Troubleshooting Your Vape
One of most people’s favorite things about a vape is that they are extremely easy to use. The vapes of just ten years ago were chunky, complicated, overpriced, and sometimes apt to explode in airport luggage or even set a person’s pants on fire through overstimulation of the heating element. Thank goodness we’ve worked out those bugs!
And yet, that’s far from saying that the experience is always trouble-free. The majority of the time, people have a pretty easy experience with their vaporizer. But every once in a while, little problems can create big headaches.
In this article, we take a look at common vape-related issues and what you can do about them.
Why My Cartridge Tastes Burnt?
Generally speaking, burnt-tasting vapor indicates that you’re overstimulating your heating element. There are a couple of common culprits.
One is simply that you have your power setting too high. While vapes will often feature multiple power settings to accommodate a wide range of preferences, the majority of people are actually served best by a less-is-more approach to wattage. Vaping, after all, is all about vaporizing the oil content.
When you’re using too much power or too frequently activating the heating element, you’re creating more heat than you need. Enough of that, and you’ll eventually burn the oil, which will both ruin the flavor of the experience and seriously compromise the health objectives most people have when they invest in a vape over flower in the first place.
Overstimulating the heating element can also lead to clogs over time. Eventually, that burnt oil will harden into resin around the filter, making it very difficult to draw. Eventually, this can ruin the cartridge altogether, requiring a replacement.
The good news is that troubleshooting this issue is pretty easy. Step back on the power a little bit and space out your pulls to about one or two a minute. A little bit of moderation is all it takes.
Why My Oil Is Leaking?
If your oil is leaking, it owes most likely due to improper storage. You may have committed the simple sin of setting the vape down on its side, a problem that is thankfully easy to solve. Store your cartridge vertically in the future to reduce the likelihood of leakage.
There is, of course, also the possibility that the cartridge has been physically compromised. If you see an indication of visible damage, that’s obviously a different story. In that case, you’ll need to replace the unit and move on.
Why My Battery Is Blinking?
Different blinking patterns indicate specific error codes, though these can vary slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Check with your specific brand for a more precise explanation of the problem. In general, though, an error code means that something isn’t working the way it’s supposed to, and there is a problem you need to solve.
If the code itself is not fully illuminating, look for context clues. For example, how have you been behaving with the vape? Have you been activating it a little more heavily than usual? That, with or without a visual error code, indicates that you should step back.
Is it really, really hot out? Or really, really cold out? That indicates that the battery is probably responding to atypical environmental factors.
Why My Vape Won’t Turn On?
This, unfortunately, is the ultimate fate of everything. Eventually, the battery will go to the great landfill in the sky, and you’ll need to buy another one to continue the habit. The lifespan will vary based on usage habits, but generally, people will go through several hundred charging cycles before they need to worry about replacing their vape.
If you feel yours has reached this point prematurely, you might be able to troubleshoot the scenario with a few options. First of all, make sure that you’re charging it long enough. If a battery is completely tapped out, it may take as long as an hour on the charger before it shows any signs of life.
The circumstances may be similarly time sensitive if you’ve been stimulating your battery heavily for a set period of time. In this case, it might just need a cooling-off period before it’s ready to go again.
If you’re doing all of the right things and your battery won’t activate, despite the fact that it never had the chance to age into maturity, it may simply mean that you got a lemon. It happens to all of us.
You can always try contacting the manufacturer or the dispensary where you purchased the battery to see if you can get a replacement. Many manufacturers are surprisingly cool about this, though your actual experience will depend pretty heavily on their company policies or even on the mood of the customer service representative you happen to get on the phone.
Why My Cartridges Are Running Out of Oil Prematurely?
There’s no leak, but your cartridges just seem to exhaust themselves before you expect on a consistent basis. Let’s assume for a moment that you’re not just stepping into this situation with an unrealistic set of expectations.
Let’s assume you know how long a cartridge should last and are consistently finding that yours doesn’t make it there.
This is yet another circumstance for which overstimulation of the heating element is a frequent culprit. When you’re constantly activating your vape’s battery, it’s going to get hotter than the factory default even if you aren’t adjusting the power settings at all.
So even though you’re hitting your normal number of times, the cartridge is getting used up faster because it’s experiencing more heat.
In this case, once again, the recommendation is to be more moderate in your vaping frequency. Not to say that you need to vape less, just that you need to draw on your pen using longer intervals of at least thirty to sixty seconds.
It’s also possible that you’re taking longer draws than the average person. A vape cartridge package will generally advertise the number of pulls you can expect to get from the pen, but you’ll often find that the range is pretty massive.
It might say, for example, three hundred to five hundred hits. That’s a difference of almost one hundred percent end-to-end. The range is large to account for things like how long you’re hitting, what your power setting is, and so on. If you want to be on the higher end, you’re going to have to adjust accordingly. Take smaller hits less frequently, and see where that gets you.
The only other possibility? You’re actually getting quite a lot of mileage out of your pen. So much in fact that you’re having trouble keeping straight how many pulls you’ve taken. For that issue, we have no suggestion.
Why My Vape Is Clogged?
It’s usually pretty easy to tell the difference between a clogged cartridge and an exhausted one. Not even taking into account the fact that most vapes have a very visible reservoir that allows you to keep an easy track of how much oil you have remaining, a clogged unit produces only the faintest willowy wisp of vapor.
Frustrating users who know with absolute certainty that there’s more on the other side of some hitherto unseen obstruction.
Clogs happen for one of two reasons. The first and most natural circumstance is that as you heat up oil, it liquefies and then turns into vapor.
But some residue will inevitably reharden near the draw filter. Given enough time, this will make it difficult to take vapor. In this case, you can start by stimulating the heating element to loosen up some of the waxy buildup.
Then scrub vigorously with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol.
The other and more frustrating source of a clog comes from burnt resin. Same basic circumstances. As you use your pen, the oil can get burned.
When it gets burnt, it hardens up near the airflow filter. But with resin rather than just hardened oil, it’s harder to scrub out. You’ll still take the same approach. You’ll just really need to put some elbow grease into the matter.
Conclusion
There are always more problems. There are, for example, the infrequently occurring but still often baffling experience of taking a peek into your oil reservoir to find that the interior has bubbled into almost honeycomb-like structures. You draw from your pen and find the vapor is still produced, but wonder, nevertheless, what has happened.
This, to satisfy your curiosity, is often the result of sudden fluctuations in temperature. Under the best of circumstances, it will seriously impact your vape’s performance, but it could be indicative of other problems to come.
For example, the same environmental factors that caused your oil to bubble might also be diminishing the health of your battery life.
There are always going to be small problems of this kind, so obscure and specific that they simply don’t find their way into guides like this one. If you’re having a problem with your vape that we haven’t taken into account, and you know what that might be is difficult to imagine; your best step is to contact the manufacturer.
They’ve heard absolutely everything and will generally have a ready-made response. Most cannabis companies are pretty well known for having good customer service and a friendly outlook, so don’t be shy about asking for help.
In about as much time as you’ve spent reading this article, you’ll be able to get an answer to your problem and start vaping again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my vape taste burnt even on low power settings?
Burnt taste usually indicates oil residue buildup on the heating element or that you’re hitting too frequently without cooldown periods. Even on low settings, rapid consecutive hits can overheat the coil. Try spacing your draws sixty seconds apart and cleaning the connection points with rubbing alcohol.
How long should I charge my vape battery?
Most vape batteries need one to three hours for a full charge. If your battery is completely dead, it might take up to an hour before showing any signs of life. Avoid overcharging by unplugging once the indicator shows full charge.
Can I fix a vape that won’t turn on at all?
Try charging for at least an hour first. If that doesn’t work, the battery may have reached the end of its several-hundred charge cycle lifespan. For newer devices, contact the manufacturer as you may have received a defective unit.
Is it normal for oil to bubble in my cartridge?
Small bubbles from temperature changes are normal and usually harmless. However, extensive honeycomb-like bubbling can indicate environmental stress that might also affect battery performance. Store your vape at room temperature when possible.
How can I make my cartridges last longer?
Store cartridges upright, use lower power settings, space hits sixty seconds apart, and avoid extreme temperatures. Most premature depletion comes from overstimulating the heating element, which uses more oil per hit than necessary.
