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.
Editorial desk · Written and checked in house · Updated
A blocked cartridge feels like a broken cartridge and usually is not. The airway in these things is about a millimetre across, and it does not take much to obstruct it.
Cold, thick contents. Cold makes everything thicker, and thicker contents move into the airway instead of onto the wick. A device that has been outdoors is the classic case.
Condensation. Vapour that cools inside the mouthpiece turns back into liquid and collects there. It builds up with normal use and is the most common cause after cold.
Hard draws. Pulling harder floods the airway with more than the element can turn over — which makes the blockage worse, which makes people pull harder still. Short, gentle draws are the whole answer.
1. Warm it. Hold it in a closed hand for two or three minutes, or in a pocket. Never with a hairdryer, a radiator or hot water. 2. Stand it upright for a few minutes so the wick reabsorbs and the airway drains back. 3. Clear the mouthpiece. A cotton bud for what you can reach; a straightened paperclip, gently, for a deeper plug. Do not ream the element itself. 4. Take two or three short, gentle draws with the battery off if the device allows it — the airflow alone shifts most blockages. 5. Then a short draw with power, at the lowest voltage setting.
| Avoid | Why |
|---|---|
| Hard, long draws | Floods the airway and dries the wick at the same time |
| Heating it with a hairdryer or hot water | Damages seals, and a hot cell is a hazard |
| Blowing back into the mouthpiece | Pushes the plug into the element |
| Highest voltage setting | Scorches the wick instead of clearing the airway |
Keep the device at room temperature, store it upright, and wipe the mouthpiece with a cotton bud every few days. Short draws spaced out beat long ones. See storing a device and what a coil does.
No vapour at all plus a blinking light is a power or contact problem, not a blockage — check the contacts and the fit first. See what a blinking light usually means. A burnt taste that survives everything above means the wick is scorched, and that does not come back.
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.
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.
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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