Direct To Lung Vape Tanks
Direct to Lung Vaping
Direct to lung vaping is also known as DTL, D2L, direct lung and straight to lung vaping. This style of vaping is most commonly used by experienced vapers, and for transitioning smokers, may feel strange at first. Inhaling directly to your lungs is essentially the same thing as breathing normally.
How to Take a Direct to Lung Hit
To vape directly to your lungs, you must draw the vapour slowly and steadily straight into your lungs, bypassing the mouth.
Instead of sucking or puffing on the mouthpiece, try to inhale the same way you would when taking a deep breath.
Once the vapour has reached your lungs, simply exhale as you would with your own breath.
Timing a DTL Hit
Upon your first DTL hit, you may cough or exhale quickly due to the shock on your lungs, especially if you're a transitioning smoker and your lungs are still full of sticky tar.
As you become more accustomed to this style of vaping, you should be able to achieve a steady inhale until you lungs are full and the urge to exhale kicks in. Ensure to exhale quickly to achieve large clouds of vapour.
Tank and Hardware Requirements
For direct to lung vaping, a vape tank with a wide mouthpiece and an adjustable airflow is key.
Having a wide mouthpiece allows for a much fuller inhale and an adjustable airflow allows you to control the amount of airflow flowing through the tank. The wider and more exposed the airflow is, the looser the draw will feel. A smaller and less exposed airflow will produce a tighter draw. You should experiment with the airflow to find your balance between cloud production and flavour production.
The coil should be sub-ohm (low resistance) to allow for the higher wattage required and maintain a high output for the longer inhale needed to fill your lungs.
What E-Liquid Do You Need for DTL Vaping?
The recommended VG/PG ratio for e-liquid in sub-ohm devices is high VG vape juice, which usually comes in the form of shortfills, allowing you to adjust nicotine strength as required.. In general, the guidelines for DTL suitable vape juice are:
60VG/40PG will give you good flavour and a bit of a throat hit with decent clouds.
70VG/30PG is the most popular ratio as it provides the optimum balance of flavour and clouds with a smoother throat hit.
80VG/20PG is becoming more common and popular - expect steam train levels of cloud production!
90VG + is pretty rare as we are yet to find many brands that can still deliver good flavour alongside the dense clouds - watch this space!
Not all sub-ohm tanks are created equally. It is a good idea to be mindful of the size of the wicking holes found on your coils. Higher VG e-liquid is more viscous and may not feed properly to the coil if the wicking holes are too small.
DTL Features Summarised
- Designed for advanced vapers
- Feels less like smoking a cigarette
- Epic cloud production
- More advanced kit required
- Many e-liquids are blended to present their flavours better when DTL vaping
- DTL vaping uses more e-liquid
- Ideal for anyone who wants to enter the world of rebuildables
Please check out our guide on the differences between mouth to lung and direct to lung vaping.