Many new vapers don’t prime when they change coils, even though priming your coil improves its quality and longevity.
Priming is when you ensure you saturate your vape coils, also called atomizer heads or the coil head, in e-liquid. This process gives your fresh coil a more consistent taste, minimizing popping and dry hits and enhancing vapor production.
The design on some models takes longer for the e-liquid to absorb when it’s poured directly into the liquid tank—which makes saturating vape coils even more critical.
When priming, there are a few approaches you can take, depending on your system. This article will guide you on how to prime a vape coil and get the most out of your new coil.
This process isn’t complicated, and the advantages are massive, including extending coil life and minimizing any burnt taste.
Usually, pouring the e-liquid directly into the tank takes about 15 minutes to be ready, but priming reduces this time to less than 5 minutes.
If you have a sub-ohm atomizer head, it’s almost essential to go through the priming process since sub-ohm coils operate at a resistance of less than 1.0 ohm, drawing more power from the battery. More power equals more pressure on the vape coil, so you must thoroughly soak these coils in e-liquid.
Priming Vape Coils
Every vaper will need to remove their old coil at some point. Most people who use e-cigs will only need to change them every few weeks, but chain vapers go through coils faster.
When you properly prime your coils in e-juice, you avoid the feeling of a dry hit and enhance your vaping experience. To avoid a burnt hit and charred taste, all vaping enthusiasts should know how to prime coils and fully saturate their wicking material.
Before you begin changing coils, make sure you have any e-liquids you want to use, the e-cigarettes you’re changing the coils on, and a few minutes.
To prime your vape coil before you start vaping, you’ll need to follow a few simple steps:
Step 1: When you’ve taken your atomizer coil out of its packaging, locate the exposed cotton wick on the side. There are probably two opposite each other, and they’ll most likely look like white circles.
Step 2: Choose a vape juice from one of your e-liquids and place a few drops on one of the white cotton spots inside the e-juice holes. Start with one or two drops to give the juice time to absorb into the wick fully.
The first drop takes the longest, as the wick absorbs quicker when it’s already soaked. Initially, the e-liquid will sit on the e-cig coil like a dome or bubble, but once this has disappeared, it will be flat.
The wick will be colored the same as the e-liquid.
Step 3: Repeat this process until the e-juice stops getting absorbed into the wick and sits on top like a bubble.
It’s essential not to drown the coil in e-liquid. If you do, remove any excess with a paper towel. Just remember not to dry your coil completely. Simply fill until fully saturated.
Step 4: Repeat the process with the other bits of wick you can see—there’s probably one or two more.
Step 5: Once you’ve soaked your metal coil in e-liquid, turn the coil upright.
On most coils, you’ll be able to see a ring of cotton inside. You want to prime this, too. This area is even more critical to prime as this is the part that gets vaporized first. Prime coils until the e-liquid stops absorbing quickly.
While this process can take a little time before you can start vaping, the payoff is massive since you’ll avoid burnt hits.
You can also just plug the coil into the tank, pour e-liquid into it, and wait 15 minutes for it to be ready, but not everyone has the patience.
Setting Up Sub-Ohm Coils
Readying the sub-ohm coils that come in certain vape kits follows the same steps above, only this time, you need to break the coil in as well.
Breaking in a sub-ohm coil is similar to letting a valve guitar amp heat up—you need to get it ready to be used slowly. Not breaking in your coil can reduce its lifespan and give you burnt hits.
Step 1: To begin, you need to plug the coil in once you’ve successfully primed it.
Fill the tank up to its total capacity or the maximum volume line. You don’t want too much liquid in the e-cigarette tank, as this can prevent the coil from absorbing more e-liquid than you used to prime it. You also don’t want too much e-liquid since that can overwhelm the system.
Step 2: Then, if your vape is adjustable, set it to a lower wattage, ideally 5W. Hit the fire button and take a few hits at this power.
You may not be able to taste much, but you wouldn’t at this power anyway. Four or five hits will do.
Step 3: Gradually increase the power by 5W, and take another 4 or 5 hits.
Keep doing this until you reach your recommended wattage.
Step 4: If your coil tastes unpleasant or you get dry hits when you vape, stop increasing the power. Keep inhaling at a low temperature where it tastes acceptable, and then move up slowly. You may need to take more hits on your vape than suggested above.
If you can’t get a good taste when you vape at the standard wattage, you may need to prime your vape coil some more as it probably hasn’t absorbed enough e-liquid. To remove your coil, turn the system off, remove the vape tank, and then remove the coil.
Priming MTL Vape Coils
MTL stands for ‘mouth to lung,’ and these coils operate higher than 1 ohm. They’re the most common for those adult smokers trying to quit smoking.
To ensure these coils are properly primed in your vaping device, follow these steps:
Step 1: Put the new coil in as usual, and make sure to fill your tank. Fill the tank until it’s almost full.
Step 2: Because their design is usually different and they probably don’t have an exposed wick, you have to let the coil soak itself. The vaping coil will be ready in around 10 minutes.
Use the increasing power method from above before you start vaping from your e-cig.
Final Thoughts
Pre-saturating your new coil before you vape is an easy way to improve your vaping sessions. Even the best coils already manufactured for flavor usually get better when primed.
Saturating is definitely worth doing, not only because it helps you get the most out of your coil but because it’s faster than just leaving it to sort itself out.