Vape Safety
With the winter months upon us, many people will look to vaping to beat the cold and being part of the banished; the embarrassing smokers huddle in the frigid winter winds and stormy weather. Or perhaps you live someplace warm but you’ll use vaping to help you kick the smoking habit in the New Year 2021. Whatever your reason for vaping is, it’s important to vape safely so I wanted to share a story that happened to me recently that highlights the issue of carrying a vape battery or ANY BATTERY in your pocket, pocketbook or purse.
About a month ago a product that I ordered arrived and came with an extra AA battery. When I opened and assembled the item I put the extra battery in my pocket. Now, I am the type of person to collect many things in my pockets over time, and so that AA battery stayed in my pocket for several days….along with a growing and ever changing collection of lighters, lint, junk my kids like to hand me to “hold onto”, coins, keys, etc. etc.
The shear volume of things that I amass in my pockets in just a few days is staggering.
But the important thing here is that when the battery and the coins came into contact with each other at the bottom of this deep dark hole that I call my pocket, they got hot. REALLY REALLY HOT. There appeared to be a haze in the air, some released lithium Ion I presume, and my pocket got so hot I thought it was on fire. The first thing I thought was “did I leave a vape in my pocket? But then I remembered the random AA I had put in a few days earlier.
I quickly threw my car in park and turned the pocket out to release the contents. The battery and the change was extremely hot and the battery had expanded and appeared to be ready to burst at its seams.
Luckily I was not hurt. It could have been much worse. But this highlights the dangers of things as simple as a AA battery and a few coins.
Have you ever put a 9V battery up to a piece of steel wool? It goes up in flames quick; a great survival trick if you need a fire in a slam but also a grave danger if your battery supplies get to close to your tool bench, or worse if young unsuspecting children get ahold of them. The results can be disastrous.
Take away this small bit of vape safety advice, don’t carry a vape in your pocket, pocketbook or purse. This applies to any type of loose batteries as well, and now more than ever, batteries should be handled with care. Carrying these items in your pocket could cause a short circuit and it may result in a fire, battery explosion or acid leak.
Carry your vape in a vape case and store it for travel in a safe location away from loose items or debris. Always turn the unit off when it is not in use and try to keep it loaded with a tank to keep debris from getting into the threaded 510 connection or onto the connection plates. While this may seem trivial, it could save you a lot of pain and irritation.