How to Vape Without Setting Off the Smoke Alarm
In normal conditions, vaping should not set off your smoke alarm. However, not all alarms are identical. In certain cases, your vape may occasionally trigger the alarm.
At home, it’s okay if you set off an alarm. You can turn it off and continue with your day. In a public setting, vaping that sets off a smoke detector can have big consequences, i.e. airplanes, hotels, and similar settings. If you set off an alarm, one might assume it’s from smoke. You could be fined accordingly.
You want to be careful when vaping indoors in public spaces where you don’t know if there’s a cost to set off an alarm, even if it’s accidental. If you happen to be experiencing some trouble vaping indoors and keeping the fire alarm from going off, there are many things you can do.
Remember, you should never remove your smoke alarm. It’s a safety issue. This is not a solution to vaping indoors. A smoke alarm must remain active.
Let’s learn how to vape without setting off the smoke alarm:
Vape where there is increased ventilation
The easiest way to vape without setting off the smoke alarm is to vape away from it. If there’s an alarm, move to another room to vape or try different locations to see if the alarm goes off.
Try to vape somewhere with increased ventilation compared to where you were. Open your window to improve ventilation in the room where you’re vaping. Open your doorway. Turn on a fan, preferably as close as possible, to an open window to blow what’s inside out. Ventilation will help move the vapours out and hopefully prevent your smoke alarm from sounding.
Blow away from the smoke alarm
This seems simple enough, but reconfiguring the room to set up the furthest away from the smoke alarm as possible can be helpful in not setting it off. For example, if your desk is right under the alarm and it’s an office, move your desk to the other side of the room.
Blow your vapours away from the alarm, and you give them the best chance of dissipating and being circulated outwards before reaching the smoke detector.
Choose a more premium vape device
There are many vape devices out there, from e-cigarettes to vape pods. Some produce less vapour than others. A low-power device is typically like that. A high-resistance coil in a closed pod system generally produces less vapour while still being an overall satisfying vape experience.
If you can, try a few different vape devices. Vape pens for sale can be an appealing option. See which, if any, do not set off the smoke alarm. This may seem like a small change, but it can be quite significant in the grand scheme of things.
Use high PG e-liquid over high VG e-liquid
The e-liquid you use also impacts the amount of vapour that’s produced. High VG e-liquids are known for large clouds of vapour. That’s problematic vaping indoors and around certain smoke alarms. If you want to be more discrete with your vape and as it relates to fire alarms, opt for a high PG e-liquid. An optimal VG:PG ratio is 50:50 or even 30:70. These e-liquids work best in discreet devices and will aid in reducing the vapour in the room.
Identify the type of smoke alarm
The most likely type of smoke alarm a vape device will set off is a photoelectric smoke detector that detects disruptions in light beams. Just like smoke breaks a light beam, vaping smoke does as well.
There are also ionization-based smoke detectors and heat-sensitive fire alarms. An ionization-based smoke alarm monitors air particles inside two plates, identifying when smoke disturbs them. These are less likely to be set off by a vape device and shouldn’t be any trouble. A heat-sensitive fire alarm responds to heat, is the least troublesome, and is highly unlikely to detect vaping. Therefore, if your alarm is going off from vaping, assume it’s a photoelectric smoke detector.
Switch your fire alarm to a different type
Knowing that photoelectric smoke detectors are more sensitive, you may want to buy a new smoke alarm and move to either an ionization-based smoke detector or a heat-sensitive fire alarm. However, no guarantee doing this will mean you won’t need to change anything else about your vaping habits. Vaping can set off any fire alarm, no matter the type.
Vaping vs smoking: smoke alarm differences
As we said, an e-cigarette or vape device is rarely going to set off an alarm. A smoke alarm’s designed to detect smoke. Vaping produces vapour, and vapour dissipates notably quicker than smoke. Adding things like flavourings and oil creates bigger particles than the vapours that would normally come from an unflavored, water-based liquid.