How long does it take to absorb vapor?

Cuz I read somewhere that vapor absorbs slower than smoke, and as I haven't vaped before as of yet, I'm not sure how long to hold it in. How much vapor (relative to smoke) do you inhale and how long do you hold it in order to minimize the visible cloud emitted upon exhale (I am assuming that visible vapor= wasted chemicals)? Thanks for tolerating me and my probably noob Q's.

There are others on here way more experienced than I, but personally, I just hold it until it just until I start to need air again. Remember - when you exhale, you want as little vapor wasted as possible. As for the hit size, I'm able to completely fill my lungs, unlike with smoking, but some people prefer smaller hits so they can hold it in longer. Just a preference, I suppose.

Note: I play the saxophone professionally, so my lung capacity is far greater than the average, so maybe taking in full lungs isn't the way to go for everyone. This may be simply because they can't hold it long enough. Again, back to preference.

Perhaps I should have mentioned that due to smoking a good bit in the very recent past and lack of regular substantial cardio exercise, I imagine that I have a slightly diminished lung capacity. Interesting that you mention that larger exhaled clouds means more loss of 'the goods'. Assuming that exhaled vapor is directly related to time held, I will rephrase the question (by editing my original post).

This has been discussed and debated, I remember reading in a medical study done with a volcano and if I recall it stated that it took about 8 seconds

Relative to smoke, I'd say you should hold the vapor in much longer, simply because it's easier to do so. Unlike smoke, the vapor shouldn't really burn (at least not that much, every now and then it burns a little), so you don't have that biological reaction to cough. It should feel like you're just holding in good ol' air. That being said, if you have diminished lung capacity, I'd say that you should fill up your lungs half with normal air, then fill up the rest with vapor. That way you could hold it in easier and longer. Just an opinion though, I'm not a doctor.

don't know of it actually takes longer, but I can hold in vapor easily and I like to just hold it in, in a re;axed way(I always top up with plenty of air), then let it slowly go, often I tilt my head backwards so it flows nice slowly away from me
sometimes I also exhale in multiple times
the last bit(just a whiff) of an exhale often goes trough my nose, especially the earlier hits, and the very first hit entirely

ever heard of rebreatheing?

take a monster hit that fills your lung capacity (or any size hit really...)

exhale maybe 20% of your lung capacity, and breathe back in. repeat until no more vapor comes out. you are increasing your lungs exposure time to the vapor by doing this.

a good practice to do every singe time you vape? maybe not... effective? yes

Hmmm... Solid technique, you could effectively keep your lungs almost filled with vapor, without any oxygen deprivation. Perhaps you could exhale 20% and take another hit, repeat a few times, exhale it all. Throw some good ol' O2 in the mix and you're golden.

Or this.

Can anyone confirm/disconfirm 8 seconds? Sounds a little objective for such a subjective matter, maybe its an average...

I am more interested in how long can your lungs absorb vapor efficiently ?I am quite sure that i absorb more vapor in the first 5-10 secs than in the next 20-30 sec ?

I think so too. That's why I suggested taking multiple hits spaced out- you continuously replace vapor by exhaling the old vapor and inhaling more. Combine this with small hits, and I don't see how you wouldn't be absorbing it! I have come to the conclusion that taking many small hits spaced out over a few seconds (also whilst inhaling small amounts of air in between every few hits) would be the most efficient method of inhaling vapor. Thoughts or counter-intuitions on/to this statement?

in the volcano website you can find the studies where you can confirm that info..

It would have to be an average, yeah - anything to do with the human body will be subject to change. Even the body temperature; the average is 98.6 F, but I run at 99.0. This is normal, and you'd be surprised how few people actually have a perfect 98.6. The same will go with vaping.


UPDATE (for the gist of this, go to the bottom in bold):
So, I just got off the phone with a friend, who just recently became a doctor, and here is what he has to say. There is what is known as residual air in your lungs - basically a holdover so your body is still getting oxygen even while you exhale. However, our lungs are quite bad at doing this, and you can feel the effect of our lungs not being efficient enough when you get the wind knocked out of you. See, the residual has an extremely low oxygen density for various reasons that don't matter. When the wind gets knocked out of you, you immediately replace that residual air with fresh air. This causes a surge of fresh oxygen throughout your body, and you go, somewhat, into shock. That's why you gasp when the wind gets knocked out of you - your body is trying to fix the problem by introducing more and more non-oxygen atoms to the residual air. Why does this matter? Here's why: You can replace as much of the residual air as possible by using your chest to take in a very deep (i.e. your stomach shouldn't expand) while hitting the blunt/vape, thus introducing your smoke/vape into the residual air, where it sits much longer than the stuff you exhaled.

Here's the short version: Basically, for as high efficiency as possible, you need to take every hit with a very deep chest inhale. This isn't very comfortable to do, obviously, but that's how to vape/smoke with the best results.

@HuskerMath, i agree with you! I learned about residual air in pathophysiology and pretty much the same thing you said is what we learned

thx for taking the time to type it up for us all!

HuskerMath, I'm confused why you wouldn't want to be breathing with your diaphragm (where your stomach would extend as you're inhaling)

I think I'm already doing that, especially with combustion if I've taken multiple hits I often can still see smoke 2-3 exhales after my last hit

for large hits i rebreath the hit until i see very little or no vapor, otherwise i take smaller hits that do not require holding it to the point of significant loss of comfort. i find that i can hold hits for nearly a minute easily if im patient enough to take the first bowl with only very small hits, the more vaped i am the less i have the need to breath i guess.

Because when you breath with your diaphragm (which is the instinctual thing to do), you're mainly replacing the air in the upper alveoli (air sacs). When you do a chest breath, you're hitting as many as possible. And note that even though you are taking a chest breath, you're still using your diaphragm, just not to the extent that you would if you breathed normally.

Allow me to do the math.

Let's just say, for every time you inhale, you exhale 50% thc. So if you inhale 3-4 times with a whip and about 20-25 times with a bag....

Whip Vap vs Bag Vap.

Whip Vap = More vapor in 1 hit, more THC lost when exhaling, usualy more weed.
Bag Vap = Less vapor in 1 hit, hardly any THC lost when exhaling, usualy less weed.

That means with a bag, you are hardly exhaling any thc because there's considerably less in every hit than with a whip vaporizer.

I mean come on, you don't see any whip vaporizers cost as much as the volcano. And i mean, using very little weed. The more you use, the more THC you will lose on the exhale.

It's all about finding the right formula with a bag that will allow you to finish it before the THC starts degrading and the right ratio for weed to air, so that your lungs inhale air as a majority and THC as a minority, which in turn allows the most efficient administration of THC without losing any when you exhale.

dude.. you are bad on math.. or i am on meth..
So you exhale 50 % thc ...(this is highly variable on your material..+ you better check the vapor content thread before doing that math.. )when you hit the silver surfer but none when you hit a bag..
I can say other thing.. You vapor is degrading while it is in you bag.. So if you do 25 hits.. it will take even more time..
Have in mind that real life math .. is something complex.. not just school junior adding,multiplying dividing.. There are so many gives or takes in that equation that i highly doubt you can even count them..

I disagree.
Vapor in a bag has a much longer time to condense while its sitting in there, leading to an (IMO) greater loss of THC before the user has actually inhaled.
I also find that bag vapes require a larger load than whip vapes in general.

I also don't understand your math, because you didn't show your workings

Here's how I see it:
Lets say that a set amount of weed will produce the same amount of vapor (which I'm gonna call "THC Units"). and for simplicity sake, I'll assume the condensation is the same between a whip and a bag.

Whip vape:
4 hits
25 THC units per hit
12.5 THC units per exhale
50 units absorbed, 50 units exhaled

Bag Vape:
25 hits
4 THC units per hit
2 THC units per exhale
50 units absorbed, 50 units exhaled.

Not to mention that i can get more than 25 hits per load.. with the silver surfer.. You can start really low temp.. or do really small drags it is up to the user..
If you cant control your inhalation rate or dial knob stick to bags..

Pakalolo, i went to the website but i can't find it anymore.. :S

But i have a few studies in pdf, if you want i'll email them to you, including one that sums up most of the info up until now.

After some googling, here are some useful links:

http://www.cannabis-med.org/index.php?tpl=cannabinoidslist&lng=en

http://cannabis-science.com/papers/cannabinoids and endo system.pdf