Our Advice For Vaping Safely During a Pandemic

We have been navigating life with COVID-19 for well over a year now, learning how to change our habits to adjust to the ‘new normal’. With the Delta variant making its way into New Zealand’s community last month, now is the perfect opportunity to take a look at your vaping habits to make sure you’re keeping everything hygienic. From how to clean your pod vape to vaping etiquette, we’ve got all the precautions listed here to help you vape safely during the pandemic.

Disinfect Frequently

One of the best things you can do to protect yourself is disinfect. Unlike traditional, single-use cigarettes, vapes are used for a long period of time, touching an immense amount of surfaces—think about all the places you’ve placed, or dropped, your vape in the last week. It touches your mouth, hands, pockets, the ground, etc. We know it’s pretty gross, but that’s why you clean it!

If you’re wondering how to clean a pod vape, we recommend keeping some disinfectant wipes handy and giving it a quick wipe down whenever you’re topping up your vape pod. This is an easy way to work the habit into your routine, so you can be confident that you’re taking a clean hit. 

Pod vape mouthpieces are generally replaced after up to a month of use (depending on your pod). Replacing the coil brings good flavour, but a new pod brings a fresh, clean mouthpiece too.

Bigger devices can also be cleaned with disinfectant wipes. They can take a bit more of a thorough job, as the bigger mods are filled with nooks for bacteria to hide in. Often, mod mouthpieces are only replaced when they’re completely worn out, or lost. Make it a habit to purchase a new one every month or so to minimise the chances of nasty bacteria coming into contact with your mouth. For the harder to reach areas, a cotton bud with a tiny about of isopropyl alcohol will do the job!

Whenever you’re cleaning your device, take care around screens, buttons, and ports—and give the disinfectant a few minutes to air dry before taking a hit from your clean device.

Don’t Share Devices

There’s not much else to this one other than the title. Don’t share devices. Just as primary school teachers stressed to you constantly with sharing drink bottles—sharing vapes is a surefire way to spread germs, get sick, and get others sick too. Even if you know how to clean your pod vape, don’t give your mate a hit. Now’s the time to be selfish!

One more time for the people in the back, don’t share your vapes!

Be Mindful When Vaping in Public Spaces

The chances of getting sick from the second-hand vapour are pretty low, but it’s not just about being healthy, it’s also about etiquette. When you exhale vapour, it’s sort of like you can see your breath. As the highly transmissible Delta strain of the COVID-19 virus is still around, people don’t want to smell or walk through vapour. Stay respectful—vape in quiet spaces with no foot traffic, at home, in your car—just not in a random stranger’s face.

Avoid Shopping for Supplies In-Store

The past two years have seen the world spending an increasing amount of time at home—only leaving for essential items—with New Zealand’s COVID-19 response including various levels of lockdown. With regions throughout New Zealand (at the time of writing) easing out of Level 4 restrictions, our stores have begun to re-open their doors to our loyal customers. We are thrilled to be able to interact with our customers again, albeit, from the store-front at a 2m distance, but we still urge our customers to shop online when they can.

As an essential service, we will always be operating online, bringing New Zealanders the products they need to quit the smokes. As an (ex-)smoker, you may already have some lung-related issues that could make you vulnerable to the virus. When your region hits Level 3, or lower, drop into your local Vape Crew store if you feel it’s safe to do so, but we ask that you think about your own safety first. An extra little tip: our shipping is really fast!

We’re Here to Up Your Vaping Game!

Life’s getting pretty weird, but knowing how to navigate this pandemic as a vaper is the key to upping your vaping game. We’ve got vape starter kits, E-liquids, tanks, and coils you need to survive any lockdown. If you need to stock up, just make an order online, or drop into a store (if it’s safe to do so) and we can help you out! Apply our advice, and vape safely.