Burnt hits – ah yes, the bane of a vaper’s existence. They’re far from pleasant and, let’s be honest, unless you know why, you’re bound to wonder why they occur. Well, more often than not, should you be suddenly plagued by a burnt hit, it’s more than likely to have something to do with your e-cig device’s coil.
For rookies who may not be totally au fait with vaping yet, the coil of your device is its heating element – it’s through this that a current passes from the battery to the wick when you fire up your e-cig or mod, in order to heat up and transform into vapour the e-liquid you’ve filled the device with. At the end of this coil, the wick will be saturated in the e-fluid, thus able to heat up and vaporise it.
Here then are a few tips for preventing the coil from doing what it shouldn’t (i.e. burning) and giving you those hateful burnt hits…
Prime your coil
What does priming a coil mean – and how do you do it? It’s very simple and basically consists of dripping two or three drops of e-liquid on to the coil and its wick. For optimum performance then, you ought to be priming your e-cig device’s coil enough, so it appears wet but not totally saturated – be warned; should you soak it, you could well experience leakages. Now, unfortunately, there is a chance you might still experience a burnt taste following priming (it far from always happens but sometimes does, usually only if the coil’s housed in an atomiser head). But this will basically occur when a vaper isn’t priming the coil enough, as it’s more enclosed in a device when located in the atomiser head. Finally, to complete a successful coil-priming, take a few puffs on your e-cig without pushing the firing button, in order for the fluid to properly saturate the wick.
Cut down on chain vaping
Taking its cue from chain smoking with tobacco, chain vaping simply refers to the practice of continuous vaping, one puff after another ad infinitum. The trouble with this, as far as your coil’s concerned, is it dries out the wick considerably faster than would otherwise be the case – and faster than the wick can be saturated to keep up. As made clear above in the paragraph about priming, wicks in all e-cigs and vape mods have to be pretty much constantly saturated to ensure dry and/ or burnt hits don’t occur. Be aware; if suddenly while you’re puffing away you can’t taste any flavour at all, within seconds you’re highly likely to experience a burnt hit.
Dial down on the power
By merely lowering the wattage – and, therefore, the power – you’re vaping at, you’ll inevitably use up less e-liquid, ensure the wick dries out slower and, crucially, the coil and the wick last longer and the latter is less likely to burn out. Essentially then, by turning down the wattage and power settings on your device, you’re reducing the burden on the coil and wick just as you would be by ceasing to chain vape.
Top up your tank
If you’re vaping via an e-cig device that’s fitted with a tank (to hold the e-juice as it’s vaped), then you’ll have to make sure the level of the fluid in the tank doesn’t drop into and below the ‘juice holes’ in the latter. Should the level get too low, the wick won’t be saturated with fluid enough and, yes, a burnt coil and burnt hits will be almost inevitable side effects. How to avoid this for sure? Why, just top up your tank on a good, regular basis. Or, should this not be an entirely practical solution, you could try tilting the tank from one side to side so the fluid doesn’t enter the juice holes when it’s getting dangerously close, but this is far from ideal when vaping, for obvious reasons.
Don’t forget temperature control
Many an e-cig device is blessed with features and each of them are there for a good reason – so don’t forget to make use of them! Included here, and relevant to this subject, is the temperature control. The trick is to set the temperature to that which the coils should ideally reach when you fire up the device and get going with your vaping. Why? Because, when the temperature reaches this point, the power will be cut off, so the coil and wick can’t get any hotter and, thus, aren’t capable of burning.
Additionally, some devices enable users to set the wattage, which affords you further control, as it determines how quickly a pre-set temperature will be reached. Note, though, that such temperature control is only possible with devices that feature specific coils, such as those manufactured from nickel, steel and titanium.