Vape Kit Maintenance

Whether you’ve just bought your first kit, recently upgraded or are only just stepping into the world of vaping - it’s worth knowing the maintenance you’ll need to do to keep your e-cig in top condition. A few little practices that will help - they’re nothing strenuous but will help keep the replaceable parts of your vape working for longer and give you best possible vaping experience.

Let’s start with the basics - there are a few things you can do before you even use your vape to make things run smoothly. They’ll help avoid dry hits, prolong your battery life and keep everything operating in good condition for as long as possible.

No matter what kind of atomiser you’re using, everything from the basic coils for eGo style tanks up to the larger coils made for 100 watts of power will benefit from priming. The same as you wouldn’t paint a wall without primer, priming your coil will extend its life and help it work better from the first puff. How do you do it? It’s very simple and only adds a minute to your vape prep time.

• If you have a coil variety that can screw into the base of your atomiser, screw it into place first. This makes it easier to grip and when you’re priming you won’t get sticky fingers.
• Next, you want to get your e-liquid of choice and put a drop onto each of the wicking holes on the coil itself (those are the little gaps in the metal you can see cotton through). The vape juice will absorb very quickly into the core of your coil this way and helps saturate it more thoroughly.
• Keep going over each hole until the juice no longer disappears as soon as you put it on. Adding a drop or two to the centre of your coil also helps.
• Then, close your tank up, fill with juice and let it sit for ten minutes. This gives the coil time to absorb your e-liquid fully.
• Finally, reattach your tank to your mod and take a few dry hits. By this we mean open the air flow right up, don’t press the firing button and take a few short draws through the drip tip. This helps draw liquid into the coil further - about five short draws should do it (not so quickly you get light headed though!). If you do too many you may risk drawing in too much liquid and this can cause the tank to flood.

And you’re done! It takes about as long to do all of that as it does to read it. When your coil is properly prepared you’ll have less dry hits and get more life out of it too. Keeping your tank topped up so the wicking material doesn’t dry out too much while you’re vaping also helps. So long as there’s enough e-liquid to cover the holes you’ll be absolutely fine.

The next bit we want to look at is batteries. There are plenty of safety aspects to be aware of when it comes to vape batteries but here we’re just going to cover how to maintain them and get the best out of them.

You’d think it would be as simple as just plugging them in and letting them re-charge but that’s not strictly true. When and how you charge them matters just as much as using the right charger to do so.

Different batteries like different things:

• Lithium ion batteries don’t have a “battery memory”. That’s not to say that other batteries are sentient and these ones aren’t, more that there’s no need for you to completely discharge the battery before you plug it back in. If anything, they actually prefer being charged up regularly. A lot of pen style vapes carry this battery variety - so check the packaging or do some research into your battery type and check if this applies to you.

• For those of you with internal batteries (aka the ones you pop out of your mod and charge separately) you’ll want to charge them in pairs. They’re like an old married couple, they like to stay together. In charging and discharging them at the same time and rate you won’t end up with one carrying more power and having to do more work than the other. Compromise is a “thing”, but you don’t want it in your batteries. If you have two sets of batteries (which is always a good idea) try and keep them together rather than getting them mixed up.

• When you’re charging, keep an eye on the batteries. If you’re using the right charger there’s little risk of anything going wrong, but it’s a good idea to unplug them when they’re full. Why? When you over-charge (i.e. leave them plugged in when they’re already full) it speeds the battery capacity up and drops overall battery life. You don’t want your battery running out 10 minutes into a vaping session, so keep an eye on them and store them safely once they’re fully charged.

With all the priming in the world, coils still burn out eventually. Just like the oil in the tank of your car, eventually it gets dirty and things won’t run smoothly (much less taste the same or produce the same amount of vapour). Once this happens, it’s time to change it out. When you know, you know and old coils are very obvious. It’ll either end up giving you a burnt or unpleasant taste, reduced vapour and muted flavour. It’s healthier and much more enjoyable to vape with a clean coil and depending on your use (and how well you prime!) you should be able to get at least a week out of each one. The way you change coils varies from tank to tank but generally all you need to do is open it up (either top or bottom) then slide out or unscrew the old coil and pop in a new one.

There’s a few bits to do here - some you’ll want to do more regularly than others but none of them take a long time and all will help ensure you get the best out of your kit. Let’s start at the top down:

The drip tip: the little bit of the vape you put in your mouth to puff on. The way they’re designed means they can collect a bit of condensation as you vape. To keep it nice and clean, it’s as simple as getting some tissue or a cotton bud and just wiping the inside now and again.

The tank itself: the glass cylinder, chimney and base all get covered in e-liquid when you fill the tank up. As such, it’s a good idea to give them a little clean now and again. Because your liquid is flavoured and sticky it can leave a bit of residue on these parts it’s a good idea to wash them when you change flavour variety (for example if you go from menthol to fruit). What’s the best way?

• Disassemble the tank completely and break it down into its component parts (a good idea to do this when you want to change the coil too so everything is fresh).

• Give it a wipe down with some tissue to get the worst of the remaining liquid off, then get a bowl with some warm water and dishwashing liquid and put the chimney, glass and base in there.

• Swish each of them around a bit, then a scrub with an old toothbrush if you have one handy. This helps get into all the little nooks and crannies.

• Take them out of the water and give them a rinse. Pat dry as much as you can with some kitchen roll and leave them to air dry completely overnight. (This is when you need a backup vape to keep you going while your other one dries).

Finally - the battery terminal: keeping your battery terminal clean is important, it’s what connects your tank to its power source so if it’s grubby it can affect performance. Whether it’s just a bit dusty or maybe your tank leaked a little e-liquid, give it a wipe with a cotton bud now and again to keep it clear.