Starting to vape and the different components that come with it can be confusing for many people. It is natural when beginning that you make mistakes. Sometimes it can be choosing the wrong vape for your ability, sometimes it can be simple as not keeping your vape clean. Learning how to spot these mistakes or knowing how to prevent them can help you enhance your own vaping experience.
When people begin vaping, particularly when you have been a smoker, you’ll assume that you’ll go into vaping as a pro – making big clouds and being able to know what e-liquids are best. We’ve gathered eight common vape mistakes to ensure that you can recognise them before they happen and that you can vape happily.
1. Vaping the Way You Smoked
This one is an obvious one if you have previously been a smoker. Smoking relies on users taking hard and quick puffs to get the benefit of the cigarette. This doesn’t always translate to vaping, as it really depends on the type of vape you have. The closest experience to smoking you can have with a vape is a mouth to lung vape.
Most of the time, you will have to learn a new technique to vape properly as one of the great benefits of vaping is the clouds that come with them and the hit of the e-liquid. To vape correctly, take long and soft puffs and then exhale the vapour. This will ensure you have a great vaping experience.
2. Not checking the battery level in your vape
Vaping relies on electronics to work. This means that they are using power to operate their systems which naturally become depleted over a period of time. Charging your battery regularly is important to ensure that you can vape on demand, and are not left stuck with an uncharged vape halfway through the day, making you more likely to reach out for a cigarette.
Forgetting to charge your battery ahead of time and not making sure it is fully charged before leaving the house is a very easy thing to do. Done regularly, it could reduce the lifespan of your battery. Sometimes new users are unsure of how to properly charge their vapes meaning that the device’s vaping life is much lower than it should be.
Vapes that are operating with low battery won’t offer the same experience as a vape that is charged fully. Low battery prevents smooth inhalation or, even worse, not enough vapour. Charging your vape ensures that you have a good vaping experience that isn’t plagued with poor quality clouds and hits.
Ensure you read the charging instructions and discover when the battery is fully charged. If you’re carrying a power bank, you can also give it a quick boost during the day.
Something that can easily happen when you’re transporting your vape is that it can continue to be activated. Leaving a vape on for a prolonged period of time can result in damages within the battery and other components. Make sure that you turn your device off when putting it in your bag because you risk e-liquids leaking as well as your battery becoming destroyed.
3. Blending Flavours Incorrectly
Many vapers enjoy blending e-liquids to make personalised flavours that match their palate’s desires. While this is a great opportunity, it’s also something that can be done terribly wrong. While mixing e-liquids, and thus the flavours, is easy, making them taste nice is a different matter.
Mixing your e-liquids however, can cause inconsistencies in flavours and nicotine strengths. If you do decide to mix e-liquids to make your very own unique flavour, make sure that you do it with minimal amounts at first to ensure you are happy with the flavour. Keep in mind the nicotine strength as well, and only mix e-liquids that have the same nicotine concentration and type.
There are a myriad of e-liquids available on the market with some of the best brands producing flavours for every palate. Experiment with these before you decide to blend your flavours. Another top tip is to wash your tank out thoroughly when you are changing your e-liquids as you could end up with flavour ghosting .
4. Choosing the Wrong Vape
Vaping can be an incredible experience and is a great alternative to smoking, providing a healthier option in comparison to cigarettes. When starting on your vaping journey, deciding on what device to purchase can be difficult. There is such a great selection of vapes that serve different functions but choosing the wrong device can be disheartening and create unenjoyable experiences.
When you are starting out with vaping, it is important to select a vaping starter kit that is compact and user friendly. While complex box mods with advanced settings have incredible features, they often require better understanding and experience. Choosing something that suits your lifestyle and is easy to use should be your only requirement when getting started.
One of the more popular types of kits for beginning vapers are compact and easy to use pod mods as well as the less advanced but convenient vape pens.
5. Buying a Cheap Vape
While we’ve covered the importance of buying a vape that matches your expertise level, it is also important that you consider quality. Many people are tempted to buy cheaper models but that can come with some risks.
While you don’t have to purchase the most expensive vape on the market, ensuring the vape you are purchasing is made of good quality parts that have safety is the forefront of the design.
Not only is the safety important, cheap vapes can deliver poor flavour payoff, can be leaky and malfunction often. Additionally, cheap off brand vapes can also have poor battery life, and can be overall dangerous if they have not been tested correctly.
We therefore advise that you to avoid cheap ‘off-brand’ vapes commonly purchased off sites such as ebay or aliexpress, and recommend that you go for slightly more expensive but still affordable vape kit such as the Aspire PockeX Pocket AIO Kit, Endura Endura T18 II Starter Kit, or the Vaporesso Sky Solo Starter Kit which are all wonderful easy to use devices for beginning vapers who don’t want anything overly complicated.
5. Not Maintaining Your Vape
When you purchase a vape, maintenance is key for a variety of reasons. Some of the major complaints when vaping is a dry hit from their vape, poor flavour payoff, poor cloud production, and a slightly burnt taste. Most of the time, this is due to your vape not being maintained. You could have an old coil that requires a replacement or too much gunk around it.
Neglecting maintenance means that your vape simply won’t perform as efficiently and the longevity of the device will be cut short. Vapers need to ensure that they replace broken parts like drip tips and ruined batteries. Even simply cleaning your vape is integral to its functionality.
Forgetting to maintain your vape can end up with short-circuiting, terrible flavours, damaged coils, and issues with your tank. If your tank has problems, check the O-rings to see if they are torn or worn out. If your battery is dying frequently, replace it with a new one. Change your coils regularly to ensure that your e-liquid is vaporised correctly.
Curious about how to maintain your device to make it last longer? Check out some of our informative guides
6. Not Priming the Coil
When you’re a beginner vaper, sometimes the thought process of replacing the coil is to simply unscrew it and then fill your tank. The process is slightly more complicated than this because the coils are responsible for your vaping experience. Knowing how to replace them correctly is critical.
For a regular tank, coils can dictate experience as they have subtle differences which can be reflected in the depth of flavour you get from your e-liquid, the size of your vapor cloud, and how smooth your hit is. Make sure you prime your coil to have a heightened vaping experience.
Priming your coil is an easy process and could end up increasing its longevity. Depending on what configuration and type of coil your vape varies the process but the steps are essentially the same.
Simply place a few drops of e-liquid into the wick that is resting on the coil. Leave it for some time to allow it to absorb into the wick and then put the coil back in its place. This allows the coils to be gently soaked before you fire up your vape. Another pro tip – don’t forget to clean your coil to prevent build up of excess material.
7. Selecting the Wrong E-Liquid and Nicotine Strength
You know what vape to buy and the mechanics behind the vape itself. What now? Buying the correct e-liquid with appropriate nicotine strength is the next battle you will face. Knowing what e-liquid to buy very much depends on your palate. You need to choose the right vape juice for you. There are countless flavours to choose from, so go for a flavour that you already know you like and you won’t be disappointed.
One of the great things about vaping is that, particularly if you are a smoker, you can purchase e-liquids that have nicotine included in them. Controlling what nicotine intake you’d like and the flavour of the e-liquid can be daunting. Many beginners choose an e-liquid with nicotine that isn’t appropriate for their needs.
Swapping smoking for vaping is a great start when trying to quit your habit. You will want to choose an e-liquid with high nicotine content. You can slowly begin to lower your nicotine intake by purchasing e-liquids with lower nicotine levels to reduce your dependency. This can continue until you are vaping with nic-free e-liquids.
Make Vaping Mistakes a Thing of the Past
Starting out vaping can be a daunting process. There is lots of information, lots of components to vaping, and lots of vapes to choose from. Making mistakes is all too easy and, using our guide, hopefully you’ll be able to make them few and far between.
Still unsure of what vape is best suited for your ability or need some help choosing the right e-liquid for your palate? Get in touch with KIX Vaping today to see how we can help you with all your vaping needs.