Having a clogged device is one of the more annoying things that can happen to you as a vaper – especially if the vape you’re using happens to be disposable because there’s no easy way to disassemble a disposable device and fix problems as you can with a refillable vape.
Why is a clogged disposable device so annoying? It’s because it reduces the quality of your vaping experience in some very noticeable ways. When a disposable device clogs, it’s usually due to a flood in the coil assembly. If there’s more e-liquid or oil in the coil assembly than the wick can hold, the extra liquid has to go somewhere. It’ll usually either clog the air chimney leading out to the mouthpiece – which can cause a gurgling noise or liquid in your mouth – or it’ll clog the airflow vents, which can lead to liquid leaking out of the device. In either case, a clog will hamper airflow. Poor airflow in any vaping device will diminish the flavor quality and vapor production.
Here’s the good news. Although unclogging a disposable device probably sounds like a difficult task on the surface, it’s usually not that hard at all once you’ve pinpointed the cause of the problem. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything that you need to know.
Make Sure You’re Using an Authentic Disposable Device
If you’re dealing with clogged disposable vapes on a regular basis, the most important thing to do is confirm that the devices you’re using are authentic. Fake vapes are actually incredibly common. They’re produced by the thousands in China every day and are shipped to stores everywhere in the world. If you’re buying your vapes from a retailer outside the vaping industry – a gas station or convenience store, for instance – you should be very wary. Fake vapes can have a wide variety of issues ranging from bad flavors to low-quality battery cells. The biggest problem with counterfeit devices, though, is that they’re often poorly assembled and will frequently have usability problems like clogging and leaking.
Always buy your devices from a reliable and trustworthy vape shop that obtains its products from official distributors. The best disposable vapes rarely have reliability issues, and they’re built so well that they’re extremely resistant to clogging and leaking.
In a disposable device that has very small wick openings, air bubbles may form around the openings and prevent the liquid from absorbing into the wick. In this case, you won’t experience airflow problems when you try to vape, but you will notice that your device has a burnt flavor or diminished vapor production even though it isn’t out of e-liquid or oil. Thankfully, you can solve this problem in seconds by tapping the vape firmly against your hand a few times. This breaks the bubbles and will allow the liquid to absorb into the wick again.
Warm the Device if It Has Been Stored in a Cold Environment
If your disposable device is filled with an oil-based concentrate, it’s important to be mindful of the ambient temperature where you store the device because oils thicken in cold environments. This issue can prevent the oil from absorbing efficiently into the wick, leading to a burnt flavor and no vapor coming out of your device. If you’re using a disposable vape pen that’s filled with oil and keep your device in an air-conditioned environment, you should consider warming the device gently before you use it. There are three easy ways to do this.
- You can hold the device between your hands for a few minutes and let the heat from your body warm the device.
- You can hold the device in front of a heater vent for several seconds.
- If your device has a fire button, it probably has an automatic preheating function. You can usually enable the preheating mode by pressing the button two or three times quickly.
If you’re successful in warming your disposable device pen up, you should see tiny bubbles forming around the wick openings when you look through the device’s window. Wait a few minutes, and the device should then be ready to use.
Use a Needle to Remove the Clog in your Vape
If you have trouble pulling air through your disposable vape, it’s likely that there’s a clog in the device’s chimney. The chimney is the metal tube leading from the atomizer coil assembly to the mouthpiece, and if it’s badly clogged, your vape will stop working entirely. This is another type of clog, though, that’s actually fairly easy to fix. You can simply take a sewing needle or paperclip and run it down the mouthpiece until you feel the clog. Use a spiral motion to gather the oil and pull it out of the chimney. If you’re successful, you should be able to draw air through the device, and it should start working again.
Puff Harder to Break Up a Clog in the Airflow Channel
A clog in a disposable vape’s chimney is fairly easy to resolve because you can break it up manually with a tool. If the clog reaches the device’s airflow channel, though, that’s a bit more difficult to fix because you probably won’t be able to get a needle or paperclip through the device’s intake vent. In this case, the best way to fix the problem is by puffing on your device in short, firm spurts to break up the clog. After a few puffs, you should feel or hear a “pop” indicating that the liquid has been dislodged. You’ll probably have to continue doing this periodically as long as you own the device, but at least you’ll be able to get it to work when problems occur. Going forward, it’s important to understand why clogs happen and to know what you can do to prevent them in the future. That’s what we’ll discuss as we bring this guide to a close.
Don’t Puff So Hard on Your Vape in the Future
A disposable vape usually has very small airflow channels because the goal is to replicate the tight draw of a cigarette. It’s easy to overwhelm your device’s ability to manage the airflow if you puff too firmly, and that’s the most common reason why disposable vapes clog. To understand how firmly you should puff when using a disposable vape, just pay attention to the light. When the light turns on, the device is producing vapor – so there’s no need to puff harder than that. If you only puff as hard as is necessary to make the light turn on, you should almost never experience clogs with your disposable vapes.
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