E-cigarettes have evolved an incredible way since they were first introduced. No longer are they as fickle and unreliable as they once were at the dawn of the vaping revolution. Unfortunately, problems still do happen from time to time. Of these, the most common problem is probably an e-cigarette that produces no vapor. We’re here to help. If your e-cigarette isn’t producing vapor, this guide should help you resolve the problem with any type of vaping setup.
E-Cigarette Not Producing Vapor: The Root Causes
There are four common culprits that tend to act as the cause for no vapor or an amount of vapor that is so small that it may as well be none.
These causes are:
- A dead battery
- A dry atomizer coil
- A heavily flooded atomizer
- A poor electrical connection between the e-cigarette and atomizer
If you experience problems e-smoking, then the first thing you should do is to ensure that your battery is fully charged. If you have an e-cigarette or mod with an integrated lithium ion battery, it should have a light or display that alerts you when the battery’s charge is too low.
If you have a mechanical mod, though, you’ll need to use a meter — or a charger with a built in meter — to determine the voltage of your battery. It is never safe to continue using a completely dead battery in a mechanical mod. Note that we also have a full article elsewhere on this website devoted to fixing mechanical mods.
The next step is to check the atomizer to ensure that there is e-liquid present. Pre-filled cartomizers or disposable cartridges will likely need to be swapped out to ensure that your heating coil isn’t running dry.
If you’ve just added e-liquid to a tank or dripping atomizer, make sure that you haven’t added too much or spilled liquid down the center air tube. If an atomizer is flooded, it’ll likely produce very little vapor. You may also notice a gurgling sound.
Occasionally, pre-filled cartridges and cartomizers can arrive from the factory slightly over-filled. This is essentially the same problem as a flooded atomizer, but most pre-filled cartridges are sealed. If you continue using the cartridge, you’ll likely clear the blockage and normal vapor production will resume.
With any vaping setup, a paper towel can be greatly helpful in clearing a flooded atomizer.
No Vapor With a Sub-Ohm Tank
If you have a sub-ohm tank that isn’t producing vapor, the experience can be truly awful because you’re most likely burning your cotton wick, too. To troubleshoot a sub-ohm tank that isn’t producing vapor, begin by looking at the side of the tank. Can you see the wick holes on the sides of the atomizer coil? Does the liquid in the tank cover the holes fully? If not, you need to add more liquid.
If your sub-ohm tank produces no vapor and doesn’t even make a sound when you press the button, something isn’t making a proper connection. If you have a mechanical mod, stop using it immediately. You might have a hybrid mod that isn’t compatible with the tank you’re trying to use, which is known to cause e-cigarette explosions. Does your mod have a hole allowing the tank to directly touch the top of the battery? You have a hybrid mod. Bring it and your tank to a vape shop for advice.
If you have anything other than a hybrid mod, make sure that the pin inside the mod’s top threading touches the bottom of the tank. Many mods have spring loaded pins to accommodate a wide variety of attachments with no fuss. However, some mods have center pins that require manual adjustment. If you see something that looks like a screw head in your mod’s threading, it’s adjustable. Usually, the threading will be reversed, meaning that you’ll need to turn the pin clockwise to raise it.
Still having a problem? Disassemble the tank, remove the atomizer coil and replace it with a new one. Make sure that you’ve primed the new coil by wetting the cotton with a bit of e-liquid. Some people also like to force additional e-liquid to a new coil by closing the tank’s air vents and taking a few “primer puffs” without pressing the e-cigarette’s fire button.
If your sub-ohm tank still isn’t producing vapor, make sure you’re using a mod that actually supports sub-ohm vaping. A 0.5 ohm atomizer, for example, isn’t going to work with an eGo e-cigarette because the eGo can’t handle the 7.4 amp load. It also won’t work with older regulated mods such as the original ProVari because it’ll trip the over current protection.
Are you using a temperature control setup? If the power level of your device is set too high — or the temperature limit is too low — your e-cigarette may stop producing vapor almost as soon as you push the fire button because the coil exceeds the temperature limit. Assuming that the tank has sufficient e-liquid remaining, you can resolve this problem by decreasing your e-cigarette’s power setting or increasing the temperature limit.
No Vapor With a Rebuildable Atomizer
A rebuildable atomizer is capable of producing the most vapor possible from an e-cigarette. Rebuildable atomizers are also very inexpensive to maintain, since buying wire and wicking material in bulk costs very little. Unfortunately, though, rebuildable atomizers are also prone to problems because humans often can’t wrap and assemble coils with the precision of machines. If your e-cigarette isn’t producing vapor and you’re using a rebuildable atomizer, we’ve got a few tips for you.
If you have a mechanical mod, stop using it immediately. Diagnose the problem before you attempt to use the e-cigarette again, because most e-cigarette explosions that happen during use happen with mechanical mods and rebuildable atomizers.
If you have a regulated mod, you should already know if your rebuildable atomizer has a short because the screen of your e-cigarette will display a message warning you. Regardless of the type of device that you’re using, though, you should remove the rebuildable atomizer immediately and check the coil’s resistance with a meter.
If the coil doesn’t have a short, you need to be certain that you have a mod — or a battery if your mod’s battery is removable — that can handle the load generated by the coil. To use a rebuildable atomizer safely, it is crucial that you understand Ohm’s law as well as the capabilities of your battery.
If you’re certain that your atomizer coil doesn’t have a short and that your e-cigarette supports a coil with the resistance you’ve configured, the next thing to do is make certain that the atomizer’s center pin is touching the pin in your e-cigarette’s threading. Again, if you have a hybrid mod, stop here until you’re certain that your rebuildable atomizer is safe to use with hybrid mods. If necessary, adjust the center pin using the instructions given earlier in the article.
Is the atomizer badly flooded? Is there a lot of gunk built up on the coil and wick? Both of these problems could lead to your e-cigarette not producing vapor — or producing almost none.
No Vapor With a Polyfill Cartomizer
Are you using a polyfill cartomizer with a removable top cap? This type of cartomizer — popularized by makers such as Boge and SMOK — uses polyfill or cotton wadded around a center air tube. The atomizer coil is quite small and usually positioned around the middle of the cartomizer. Because e-liquid has to get through quite a bit of filler material before reaching the coil — which makes filling a bit of a challenge — it’s pretty common for a cartomizer to produce no vapor. If you’re filling the cartomizer from the top, the filler material might look wet even though the coil itself is still dry.
We suggest filling cartomizers with a syringe or needle tip bottle cap. By inserting the needle between the filler material and the inner wall of the cartomizer, you can force e-liquid directly to the coil.
No Vapor With a Top-Coil Clearomizer
A top-coil clearomizer has its atomizer coil positioned close to the tip. Two silica wicks lead from the coil to the bottom of the clearomizer. Top-coil clearomizers tend to produce very warm vapor since the atomizer coil is so close to the mouth. However, top-coil cartomizers don’t always wick efficiently because they have to fight gravity.
If your e-cigarette isn’t producing vapor and you’re using a top-coil clearomizer, make sure that it still contains plenty of e-liquid. If you have a variable-voltage or variable-wattage device, you may need to decrease the power level. Because top-coil cartomizers don’t wick efficiently, a power level that’s set too high could lead to the coil not getting sufficiently wet between puffs.
Some people have managed to improve the performance of their clearomizers by disassembling them and feathering the wicks gently with tweezers.
No Vapor With a Bottom-Coil Clearomizer
Since a bottom-coil clearomizer has the coil — and therefore the wick — at the bottom, it doesn’t have to fight gravity to draw e-liquid to the coil. This is the clearomizer configuration that most people prefer today, but bottom-coil clearomizers still occasionally have problems of their own.
If you’re using a disposable clearomizer with a permanent coil, you’ll probably find that the center tube leading out of the clearomizer is quite narrow. Sometimes, vapor can condense in the narrow tube and impede the flow of vapor. You can put up with the reduced vapor production and continue using the e-cigarette until the blockage clears, or you can draw firmly on the e-cigarette to clear it manually. Note that you’ll probably get e-liquid in your mouth if you do this. Alternatively, you can blow hard through the clearomizer the next time you refill it.
If you have a bottom-coil clearomizer with a replaceable atomizer, most of the tips above under the sub-ohm tank category apply to you. After all, sub-ohm tanks are more or less the same — just with very low-resistance coils.
Did You Fix Your E-Cigarette With This Guide?
With this guide, we believe that we’ve covered how to fix an e-cigarette that isn’t producing vapor with virtually every type of vaping setup that’s currently in use. Did you fix your e-cigarette with this guide? Do you have a solution that we’ve missed here? Leave a comment below!
Jason Artman founded eCig One after switching from smoking to vaping in 2010 and has been a professional writer and SEO consultant since 2007. His work has been featured on television and in leading publications, and it has been referenced in numerous peer-reviewed journals. Jason works with leading vape brands around the world to generate targeted web traffic and increase their revenue.
I have a G3 and have had problems with it vaping from the moment I bought it. I don’t understand the technical terminology above – I don’t know what the tank is. Any ideas?
Where you put liquid.
E cigarette on yellow not charging to green
I have a Tarot vaporesso. I pushed wrong button, it has Bypass on it, how do i get rid of this? can’t vape.
At the top of the vape
The tank is what screws into the vape mod, RDA’s are the best for personally vaping to enjoy the flavour and get a nicotine hit, Tanks are more for convenience been able to fill it up and have a supply to last longer for outings
Best to go with a Provari something that’s excellent quality and not something produced in some Chinese factory that doesn’t last long and will end up breaking or just failing to work as intended.
I have a VAP.R PEN….but i am getting no smoke out of it…i can taste the flavor but nothing else. It was filled when it was given to me. also how do i fill it when its time?
The tank should be empty before refilling or if the liquid is at a low level in the tank, it is time to refill
My e cigarette is not producing vapor.it is not even heating…it is new.i bought it 2 days ago.can someone help me please.
Try tightening the coil most likely a connection issue. After u tighten it should be working fine. I had the same problem but works fine now after tightening the coil.
How do u tighten the coil
Never knew about tightening the coil. I’ve gone through that many coils thinking it was them. Just tried tightening and it now goes better than ever. Thank you!
My ecigarette doesn’t produce vapa the battery is full,liquid full not overflowing and settings 29.4W,1.71ohm and 7.09V…what else must I check?
Thank you for this reply. I read this and did exactly what you said about the coil. Thank you so much for that insight.
Try Take out the juice and clean it then put more juice in it let it charge for about 1hr then press the botton 5 times then try it
Wow life saver. This site gave the best advice out of the ones i went through. I had the connection issue coil was way too loose had to tighten it.
Just bought a royal 30. And i went to refill it now it dont work what do i do now??
hey guys got a problem
some how my vape stopped heating up and producing vapor/flavor after i removed the batteries and attached them back
every time i press the Vape/inhale button the the inhale times starts but i dont hear neither see the vapor
Some vapes require replacing the heating element once a week
and yeah i tried to change the batteries same problem i even change the tank same problem no vapor so it seems something wrong with the mod (RX2/3)
Aspire pockex,not working re filled no value
Vale,
My vape isn’t blowing smoke and I’ve tightened the coil refilled and it still ain’t does anyone know any other things to try?
I just put new cotton on my rda, I can’t tell of it’s a bad coil because there’s no burning flavor, for the first hit, there was a decent clpud, but then it started to where there is barley any. could one coil be out and the other working?
Would like to know what is making battery button blinking red
I just bought an Aspenslim By Boulder, It is not producing vapor at all. So frustrating. It’s brand new and charged fully. Pls help
I changed the coil on my vape and now there is no vapes coming out. But before I changed it, my vape was hitting just fine. What can I do to fix it?
My aspire ecig,not working
I have an aspire pockex all of a sudden its not producing any vapour. It was hitting just fine before all of a sudden its doing this. How can I fix this?
Simple vape pen with replaceable coil, refilled it last night but battery ok, coil ok. Read this post, gave it a good suck and saw air bubbles in the tank, then it was fine. Good post!
i just got a hiteach e-hookah vape yesterday. Evrything was working fine then the light just turned off and the vapor stopped coming out what do I do ?
Mine is producing vapour but mot much I’ve primed it not flooded it what could it be
Just bought a Local E-cigrette. Same Problem! Tried tightening the coil, replaced the cartridge and charged the battery fully but can’t see any vapors coming out. So frustrating. What should i do?
I have a VAP.R Pen….i am not getting any smoke out of it and was wondering why? Also when it was given to me it was filled. How do I refill it when it is time?
I have an aspire PockeX and it’s not making any vapor what do I do?
for anyone else with this product – prise open the the top part (the bit you put in your mouth) with a flat screwdriver. It is liekly full of guff blocking the airflow
my vape wont hit but the light is saying it is but nothing is coming out what do i do??