Your vape probably goes just about everywhere with you. With that in mind, it’s likely that you’re occasionally going to encounter situations in which dropping your device in water is a strong possibility. If that’s happened to you, there’s no need to feel embarrassed because it happens to just about everyone at one time or another.
The problem with dropping a vape in water, though, is that water and wires don’t mix. There’s a high probability that dropping a vape in water is going to kill it permanently. In some cases, though, there may be hope that you can get a device up and running again after it’s been submerged in water. In this article, we’re going to share some tips that can potentially help you resurrect your vape instead of throwing it away. We’re also going to talk about some of the great new water-resistant vapes that we’ve developed here at Innokin that can help to end water-related accidents for good.
What Happens When You Drop a Vape in Water?
When you drop a vape in water, the first thing that you should do is remove it from the water immediately. Unless the device has specific protections to help prevent water ingress, moisture will begin to flood its interior almost right away.
Water can permanently damage vapes and other electronic devices in two ways.
- The impurities in the water can conduct electricity, potentially causing a short circuit to occur. Pure water actually isn’t a good conductor, but almost all water has impurities such as dissolved minerals. Because the probability of a short circuit is so high, you shouldn’t try to use a vaping device that you’ve just dropped in water because doing so could render the device permanently inoperable.
- Water can also cause the internal metal components of a vaping device to corrode. Unlike a short circuit, corrosion is more of a long-term problem that may not affect the performance of the device right away. Several weeks or months later, your device may begin to exhibit strange behaviors – or it may stop working entirely.
With these two things in mind, there are three things that you need to do when you drop a vape in water.
- You need to remove the device from the water immediately to mitigate water ingress. With any luck, you’ll remove the device before the water has time to contaminate the internal electronics.
- Don’t attempt to use the device because that could potentially cause a short circuit. If the device has a removable battery, take the battery out and leave the battery door open to encourage airflow.
- Remove as much of the water from the interior and exterior of the device as you possibly can. We’ll discuss this in greater detail shortly.
A Water-Resistant Vape Can Handle Life’s Little Accidents
Did you know that some vape kits are actually water-resistant? The Innokin Adept Zlide kit meets the IP67 standard for ingress protection, which means that it can tolerate immersion in up to a meter of water for up to 30 minutes. The Innokin Adept vape mod is also impervious to dust, so it has some of the best protection from the elements that you’ll ever find in a vaping device. Even if the Adept mod is completely submerged in water, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to pull it right out of the water and continue using it.
As we said at the beginning of this article, it’s hard to avoid an occasional accident when your vaping device goes everywhere with you. If you’re using a device that’s protected from the elements, you won’t have to worry about those accidents and can just focus on the enjoyment of vaping instead.
How to Fix a Vape After Dropping It in Water
So, you’ve just dropped your vaping device in water. What should you do? As we mentioned above, your first priority should be to prevent a short circuit. You should remove the device from the water immediately. If the device has a removable battery, you should take the battery out and set it aside. Leave the battery cover off.
If you’re using a device with a removable tank or pod, you should also remove the tank or pod and set it aside. If necessary, you can clean that component by rinsing it in clean water and leaving it out to air dry. Because a vape tank or pod has no electronic components, there’s no need to be concerned about a short circuit. It’s also important to disassemble your vape to the fullest extent possible because that will encourage air to flow through the device.
After removing as many of your vape’s components as you can, your next step should be to manually remove as much of the excess water as possible. Use paper towels to remove water from the surface of the device. If you have a pod system, dry the chamber at the top of the device after removing the pod. If you have a vape mod with a removable battery, dry the battery compartment.
One of the easiest ways to remove water from a disposable vape is by blowing through the device to force the water out of the air intake hole. Hold a paper towel over the intake hole at the bottom of the device while blowing firmly through the mouthpiece. If any water has gotten inside the device, you’ll be able to remove a lot of it this way.
How to Remove All Water from a Vaping Device
If you’ve followed all of the steps above, you’ve given yourself the best possible chance to fix your vape because most of the water that might have gotten inside the device should now be gone. You shouldn’t try to use the device immediately, though, because you can’t be certain that you’ve removed all of the water from the device’s interior. The last thing that you should do before vaping again is place your device in an environment that encourages the last bits of moisture to exit. To do that, you’ll want to place your vape in a container with a substance that absorbs moisture.
You may have seen some videos and articles online that suggest using dry rice as a desiccant after dropping an electronic device in water. To do that, you’ll simply fill a plastic container with rice and place the device inside. Every few hours, move the device around in the container to redistribute the rice and move the moisture away from the device.
Some people have claimed, however, that using rice to dry an electronic device isn’t actually a good idea because the rice can block airflow and isn’t actually as effective at absorbing moisture as it seems to be.
If you’ve tried using rice to fix a device in the past and weren’t successful, you can try placing your vape in a container with packets of silica gel instead. If you’ve ever seen a little packet labeled “do not eat” when opening the box for a new electronic device or a pair of shoes, that packet was filled with silica gel. Silica gel is renowned for its ability to absorb and trap moisture, and it’ll do an excellent job of removing any water caught inside your vape. You can buy silica gel packets online and in many home improvement stores.
If you don’t have a source of desiccant packets in your neighborhood, all hope isn’t necessarily lost because some cat litters are actually made from silica gel. You can simply pour some of the cat litter into a container and place the device inside. Just like with the rice method described above, you should move the device around in the silica gel periodically to move the moist gel to the outside of the container and get the dry gel closer to the device.
When selecting a cat litter to remove the water from your vape, it’s a good idea to buy a litter made only from silica gel. You want to avoid buying cat litter with an added fragrance if possible because the fragrance could contaminate the e-liquid in the device and change its flavor. That’s not a major concern if you’re using a device with a removable tank or pod – but it’s important if you’re trying to remove the water from a disposable vape because there’s no way to remove the e-liquid from the device.
If you can’t find rice or silica gel, there is one other possible way to fix a vape after dropping it in water: You can simply place it in front of a fan for 24 hours. As the air passes through the device, it’ll encourage the water to evaporate and escape through the device’s seams and airflow openings.
Whether you use a fan or a moisture absorber, your vape should be dry on the inside after about a day. As long as a short circuit didn’t occur when you dropped the device in water, you should be able to resume vaping as normal.
