Vaping's many acronyms can leave beginners wondering where to start. Understanding the different vaping styles is key, as this will affect every other decision you make, from vape kits to e-liquids. In this article, we're going to discuss the DTL style of vaping and its pros and cons. If being enveloped in silky smooth clouds of delectable vapour sounds like your thing, then keep reading.

How to DTL Vape

DTL stands for 'Direct-to-lung'. It is a style of vaping where you inhale vapour directly into your lungs without keeping it in your mouth first (as in the MTL method). A direct lung vape device uses high wattage settings with low resistance coils to produce a large amount of vapour. The inhale is long and deep - similar to that of a hooka and produces an ultra-smooth and thick vapour that carries a lot of flavour.

Known in the vaping community as 'cloud chasing', direct-to-lung vaping favours flavour and cloud production over high nicotine strength. With the greater volume of vapour, you can expect to enjoy a rich and flavourful vape experience with great big clouds of silky smooth vapour, but be aware that DTL devices don't work well with high levels of nicotine. If you are seriously trying to switch from smoking to vaping, then DTL vaping isn't going to work and you should consider the mouth to lung style of vaping which will give you a much greater chance at success.

The coil is where all the magic happens. It is a small metal tube with a metal mesh or coiled wire, surrounded by cotton which soaks up all the e-liquid in your tank or pod. When you fire up your DTL vape kit, the coil heats up and turns your vape juice into rich vapour. One DTL coil should last you a week, though this can vary with the higher-powered kits. If your e-liquid is very sweet and has a high VG content or if you are vaping at high temperatures, it could burn out faster.

DTL coils have much wider openings for airflow and lower resistance for more power. Two of the main factors cloud chasing enthusiasts look for are:

1) Lots of power to vaporise a ton of juice and

2) enough airflow to produce big clouds.

Coil resistance is measured in Ohms, and those suitable for DTL vaping typically range from 0.15ohm to 0.7ohm, which is also where the direct-to-lung style gets the name Sub-Ohm vaping.

Vape kits often include coils with two different resistances, like one higher resistance (e.g. 0.5ohm) and one lower resistance (0.15ohm). It's a good idea to try both to find your preferred vaping experience.

Battery & Power

The power-hungry DTL vapes need a big battery, and this will come in the form of built-in options ranging from 1500mAh to 3500mAh or external batteries called 18650 or 21700 batteries. Built-in batteries provide a hassle-free solution, although they take longer to charge and you will have to replace the entire kit once the battery reaches the end of its life. External batteries are cheaper to replace than an entire vape kit and you can use an external battery charger for rapid charging. The choice is yours.

The amount of power an average MTL starter kit will put out is between 9 - 25 watts. DTL or sub-ohm vape kits start at 25W and can go up to 250W in power, although the average cloud chaser sits between 50-60W. Most DTL vape kits will offer you the choice of adjusting the wattage settings while others are fixed or will be determined by the type of coil you use.

DTL Airflow and Mouthpiece

We mentioned earlier how coils affect airflow. When you vape, air will get pulled through the inlets in your device and drawn up through the wide centre of the coil - picking up the vapourised e-liquid as it goes. DTL vape kits are designed to produce a lot of airflow and will have large airflow openings that quite often will be adjustable, so you can still tweak your draw.

As with the airflow, the mouthpiece on DTL vape tanks and pods is going to be wide to accommodate all the airflow. Mouthpieces can be fixed to the pod or tank, or use the removable 810 'drip tip' design.

Best E-Liquid for DTL Vaping?

We think that the best part about vaping is trying all the flavours! That is certainly the case with the DTL style of vaping, where you can look forward to an endless array of sweet and complex e-liquid flavours.

But first, you need to know what to look for in e-liquid. Vape juice has two main ingredients PG & VG. PG (propylene glycol) is a thin food additive that carries all the flavour, whereas VG (vegetable glycerine) is a thicker liquid that is responsible for creating those big clouds of vapour. DTL vape kits can vaporise e-liquid with a thicker consistency and the best vape juice to use with a DTL device is high VG e-liquid, anything above 30:70 PG/VG ratio is good.

DTL vapers save money by purchasing economical 'shortfill' bottles. Shortfills are great for two reasons:

1) they give you much more e-liquid for your money and

2) they contain no nicotine, meaning you control how much (if any) nicotine you want.

Shortfills are available in 50ml or 100ml options, they are all nicotine-free giving you the option to add a nicotine shot to your shortfill bottle if you wish. A 3mg nicotine strength is the maximum recommended level for the DTL vaping style, as you will be inhaling large volumes of vapour.

You can also purchase 10ml high VG bottles, premixed with either 3mg or 6mg of nicotine.

Our Top 3 DTL Vape Kit Recommendations

We've got 3 Top recommendations here for you. We'll start things off with a compact, all-in-one DTL pod vape and go up a notch in size and power to give you a broad spectrum of devices that will highlight how versatile DTL vaping can be.

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