How to Load Your Vape Pen With Wax

 by Vape Critic
Updated August 30, 2023

You came here to learn how to load a vape pen so let’s get down to business…

The steps below apply to vaporizer pens made for use with wax and oil concentrates, most of which have simple bucket atomizers that are easy to fill. I have a running list of my current top picks for best wax pen, check them out.

4 Steps to Load Your Vape Pen

Loading Vape Pen
This is How to Load your Vape Pen

Step 1) Prepare your concentrate for loading by gathering a small amount on the end of a dab tool. With most pens you’ll want to load a BB-sized amount at a time, or approximately 0.1g. Depending on the consistency of your extract and the depth of your coil you might even be able to put a little on the tip of your finger to load it.

Step 2) Gently apply your concentrate directly on top of the coil, and be extra careful not to actually touch the coil with your dab tool. Usually, your wax or oil will be a little stubborn and won’t quickly come off of the tool, so it’s OK to finagle it a little bit to get it off like you see in my animation, but seriously be gentle with your coils because they’re very delicate.

Vape pens with shallower and smaller atomizers are usually easier to load since the coil is closer to the top. Deeper atomizers that have a higher capacity can sometimes be tricky to load small amounts into.

If your concentrate is not mushy or pliable (shatter-like) then your best bet is usually to break it into very small pieces and load the chamber 30-50% full with most pens. Whatever extract you decide to use needs to be very clean and it needs to fully melt to a liquid when heated.

Step 3) “Prime the wick” before you start vaping, which melts your wax down onto and around the coil which helps the pen produce better vapor and more consistent hits right from the beginning. You don’t always have to do this with every vape, but sometimes if you don’t do it you might feel like your oil is being vaped away too quickly, especially the first few draws after packing it.

Step 4) Vape it up!!

Stay up!
-Bud

My Top Picks: Best Vape Pen for Wax

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118 comments

  • Can I use oil on my dab coil pen? I have the Yocan evolve plus xl. I was told I could use, oil, wax, or shatter? But I cant find a video on the best way to get the oil from the syringe cartridges to the 4 coil chamber? Do I just put it in the middle like the wax?

    • I was curious too if the evolve plus xl could do it. I’m fairly certain it can’t be done “the proper” way. I have done it in the past on wax coils, but it was out of desperation. I was only able to put small amounts, like I would for wax, on the coils. From what I understand, and my experience, you have to have an oil atomizer made to hold a tank of a more liquid substance. You should be able to find a tank that will fit in place of your evolve plus xl atomizer on the battery. You could always spend around 20 and get a separate device just for oil. I recently got the Yocan delux and it come with a separate mini box mod made just for vaping oil. There are tons of cheap options. I hoped I helped some and good luck to you. Happy vaping.

    • I have the exact same thing and no matter what anybody tells you shatter is the only thing that’s going to work. Everything else is just going to make a mess. Get a honey straw or dab rig for anything else.

  • Ok I have a Nexium Pro vape pen for my wax got a ceramic Bowl on it so I loaded I have a gram or so I’m going to the ceramic bowl and it doesn’t matter which heat I put it on whether it’s low or if it goes up to 480 still really not getting hit smoke wise…???

    • Ok I have a Nexium Pro vape pen for my wax got a ceramic Bowl on it so I loaded I have a gram or so I’m going to the ceramic bowl and it doesn’t matter which heat I put it on whether it’s low or if it goes up to 480 still really not getting hit smoke wise…???

  • I bought a little giant vape pen can I put wax down in the chamber where the flower should go

  • Ok im confused new to the vape scene i bought the oozelife slim twist pen and a 1ml glass atomizer ok i still haven’t received my cbd juice but my question is do i need a coil for the pen? I ordered some but now im not sure if i wasted my money on them i got some male 510 coils also from oozelife plz someone lmk. Thanks

    • Nah man so if you’re using a cartridge, you don’t need coils because the cart has coils inside already. However, if you’re using WAX, and I don’t mean the wax that comes in carts, then you need an atomizer

  • Should I use a higher or lower temp? My pen has 3 settings 3.4 V, 3.7 V, and 4.0 V

    • I set mine on 3.8v & it does good! Usually the first “click” in your voltage settings. Best of luck!

  • Ok so I feel like an idiot. I want to start vaping weed but I’m kinda confused. Can I use both CBD/THC oil and wax in a dab? Or can I only use oil on a vape and wax in a dab. In the long run which one is cheaper and easier to get (In regards to the oil or wax)? Thank you I really appreciate it.

    • Yea you can defined put the CBD into the wax. Cheapest to get depends whether you want a higher dosage in CBD then go with CBD

  • My wax is really sticky and my pen has a very deep chamber. Is there a trick to getting it easily off my dabbing tool and on to my coil? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

  • I have a Mig Vapor Keystone “Black” I bought it not knowing it was for concentrate only, but if I use oil would I be in trouble or am I good?

    • Wax (I’m assuming the kind containing THC) can be purchased in states with legal cannabis laws. Otherwise CBD wax can be purchased online and shipped to nearly every state as far as I know. Good luck to you and happy medicating.

  • I wanna know if I buy a oil dabs pen can I buy oil for it online or not if I can what is it called

  • what i want to know now is how long after loading can i keep hitting the pen? if i load some wax, I can get the first few very tasty dabs but if i continue hitthing it, the taste definitely decreases but i think i am still getting high, what am i actually hitting at this point? is it cool to just smoke this if i dont have any fresh wax to load? at least until the smoke thins out?

    • You’re just “vaping” what is left over from the dab and mostly the resin created from the vape hits you’ve taken. This is called “reclaim” by most people and could be comparable to resin that people scrape from a pipe used to smoke cannabis flower. I would recommend cleaning it out regularly. Save it for a rainy day if you happen to live in a more restrictive state and can’t always get your medicine easily. Take care and happy medicating.

  • Bud, I have been smoking for a long time and for the past few years I’ve been primarily using the prefilled oil carts and I have a lot of the solid metal/Pyrex carts left over with a 510 thread and auto draw batteries. I recently moved and my “dispensary” isn’t readily available anymore but I now can get wax. Is it possible to use these carts with an auto draw battery and carts I have or do I need a liquidizer or should I purchase a new rig with higher temp?

    • You would need to turn your wax into a less thick oil in order to use it in a cart like that. Though most can be reused. There are kits to create your own oil online or if you are a little more brave you can do a search and find all the info you need to turn that nice wax into some tasty and convenient oil. Good luck, I hope you find the info you need. Happy medicating.

    • Hi.

      I just finished making my budder/wax into vape oil for my vape pen.
      All you need is some liquid from one of the regular Vape shops. Pick your favorite flavor and ask for 0% nicotine.
      Once you get home,put a small pot of water boiling.
      In a shot glass,put your concentrate and e-liquid together. You will use 2ml of vape oil for every 1gm of concentrate.
      Put the shot glass into the boiling water and stir the concentrate and e-liquid together until FULLY blended.
      Use a syringe to draw the mixture and fill into a reusable cartridge.
      Enjoy.

  • Please help! I’m 26 years old and feel embarrassed asking this lol. A friend recently gave me a vape pen thing. It has some sort of weed that is a light green/ yellowish and looks like gel. I wanna refill it, but I have no idea what the gel/oil stuff is called. Pleaseeee help me!

    • That is a cartomizer filled with distillate most likely. Which is a high thc content thick oil, sometimes with terpenes added (the essence/flavor) of a certain strain of bud. You can buy a new cartomizer pre-filled if you live in a state that has legal cannabis. Or else you can get a kit to turn wax into oil to be used in such a cartomizer. These are really great options for discreet consumption of medicine as well as on-the-go type situations. Do a search for a make your own thc oil kit or a how-to guide. Good luck, and happy medicating.

  • The pen brand new has a white little cloth that goes thru the coil . Do I touch it or just leave it alone. My last one had it I kinda pulled it I Lil. But left it. It only lasted a month.?

  • It’s way harder to work with CBD shatter, which has a waxy texture rather than sticky like these THC “dabs”. It crumbles off & falls below the coils nearly every time :(

    • That’s why he said to use our pens so the coil will be hot and melt down the shattered pieces.

    • Well if the pen is designed for “dabs” then I would assume putting and “oil” into it would not work. Some vaporizers have the option to use a cartomizer for thinner oils like you are talking about as well as “dabs.”
      A combo device like that might be perfect for you. Happy medicating.

  • Thankyou for the tutorial! Very informative and provides the vids showing what all the directions (even the manufacturers) tell but seeing it helps a lot.

  • Ok so I am new to this completely, and I have found out how hard it is to load these deep qcv coils. But how do you know when to add more? Bc it still makes a vapor but my coils are black now… Also doesn’t taste good anymore

    • It needs to be cleaned. You can use alcohol to clean and even soak most coils and allow to dry well again before use.

    • Yes, but you need a wax liquidizer.
      I use was liquidizer pineapple Express.
      You put 2ml of liquidizer and one 1 gram of wax in a shot glass. Now you can use a hot water bath or the microwave for ten seconds to combine the wax and liquidizer. Next load into the chamber and vape away…..

  • I don’t get it where do you get the oil and how do you use it for dry hemp?I don’t have any was just bought this today and charged it I don’t know where to load the dry hemp or how to light it.

    • Dry hemp can’t really be vaped in a vape pen. They sell vape pens for dry herbs, but they don’t really work. They end up combusting the plant material into smoke. The Snoop Dogg G-Pen is one example of a dry herb vape pen that doesn’t work.

      You get these concentrates at a dispensary where pot & pot accessories are sold. If you live in an illegal state, you can buy CBD wax or oils with no THC.

      • The vape pen does not do the same thing as smoking the bud, when I sit in my chair or in bed I get pain that is a stabbing sharp pain and if I use the pen the pain don’t change at all, when I take a few hits of bud in a pipe the pain fades away, I think the way you are extracting the chemicals from the bud it doesn’t take everything out of the bud, it is like the Rick Simpson Oil, if you don’t make it using the same exact recipe/technic it will not work for seizures, when I tried the Rick Simpson Oil, it works except for it is not as fast acting as smoking

        • I was told that anything other than smoking my high CBD strains specifically for the intense pain from Gastroparesis / GI motility issue would be useless or at least not as effective. NO DOCTOR is going to recommend “dabbing” with BHOs at least since that’s what they’re talking about specifically and there isn’t research out there yet on long term use of dabbing butane processed concentrates. Your Rick Simpson Oil is actually made with a safer solvent than wax, but I’ve never had it but would love to try so don’t have experience with the heating temp required. Basically, a lot depends on the causation of your pain and then choosing a product that can deliver the meds via the best route for your pain. It’s absolutely asinine for me to waste money on any form of THC/CBD that requires digestion to deliver the goods on account of the fact that I can’t digest anything properly . I noticed my best bet is to always go with the flower when it comes to any stomach pain, too. In theory, vaping should be the same since it works so quickly on account of it being ingested via lungs and then to bloodstream, but I’m like you and when I’m having a flare-up with intense pain, one small bowl of high CBD flower will completely eliminate all pain by the time the bowl is done;but, when I’ve tried it with BHO concentrate (in similar strain), it doesn’t come close . All of my pain comes from a neurological disease, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. The best working strains always seem to have a higher than normal CBN, but the ratio is not relevant. Ive also noticed the strains with really high THC:CBN like Harlequin (with like 1:25 I think ) don’t work as well as others with a much smaller ratio, so it’s not always about the highest CBD levels when I’m choosing. I’m new to these strains and after years of prescription meds to control seizures, heart rate, neurological problems and of course the chronic pain involved, I was never able to come close to treating these awful Gastropareises flare-ups that literally last for weeks and set off a chain reaction with my health since it usually causes dehydration/mineral deficiencies which then starts affecting cognitive function and if left untreated, starts a whole series of Generalized seizures leading up to a gran-mal seizure that always put me in a coma state for 24 hours after and require a few weeks of neurological recovery. Being the self-medicated pot smoker I became after trying it for the anorexia, pain, paranoia, muscle spasms and the constant hand shaking and random arm/leg/mouth/face jerks I had when first falling ill and in the midst of dr after dr trying to get a diagnosis. It was the only thing that helped back then; it’s unbelievable to think that was only 6 years ago and now I can legally purchase strains specific for me rather than whatever brick weed I was able to get. I was SHOCKED when I tried one for inflammation and it worked better than any pain pill or benzo or any other poison the drs keep pushing me to take for gastroparesies on top of the meds I have to take in order to drive, breathe, move.., LIVE. I had given up on treating the symptoms and realize what an awful life that is that I had accepted as my future when all it I needed was the right strain of marijuana the whole time. We live in a crazy time….

  • I’ve decided to try vaping. This web site has been very helpful in helping me choose my equipment and how to load it…. Happy Vaping to Meeee….

  • I bought a vape pen today with shatter tip attachment, but when i use it my tokes taste like burnt plastic almost,but when i use it in other methods with joints etc it taste fantastic. Is this because im not priming the wick?

    • Some units need to be heated prior to using to burn off oils left from production. Check you tube for a usage guide for your pen brand and model. Or look up the companies web site and look up customer support. Search for what method for cleaning prior to first usage (if needed)

  • Very well put together. New to vaping and no instruction book on how, how much etc. Your effort comes highly appreciated.

  • I can’t find the coil. I unscrewed it to charge it up but all i saw was this tiny hol.

  • That is not right at all. That is burning your wax, not vaping it. You put the wax around the edges or the atomizer so it is close the coils, but not touching them. If you have it touching the coils you are overworking them and shortening their life, not to mention you are burning your wax instead of vaping it. That goes for all kinds: wax, crumble, shatter, etc.

    • Hmmm the woman at the dispensary gave m an atomizer and said drop it on coils. ( cause it’s not thinned) thinned out concentrate or nicotine goes into side tank

    • Go with a evolve yocan QDC (Quarts Dual Coil) best choice of vape I have ever made no more single coil bullshit for this guy have fun wasting your goods all you single coil vapers

    • You know nothing about coils. A dry herb coil has no wick. Wax/oil and juice could have a wick that soaks up the liquid to atomize. If you put it around the edges and not on the coil the wick doesn’t get it and doesn’t pull any. And burnt wick is the worst thing you can hit

    • This depends on specific models and types of coils. Most need the product be applied directly to the coils as the atomizer chamber does not heat up itself and you will end up wasting all your product in the chamber as it can’t be heated properly.

      • DONT use juice nor liquid man no wonder why its leaking only use crumb/wax shatter or oil cause its not a completely sealed chamber if you wanna use the liquid go buy an e-cig

      • The temperature of this device isn’t hot enough to “burn” the oil only hot enough to combust or vaporize. Put it on the coil and only a dab at a time

  • But this is the first really descriptive how to and in my case, I have the wax attachment but wasn’t sure if that was what it was used for. i know, but vap pens and attachments are new to me I like them! Going to get me some good wax
    thanks

    • Because they are fragile and you could easily “bend or unspool” the twisted coil.

  • Awesome tutorial. Just making the jump from flower to concentrates and waxes. Thank you.