When you finally decide that you’ve outgrown your first vaping device and that you’re ready for something with greater capabilities, that’s when you know that you’re no longer a vaping newbie; that’s when you know you’ve joined the ranks of the experienced vapers.
When you start to look at the latest vape gear, one of the first things you’re going to notice is that the vast majority of the high-end vaping products are designed to support the direct-to-lung inhaling style. Many of them have adjustable airflow vents and can work for mouth-to-lung inhaling if you really want them to, but that’s not really their purpose. Their purpose is to give you tons of airflow, tons of power and enormous vapor clouds.
So, is direct-to-lung vaping something that you should try? Why is that inhaling style so popular when no one would ever smoke a cigarette that way? Most importantly, is there a chance that the direct-to-lung inhaling style might be right for you? Let’s learn more.
Why Is Direct-to-Lung Vaping So Popular?
Understanding why DTL vaping is so popular is actually fairly simple. Think about why you’ve begun to consider getting a new vaping device. It’s probably because you’ve enjoyed your vaping experience so far, but you think that you might like it even more if you had a new vaping device that could give you bigger clouds and bolder flavors. Well, there’s only so much vapor that you can hold in your mouth. You could switch to the most powerful vaping device in the world, and your vapor clouds would look pretty much the same as they currently do unless you also changed your inhaling style.
Before devices designed for DTL vaping began to appear, many people simply used the DTL inhaling style with their existing vaping devices with the goal of getting bigger clouds out of them. A lot of people realized that they quite liked vaping that way, and before long, hardware optimized for that inhaling style began to appear.
So, why is the DTL inhaling style so popular? It’s popular because it’s the way to get big clouds, and vapers love chasing clouds. There’s a lot more to know about DTL vaping before you make the switch, though, so let’s talk a bit about how DTL inhaling will change your vaping experience.
You’ll Enjoy Enormous Clouds
As you’ve probably figured out – and possibly seen for yourself if you have friends who vape or have watched a few vaping reviews on YouTube – DTL inhaling means that you’ll enjoy some truly enormous vapor clouds. Your new device will have an atomizer coil that’s far more efficient than the coil you’re using now, and inhaling directly to your lungs will mean that you can take in a much greater volume of vapor at a time. There’s just no contest; you’ll find the difference in vapor production absolutely unbelievable.
One thing that you might want to think about before upgrading to a DTL vaping setup, though, is whether bigger vapor production is something you really want. DTL vaping has two potential drawbacks – a lack of throat hit and higher overall vaping expenses – that we’ll discuss in greater detail shortly. Another thing that you might want to consider, though, is where you plan to vape. You should know that some people consider vapers a bit obnoxious when they blow enormous clouds around in public. If that concerns you, you might want to keep a smaller device in your arsenal for those times when you’re out and about.
You’ll Experience the Richest Flavors
Aside from the fact that you’ll be creating your own personal weather systems, the thing that’s most enjoyable about DTL vaping is the fact that you’ll get to enjoy the richest, boldest vape juice flavors that the world of vaping has to offer. Flavor chasers are almost always DTL inhalers because the volume of vapor that you inhale with each puff has a lot to do with the strength of the flavors that you taste.
The other reason why DTL vaping is so popular among flavor chasers is because that inhaling style necessitates the use of e-liquid with lower nicotine strengths. Nicotine tastes a little bit like black pepper. If you’re currently using a vaping device designed for mouth-to-lung inhaling, you might be using an e-liquid with a nicotine strength as high as 50 mg/ml, and at that nicotine strength, you’re definitely going to taste a lot of pepper when you vape. You’re going to taste so much nicotine, in fact, that the peppery taste may overwhelm the flavor of the e-liquid.
That’s not a problem if you love savory tobacco e-liquids. In that case, the flavor of the nicotine can help to make your e-liquid taste more like a cigarette. If you like sweeter e-liquids, though – as most vapers do – you’re probably going to love DTL vaping because the absence of that peppery flavor will allow you to taste your e-liquid more prominently than ever.
Throat Hit Will No Longer Be Part of Your Vaping Experience
As we’ve just mentioned, the most common e-liquid nicotine strengths for mouth-to-lung vaping range all the way up to 50 mg/ml. With a nicotine strength that high, you’re going to get a very forceful throat hit when you vape. The most popular nicotine strength for DTL inhaling, on the other hand, is just 3 mg/ml. If you’re currently using e-liquid with a nicotine strength of 50 mg/ml or higher, switching to a nicotine strength that low may require your body to adjust for a couple of days. If you’re using a nicotine strength lower than 50 mg/ml, though, you probably won’t notice a difference in the way you feel because the cloud production of your new device will make up for the lower nicotine strength of your e-liquid.
The area where you will notice a difference, though, is throat hit. An e-liquid with a nicotine strength of 3 mg/ml produces almost no throat hit at all. People who switch to the DTL inhaling style often do so because they’ve reached the point at which throat hit no longer matters to them. They’re more concerned about flavor; they want to taste every nuance of their favorite e-liquids. If you need throat hit in order to feel satisfied with your vaping experience, though, DTL vaping may not be for you.
You’ll Spend More on Vaping
The last thing you need to know about switching to the DTL vaping style is that doing so will almost definitely mean that you’ll end up spending more to vape than you do right now.
There are two factors at play here, and the first factor is the amount of e-liquid that you’ll be using. If you’re currently using a MTL vaping setup and typically buy e-liquid with a nicotine strength of around 20-25 mg/ml, you’ll probably notice no difference in overall satisfaction with a DTL vaping setup, even if you drop your nicotine strength to as little as 3 mg/ml. Obviously, the only way that would be possible would be if your new device produces several times more vapor than the device you’re currently using. Those enormous vapor clouds have to come from somewhere. If you’re currently using nicotine salt e-liquid, you’ll be switching to freebase nicotine – which costs less per milliliter – when you buy a DTL vaping setup. Even so, you’ll probably spend more on e-liquid than you do now because you'll be using so much more of it.
Next, let’s talk about atomizer coils. If you’re currently using a simple vaping device like a pod system with replaceable atomizer coils, you’re probably buying those coils in packs of five. If you look at replacement coils for today’s sub-ohm tanks, though, you’ll notice that they’re typically sold in packs of four – and sometimes only three. In other words, they cost significantly more per unit. That’s because high-end sub-ohm coils are much bigger and more elaborate than the atomizer coils for small vaping devices like pod systems. They cost more to build, so they sell for more.
The differences between MTL and DTL vape coils don’t end with the prices of the coils. When you switch to a DTL vaping setup, it’s likely that you’ll also need to replace your coils more often because the more e-liquid you use, the faster coil gunk will form on your coils.
The reason why using more e-liquid causes coil gunk to form more quickly is because the sucralose that’s used as a sweetener in most mainstream e-liquids is what causes coil gunk to form. Sucralose burns when it’s heated, forming a dark crust that coats your atomizer coil. The more powerful your coil is, the more e-liquid you use – and the more e-liquid you use, the more sucralose you use. There is a simple remedy for coil gunk, of course: You can use unsweetened e-liquid. Most people love sweet flavor profiles, though, and they don’t want to do that.
Overall, the fact that you’ll pay more to vape is one of the biggest adjustments that you’ll need to make when you switch from MTL vaping to DTL vaping. The higher cost doesn’t seem to bother most people. Otherwise, DTL vaping wouldn’t be as popular as it is – and it’ll still cost less than smoking. Still, the increased cost is something that you should consider before you upgrade from your current vaping device to something more powerful.