Creative Vape Coil Ideas

When and how to change your coil?

So you’ve just got your new vape and you’ve been happily puffing away, blowing out massive clouds of vapour and generally loving life. However, you soon start to notice that the clouds are becoming less impressive, there’s a weird gurgling noise when you take a puff – and your custard-flavoured e-liquid is starting to taste…well, burnt.

There’s a reason behind this – you need to change the coil. Yes, your e cig requires regular maintenance, and one of them is seeing to the internal mechanics when a wire coil has worn out or the wick has burned. Fortunately, changing a coil is quick and easy – here’s everything you need to know.

Generally, coils need to be replaced every couple of weeks. But there are several factors that influence just how regularly you need to swap them out. If you’re using a liquid with high VG content, these will wear out wicks more quickly than those with a more balanced PG/VG mix. If those words sound completely alien to you, read our guide on vape liquids here. Another variable is how much power you’re using. The logic is fairly simple – if you use a variable voltage mod and increase the power regularly, the coil will wear out faster. Finally, a simple but often overlooked factor is how often you vape. Those who are puffing away all day will need to change the coil much more often than those who occasionally get it out for a quick hit.

If you have a top or bottom-coil clearomizer, or a sub-ohm tank, there will be a central stem portion within the tank which takes up air from the airflow holes, allows it to pass over the coil and brings the vapour into your mouth. The atomizer head is attached to this stem, either at the bottom or the top of it – and this is the area you need to look at. Generally speaking, you will need to unscrew the glass tank section from the battery, then empty the tank of any remaining liquid. Then you’ll need to unscrew the coil – using a paper towel if it’s coated in liquid – and screw in the new one in its place. Now you have a new coil, it’s time to refill the tank and screw your device back together. The whole process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

However, once you’ve added new liquid, give it a few minutes to soak in – it takes a little time for the liquid to fully soak into the wick. Pressing the fire button when the wick isn’t soaked could lead to it getting burned, and could ruin the atomizer head – so wait 2-3 minutes. When you’re refilling, make sure you don’t get liquid down the centre tube, as this may lead to leaking or flood the coil – which can lead to gurgling or have an impact on how the atomiser performs. If there’s a maximum fill level marked on the tank, don’t go over this unless you want to get covered in excess liquid when you screw the top back on.