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It goes without saying that a clean, well maintained and fully functioning e-cigarette is absolutely essential to have so that you can use it to its maximum potential.
Whilst the build quality of these devices has improved significantly over the course of the years, with cutting edge technology and craftsmanship reaching previously unseen levels, they can take their fair share of wear and tear, but you still need to maintain them to a good standard if you want them to function properly.
And using the correct vape juice in your vape is also a key part of the maintenance process as using the wrong e-liquids can heavily affect your coil life and performance also. In this article, I’m going to discuss the key points on how to maintain your vaping device, especially when using Nic Salts as your preferred vape juice.
Keep your tank/pod clean
The first thing as a priority which you must ensure to do is to make sure you keep your vape tank or pod, if you’re using a pod system, clean and free from any debris or dirt, as if you don’t this could cause a hinderance that you don’t really want to happen.
It’s worth giving your tank/pod a good clean whilst its empty, and the process for doing this is really simple and straight forward.
- Take your coil out of the tank or pod and place to the side
- Give your empty tank/pod a good rinse with warm water under a tap or fill a cup up with warm water and submerge it to soak for a minute or two
- Whilst you have the coil set aside, give it a wipe with a dry paper towel, and check for any residue which may be residing within the coil and get it out.
- Dry your tank with a fresh paper towel and then put your coil back in and fill it up with whatever juice you’re wanting to use.
And that’s the cleaning process complete! As I’ve mentioned, it’s really crucial to keep your tank clean and free from anything that shouldn’t be in there because at the end of the day, this is what you’re going to be breathing into your lungs so you don’t want anything untoward getting in there!
Check your coils condition and replace them regularly
A coil to a vaping device is similar to what the heart is to the body, and that’s if it doesn’t function properly, neither will anything else. The coil really is the heartbeat to any vaping device and plays a crucial part in heating your vape juice up, to produce the vapor and ultimately deliver the nicotine to your bloodstream.
A coil, or atomiser head as it’s sometimes known, comprises of a small wire coil, wrapped to a specific number of times to give an ohm resistance, and that then has a wick made of cotton threaded through the middle of it which the vape juice absorbs into it. When the power button is pressed on a device, this then heats the wire coil up to heat the e-liquid up, and at the same time it also starts to burn the cotton which leads to deterioration and can also make your vape juice not quite taste the same as what you are used to.
It’s really important that you maintain your coils condition to ensure your vape functions properly, as if you do not, it can lead to your device not registering the coil that’s inside the tank and your vape simply won’t work.
Some brands of Nic Salt vape juice are notorious for being overly sweet and include a significant number of sweeteners which can shorten your coil life quite significantly due to the sweeteners separating from the nic salt vape juice and residing stuck to the cotton inside your coil. Try and avoid overly sweet juices if you want to make your coil life last longer!
Use the correct wattage according to your coils resistance
Another key thing to do is to ensure that if you have a variable wattage device (where you can change the wattage/power settings) that you use the correct wattage setting that is recommended on your coil.
Each coil will be a specific resistance, such as 0.6ohm or 1.2ohm, and on each coil it will have a “recommended wattage range” such as 12-16w or 20-25w and so on. It’s really important that you use a wattage setting that is between this range, and this means your coil will function how it should do.
If you used a wattage setting that was too low, it will not heat up at the correct speed, therefore can lead to your coil flooding from excess vape juice not being heated up to produce the vapour. And if you used your device on a wattage that was too high, your coil will be working too hard and overheating, in turn burning your cotton quicker and making your vaping experience a not very pleasant one.
When using Nic Salt juice, the ideal coil to use will be one with a higher resistance so that it can be used on a lower wattage setting as you won’t need to use anything high powered when it comes to vaping Nic Salts.
The reason for this is Nic Salts are predominantly higher strength than standard freebase nicotine vape juice, and deliver a much punchier kick of nicotine and it’s also absorbed a lot quicker into the bloodstream than standard freebase. If you were to run Nic Salts through a high-powered device, you may find this will be too much of a kick and could lead to you suffering from some adverse effects which would not be pleasant.
Keep your vape juice in the same condition as you bought it!
The last point I will mention is that you must ensure your vape juice is maintained to the same levels as what it was when you bought it, as once vape juice goes bad, there’s no getting it back!
Make sure you store your vape juice away from heat, as well as sunlight, as exposure to either of these can make your vape juice spoil. The heat from a heat source, or from the sunlight can cause the nicotine that’s in your nic salt vape juice to turn bad and this in turn will make your vape juice very harsh, and more than likely not very pleasant to vape!
Also ensure that you keep all the lids on your bottles of vape juice, as leaving lids off will let oxygen into the bottle and your vape juice will then oxidise, meaning the ingredients such as PG and VG will separate, and it’ll be hard to get it back to how it was.
All nic salt vape juice will have an expiry date/shelf-life date printed on the bottle as it’s mandatory under the TPD Regulations. You should always keep an eye on the dates and use your juice before the expiry date is reached, as while the risk of using out of date vape juice is relatively low, the nicotine used in the vape juice will start to turn and it’ll make the vape juice overly harsh and again, probably not pleasant to vape!
I hope this guide to maintaining your vaping device when using Nic Salt Vape Juices has been helpful, and answered any questions or queries you may have had surrounding this subject and remember to maintain your vaping device to the right levels if you want to have an enjoyable vaping experience!