Today we want to talk about an utterly incredible flavor experience. From the first puff you feel the delicate aroma of old, burnt newspapers. This comes with the feeling that someone is about to sand 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 about a flavor description for a completely new E-juice. It is about a description of the taste caused by a burnt coil or more clearly: a burnt wick. And as if it 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 to at least avoid a burn as best as you can.
A step back! How can I tell if 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 only a little burnt you will taste a slight burnt flavor. It will taste like something isn't quite right. Since we know 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 anyway?
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.
Think first about vaping without it tasting burnt. When you press the activation button on your E-cigarette, electricity flows through your coil and it becomes hot. The heat released by the coil, or rather the coil's heating element, is taken up by the liquid in the wick and the liquid is converted into vapor. By the liquid taking up part 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 vaporized, 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 moistened 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 up the coil there isn't much to absorb the excess heat and two (equally undesirable) things happen:
- The e-juice remaining in the wick overheats, causing the PG to break down into formaldehyde. If that needs more explanation than that: formaldehyde tastes very nasty.
- Without any protection from the heat, the wick is directly exposed to the glowing coil. Since the wick is probably made of cotton, it burns. If the wick were completely dry it could actually catch fire. And yes, burnt cotton doesn't taste very good either.
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 bit of nasty on top.
What can we do so that our coils don't burn?
After the explanation above, it should be obvious that the most important thing is to ensure that there is always liquid in the wick when you vape.
This means you should not dry-burn your coils as most wicks are made of cotton and they simply ruin themselves when there is no liquid protecting them. Dry burns are not a problem with ceramic wicks, and if you have silica wicks you can 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 need to take a few 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 up 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 have to do?
7 tips to prevent your coil from burning
1. Prime 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 had a chance to use it.
When you insert a new coil for the first time the wick must go from completely dry to completely soaked. This takes some time and you usually have to wait about five minutes after you have filled the tank and before you take your first puff. If you wait long enough then it's not really necessary to prime. The problem is that it's very hard to tell whether the coil is already moistened or not and if there isn't enough E-juice in the wick to absorb the heat when you activate the E-cigarette you get the problems described above.
To prime the coil simply means you wet the wick manually 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 you drop a few drops of E-juice on the top of the wick (3-5 drops should be enough) and then moisten the visible wick through the holes on the sides. You only need a little for each hole. Simply make sure that all visible parts of the wick are properly moistened.
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 absolutely sure, it's still a good idea to wait five minutes after you have filled the tank. This may not be necessary since you have already moistened the coil, but if it is not properly prepared yet you can ruin it right away. It is really worth waiting and being completely sure.
2. Stop chain vaping
Chain vaping – i.e., vaping and vaping until you can’t even 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 moistened before you press the activation button again. In normal use this is no problem because you give the coil time to re-wet after short use. If you vape continuously over a longer period then the wick will dry out. If you then continue to vape you risk it burning.
The solution is very simple: Take a break. The most direct signal that you should stop is that the flavor decreases. 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 rewet. Since the coil is hot now we recommend simply taking a break for 5 to 10 minutes and letting your atomizer do its job.
3. Turn down your wattage
When you increase 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 coils vaporize the E-juice faster and therefore they sometimes struggle to keep up. And if the coil doesn't keep up wetting the wick then the wick can burn. The problem is quite similar to what we have with chain vaping, but it happens after considerably fewer puffs.
The solution is to lower the wattage. 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 bit.
Usually you can find some recommendation regarding the wattage setting to use for single coils. If you stay within the recommended range, there should basically be no problems. However it's still best to start low and then work up to the maximum. If you experience flavor reduction and your coils burn at your current setting, the simplest solution is to lower the wattage.
4. Refill the tank regularly
If the amount of E-juice in the tank is too small, 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 won't be absorbed as quickly. So 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 on the rest of the liquid in the tank and top up. If you don't want to mix flavors, you can empty the tank first. Alternatively you can also twist the tank a little to get the wick to soak up the rest of the liquid but it's not a particularly reliable measure and becomes difficult when there is very little E-juice in the tank. It is best to top up.
5. Use an E-juice with more PG
PG has a thinner viscosity than VG which means that 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 isn't absorbed quickly enough, the risk that you experience “dry puffs” and possibly burn your wick much greater.
This means that E-juices with higher VG content (70% or more) can cause problems with the 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.
Of course, high-VG isn't always a problem. Sub-ohm tanks for example are usually great at handling high-VG juices and can even work better with them. If your tank is not designed for use with that type of 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 desserts, but it's also a sure way to ruin coils. The sticky wick cannot absorb new E-juice as well, and if you vape, the same problems as we talked about earlier can occur.
Although the problem is often related to sweeteners, there are many different E-juices that tend to clog coils. Coffee juices and heavier, dessert-inspired E-juices, for example, often have problems, but there are others as well. 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 alcohol). If you do this you must allow your coil to dry for 24 hours (or longer). The wick must be completely dry again before it can be used.
Regarding cleaning coils, opinions differ. Not only are there many methods to do it, often even a thorough cleaning does not return the coil to the same good quality, especially not after you have already tried using 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 is heated. In this way, the devices allow you to set a maximum temperature for the coil. When the coil reaches this temperature, the e-cigarette stops delivering power so that 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 moistened with liquid, a TC device will not 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 you 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 a lot of things to keep track of here, but this is definitely a topic where it's worth putting in a little extra time. Protecting your coils is important because every burnt wick means you waste money. You can’t go back here: 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 cost, it's also certainly nothing you want to experience again once you've tasted the nice 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.
