Coil gunk is a common problem in e juice vaporizers. It is necessary to clean it regularly, especially when it looks dark. If the color becomes dark, you will immediately notice the normal taste of the e-juice turns different or bad.
This happens because of the sweet and sticky nature of the e-liquid, combined with over-use. Sometimes certain elements are not entirely able to escape through the coil during vaping, resulting in a dark coil. You may notice crust layers develop that can ruin the overall flavor of the liquid.
It’s true that coils don’t last forever. But you can extend they lifetime if you use it wisely. This is the main reason the coil gunk becomes an annoying and problematic part for e-smokers. Let’s talk about these problems.
Reasons Your Coils Become Gunky
Sweeteners
As we know, creamy sweeteners are not easily vaporized. Sweeteners contain sugar and carbohydrates. These ingredients are not vaporized properly through the coil. Sweet things also have artificial ingredients like sugar, syrup, and heavy-cream. The coil heats up and burns these ingredients, causing a bad and burning taste. For making the e-liquid sweetener Erythritol, dessert and fruit flavors are used mostly. Non-sweetened juices cause less coil gunk than the sweetened varieties.
Dark E-liquids
Dark e-liquids are more likely to gunk the coil than any other color, thanks to the use of a sweetener. The other reason is that dark colors are heavier than others because they contain many ingredients. If you want to avoid gunky coils, look for lighter colors.
Higher E-liquid VG
VG is also known as vegetable glycerin. Most vapors recognize that high quantities of VG in e-liquid create more coil gunk. This type of e-juice is thicker and produces clogging.
PG is also known as propylene glycol. The PG e-liquid is created with less coil gunk. On the other hand, low VG e-juice provides you a dry hit.
To avoid the coil gunk problems, you can try 50/50 use of VG/PG.
Chain Vaping
If a vapor takes multiple puffs within a short period (five to ten seconds), it causes coil gunk. This process can soak up more e-juice before the next hit. Vaping too frequently has proven to damage devices.
Take long draws continuously and don’t let your wick dry out. Otherwise, you can easily break your wick.
You can use chain vaping when you use RBAs (Rebuildable Atomizers). Because the coil can vaporize it quickly before the liquid travels fast.
Flavored e-liquid: We found that those e-juices burn quickly. Between flavored and non-flavored, you will find flavored e-juices gunk up much more easily. You can try this process by yourself. If you use the same coil, you can use it five times more than you can with flavored e-juice.
Although most people love flavored e juice, if you don’t like to change the coil frequently, you might want to go for un-flavored.
How To Prevent A Burnt Coil
Liquid cleaning
To clean the coil easily, you can use water. First, separate the coil and wick, then just drop the coil into hot water. Within a few minutes, you will notice that the gunk has fallen from the coil. The coil will be soft and you can rub the coil with a brush to clean it further.
You can also use alcohol instead of regular water. Because alcohol helps to clean coil gunk deeply, this is recommended by most users. You can also use soda to clean coils. But generally speaking, alcohol is the best solution.
Change the Material
If you are not taking a proper break between your puffs (20 seconds is recommended), you may want to look at different coil material. Cotton is great to use, but in high temperatures, it doesn’t give you the real kick.
If you want high wattage vapor, try to change the wick material. Silica or ceramic are known as great materials. Those are easily tolerated at high heat without burning.
Dry Burn
This is a perfect way to eliminate coil gunk. All you have to do is press the fire button and remain patient until it turns dry.After that, you will notice a little bit of dark carbon is left and the gunk is gone. Then use a wet swab or a brush and clean it just by rubbing.