It’s a pretty annoying problem when you have a vape pen that’s lighting up but not hitting. You’re not getting any vapor, but the fact that the device’s light is on seems to indicate that it should be working. What’s going on? The good news is that if your vape is turning on but isn’t generating vapor, the solution is usually simpler than it might seem on the surface and is just a matter of doing a little basic troubleshooting. This problem may indicate an issue with your vape cartridge in rare cases, but it usually doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with your device. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps that you should perform to get your vape working again.
Check Your Cartridge for a Clog
If you have a vape that’s lighting up but not hitting, the first thing that you should do is test the device’s airflow. Can you draw air through the cartridge, or is it blocked? If the airflow is blocked, you have a clogged cart. Try drawing air sharply through the cart to break up the clog. If that doesn’t work, you may be able to pull the glob of oil out with a toothpick or paperclip. Try using your vape again after you’ve restored the airflow.
Check Your Vape’s Light for an Error Code
Does your cartridge have airflow? If it does, the next thing that you should do is check your vape pen’s light to see if it’s blinking when you press the fire button or puff on the device. If it is, your device has encountered an error of some kind. You can check the instruction manual to find out what the specific blink code means. Most commonly, though, a vape pen blinks because the battery is dead. Connect it to your computer to charge the battery and see if that resolves the issue. Learn more about how to charge a 510-thread battery.
Make Sure Your Cartridge Isn’t Empty
If your vape seems to be working normally apart from the fact that it isn’t hitting, it’s a good idea to check your cartridge and make sure that it still has oil in it. This might seem like an obvious solution – but with today’s demand for discreet vapes, it’s becoming increasingly common for a major portion of the cartridge to be hidden inside the body of the device. If that’s the case with your vape pen, you might have difficulty seeing how much oil remains in the cartridge without removing the cart from the device. It’s possible that your cartridge is actually empty, and you just didn’t notice.
Clean Your Cartridge and Your Device’s Threading
It’s not rare for a vape cartridge to leak – especially if you’re using more air pressure than you should when you hit your vape. The extra air pressure causes your cartridge’s atomizer coil to flood, and then you end up with a cartridge that’s either clogged or leaking. Remove the cartridge from your device and check the bottom to see if it’s contaminated with oil. If it is, your device’s threading is probably dirty as well. The oil is either preventing power from flowing smoothly from the battery to the cartridge, or it’s preventing the device from detecting the cartridge at all. Either way, a quick cleaning will fix the problem.
To clean your cartridge and device, moisten a cotton swab with a little rubbing alcohol and use it to dissolve the oil. You may have to use a few cotton swabs to remove the oil completely. Once your cotton swabs begin coming out clean, dry the device and the cartridge fully before attempting to vape again.
Are you using a dab pen? You can generally clean a wax coil by submerging it in rubbing alcohol for an hour or two. After soaking the coil in alcohol, any remaining residue should rinse away easily under running water. Don’t forget to dry the coil completely before using it again.
Tap Your Cartridge to Break Air Bubbles
In order for a vape cartridge to work correctly, the oil needs to flow from the reservoir to the coil by absorbing into the cartridge’s ceramic core. Sometimes, that can fail to happen because air bubbles have formed around the openings leading to the ceramic core. The fix in this case is simple; just tap the cartridge against your hand a few times to break the bubbles. If that works, the oil will begin flowing through to the cartridge’s atomizer coil again.
It’s also possible for a cartridge to stop working correctly because it’s been stored in a very cool environment, and the viscosity of the oil has increased. That’s why many 510-thread batteries have automatic preheating functions. With the CCELL® Palm Pro, for instance, you can enable the preheating mode by tapping the fire button twice. If your device doesn’t have a preheating mode, you can warm the cartridge by holding it between your hands, placing it in front of a heater vent for a few minutes or sealing it in a plastic bag and running warm water over it.
Replace Your Cartridge or Coil if All Else Fails
Is your vape still lighting up and not hitting even though you’ve followed all of the steps in this article? If so, it’s possible that you have a bad cartridge or wax coil. It’s possible in rare instances for a cartridge to be faulty, although it’s more likely that the cartridge was damaged from being dropped on a hard surface. Wax coils can also stop working eventually, either because they haven’t been cleaned regularly or because they’ve failed due to heat stress. If you’re certain that your vape pen is charged and is working properly, it’s likely that replacing the cartridge or coil will fix the problem.
Need More Help? Get in Touch
Do you have another question that we haven’t answered here, or do you have a device purchased from Hamilton Devices that doesn’t seem to be working properly? Get in touch for help, and we’ll do our best to assist you.