Zenith Vape

Vape Safely

When it comes to vaping and building, safety ALWAYS comes first! Remember, anything to do with vaping (hardware, building, materials, etc) is to be done only by people who are 18 years of age or older! These things aren't toys and they can be very dangerous. With that being said, let's get into how to safely use vaping hardware and materials!

I will be posting a video on YouTube regarding everything in this video as well, so make sure to subscribe to the Zenith Vape YouTube channel! The link is listed below this post!

Batteries

Safely knowing everything about your batteries is step one to safely vaping. If you don't know any stats on your batteries:

--Ask your local eCig store

--Look it up from a knowledgeable location online

--Refer to a battery stat chart

--Ask me and I will get you the answers!

The safest bet to go with when building are 18000 series batteries. For example, the MNKE 18650 pictured here:

This is a 20 amp battery, so you can safely build a coil down to .25/.3 ohms! I would recommend staying around .3/.4 ohms, but you CAN build down to .25 ohms.

The danger in not knowing the amps of your batteries can be extremely dangerous! If you're operating at an unsafe level, your battery could:

--Leak dangerous gasses

--Become a tiny bomb and explode

--Overheat and cause burns

--Kill your battery

--Harm you and your equipment

Refer to the Battery Stat Chart at the bottom of this post for more information.

You should also know the milliamperes of your battery, or milliamp hours, or mAh. This will let you know how long your battery will last you when vaping, and how long it will hold a charge. Refer to the Battery Life Calculator at the bottom of this post for more information.

Also, look into safe battery chargers as well! I use a Nitecore i4. These chargers shut off automatically when your battery is fully charged. This is a HUGE thing to look for when buying a charger! You never want to overcharge your batteries. Nitecore also makes an i2. The only difference between these two is that the i4 charges 4 batteries at a time, and the i2 charges 2 batteries at a time. There are many other great chargers out there, but this one is one of the greats! Here is the i4:

Last but not least is a pretty obvious one... Never let your batteries be around excessive hot or cold temperatures! It sounds like common sense, but I thought that I would still point it out. I have had batteries explode in my pocket from excessive heat. This will not only damage your batteries, but can also harm you! So always be safe when it come to knowing about your batteries!

Coils & Materials

The coils and materials you use when vaping are very important. I'll cover proven types of wire and wicking material to use here.

When it comes to building a coil, you always want to use resistance wire. There are a lot of different types out there, but the best to use, especially when just starting out, are:

--Kanthal A or A1 resistance wire

--Kanthal Ribbon wire

--niChrome resistance wire

All of these come in different sizes, but are all great building materials. The size you choose will depend on the output you want, the type of coil you're building, and the thickness of wire you want to use. When dealing with gauges, the larger the number you get means the thinner the wire. For example, if you get .28g Kanthal A1, it will be thicker than .30g Kanthal A1.

Make sure to take a look at the wire resistance chart at the bottom of this post as well.

When you are choosing your wicking material, it really just depends on what you are building, the taste you want to get, and how much you want to absorb. Once again, there are tons of things you could use for wicking material, but when starting out, the best and most common to use are:

--Organic cotton

--Silica wick

--Ekowool

--Stainless steel mesh

All of these will have different outcomes when you're building. For instance, organic cotton will hold a lot more juice than most any other wicking material, and that's just one difference. No matter what you use, always make sure that it's greatly saturated with juice to prevent overheating and burning.

At any rate, make sure to always use safe and tested materials for building.

Building

Now that you know what batteries and materials to use, safely building coils and wicks with those batteries and materials is what I'll cover next.

You always have to be safe when building. Even if you have the correct batteries and materials, you can still create a lot of hazards if you don't build properly.

First and foremost, before you even start building, never have a battery in your mod during the building process! The only time you'll want to have a battery in your mod during the entire building process is when you are checking to see if your coils are heating correctly (from the inside out) or when you are doing a test/dry fire. You can also use a building station if you aren't comfortable building on a mod.

When you are wrapping your wire and attaching it to your atomizer, make sure to NEVER let your wire touch:

-post caps (top of the posts)

-sides of your atomizer cap or base

-base of your atomizer

-the post itself except for where it's passed through the middle of the post and been tightened.

If any of these things happen, you can cause a short, or bad heating. Neither of which are good things to have happen.

One big thing that people ALWAYS overlook is airflow. Airflow is very important when building because these things get very hot! Without good airflow, you can burn yourself, burn up your wicking material, and create a super hot atomizer head! Make sure your atomizer is getting good airflow. If your atomizer came with holes that are too small, you can drill them out, but be very careful doing so, obviously drills are dangerous... Otherwise, look for an atomizer with variable airflow, like the caterpillar rda from smoktech pictured here. Any way you choose to get good airflow, just make sure you have it!

Testing your ohms

Always, always, always make sure to check your ohms when building, and definitely before vaping any build. The novice mistake that most people make, is that they see a video online, just build what they see, and it has a significantly different ohms reading than what the video showed. That can be extremely dangerous! So always check your ohms readings before proceeding with a build.

To check your ohms, you can use:

-An ohms reader

-A mod that can read sub ohms (eVic)

These are both pictured here:

Ohms reader

eVic

Something to point out when building coils. When you build a single coil that is 1 ohm, it will read at 1 ohm. If you build a dual coil, using two 1 ohm coils, it will read at .5 ohms. When doubling coils, they will split in half because they are both running through one positive post! So if you have two 1 ohm coils, it will read at .5 ohms. The same goes for any amount of coils after that. For example, a quad coil using four 1 ohm coils will read out at .25 ohms. The output is divided by how many times you are running it through the positive post. 1ohm/2coils=.5 ohms.

Also, always use the Ohms Law Calculator when checking how many amps you'll need from your battery to power your build. Most 18650 batteries, when fully charged, will read out at 4.2 volts. So if you have a coil you built at .3 ohms, and a battery at 4.2 volts, plug in 4.2 into the voltage field on the calculator, and .3 into the resistance field on the calculator. Then click calculate. Whatever the current field shows on the calculator after entering these two values, is how many amps your battery will need to power your build! That exact combination of values is pictured right here:

So according to the Ohms Calculator, you would need a battery that runs at least 14 amps.

I've posted a link to the ohms law calculator at the bottom of this post as well, make sure you use it! You can also get quite a variety of apps on your smartphone for this as well. I use iVape and Ohm's Law, both great apps, and Ohm's Law is free! No matter what, ALWAYS check your ohm readings before vaping or finishing a build!

Hardware Safety

Knowing absolutely everything about your RBA, RDA, any atomizer head, mechanical mods, VV/VW mods, and set mods is a must! First, what you should know about clones... Clones of original mods are lovely. We love them because we don't have to pay the high price to get an amazing mod. However, the reason the original is always a good bet is because you're receiving that company's word, that the mod you're purchasing is authentic, and will work the way that they intend it to! You're paying a higher price for an authentic product, and it might just ease your mind a little more! With that being said, I'm not scaring anyone away from buying clones! I just wanted to throw that out there!

When choosing a mod, mechanicals are always great to build with. They don't have the wiring and internal components like VV/VW mods. They are merely a button on a tube that completes a circuit. I am in no way dumbing these down. I prefer them over any other mods out there, and there are all kinds of price ranges on these. There are some pretty upper class mechanical mods out there, and all with there own reason! On the other hand, VV/VW mods are great in their own way too. You can control the desired Watt or Voltage output, and that's always great! Just be sure you vape at a safe level for your builds and batteries! There are also set mods out there, for example, the coolfire. It's set at 8.5W. Now, you can't change that, so be careful with what your putting it through!

With all kinds of mods, you'll find a bottom push bottom. If you see this, be aware that if you set that thing down on its button, it will fire! Make sure you get a mod that has a threaded button on it, so you can safely conceal it, and it won't be pushed when you don't want it to be! It's great if you get a mod with a reverse threaded button on the bottom, so you can easily reveal the button without unscrewing your mod.

Now you're all ready to vape safely! Just to recap, make sure you always know everything when it comes to:

--Batteries and their specifications

--Wire and Wicking materials

--Building Safety

--Checking your ohms

--Knowing your hardware

Feel free to ask me any questions, and I WILL get back to you with an answer! Keep Calm and Vape On!

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Battery Life Calculator (mAh)

Battery Stat Chart (Amps)