Suntank Mini Dry Hits After Refills

[Penumbra]

I have 2 Sub-Minis. One has the dual airflow and an old rba-deck that has juice channels that I modified with a file. The other is the v2 (plus).

When I refill the tank, there is always a bit of juice left... anyway, I flip tank over and set down (inverted) on a paper towel, so the driptip can drain a bit. Then, I unscrew base and hold it (while inverted as well) while I fill the tank component.

After its full, I screw base back on, flip over, attach it to my reg-mod, and let it sit for at least 15min or more.

The first 2-3, or maybe 4 rips will dry hit at some point within 10sec. Each dry hits will take longer until it happens. However, after that I can resume my normal practice of taking 10sec hits that wick fine.

Another weird thing also happens. For a couple weeks, I would take primer puffs to really saturate the wick, in order to get big hits. And Im not talking about taking primers JUST after a refill... I mean before every hit.

I have noticed though, that sometimes, despite the primer hits, Id get a dry hit after THAT!!?? just like with refills. I take a few rips, and then everything is back to normal.

Ive pretty much been using 50/50 juices. I havent tried it with my 80vg juices, so I dont know if thats causing it.

Also, the primer puffs usually cause the ohm value on my regmod to increase. In the beginning, Id see that and I would know that Im about to get a nice huge rip, but now its starting to mean that the tank is gonna dry hit.

Could airbubbles somehow be getting stuck around the coil (from being inverted/primed) and thus not letting the wick draw juice?

The way I wick my rba, the inside of the deck area (on either side of coil) is NOT completely filled with cotton... there is an amount of space where juice can sit within... so airbublles could get stuck, although I always see bubbles make their way out to rise to the top of tank.

I avoid dryhits like the plague, if anything is going to really harm us, its that (and vaping food flavoring as well I bet).

 

[Hdivr]

I assume you are wicking with cotton........ How tight or dense is your wick? I use simple organic cotton balls. When I rewick any coil (dripper, rta's, etc), I unroll the cotton ball to it's full length (6 or 7 inches). I then visually pull apart a section that is only a little larger than the diameter of the coil. I know that the cotton will swell somewhat when wet. I don't twist, compress, anything else.

Every time I've twisted cotton, it became too dense and I had dry hits because the wicking couldn't keep up. (I run MaxVG and only lung hit on a Kennedy Comp RDA or Lemo RTA).

I also rewick the OCC Kanger coils for my Subtank nano the same way (I do leave longer wicking tails that I push into juice holes to make sure no flooding. But the wick is just as loose.)

Another question.... what size coils are you running? I make all my coils 3mm. Smaller coils tend to not wick fast enough to keep up.

 

[Penumbra]

yeah... i use 3mm on subtank.

my wicks are rather tight... not so tight that I can barely pull em throuh, but tight enough so that theres defintely a decent amount of resistance.

I was under the impression that thicker is better. After Rips pancake wick vid, ive been going thicker on my regular wicks.

I can pancake on my modified subtank (probably cuz the juice flow, though modified, doesnt flow as much as my plus); my plus however, floods when I pancake, so i tried a regular wick.. but still made it thicker.

Wow, i will try less wick thickness.

How would you adjust your technique if using a thinner (50/50) juice?

 

[puffon]

Try this method:

I use 50/50 in an original STM, no modifications.
Wicks great, with minimal spit back.........

 

[Penumbra]

nice!! I love BK

He's another reason Ive gone thicker lately... but I admit, I havent been combing / thinning it out on the ends.

Plus, I took another aspect from another guys tutorial on wicking his lemo2 for "max vg, no dry hits." Where, I cut the wicks to be long enough to just hit the top of deck, but then, I juice up wick and kind of push the bottom up against the sides of deck, so that there is plenty of room at bottom for juice to flow in.

 

[jackmormon]

Try only filling it up 2/3 of the way. If you don't leave enough space it won't have a proper vacuum and you will have to primer puff to keep wicking going until it is about 2/3 full.

 

[Penumbra]

Try only filling it up 2/3 of the way. If you don't leave enough space it won't have a proper vacuum and you will have to primer puff to keep wicking going until it is about 2/3 full.

if you'll notice.

1) I originally primer puff, not only JUST after a refill, but continuslly before EVERY hit, to get a large thick rip.

2) Priming actually CAUSES dryhits.

Wrap your head around that one.

 

[VaPreis]

Several of my RTA's can dry hit if they are overfilled. Important to leave a nice air bubble or else the vacuum on the liquid is to great to overcome when you draw, and ultimately end up with a dry hit.

 

[satchvai]

I haven't done I t personally but have seen others swear by the pancake method by RIP Trippers

 

[Penumbra]

in my first or second post I I specifically mentioned Rip trippers pancake wicking method...

Wicking in general isn't the problem.

The problem is:

1) why soes it dry hit after a refill?

2) why would doing primer puffs (whether immediately after filling, or anytime after being filled... it doesnt matter if I do a primer after hitting 1, 2, 3, 5, or 15 times...) why would I get dry hits after primer puffs??. thats counter-intuitive.

 

[Penumbra]

Several of my RTA's can dry hit if they are overfilled. Important to leave a nice air bubble or else the vacuum on the liquid is to great to overcome when you draw, and ultimately end up with a dry hit.

you can only fill as high as the center tube on subtank mini that is inverted. Even if you filled it exactly at the top of the tube, there would still be plenty of air... however, Ive always filled to 3/16-1/4" below center tube.

 

[Boden]

Do you have the airflow wide open? If so close it down until you feel some resistance. If you are not drawing a bit of a vacuum in the evap chamber the air flow can push the liquid back into the tank.

 

[Penumbra]

actually I get everything sorted...

I tried Hdivr technique (using a minimal amount of wicking.. and that led to a dramatic drop in taste... didnt work for me at all, though I fully appreciate your advice mate : ).

I ended up doing BK's technique... where you use quite a wide piece of KGD, so that there is a considerable amount of resistance when pulling it through the coil... after that though, you thin out the ends of the wick by brushing it with a pointy instrument. This thing wicks AMAZINGLY!! and tastes EXCELLENT!!.. I have finally conquered the Subtank Mini Plus (not on my own of course).

On my older subtank model (with the old deck), I modified the juice channels a bit, but not the level of flow that the new deck offers. On that deck, I had great taste and wicking using the Pancake Wick method that Rip explains... but on the new deck, it always floods... but BK's technique KILLS IT for me.

Soooooo happy right now.

Thank you sooooo much ECF!!!

 

[GeorgeS]

I haven't done I t personally but have seen others swear by the pancake method by RIP Trippers

If you try the "pancake" don't tip your tank upside down as you might get a stream of juice out the drip tip.
(then again, I must of been doing it wrong but this was the ONLY case where I had juice coming out BOTH the bottom air vents and the drip tip)

 

[c3scott]

After everything I have read about dry hits I wasn't keen on using the rba. I put cotton in the stock coil of the rba trimmed cotton even with edge of rba, fluffed cotton, put chimney on, fluffed cotton again, gently used kanthal in and around juice openings, happy happy so far.

 

[Penumbra]

@GeorgeS:

You may have not done it wrong... not sure, but all I know is that, no matter what kind of wicking I do, I absolutely avoid allowing my tanks from veering much away from sitting straight up.

Even when I take hits, I only angle it maybe 30-deg. from vertical... Its kinda crazy that in the year 2015, there is not a technology that would allow us the ability to orientate an eCig tank in any darn way we want. I admit, its a pain in the a55 to constantly have to monitor my tanks position, whether its in my car, my backpack, etc.

@c3scott: if you have the Subtank mini plus, then theres less of a chance on the dry hit... but if its the old rba, you really should file the juice channels to widen them.

I have 2 sub minis... one is the new plus, while the other is the older version, with juice channels that I have filed a bit. But it still has less flow than my plus.

I cant use the pancake on the plus, cuz flow is too high, and it floods... I have success with pancake on the other subtank rba, but, what I learned today, is that the wicking I mentioned in my prior post (which I successfully use on my plus), dry hits my old rba.

I have 2-options for successfull use of my older rba:

1) File juice holes more.
or
2) just keep using pancak method.

 

[GeorgeS]

Here's one of my STM "builds". I make sure both sides of the deck is FILLED with cotton (don't much care if it is "fluffy" or not) soak it down with juice and then using my tweezers or a tooth pick I make channels in the cotton against the wall to the juice channels. (I look to see light at the bottom) The cotton is filled to the bottom of the threads on the sides. (the screw on top usually pushes against the cotton, sort of sealing the 'holes' I created.)

9 wraps 28AWG Ni200 on STM (V1)

Personally, I don't see how 'riptrippers' "pancake" method could do anything but flood your atomizer unless your tank remained mostly verticle while juice was in the tank.

I usually refill my RTA's when the juice level is about 1/2 way up the atomizer.

 

[Penumbra]

one thing thats crazy to me is the whole deal with my particular "dry hit" issue.

Most of the time, said vaper creates a thread that states, " My (tank model) is Dry Hitting." Of which people leave standard comments about how to go about avoiding dry hits.

However, my issue is very different from the standard "dry hit."

As I mentioned, despite the very first tank-fill (of a newly wicked coil) all wicking fine and not dry hitting, upon each refill, I will get dry hits on the first maybe one to five rips. Furthermore, if I do priming puffs, it actually CAUSES dry hits, ir makes the problem worse... this all seems to be the opposite of what should happen. Cuz normally, i would get extra "stronger/juicier" hits not only any time I prime the tank, but also upon refilling.

This is not your "run of the mill" dry hit situation.

Ive searched the net, and no one seems to provide an answer for this "special" situation... I mostly just find everyone just plainly giving advice about how to avoid a "general" dry hit.

 

[c3scott]

I have the rba with smaller juice wells. Maybe I got lucky wicking it. I refilled today no problems and I hit it hard. Maybe the tank isn't for you as I have developed a hatred of my lemo drop v1 that others rave about.

 

[c3scott]

I did not screw the chimney on overly tight, backed it off a bit.