What you need to know about vaping and fire and smoke alarms

As an 18+ user of vapes, have you ever wondered if your vaping could accidentally trigger a fire alarm? Here’s what you need to know about how fire and smoke alarms work and how to avoid any unwanted situations.

You cannot vape indoors at workplaces, restaurants, licensed premises, hospitals, schools and early childhood centers (including outdoors). You can vape inside specialist vape retailers such as IQVape, Shosha and Cosmic. It's always polite to ask permission when visiting friends of families.

There’s a big difference between fire alarms and smoke alarms. If fact, smoke alarms are a misconception. They are in fact smoke detectors, and they work alongside a fire alarm.

When smoke fills a room, the smoke detector is what detects the smoke. The smoke detector will then notify the fire alarm, which will alert people in the building.

There are different types of smoke detectors and fire alarms. Each works differently and may be more or less likely to react to the vapour from an e-cigarette.

Heat alarms are unlikely to detect vapour. They respond to heat instead of smoke and are mostly used within kitchens. It’s worth nothing that a heat alarm will usually respond to a temperature of around 58⁰ Celsius.

An optical alarm Is the most likely to be triggered by vapour. It reacts when smoke enters its system and interrupts the internal infrared light. In most cases, these alarms will not be triggered by an e-cigarette and the vapour emitted by it.

Modern fire alarm systems have been designed to ignore non-hazardous vapours and, in most cases, your vape shouldn’t trigger them. However, there’s still a chance vaping could set off a fire alarm. To avoid that, you can follow these tips:

1. Don’t use your vape close to a smoke detector or fire alarm.
2. Choose an environment with good ventilation.
3. Be extra careful when vaping, and don’t create any dense vapour clouds.