The last thing that a vaper would like to see is a burnt hit occurring on the atomizer - which will permanently damage the coil and greatly affect the vaping experience, you will get raked over by a dry, bitter, and burnt taste.

What is burnt hit?

A burnt hit may happen when there is no e-liquid(or insufficient e-liquid) on the cotton(wicking material) for your coil to evaporate since without enough e-liquid to vaporize, the coil will burn the cotton, the vaper will essentially inhale the burnt cotton and scorched e-liquid - it is probably the worst taste you may get during your vaping experience.

What may lead to a burnt hit?

A burnt hit often occurs among novice vapers who are using powerful open-system vapes such as AIO(all-in-one) vapes, RBA(rebuildable atomizers), and mod vapes. And it can be contributed to the following reasons:

Running at insufficient e-liquid

The coil could be spoiled and lead to a burnt hit if there is not enough e-liquid in the tank for vaporizing. Since the cotton needs to be fully saturated by the e-liquid before heating by the coil, lack of e-liquid can cause the coil to burn the wicking material and lead to a burnt hit. Remember to check your e-liquid remaining before you vaping, if it is less than a quarter, you ought to fill some vape juice in the tank.

Running at excessively high wattage

Every coil in the vape has its own resistance and recommended wattage output, consequently, if the coil is used at excessively high wattage output, the overheated coil can vaporise the e-liquid faster, and when the e-liquid is dry, the coil will burn the cotton(wicking material), leading to burning the cotton and causes a burnt hit. Therefore it is always important to know what is the recommended output for the coil in use.

Vaping with high VG e-liquid

VG is an ingredient in vape juice, it is thick and sweet. Since VG is thicker and sweeter than PG, a higher VG e-liquid needs a higher power to be vaporized, and if a coil has vaporized too much VG, there will be greasy and black gunk left on the coil and cause a burnt taste in the end. As a result, if you often vape with high VG e-liquid, you should clean the coil often.

Chain vaping or long-playing vaping at a single puff

Whether you often do chain vaping or vaping for a long time for a single puff is more likely to lead to a burnt hit. Chain vaping means taking several puffs in a short time without pause in between, and then a burnt hit could happen because the vape juice doesn’t have enough time to saturate the coil, and the coil could quickly dry up then leading to a burnt hit. So avoid chain vaping and long-playing as possible as you can to prevent the coil from burning.

Not priming the coil properly before vaping

Before using a new atomizer, you will have to properly prime the coil by fully soaking the wick with e-liquid. Most wicks are made of dry cotton, consequently, if you don’t prime it properly, you may get a burnt taste of the cotton or the e-liquid.

How to prevent your coils from burning?

Always remember priming the coil for the first time vaping

If you are using a new atomizer, it is necessary to properly prime the coil. It is simple - squeeze the e-liquid in the tank till it is full, wait about 5 minutes to let the vape juice fully soak the coil, then you can put the tank on the atomizer and start vaping.

Use the recommended wattage for different coils

There are many different resistances of coils for different vaping purposes. For example, a 1.4ohm coil is for MTL vaping and it requires a relatively lower output between 15W-20W; a 0.4ohm coil is for sub-ohm vaping and it requires a relatively higher output between 40W or more, so you should make sure the wattage is suitable for the coil. It is worth noting that most vape kits feature an auto-check function which means the device can adjust to a suitable output according to the coil you use in the atomizer.