Today we want to talk about an incredible taste experience. From the first puff you sense the delicate aroma of old, burnt newspapers. This comes with the feeling that someone is about to grind the inside of your nose, a very burning sensation. When you inhale it feels as if someone is using a hot cheese slicer on the inside of your throat and the taste left in your mouth will make you thirsty for water.
No, of course this isn't a description of the taste for a totally new E-juice. It's a description of the taste caused by a burnt coil or more clearly: a burnt wick. And as if that wasn't bad enough that it tastes damn awful, your coil is also ruined which costs you money.
The good news is that there are some simple tricks you can use to prevent burnt coils or at least avoid burning as much as possible.
A step back! How do I notice that my coil is burnt out?
If your coil is completely burnt out you will notice it. The flavor we described in the introduction is very hard to miss or misinterpret.
If your coil is just a little burnt you will feel a slight burnt taste. It will taste as if something isn't quite right. Since we know that burnt wicks can produce harmful chemicals, it is nevertheless best to replace the coil even in this case.
From time to time you will also experience a burnt taste when you have just replaced your coil. Sometimes this disappears after a few puffs but sometimes you also have to replace the liquid in the tank to get a clean taste again.
Why do coils burn in the first place?
If you want to avoid burnt coils it is important to first understand why they actually burn. This is fairly straightforward and supports all the advice we give in this article.
First think about vaping without it tasting burnt. When you press the activation button on your E-cigarette, electricity flows through your coil and it heats up. The heat released by the coil, or rather the winding, is absorbed by the liquid in the wick and the liquid is converted to vapor. By the liquid absorbing some of the heat energy that the coil produces, the temperature in the coil does not rise too much.
When the liquid in the wick has evaporated, it dries out a little. You still have a tank filled with liquid around your coil that constantly delivers more liquid to the wick. This means the coil is already re-wetted again when you take your next puff and everything works as it should.
But what happens if there is no E-juice left in the wick or just not enough? If you press the activation button now and heat the coil there isn't much to absorb the excess heat and two (equally undesirable) things happen:
- The remaining e-juice in the wick overheats, causing the PG to break down into formaldehyde. If more explanation is needed than that: Formaldehyde tastes very nasty.
- Without any protection against heat, the wick is exposed directly to the glowing coil. Since the wick probably consists of cotton, it burns. If the wick were completely dry it could actually catch fire. And yes, burnt cotton also doesn’t taste good.
These two factors are the main ingredients in the flavor experience described in the introduction. Burnt cotton with notes of formaldehyde or rather nasty with a little nasty on top.
What can we do so that our coils don’t burn?
After the explanation above it is almost obvious that the most important thing is to ensure there is always liquid in the wick when you vape.
This means that you should not dry-burn your coils as most wicks consist of cotton and they simply get ruined when there is no liquid protecting them. Dry burns are not a problem with ceramic wicks and if you have silica wicks you may get away with a few short hits but unfortunately not with cotton
The risk is smaller when there is E-juice in the wick but you still must take some steps to protect your coil. When you activate your E-cigarette you reduce the amount of E-juice in the wick and we must therefore always ensure that the device is set in a way that allows the liquid flow to the coil to keep up with the rate at which the liquid vaporizes.
And that balance is what is most important to prevent the coil from burning. But what does that mean for us vapers? What is it that we actually can do?
7 tips to avoid your coil burning
1. Prepare your coil for vaping (”Priming”)
If you do not "prime" your coil before you start vaping, you can burn the wick before you have even used it.
When you install a new coil for the first time, the wick must go from completely dry to completely saturated. This takes a little time, and you usually have to wait about five minutes after refilling the tank and before taking your first puff. If you wait long enough, priming isn't really necessary. The problem is that it's very difficult to see whether the coil is already saturated or not, and if there isn't enough E-juice in the wick to absorb the heat when you activate the E-cigarette, the problems described above arise.
Priming the coil simply means that you manually wet the wick before you install the coil. Coils usually have an opening on the top and holes on the sides where you can see the wick. To prime the coil, drop a few drops of E-juice on the top of the wick (3-5 drops should be enough) and then wet the visible wick through the holes on the sides. You only need a little for each hole. Simply ensure that all visible parts of the wick are properly saturated.
As an alternative, some vapers take a few puffs from the E-cigarette without pressing the activation button to prime the coil. This pulls the E-liquid into the wick. However, be careful when trying this as it can drown the coil if you overdo it.
Your coil is now ready to use. To be completely sure it is still good to wait five minutes after you have refilled the tank. This may not be necessary as you have already saturated the coil but if it is not prepared correctly yet you can ruin it right away. So it is really worth waiting and being completely sure.
2. Stop chain-vaping
Chain-vaping—that is, vaping and vaping until you can't see your E-cigarette behind all the clouds—can lead to a burnt coil. The reason is the balance mentioned above: You must ensure that the wick is fully saturated before you press the activation button again. In normal use this is not a problem because you give the coil time to re-wet after short use. If you vape continuously over a longer period you will cause the wick to dry out. If you then vape on, you risk it burning.
The solution is very simple: Take a break. The most direct signal that you should stop is that the taste diminishes. This is a sign that there isn't enough E-juice in the coil and that you are approaching a burn. Your wick needs time to re-wet. Because the coil is hot now we recommend you simply take a 5 to 10 minute break and let your atomizer do its job.
3. Reduce your wattage setting
When you turn up the wattage you vaporize more E-juice with each puff. This is great if you want to produce large clouds but it can also affect your coils. The coil vaporizes the E-juice faster and therefore they sometimes have trouble keeping up. And if the coil cannot keep up wetting the wick, the wick can burn. The problem is quite similar to the chain-vaping above but it happens after considerably fewer puffs.
The solution is to lower the wattage setting. When you notice the flavor diminishing, the wick is probably getting drier and drier and needs time to soak up the liquid. You need to take a break when this happens (as above) but to reduce the risk of it happening again you should just lower the wattage a little.
Usually you can find some recommendation regarding the watt setting to use for individual coils. If you stay within the recommended range, there should really be no problems. It is however still best to start low and then work your way up to the maximum. If you experience a reduction in flavor and your coils burn at your current setting, the simplest solution is to lower the wattage.
4. Top up the tank regularly
If the amount of E-juice in the tank is too small then the tank may not wet the wick sufficiently. With many coils the juice level must stay above a certain line to even reach the openings to the wick. If the wick has less contact with the E-juice in the tank it will not be absorbed as quickly. If the liquid level in your tank is very low this can easily lead to problems.
The simplest solution is to top up the tank regularly. If you notice that performance and flavor decrease, it may be time to give up the rest of the liquid in the tank and refill. If you don't want to mix flavors you can empty the tank first. Alternatively you can also rotate the tank a bit to get the wick to soak up the rest of the liquid but this is not a particularly reliable measure and becomes difficult when there is really very little E-juice in the tank. It is best to refill.
5. Use an E-juice with more PG
PG has a thinner viscosity than VG which means it is absorbed more easily by the wick. This has important consequences for the balance between the rate of vaporization and the rate of juice flow to the wick which we absolutely must maintain. If your E-juice is not absorbed quickly enough, the risk that you experience “dry puffs” and possibly burn your wick is much greater.
This means that e-juices with higher VG content (70% or more) can cause problems with liquid flow and ruin your coil. If you have some trouble with “dry hits” and burnt coils, it may be due to your e-juice. Try replacing your high-VG e-juice with a 50/50 or high-PG variant.
Obviously high-VG isn't always a problem. Sub ohm tanks for example are usually great at handling high-VG e-juices and can even work better with them. If your tank is not designed for use with that type of e-juice, VG can easily cause problems.
6. Try an e-juice with less sweetener
If an e-juice contains a lot of sweetener it can clog your coil. The sugar compounds in the e-juice can caramelize, which sounds very tasty when talking about dessert but it is also a sure way to ruin coils. The sticky wick cannot absorb new e-juice as well and if you then vape, you can encounter the same problems we discussed earlier.
Even though the problem is often related to sweeteners, there are many different e-juices that tend to clog coils. Coffee e-juices and heavier, dessert-inspired e-juices for example often have problems, but there are others. Generally, it is more likely that e-juices with a darker color affect your coils than clearer juices.
If you are dealing with a clogged coil you can try cleaning the wick. Use water or grain alcohol (or something else clear, strong and drinkable – no cleaning spirits). If you do this you must let your coil dry for 24 hours (or longer). The wick must be completely dry again before it can be used.
As for cleaning coils, not everyone agrees. There are not only many methods for doing it, but even a thorough cleaning may not bring the coil back to the same good quality again, especially not after you have already tried to use the clogged coil and possibly damaged the wick.
7. Use temperature control
Vaping with temperature control solves the problem of burnt coils a little more directly. TC devices monitor the measurable changes in resistance that occur when a certain type of wire heats up. In this way the devices allow setting a maximum temperature for the coil. When the coil reaches this temperature the e-cigarette stops delivering power so the coil does not get any hotter.
If there were a magical solution for burnt wick, it would be temperature control. When you try to vape with a wick that is not sufficiently saturated with liquid, a TC device won't let you do so. Even if you actively try to burn your wick, you probably won't succeed. Temperature control can thus solve the problem without needing to use the other tricks. The problem is just that you then need an E-cigarette that supports temperature control with certain types of wire in the coil such as nickel, titanium or stainless steel. These devices are usually quite complicated and cannot really be recommended for beginners.
Save money and protect your taste buds
It might look like there are quite a few things to keep track of here, but this is definitely a theme where it's worth putting in a bit of extra time. Protecting your coils is important because every burnt wick means you waste money. Here you cannot go back: If the coil is burnt you have to replace it. This is especially true when you forget to “prime” your coil and as a consequence ruin a brand new coil. And regardless of the cost, it's also surely nothing you want to experience again once you have tasted the fine flavor we described in the introduction.
If you want to enjoy your E-juice, get the most out of your coils and avoid the taste of burnt wick, it's a good idea to keep these tips in mind when using your E-cigarette.
