Whether you’re new to vaping or you’ve been using an e-cig for quite some time, you may have noticed there are quite a few distinct styles of vaping.
For those who are just starting off on their vaping journey, the mouth-to-lung (MTL) style is often the preferred option, while those who have been vaping for quite a while may eventually transition to direct-to-lung (DTL) vaping, also known as cloud-chasing.
So what is this type of vaping and how does it differ to other styles? In this blog post, we’ll answer both of these questions, as well as offering some guidance on the best devices to use if you want to become a cloud chaser.
What Is Cloud Chasing?
Let’s start with the most obvious question – what is cloud chasing? As the name suggests, cloud chasing is when vapers try to achieve the biggest and densest clouds of vapour.
If you’ve ever spotted someone vaping and their device was producing massive plumes, then this is cloud-chasing.
This style of vaping often involves using advanced vaping devices that are usually equipped with powerful batteries and sub-ohm tanks. This helps generate the substantial amounts of vapour required for achieving these clouds.
Cloud chasers are some of the most passionate and dedicated vapers around, experimenting with various devices, e-liquids, coil configurations, and airflow settings to achieve those tasty big clouds.
In addition, cloud chasers also need good technological knowledge, as well as a thorough understanding of battery safety, to ensure they use their often powerful kit safely.
For those who take cloud-chasing particularly seriously, tricks and even competitions may await, with some professional vapers showing off their impressive skills all over the world.
How Does Cloud Chasing Differ?
Aside from the huge amounts of vapour, does this type of vaping differ to regular MTL? Well, actually the answer is yes, it does. In fact, it differs quite a lot.
You see, the vaping style used for these devices is DTL, which means that unlike MTL where you inhale the vapour into your mouth first, you take it straight to the lungs.
Due to the large amount of vapour you’re inhaling, this means the e-liquid you use needs to have a low nicotine content. If not, you’d get too much nicotine in a hit which at best might make you cough and spoil your vaping experience and at worst make you feel sick and queasy!
You’ll also need to use an e-liquid with a high amount of vegetable glycerine (VG). This ingredient produces thicker clouds than propylene glycol (PG) and it’s also much smoother. Moreover, the thicker consistency means it’s less likely to escape through the thinner vape coils.
All of this means a high-VG juice is more suitable than a 50:50 VG:PG or high-PG juice. We would recommend a 70:30 VG:PG as this strikes the perfect balance between cloud production and flavour.
What Device For Cloud Chasing?
Vape mods, also called sub-ohm devices, are the kits that are known for producing massive clouds of vapour!
Box mod devices often have a much more powerful output, with some reaching in excess of 200w. The coils in these devices have a lower resistance, which allows them to reach higher temperatures (more on this below), producing an abundance of vapour when the e-liquid is heated.
Due to their different settings and powerful nature, these devices are perhaps more suited to vapers who have more experience. Having said that, these days these come with a range of built-in safety features and simplified usage, meaning most people with basic knowledge of vapes and battery safety can use them to cloud chase.
These devices are suited to DTL vaping only, so you won’t be able to MTL vape with this kit. Therefore, unless you’re looking for something that is suitable just for cloud-chasing, this might not be the best fit for you.
Likewise, these kits should only be paired with weaker e-liquids, so if you like a throat hit to mimic the sensation you get from smoking then you won’t get that with a sub-ohm device.
However, if you’re looking for massive clouds, great flavour and you want to take a more hands-on approach to vaping with adjustable wattage and different modes and settings then a sub-ohm kit will be just what you need.
What Coils For Cloud Chasing?
As touched on above, when it comes to choosing the right coils for sub-ohm vaping, you’ll need some that have a low resistance. This is to allow enough heat to pass through them to sufficiently vaporise your e-liquid.
If you were to use something with a higher resistance, this would mean the e-liquid wouldn’t heat up properly. Not only would this fail to produce the clouds you’re chasing, but it would also mean the device would become clogged up with un-vaporised juice. Not pleasant at all, so stick low-resistance for best results.
The exact coils you need to use will depend on the device but it’s likely to be below 0.5 and coil be as low as 0.1, which are designed for the most powerful kits designed to create the heftiest clouds.
So that pretty much covers cloud-chasing. If you were intrigued by this type of vaping, hopefully you now have a great understanding of it, what it involves and what you’ll need to give it a go.
Many vapers consider cloud chasing a right of passage once they get familiar with vape devices. Once they start sub-ohm vaping, many never look back, loving the great flavour and enhanced personalisation this style offers.
