One thing everyone knows about smoking is that it stinks. Even most smokers think so. Although tobacco can present an incredible variety of different flavor profiles, stale smoke residue always smells awful. So awful, in fact, that a smoky smell can lower the value of your house and car and even make it difficult for you to act naturally in social situations with non-smokers. Vapes, on the other hand, don’t stink at all. In fact, that’s one of the biggest reasons why smokers are switching to vaping by the thousands every day – because they’re tired of smelling awful.
What exactly does a vape smell like, though? The answer is that, unlike cigarettes, a vape smells exactly like it tastes. As with so many other aspects of vaping, though, this topic gets even more interesting when you dig into it a bit – and that’s exactly what we’re about to do. Here are the answers to every question you’ve ever had about the smell of vaping.
Do Vapes Have a Smell?
Yes. Vapes do have a smell – and as we explained above, the smell is essentially the same as the flavor of the e-liquid you’re using. If you’re enjoying a blue razz vape, for instance, your immediate surroundings are going to smell like blue raspberry during your vaping session.
Based on that information, an interesting question might come to your mind: Do tobacco vapes smell like tobacco? The answer to that question is “not really.” If you’ve had a few tobacco-flavored vapes, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that they don’t taste like cigarettes. E-liquid makers use different combinations of food flavorings to create flavor profiles that resemble tobacco and hit the palate in a similar way. In comparison to smoking, though, vaping doesn’t recreate the complicated chemical byproducts that occur in combustion. So, if you’re using a tobacco-flavored vape, there will definitely be a smell just as there would be with any other flavor – but it'll smell like tobacco flavoring and not like an actual cigarette.
Are you concerned about the vape smell because you have some family members with sensitive noses? If do, you might want to try a flavor that’s a bit milder. Many menthol vapes, for instance, don’t contain any flavoring agents other than menthol and sometimes mint. You could also try some unflavored clear vapes, which contain no added flavors at all except a bit of menthol in some cases. People around you will find that these vapes have almost no scent at all.
The more strongly flavored your vape is, on the other hand, the more people will notice the smell.
How Long Does a Vape Smell Linger?
We’ve answered the question of how long vape smoke stays in the air in detail elsewhere on this site, and we encourage you to read that article if you’d like more information. In short, though, the smell of a vape lingers until the vapor dissipates. That’s usually just a matter of seconds unless you’re:
- Vaping in a very small space with little or no airflow.
- Chain vaping without ever giving the vapor a chance to dissipate between puffs.
- Using an extremely powerful vape mod that’s saturating the air with vapor.
In most normal vaping scenarios, the smell goes away pretty much as soon as you stop puffing.
Do Vapes Leave a Smell in Your House, Car or Clothes?
Unlike with smoking, you generally don’t have to worry about vaping leaving a lingering smell in your house or car or on your clothes. That’s because the vapor doesn’t have the tar component of cigarette smoke that causes it to stick to every surface. If you have even a little airflow in your environment and aren’t chain vaping in a small, enclosed space, the smell will be virtually gone when your vaping session ends.
If you do happen to notice a mild lingering smell after you vape, it’s a good thing that the ingredients of e-liquid are water soluble – so removing the smell will be easy.
How to Remove an Unwanted Vape Smell
Let’s suppose that you’ve spent a good amount of time vaping in an enclosed space, and you find that you actually can smell the residue in that space or on your clothes. If you don’t want your environment to smell like cotton candy, you’re in luck because getting rid of a lingering vape smell is actually quite easy.
How to Remove a Vape Smell from Clothes
This one is easy. You can simply launder the clothes as normal, and that should be all that you need to do. If that doesn’t work, try washing the clothes again with your regular detergent along with a scoop or two of bleach alternative. Bleach alternative is essentially powdered hydrogen peroxide. In addition to neutralizing odors, the peroxide produces millions of tiny bubbles that provide additional agitation and can help to remove persistent scents.
How to Remove a Vape Smell from a Room
Removing a vape smell from a room is a little harder because the room may have carpeting, linens and other soft items that will absorb strong scents. Here’s what you need to do.
- Remove any curtains, blankets and sheets and launder them. Once again, you shouldn’t need to use anything other than your regular detergent – but you can add a bit of bleach alternative for extra cleaning power if you like.
- Vacuum the floor. If the room has a hard floor, you may also want to mop it. If you can still detect the vape smell after you’ve finished cleaning the other parts of the room, you might want to rent a carpet cleaner from your local supermarket – but this shouldn’t be necessary.
- Clean the walls and ceiling with warm water and a mild detergent.
- Clean the windows with your preferred glass cleaner.
How to Remove a Vape Smell from Your Car
If you enjoy vaping in your car, cracking a window is really all that you need to do to keep the smell from building up. If you haven’t done that, here’s how to remove the vape smell.
- Vacuum the floor and upholstery thoroughly. If you need to use liquid to provide additional cleaning power, you can use a leather cleaning compound on leather seats or an upholstery cleaner on fabric seats. If you’re using an upholstery cleaner that foams, it’ll be helpful to have a wet/dry vacuum handy to get rid of any excess liquid. Keep liquid away from the car’s headliner because you don’t want it to sag.
- Clean the hard components of the car such as the doors and dashboard with auto cleaning wipes. Compared to all-purpose cleaners, auto wipes are typically less likely to leave streaks.
- Clean the insides of the windows with your preferred glass cleaner. After cleaning the windows, dry them thoroughly with paper towels to help prevent streaking.
- If you’ve been vaping in your car with the windows up, you may also want to replace the cabin air filter because your car’s climate control system recirculates the air throughout the vehicle. A new cabin air filter usually costs around $25, and in most cases, you’ll find the existing filter behind the glove compartment. Check your car’s instruction manual to confirm the location. Even if you don’t do any of your own auto work, you can most likely replace your own cabin air filter in just a few minutes.
Final Thoughts: How to Prevent an Unwanted Vape Smell
Reading this article, you’ve learned that vaping generally has almost no smell – and what little smell there is will go away in a short time as the vapor dissipates. With that being said, though, it’s possible that you have family members with sensitive noses. Although they certainly support your decision to switch from smoking to vaping, they may not be terribly fond of the vape smell. In order to keep the smell of vaping to an absolute minimum, consider doing these things.
- Vape outdoors or in locations with some airflow. If you’re vaping in your house or car, open the windows. In your car, you can also blow the vapor out the window.
- Don’t vape in small, enclosed spaces unless you can provide airflow. Your car, for instance, will definitely smell like vapor if you don’t ever open the windows.
- Consider using a vape that’s unflavored or mildly flavored. The more strongly flavored your e-liquid is, the stronger the smell will be. There’s a large selection of menthol and unflavored vapes and vape juices that produce little to no odor.
- Consider switching to a vape that isn’t quite so powerful. The more vapor a device produces per puff, the stronger the smell will be. A smaller vape, on the other hand, produces vapor that dissipates almost immediately.
- If you do notice a vape smell on your clothes or in your home or car, removing the smell will be an easy project because the flavors in vape juice are water soluble. You can remove the smell easily with ordinary detergents and household cleaners.