YouTube Videos on the Protank are very helpful. All clearos leak. The key is to correct the issues before gurgling becomes flooding becomes leaking. All clearos are going to require tweaking to get to perform consistently. Nature of the design.
State O'Flux has a blog on tanks and the leaking issue and why this is the case. Here it is. Good explanation:
"Tank" type atomizers... For new vapists - how they work, and why it's a good idea to know this.
Thought I'd throw something up to help relatively new (and some not so new) vapists understand how "tank" type atomizers work. Normally, I use the word "tank" to describe carto tanks... but in this instance, I'll suspend my own personal feelings about the subject, and use the word tank to describe most any clearo, glasso or carto tank - and even some advanced RBAs.
All of the above tank devices are functionally dependent on what's called, a "pressure differential". A fancy term meaning that they use both high or positive (in this context, atmospheric) and low or negative (vacuum or, in this context, less than atmospheric) air pressure to work correctly.
There is high pressure in the air tube that rises to the drip tip and down to the coil head... and out the bottom to the 510/eGo connection. In the tank with the
juice - under normal operating conditions... is low pressure.
Still with me? Good.
I can't go further without talking briefly about wicks. Wicks have a few jobs - one of course, to wick juice to the coil so it can be vaporized, and two, the lesser known... to function as a pressure seal. Not a perfect seal mind you... but one with a slow leak, that works both ways.
So, how does negative pressure get in the tank when all around us is positive pressure? Well, that would be dependent on you... drawing on the drip tip. The temporary vacuum you create pulls juice, and that positive pressure you started with in the tank, into the coil head area... and, creates a small vacuum in the tank.
Draw again... more vacuum. Or - fluid level drops... vacuum, theoretically, increases. Not a tremendous amount of vacuum... because most of our "lung generated vacuum" is directed out the coil head tube vent system - and our wick/pressure seal remember - still has that slow leak.
Does the vacuum last forever? No. If you walk away from a tank atty that you were using... for a good while, the vacuum is slowly supplanted by positive pressure. Which is why your atty can be a bit gurgly when you pick it up again... until you reestablish the vacuum with a few draws.
Its also why, if you stand a APV and tank atty on end, and walk away, you may find the 510/eGo positive "well" a bit wet.
That pressure differential (and wick/seal) is why tanks don't leak like sieves - and why, when you refill a tank and introduce positive pressure back into it, they gurgle a bit until a vacuum is reestablished.
And now... back to that all important wick/seal. If you're using a clearo/glasso of the Kanger BCC variety, it's (very) common to play with wicks. Removing flavor wicks, changing wick thickness and materials - and generally tweaking the pressure differential "seal"... without much thought to the fact that it functions as a seal.
Take out too much and the atty gurgles and even leaks. Add too much, or to "tight" a compression - and you get dry hits - and if a cotton wick, burnt gym sock flavored hits.
I mentioned earlier that even advanced RBAs (may) use the same physics as a $5 clearo. A Kayfun, and variations and clones of the Kayfun, use pressure differential as well. In fact, when you look at a Kayfun from that perspective, they start to look a lot like a big, shiny and highly "tunable" clearomizer. Same deal with the Squape, the Aqua and numerous other RBAs. Even genesis tanks have a pressure differential, but due to the design of the (typically metal or ceramic) wick not really functioning as a transfer port seal... it's frequently very temporary.
I used to teach this stuff - just in a different application... but the physics apply, and differential pressure is alive and well in your tank atty.
Just be thankful I'm not teaching a 4 hour class on it... and you're my student.
That's it... take it for what it is, do with it what you will.
