Vaper for 7 years. Very annoying throat symptom. (Seems very rare)

[matty007]

Hi everyone,
This will be a semi long read, but please bear with me.

I'm hoping someone could throw some light on this strange symptom I often get. I have scoured the net and found virtually no pages detailing the same symptom.

So, I started vaping 7 years ago. I started on CE4's and had no problems. No cough as many report etc. Used that for quite some time and then went onto Aspire Nautilus and Cleito after. That's when this very irritating (quite literally) symptom reared it's ugly head.

So occasionally (maybe once or twice a day) after an inhale, I get a very dry feeling in my throat, followed by an extreme tickle sensation that I can only compare to the feeling of a hair in the throat, or a fibre. This causes me to cough, or hack, to try and stop it. Sometimes it goes quite quickly, other times it can stay for upwards of 10-20 minutes, gradually easing. At it's most extreme, it causes running eyes, and loss of voice, or extreme hoarseness and quietness. Once, a few years ago, it was so severe that I actually coughed up a slight bit of blood due to the very hard coughing. Luckily I haven't had it that bad since.

At first I thought it may be a coil issue, but this symptom has stayed with me for the last 5-6 years through numerous devices (aside from the ones I will mention further down)

Now, I know people's first thought would be dehydration. Nope..I stay very hydrated and this symptom can happen on the first few hits, or after numerous ones.

Neither is it wire material. I have the same symptom with NI80, SS, Kanthal etc

Neither is it PG or VG, I have tried max VG or high PG, it still occurs.

Neither is it due to allergies, sometimes it occurs with one juice one day, and still with another the following day.

And neither is it due to a health problem. If I abstain from vaping, it vanishes.

Now. The really interesting thing I have come to discover is that it only occurs on round wire coils (Basic coils, claptons, aliens etc etc). It however does not occur on mesh coils such as the Falcon tank, and mesh RDA's and RTA's. I can vape away like a trooper on mesh with no irritation whatsoever. Switch back to conventional coils? Bang, it starts again.

I'm really hoping someone can shed some light on this problem, it may not seem severe, but it is really irritating and I'm always anxious of it happening. It sort of ruins my enjoyment of vaping to some extent. Thus, I am currently using the Doom Mesh RTA and have had not one single occurrence of this symptom for over a week. However, I love my normal RDA's and would really love to use them, but can't due to this infuriating symptom. I am yet to meet someone in real life, or on the net, that has this same symptom. Coughing? Yes. Sore throat? Sometimes. But never a hair feeling and tickle in the throat followed by extreme coughing. I am envious of people that can vape away on anything without this symptom. It is so so annoying.

It's obviously due to something involving round wire, but not sure what.

Please help me

Thanks

 

[bombastinator]

Perplexing one. I’d say it sounds like a dry hit except that a dry hit on mesh is even worse than a dry hit on coils. Do you TC?

 

[Tabac man]

Funnily enough I get the same using 316 SS wire.

 

[r77r7r]

Airflow difference between the different atties?

 

[sonicbomb]

Off the bat I would say go see a doctor and check that there is not some other medical condition causing your symptoms.
What appears to be symptomatic of a particular vaping set-up may be psychosomatic. What I mean is our brains look for patterns and sometimes find them where there are none. Your testing seems pretty conclusive, but best to be on the safe side.
Assuming you are on point and everything but mesh irritates you, then for now you just need to stick with mesh. I cannot think of any logical or physical differences that may be causing this. Sometimes the science behind a particular just phenomenon evades us.

Another point that may seem pedantic, 'round wire' is usually used to refer to coils consisting literally of a single coiled wire. If its twisted or claptoned then it's commonly referred to as an exotic coil.

 

[matty007]

Perplexing one. I’d say it sounds like a dry hit except that a dry hit on mesh is even worse than a dry hit on coils. Do you TC?

Hi,

No, I'm a power mode vaper. I don' think it's related to dry hits. I always have the symptom with saturated vapes and no dry hits.

Obviously if I get a dry hit, I cough. But I don't get the symptoms mentioned with a dry hit.

 

[matty007]

Funnily enough I get the same using 316 SS wire.

That's interesting. For me, it occurs with any material.

 

[matty007]

Airflow difference between the different atties?

Good point, but don't think so.

I can get this symptom after hours of using the same atty/tank on the same airflow.

 

[matty007]

Off the bat I would say go see a doctor and check that there is not some other medical condition causing your symptoms.
What appears to be symptomatic of a particular vaping set-up may be psychosomatic. What I mean is our brains look for patterns and sometimes find them where there are none. Your testing seems pretty conclusive, but best to be on the safe side.
Assuming you are on point and everything but mesh irritates you, then for now you just need to stick with mesh. I cannot think of any logical or physical differences that may be causing this. Sometimes the science behind a particular just phenomenon evades us.

Another point that may seem pedantic, 'round wire' is usually used to refer to coils consisting literally of a single coiled wire. If its twisted or claptoned then it's commonly referred to as an exotic coil.

Definitely 100% not a health problem. I didn't vape for a couple of weeks once and I never got this symptom. No throat issues, anything. I'm only 26 and have no health issues whatsoever, so it's certainly not a health problem.

The psychosomatic conclusion is interesting, but every time I have used mesh, this has never occurred. I used the Falcon tank for a full four months a while back, and never got the symptom once.

Obviously the best thing is to completely stay with mesh vaping, but I have invested so much money in countless other devices and it's really annoying I can't use them.

It's a really perplexing problem.

 

[matty007]

The only theory that makes any sense to me, is that it is caused by carbon/ash buildup on the coils. Maybe sometimes this dislodges from the coils when vaping, and goes into the throat. When you dry burn a coil, you obviously get carbon/ash dust from the coil when you strum it (sorry if I'm using the wrong terminology). As far as I'm aware, this buildup does not occur with mesh.

Now, I very regularly clean my coils so I doubt this hypothesis. But it's the only one that makes remote sense to me.

 

[r77r7r]

Funny, I been coughing with my vape lately myself. I believe it's my nic base combined with very high pollen count tho. Maybe a bit of post nasal drip. Gotta give in and pop a Claritin more often... Gl

 

[Izan]

The only theory that makes any sense to me, is that it is caused by carbon/ash buildup on the coils. Maybe sometimes this dislodges from the coils when vaping, and goes into the throat. When you dry burn a coil, you obviously get carbon/ash dust from the coil when you strum it (sorry if I'm using the wrong terminology). As far as I'm aware, this buildup does not occur with mesh.

Now, I very regularly clean my coils so I doubt this hypothesis. But it's the only one that makes remote sense to me.

Interesting and weird.
If you recoil your non mesh devices, how long will it be before the irritation starts?
Perhaps the "old" wire builds are breaking down after some use and a few dry burns.

I used to leave builds in my devices for months, the coil looks good and still heats evenly...I'd just rewick it.
Now I wind a new coil and start from zero. I give the tank and deck a good washing up and I'm good for another 4-5 weeks/150-200ml of juice.
IMO, Eliminate the "old coil" variable and see how your devices and your throat respond.

Best of luck
I

 

[ErikaSiobahn]

Another thing to look at could be your diet. Has that changed at all? When I went keto a couple years ago, I started getting a feeling like this, drove me nuts! Turned out to be tonsil stones. Not sure if vaping does something to add to their irritation, but it pretty much always happens to me when I'm vaping, and goes away when I get the stones out.

 

[DaveR]

So occasionally (maybe once or twice a day) after an inhale, I get a very dry feeling in my throat, followed by an extreme tickle sensation that I can only compare to the feeling of a hair in the throat, or a fibre. This causes me to cough, or hack, to try and stop it. Sometimes it goes quite quickly, other times it can stay for upwards of 10-20 minutes, gradually easing. At it's most extreme, it causes running eyes, and loss of voice, or extreme hoarseness and quietness. Once, a few years ago, it was so severe that I actually coughed up a slight bit of blood due to the very hard coughing. Luckily I haven't had it that bad since.

I feel for you Matty. I went through a period of those same nasty symptoms in my 2nd year of vaping until I switched to ceramic coils (Vaporesso's cCELL GT coils). There were times it was so bad I wished I was dead. Like coughing up a lung! I am glad it never happened while I was driving. I did eventually find that gargling a spoonful of cough medicine eased the coughing but it still took many hours before my throat felt okay enough to vape without coughing again.

I believe my issue was caused by spitback or dirty coils. It's like a tiny piece of very hot e-liquid, cotton, or black coil-gunk hits the back of the throat, or tonsils, and burns the throat or tonsils. Then this burn injury feels like a, painful, tiny foreign object stuck in your throat that's triggering the continuous coughing and running eyes.

 

[Vilbourne]

I have samekind of problem but for me mesh cause it and no roundwire. I believe some if not most premade coils have semi perfect contact and it makes it feel more rough than perfectly built rta or rda.

Or then it may be the coil material itself. Maybe kanthal and nichrome are worse than ss316l. But so much i learned today that my premade mesh coils irritate my throat while zeus x rta with same juice cause no problem at all.

 

[Anise]

I have a similar problem occasionally but assumed it was caused by not changing out my coils in time. It doesn't happen with my squonks but I make sure to dry burn and change my wicks regularly. With stock coils I have a bad habit of waiting till they stop working before changing the coils. By that time they're gunked up and it's no wonder I cough.
Good luck! I really hope you find out what's causing your symptoms.

 

[Dieseler]

Matty007 if mesh does not bother you stick with it but don't go all in buying too much until its a sure thing . Losing your investment in tanks yes is a pain but many buy tanks that just sit because they found something new or better or particular tank just wore out its welcome.
Personally the last 10 years and far from young in age one could call me gramps and not offend have gone through many setups some not cheap and discarded etc your not alone in those regards but some years back found my comfortable and suitable vape .

In short you found something that works use it, this way you suffer no more is my hope for you.
Best wishes.

 

[Mordacai]

Hello @matty007, what wattage range are you using?

What I'm wondering is the vape too hot for your throat, hot gasses will play havoc with it.

It may well be worth considering trying TC, just to see if it improves things any.

 

[ReacT]

Did you try spaced coil ? Just a simple round wire not alien or double wires, simple round wire but make it spaced, this may fix the problem. However, the real question is why it started to happen after 7 years of vape ? The only thing comes to my mind is "chronic faringitis" and it can be triggered by any irritant, MTL style vape with round type wire is harsh than mesh wire due to air and sharpness of flavors and simply any nicotine change can trigger faringitis even very low changes, while mesh coil is so airy and not irritant with a low nicotine level, probably due to the style of air flow on the mesh tank. The chronic faringitis can stay silent as long as there is no irritant like you said "If I abstain from vaping, it vanishes" because the irritant is not exist. It is best to be checked by throat doctor for faringitis to eliminate it which I recommend you.

 

[Mordacai]

@matty007, it could be caused by products being created by heating and vaporization. And the difference between mesh and wire, as mesh has a greater surface area than wire.

But can you answer what wattage range you've been using?

And C4E's used simple round wire coils, but they were high ohm coils.

Also I'm thinking that some of the builds you have been using have a higher mass and heat capacity than is comfortable for you to use, and that will certainly cause issues.