What is Sub-ohm Vaping? Everything You Need to know

If you always wondered how to create plumes of clouds, like the vapers you have probably seen on tv or the internet, the answer lies in learning how to sub-ohm vape. But what exactly is sub-ohm vaping, and how does it work? Let's get into it. 

Table of Contents

1. What is Sub-Ohm Vaping?
2. What Are the Benefits of Sub-Ohm Vaping?
3. So How Do You Sub-Ohm?
4. Factors That Affect the Sub-Ohming Vaping Experience
5. Types of Vaping Devices for Sub-Ohming
6. The Best E-Juices for Sub-Ohm Vaping
7. Conclusion

 What is Sub-Ohm Vaping?

Sub-Ohm vaping refers to vaping that uses a resistance of wire that is lower than 1.0ohms. 

To explain this on a more comfortable level, we must first understand how vapes work. As you probably know by now, all vapes have a part that heats the vape juice. This part is called the atomizer. In each atomizer, there are two essential elements, a coil, and a wick. The coil is where the electrical current passes through and creates the heat. The rings in the coil will determine the resistance of the coil. And this resistance is measured in ohms. The higher the resistance, the cooler the coil is. The lower the resistance (or, the lower the ohms), the warmer the coil becomes. The warmer the coil, the more clouds and vapor the atomizer produces.

What Are the Benefits of Sub-Ohm Vaping?

There are three significant benefits to sub-ohm vaping:

1. More giant Clouds: With sub-ohm vaping, because the resistance is warmer, it heats the wick quicker, which creates more vapor and more significant clouds. 
2. Intense Flavor: If you’re going to sub-ohm, then you’ll experience intense flavor hits since more vape juice is getting evaporated.
3. Warmer Hits: For those that enjoy a warm hit from your vapes, sub-ohm is perfect for this since the coil creates warmer clouds that go down smoothly.

So How Do You Sub-Ohm?

Before technology came along, to sub-ohm, you needed to have coil building experience, were required to know ohm’s law, and learn how to drip vape juice into a type of atomizer called an RDA (rebuildable dripping atomizer). However, now that vaping technology has advanced, you can quickly go to your favorite vape shop and acquire what’s known as a “sub-ohm tank.” 

Sub-ohm tanks are ideal for beginners and vapers since they usually have coils that are low resistance and disposable. This means the only maintenance and knowledge required of the user is knowing how to change a coil (which with disposables is very easy to do).

Alongside your sub-ohm tank, you’ll also need a box mod that is high wattage and high amp batteries to power your mod. The box mod should have a safety chipset that regulates the current so the batteries don’t misfire. We recommend you read up on battery safety before buying and handling the batteries since lithium-ion batteries are potent and need special treatment.

After that, you’ll need a vape juice with high vegetable glycerin or VG ratio (at the very least 70% VG) and a meager amount of nicotine since nicotine, when vaped at such a low resistance, can be delivered relatively quickly, which can make you nauseous. 

Finally, to sub-ohm successfully, you need to learn how to inhale direct-to-lung instead of mouth-to-lung, which is how most vapers inhale when using pod systems. To sub-ohm, you will slowly take deep draws making sure the vapor is inhaled fully into your lungs; this will ensure that you absorb the highest amount of vapor possible and that in the end, you create the plumes of clouds.

Factors That Affect the Sub-Ohming Vaping Experience

Many factors can affect your sub-ohm experience, but here are the three most important ones:

Coil Resistance: This should be obvious now, but coil resistance is the most crucial factor in sub-ohm vaping. If you used a skinny wire, the current that passes through the coil would encounter more excellent resistance since it doesn’t have enough surface area. That’s why bigger and wider coils are used with sub-ohm vaping. Less resistance allows the ohms to go sub or below 1.0.

Wattage: Another factor that impacts sub-ohm vaping is wattage. Wattage will determine how hot or cold the hits are. Usually, you can find a wattage range engraved on the side of the coil heads. 

Battery Voltage: This refers to the power generated by the batteries. The higher the voltage, the higher the wattage will be. 

Types of Vaping Devices for Sub-Ohming

Besides the new modern sub-ohm tanks that come with replaceable coil heads, other vape devices will allow you to sub-ohm. However, these vape devices require that you learn how to build coils, learn ohm’s law, battery safety, wattage range, and a host of other things, so please do your homework first before buying one of the vape devices below. 

• RDA: Or rebuildable dripping atomizers that don’t have tanks but rather a deck where users can build their coils and add their wicks. Use them with box mods and mech mods. The way they function is by dripping e-juice directly into the exposed coils and wick.
• RTA: Or rebuildable tank atomizers are similar to sub-ohm tanks since they both have tanks where the vape juice is stored, but with this, you have to build your coils.

The Best E-Juices for Sub-Ohm Vaping

As we briefly mentioned above, sub-ohm vaping requires particular types of vape juice. Since sub-ohm vaping aims to create the most significant and most dense clouds possible, vape juices with 70% or higher vegetable glycerin are ideal. Since vegetable glycerin is the ingredient responsible for creating the clouds’ thickness, more of this ingredient equals more giant clouds. Although the most common ratios are 70% VG, you can also find vape juices at 80% and 90% (90% is referred to as a maxed VG vape juice). 

Conclusion

If you plan to venture to the sub-ohm vaping world, remember to use a box mod with a chipset with safety features (like current regulation) and read up on battery safety before buying and handling vape batteries. We also recommend you first get a sub-ohm tank with replaceable coil heads since you most likely will not know how to build coils. Sub-ohm vaping doesn’t have to be scary, but you should do your homework and learn as much as possible before investing in a sub-ohm setup.