Vaping has become increasingly popular as a way to help you quit smoking. Whilst we all relax as we enjoy some late-night gaming or streaming, you might be tempted to vape near your PC.
Vaping can have hidden, largely unknown, effects on the performance of your gaming PC and your health in the long-term. We’re taking a closer look at the hidden impacts that vaping can have on our PCs to determine whether it’s safe to do so around your computer.
What is Vaping?
Vaping is an alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes. It simulates traditional tobacco smoking, but instead, you inhale a vapour. Vaping can still consist of nicotine. However, since the nicotine is heated up by the e-liquid within the cartridge, you are exposed to far fewer toxins at a much lower level. This has made it become a popular method to help people try and quit smoking.
Is Vaping Safe Around Computer Hardware?
You might enjoy vaping around your PC whilst you game or watch your favourite content creator. However, unknown to you, this is having long-term negative effects on your hardware.
Vaping produces an aerosol that contains small droplets of liquid and chemicals. The most common of which is VG (Vegetable Glycerine). As these droplets condense, they settle as a residue coating any surfaces around you, including your PC, monitor, and peripherals. After consistent periods of vaping, more residue will build up, creating a sticky film full of chemicals and even nicotine.
This is where the problems arise. The layers of build up will infiltrate the interior of your PC resulting in a number of complications and even damage to your hardware.
What Are the Negative Effects of Vaping Around a PC?
Cooling
Your PC needs plenty of natural airflow circulating throughout it to keep your components cool and performing at optimum levels. As you vape, the air around your PC is becoming full of the chemicals and nicotine released by vaping, which is then being drawn into your PC by the fans and vents.
As the fans draw in the vapours, the residue will be left behind. This will ultimately have a notable impact on the cooling capabilities of your PC. Any fans or vents that are covered in layers of sticky residue won’t be able to effectively draw and dissipate excess heat, which may result in a drop in performance or even your PC overheating.
What’s more, as air is trying to circulate throughout these fans, it may even spread the build-up onto other components, including vital hardware such as the motherboard, graphics card, and RAM. Once the residue sticks to these and the layers of build-up begin to form, you increase the risk of serious damage, including corrosion and component failure.
The residue can also make your PC a dust magnet. It serves as the perfect layer for dust to stick to. If your fans are already struggling to keep up, the increase in dust levels will only make things worse.
Moisture + Electronics = Damage
We all know that our precious PCs don’t like to be near water or moisture. When you vape around your PC, you are creating a large amount of moisture in the air because of the vapours and aerosol droplets. If this reaches the interior of your PC, your hardware may short-circuit.
Pair this with poor quality airflow, or hardware overheating, and it results in a lot of complications, damage, and expensive repairs to get your PC back in tip top shape.
Sticky Peripherals
It’s not just the interior components that you have to worry about. Vaping will also leave behind that sticky build-up on your peripherals. You may end up with keypresses that are stiff and not responsive or a smudgy film-covered monitor, which certainly won’t be helpful during the heat of battle.
How to Stop the Damage from Vaping
If you want to avoid vaping having any effect on your PC and components, the best way to do this is to stop vaping around your PC altogether. However, if you do want to continue, there are some steps you can take to help stop the damage.
First up, is keeping up with regular cleaning of the interior of your PC. If you’ve found that your system does have an excess of residue, gently wipe the layers off with a dry cloth. It might take a few tries to completely remove the residue.
If you want some help with keeping your PC looking factory fresh, then our collection of spring cleaning guides is for you. We’ve got plenty of top tips and tricks for making your PC clean, fresh, and sparkling.
Secondly, if you are vaping around your PC, open a window. This will notably help to increase the circulation of natural clean airflow, prevent the droplets from settling, and serve as an exit point for any vapours.
You can also opt to keep a distance away from your set up whilst you vape. Standing up every hour or so for a quick snack or walking away for a vape break is not only good for your back, but you can also protect your system from the damage of vaping.
Don’t blow the vapours directly into your PC. Yes, we’re going to say it, as believe it or not we’re not the only ones who have! Blowing the vapours into your PC via the intake fans will increase the chances of the residue forming inside your system.
Vaping and Your PC Warranty
Finally, it’s important to note that the damage from vaping may even void the warranty of your hardware. This means if you do need to return your PC to us, your warranty won’t cover the cost of the repairs.
The below images are of a gaming PC that was returned to us with notable vaping damage after only one month of use.
Do You Vape Around Your PC?
Do you vape around your PC or console? What are your experiences? Share them with us below.
- 6 min read
Ruth Rowley
Author
Ruth has been with Overclockers UK for over a year and has gone on to write about everything ranging from in-depth hardware guides to monthly game releases.
Outside of writing blog posts, she can be found wrapped in a blanket with her black cat, engrossed in a book or playing life-simulation games such as The Sims, Stardew Valley, and Animal Crossing.
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