Does Your Vape Make Crackling and Popping Sounds?

by Christina Matthews

Updated: July 13, 2021

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If you’re new to vaping, some sounds like crackling and popping coming from your vape might seem strange or annoying for you. But don’t worry, because in most cases vape popping is a normal thing.

However, even the most experienced vapers should pay attention to sudden changes in a vape sound, which can be really frustrating and can cause some major problems. Here are some tips about good and ugly vape noises.

Table Of Contents

1. What Causes Vape Popping
2. The Wattage/Voltage Level
3. Is It Bad if Your Vape Spits?
4. How Do I Stop My Vape From Spitting?
5. Different E-Liquid Ingredients
6. A Coil Design

What Causes Vape Popping

A light crackling pop noise is a completely predictable and usual process. This is an e-juice being heated by the coil and vaporizing, and it means a good sign that your e-cig works properly.  When you vape, your e-liquid hits a very hot coil and turns it into a vapor.

This reaction makes you hear a crackling noise. The more or less loud behavior of your vape depends on what kind of device and e-juice you use, or the intensity and strength of the puffs. So let’s clarify the factors that affect the crackling and popping noise:

The Wattage/Voltage Level

Using a sub-ohm vaping setup is the first reason for an instant crackle. An RTA with a fairly open airflow forces air and increases the productivity of the vape. More e-liquid will condensate and less turn to vapor, thus an excess of liquid makes the noise.

E-liquid can’t be vaporized effectively when your vape wattage is too low. You need to increase it for normal heating or try to make longer draws. Otherwise, you may flood your atomizer and e-juice will spit into your mouth. Avoid this by increasing the device’s wattage. Consider vaping at a higher wattage and see if the noises are still the same.

Moreover, try to change the airflow adjustments to reduce the amount of e-liquid. Twist the collar of your sub-ohm tank to loose some air pressure.

Why Is My Vape Spitting?

Do you feel spit back when vaping? This is a common problem. Vapes spit because juice collects on the coil and does not vaporize. This problem is caused by coils getting flooded with too much liquid, low wattage settings, and airflow that is too open, and a variety of other reasons. As a result, the liquid spits the way hot grease does when frying bacon, and it is pretty painful when the droplets get in someone’s mouth

How to Prevent Vape Spitting

Overpriming

A common cause of a tank or RDA spitting is overpriming. Priming coils is essential, but some people overdo it and put too much liquid onto the coil and wicking. Instead, use a moderate amount to prime the coil.

Use Thicker Liquids

The thinness of high propylene glycol liquids makes them more likely to flood a coil than high vegetable glycerin liquids. If spit back is a constant problem, try cutting the juice with vegetable glycerin or switch to high VG liquids entirely.

Reduce the Airflow

Deep drags are another reason why coils get flooded. Luckily, this problem is easy to solve. Just take slower and shallower drags. The airflow can be tightened, but the drags still need to be shallower because deep drags will flood the coil regardless of the airflow setting.

Fire the Coils Without Inhaling

Excess juice can be burned away by firing the coils without taking a drag. Hold the firing button down and let the coils burn. The extra juice will pop and sputter for a few seconds. When the popping and sputtering stop, the coils should not spit liquid.

Change Drip Tips

Another simple fix is changing drip tips, but this will only work if the tank does not have an interchangeable drip tip. The air paths of some drip tips are angled so that hot droplets cannot exit them. However, this is not a sure way of ending the problem, as some hot drops always manage to find a way into the mouth.

Different E-Liquid Ingredients

Feel free to fill in your vape with new e-juices, but remember one thing: thicker one means more vapor. A thinner e-liquid might cause coil flooding and atomizer’s popping and spitting. You may use thicker vegetable glycerin instead of thinner propylene glycol liquid.

Sugar is very much like wood when it is burned. Both contain cellulose which breaks down when burnt. Then the gases vaporize and make a popping sound. It is totally natural that e-juice makes that popping as it gets heated by the coil.

A Coil Design

Twisted and braided coils have more surface area, which helps to produce more vapor and may cause extra popping sounds. Such types of coils have more crannies and nooks, that’s why more e-liquid pops.

We are talking about occasional popping because of twisted coil build, and you can hardly prevent it. Be sure that your coil twists and braids are very tight in your device.

You can also hear a vape popping when your device has a narrow drip tip or chimney. Some condensed vapor remains inside in form of droplets and blocks the flow. Simply use a wider drip tip or switch to an RTC chimney.

Final Word

So all the factors above may affect vape popping, crackling, and spitting. It is mostly related to the interaction of e-liquid and coil wire. The condensation vapor and extra droplets can cause dreadful loud noise and spitting issues. Vape on and enjoy the slight crackling sound of an operating vape, satisfying like a fire in the fireplace. But if it’s really annoying and you feel your ‘electrically charged nerves,’ check your vape mod and fix it if needed.

It is a very good thing to stay aware of any changes in your vape pen or mod as it could be a sign of trouble. Even though it is extremely rare, there have been cases of exploding vape pens. In just about all of these cases, it was a problem with the battery and wouldn’t have alerted the user that something was amiss by any popping sounds, however.

In fact, if the vaporizer isn’t making any noise and is overheating, that is when you should be concerned and stop vaping right away.

Christina Matthews

I love the written word, and in my career as a journalist, I strive to provide the facts about everything I write about. There are too many false and alarmist stories out there about life and vaping mainly. My mission is to make e-cigarettes less scary to people with informative articles and extensive research on not only the possible evils of cigarettes and Big Tobacco, but the objective side of e-cigs.

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