Sooner or later a coil gives out and you get a dry hit or a burnt taste. Most vapers have been there, and most agree it is among the worst things they have tasted. Vapers also tend to be thrifty, so many keep puffing on a tired coil long after they should have replaced it. This article looks at whether that is a bad idea, why coils fail, and what you can do to make one last.
Should you keep vaping on a burnt coil?
I had wondered about this for a while. A burnt coil is covered in black residue that looks unpleasant, and it seems obvious that inhaling through it is not a good idea. When I went looking for something firmer than a hunch, I found surprisingly little written on the subject.
What I did find was a Reddit post from a user who said they worked as an analytical chemist for a vape company. According to that post, the regulatory work done when filing products with the FDA showed dry hits to be dangerous: they were said to contain large amounts of metal (the post did not name which metals) along with known carcinogens, the latter coming from the burnt wicking material, which is cotton. Treat this as one person’s unverified account. It was not backed by published data, and the FDA had not issued a formal public statement on it when this was written. It does, however, give a reason beyond taste for not using a burnt coil.
There are situations where you might be stuck with a burnt coil a little longer: a new pack is still in the mail, you are traveling without a spare, or there is no vape shop nearby. Those are understandable. Holding on to a dead coil purely to save money is not; swap it straight away. Coil packs generally hold at least 3 or 5 coils.
Why coils fail
A coil can go bad for several reasons. Some you can avoid, and others you simply have to live with.
- It was faulty from the start. Coils are often made by hand, so human error is always possible, and machines slip up now and then too. If a coil arrives defective, contact the shop or website that sold it. They can replace it or refund you, but they will probably want the whole pack returned, good coils and bad, so hang on to it.
- The e-liquid is thick. Dessert blends and other sweet flavors can have a heavy consistency that clogs the coil until juice can no longer get through. Residue builds up, the coil burns, and it is finished.
- The e-liquid is thin. Watery juice causes trouble as well. With a runny fruit or sweet e-liquid, the cotton may not soak up liquid quickly enough, so the coil runs dry and scorches. After that every puff tastes burnt, or you get a dry hit that leaves you coughing.
- It has reached the end of its life. Coils carry no expiry date, so judging their lifespan is up to you. How often you vape, the kind of juice, how many different juices have been through the same coil, and the wattage you fire at all play a part. I have had a coil go past four weeks across many different flavors. I have also installed and primed coils that never fired at all, with the screen reading “atomizer short”: dead on arrival.
With experience you get a feel for which of these causes apply to your own setup and which to watch for.
Making a coil last longer
Some of these habits take almost no effort. Others mean keeping records or buying a cleaner. Coil care is one part of vaping that a lot of people never bother to learn.
- Rinse the tank between flavors. If the outgoing e-liquid is thick or very sweet, a rinse stops it from contaminating the next one. Some juice will remain in the coil itself, which leads to the next point.
- Clean the coil now and then. Vodka, water or jewelry cleaner are the usual choices, and we have an earlier article on how to clean your vape coil. Some users swear by it and others say it does nothing. Either way, the longer a coil has gone uncleaned, the less cleaning will help.
- Look at a coil cleaning machine. A company called ROBO2020 makes a device for this. It is reportedly meant for cleaning new coils straight out of the pack as well as after each change of e-liquid. I had not finished testing it when I wrote this.
- Keep a log. Noting when a coil went in, which juices it saw over what period, and when it began to fade can feel tedious and will not suit everyone. It does help you work out what is killing your coils and roughly when to expect the next one to go.
The short version
Nobody needs convincing that a burnt coil tastes awful. The Reddit account above adds a possible reason, still unconfirmed, not to squeeze extra days out of one. How long a coil lasts is down to the person using it: the type, flavor and maker of the e-liquid, the quality of the coil, how often you vape and how well you maintain it. Until the FDA says something official there is no firmer evidence to point to. In the meantime, replace burnt coils promptly, and if you have questions about the coils we carry, get in touch by email, social media or phone.