A vape is an electronic device that produces vapor which is inhaled by the vaper. It provides a great solution for people with nicotine and tobacco addiction.
The vapor is produced when the battery supplies energy to the coil. In the process, some of that energy becomes heat.
Since it’s electronic, it’s normal for your vape to get hot. It’s part of how they were designed.
If it feels hotter than usual though, you need to make certain adjustments.
The excessive heating might make you uneasy especially if you’re new to vaping. While it’s not common for something to go wrong with your battery while vaping, it can still happen, but no need to panic.
Here are some of the possible reasons why your vape is hot when you inhale.
Contents
7 Common Reasons Your Vape Gets Hot When You Inhale
1. A Reduction in the Size of the Airflow Holes
Many sub-ohming devices have very wide holes that lead to the creation of large clouds of vapor. The problem with the holes being too large is that you will also end up inhaling plain air in the process.
Some vapers prefer to close the air holes to avoid inhaling that much air and to get a vape that has more flavor. However, closing them up means you won’t get fresh air.
Hence, your coil will start to heat up and your vape will feel hot. So in case you decide to reduce the size of your tank’s airflow holes, make sure you reduce the wattage.
However, if you have a tank that has a secondary airflow vent in the mouthpiece, you won’t need to reduce the wattage. That’s because the secondary hole already cools the vapor easily.
If reducing the wattage doesn’t help, the other solution is to simply open the airflow hole.
2. Using a High-Mass Coil
When the coil you’re using is high in metal mass, you’ll need a high wattage to heat it up. However, the coil’s high mass makes it retain the heat for some time even when you’re no longer pressing the fire button.
In case you’ve been vaping for a long period, you’ll feel your vape getting hot while you inhale because of this high coil mass. You can solve this in two ways.
First, make sure there is space in between your puffs to let your coil cool down to room temperature before you puff again. Second, go for a coil that has less metal mass yet still does the job right.
3. Chain Vaping
Chain vaping is when a vaper takes short, multiple puffs in short intervals. This prevents your wick from soaking up enough vape juice before your next puff, causing it to burn.
When you chain vape, your atomizer will overheat and your vape will feel hot when you inhale. It’s a vaping style that could damage your coil and cause an irritating burnt taste too.
To avoid this, allow for reasonable intervals in between your puffs so that the wick saturates itself again.
4. Metal Mouthpiece in the Tank
Although it’s not common today, many manufacturers created tanks with a stainless steel drip tip design a few years back. Their metallic mouthpieces would get quite hot.
If you have a vape tank from that time, you may experience a hot vape when you inhale.
You can solve this easily by going for a plastic mouthpiece since plastic doesn’t conduct electricity and heat.
5. Hot Spot in the Coil
A hot spot refers to a section that glows more than the rest of the coil. This could be because of uneven spacing between the coil wraps.
It’s very common if you build your coils by yourself. A coil with these hot spots heats up unevenly and will create a hot and harsh vapor.
This will result in a bad experience because it results in an irritating taste. Since it will burn through your wick faster, your vape will be hot when you inhale.
You can avoid this by getting rid of these hot spots either by pushing the coil wraps together or pulling them apart using ceramic tweezers.
Sometimes though, a hot spot could be as a result of your coil touching your RDA’s inner wall. It will happen when you replace the top part of the RDA.
This could also heat up your coil significantly and you will also notice a change in your coil’s resistance if your device comes with an in-built resistance meter.
If this is what you’re dealing with, solve it immediately as it could lead to short-circuiting which is dangerous.
6. Coil Gunk
Sometimes, your coil could get gunked up and fail to soak up the vape juice as it should. This makes the coil hot.
When the energy being produced by your vaping device doesn’t have enough vape juice to heat and evaporate, the temperature rises much faster. You’re likely to experience dry puffs since the wick could also burn.
If gunking is the problem, you could solve it by getting a new coil. If you still want to use the same coil though, make sure you clean it up properly.
Soak it in warm water or grain alcohol before you start cleaning. While cleaning, be sure you take out all the gunky vape juice and let the coil dry out again.
7. Restricted Juice Flow
When the juice flow is restricted, it could be because of its thickness or the design of the tank. VG is thicker than PG so you might experience this challenge when you use a juice with high VG content.
Some devices come with tanks that allow you to control the liquid flow. With these, you can close down the path that joins the wick and the tank.
Setting it too low will also restrict the juice flow and will cause less wicking, causing your vape to get hot.
The solution is as simple as opening up the control to allow liquid flow. If your problem is with the VG ratio, you could use a sub-ohm tank instead if you still want to use the high VG liquid.
The other option is to use a liquid that contains a lower amount of VG and keep the same tank.
Wrap Up
It’s normal for your vape to be hot during vaping. However, the next time you notice that your vape is hotter than usual, check for the possibilities discussed above.
As you can see, it’s nothing to worry too much about as the solutions are easy. You just have to find out what’s causing the problem in your device and do the appropriate fix!