The drip tip is one of the essential accessories on your atomizer.
Located at the top of your e-cigarette, it is the contact element between the clearomiser and your mouth.
The drip tip allows you to customize your equipment but not only. It also has an impact, like many other accessories, on the way you vape.
Not just a collector’s item with its original designs, the drip tip, from a technical point of view, has a direct influence on the perception of flavours and vapour in the mouth, thanks to the shapes of the materials used, the size of its diameter and its material.
Mouth comfort
All types of drip tip shapes offer you different comforts in their use: the “wire bore” (wide diameter), the “long neck” (thin and elongated), the cylindrical and those with a flat spout.
Each of these drip tips influences the way you draw vapour. The more the drip tip has a thin and flat end, the more you will have to pull to obtain vapour and therefore an indirect inhalation. The disadvantage to note of these drip tips is that they capture drops of condensation that you can suck up if the suction is too strong. Spiral drip tips are therefore ideal because they retain these droplets.
Draw and flavours
These forms of drip tips, therefore, have, as we have seen above, a direct link with the amount of vapour drawn in. The choice of your resistance and the opening/closing of the airflow are not the only parameters on your e-cigarette.
The diameter of the drip tip has an important role in the sensation of vapour and the restitution of flavours in the mouth. Indeed, it all depends on the type of vape you are looking for. There are two standard sizes of drip tips: 510 and 810.
The 810 sizes are developed for experienced vapers because it offers a larger diameter: around 12.5mm and 9mm internal diameter, which plays on the vape in direct inhaling.
The 510 size, the most common on beginner and advanced kits, corresponds to an indirect inhalation with small diameter: around 8.5mm and 5mm inside diameter.
For more explanation: the smaller and narrower the internal diameter, the more the vapour is restricted and therefore causes a tight draw and a better concentration of flavours.
Conversely, with a wider drip tip, the vapour circulates without restriction and arrives as a large mass of air in the mouth. This technique is rather sought after by fans of cloud vaping (large clouds of vapour).
Drip tip materials
For your comfort of use, the material of the drip tip is also an element to take into account when choosing an electronic cigarette accessory.
Indeed, there are different types of materials that can be more or less flexible in the mouth: resin, stainless steel, pyrex, aluminium, Delrin, Teflon or ultem.
The more flexible the material, the more comfortable it will be and the more the electronic cigarette mouthpiece will adapt to your mouth.
Temperature
Depending on the needs of each, two points are to be taken into consideration in the choice of the drip tip, concerning the temperature of your vapour: the material and the size.
- The length of the drip tip will affect its heat. By logic, the greater the distance between the resistance and your mouth, the more time the vapour has to cool and vice versa if your drip tip is shorter.
- The material will act as an insulator. A material such as aluminium or stainless steel will retain heat better than a Teflon or Ultem drip tip. But beware of burns to the lips in the event of significant heating of the steam. Resin is therefore a good middle ground.
Drip tip maintenance
Note, for vapers looking for easy maintenance of your equipment, smooth drip tips will be easier to clean under water rather than those with engraved or spiral decorations.