Published on February 25th, 2015 | by Rich

What is Sub Ohm Vaping, and is it Dangerous?

If you’ve spent any amount of time on the various e-cigarette message boards you’ve likely heard of sub-ohm vaping. But what is it?

Sub-ohm vaping means to vape with an atomizer, such as the Aspire Atlantis or Kanger Subtank, that has coils for vape with a resistance value of less than 1.0 ohms.

Hence the “sub”, which simply means below. So what are some of the reasons that people choose to sub-ohm?

Blowing Bigger Clouds

subohm clouds

Sub-ohming tends to produce a very dense, large cloud of vapor. A high quality sub-ohm atomizer will use a much larger wire and wick than a typical high resistance atomizer.

To simplify, sub-ohming uses much more power to spread a larger amount of heat over a much larger area, which causes more e-juice to be vaporized in one moment.

If you’re concerned about burning the juice, don’t worry.

Each specific spot is getting the same amount of heat as it would be with regular atomizers, but the area of atomization is much larger.

This results in more vapor production, which means you’ll be blowing a much bigger cloud.

In fact, a lot of people who compete in cloud competitions tend to use sub-ohm setups for this very reason.

More E Juice Flavor

Sub-ohm vaping causes your vapor to be much more flavorful.

The reason for the increased flavor is exactly the same as the reason for the bigger clouds: more dense vapor is being produced due to the size of the coils and the more dense vapor you draw with each puff, the more flavor you get.

sub ohm cloud

Warmer Vapor

The extra heat that is produced also causes the vapor to be warmer. While a cool vapor is preferred by a lot of people, there are plenty of fans of warm vapor.

For them, sub-ohm vaping is one of the best ways to go to achieve the temperature that they want.

It’s a fun hobby

For some people, spending the time to learn the art of coil building, the factors of electricity, and actually building the vape coils seems like a nightmare.

For a lot of people it can be a fun hobby, and the satisfaction of blowing a huge cloud vape of an atomizer that you rebuilt yourself is well worth the effort.

If you’re the type who isn’t mechanically inclined or doesn’t have the time to rebuild, there are non-rebuildable sub-ohm tanks available. Make sure that you read reviews of different mechanical mods and tanks to make sure that you’re getting the best gear for your money.

Are there any downsides to sub-ohm vaping?

Other than the initial cost of buying the necessary atomizer and mechanical mod, the downsides are limited.

You’ll run out of e-juice much quicker, which is to be expected since so much more vapor is produced compared to vaping at regular resistance levels.

Additionally, you’re batteries will drain quicker so you’ll need to have fully charged batteries as backup if you’re planning on vaping for an extended amount of time.

Is sub-ohm vaping dangerous?

The short answer, it can be. Like anything else, with the proper knowledge, sub-ohm vaping can be perfectly safe.

subohm scarface

Sub-ohming is only recommended for advanced vapers. If you’ve just started vaping or feel like you don’t have enough knowledge about important topics like Ohm’s Law, then sub-ohm vaping is not for you.

You’ll possibly injure yourself and will give credence to the people who are against vaping and would like to see it regulated out of existence. Before sub-ohming you’ll need to spend a lot of time researching the proper way to vape at sub-ohm levels and the possible risks.

Sub Ohming Clearomizers

Until recently, this phrase was unimaginable, or impractical. Now, it’s the latest clearomizer trend.

Thanks to the companies like Kangertech, Aspire & VaporFi; there are now sub ohming clearomizers that you can sub-ohm out of the box. Let’s take a look at the sub ohming clearos out there:

Aspire Atlantis

Aspire Atlantis Review - Sub Ohming Cloud Chasing

The Aspire Atlantis was the first vape tank on the market that had hybrid clearomizer and RBA functionality.

Newbie vapers will be able to experience advanced vaping from a beginner’s point of view with the Atlantis.

>> Check Out Our Full Review on the Aspire Atlantis Sub-Ohming Clearomizer <<

Aspire Atlantis Mini

Rumors, unfortunately. We haven’t seen any signs of an Aspire Atlantis Mini, but we shouldn’t give up just yet.

Expect Aspire to be busy working on the Atlantis Mini, as now they have 3 Kanger tanks to compete against. We address the Atlantis Mini rumors in a previous post.