Why Does My Vape Pop and Crackle? [4 Causes and Fixes]

Whenever you vape, you might hear some crackling and popping sounds coming from your vape device. 

These noises usually happen when the heat increases in a device and a hot coil heats the vape juice, turning it into vapor.

The noise is even louder for people who take longer and more intense puffs while vaping. If you’re still new to vaping, you probably find these sounds rather strange.

You might be wondering if a vape crackle noise is something that should cause you to worry. While the popping or crackling sound is normal, it might get to a point where the sound produced is slightly different from what you’re accustomed to hearing from your vape device.

These noises might mean that there’s an issue with your vaping device that needs some checking or possibly fixing. However, before you can fix the problem, you should know why crackling and popping sounds occur.

Here are some likely reasons why you’re hearing a crackling or popping sound, as well as some easy fix solutions. 

4 Top Reasons Why Your Vape Pops and Crackles

1. Low Wattage Setting

Whenever you take a puff, some air gets into the tank, and the wick brings the e-liquid to the vape coil. Once this happens, the coil heats up and vaporizes the e-juice.

If your wattage setting or coil resistance is low, the coil will fail to vaporize the e-liquid effectively or will take longer to do so. If this e-liquid does not completely vaporize, it will end up flooding your atomizer, leading to vape popping or a crackling sound.

To avoid this, you could raise the wattage on your e-cigarette so that your e-liquid vaporizes the liquid without flooding your coil and causing a vape crackle. 

Furthermore, you might avoid the crackling and popping noises by adjusting the airflow to reduce the amount of e-liquid. If you’re using a sub-ohm tank, twist the tank’s collar so that some of the air pressure gets lost in the process.

2. Using a Thin Type of E-Liquid

The e-liquid you go for could cause vape crackling, especially if it’s thin. Thin e-liquids are also known to cause flooding in your atomizer.

Vape popping will happen once your vape juice hits a very hot coil. E-liquids that contain propylene glycol are thinner, and as such, they vaporize at lower temperatures and can make an occasional popping sound. 

To avoid this issue, consider a thicker liquid or one containing higher vegetable glycerin to propylene glycol ratios. More vegetable glycerin in your e-juice creates a thicker e-liquid and not only makes more vapor but also consistently vaporizes inside your pen. Therefore, using a thicker e-juice will give you a better quality vaping experience. 

Another way to avoid strange noises is to take shorter inhales, which last for only a few seconds at most, instead of longer ones. Longer inhales take in more vape juice than your vape pen can handle.

3. Coil Design – Using Twisted or Braided Coils 

If you’re using twisted or braided vape coils, your vape juice will have more crevices and surface area for it to vaporize. Thus, surface area increases will lead to more vapor but will also cause vape noises. 

While you can’t prevent noises if you use these coils, you might want to consider this effect before buying a specific e-cigarette device.

If you make your coils by yourself, you could do tighter twists to avoid getting liquid into these crevices, which will stop the sound.

Another way of preventing popping and crackling sounds when it comes to your coil is to avoid overpriming it. Don’t drip too much e-juice on the wick when priming your coil

Remember, the wick should be wet but not flooded. If you soaked the wick too much by accident, press the fire button before you start to inhale to fix the popping noises.

4. Using a Narrow Drip or Chimney

A narrow drip tip or chimney could also cause more crackling sounds because condensed vapor remains inside the vape, causing the formation of droplets that block the flow of air.

Therefore, you can avoid the popping sounds by going for a wider drip-tip or an RTC chimney. Wider tips and chimneys mean that no extra vapor will condense and collect inside the pen.

You could also consider using a rebuildable tank atomizer (RTA) which is known to have a wider chimney.

Moreover, there’s a new type of tip that can prevent vape spitting. A spitting vape occurs when e-juice enters your mouth from the tip of the vape. These drip tips are usually angled, rotatable, bent, or curved.

A low-quality vape mod can also be responsible for strange noises since they do not give the atomizer a constant current. It would help if you considered all the factors in a new mod before buying a vape pen. 

If, after using new vape mods, you still hear a crackling and popping noise or a soft hiss, try covering your tip. The proper way to accomplish this step is by cutting down a piece of paper towel or pipe screen and placing it on the inside part of the drip tip.

Wrap Up

If you are a newbie, you should learn to appreciate the slight popping sound in your vapes, as it is a perfectly normal part of the vaping experience.

However, if you’ve noticed that irritating crackling or popping in your device, follow the points in our article to help you understand the causes and find a solution to your problem.

Always check if your vaping device requires fixing. Remember, it is better to remain aware of any sudden change in your e-cigarette to ensure it lasts a long time. 

Although uncommon, there have been cases of vape pens exploding. But they were mostly related to defects in the battery that the user couldn’t have noticed as there’s almost no alert for them—not even popping sounds.

That said, if your vaporizer is producing no noise and is overheating, you might want to stop vaping as too much heat could lead to an explosion.

As you can see, most of the factors that cause completely normal popping or crackling sounds are related to too much liquid or the use of thicker liquids and coil wire interactions. If the sounds were not there before, that could mean your device isn’t working properly.

Finally, remember that vaping is not good for your health, no matter your device’s wattage, any airflow adjustments, or the type of e-juices you are using. Nicotine is an addictive chemical, and vaping can lead to birth defects and other reproductive harm in pregnant women and heart disease in the general population.