Why Does My Vape Taste Burnt with a New Coil?

So, you’ve just replaced the coil in your vaping device. You sit down to enjoy your first puff and instead of the lovely flavour you were expecting, you get a mouthful of burnt unpleasantness. Nasty! How many of you have been in this situation? No matter what sort of vaping device is used or how experience a vaper you are most of you will have a ‘dry hit’ at least once.

 

Luckily, this doesn’t mean that your vaping device is ruined. Here are some helpful pointers to ensure that dry hit doesn’t ruin your day!

 

Why does my Vape Taste Burnt?

 

The most likely answer to this is that the wick is burnt.

 

The wick is the cotton that, depending on your vape device, runs through or is wrapped around your coils. It soaks up the e-juice that you use to prime your coils (more about this later) and when you fill your tank. This keeps your coils wet and the liquid that is closest to your coils heats to the point of vaporisation, resulting in the lovely clouds that we all know and love!

 

If for some reason your wick fails to saturate with e-liquid, this could overheat the coils, causing the cotton to burn.

 

To remedy this there are two things that you can try:

 

1. There’s a possibility that cleaning your coil head could get rid of the burnt flavour. If this can be rescued it will save you some money as coil heads can be expensive. If it’s too badly damaged try the next fix.

 

2. You will need to install a new coil head. Follow these quick steps to see how:

 

• Unscrew the casing to reveal the vape coil.
• Unscrew the coil head from it’s stowage.
• Screw in the new one.
• Prime and fill the device with e-liquid and leave to soak.
• Time to vape!

 

Burning your wick can be avoided by priming your coils when you first install them. Priming is the process of lubricating the coils and wick with e-liquid to saturate them enough to cause them to produce vapour, once heated. Not priming your coils results in the burning of the wick, as stated above, and that unpleasant dry hit. It is best practice to prime your coils when changing them and should be done every time new ones are fitted.

 

 

 

 

To prime your coils:

 

• Unscrew the cap to expose the coil head.
• Around the coil head you will see little holes exposing the wick. Insert one drop of e-liquid into each of these.
• Put some drops of the e-liquid on to the coil head itself to completely saturate it being careful only to use a few drops. Any more will result in a mouthful of juice when you first inhale!
• Put the tank back together.
• Fill the tank with e-liquid.
• Without switching the device on or pressing the fire button inhale on your vaping device to draw liquid into the coils.
• Allow the wick to soak for five minutes.

 

Other Issues to Look Out For

 

If you have just changed your coils and you experience dry hit. The above causes are going to be the first things to check. If you know you have followed the priming process carefully, there are other causes to dry hit and these are listed below:

 

• Wattage – Vaping on a higher wattage limit than what your coil head is designed for, will result in a dry hit. It’s always advisable to check the wattage limit on your coil head and to not exceed this on your vaping device.

 

• Empty Tank/Wick – If the tank in your vaping device is not kept topped up you will draw air into your wick and not e-liquid. This causes the wick to dry out and start to burn. Similarly, if you are taking off the casing regularly exposing the holes that you prime the wick with, these can again dry the wick out causing the same issue. Ensure that you are topping up your e-liquid regularly and you are not exposing the wicking ports unnecessarily.

 

• Chain Vaping – As pleasant as it can be to chain vape, some coils just can’t handle it. When you chain vape, it causes the tank to overheat, this causes the e-liquid inside to become thinner and vaporise too quickly for the coils to saturate it. If you are partial to chain vaping ensure that you are looking at reviews for good coils for your device that allows this. Alongside this you should never let your tank get too warm to touch. This is a big indicator that you’re overdoing it.

 

• Correct PG and VG Ratio – E-liquid has a lot of either Propylene Glycol (PG) and Vegetable Glycerin in it. Juice with a high content of PG tends to be thinner than that with a high content of VG. The size of your coil head and the wattage range on your vaping device should give you a clue as to what ratio of each of these you should have in your e-liquid. Generally, the lower the wattage, the thinner your e-liquid should be. A thicker e-liquid in a lower wattage device is not going to be able to saturate the wick quick enough which will cause the wick to burn.

 

• Clogged Wick – E-liquids high in sweeteners and nicotine are susceptible to clogging your wick. Regularly using these juices, results in them caramelising at the wick and potentially damaging that and the coils. If you are unable to stay away from the sweet e-liquids then you will need to clean your wick and coils regularly.

 

 

Is it ok to Vape with Burnt Coils?

No! It’s not only extremely unpleasant to the taste but it can be bad for you as unhealthy byproducts are going into your vape!

 

How do you Clean Vape Coils?

Start by rinsing the coils under hot water. This will take off any leftover liquid that was sticking to them. Gently shake out the water that is stuck between the coils and leave them to air dry on a paper towel.