Upright, mouthpiece up, somewhere cool and dark, around half charged if it is going away for a while. Heat thins the contents and causes leaks, cold thickens them and dries the wick, and a device left on its side floods its own airway.
Editorial desk · Written and checked in house · Updated
Three variables decide whether a device works properly when you pick it up again: temperature, light and orientation. None of them costs anything to get right.
A cartridge relies on the wick being fed at a steady rate. Left on its side, contents pool against the airway and the seal; left upside down, they run into the mouthpiece. Both produce the same two complaints — a leak, and a draw that arrives as liquid rather than vapour.
Standing a device upright for a few minutes before use also lets a dry wick reabsorb, which is the fix for the weak first draw people mistake for a fault.
| Condition | What happens |
|---|---|
| Hot — a car dashboard, a sunny windowsill | Contents thin, seals weep, the cell ages fast |
| Room temperature | Correct |
| Cold — an unheated garage, a winter coat left outside | Contents thicken, the wick struggles, the element scorches |
| Cold then charged immediately | Damages a lithium cell |
A car in summer is the worst place in ordinary life for both the hardware and its contents. A drawer indoors is the best.
Ultraviolet light degrades most botanical and cannabinoid contents over time, which is why cartridges are often tinted and why a clear one should not live on a windowsill. Dark is not fussiness; it is the difference between a cartridge that tastes the same in three months and one that does not.
For anything going away longer than a couple of weeks, leave a rechargeable cell around half charged. Flat cells sometimes will not revive; full cells age faster. See charging a rechargeable device safely.
Keep devices out of a pocket or bag with keys and coins, where a short across the terminals is possible, and out of reach of children and animals. Store them separately from anything you would not want to smell of them, because seals weep slowly even when nothing is obviously wrong.
Warm it to room temperature, stand it upright for ten minutes, wipe the contacts, then try a short draw. Most devices written off after a cold or hot spell recover with those three steps. A swollen case or a burning smell is different — that one goes for disposal.
A used device is electronic waste with a lithium cell in it, and it does not belong in household rubbish or a kerbside recycling bin. Take it to a battery collection point, a household hazardous waste site, or a shop that accepts device take-back. Never crush, puncture or bin one.
A clog is nearly always cold, thick contents blocking a narrow airway, or condensation collecting in the mouthpiece. Warm the cartridge in your hands, stand it upright, clear the mouthpiece with a cotton bud or a paperclip, then take short gentle draws rather than hard ones.
Two separate tanks and two heating elements in one body, with a switch that selects which one the battery feeds. It lets one device hold two different contents without mixing them. The trade-off is one cell powering two elements, and twice as many seals that can fail.
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