No one likes a bubbly vape. You clearly don’t, as you’ve arrived at this guide after asking, “Why is my vape bubbling?” Dragging hard on a pod or vape tank to get a solid lungful of vapour but having to rip it through a noisy, spitting, and stubborn vessel is enough to make you nostalgic for smoking.
There are a few reasons why your vape kit suddenly sounds like a shisha pipe, and I appreciate you’d like to sort that out as quickly as possible. To this end, I will explain all the common causes and solutions for a bubbling vape pod or tank.
Is Vape Bubbling Normal?
Normal? Yes. Desired? Of course not. It’s normal for car tyres to go flat eventually, but you’ll want to sort that out quickly. So far, no one has invented a liquid vape kit that won’t start gurgling given the right (or, more accurately, wrong) circumstances.
But try not to panic too hard if your vape pen has started sounding like a kitchen sink that you’ve fed too much pan oil. A bubbling vape is almost always fixable and rarely requires you to purchase an entirely new kit.
Why Is Your Vape Bubbling
Now, I’ve eased your worries with my assurances that your noise issue is fixable, but what is the cause of the problem? We need to determine this before proceeding with a fix; otherwise, you’ll waste cash on new coils and juices that might not be the root of your noisy suffering.
Below are some common causes of bubble tanks and pods. Follow each relevant step, and your spitty, bubbly issue will likely be smoothly resolved.
Oversaturated Coils
Coils endure a lot for us! At times, you can envision the humble vape coil at Atlas, mightily bridging the connection between the vape in your hand and the vapour in your throat and lungs. As you likely know, coils will give out in time.
The most common cause of a bubbling vape is a coil that has become ‘flooded’, meaning the empty chamber in the centre of the cotton that contains the heating element has pooled with e-liquid. This is just what happens to a coil once its glory days are over. The wicks don’t maintain a bulwark forever, and after 2-4 weeks, the juice gets loose.
Annoyingly, this can also happen with new coils! Sometimes, it is due to manufacturing errors, but more often, it’s because a tank or pod got filled wrong, and juice got dumped right into the centre of the coil rather than into the surrounding area.
How to fix an oversaturated coil:
- Grip your vape device VERY FIRMLY and ‘flick’ it hard downwards. This whip action forces coil-trapped juice out of the mouthpiece. Over half the time, this clears everything up!
- If there’s still a gurgle after the flick, try to ‘cook off’ the residual juice by firing the device without puffing for a few seconds. Be careful, as too much cooking will burn the coil.
- If neither of those worked, it’s time for a new coil. Sorry!
Wrong Coil
BUUUT if changing coils you must select the RIGHT coil for your e-liquid. Not all coils are compatible with all e-liquids.
- Thinner 50/50 e-liquids get on better with high-resistance coils (0.8ohm – 1.8ohm)
- Thicker vape juice with a higher volume of VG than PG (e.g., 70VG/30PG, 80VG/20PG, etc.) gets the most optimal absorption from lower resistance coils (0.7ohm and below).
Coil manufacturers build their lower-resistance coils with the expectation that thick, gloopy cloud juices will be used. If you try to pour thin e-liquid into a sub-ohm coil, the cotton is likely to leak as it isn’t designed for such a watery fluid.
This will always result in a spitty situation, so be careful which coils you’re buying!
Overfilling the Tank
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Easy does it! I know the TPD’s 2ml tank/pod restriction can be frustrating, but you aren’t going to clear that hurdle by dumping too much juice into your tank.
Pouring too generously can force the vape juice into the coil’s cotton walls, resulting in the same issue we discussed above. And in old-fashioned tanks, too much juice up near the top of the tank might emigrate through the various fittings into the coil chamber, which you now know is something to avoid.
So, watch your bottle when you’re adding new juice. No need to overdo it!
Wrong PG/VG Ratio
Earlier, we discussed the common issue of using the wrong coils for your juice. But similarly, you may be using the wrong juice for your coils!
To invert the boundless wisdom imparted above, if you’re using a mouth-to-lung coil (0.8ohms—1.8ohms), you should use thinner e-liquids with either 50VG/50PG ratios or more PG than VG.
If you try using high-VG juice on these coils, they won’t do a great job of absorbing all the gloopy goodness.
In the same way, if you’re using sub-ohm coils (0.8ohm and under), trying to use a thinner e-liquid will ALWAYS result in the watery fluid seeping through the cotton and flooding the heating chamber.
So, to reiterate, always check your VG/PG ratios and coil ohmage, and remember this old folk song:
“If the juice is high in VG,
It needs sub-ohm coils to get steamy!
But if the juice is thinner,
High-ohm coils will make you a winner!”
Okay, I just made that up, but its message is true and righteous, so heed it.
Setting the Wattage Too Low
Now, why would this be causing bubbling issues? If the power’s too low, the juice isn’t going to atomise, right?
Wrong, bucko. You’re correct in realising that the e-liquid won’t be converted to vapour without enough power to ‘cook’ it, but there’s one thing you’ve overlooked.
Every time you drag on your vape, you draw fresh e-liquid into the coil’s wicks. Ordinarily, this is fine and part of the process because the juice being drawn into the coil replaces the juice you just converted into vapour.
BUUUT if the initially trapped juice didn’t atomise, and new juice is pulled in, there’s only one direction for the old juice to go and that right into the precious heating chamber, where that bubble’s coming from.
Give it a flick, cook off the juice a bit, then turn on the power and try again. That should sort it out!
Taking An Overly Strong Puff
This can result in the exact issue mentioned above, even when vaping at the correct wattage.
While you vape, there’s an ongoing balance of air pressure and atomisation, and if either end gets an advantage, the whole game is ruined. Puffing too hard on your mouthpiece will force juice through the cotton wall and into the heating element before it’s had the chance to atomise.
Luckily for you, this has the same fix as mentioned above. Flick out the wet, fire the device up a couple of times, and you should be back on dry land. Well, not dry—no one wants a dry coil after all—but dry enough for you to proceed without a mouthful of numbing vape juice.
Skipping Regular Upkeep
This is an issue for the rebuildable vapers, those who enjoy crafting their own DIY coils. Now, most DIY coil vapers are quite experienced, and part of the joy of DIY vaping is in the maintenance aspect. If you don’t like taking your devices apart on the regular, this isn’t the vaping style for you.
But everyone starts somewhere, and making some mistakes early on is easy.
Your RDA/RTA needs frequent assessment. You need to take a close look at the coils and wicks quite regularly. Remember, these coils weren’t produced in factories with advanced machinery designed to produce uniform products; you built it all on your own, big self!
So, your cottons will require frequent changes. Some change them daily or every few days at most. Coils themselves can last longer than that, but they still require checkups to prevent hot spots and misalignments.
It might sound like a hassle. But any true DIY vaper will be giddy to pull the screwdrivers out and get disassembling. If that sounds like a pain, stick to traditional coils and pods.
How Do I Stop My Vape from Bubbling or Crackling?
And there, you have many common causes for a bubbling vape. I appreciate that in the go-go 2020s, it can be hard to retain everything you read, so let’s summarise fixing a bubbling vape neatly for you:
Step 1: Flick & Cook
Remove excess juice from the coil by flicking the vape downwards while STRONGLY gripping the device. Don’t drop it! You may also need to ‘cook off’ some lingering juice inside the coil briefly afterwards.
Step 2: Check the Specs
Inspect your coil’s ohmage and e-liquid’s VG/PG composition. Remember: thin juice is for high ohmage, and thick juice is for low ohmage.
Step 3: Puff Like it’s a Marathon, Not a 100-Yard Dash
Puff moderately and try not to draw extra juice into the coil beyond the pace of atomisation.
Step 4: Acceptance
If all else fails, take it to a vape retailer and ask them to look at it. In the worst-case scenario, you may need to replace the tank or pod, but a mod will rarely be the cause of a bubbling issue.
No More Bubbling!
By following these expert and handsomely written tips, dear reader, you too can avoid the common frustration of a bubbling vape kit. The great thing about vaping is that it’s rare to encounter an issue you can’t fix yourself.
If you need some new juice or coils, please browse our mighty selection at the MIST online vape store and leave us a comment if you have any tips you think I’ve overlooked! Vaping can only be as good as its community, and we’ve got an excellent one!