Common coil problems vapers face every day – and their solutions

Here’s a question; are you finding you’re getting through e-cig coils faster than you feel you ought to be? Or are you getting an unpleasant burnt and/ or bad taste from your vape? If so, don’t be concerned, you’re merely experiencing two of the common issues vapers come across with their coils every day of their vaping lives. Indeed, there are several varied factors that can negatively affect a coil’s lifespan (a regular coil ought to last anything from 1-3 weeks, on average) – and here then we take a look at these different factors, the problems they create and what you can do about them…

The coil taste is unpleasant or clearly burnt

The quickest way to ruin an e-cig coil is not to prime it – or to not prime it properly. Don’t worry, faulty coils aren’t common but burnt-tasting one can be if you don’t look after them or don’t use your e-cig device correctly. Indeed, they’re undoubtedly chiefly caused by poor priming. The fact is, if you don’t prime your coil right it may be quickly ruined, let alone you experiencing that all unpleasant burnt taste.

What to do? Yes, as stated you need to prime each of your device’s new coils properly; if you don’t know how to, learn. Doing a bit of research never hurt anybody, right?

The coil’s been burnt due to too high a voltage/ wattage

Be aware that setting your device to a high voltage or wattage could well make a new coil ‘pop’, which is very likely to make you conclude your coil’s a faulty one when it actually isn’t at all

What to do? Like it or not, some coils aren’t rated that highly so be careful and subject them to less power than you otherwise would. Increasingly, coils are manufactured and sold with their ratings clearly marked on them, enabling you to be on the safe side here.

So, when it comes to standard coils, begin at the lowest setting should your battery be variable voltage and after around an hour’s vaping turn it up to your normal level. When it comes to sub-ohm coils, begin at the lowest setting of its range (as marked on the coil) and, as the day goes on, turn it up to your favoured level.

The coil’s been burnt due to chain-vaping

It’s all too easy to burn-out a coil via chain-vaping (that is, excessive vaping over a relatively short period of time). E-cig coils – even if purchased from reputable retails dealing in vape liquid wholesale UK – aren’t designed to be fired continuously and take the burden of what that demands of them. In short then, chain-vaping will simply shorten a coil’s life; most likely, significantly so.

What to do? Quite obviously, don’t chain-vape – just wait a little longer than you have been between puffs; at most, aim for about a 20 second pause. Also, you might want to make sure your device is properly switched off when it’s not in use (and idly lying in your pocket, perhaps); most e-cigs have a 10-second-cut-off – does yours? Are you firing when you don’t realise you are?

The coil’s been burnt due to e-liquid running too low

Do you vape when the e-juice in your tank’s below the coil’s saturation holes? If so, stop this habit because it has a tendency of causing the coil to burn-out, thus, resulting in a burnt taste and/ or a dry hit.

What to do? Be sure, the e-liquid in your tank always covers the coil sufficiently; a good habit to get into is to remember to keep your tank topped up, so enduring you never let it run too low.

The coil’s clogged up with e-liquid

Take note; the higher the vegetable glycerine (VG) level in your vape juice, the thicker (or the more viscous) it’ll be when you vape the stuff – plus, a number of different flavourings comprise higher levels of sugars than others, thus resulting in more viscosity too. What’s the issue here then? Well, with high-VG juices, the thickness of the juice may mean wicking material inside the coil may not saturate quickly enough before the coil’s heated, which results in the coil getting hot, yes, but dry parts in the coil remain which may very well burn during the vaping process. And, look out; when this occurs the performance and efficacy over time of the coil’ll be severely affected.

What to do? A standard (or basic) e-cig coil – that is, one possessing a minimum resistance of between 1.5 ohms and 2.5 ohm coils etc) – aren’t best suited to vaping with high-VG juices. Instead, if you’re set on vaping these liquids, go for those that offer a 70% PG/ 30% VG ratio (PG is short for propylene glycol; the other major e-juice ingredient responsible for the kind of vape various different e-liquids are capable of delivering).

The coil’s leaking

Leaking around the part of the e-cig device where the coil’s naturally positioned (that is, in the bottom of the tank) is more often than not owing to the coil’s o-ring having not been fixed into place – either correctly or not at all. This means then that the coil won’t be properly sealed in the tank, so the juice can merrily run past it and leak out through bottom of the tank. Bad times.

What to do? Start by checking the coil’s o-ring is in place and fixed where it ought to be (if you’re not sure how it should fix together and appear when right, check a new coil), putting emphasis on how tight the o-ring is; it should feel like a tightly wound elastic band. Beyond this, the coil needs to be screwed into place until it feels nicely and tightly snug (tight but not forced, that is). That said, you may want to try easing off on the screwing in of your tank; it may make just a little, useful difference. Finally, a leak may down to a very ‘thin’ liquids (one with a higher PG content than VG content); so, if you’re using sub-ohm coils in addition to a thin e-liquid, you’ll be using the wrong kind of liquid for the sub-ohm coils (which are specifically manufactured for vaping with high-VG e-juices).