What Are They? | How Long? | When? | How? | Life Extension?
TL;DR - You need to change a vape coil when it starts tasting burnt, and the inhale is no longer as easy. If you're hitting up Google with: "When to Change Vape Coil?" then that's the short answer. Read on to find out how to make them last longer.
What is a vape coil?
Quick recap for those at the back, wondering, what is a vape coil as well?
Well, it's the little curly metal wire that sits in a vape tank. When heated via resistance against the flow of electrons in a circuit, glows red, and vaporises your favourite 100ml vape juice.
Life Expectancy | How long does a vape coil last?
Lifespan of a vape coil, for some it's incredibly moth like, others, seem to be powered by nuclear reactors and go on for weeks on end. Granted, they won't taste as good as the day you first run a 50/50 vape juice through the atomiser, but they don't cause you any problems and seem like a long summer's day.
Those vape coils are generally found in a mouth to lung vape kit, and are being worked on with lower power and less thick e-liquid.
As a conservative estimate, expect the following vape coil life expectancy times:
- Low Wattage | Starter or Pod Style Kit with High PG | 20 Days
- Low Wattage | Starter or Pod Style Kit with High VG | 7-10 Days
- High Wattage | Sub Ohm Vape with High VG | 4-6 Days
These vape coil lifespan numbers aren't exact, they can't be as other factors will come into play. Let's talk about those.
What affects whether I need to change a vape coil?
A number of factors, that you directly control and the electronic cigarette can't, will determine the lifespan of your vape coils. We are going to say them here, as we know no one likes being told these things, 8 boxes of burned out coils deep.
- Chain vaping | If you vape quicker than the coil's cotton can re-absorb liquid, you are going to start to vaporise dry cotton. This leads to a burned taste and most notable - a dry hit. Take a breath will you
- Wrong liquid for the coil | If you use a thick liquid on a mouth to lung coil, the wattage won't be capable of vaporising the juice effectively, meaning it's going to clog and have poor inhale.
- Hitting the fire button before raising the vape to your mouth and vaping. I see this SO often. That 2 seconds drag, is how long you really should be hitting the fire button, not prepping for another couple of seconds on top, to make long fire periods. It also kills the battery quicker. Snap, crackle, STOP.
- Sweet liquids | Real sugary style liquids, are more prone to destroying your vape coils than others. Some very well known brands out there are causing a lot of vape shopkeepers hassle for selling 'bad coils'. No, it's cheap sucrose in the liquids.
- Running the tank to empty before refilling. Just the same as your petrol tank, try not to run vape replacement coils on fumes, it doesn't do anyone much good.
- Too high a wattage than is necessary for your atomiser. Fix this and make your ecig battery and liquid last longer too.
Those are just some of the simple things you can control that will make your coil last a little longer. On the flip-side, these habit tweaks, can make your battery last longer between charging and your juice get drained a little slower.
Good vape coil housekeeping is good financial sense.
So when to change a vape coil? 3 Things To Check
We got here - the bit where we explain when to change a vape coil. To make that decision easier, here are 3 things to check that tell you, it may be about time to replace your vape coil.
- Tighter inhale | Is it less easy to inhale than first time off?
- Flavour | Remember how good that liquid actually tasted? Does it remind you of 4 hour old chewing gum now?
- Toasty | Is there a bit of a toasted or singed taste to the vape now?
These 3 checklist items, can tell you it's probably time for a change. And to be fair, if you're thinking about it, you may as well do it. You'll have a more pleasant vaping experience and constantly reheating hardened sugar deposits in the coil's cotton is probably not great.
That's it, our guide on helping you know, when to change a vape coil.
If it helped, chuck us a little love in the comments. Need new coils? Here are some helpful links below: