We’ve found most of our pen style kits like the Innokin T18-X,(T18 II images featured in blog) have machined coil locating slots, pins or grooves, so fitting coils correctly should be easier.

You should also check your coil even if you haven’t done anything with it - the heating process as you vape can cause the coil to naturally 'back off' if it's a screw type coil and create a gap that liquid can get into.

The biggest problem you’ll encounter when screwing everything in is “cross threading”.  That’s where the threads on the two components you’re screwing together don’t line up properly, leading to an imperfect seal.

1. line everything up
2. turn it anti-clockwise until you hear a click
3. screw it in clockwise

But Don’t Over-Tighten!

There are two problems with over tightening.

Firstly, when it comes time to swap your coil out for a fresh one, trying to get your tank undone can be nigh on impossible. the heat generated whilst vaping and the sticky nature of eliquid seem to weld over tightened tank sections together, and even the most experienced of us risk breaking glass if the pliers have to come out.

Secondly, O-rings are tiny rubber rings. You’ll find them near the threading and where two parts of your tank meet. They are key to making a seal and reducing the chance of leaks. Over-tightening can damage these little helpers and a little split or break gives e-liquid an “escape route” to your pocket or bag.

Of course, the line between tight enough and too tight is a little hard to define. The basic lesson is to screw everything in place firmly, but remember that you shouldn’t need to put much strength into it. There’s no need to Hulk out; screw it in so it fits snugly – but not as tight as you possibly can.

The design and development of tanks and coils nowadays makes choosing liquids for a device much simpler, as newly released tanks have been designed to work with most e-liquid, but it may depend on the coil you use choose to use.

Most tanks come with replaceable coils with varying resistances. These are suited for doing different things.

Higher resistance coils (1 ohm or above ) very much imitate a cigarette in the way that they are used, and therefore tend to have smaller juice/coil holes. This is ideal for the higher PG (thinner) liquids as they can flow easily. High VG (thicker) liquid used in one of these coils may clog up the coil a lot more quickly.

Low resistance coils (below 0.6 ohm) should be used with higher VG (thicker) liquid, as the juice holes and air flow holes are generally a lot bigger to allow for the thicker liquid. If you try to put high PG (thinner) liquids in one of these coils you’re likely to have flooding issues. These coils allow too much thinner liquid into the coil, which will end up either in the central tube, or leaking out of the air flow holes.

This is a bit of a simplistic solution, but thinner, PG-based liquids can be more prone to leaks than VG-based ones. This doesn't necessarily mean you should be searching out the highest VG content for your kit so it won't leak. If the ratio of VG is too high you may find the opposite effect - the liquid is so thick it can't penetrate the wicks fast enough and you can't take more than a couple of puffs before the coil dries out and burns.

It’s not just over-tightening that can lead to issues with O-rings - They can also degrade or get budged out of position over time.

To check your O-rings, take your tank apart – this usually just requires unscrewing the various parts – and look for the rubber rings on the atomiser head and at the base of your tank.

You should be able to see if any are degraded or out of position. If they are, remove them– and replace them with fresh ones. (Any tank or kit you purchase, should have a little bag of spares including replacement O-rings.

Something like a small flat-head screwdriver, a toothpick or a pair of tweezers can help with this.

It’s also worth checking that your O-ring is installed correctly, you may notice grooves where the O-ring is designed to sit and it's important they're in place so everything fits together with no gaps e-liquid can leak through.

One of the most common causes of leaks is actually flooding. That’s when too much juice gets pulled into your coil for it to vaporise.

The result?

A build up of excess e-liquid that only has one way to go - out of the coil housing and probably into the airflow channel of the tank.

There are a few ways to solve this…

The simplest is to switch to a higher power or voltage setting, a lot of new pen style kits have incorporated a basic power setting

If you’re still having problems with leaky tanks, particularly if you’re relatively new to vaping, your inhalation style could be the cause.

There’s a core difference between inhaling from a cigarette and from an e-cigarette…

Drawing harder on a cigarette gives you more smoke, but inhaling more sharply on an e-cigarette accomplishes little.

In fact, when you puff hard and fast on your e-cigarette, you may be pulling liquid into the coil housing faster than it can vaporise it. That leaves you to sucking some excess liquid up through the centre tube like a straw – and potentially causing leaking.

The solution takes some getting used to, but it’s easy:

Make your puffs much longer and slower, and don’t worry about inhaling sharply. Vapour will come even with gentle inhalation, and you won’t flood your atomiser.

There’s one source of leaking you can do little about.

Condensation.

It’s hard to inhale all the vapour you produce when you press the fire button and take a puff, and any remaining vapour will eventually condense into your centre tube or mouthpiece.

This is not a lot of e-liquid, but it will build up over time. That’s why, even when there are no clear signs of leaking from the connections on your atomiser and no gurgling to indicate you’re flooding your coil, you may still notice e-liquid has leaked through onto your device’s airflow channels

To minimise this happening:

• inhale as soon as you fire up your e-cig
• take your finger off the fire button when you have finished inhaling

You can also clear any accumulated e-liquid out of the tube by removing your tank and putting a paper towel around the airflow sections and blowing gently through the mouthpiece.

You see, your e-liquid and tank really don’t get on with air pressure changes.Your e-liquid just wants out!

So before you board your flight, ensure your tanks are empty and ready to be filled at the other side.

We all try to eke out the last puff of any coil, whether they’re stock coils or ones we’ve made ourselves.

Unfortunately, a well-loved / used coil will increase your chance of having soggy pockets.

When your wick is dying or your coil isn’t functioning optimally, flooding becomes a much more common issue, and leaking quickly follows. The best solution here is to take out the old coil and replace it with a fresh, shiny new one.

Leaking is an unavoidable fact of life for vapers. Preventing leaking altogether would be a dream but they do happen. You can keep leakage to a minimum though - The key is maintenance. The more you look after your tanks and follow the best practices, the fewer leaks you will have.