Flavor is an incredibly important aspect of the vaping experience; some would even argue that it’s more important than the nicotine. The best vape juice flavors are subtle, nuanced and delicious – and when you experience a truly great e-liquid for the first time, you’ll probably never feel tempted to smoke again.
Since it’s well known that vaping provides such a great experience from a flavor standpoint, it’s likely to come as quite a shock if you take a big puff on a vape pen and experience a flavor that’s unpleasant and harsh. If everyone else is experiencing such wonderful flavors when they vape, why aren’t you? Reading this article, you’re going to learn what causes a harsh flavor when you vape and what you can do to fix it. First, though, we’d like to talk about what we’re doing here at Aquios Labs to make the smoothest and tastiest vape juice anywhere.
If You Hate a Harsh Vape, You’ll Love Our Water-Based Vape Juice
At Aquios Labs, we’ve developed the first water-based vape juice and have partnered with leading vape brands to bring that vape juice to you in the form of disposable vapes, pre-filled pod systems and other products. Standard e-liquids consist almost entirely of vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol, but our e-liquid is unique in that it contains 30 percent water. That means water vapor is 30 percent of what you inhale when you use a product made with our vape juice. If you’ve tried other e-liquids and found them overly harsh, we think you’ll love our product. The water in our vape juice creates a smoothness that’s absolutely unbeatable.
With that introduction out of the way, let’s learn why your vape is hitting harsh and what you can do about it. When a vaping device produces a harsh flavor, the cause usually comes down to one of five reasons.
Your Tank or Pod Could Be Empty
The most common reason why a vaping device produces a harsh hit is because the coil is dry. That can happen because the device’s power level is set too high – which we’ll discuss in greater detail shortly – but it usually happens because the tank or pod is empty.
As you try to troubleshoot a harsh vape, it’s helpful to understand how a vape coil works. The heating element at the center of the coil has a fabric wick – usually made from cotton – wrapped around it. Via absorption, the wick draws e-liquid from the tank’s reservoir and supplies it to the coil’s heating element. The fact that the heating element is always wet prevents it from overheating.
If your tank or pod is out of e-liquid, the coil will overheat because there won’t be any e-liquid to keep it cool. When that happens, the heating element will glow red and emit harsh fumes. This situation is called a dry hit. If the dry hit is severe enough, the heating element may also burn the coil’s wick – and in that case, the coil’s flavor will be ruined permanently because there’s no way to improve the flavor of charred cotton.
To avoid dry hits, it’s important to refill your device’s tank or pod before it runs out of e-liquid. If you look inside your device’s tank, you’ll see that the coil has openings that allow vape juice to flow from the reservoir to the wick. The e-liquid should always cover those holes. When the e-liquid dips below the wick openings, it’s time to add more vape juice.
Are you experiencing dry hits even though your tank or pod isn’t empty? In this case, you might be experiencing an issue called vacuum lock. In this situation, trapped air bubbles block the flow of vape juice from the reservoir to the coil. You can break the bubbles by tapping the tank or pod or by inhaling firmly through the tank without turning your device on.
Your Device’s Power Setting Could Be Too High
If your vaping device has adjustable power, it’s very important to set the device to a wattage that the coil can handle. If your device’s wattage is too high, the heating element will vaporize the e-liquid in the wick before the wick has sufficient time to bring more vape juice in from the reservoir. In that case, the coil will produce a dry hit at the end of each puff. You can resolve this issue by decreasing your device’s wattage.
To find the correct power level for your pod or coil, you can look at the package to see its suggested wattage range. The suggested power range is usually also etched into the metal of the coil itself. Note that the correct wattage for your particular situation depends on how you vape. If you tend to puff for several seconds at a time, you’ll need to select a lower wattage. If your puffs are shorter, you can vape at a higher wattage without dry hits.
If you have difficulty selecting a wattage that helps you avoid dry hits, you might want to consider buying a vape mod with temperature control functionality. If you use a vape coil with a heating element made from stainless steel, nickel or titanium, a mod with temperature control can automatically cut its power if the element exceeds the temperature that you set. This function makes it virtually impossible for dry hits to occur.
It Might Be Time to Replace Your Pod or Coil
As you vape, e-liquid leaves residue on your coil’s heating surface. Over time, the residue thickens until it eventually covers the entire heating element – and when the coil reaches that point, you’ll experience a harsh flavor because the residue will actually smolder when you vape. Vapers call this residue “coil gunk,” and there’s no way to avoid it because virtually every e-liquid flavor leaves a certain amount of residue behind. When the residue layer becomes so thick that you no longer taste anything but burnt sugar when you vape, it’s time to replace the coil.
Although all vape juice leaves a little residue on your coil’s heating surface, some e-liquid flavors are more problematic than others. In particular, sweeteners such as sucralose cause more coil gunk than any other e-liquid ingredient. If you use a powerful vaping device and fill your tank or pod with heavily sweetened vape juice, you’ll find yourself with a very harsh vape in as little as a day or two. If you avoid e-liquid with sweeteners, your coils will last much longer.
Your Nicotine Strength Could Be Too High
Are you having difficulty vaping because you feel a harsh and overpowering sensation in your throat every time you inhale? If you are, it’s likely that your e-liquid has a higher nicotine strength than what you actually require.
You can usually buy vaping products such as disposable vapes and pre-filled pod systems in two nicotine strengths. In regions that don’t restrict nicotine strengths, the most common strengths are 50 mg/ml and 25 mg/ml. In regions that do restrict nicotine strengths, you’ll usually find disposable vapes and vape pods in strengths of 20 mg/ml and 10 mg/ml. If you’re currently using the higher strength for your region and are experiencing harshness in your throat when you vape, you should try switching to the lower strength for a smoother experience.
You Could Be Using the Wrong Nicotine Type for Your Needs
Choosing the right nicotine strength is also important if you use a refillable vaping device. The more powerful your device is, the bigger its cloud production will be – so you’ll need to use e-liquid with a lower nicotine strength to compensate.
In addition, you’ll also have a second choice to make when you buy bottled vape juice: You’ll need to choose between freebase nicotine and nicotine salt e-liquid. This decision is already made for you most of the time because higher-nicotine e-liquids usually use nicotine salt, while vape juices with lower strengths usually use freebase nicotine.
It’s helpful to understand the distinction between nicotine salt and freebase nicotine if you buy your vape juice by the bottle, though, because you’ll sometimes encounter situations in which you can find the same nicotine strength in both freebase and nicotine salt versions. In this case, you’ll experience less harshness with the salt version because nicotine salt is less alkaline than freebase nicotine.
Aquios Labs water-based vape juice uses nicotine salt for maximum smoothness.
Experience Maximum Smoothness with Our Water-Based E-Liquid
For almost as long as vaping has existed, people have wondered whether it could be possible to vape water – and with our water-based e-liquid, it finally is. If you want to make the switch to vaping but have found it difficult because everything that you’ve tried has tasted harsh, made you cough or caused an unpleasant sensation in your throat, it’s time to experience the ultimate in smoothness with our water-based vape juice. View our Partners page now to discover the products that use our revolutionary e-liquid.