3 Simple Tips to Make Your Vape Coils Last Longer

The atomizer coil is the most important component of your vaping setup. It’s the component responsible for generating the vapor you inhale, and it also affects the flavor that you experience when vaping. An atomizer coil experiences a constant cycle of heating and cooling. The repeated heating and cooling stresses the metal, so the atomizer coil is a component with a finite life. To maintain the best possible vaping experience, you’ll need to replace the atomizer coil periodically. You’ll know that it’s time to replace your e-cigarette’s tank, clearomizer or atomizer coil because you’ll experience poor flavor quality or decreased vapor production when you vape. Large vape shops such as Vaper Empire in Australia offer their customers many different types of vaping devices, so they must also stock a wide variety of clearomizers and atomizer coils. If you’ve been vaping for a while, you’ve learned that the life of an atomizer coil can really vary; coils last anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks. Considering the cost of each clearomizer or coil, making your coils last longer can drastically reduce your vaping expenses. Reading this article, you’re going to learn:
  • How to avoid the black gunk that robs your coils of their flavor
  • How to keep your coils’ wicks in good shape and prevent them from burning
  • How to clean your used coils and extend their life
  • How to potentially reduce your cost to vape by hundreds of dollars per year!
Let’s begin.

E-Liquid Sweeteners Reduce Coil Life

If you buy the mainstream e-liquids available in most local vape shops, you’ve probably noticed that many of those e-liquids are very sweet. They taste almost like real candy, and they leave a lingering sweetness in your mouth and on your lips. Those e-liquids are sweetened with sucralose. That’s the same sweetener used in many sugar-free candies and diet sodas. Sucralose tastes great, but it doesn’t turn fully to vapor when you heat it. A portion of the sucralose remains on the coil, where it cooks, caramelizes and eventually burns. If you see a black substance forming on your coil after just a day or two of use, you’re using a sweetened e-liquid. Try some unsweetened e-liquids and see what they do for your coil life. You’ll find that a sucralose-free e-liquid can make your coils last twice as long – or even longer. You’ll also discover that many e-liquid flavor profiles can actually taste quite sweet, even without added sweeteners.

Dry Coils Lead to Burned Wicks

One of the most important things to remember about making your vape coils last longer is that the cotton used as a wick in most coils will burn if you let it go dry. Black residue from sucralose is an issue that you can fix to some extent by cleaning the coil. We’ll discuss that next. Burned cotton, though, isn’t a problem that cleaning will resolve. Once cotton is burned, it’s burned forever – and it’ll make every puff from your e-cigarette taste burned. So, you’ve got to keep your cotton in good shape if you want your coils to last. Here’s how to do it.
  • When you replace a coil because of a burned flavor, examine the coil to determine the source of the problem. If the metal is covered with black residue, sweetened e-liquid is reducing your coil life. If the metal is shiny, the wick is burned.
  • Wait for several seconds after each time you use your e-cigarette. Pausing gives the wick time to re-saturate with e-liquid. “Chain vaping” – puffing several times in a row to increase the heat and flavor intensity – will eventually cause your wick to burn.
  • Reduce your device’s wattage if you have an adjustable vaping device. Remember that your coil’s suggested wattage range is only a rough guideline. If you run your device at the top end of the coil’s wattage range, your puff length should be short because the coil will quickly vaporize all of the e-liquid in the wick. If you prefer long puffs when vaping, you’ll need to keep your device at the low end of the coil’s wattage range.
  • Reduce the thickness of your e-liquid if your atomizer coil has small wick openings. All e-liquids use two carriers – vegetable glycerin (VG) and propylene glycol (PG) – to dilute the nicotine and flavors and to create the vapor clouds that you see when you exhale. VG is much thicker than PG, and it doesn’t flow easily through small wick openings. When e-liquid fails to travel through the coil efficiently, the wick may burn. The smaller your vaping device is, the more you’ll need to pay attention to your e-liquid’s VG/PG ratio. “Max VG” e-liquids – and e-liquids with 80/20 or 70/30 VG/PG ratios – are for larger vaping devices. For a smaller vaping device, use an e-liquid with no more than 50 percent VG.

Cleaning Can Restore a Coil’s Lost Performance

If black residue is the reason for your coil’s lost performance, cleaning the coil can potentially restore some of that lost performance and allow you to continue using the coil for a while longer. To clean a coil, swish it around in some hot water or leave it immersed in vodka overnight. The water or vodka will act as a solvent and break up the layer of residue. By morning, you should see some black bits floating in the liquid. If you used vodka to clean the coil, rinse it thoroughly in clean water. Give the coil plenty of time to dry before you use it again. You won’t mistake a cleaned coil for a new one, but you may find that a cleaned coil can still provide a very satisfying vaping experience for a few extra days. If you like the results that you get from cleaning your coils and would like your coils to come out looking even nicer, consider investing in an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. The gentle vibrations of an ultrasonic cleaner can power through coil gunk, leaving your coils looking almost like new.
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Martin B.

Ex-smoker, passionate vaper who loves to tell the world about the life-changing potential of vaping. Co-creator of Ecigclopedia with a background in Business & Finance. Prefers a dessert flavored vape and loves to innovate.

Martin B.

Ex-smoker, passionate vaper who loves to tell the world about the life-changing potential of vaping. Co-creator of Ecigclopedia with a background in Business & Finance. Prefers a dessert flavored vape and loves to innovate.

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