Vape Tastes Burnt? Here Are 6 Common Causes & How to Fix Them

Picture this – you just had one of the worst days ever at work, dealing with a neurotic boss and handling even crazier clients.

You were zooming all over the place, putting out fires, and, generally, being the fix-it guy. At the end of the day, you’re the one who saved it, right?

In addition to all that, you have no idea how you’ve held it together because you’re not allowed to vape in the office, and your nicotine cravings were off the charts! Sitting in your car, you whip out that vape pen, ready to take that satisfying after-work puff. No surprise there, but the day from hell is not over yet. Instead by the sweet, succulent flavor of strawberry, you are greeted by burnt flavor!

We’ve all been there, right? Maybe not in this overdramatized version of events but, if you’re a regular vaper, you’ve had your share of ‘my e-liquid tastes weird AF’ moments. It’s not as if you can mistake a burnt wick taste for anything else. It’s as if somebody lighted a toilet rag that’s been used to clean a McDonald’s deep fryer right under your nose. There’s no recovering from it. And all you wanted was to enjoy a good vaping experience from your vape device!

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From a vaper’s perspective, there’s only one thing that’s worse than a vape tasting burnt, and that’s having your e-pen blow up anywhere near you (here’s a post about how to prevent that from ever happening). That’s definitely worse but just barely. Luckily, this does not happen very often, unlike those horrible, burnt puffs.

In an effort to curb these all-to-frequent and unfortunate vaping woes, I’ve decided to put together a short guide covering the most common causes of burnt vape (also known as a dry hit or a burnt hit). In addition to the causes, I’ll also share valuable (although, sometimes very obvious) fixes, so read on if you’re interested in carefree vaping.

Here’s a quick cheat sheet for those who don’t have the time for the main course. For the details, make sure to go through the whole thing (step-by-step solutions included):

• New coil, bad taste – You’d be surprised how horrible a new coil can taste. This usually happens whenever you forget to prime your coil before using it. If you value your money (and your taste buds), that’s not something you’ll forget to do more than once.
• Temperature too high – You might love huge clouds but not have the set-up for them. There’s no forcing it here – if your tank (or e-juice) can’t handle very high temperatures, dial the damn thing back!
• Chain chug fest – Enjoy walking into a room and immediately turning it into a closed-venue rock concert? If the name of your game is chain vaping, your pen is a dry hit waiting to happen. Make sure to take a couple of breaths before each puff.
• Empty tank – I’m guessing you can see how this could be a problem, right? Make sure to fill up before vaping and carry a vape juice bottle with you when stepping out.
• VG juice all the way – High VG juice is very thick and not every set-up is equipped to handle it. Switch to a 50/50 PG/VG juice (or at least 30/70 PG/VG).
• Weather plays a part here, believe it or not – That’s right – vaping in Alaska is very different from vaping in California because the vape juice thickens at cold temperatures, leading to that nasty burnt flavor. Do your best to keep your juice at room temperature if you want to avoid that.
  

Of course, these aren’t the only things that will cause your vape to taste weird but they are the most common culprits. An honorable mention goes to dirty set-ups – you have to keep your vape coil clean if you want any kind of flavor consistency.

Why Does My E-Cig Pen Taste Burnt?

An unsuspecting beginner vaper might think that dry hits and funny vapor taste are something that can’t be helped. I’ve encountered people like that several times throughout my vaping career. They give in to it, thinking that it’s something that they need to power through. You might be one of these vapers.

Well, let me tell you – you don’t need to power through it and it shouldn’t happen often (in fact, it shouldn’t happen at all). Vape juice vaping isn’t the same as dry herb vaping, where there is some potential that your material will combust and you’ll be left with a bad vape taste in your mouth. E-liquid was never designed to burn in a vape tank, and neither was cotton.

Burnt vape taste is caused by a combination of two things:

• Juice overheating and combusting – when you inhale without any regard to the temperature, you risk overheating your juice. When that happens, it starts breaking down into its components, and one byproduct of that process if formaldehyde. Formaldehyde tastes horrible but it’s also a health hazard, especially in larger quantities.
• Cotton inside the coil literally catching on fire – if your wicking (the process of transferring e-juice to a coil) can’t keep up, or if your juice evaporates in an instant through overheating, the cotton inside the coil will start to burn. Burning cotton tastes like rank old socks, and it also creates a ton of fumes you don’t want to inhale, ever.

To avoid these dry hits and their horrible tasting aftermath, you need to make sure that there’s plenty of juice on the wick at all times. There are a few things that you can do that will save you both money and time, not to mention taste buds.

6 Reasons Why New Atomizer Heads Produce a Horrible Taste

Here’s one for the books – you unpack a new coil head, put it inside your e-cig device, pour in some nutty banana vape juice, aaaand….you end up with the ‘dumpster fire’ burnt flavor. This actually happens. Sometimes, what you’re dealing with is a dud coil – it came to you DOA (dead on arrival – there’s a good chance of this happening) and there’s not much you can do here. It happens more often with cheap knock-offs and fakes but even brands such as Aspire and Uwell have their bad coil batches.

However, these bad batches are rare. The most probable culprit for your ‘new coil, bad taste’ scenario is you. That’s right – you forgot to prime your brand new coil! Priming is the process through which a coil is broken in and prepared for use for the first time. Dry cotton is notoriously bad at wicking so, to help things along, you need to give it a nudge.

Here’s how you do it:

• Locate the wicking holes on your coil – these holes let the e-juice come into contact with the dry wick. They are usually cut on the sides of the coil and there can be several of them.
• Pick the vape juice you want to vape on first – I recommend sticking to one juice per coil to avoid mixing the flavors.
• Apply the juice to the wicking holes – you will be able to see the cotton through the wicking holes. Apply a few drops of your juice there and allow it to be absorbed.
• Install the new coil – place the new coil into your tank and top it up with e-juice. Allow it all to sit for a few minutes before doing anything else.
• Inhale without pressing the fire button – simply put the drip tip between your lips and take a few dry inhales. This will help speed up the soaking process by pulling the vape juice deeper inside the coil.

This is the bare minimum that you should do when installing a new coil. The best way to handle it, though, is to simply put the coil head in, pour some juice into your tank (so the wicking holes are covered), and leave everything to sit overnight. That way, you will avoid flooding your coil (using too much juice during priming) and the cotton will have enough time to completely soak through.

High VG Juice

Sometimes, the problem behind that nasty taste is not down to your coil or your vaping style; it’s down to the e-liquid juice you use. Here’s how your choice of juice contributes to it and why in fact it’s one of the more common reasons it happens:

• High VG content
• Artificial sweeteners

Vegetable glycerin, which is often used as a base e-liquid ingredient, is highly viscous. In layman’s terms, this means that it’s pretty thick. As such, it has a pretty hard time traveling through those tiny wicking holes on the coil. New tanks are designed with this problem in mind but some older setups that are still on the market are not.

But here’s a bit of good news: to sidestep this problem, you need to make sure that you use juices that have at least some amount of propylene glycol in them. The perfect ratio would be 50/50 but, if your favorite flavor isn’t mixed this way, you should at least opt for 80/20 (even a bit of PG will make the juice considerably runnier).

The other thing that’s worth noting is the content of artificial sweeteners in a vape juice. Overly sweet juices can gunk up your coil, causing it to overheat and limiting vapor production. These juices are usually dark in color so think desserts, fruits, coffee flavored stuff, and so on. I understand that these all might be on your all-time favorites list but you should avoid them if you notice that your vape tastes weird when you’re using them.

Chain Vaping

When it comes to vaping styles, there are several that you can choose from. Some vapers enjoy a slow mouth-to-lung experience; inhaling the vapor into their mouth before it finds its way to their lungs. Others are more direct-to-lung types. Both styles have their merits. However, there’s also a style known as chain vaping. Essentially, it means that you vape until you’re blue in the face and can’t see a finger in front of your nose.

Chain vaping is the fastest way I know to kill your coils… because you’re taking long puffs in quick succession and overheating your atomizer Also, it’s the style that’s most conducive to producing a bunch of horrible-tasting hits. Most wicking holes are pretty small and the cotton needs time to get saturated with juice in between puffs. With chain vaping, there’s just no time for the juice to make its way to the cotton, which results in numerous dry hits.

The solution to this? Take a chill pill and stop being a chain vaper. Vaping is satisfactory even if you’re breathing regular air in between puffs. You won’t lose anything and the rest time will ensure that you don’t spend half of your vape time gagging.

Empty Tank

I know this goes without saying but you should really keep an eye on your tank and make sure that there’s always enough e-liquid in it. It doesn’t have to be full to the brim – you will be fine if the juice covers the wicking holes and covers your wick and atomizer head. Think of it this way; you wouldn’t smoke a cigarette butt, right? So, why would you vape on an empty tank if it means inhaling wick and cotton fumes?

This is easily solvable – it’s always a good idea to make sure that your tank is at least half full at all times. When you get up, fill it to the top. Do the same if you’re going out. If you’re planning a day out, take a chubby gorilla bottle with you so that you can always top up as needed. If you’re in a bind (outside, no juice, tank dangerously low) you can rotate your pen and try to force that leftover juice and get it near the holes so it’s more easily absorbed. This is not a reliable method, however, and you will have to refill sooner or later. Play it smart – invest in a small, carry-on bottle, and never get caught with your pants down. Plus, this will also extend the life of your coil.

Temperature Off the Charts

With newer pens and advanced mod set-ups, it’s possible to really up the temperature and go for those higher wattages. Most vapers searching for huge clouds will do that, disregarding how well their coils can handle wicking at those temperatures. Dry hits and a burning vape taste are much more common when you increase the temp, so you have to carefully weigh the positives against the negatives here.

Vaping at 15 or 20W will give you a satisfactory vape every time, especially when you’re using a vape pen that was designed for that kind of vaping. Going overboard will not only result in a bad vape taste, but it can also potentially damage your coils and cartridges (if you’re using a pod vape]. As always, read the instructions manual that came with your pen. It will clearly mention the recommended wattage range in which the coils should be used. Remember that the next time you are tempted to up the temperature thinking that you could ‘probably’ get away with it for a few puffs. It will result in a burnt coil nine times out of ten!

The Weather

When all else fails, you can always blame those dry hits on the weather. Seriously, cold weather will seriously screw with your juice. High VG juice becomes almost unusable, while PG juice starts behaving like tar – sticky and similar in consistency to VG. If you live somewhere cold, you’re going to have to work really hard to your e-juice tasting like shit (Alaskans, I sympathize).

There are a few things you can try, though. Make sure that you store your vape juice at room temperature – don’t leave it in your car or on the balcony. The same goes for your e-cigarette device. If your juice is colder than it should be, try sticking the bottle in a bowl of hot water. That will heat it up fast and allow you to use it with (hopefully) a minimum amount of dry hits. Permanently solving this problem will require relocation, unfortunately. I hear Texas is nice and warm throughout the year!

Take Care Your Taste Buds and Avoid Gaggy Flavors!

Now that you’re armed with this list of burnt taste causes and their solutions, there’s no need to suffer through another dry hit. What’s more, you will save a pretty penny once you stop destroying your new coils. This advice right here is as good as money in the bank!

Next time your e-cigarette tastes weird, sit down, evaluate the situation, and apply what you’ve learned here. Make sure to come back and report how it went! In the meantime, do you have any cool tricks up your sleeve? Oh, here’s one last piece of advice. No matter what you do, you will probably have to suffer through an occasional dry, burnt flavor- nothing really helps with the taste but a box of peppermints can seriously alleviate the situation!

Want to Try Out the RIGHT E-Liquid Vaporizers?

Then you need to take a look at the Kind Pen e-juice vape pen collection.

A lot of our vape pens pull a triple duty – they work with juices, oils AND concentrates.

Click Here to Find Your Perfect E-Cigarette Today & Relish the Flavors!