Spitting.
Why is my vape spitting and popping? Spitting, or spit back, is the name for the occasional super-hot droplets of e-liquid that shoot in your mouth when you’re vaping. If you watch an RDA coil firing, you can sometimes see this happening, usually accompanied by popping sounds. The droplets spit in all directions, but if you’re unlucky, some of them can shoot up into the mouthpiece.
Spit back has a simple cause: e-liquid gets pooled up on the coil itself and gets “cooked” instead of being vaporized. It spits similar to the way boiling water does, and with you inhaling from the tip, you can easily catch a droplet or two. The problem is closely linked to flooded coils, but, in some cases, it can happen even without flooding. Here are some ways to prevent spitting and popping from occurring. These will help answer the question, Why is my vape spitting and popping?
Why Does my Vape Pop?
Get to know vaping noises! Have heard your vape crackle? When you are new to vaping it can come as a surprise that your vape makes noises. These range from crackling, to popping to a whoosh sound. All of them are completely normal and you get used to the quickly.
It is good to get into the habit of understanding what sounds are ‘normal’ for your vape, this way if they change you can identify easily where the problem lies.
Let’s take a look at the noises you might hear from your vape, why they happen and how you can recognise a good or bad noise.
What causes vape crackling and popping?
The crackling and popping you hear from your vape is completely normal. It is caused by your vape coil.
Remember you are dealing with an electrical device that is doing several things at once while you vape. As you draw on it, e-liquid is pulled into your atomizer head. The atomizer head has a coil inside it that heats up as you press your button. This coil then vaporises your e-liquid into a vapour that you can then inhale.
As the e-liquid is vaporised it makes a slight popping or crackling sound. This will be slightly more noticeable if your atomizer head is brand new. If you hear your vape crackle, it actually means that it is performing well and your coil is doing what it needs to.
E-liquid Type.
The type of e-liquid you vape can alter the sound your device makes as you vape it.
The ratio of the diluents in your e-liquid determines how thick or thin your e-liquid is. If you have more of the diluent Propylene Glycol (PG), it is a thinner consistency so your e-liquid will be thinner. A higher concentration of Vegetable Glycerine (VG) in your e-liquid and it will be thicker.
A thinner e-liquid means the noise from your atomizer head might be slightly more noticeable as there isn’t the thickness there to dampen the sound.
Even with a thicker e-liquid your atomizer head is doing the same job and making the same sounds, it is just buffered from your e-liquid.
E-cig power output.
The more power your vape is outputting, the louder it will be. A sub-ohm vape with the power turned up will pop and crackle. It will be nearly instantaneous as the coil heats up hotter, much faster than a higher resistance coil.
But the noise won’t last as long with a sub-ohm vape. As it produces much more vapour, you tend to draw for a shorter period of time.
You might not only hear crackling though. If you notice a gurgling or spitting noise, it might mean that your power is too low. If you have an adjustable power vape and the wattage is too low, excess fluid can gather in your atomizer head. It isn’t being vaporised quickly enough and will flood your coil, causing a gurgling noise or spitting. Try turning your power up slightly to see if this helps.
Vape coil type.
Your atomizer head can have different styles of coil inside. If the coil is mesh or has multiple coils, then there is more surface area to vaporise e-liquid. This means that you get more flavour and vapour from your vape juice. But it will also sound louder as you vape.
Again this sound is more noticeable when your atomizer head is brand new. Once your coil has ‘bedded in’ with a day or two of use, the noise will be much less noticeable.
What causes the noise when you vape?
We have spoken about popping and crackling, but what about the ‘whoosh’ sound you sometimes here when you are vaping?
This is caused by airflow. As you draw on your vape, you are pulling air into it. This air runs across the coil to move the vapour from your vape tank, to you. This is when you might hear a light ‘whooshing’.
With most standard devices, you won’t hear much of anything. But if you have a sub-ohm kit, with wide open airflow then it might be noticeable.
Recognising vape sounds.
So now you know why your e-cig might make slight noises. Hence why we ask, “why is my vape spitting and popping”? That’s great, because now you will be able to recognise when one of these changes. Once you know what is ‘normal’ for your vape, you can tell if one of these sounds change.
As an example, if you are used to a slight crackle when vaping, then this changes to more of a gurgle you will hear this. If that happens, it means there is too much e-liquid in your atomizer head and it might need unflooding.
How to make your e-cig quieter
Take shorter draws!
The longer you draw the more air is pulled through your vape and the more noticeable the ‘sound’ of vaping is. If you draw for a very long time on each draw, try and shorten the length of this to make the noise a little less noticeable.
Change your coil resistance!
If you have a very sub-ohm coil, try a higher resistance. This will make the popping and crackling much less noticeable.
Lower your power!
Try turning down your wattage slightly to put less power through your coil. Close your airflow! If you like to have your airflow wide open then try to close this off slightly to help reduce the amount of air pulling through your vape tank.
Hopefully you have now found the answer to the question, “Why is my vape spitting and popping”?