Can You Vape Water? 6 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t

Many turn towards vaping in a bid to kick their pesky smoking habits. Today, vaping devices are easily accessible and attainable as they are sold at a wide range of prices, catering to the financial strengths of all and appealing to young adults. 

Experienced vapers pride themselves on modifying the outer layouts and inner mechanisms of their e-cigs. As a result, they experiment with no end in sight. 

Now, as humans, our experimental traits have brought us plenty of fantastic innovations over the years. Yet, also, these same traits have birthed weird and sometimes dangerous ideas. 

When it comes to vaping, many vapers think it’s a good idea to vape water. Some vapers introduce water to their vape tank out of sheer curiosity. Others do so to avoid inhaling the volatile organic compounds found in vape juices, like the usual liquid suspensions in e liquids: propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. 

Some people may even use water to get around propylene glycol (PG) allergies. 

If you belong to the category of vapers who think it’s worth vaping water, I want to apologize beforehand for shattering your illusions.

Can You Vape Water? What Happens to Water in a Vape Tank?

Yes, you can smoke water, but why would you? Let me play out a scenario so you can understand what happens when you put water in a vape pen.

As you pour water into the vape tank, the coil wire begins to heat up like in normal vaping. Then, the coil heats the water, boils it, forming bubbles inside. 

When the water gets too hot, you will hear loud and unpleasant crackling and popping noises. As this awful tank sound continues, the boiling energy increases tenfold, creating tinier steam bubbles. 

At this point, the bubbles make it close to impossible to dissipate the heat. Finally, your vape pen will overheat and produce very hot water vapor, leaving you with a terrible vaping experience.  

Now, would you really want to vape burning hot steam? 

6 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Vape water

1. Water doesn’t produce clouds.

When you put water in a vaping device, it produces water vapor, and there isn’t even the slightest hint of cloud production. 

So, if you’re chasing after huge clouds, vaping water will make zero sense. 

2. The water vapor produced will be steaming hot.

Were you planning to vape steaming hot vapor? If so, you may end up with a burnt lip, tongue, and pharynx. 

Smoking water can be detrimental to your oral health and potentially even speech. In extreme cases, inhaling hot steam can burn your lungs and cause pneumonia too. 

Although regular vaping is not necessarily a safer alternative (any vaping can cause adverse health conditions), the vapor from regular vape juices enters your lungs at body temperature. When you put water in a vape, you don’t get harmful chemicals, but you risk getting burnt. 

Also, bear in mind that hot droplets can escape through the chimney and scald you as well. 

3. Vaping water doesn’t offer the same psychological thrill. 

Colorless, flavorless, hot steam will not offer the same psychological thrill of vaping a flavorful e-juice. If you put water in a vape, you won’t get a thick cloud to blow out, flavors to satisfy your sweet tooth, or the relaxing experience of filling your lungs with vapor. 

If you’re brave enough to inhale hot water vapor, know that the steam inside your mouth will condense quickly and become water once more.

It’s a cruel joke, wouldn’t you agree?

4. Water leaks

Manufacturers don’t make electronic cigarettes to hold water. When you smoke water, the O-rings on the tanks can be severely damaged, causing water leakage. 

Water leaks can harm the smoking device’s inner mechanisms, including the circuitry, coils, and battery. 

5. Water doesn’t do well with added flavors.

Don’t fall under the wrong impression that adding flavors to the water can enhance your vaping sessions.

Water is a poor conductor of flavors as it can neither hold them nor carry them. If you’re lucky, you might get a slight whiff of the flavors while vaping, but that’s it!  

So, maybe stick with regular e-liquid instead of vaping plain water. 

6. Water doesn’t do well with nicotine either

Every smoker wants the buzz of inhaling that addictive chemical from an e-cigarette, but you could suffer from severe injuries. 

The added nicotine will be too heavy for water. Therefore, as you mix the nicotine with water, it will sink beneath the water and cause wicking problems. 

As a result, some hits will be harsher while others will be weaker. 

Understand that those harsh hits can cause serious health risks, like nicotine poisoning. Some side effects of nicotine poisoning include headache, visual impairment, chest pain, faster heartbeat, higher blood pressure, and quick breathing. 

In more extreme cases, you may even suffer from a seizure. 

So, putting water in your e-cigarettes isn’t a great idea. Maybe it’s best just to vape juice flavors and save yourself the trouble.  

Wrap Up

Granted, many people use distilled water to dilute high concentrations of vegetable glycerin (VG) juices or Max VG juices. Still, they do so to cut through the highly viscous vegetable glycerin e-juices and encourage easier wicking. These people are expertly putting water in their vape for an enhanced vaping experience and as a matter of personal preference. They aren’t doing so to smoke pure water. 

Many diluents are safer, more effective alternatives to water as well. 

Although it’s somewhat possible to vape water, it’s simply a waste of time. Not only does it not offer any flavors or thick clouds, but water vaping also doesn’t provide the psychological satisfaction of regular vaping. 

Where’s the fun in that, right? 

For safety measures, too, don’t be foolish enough to put water in a vape tank. Also, in case you’re wondering if you can vape alcohol, no, you can’t! Only use e-liquids for vaping.