Good morning dear readers. I hope you’re keeping well in this wonderful season of snow and jolly red men giving out presents to kids. We all love this time of year. It’s a big ball of expensive chaos but for some reason we can’t get enough of it, but there are things we should be aware of. As a Vape company, we have 1 primary goal, stop people from smoking. In doing that we hope to improve the country's health and improve our customers' lives so what do you need to know as the weather turns down past the double digit of lofty 10°C, and what can you do to help it?

Your Device and Cold Weather.

Winter brings cold temperatures, wet weather and low hanging humidity across Britain which can limit the performance of your device. First, the cold. Your device, or more importantly the liquid in your device will not like the cold. As the temperature drops, the e-liquid in your device will get colder and become ‘thicker’. Think of this like how when butter is hot it’s a liquid but when it cools down it turns back to a solid. So, what do we do? 

• Keep your device protected from the cold. 

• You don’t want to heat it up, just protect it from the cold. 

• Put your device in an inside pocket away from the cold when travelling. 

• Don’t leave your device on a windowsill overnight or in your car overnight. 

• If your device does get cold, don’t heat it up directly. 

• Do not:

• Put it on a radiator

• Put it in a microwave

• Put it in an oven

• Put it in hot water.

• Turn up the power to get more heat into it.

• Feed it to a pigeon

• Do:

• Leave it in a warm room for 20 minutes before use.

• Put it in an inside pocket of a jacket for your body to warm it up.

• Hold it in your hand to let you body heat warm it up.

• Turn down the power setting (if available) so that the residual heat can help warm the liquid back up.

• Keep away from pigeons

Wet Weather Wonderland

Britain is known for its wonderful wet weather. We love to moan about it on the daily, but while it’s part of our daily lives, it shouldn’t be part of our electronics lives. Autumn and Winter are some of our wettest months, and while we can put on a coat, grab an umbrella, and dive between shops as we do our christmas shopping, our devices don’t have any hands to do this with. Or legs actually, they need us for that. So, how bad is water for it?

If you’re using a QSeries device, while it is not rated for waterproof, the battery compartment is sealed away from the atomizer, but other devices run the airflow through the battery compartment which means there’s a lot of space for water to get in. Water, as Spidey and his Amazing Friends teaches us, conducts electricity. The E in E-cigarette stands for Electronic. This means that if water gets inside it, it can cause the device to short, preventing firing, or breaking the device all together. Should you find yourself outside in one of Britain’s typical deluges wishing Galdelf would whisk it away, there’s a few things you can do.

• Do:

• Put your device in a protected, closable pocket or in a bag.

• When vaping, try not to keep your device out and exposed to the rain for long periods of time, once done, store it away again.

• If it does get wet, turn it off, or if it can’t be actively turned off, don’t use it.

• When back in a dry environment use something absorbent like tissue to dry the charging port and the contacts in the top of the device before using it again.

• Do not:

• Shake your device a lot to get the water off so you can keep vaping. This will also force liquid through your coil and cause it to leak and potentially force water further into the device.

• Put it somewhere hot to dry out. Keep it off of radiators, batteries don’t like heat, and it will leak if you do that. No radiators, do not use your hair dryer, an oven or anything else that applies direct heat. Just dry it with a towel and some tissue.

• Don’t put it in rice. This doesn’t actually work like people think it does and in fact will just risk you getting an infection or illness. If you feel the need to dry it out fully as you’re worried it has water inside, place it in a warm room after drying it with a cloth or towel and wait. For a little extra help, put it on some desiccant packs like what you get in many deliveries as these often have silica in them and won’t leave food particles and bacteria all over your device!

Winter weather

A point a lot of people don’t consider is that you are not going to want to stand out in the cold to vape. As we move towards January and the temperature heads towards the negative numbers, you’re going to be wanting to spend much more time inside. Now, for those veterans of the vape industry, you’re going to have this little voice in your head saying “but it’s not smoking…” don’t listen to it, everyone else doesn’t know what you know. That also doesn’t mean grab a soap box, while we appreciate people trying to spread education about the benefits and truths of vapes, we’d rather you not sound like crazy person on our behalf. So rather than getting into a scuffle over a craving, how else can you handle it without running out into the snow?

Nicotine Alternatives! At VapeHQ we stock a variety of alternative nicotine products to help just such an occasion. Stuck on a bus? Plane? Or in a restaurant watching the snow fall through the window, we’ve got you covered.

Nicotine Pouches

These are a small pouch of nicotine infused materials, often with some other flavours to make the taste of nicotine bearable, that you slip between your gum and cheek that slowly give you nicotine through your mouth.

NicPix

These are a toothpick infused with nicotine and again, flavourings to make the nicotine taste bearable. Toothpicks have been used for decades to help stave off impulse cravings and this is just a newer version that works a bit better than a toothpick on its own.

Nic Strips

These are a small strip of dissolvable paper like material that you place on your tongue. It is once again infused with nicotine and flavourings but unlike the NicPix or Nicotine Pouches, these work fast. They dissolve within a couple of minutes at most and will give you a very quick nicotine hit. They are great to use if you’re mixing your alternatives, a strip to get rid of the immediate cravings and a pouch to help ride out the next hour or two before you can vape again.

Health

There are a lot of myths around vaping. Some claim that they are an invention to entrap people into nicotine addiction, some claiming that they will make you the healthiest person alive. While this isn’t a health blog I will give you some pointers for the winter season to help you stay a little healthier.

First, it’s flu season. Don’t share your vape if you don’t want to catch whatever is going around this year. While the ingredients of a vape do not actively put you at risk of being ill from viruses, sharing your device with other people does.

Second, if you are vaping to help with another illness beware of menthol. Many people stop smoking due to another illness, whether it’s COPD, pneumonia or asthma, if you are now vaping to quit your addiction you should know that Methol, in the winter, is something to avoid. This is because menthol triggers a set of nerves that make things feel cold. Yes, this means that if the air you’re breathing is cold, it will feel a lot colder and this can cause some discomfort, especially if you are trying to recover from a lung illness.

Third, fires are terrible life destroying incidents and over the Christmas period, many people fall prey to this disaster. So, let’s not increase the chance of this happening with bad practices. Don’t leave your device charging overnight, Even slow charging devices will charge within 2 hours these days so charge it before bed instead. Don’t leave it on a radiator or next to a fire. Batteries hate heat like that. And make sure you keep it away from pets and small children. Family gatherings are fun but your uncle's dog doesn’t need to be running through your living room with an impromptu smokey sparkler. 

So, we here at VapeHQ and Qlabs hope you have a wonderful season. Don’t get too caught up in the pre Christmas rush and we hope to see you back here very soon for more helpful tips and tricks.