Vape Cough – What is It & How to Get Rid of It

It’s been a week or so since you ditched cigarettes and decided to try out vaping. You get out of bed, get the coffee going, reach out for your new vape pen — and start coughing the minute you take that first drag.

The vapor from your device hits you weirdly and unexpectedly. Your throat feels like it is dried up completely and instead of pleasure, you only feel pain and discomfort.

And these symptoms keep happening throughout the day. There’s a weight on your lungs. You’re wheezing. There’s mucus everywhere.

What you have is the case of classic vaper’s cough, and I’ll show you have to get rid of it in this very post! But first — are you sure you use the right device? Our new vaporizer just hit the store, and people are loving it (and they’re not coughing!).

We Built a Vaporizer That Cuts Down On Vape Cough

We can’t guarantee zero coughs but we’ve built Breezy with feedback from users.

They’ve told us that Breezy’s quality airflow cools their hits, minimizing coughing.

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B: What we popularly call vapers’ cough is not dangerous as a smoker’s cough, and it’s not caused specifically by vaping. Rather, it’s caused by you not knowing how to do it correctly. I’ll list several common things that cause it, and tell you what you need to do to fix each and every one of them.

Let’s dig in.

What is Vape Cough?

It is something that most vapers (especially new vapers) face once they get fresh off cigarettes. It’s usually dry and it’s caused by vapor not playing well with your lungs.

The drag from an e-cigarette has a significantly different feel to it than traditional cigarettes and most beginners will cough immensely after taking their first puff.

A survey done by a prominent vaping research blog has shown that more than half (57%) of beginner vapers were coughing when they first started. The most common side effects were dry coughs and a sore throat.

Why Does It Occur?

Our bodies react to foreign substances differently. And while e-juice has very few components, a couple of them have been known to cause coughing.

Here’s a brief run-down of everything that might be causing it:

• PG or VG sensitivity — the two main chemicals found in e-juices are propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin. These substances are also found in numerous foods and other products that we ingest daily such as toothpaste, food flavorings etc. However, once you inhale these in the form of vapor from electronic cigarettes they can have an irritating effect on your lungs and cause coughing. A study by the Ashtray Blog has shown that around 10% of the population experiences side effect of propylene glycol. It is more irritable than vegetable glycerin, which is why e-juices with a higher PG percent produce a stronger throat hit when inhaled.
• Nicotine — coughing can also be a side-effect of nicotine strength. The juices themselves come in various nicotine levels as well as different PG/VG ratios and different combinations will produce different hits.
• Device type — different types of e-cigarette affect the gullet differently depending on the resistance of their coils and the wattage level at which they are fired. Usually, higher wattage hits are hotter and harsher, therefore more likely to make you cough since they produce thicker and larger clouds of vapor.
• Cilia regrowth — another possible reason for coughing from vaping is the regrowth of cilia; hairlike formation on your lungs which gets damaged over time by inhaling tobacco smoke. It re-grows gradually once you cut down on smoking, but yeah if you were a heavy smoker you had lung injury, no lie. So, on a good note, coughing from cilia regrowth is in fact a sign that your lungs are undergoing recovery.
• Lack of anesthetics — according to Chris Price of ECigarette Politics, anesthetic compounds that are found in cigarettes are not found in e-juices. Price claims that the purpose of these anesthetics in cigarettes is to act as a cough reducer. Without it, we’d be looking and hearing a lot more long-term smokers coughing their lungs out. Since e-juices do not contain those anesthetics, the possibility of coughing is increased.

How Can You Fix It?

No matter how persistent cough from vaping may seem at first, it’s definitely not permanent. In most cases, you can fix it by, for example, playing around with your e-juice, altering your inhale technique, or observing your e-cigarette use and perhaps switching it to lower powered device.

In this section, I’ll let you in on a couple of veteran hacks that might make that transition from smoking to vaping a bit easier for you. Make the transition from cigarettes to vaping less painful and uncomfortable for you:

1. Right technique: Despite deciding to leave combustible tobacco products behind, the cigarette smoking drag technique has stuck with you whether you want it or not. I’m 100% sure that the first drag you took on your new vape pen was inhaled the same way you previously did with cigarette smoke. This is usually the main reason that leads to extreme coughing.
   
   How to fix it: Practice makes perfect. Vapers usually inhale longer drags than cigarette smokers, but my personal advice is to take shorter but harder drags, keeping everything in your mouth for a while and then blowing it out. The key is to inhale in smaller amounts at first and your throat will gradually get used to larger and larger hits. Vapers cough and sore throat are just short term and will go away eventually. Taking harder drags in order for the airflow to dilute the vapor (and make it more pleasant) is also a technique that is not to be scoffed at. You will know which method suits you best as you use your vape product more frequently!
2. The device used: Sometimes beginners who are not yet familiar with the world of vaping devices end up purchasing a high-wattage sub-ohm device without being properly introduced.Sub-Ohm tanks are generally used by more experienced vapers (often referred to as “cloud chasers”) who crave a strong and rich vaping sensation accompanied by massive clouds and rich taste. Thus, a common issue for newbies is getting their hands on one without realizing the power they are dealing with and ending up with shortness of breath, dry throat and coughing violently.How to fix it: Another type of tank/pod is the Mouth-to-lung (MTL) piece. This type is widely popular with beginners and veterans alike, but it is often recommended to beginners since their technique closely resembles smoking a cigarette. Their coils are of higher resistance which means they are fired at a lower wattage making their clouds very mild and kind on the windpipe. I do not guarantee that they won’t cause any discomfort at the back of your throat, but they are perfect for practicing and letting your throat adjust to this new feel of inhaling without any adverse effects.
3. Vapor irritants: As I mentioned in the last section, e-juices contain compounds to which some people are sensitive in certain ways. Some people are especially sensitive (in some cases even allergic) to Propylene Glycol (PG) which is by itself more irritating than Vegetable Glycerin (VG).How to fix it: While these compounds are not harmful chemicals, if a certain liquid is causing an inflammatory response more than the others, the likely reason is higher levels of PG in it. My advice is to try out a juice with a VG as a primary ingredient (higher percentage). Their hit is much more mellow and easier on your respiratory tract.
4. Airflow setting: The airflow determines how much you actually inhale, and also how stiff the drag is going to be. The way you initially pictured a perfect drag might be quite different than it actually is. In most cases that is the contributing factor and might find yourself overwhelmed for a moment.How to fix it: Almost all vapes, regardless of the size of the device, have adjustable airflow which is turnable like a knob. Play around with it and find which airflow stage suits you best to avoid any chest pain!
5. Strong and intense flavors: As rare as it is, some specific flavor profiles of e-juices like citruses, sharp fruits, and strong mints can be the root cause due to their intensity.How to fix it: Flavors such as tobacco, cake, custards, and other dessert stuff are much more mellow and much less invasive.
6. Vapor too hot: Sometimes, it’s just down to your vapor being too hot. It hits your throat like a ton of bricks, scorching the back of it and forcing you to hack up a lung.
   
   How to fix it: The fix is simple – just dial down on your voltage setting. If you’re already way down, maybe vape pen overheating is to blame – click that link to find out what causes it and how to fix it.

4 Things Veteran Vapers Recommend Trying

If you’ve done everything from the above list and you still get an occasional tickle in the throat, you might want to take a look at these four expert fixes.

Slow down your inhale

Coughing and headaches can sometimes be caused by dehydration from chain vaping. As exciting and cool your new habit is, it is wise to take it down a notch if you find yourself puffing non-stop.

Change your coil

On average, a single coil can last you from 10 days up to a month depending on the vaporizer, wattage, and type of liquid. Usually, sweeter dessert types tend to wear out coils more quickly. When a coil has reached the end of its life, it produces an unpleasant vape and a burnt taste which is bound to make you croak like crazy. Check that out to see if you need a new coil!

Stay Hydrated.

As refreshing and soothing as some e-liquids may make you feel, be aware that all those nice clouds from your apparatus can dry out your mouth and lungs if you go to town repeatedly for a longer period of time. While the vast majority of chain vapers know this, be sure to always have a glass of water standing by, if you’re one of them.

Wait It Out

Sometimes, the best thing to do is remain patient and be aware that these are not long-term effects of vaping. The more proficient you become with product use, and your inhaling technique, and accustomed to the hit of your chosen e-juice and vaporizer, the more you’ll enjoy it and any ailment will remain a distant memory.

It’s Time to Say Goodbye to Hacking Up a Lung

A couple of months from now, you get out of bed, get the coffee going, and reach for your old, faithful machine. (It’s the Breezy – our state of the art vape juice vaporizer, right? We knew it!)

You take a nice scrumptious drag to satisfy your nicotine addiction. It’s all there — the scrumptious taste, big clouds, your morning nicotine hit. The best way to start your day!

But what’s not there is that God-awful wheezing!

You’re finally rid of it. It’s a thing of the past.

Good on you! No vaper should suffer through bouts of debilitating choking as a reward for quitting smoking. And now you’re finally there (and, in small part, thanks to my cool advice here).

We Built a Vaporizer That Cuts Down On Vape Cough

We can’t guarantee zero coughs but we’ve built Breezy with feedback from users.

They’ve told us that Breezy’s quality airflow cools their hits, minimizing coughing.

Click Here to Get Yours Today