A vape coil is the part that heats your e-liquid and turns it into vapour. It sits inside your tank or pod. When it wears out, your flavour drops off, you get a burnt taste, and everything stops working.
We get more live chat questions about coils than anything else on the site. Half the time it's someone three days into a new coil wondering why it already tastes burnt. Usually it's a priming issue, sometimes it's the wrong coil for their liquid, occasionally it's a dud. This should help you work out which.
What Is a Vape Coil and How Does It Work
A vape coil is a small metal element wrapped in cotton, housed in a metal casing that clips or screws into your tank or pod. Press the fire button and electricity flows through the metal, heating it up. The cotton wicks e-liquid onto the hot surface, and that liquid turns to vapour. That's it. Nothing more complicated going on.
Where the coil sits depends on your vape. In a refillable pod kit, it usually slots into the base of the pod. Pull the old one out, push a new one in. In sub-ohm tanks, the coil screws into the bottom of the tank section. Some pod kits have the coil built into the pod itself. When it's done, you replace the whole pod rather than just the coil - which is why those pods cost a bit more.
Most coils today use mesh rather than wire. Mesh is a flat sheet of metal with holes punched through it. Bigger heating surface than a coiled wire, so the liquid vaporises more evenly and the coil tends to last a bit longer before gunking up.
Vape Coil Resistance Explained
Every coil has a resistance measured in ohms (Ω). You'll see it printed on the side: 0.4Ω, 0.8Ω, 1.2Ω, that sort of thing. The lower the number, the more power gets through, and more power means more heat and more vapour.
Low resistance (below 0.8Ω) — these are your sub-ohm coils. They run hot, chuck out clouds, and drink e-liquid. You need a mod with decent wattage to drive them, and you're breathing vapour straight into your lungs (DTL vaping). High VG e-liquids only, 70/30 or above.
Medium resistance (0.6Ω to 0.8Ω) — the RDL range. Still a lung hit but through tighter airflow, so it's not as wide open as full DTL. Handles both 50/50 and higher VG liquids. A lot of newer pod kits sit in this range because it's a good balance between flavour and vapour without hammering through liquid.
High resistance (above 0.8Ω) — MTL territory. Cooler vape, tighter draw, closest thing to smoking a cigarette. Draw into your mouth first, then inhale. MTL coils work with nic salt e-liquids or 50/50 freebase.
The resistance has to match what your vape can handle. A 0.2Ω coil in a small pod kit won't even fire. A 1.2Ω coil in a 100W mod will work but you'll barely get anything out of it.
Quick Reference
|
Resistance |
Style |
E-Liquid |
Draw |
|
0.2Ω – 0.5Ω |
DTL |
70/30 VG or higher |
Straight to lungs |
|
0.6Ω – 0.8Ω |
RDL |
50/50 or higher VG |
Lungs, tighter airflow |
|
0.8Ω – 1.8Ω |
MTL |
50/50 or nic salts |
Mouth then lungs |
When to Change Your Vape Coil
This is the biggest single query we see, and the honest answer is: when it tells you. A coil that's going bad has obvious symptoms.
- Burnt or off taste. If your e-liquid tastes charred or just wrong compared to a fresh coil, that coil is done. No amount of waiting or refilling brings it back.
- Faded flavour. Not outright burnt, but flat. You're vaping the same juice and it doesn't taste like anything much. That's carbon and gunk on the cotton.
- Less vapour than usual with a full battery and enough liquid in the tank. The heating surface is clogged.
- Gurgling, spitting, or leaking that starts out of nowhere. A worn coil doesn't seal or wick the same way.
On average, a coil lasts one to two weeks with regular use. Heavy vapers who chain-vape all day might get a week or less. Light vapers who have a few puffs in the evening could stretch to three weeks. Sweet, dessert-flavoured e-liquids shorten coil life because the sweetener (sucralose) caramelises on the coil faster than fruit or menthol flavours.
Types of Vape Coil
Mesh coils are what you'll find in most coils sold today, whether that's sub-ohm or pod coils. A flat sheet of metal with holes punched through it, pressed against the cotton wick. The large surface area heats e-liquid evenly, and they tend to outlast wire coils because the heat doesn't concentrate on a few small points. Most sub-ohm coils and pod coils we stock are mesh.
Wire coils were the standard before mesh came along. Kanthal wire wound into a spiral around cotton. You'll still find them in older tanks and some budget coils. They do the job but mesh has them beat on flavour and lifespan.
Ceramic coils are a niche option. Porous ceramic holds the liquid instead of cotton. Very clean flavour, can last ages, but vapour output is lower and they take a while to saturate. Worth trying if you care more about flavour purity than cloud size.
The metal itself also varies. Kanthal is the default and runs in wattage mode. Stainless steel works in both wattage and temperature control. Nickel and titanium are TC-only and have mostly fallen out of mainstream use.
Matching Coils to E-Liquid
Getting this wrong is one of the fastest ways to burn through coils or get a bad vape.
|
E-Liquid Type |
VG/PG Ratio |
Coil Resistance |
What Happens if Wrong |
|
Nic salts |
50/50 |
0.8Ω and above |
Too low = harsh, flooded |
|
Freebase 50/50 |
50/50 |
0.8Ω and above |
Too low = spitting, throat hit |
|
Shortfills |
70/30+ |
Below 0.6Ω |
Too high = dry hits, dead coil |
Put high VG liquid in a pod kit with a 1.2Ω coil and the cotton can't wick fast enough. You'll get dry hits and a dead coil within a day. Go the other way — thin 50/50 in a big sub-ohm coil — and you'll get spitting and a harsh throat hit.
If you're not sure what ratio your liquid is, it'll be printed on the bottle. Match it to the table above.
How to Prime a New Vape Coil
New coil, first thing: let it soak. Skip this and you'll torch the cotton before you've taken a puff. We've got a full walkthrough in our coil priming guide, but here's the short version.
If it's a replaceable coil for a tank, drip 2-3 drops of e-liquid directly onto the cotton through the side ports. Screw it in, fill it up, then leave it for 10 minutes.
Pods with built-in coils are even simpler. Fill and wait. 10 minutes minimum. The cotton needs to absorb liquid all the way through before you hit the button.
Either way, start at low wattage and work up over the first 10-20 puffs. Beds the cotton in and stops you burning it out on day one, which is the number one complaint we get from new vapers.
Making Your Coils Last Longer
- Sweetener is the number one coil killer. Dessert, candy, and drink-flavoured e-liquids gunk up coils fast. Fruit, menthol, and tobacco flavours are much gentler.
- Don't let your tank run low. When the cotton dries out even briefly, it scorches. That scorch mark stays and the coil never recovers.
- Take a second between puffs. Chain-vaping doesn't give the cotton time to re-soak. Three or four seconds between draws is enough.
- Back off the wattage. If your vape has adjustable power, running 5-10W below the coil's max rating extends life without losing flavour.
