How to Stop Vape from Spitting or How to Fix Vape Spitback

Have you ever been enjoying your vape when suddenly and out of nowhere, you hear your vape make popping noises and almost instantly feel tiny hot drops fall on your lips and tongue? This is called vape spitback, and if you have experienced it, you know how irritating it can be. So you might be wondering how do you stop the vape from spitting back? Well, the answer is complicated.

This phenomenon happens for many reasons, so the exact cause could be hard to pinpoint. However, some common culprits that often, if addressed, will stop vape spitback from happening. In this blog, we go over these reasons, and in the later section, we show you how to fix it quickly and prevent it so it never happens again. 

Table of Contents:

1. What is Vape Spitback
2. How To Quickly Fix Vape Spitback
3. How to Prevent Spitback
4. Conclusion

What is Vape Spitback

If you’re a vaper at one point in your vaping life, you have likely experienced vape spitback. If you haven’t, consider yourself among the lucky ones. While it is more likely that if you vape on sub-ohm devices (box mods), your chances of getting spitback are greater, spitback can occur with almost any device, which is vital to knowing how to deal with it when it happens. But what exactly is vape spitback?

Vape spitback is when tiny droplets of hot vape juice fly out of the coil and through the mouthpiece and land in your lips or tongue. While this can be quite painful, there are no other medical consequences on the user besides the initial discomforts experienced from having hot droplets fall on your lips and tongue. 

There are many causes as to why you are experiencing vape spitback, but the most common one is because you have an excess amount of vape juice underneath or around the coil. This is known as a pooled or flooded coil. Coils are only meant to vaporize the e-liquid inside the wicks, but when too much vape juice is used, and the vape juice comes into contact with the coil, it creates an effect similar to boiling water. The e-liquid starts bubbling and “spitting back” in any direction. 

How To Quickly Fix Vape Spitback

If you believe your vape coil is flooded or has pooled, here’s a quick fix you can do. Grab the device and make sure to grip it tightly; then, using all your strength, flick it downwards as if you were an artist flicking paint on a canvas. If the e-liquid is flooded, it should fly out of the mouthpiece and into the ground. 

If there is too much e-liquid, the best thing to do is grab a cotton swab or q-tip and clean around and inside the coil. Then take out the coil from the devices and dab at the base or underneath the coil with a paper towel since there will probably be lots of e-liquid stored in this area. 

But sometimes, even when vape juice is not gathering underneath or around the coil, you can still experience spitback. In the next section, I’ll discuss how you can prevent spitback from happening even when the coil is not flooded. 

How to Prevent Vape Spitback

Now that you know how to fix when and prevent vape spitback that is caused by a flooded coil, you should know that it can still happen even when the coil isn’t flooded. And the reasons for this often come down to a failure to prevent spitback, which is why we go over how you prevent spitback from happening in this section. Here are some of the things you can do to avoid spitback:

• Reduce airflo or inhale softly
• Press the starting button numerous times
• Increase power
• Re-wick your coil
• Don’t over prime the coil
• Use a high VG vape juice
• Replace your coil
• Clean the chimney of excess e-liquid
• Buy an anti spit shield drip tip

Reduce airflow or inhale softly

One of the things you can do to reduce spitback is to reduce the airflow in your device. Having the airflow wide open invites more e-liquid into the mouthpiece. However, reducing the airflow to the max could also make the pull stronger. The best thing to do is reduce your airflow until you find a happy medium where no spitback occurs. 

Alternatively, you can also inhale slowly and softer to reduce the likelihood of creating vape spitback just by the sheer strength of your inhale. So by lessening the power of your inhale, you can also reduce the possibility of spitback.

Press the starting button numerous times

Also known as pulsing, or pressing the starting button numerous times, without inhaling, it can burn or evaporate some of the e-liquid. So basically, pulse the firing button until the popping sound that goes alongside spitback stops. Once the popping sound stops, you should be clear to take a spitback free inhale. 

Increase Power

Another thing you can do if you are using a variable wattage vape is to turn up the wattage by 5 or 10 watts to make sure that the coil is heating all the e-liquid. Remember, however, not to turn up the watts too high, or it will burn the coil. So remember to slowly turn up the power until you find the perfect level. 

Re-wick Your Coil

The common culprit for spitback in rebuildable tank atomizers or (RTAs) is improperly installed wicks. Depending on the model of your RTA, getting the hang of installing your wicks property might take some time, and during that learning process, you might experience spitback. If you are getting spitback, use more cotton, but not too much, or you’ll block the vape juice from getting to the coil. 

Don’t Over Prime The Coil

This is a tricky one but one that you’ll learn with practice. When priming, remember not to put too much e-liquid into your wick and coil. Although it will be hard to measure precisely when is enough at first, a good tip is to take your time when priming, don’t rush the process, and above all, let the cotton saturate with the e-juice before adding more. 

Use a High VG Vape Juice

Another way to prevent vape spitback is to use a higher vegetable glycerin ratio vape juice. Since VG or vegetable glycerin is a thicker agent than PG or propylene glycol, the other ingredient in vape juice will act like less of a liquid, reducing the amount of vape spitback created. 

Replace Your Coil

If you experience spitback, one of the most common reasons is that you need to replace the coil. If the coil and cotton wicks are old and have been caramelized, then, of course, they will not be functioning correctly, and the vape juice, because the wick is not absorbing it, will fall to the bottom of the coil, flooding it. In this case, replace the coil, and you should be set. 

Clean The Chimney of Excess E-liquid

Another reason spitback occurs is that vape juice might be collecting in the chimney, which later, due to gravity, ends up falling on the coil. To avoid this, simply grab a paper towel and remove the drip tip of your device and use it to clean the inside of your chimney. This should stop spitback from happening. 

Buy an anti spit shield drip tip

The best thing you can do if you are unable to pinpoint the source or the reason for why spitback is happening is to buy an anti-spitback shield drip tip. These drip tips come with a fine net that will capture any drops that try to make their way out of the mouthpiece, helping you avoid spit back every single time. 

Conclusion

Vape spitback is not something you have to live with if you learn to prevent it. The best way, in our opinion, to make sure spitback is not a problem, especially if your vape device is prone to spitback, is to buy an anti spitback shield drip tip—that and, of course, following the advice listed above.