My E Cig is Sparking or Spitting. What Should I do ?
If you've ever lifted your E Cig, pushed the button and heard a pop whilst seeing something jet out the mouthpiece, then you may have wondered. Why My E Cig is Sparking or Spitting. What Should I do ?
First Things First ...
It's important to know what's actually going on. Some people describe this phenomenon as "Sparking". The first thing to know, is that if its coming out the mouthpiece of your E Cig it's definitely not "Sparks". So you can rest easy that it's not an electrical issue you're dealing with.
Note: If you ever see a spark coming from anywhere else from your E Cig like the base of it, or charging port, then stop using it immediately. In the seven years I've been working with these products I've never seen it happen though.
If it's not "Sparks" then what is it ?
The ejection you are seeing from the mouthpiece is Vapour bursts or jets. They can be caused by a couple of different scenarios. All of which are entirely resolvable and usually without additional cost. Your E cig works by effectively boiling your E Liquid to turn it into steam or Vapour. So if you hold the button down, vapour will eventually start coming out the mouthpiece on its own.
This vapour is not exactly the same as the Vapour you inhale from your E Cigarette. It's much more dense. This is because you have not drawn on the mouthpiece. Vapour from E Cigs needs airflow to react with to reach density levels low enough to be inhaled. Otherwise it would irritate your throat and hurt your mouth.
What if I'm drawing on my E Cig and it still produces Jets that hurt my tongue ?
Occasionally you can experience this issue even when you are drawing adequate airflow through your tank. It can be caused by one of two things:
Your tank may have been sitting overnight with liquids in it. That may have over saturated the wicks inside your coil. To resolve this , you can hold the button down and instead of drawing airflow out the mouthpiece, blow into it. Do this for the same amount of time you normally take a draw. Three or four seconds should do. Have a tissue on hand to wipe away excess liquid that may come out of the airflow inlets on the side or bottom of your tank.
If you try the above and it does not help, then try two or three more times. It may be that your coil wicks have flooded. This can happen on occasion with certain liquids at certain times of year. This is because liquid density changes with temperature. So, in winter for example your liquid may behave differently than in summer. The opposite is also true. This can happen on a hour to hour time scale as well. So you may experience flooding in the morning but it may disappear throughout the day with regular use on it's own.
I've tried this and it's still happening !
The final three elements to consider are fairly straight forward so fear not. Firstly, are you using your coils in their suggested power range ? My experience is that most coils work best from about half way between the lowest and highest suggested power setting. These are printed on the sides of most coils. If they are set too low, the liquid is under dispersed from the get go, and flooding builds up steadily as the day wears on. You don't want your coil slowly reaching temperature, so "give it some" for best results. Just don't exceed the max recommended setting or you will burn the wicks and your coil goes to the bin once that happens.
Check that all the seals are correctly shut on your tank. That doesn't mean screw it so tight you can't open it again. Just check all the rubber seals are in place and that the coil is correctly tightened down into the base or top depending on it's design with no significant gaps between it and the base or top of tank. Any break in seal can result in a loss of vacuum and catastrophic leaking and flooding.
If you've checked all those elements and it's still happening. You may have a faulty coil. Most coils are still assembled by hand as they are too complex for machines to produce. So there can be slight variances in the tolerance of the wicks. It may be that something has got through quality control and no matter what your do that coil will always flood. Usually though these are easy to spot as they leak straight way out of the tank's airflow. Although this is not always a sure sign.
Hot Spots
Hot spots are when the wraps of resistance wire that form the coil are wound inconsistently. This can form a point of excessive heat in relation to the rest of the coil that can cause spitting. It's rare to come across this in factory produced coils due to the nature of how they are manufactured. It's more common in custom coils that users fit and build themselves in re-buildable tanks and drippers due to user's ability to shape the coils themselves and consequently making errors in the shaping process. However factory coils are not shaped and wound in the same manner. So whilst it's unlikely it may be a possible cause.
If you suspect a hot spot you can check or have a Vape store employee check the coil for visible signs of an inconsistently wound coil. These can be exchanged if the store agrees that it is a quality control issue.