How to Fix a Flooded or Gurgling Vape: 5 Quick Solutions
If your vape gurgles or bubbles when you inhale, or you are getting hot liquid spitting into your mouth, the coil is flooded. It is one of the most common vaping problems and it is usually fixable in under a minute.
What causes a flooded coil?
Flooding happens when more e-liquid reaches the coil than it can turn to vapour. The usual causes are overfilling the pod, leaving the device lying flat for a long stretch, drawing too hard on a pod system, or running at too low a wattage so liquid sits unvaporised. Cold slows absorption and can cause temporary flooding too, and if you are on the Highveld, a pod opened after travelling up from the coast can weep as the sealed air expands.
How to fix it
- Take the pod off the battery first. Everything else is easier and safer with the pod detached, and it means there is no chance of firing a flooded coil by accident.
- Clear the pooled liquid out of the base. Wrap a tissue around the base of the pod, the end with the contacts, and blow gently through the mouthpiece. The excess comes out of the base into the tissue rather than being pushed further into the airway. A few firm taps base-down onto a folded tissue does much the same job.
- Dry the contacts and the pod bay. Wipe the metal contacts on the pod and inside the battery with a dry cotton bud or tissue. Liquid sitting on contacts causes misfires that look exactly like a dead device. Never use water. Cleaning your vape has the full method.
- Refit and take three or four short draws at normal power. Draw normally so air is moving through the coil. That clears the remaining excess as vapour, which is exactly what a dry fire does not do. The first draw may still taste wet. That is fine.
- If your device adjusts, nudge the wattage up slightly for a few puffs. A small increase helps burn through what is left. Put it back to your normal setting afterwards.
How to stop it happening again
Do not fill to the absolute maximum, leave a small air gap at the top. Draw gently rather than hard, because a forceful pull on a pod system drags through more liquid than the coil can handle. Store the device upright rather than on its side or face down. And check your wattage suits the coil, because running too low is a direct cause of pooling. Our guide to what wattage to vape at covers the right range per resistance, and why vapes leak deals with the related problem.
A thinner e-liquid floods more readily, so if this keeps happening, your PG and VG ratio may be part of it. PG vs VG explained covers which ratio suits which device.
When the coil itself is the problem
If flooding keeps returning with the same pod and the fixes above only hold for a day, the coil is worn out. Cotton develops micro-cracks over time that let liquid past the heating element faster than it can be vaporised. At that point it is a replacement, not a repair. The signs a coil is finished are worth knowing so you are not fighting a dead pod.
Replacement pods are in stock for every device we carry: Vaporesso XROS at R279 for a 4-pack, Bewolk Smart at R259 for a 4-pack, OXVA Xlim at R219 for a 3-pack, and the rest in pods and coils. Priming a new one properly stops the cycle starting again, and this is how.
For adult use only (18+). Contains nicotine, an addictive substance.
