How to prime a vape coil properly? – Vaping 101

June 21, 2022

Priming your vape coil is an essential part of preparing for an optimal vaping experience. Proper priming will ensure that your coil does not get damaged and that you do not have any dry hits, which have an unpleasant burnt taste – a common occurrence when firing your device without soaking your coil first.

What is priming a coil?

Priming a vape coil is the process of allowing your e-liquid to saturate the wicking material fully. By doing this, you can prevent the wick from burning once you activate the battery and avoid dry hits. It is recommended to prime your coil each time you use a new coil.

When you start using a new atomiser head, your wick will be completely dry. If you do not soak the wick sufficiently before firing your device, you can damage or burn your coil, which will affect its function. You could even damage it so severely that you will need a brand-new coil before even using the previous one. This also wastes vape juice – so priming is important to avoid extra expenses.

To prime a coil, vapers manually soak their wick with e-liquid and leave the tank to absorb the liquid before they start to vape. This involves dripping some juice onto the wick and waiting for thorough absorption.

Why is it important to prime your coil?

Vape coils are an integral part of your device. This heating element is responsible for turning your e-liquid into vapour. Most manufactured heating elements are encased in cotton, which needs to be soaked in order to vaporise the e-liquid. It is important to prime your coil in order to:

Avoid taking dry hits which have an unpleasant burnt taste
Avoid premature wick burnout
Achieve the best performance and flavour
Avoid ruining your coil
Avoid struggling to replace the wick in a pre-built coil
Avoid damaging brand-new parts of your vape and wasting money on new parts

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Wicking and priming

Most vape coils on the market already have a cotton wick built into the device, so all you will need to do is prime your vape coil. You can prime your new coils by following these steps:

Drip your e-liquid into the top of your coil in short intervals until you can see the cotton that pokes through the side holes become wet. You do not have to be modest with your e-liquid, if there is any excess liquid after saturating the cotton, you can simply flick the coil to remove the extra drops.

Refit your coil and fill up your tank with enough e-liquid.

Wait a few minutes to let the wick soak properly, if you notice that it does not seem wet enough, you can simply add some more liquid.

Take a few puffs without firing up your device – wait a few seconds and take some more puffs without activating your battery.

If your device has an adjustable power setting, put it on a lower setting and work your way up until you have reached your preferred setting. Starting at a lower power setting will give your device enough time to soak and prepare it for when you start firing it up.

At this point, your wick will be soaked properly, and you can enjoy a smooth vaping experience.

When to replace vape coils

You will need to replace your coils periodically and the frequency of replacing coils depend on different factors, such as:

How often you use your device
The power setting of your device
The type of e-liquid you are using

It is time to replace your vape coil once you start experiencing a burnt or flavourless taste produced by your vaping device. Each time you replace your coil, you will have to prime it properly once again. You can also make your own coils if you have all the necessary skills and materials.

Can I over prime my vape coil?

It is possible to over prime your vape coil – if this is the case, you may experience:

Gurgling sounds
Leaking fluid
Tasting splashes of the e-liquid

If you have over primed your coil, you can simply remove the coil and flick it to remove any excess liquid. Make sure to clean the rest of your device to ensure that leaked fluid does not further affect the function and taste of your vaping experience.

Does coil type matter?

Vape coils are most often made of aluminium, iron alloys, chromium, or nickel. The material your coil is made of does not have a significant effect on priming – you will still need to saturate your wick fully and ensure that it is fully soaked.

How to Prime coils for MTL, DTL, and Sub-Ohms

Although the process of priming a vape coil is generally similar, different devices have different factors to take into account when it comes to priming.

Mouth to lung (MTL) devices – Coil resistance is above 1 ohm and creates a less dense cloud as the coil does not heat up as much. You do not need to wait very long when priming these devices, as the liquid will not reach very high temperatures and already lessens the occurrence of dry hits.

Direct to lung (DTL) and Sub-ohm devices – Coil resistance is below 1 ohm, creating dense vapour clouds as the liquid heats up more. Priming these devices might take a bit longer, as you are more likely to experience dry hits if you do not sufficiently soak the wick. You will also need to keep adding juice to your coil and wait until it completely stops absorbing the liquid.

No matter which device you are using, it is a good idea to wait a bit before using your device. The longer you wait, the more liquid your wick will absorb, and you will find it easier to see whether or not you need to add more liquid. Once again, if the wick is thoroughly soaked and some juice starts spilling, you can simply flick your device and remove the excess liquid.

Making sure that you prime your coil properly will ensure that you have a pleasant vaping experience and that you get the most use out of your device. The process is quite simple and is definitely worth doing to get good use out of your products and avoid ruining the smooth flavour you ought to experience while vaping.

Vaperite offers various devices, coils and vaping accessories to suit your vaping needs. You can visit a store at any of our outlet locations or shop online!

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