Preparing Your Coil: It’s Easier Than a First Date, and You Get a Real Smooth Vape

As explained by Jacob Pruitt

Greetings, vapers old and new, and welcome to THE basic coil guide. If you’ve been vaping for much time at all you’re probably all too familiar with the infamous “dry hit”-- a rather disgusting and burnt hit that just does NOT leave a good taste on the palette. If you’re a new vaper, you probably want to avoid it all together. Continue reading, and you will unlock the secrets of optimal coil performance.

And if you’re feeling lazy, there’s a TL;DR summary at the bottom of the article.

What IS a coil exactly? How does it work?

The function of a coil is relatively simple: heating up the e-liquid held within the cotton* wick to the correct vaporizing temperature. There are typically small holes, or ”wells” in the side of the coil housing. Behind those lays the cotton itself, which holds the liquid against the literal coiled wire in the center. This is why it is imperative that you maintain saturation within the coil-- dry cotton burns a heckuva lot easier than wet cotton.

However, there are many steps that you as a vapor user can use to ensure longer coil life, better flavor, and a more consistent vaping experience. The most important step being preparation, or "priming" of a new coil.

Priming My Coil: Step by Step Guide to Perfection

1. Isolate or expose the coil. Take apart your tank (lefty loosey, righty tighty) until your coil is fully exposed.
2. Prepare your work space. Some people leave the coil screwed in to the base of the tank to give it something stable to sit on. Others will fully remove it from the tank and freehand it. The choice here is yours.
3. Grab your liquid. Slowly begin applying the liquid to any exposed cotton. That means, in most cases, directly on the top of the coil and the wells (the little cotton windows) on the side. Start with one application.
4. Give the cotton a short amount of time to soak the liquid up, and then repeat step 3. Continue this process until the liquid stops soaking in to the cotton. When the liquid no longer seeps in to the cotton, it’s safe to assume the cotton is mostly saturated.
5. Now, reassemble your tank! Everything should thread back together relatively smoothly. Be sure not to force anything to avoid cross-threading, but some pressure may be needed to help the coil catch the threading coming from the top and bottom of the tank. The majority of glass pieces will simply be held in place from the pressure created by the top and bottom squeezing together.
6. Fill ‘er up! Take the flavor you used to apply liquid to your coil, and fill your tank! Once you’ve completed this step, your coil is primed, and ready to go! But wait.. There’s even more you can do.

Alternatives, Tips, and Tricks

The steps above illustrate the most direct and instant way to prepare your coil, and is the method referred to as priming. But it is not the only way to get yourself vape-ready. You could also:

1. Leave your tank assembled, and fill it with your liquid of choice. Not as effective, and you MUST give the tank time to absorb the liquid before you even think about firing it.
2. Pre-prepare. Buy your coil in advance, cut a slit within the packaging, and fill it with liquid. The coil should have plenty of time to soak, and will be ready to go as soon as you need it!

A couple more tips and suggestions. Regardless of which method you use to prepare the coil, giving it time to soak more within the tank will help you get longer out of each coil. Instead of vaping it right away after priming, give it about five minutes, just in case some of the cotton is being stubborn.

Consider closing off your airflow (if you have controllable airflow), and then pull air through the tank without firing it. This should assure that dry spots get liquid pulled in to them.

Lastly, be gentle on the coil at first. Every coil will take a bit of time to break in before it’s truly battle ready. Hit it sparingly at first, and I personally recommend running it on a lower wattage/heat setting at the beginning. Start it at the bottom of the recommended range, and slowly beginning turning it up every few puffs until you’ve reached your desire power/hit.

TL;DR / Are You Done Yet?

Yes. You made it. The end of the tutorial, you can now consider yourself a coil master. Although it has been a fairly basic overview, you now know everything you need to get optimal life out of your coils. Treat them nice, and they’ll treat you nice right back.

What? Too wordy? Don’t wanna read the whole article? Fine.