Transitioning from beginning to mastery as a vaper involves learning how to set your device up for the best possible experience and troubleshoot any issues that may arise along the way. You’re guaranteed to have a burnt vape at some point, so it’s important to know what the signs are and what you can do about it.
You can tell that a vape is burnt from the way it tastes. Depending on why your vape is burnt, you’ll notice one of these three things.
- It’ll taste smoky and caramelized, almost like burnt sugar.
- It’ll taste foul, like burnt cotton.
- It’ll taste extremely harsh and hot, and it’ll probably make you cough.
Every vape pod or coil burns out eventually, but it’s possible to make your coil last longer by avoiding a few common pitfalls. Here’s what you need to know.
Do you have a burnt disposable vape? Scroll to the end of the article for help with your device.
Burnt Vape with a Smoky, Caramelized Flavor
If you have a vape that tastes like smoky, burnt sugar, it means that the coil is coated with burnt e-liquid residue. Replace your pod or coil to fix it.
What Does It Taste Like?
If your vape is burnt because the coil is covered with residue, it’ll taste caramelized and smoky like burnt sugar. The flavor becomes more pronounced as you continue vaping because the residue grows thicker.
- At first, you’ll notice that your e-liquid tastes sweeter than usual and that the sweetness makes the main flavor harder to detect.
- As the residue becomes thicker, you’ll start to detect a flavor resembling caramelized or burnt sugar.
- When the residue becomes very thick, the burnt flavor will be almost all that you can taste. You may also start to feel tickling or irritation in your throat.
Why Does It Happen?
If you’re experiencing the symptoms described above, it means that residue from your e-liquid is collecting on your vape’s coil. Although most of the ingredients in vape juice leave at least a little residue behind, the main culprit is the sucralose that’s used to make most of today’s flavor profiles taste sweet. Sucralose caramelizes almost like sugar when it’s heated, creating a dark residue that sticks to the coil in your vape.
If you have a vape tank or pod system with a replaceable coil, you can be certain that sucralose is what’s causing your vape to taste burnt because you’ll see the dark residue on the coil when you remove it.
What Can You Do About It?
If you’re dealing with a burnt vape because you’re using sweetened vape juice, you can restore your device’s flavor by replacing the pod or coil. You’ll continue to experience the same issue as long as you use e-liquid with sucralose, though, which means that you have two options.
- You can use vape juice that’s unsweetened. Some popular options include Jewel Mint by Pod Juice (Nic Salt | Freebase), Very Cool/Crisp Menthol by Naked 100 (Nic Salt | Freebase) and Spearmint by Pod Monster (Freebase).
- You can continue using the vape juice that you’re using now and accept the fact that you’ll need to replace your pod or coil more often.
If you avoid e-liquid with sucralose, you’ll find that your pods or coils will last much longer – potentially up to multiple weeks.
Burnt Vape with a Hot, Harsh Flavor
If you have a vape that tastes so hot and harsh that it makes you cough, it means that the coil is overheating.
What Does It Taste Like?
If your vape is burnt because the coil is overheating, the vapor will be so hot and harsh that you’ll probably have trouble inhaling it because of the irritation in your throat. You’ll be compelled to stop immediately because the experience will be absolutely horrible.
Why Does It Happen?
If the coil in your vape is overheating, it means that the coil’s wick isn’t completely saturated with e-liquid. This happens either because the vape juice is vaporizing more quickly than the wick can replenish it or because the wick was never fully saturated in the first place.
What Can You Do About It?
When you experience a burnt hit, the first thing that you need to do is stop vaping immediately until you’ve fixed the problem. The wicks in most vape coils are made from cotton, and a hot vape coil can burn cotton in seconds. That causes the next reason for a burnt vape, which we’ll describe below.
To prevent burnt hits with your vape, always do these three things.
- Don’t allow your vape to become empty. If the e-liquid is below the wick openings on the side of the coil, you need to refill your device.
- If your vape has adjustable power, keep the wattage within the suggested range for your coil or pod. If you turn the power up and experience a burnt it, the wattage is too high.
- When you begin using a new pod or coil, don’t start vaping until you’re certain that the wick is completely saturated. After filling your vape, it’s best to let it stand for at least five minutes.
Burnt Vape with a Foul Flavor
If you have a vape that tastes foul like burnt cotton, it means that the coil’s wick is damaged from heat.
What Does It Taste Like?
If your vape’s wick is damaged, your vape will produce an unpleasant flavor that some people have compared to vaping a burnt t-shirt. If the damage is bad enough, you may also notice a slight itching, tingling or burning sensation in your throat.
Why Does It Happen?
The top reason why the wick in a vape gets burnt is because it’s gone dry due to one of the reasons we described in the previous section above. If you stop vaping immediately when you experience a burnt hit, you might be able to prevent damage to the wick. Cotton burns very easily, though, so it’s possible for the damage to occur almost instantly if the wick is dry.
No vape coil lasts forever, and we should note that it’s also possible for your vape’s wick to degrade due to repeated heat stress during normal use. This will eventually happen if you’re using unsweetened e-liquid. When the wick begins to break down, you'll need to replace your pod or coil.
What Can You Do About It?
There’s no way to fix burnt cotton, so you’ll need to replace your coil or pod if your vape tastes burnt due to wick damage.
Burnt Disposable Vape? Here’s What It Means
So far, this guide has focused on how to tell if a refillable vape is burnt and what you can do about it. More than ever, though, today’s vapers prefer the convenience of disposable vapes – so what are your options if you have a disposable vape that’s burnt?
Disposable vapes can taste burnt for all of the same reasons as refillable vapes, but the solutions aren’t the same because a disposable vape isn’t refillable and doesn’t have a replaceable coil. Here’s what you need to know.
Harsh Flavor on Every Puff
If your disposable vape produces a harsh, burnt flavor on every puff, it’s most likely empty. If you’re using a disposable vape with a screen, you’ll have advance warning of this because the e-liquid meter on the screen usually reaches the bottom before the vape starts tasting burnt. You probably also noticed a decline in vapor production and flavor quality before the burnt flavor appeared. If your disposable vape is out of e-liquid, you’ll need to replace it.
Harsh Flavor at the End of Long Puffs
Is your disposable vape producing a harsh flavor at the end of long puffs? This could mean a few different things.
- You need to take shorter puffs. It’s possible that the device you’re using just works best with a shorter puff duration.
- You need to reduce your device’s power. Many modern disposable vapes have adjustable power levels. If you’re unhappy with the flavor quality at your selected power level, though, you should try a lower setting.
- You’ll need to replace your device soon. Harshness at the end of a long puff could mean that your device’s wick is beginning to dry out and is taking longer to refresh itself between puffs. You can keep your device going for a little while longer by taking shorter puffs and by waiting longer between puffs, but it’s probably close to running out of vape juice.
Smoky, Caramelized Flavor
Since almost all modern e-liquid is sweetened, disposable vapes can develop the same smoky-tasting residue as refillable devices. That’s especially likely to happen with current disposable vapes because they have such large e-liquid supplies.
If you’re using a high-capacity disposable vape with a very sweet e-liquid, it’s possible that the device will begin to produce a smoky and slightly burnt flavor before it’s out of vape juice. Although there’s no way to fix a burnt disposable vape, there are two things that you can do to potentially avoid the issue in the future.
- You can use a dual-coil vape. When you’re using the lowest power setting, a dual-coil vape divides the load between the two coils by switching from one coil to the other on each puff. Some popular dual-coil vapes include the Geek Bar Pulse, the Juice Head Flex Freeze and the Rifbar Mixpro 40K.
- You can use an unsweetened disposable vape. Clear vapes are always great options for avoiding burnt flavors. A clear vape has no added sweeteners or flavors except for a little menthol in some cases.