liquid, depending if you are after a rich flavor or giant clouds. When you find the perfect ratio for yourself, you will be able to blow clouds of vapor and enjoy a smooth experience without feeling nauseous or coughing. With sub-ohm vaping, nothing can stop you from starting mastering those new tricks that you see on social media. You can begin practicing competitive vaping and become the next cloud chasing star.