Vape Guides

There’s a lot of controversy in the media when it comes to how safe vaping is for you. Whilst there are currently no studies of long term studies on the use of e-cigarettes (they were only invented in 2003 after all) there’s significant support from Public Health England and the NHS. They’ve been endorsed as 95% safer than smoking and a useful tool in smoking cessation. We’re here to look more in-depth at the comparison between conventional cigarettes and vaping.

The effect of smoking cigarettes is fairly well known, but some statistics may surprise you;

• The ‘Big C’ – everyone knows about this one. The health risk associated with smoking is undeniable, with smoking contributing to more than 15 types of cancer.

• Smoking increases your risks of heart disease – including the likes of heart attack, coronary heart disease and strokes. This comes from a buildup of fatty deposits in the arteries, making it harder for your heart to pump blood.

• Your lungs obviously take the brunt of the effect of smoke – causing a whole variety of problems from coughing, emphysema, asthma and pneumonia. When it comes to hard facts – you can’t lie that the evidence is damning – around 7 in 10 cases on lung cancer in the UK are caused by smoking.

• Fertility problems occur in both men and women when you’re a smoker. Women who smoke will take longer to conceive and smoking around the time of conception can even increase the risk of childhood leukaemia. For men, even smoking as three months before conception can damage the DNA in sperm.

• Even your gut health suffers. Recent studies have found that smokers gut microbiome (a fancy word for the collection of good bacteria your body needs) are often imbalanced for the worse – with a strong correlation between inflammatory diseases like Crohn’s disease.

As far as vaping goes – none of the ingredients are known carcinogens. If you use nicotine in your e-cig, you may find you get a drier mouth (this is largely down to PG being hydrophilic – a big word I know but basically it means it absorbs water) but there’s also no correlation between any of the four ingredients in e-liquid causing heart problems. Nicotine doesn’t cause cancer either. As PG and VG are also classified as alcohols rather than lipids, they don’t leave fatty deposits in your lungs or arteries.

Whilst it’s not recommended to have nicotine products when you’re trying to fall pregnant, there are no risks associated with the second-hand vapour – also, most women find it easier to quit smoking themselves when their partner is a non-smoker. Finally, the study that found an adverse effect on the gut health of smokers, found that non-smokers and vapers had the same healthy levels of gut flora.

It might be hard to appreciate the full impact cigarettes have on your organs when you can’t actually see them (how many smokers say they’re fine through a rasping cough?), but smoking has a raft of side effects on your physical appearance too – let’s look at how it adds up:

• It goes without saying that smoking affects the look and feel of your skin. Bear with me (we’re about to get a bit technical) but there’s a protein in your skin called collagen, tobacco cigarettes create collagen-destroying enzymes meaning smokers age around five times faster than non-smokers. Women have significantly less collagen than men, meaning women will see this effect more strongly.

• Discolouration in your teeth and nails. Yep, the tar in tobacco products accumulates on your teeth and nails, gradually causing them to change to a yellow-tinted colour.

• How much do you love your hair? Parallels have been drawn between toxins in cigarettes and their effect on harming hair follicles and damaging hormones, resulting in greying and premature hair loss.

All of these effects come down to the 4000+ chemicals from cigarettes, however when you vape you’ll breathe our water vapour, carbon dioxide (a natural byproduct of your normal breathing anyway), flavouring (which you can smell) trace amounts of nicotine and that’s it. If you want to know more about what goes into it – have a look through our E-Liquid Guide. There’s no tar to stain your teeth or nails, nor is there any carbon monoxide or other toxins that are going to break down your collagen or cause your hair to thin.

• Unfortunately, second-hand smoke can be just as damaging to other people’s bodies as if you’re the one lighting up. In the UK alone in any given year, second-hand smoke contributes to cot-death, asthma and bronchitis in children.

• Aside from the health implications on your own body, smokers also influence a younger generation with children of smokers being more like to take up smoking themselves.

• The smell of cigarettes really hangs about. If you’re a non-smoker now (good for you!), have you ever gotten into an elevator for example and noticed how strongly the smells of smoke sticks to them? Or, if you visit the home of someone who smokes inside how it sticks to everything – even you?

As mentioned earlier – there’s no adverse effect of second-hand vapour. The number of byproducts of vapour can be counted on one hand, whereas cigarette smoke sends out over 7000 nasty chemicals including tar, carbon monoxide and lead. When it comes to smell, whilst you might get a whiff of creme brulee or some fruit cocktail from a passing e-cig user, vapour from e-cigarettes doesn’t actually stick to people or their clothes. Even if it did, would it really be that bad to smell like a dessert?

• Smoking makes exercise more difficult. The reason for this (we’re about to get scientific again) is that smoke contains carbon monoxide (CO) which bonds to your blood cells more easily than oxygen can. This means when you light up, your body is getting less oxygen than it needs and as CO lingers in your blood for up to 24 hours. Simple things like running up a flight of stairs become a lot more taxing than they normally would be.

• Decreased sense of smell and taste. Because your sense of taste is directly linked to how much you can taste your food, the effect is two-fold. Toxins from smoke damage the nerves in your nose and over time can actually change the shape of your taste buds, making them flatter and less able to detect flavour. The issue with this is more than just being less able to smell the roses or enjoy a glass of wine – your sense of smell is an important one for detecting things like a gas leak in your house, or food that’s gone off.

• Cost – one is significantly more expensive than the other. Your average smoker (around a pack a day) can spend up to £50 a week which, when you add that up over a year is around £2,600. Ouch.

Sprinting for the last train, playing sport or just racing around your home to do a last-minute clean before your parents arrive won’t be an issue when you vape. There’s no carbon monoxide in e-liquid so you won’t struggle with normal everyday, physical tasks. Who doesn’t love the smell of coffee, the taste of garlic or a really good glass of wine? When you quit smoking and start vaping, your sense of smell and taste actually come back to you pretty quickly – in around just 48 hours. As far as spending goes, after you’ve spent a bit on the initial set-up costs (though beginner vape kits can cost as little as £10) you’ll probably only need to spend around £5 – £15 a week on replacement coils and e-liquid.

Think about what goes into cigarettes – paper, tobacco and a whole lot of other chemicals. E-cigs, on the other hand, have no paper or plant material and a lot of their components you use long term or can recycle. How does this stack up as far as a footprint goes? Well…

• 600 million trees are cut down annually for cigarette production – with each tree being able to be made into around 300 cigarettes.

• In 2016, the world consumed a massive 5.7 trillion (so you can wrap your head around the number – that’s 5,700,000,000,000) cigarettes. Of those, around 4.5 trillion are thrown on the ground, often ending up in waterways or eaten by animals mistaking them for food.

• With global air quality levels getting worse, cigarette smoke isn’t helping. We already know second-hand smoke affects other people as much as it does the smoker. Burning cigarettes release the carcinogens and other toxins that they contain.

Producing the ingredients for e-liquid is much simpler – propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin can be made in mass in a lab and the purity and quality can be carefully monitored. As there’s no paper in vapes, no trees are harmed in the making of your juice either.

Sources:
1. E-cigarettes around 95% less harmful than smoking – gov.uk
2. Smoking Facts and Evidence –  Cancer Research UK
3. E-cigarettes – an evidence update – gov.uk
4. Nicotine Does Not Cause Cancer – Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
5. Passive smoke – cancerresearchuk.org
6. How safe is e-cig vapour? – nhs.uk
7. 7000 Harmful Chemicals in Cigarette Smoke – cancer.gov
8. The environmental impact of tobacco – who.int
9. Cigarette smoke changes the gut microbiome – microbiomeinstitute.org
10. Effects of smoking on the body – nhs.uk
11. Smoking and tooth discolouration – ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
12. Associations between smoking and hair loss – ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
13. What happens when you quit – nhs.uk
14. Environment – tobaccoatlas.org
15. Consumption – tobaccoatlas.org

This site contains general information about vaping and vapour products. The information provided is not medical advice, and should not be relied upon unless explicitly cited. We do not make any warranties surrounding the health benefits, reliability and accuracy of written copy across all pages on our website, including blog content and content posted on social media.

If you’ve just bought your first vape kit (or are just about to!) and now looking for the best vape liquid for your kit, it can be a little daunting and overwhelming.

There’s a lot of new terminologies to learn and hundreds of flavours to choose from, so where do you start? We’ve put together a guide to e-liquids, answering some of the most commonly asked questions to clear a few things up.

E-Liquid (or vape juice) is comprised of three (sometimes four) ingredients. Propylene glycol (or PG for short), vegetable glycerin (VG), flavouring and if you choose it – nicotine. Each ingredient plays an important part in your vaping experience.

PG is an odourless liquid which is there to carry the flavour of your vape juice, it also gives you the “throat hit” feeling you’d expect from conventional cigarettes. As it’s a thinner consistency to VG it’s easier to vaporise as well. It’s used in things like ice cream and food enhancers for the same purpose – to deliver maximum flavour. VG is a thick, sweet liquid which is there to provide you with vapour production, it’s also smoother on the inhale. VG is used in a variety of things from caramel to soap to toothpaste.

The flavouring varies massively and there’s a huge range of taste combinations you can try, from desserts to tobacco, fruit to menthol. As you’d expect, it’s there to give you an enjoyable vaping experience.

The final ingredient is nicotine, the addictive ingredient you find in cigarettes. You can get e-liquid without nicotine if you’re in it purely for the joy of vaping but generally the people who are transitioning from smoking to vaping prefer to have some nicotine in there. The strength of nicotine on the bottle is how much nicotine you get per 1ml of juice.

• Social smokers (who smoke once or twice a week) should go for a low nicotine option like 3mg, this is often the final step for people who have quit smoking and don’t need much of a hit anymore. You can also get 0mg juice if you simply enjoy the feeling of vaping but no longer have a craving to satiate.

• For a light smoker, someone who has less than ten cigarettes a day, we would recommend a strength of 6mg. This strength is still considered on the lower end of the scale and suits people who enjoy vaping but still require a bit of a nic buzz.

• An average smoker who has up to a pack a day should go for a 12mg e-liquid, an ideal place to start for your run of the mill smoking habit as it helps you migrate and substitute from the amount you’d get from regular cigarettes.

• Finally, for the heavy smokers (more than a pack a day) you should go for the maximum strength of 18mg or even 24. This is for people with a serious habit who need a high dose to get proper satisfaction from vaping.

It’s really important to get the right strength so when you are using your vape to help you quit, you’ll be getting enough of nicotine hit to satiate the cravings whilst also not over-doing it and finding the effect too strong.

Choosing an e-liquid flavour all comes down to personal preference as there are hundreds of e-liquid flavours and brands to choose from. Historically vapers would begin with a tobacco or menthol e-liquid if they were coming off cigarettes so the taste and feel are more familiar, however more and more people are starting out with a fruity or dessert flavour instead. The key to quitting is finding something you really like and prefer to the usual taste of cigarettes. Once you’re more experienced you can come up with your own recipes and blend a couple of juices together to create your own combinations.

There are a lot of affordable options in a 10ml bottle so you can try a bunch at home. Once you find your favourites, you can buy them in a short fill (a larger bottle with 0mg nicotine that you mix with a nic shot to create your desired strength) to save yourself money.

As mentioned, the PG serves to carry flavour and the VG is what produces clouds. The kind of blend you’ll want to get comes down to two things: the experience you want and the vape kit you’re using. If you’re after a feeling comparable to smoking with a stronger throat hit, more flavour and less vapour you’ll want to go for something like a 50:50 blend. The sort of vape this goes best with is a standard kit with a coil of 1 ohm or greater.

If you’re wanting to make clouds large enough to block out a solar eclipse, a gentler throat hit and aren’t as fussed about strong flavour, you’ll want to up the VG content. Go for something like 70VG:30PG and above (80:20 is also popular though you can go all the way up to 100%VG). As VG is thicker and therefore harder to vaporise, you’ll need a more powerful vape. Enter sub-ohm vaping: this where the coils used within the vape kit have an ohm resistance on less than 1 can produce some serious power and clouds. For further information on sub-ohming read our Complete Sub-Ohm Guide.

Going back to the VG/PG ratio, the amount of VG dictates the strength of vape you’ll need. If you’re a beginner, we’d recommend a 50:50 VG:PG ratio with a pod or vape pen starter kit. They’re simple to use and once you’ve got some experience you can try out a few different combinations to see what works best for you. If you need a higher nicotine level, you’ll also want to go for a more simple kit so you’re not getting too much of a nic hit in one go.

If, after some experience, you prefer a milder throat hit and are more into filling the room with vapour, you should have a look at a sub-ohm vape kit to go with a higher VG liquid. As VG is a thicker liquid than PG you need a more powerful vape to get the clouds you’re after.

E-liquid is an aerosol, not steam and when used correctly it simply breaks down into water (the vapour you exhale) and CO2 (which you breath out anyway as a normal respiratory function). Depending on the setting you use your vape on, the vapour may be quite cool or a little warm but it never feels hot like smoke from a cigarette would.

Once you’ve opened a bottle of e-cig liquid, air can get into it and will start to oxidise it. However, this process is very slow and unless you’re keeping your juice for a long time (we’re talking over a year here) it should be fine. The colour may darken slightly and the flavour may become a little bit sweeter but it’s typically the juices with a higher nicotine content that will degrade faster and lose some of its potency meaning you won’t get as much of a hit from it. To keep it fresh just store it somewhere away from heat and light and you’ll be able to enjoy it for ages. If it’s in your vape and you’ve not used it in a while you may notice a bit of a colour change there too. The reason behind this is the fibres in your coil absorb smaller particles more easily, whereas the darker ones get left behind so your tank may look a little darker over time.

If you’re ready to step into the world of vaping but aren’t sure where to start, going into your local vape shop can be a bit daunting.

There are so many types of e-cigarette to choose from and a lot of new terms to learn, choosing the best vape starter kit for you is an important step especially if you’re making the transition from smoking to vaping. So – let’s start at the beginning.

• Drip tip: This is the bit that you inhale from, it acts as a chimney for your vapour to travel from the coil to your lungs.

• Coil: Made of wire and cotton, the coil serves to absorb your e-liquid from inside the tank, heats it up and turns it to vapour when you press the button and inhale. Vape coils come in variable resistances depending on the kind of vape you have. Typically new vapers go for a standard vape with a coil of 1 ohm or greater, and more experienced practitioners go for a sub-ohm vape which has a coil of less than 1 ohm.

• Tank: The plastic or glass casing that surrounds your coil, sitting between the drip tip and battery – the vape tank is what holds your e-liquid so it can be fed into the coil.

• The battery: The powerhouse of your vape, the batteries are what heats the coil to activate it.

Some of these components can look a little different depending on the type of vape kit you have. Which leads us nicely onto…

• Cig-a-likes are discrete, lightweight and mimic the design and style of smoking. They’re a disposable variety of e-cigarettes. The limitations are they carry a finite amount of vape juice as they’re not refillable and also have limited battery life. They’re a starting point for your vaping journey but can end up costing more over time.

• Pod kits are another lightweight option, small enough to fit in your pocket and have a similar feel in the hand and vaping Pod Mods replicate the feeling of smoking, they’re also often a higher nicotine option. They’re fuelled with replaceable pods which are sometimes refillable making them a little more cost-effective than cig-a-likes.

• Vape pens are one of the most popular choices for new vapers. Their battery longevity is improved again on pod vapes, with charging usually just being through a USB port. Their battery life ranges from a few hours up to a day (obviously this is variable depending on how much you use it). Pen-style vape kits are simple to use and you can refill the tank with more juice, meaning you don’t need to spend money on pod refills. They’re simple to use, with just a quickfire button on one side, what you see is what you get.

• Box mod kits are usually for the more experienced vapers of the world, with options to adjust wattage, temperature and ventilation these offer an incredibly customised vaping experience. Box Mods have significantly more battery capacity, are larger and heavier in size and can be customised more with the option to change to a different tank. Like vape pens, they’re also refillable. Advanced sub-ohm box kits will be powered by an external battery, generally, a 18650 li-on battery, as these have the ability to cope with the increased power.

Finding the best e-cigarette to buy really comes down to three things: nicotine strength, how you want to vape and the PG:VG ratio of your juice.

The strength of nicotine in your e-liquid is really important, especially if you’re making the switch from smoking to vaping. The amount you get from a traditional cigarette is higher than what you’d get from vaping due to the way smoke reacts with your body compared to the aerosol vapour from an e-cigarette. Essentially, the level indicated on the bottle is how much nicotine you get per 1ml of vape juice.

For a general break down this is what we’d recommend:

• If you’re a heavy smoker (over a pack a day) we’d say to start on a high nicotine level, around 18-24mg, which is the highest strength we stock.

• If you’re more of a pack a day kind of person, go for a middle-of-the-range 12mg.

• For those of you who are light smokers, smoking only a few a day try out the 6mg strength.

• Finally, anyone who’s a social smoker, start out on 3mg and see how you feel. If that’s too much you can always get some e-liquid in a 0mg strength as well to dilute it down, if you’re only wanting just a little nicotine in the mix.

Once you’re used to the feel of vaping and have settled on a strength that works, over time you can gradually reduce the nicotine level. If you cut out nicotine altogether but still enjoy vaping you can still get your favourite e-liquids – just look for it in a 0mg instead.

Right – now we’ve got through that part let’s talk about propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. They sound like something you’d find in a lab but they’re actually common ingredients in a lot of your kitchen and household products, from flavour enhancer, cake mix, soap and toothpaste.

Propylene glycol (PG) is the flavour carrying ingredient in your e-liquid (for a full break down of everything that goes into juice have a look at our E-Liquid Guide). It’s thin in consistency, meaning it’s easier to vaporise, so a higher PG content liquid is ideal for beginner vape kits. It’s also what gives you more of a throat hit that gives you that smoking feel.

Vegetable glycerin, on the other hand, is a much thicker, sweeter liquid. It’s there to give you the vapour clouds you see people blowing all over the streets these days.

What does it mean when you put the two together? Well, for those of you needing a higher nicotine level, you’re probably best off with an even PG:VG ratio, like a 50:50 e-liquid, and should go for a standard vape pen or pod mod. The reason behind this is when you’re vaping with a higher level of nicotine and using a more powerful vape, it can be too easy to get a bit too much nicotine.

If you’re after something with a lower level, you have a few more options – if the sensation of smoking isn’t as important to you, you can go for a higher VG e-liquid. The most popular ones are 70 VG: 30 PG and 80:20 though there are numerous options in between. You’ll get some mammoth clouds and a pleasant drag. You’ll also have the option to jump in the deep end and try out a sub-ohm vape, giving you more power and flavour.

Finally (we’re nearly there) how you want to vape is also a factor in which vaping device you should get.

There are two methods when it comes to how you use your vape (no, it isn’t exactly like smoking and yes you may take a few coughs to get used to it).

MTL or, mouth-to-lung, is mimicking the technique used by smokers in that you first draw vapour into your mouth, then into your lungs. There are certain vapes that are designed especially for this, typically those with a coil of 1-ohm resistance or higher.

DTL or rather, direct-to-lung, is usually the method used by more experienced vapers who want a deep lung hit. You inhale deeply and get more of the flavour on the exhale, bypassing the part where the vapour sits in your mouth on its way through. This method is usually best suited for sub-ohm vapes.

If you want any of the following:

• High nic content

• MTL (mouth to lung) vaping that’s a similar method to how you’d smoke a cigarette

• That “throat hit” effect akin to smoking

• More powerful flavour

Go for a vape pen or pod kit.

If instead, you want:

• Some massive vapour production and huge clouds

• DTL (direct to lung vaping) for those deep lung drags

• A more gentle throat hit with a smoother pull

• Customisable options with your vaping

You’ll want to look at a sub ohm vape pen or a box mod kit.

There’s a lot of terminologies to learn when you start vaping, which can be especially confusing when there’s often more than one word for the same thing. Adding to this, there’s often several varieties of each product, from e-liquids to tanks to batteries – here, we’ll have a look at the heart of your vape – the coil.

The coil is one of the most important parts of an e-cig, their function is to heat the e-liquid in your tank and turn it into the vapour that you inhale. How does it do that?

• • The wicking material (the bit of cotton you can see inside the metal casing) absorbs the liquid in your tank when you fill up your clearomiser.

  • The wire in your coil (the little spiral of metal you can see inside the wicking material) is heated with power from the battery, which then starts to vaporise the liquid in your wick.

  • As you take a drag on the drip tip, the vapour travels up the chimney of your vape and into your mouth or lungs.

The metal part of your coil can be made from a few different metal wire types, depending on the function of the vape. Usually, though, it’s just stainless steel wire, steel is a good conductor, but it’s also heat resistant so won’t burn out as quickly as some other metals.

This is a bit of a trick question – like we mentioned earlier, there are a few vaping terms that actually refer to the same thing. Atomiser heads are the same thing as coil – they’re the replaceable bit of the tank that serves to turn e-liquid into vapour.

The short answer is, yes there are. The long answer is a bit more complicated. Not only do coils differ between brands and models (we’ll cover that in a bit) but you can also have vape kits with multiple coils. Most of your standard vapes are just single-coil, but you can also get dual-coil, quad-coil etc. However – the more coils you have, the more battery power you need to keep them going. This is more of a “thing” for Sub-Ohm vapers who are into coil building though, so generally speaking, the process of changing a coil is pretty straight forward and you’ll only need one.

There are also different kinds of material used – not all brands will have both but there are two types – regular wire coils and ceramic coils. The main difference between the two is longevity – the ceramic material protects the wire and also acts as extra wicking material, meaning a ceramic coil can sometimes have a better lifespan than a standard wire one.

As mentioned – there is a difference in the kind of coils you can get depending on the function of your e-cig – standard coils and sub-ohm coils. The difference between the two is the resistance and the method of vaping you use – standard coils have a higher resistance meaningless charge and juice pass through them, Sub Ohm coils have a lower resistance, less than 1.0ohms, meaning more current can go through.

We’ll need a little bit of physics to explain this one – in simple terms, it’s the unit of measurement of resistance. The greater the resistance (or number on your coil) the less charge that can pass through. The equation used to explain it is: I = V / R

Where ‘I’ represents current, ‘V’ is voltage and ‘R’ is resistance, you can see when the voltage is higher, and the resistance (ohms) is lower, so the current will be stronger. Likewise, when the voltage is divided by a higher number (i.e. a standard rather than sub-ohm coil) the current will be lower.

As a real-world example, think of it like cars on a road. If you have fifty cars travelling down a single lane, they’re going to have to go one after the other. This is kind of like how a coil of 1 ohm or greater works. If you have those same fifty cars driving down a highway with four lanes, they’ll be able to move through much more quickly – which is what happens when you have a Sub Ohm coil (a resistance of less than one ohm).

Sub Ohm vaping is best suited to DTL (direct to lung) vaping – where you bypass having any vapour in your mouth on the inhale, and get the flavour on the exhale instead.

Whilst this does mean your battery needs more power, it also carries a lot of benefits:

• Big vapour production – that means clouds big enough to fill your kitchen while you’re making dinner.

• Adjustable airflow – you can find vents on the devices that carry sub-ohm coils. Wider ventilation means more vapour and (sometimes) slightly less flavour, closing the vents has the opposite effect.

• A bigger impact – by this we mean you’ll feel the nicotine hit more, which is why if you use a sub-ohm vape you’ll want to go for lower nicotine strength.

• Bigger devices – you can get Sub Ohm pen vape kits, but the best models are the box mods. They’re a bit more weighty, but give you a lot more options too.

Sub-Ohm devices often come with wattage and temperature control, when it comes to choosing the best number to go with for your own device and coil, usually your e-cig will come with a guide and it’s often written on the coil itself too.

Standard coils are better suited for MTL (mouth to lung) vaping – they’re a lower power and better suited for people who still desire the feeling of smoking. This method is when you draw vapour from your e-cig, let it sit in your mouth momentarily before inhaling into your lungs. You’ll have less vapour (due to a higher resistance coil) but you also get some great benefits from this method too:

• Cooler vapour – this is because there are less power and therefore less heat travelling through your device.

• More flavour – yep, when you have a standard vape (particularly when accompanied by a higher PG liquid) you’ll be able to taste your juice better.

• They’re discreet – (for those vapers who want to try to sneak a puff in the pub, you daredevils) you’ll be able to fit them in your pocket more easily, they fit in your hand nicely and as you produce less vapour, you won’t be as obvious on the exhale.

• More efficient – because of their higher resistance, they also consume less e-liquid and battery power, meaning your tank stays fuller for longer and you don’t need to recharge so often.

This part is important – getting the wrong coil for your tank is like trying to fit a square peg into a circle hole. Even within brands, the coil you need will vary massively depending on the device you have. Vape kits come with your first coil (sometimes two) to get you started – so check on the box the one you need and make sure you order the same again to get the best vaping experience.

When you know, you know – and it’s pretty obvious when it’s time to change a coil. You’ll get less vapour production and this is eventually accompanied by a “burnt toast” kind of flavour (which is about as pleasant as it sounds). How long your coil will last is a bit like asking how long is a piece of string – it depends on how much you use your vape, the wattage, the juice you use, however, the general bracket is 1 to 2 weeks. You can help them last longer with a few simple techniques, which brings us nicely onto our next point…

There sure is – right from the word go when you put your new coil in, the best way to help get the most out of it is to prime it. It’s very straight forward, all you need to do is add a few drops of juice to the wicking material so it can sink in a little first. Then, once the coil is placed securely in the tank, fill the tank with your e-liquid and let it settle for a few minutes. Taking a few drags through the drip tip without activating the battery will also help draw more into the coil. Following this, we would advise starting off on a lower power setting and as the cotton becomes more saturated you can gradually raise the power. This helps prevent dry hits (when you get a hot, metallic pull from your vape – not nice) and means you’ll be heating the juice nicely, rather than burning cotton.

Making sure you’re using the right power setting for your coil is important too – this is often stated on the coil itself, providing the full range (a minimum and maximum wattage) as well as the optimum range.

Taking a break between drags also helps – especially with Sub Ohm coils as they need a little more time to reabsorb some liquid. It’s easy to chain-vape without realising, especially if you’re only out for a quick break at lunch, but giving your coil some time to rest will make it last longer and help avoid dry hits too.

The choice of liquid matters too – those with a higher PG level (look for a 50VG:50PG blend) will burn through coils more slowly as it’s a thinner consistency. If you have a Sub Ohm vape, you’ll be able to go for a higher VG level if you want and the coil is better suited for tolerating a thicker juice.

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 the 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 airflow 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 are 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.