With a mountain of choices in terms of e-liquids, accessories, and equipment; there is so much more to know about the art of vaping. Don’t worry, we’re not going to bombard you with all technical jargons, we’ll rather take it slowly, one concept at a time.
Let’s start with the very first concept, as to what is vaping?
What is Vaping?
Put simply, when you exhale smoke, it is termed as smoking. Similarly, when you exhale the vapour, it is called vaping.While smoking is done with the help of traditional cigarettes, vaping is done through a personal vaporiser or an electronic cigarette comprising of a tank engulfing an atomizer, battery, e-liquid and a cartomizer.
When you vape, you are actually inhaling the vapour produced by heating a small amount of liquid, called e-liquid. This e-liquid is easily customizable and you can enjoy the pleasure of various flavours like strawberry, apple, mint, chocolate and so on; unlike traditional cigarette where you inhale smoke generated by the combustion of a tobacco cigarette with the same flavour every time. Further, the amount of vapour produced as a result of vaping is thicker, cleaner and far better than smoke produced by tobacco cigarettes.
But That’s Not Just About It…
As already mentioned, e-cigarettes are customizable, unlike traditional cigarettes. You get to adjust the strength of the puff, taste intensity and the amount of vapour as per your choices and preferences. You might want a strong throat hit one day; you might just be willing to have a soft caress another day, whatever you need can be achieved by adjusting resistance, wattage, and voltage of an e-cigarette.
What are Resistance, Voltage, and Watts Of an E-Cigarette?
Keeping it short, by keeping the voltage high and resistance low, you can fetch a stronger throat hit with intense taste and more vapour; and vice-versa.# What is Ohm?
Ohms is the SI unit of resistance and is inversely proportional to the current. The more the resistance of your e-cig’s atomizer, the lesser will be the amount of current flowing through it. If the resistance is lowered, the current flowing is increased in the same proportion.# What is Wattage?
Let’s understand this with a simple example. Connect a pipe to tap, and let the water flow. Now partly block the pipe opening with your finger, what did you notice? The water flow provided by the tap is the same but yet water flows with a higher force and higher rate. This same role is played by wattage in an e-cigarette.The intensity of taste, throat hit and the amount of vapour can be adjusted through the use of power (watts) which is generated by the battery and provided to the atomizer.
# What is Voltage?
Voltage is basically the potential difference which helps in adjusting the wattage of your vaporizer, and in turn, governs your e-cigarette. Depending upon the type of battery, the intensity of current provided to the atomizer can be adjusted in two ways – by keeping the wattage variable and by keeping the voltage variable.Let’s understand this by a simple mathematical formula,
V = IR where V stands for voltage, I for current and R for resistance
So, if resistance is constant and voltage is variable, current provided to the atomizer would vary in accordance with the voltage. If the voltage is kept high, more current would be provided to atomize, which would result in more vapour and vice versa.
Also, P = VI where P stands for wattage, V for voltage and I for current
Thus, if the wattage is increased, more current would be provided to the atomizer and vice versa.
Role of Resistance in Imparting Flavour and Regulating Throat Hit Tendency
The lower the resistance, the more current will flow through the coil. And as a result, expect the following happening:- Low resistance would mean high current.
- High current leads to more heat being produced by the coil.
- More heat leads to more vapour
- More vapour leads to stronger throat hit
- Vapour is warmer and less intense in taste
- The battery is discharged faster
- Life of the battery is shorter
- e-liquid runs out faster
On the other hand, if we use a high-resistance atomizer, the following happens:
- High resistance would mean less current
- Lesser heat will be produced in the coil
- As a result, the vapour would be cooler, lesser but with a more intense taste
- Less vapour leads to low throat hit
- Battery life is longer
- E-liquid runs out slowly
Role of Wattage/Voltage in Imparting Flavour and Regulating Throat Hit Tendency
# They both work almost the same way
Both variable voltage and variable wattage work similarly (as we have seen it through physics equation above). Through variable voltage, you are controlling the amount of power put through the device manually; on the other hand, variable wattage adjusts the power for you automatically.# Impact on taste and throat hit intensity
Voltage/Wattage also plays a vast role in deciding the taste of the e-liquid. If you adjust the voltage or wattage too high, more current would be produced that could burn the e-liquid resulting in a burnt taste, but more vapour and an intensified throat hit. This can be well adjusted as per your tastes and preferences and the kind of e-liquid you are using.In a Nutshell
This pretty much explains the basic nuances related to vaping. This was just a theoretical explanation of the science involved. However, you will only be able to understand it better when you vape yourself. Try adjusting the voltage/wattage and resistance on your device, and see what happens. Adjusting these parameters is simple, and you just need to slide a button up or down. To make your options even easier, a wide range of e-cig tanks in terms of variable resistances, voltages & wattages are also available in the market for you to directly choose from. The more you experiment, the more you learn.Happy Vaping!