If you’re a smoker looking to switch to vaping – or perhaps if you’re a secret vaper who doesn’t want to get caught – you might be wondering about how the long vapor lingers compared to cigarette smoke.

So for anyone wondering about issues such as these, in this post, we have all the details you need as we answer the question, how long does vape smoke stay in the air?

How Long Does Vape Smoke Stay in the Air? The short answer

Before we get into some of the more technical details of this discussion, let’s start with a short answer.

How long does vape “smoke” stay in the air? Only a matter of seconds.

According to one study conducted back in 2016, there is a spike of vape particles in the air during the seconds after you take a puff on your vape, but this drops again only seconds later, returning to background levels after just 10 seconds.

However, there’s a bit more to this topic than just that, so now let’s dive in and look at things in a bit more detail.

Does vape smoke linger?

The first thing to understand with vaping is that, despite the name, the clouds that vapers breathe out after taking a puff on a vape are not actually “vapor”, and since nothing is combusted, neither are they “smoke”.

Instead, what happens in a vape is that the vape juice is heated and converted to aerosols, and it is these aerosols that are inhaled and then exhaled in the form of a vape cloud.

An aerosol is a suspension of tiny particles or liquid droplets in the air, and the important point to note in the context of vaping is that these aerosols evaporate very quickly, as explained in the study quoted above.

This means that when you exhale a cloud of vape smoke, the aerosols disappear extremely quickly rather than lingering in the air – and this is true even in enclosed spaces.

However, that said, there are a couple of factors that can still affect how long the vapor lingers in the air, so let’s talk about these next.

What affects how quickly vapor dissipates?

First, perhaps the most significant factor that determines how long-lasting a vape cloud will be is the ingredients it includes – or more specifically, the ratios of the ingredients.

Almost every vape juice you can buy will consist of two main ingredients, propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerin (VG) along with various flavorings and in many cases, some form of nicotine.

The PG and VG are included partly as carriers for the flavorings and nicotine when the juice is converted to aerosol form, and in addition, PG is responsible for the so-called throat hit that mimics the feeling of smoking a cigarette while the VG creates the vape cloud.

VG in its pure form is a viscous liquid, and the higher the ratio of VG to PG in a particular juice, the bigger the clouds the juice will produce – and the longer lasting they will be.

Second, some vaping devices, particularly sub-ohm vapes, are designed to produce particularly large clouds, so using one of these will also result in the vape cloud lingering a little longer.

Conversely, if you vape using a disposable device such as the Katana BP10000 from up-and-coming vape brand Spiritbar, the effects are likely to be less long-lasting.

The Katana BP10000, inspired by the iconic Japanese sword of the same name, offers users up to 10,000 puffs of luxury vape juice, combining style with comfort and ease of use – and you can be sure that once you’ve finished vaping, all traces of vapor be gone moments later.

Third, in small, enclosed spaces, the vape cloud will dissipate more slowly.

However, having said all of that, we are still only talking about a matter of seconds, and even when vaping a high-VG vape juice using a powerful sub-ohm vape in an enclosed space, the cloud will still disappear within around 10 seconds or so.

Why is all this important?

There are a few reasons why knowing how long vape smoke lingers in the air might be important, so let’s talk about these now.

Second-hand vaping

The first reason people might be interested in how long vape smoke lingers has to do with what can be called “second-hand vaping”.

Most people know that if somebody smokes near you, it means you will also be breathing in their smoke, and this is known as second-hand smoking – something we’ll come back to in a moment.

However, the fact that vape smoke dissipates so quickly means this is far less of a problem.

Furthermore, it’s thought that vape smoke contains very few if any harmful particles that could affect others who breathe in second-hand vapor, so vaping around other people is extremely unlikely to damage their health.

Of course, all vapers should try to be as considerate as possible, and vaping around people who don’t want to breathe in your vapor – and especially vaping around children – should be avoided.

However, at least it is reassuring to know that breathing in second-hand vape smoke is almost certainly not dangerous.

1. “Stealth vaping”

“Stealth vaping” refers to vaping when you don’t want others to be aware of what you’re doing, and how quickly vape clouds disappear is also an important consideration here.

As we’ve seen, vape clouds dissipate within seconds, so if you vape outside, nobody will be able to tell that you’ve been vaping even just a few moments after you take a puff – and even indoors, the same will be true quite quickly after you’ve finished vaping.

Of course, we’re not advocating vaping in places where you’re not supposed to – and if you decide to risk it, that’s up to you.

However, in certain situations where you want to vape somewhere you’re allowed to without being seen, it should be possible to take a crafty puff on your vape without attracting the judgmental gaze of people who might look down on such a habit.

2. Enclosed spaces

As we’ve seen, even in enclosed spaces, vape smoke evaporates very quickly, so this means you can safely vape in an enclosed space without the risk of the smell lingering too long.

That said, if you vape often in the same enclosed space, this may result in other tell-tale signs becoming apparent – something we’ll come back to again in just a moment – but if it’s just a one-off, there will be no evidence of your vaping even seconds after you put your vape away.

How does this compare with cigarette smoke?

An important comparison we need to make at this point is with cigarette smoke because vaping and smoking are quite different.

As we’ve seen, vape “smoke” is actually made up of aerosols that quickly evaporate and disappear.

However, cigarette smoke essentially consists of tiny burnt particles that are released into the air through the combustion of tobacco.

Unlike vape smoke, these particles can then linger in the air for up to two to three hours.

Furthermore, second-hand smoke is known to damage health and in some cases can even cause serious health conditions such as lung cancer in people who don’t smoke themselves.

It isn’t even enough to restrict your smoking to one room, either, since second-hand smoke can easily drift into other rooms, pervading your whole home, which may include children’s bedrooms.

The odors of tobacco smoke are known to linger even longer, and if you smoke often in the same room, the walls will gradually take on a yellow-brown hue as they become coated in tiny smoke particles.

So in short, the aftereffects of smoking tobacco last a lot longer than those of vaping, so this is just one more advantage vaping has over smoking tobacco cigarettes.

Does vaping stain walls?

You may be wondering if vape smoke stains walls in the same way as cigarette smoke, and the answer is that it doesn’t.

However, if you vape in the same room often, you may notice a slight film developing on your furniture due to the PG and VG settling there.

However, this film is soluble in water, so it’s easy to wipe off simply with a wet sponge and perhaps a drop of cleaning detergent.

The same can also happen to your curtains or on other fabrics – but again, it’s easy to wash off either in the laundry or just by using a wet sponge.

Does vaping leave a smell?

Similarly, if you often vape in the same enclosed space, you may notice a slight smell beginning to develop in the room. However, unlike the smell of smoke, this is also easy to get rid of simply by washing surfaces with water, so again, this is nothing like the lingering smell of smoke.

Vape smoke disappears much faster than cigarette smoke

As we’ve noted, unlike cigarette smoke, vape smoke dissipates in a matter of seconds, leaving no lasting odor and causing no discernible health risks to anyone who might breathe in second-hand vapor.

Vapes are considered a healthier option for people who are trying to quit smoking, and the fact that the vapor doesn’t linger or pose health risks to other people means this is one more reason to consider vaping as a way of giving up tobacco cigarettes.

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