Kanger SubTank & Homemade E-Liquid

[OTownB]

I have been making my own liquid for about a year now without any issues. I just cannot seem to adapt my recipes for my SubTank. I am getting way too much throat / lung hits which leads to immediate coughing.

My all day recipe for the last year is a 60% PG/40% VG mix with 25% flavoring and 18mg of nicotine. I tried this mix in my SubTank at 0.5 ohms and immediately started coughing. I first thought the nicotine was too high so I lowered it down to 12mg then down to 6mg but still coughing. I then thought I was using too much flavoring for 0.5 ohms on the SubTank so I cut my flavoring in half.....STILL coughing. I even tried lowering my PG ratio and raising my VG ratio and..STILL coughing! I have also tried lowering my wattage to no avail.

By this point I am getting pretty annoyed and cannot figure out how to get a nice vape on the SubTank with my homemade e-liquid. The only store bought e-liquid that I have on hand is a bottle of GQ Eclipse @ 6mg. I get a great vape from this liquid on the SubTank (running between 12 and 16 watts). Why am I having so much trouble getting my homemade liquid tweaked for the SubTank? Has anyone else experienced similar problems? Am I running my wattage too low? I am open to any and all suggestions.

By the way.....my most recent batch was 20% PG / 80% VG with 12.5% flavoring and 6 mg of nicotine. I am still coughing my ... off when I try this juice.

 

[yuseffuhler]

I have been making my own liquid for about a year now without any issues. I just cannot seem to adapt my recipes for my SubTank. I am getting way too much throat / lung hits which leads to immediate coughing.

My all day recipe for the last year is a 60% PG/40% VG mix with 25% flavoring and 18mg of nicotine. I tried this mix in my SubTank at 0.5 ohms and immediately started coughing. I first thought the nicotine was too high so I lowered it down to 12mg then down to 6mg but still coughing. I then thought I was using too much flavoring for 0.5 ohms on the SubTank so I cut my flavoring in half.....STILL coughing. I even tried lowering my PG ratio and raising my VG ratio and..STILL coughing! I have also tried lowering my wattage to no avail.

By this point I am getting pretty annoyed and cannot figure out how to get a nice vape on the SubTank with my homemade e-liquid. The only store bought e-liquid that I have on hand is a bottle of GQ Eclipse @ 6mg. I get a great vape from this liquid on the SubTank (running between 12 and 16 watts). Why am I having some much trouble getting my homemade liquid tweaked for the SubTank? Has anyone else experienced similar problems? Am I running my wattage too low? I am open to any and all suggestions.

By the way.....my most recent batch was 20% PG / 80% VG with 12.5% flavoring and 6 mg of nicotine. I am still coughing my *** off when I try this juice.

I would recommend getting a little bit less flavoring in there. Alternatively, it could be a problem with your diy supplies. I know when I switched to the subtank, there were a lot of juices that just tasted too peppery or chemical like to even be vapable.

 

[Rizzyking]

Lower flavour to between 15-20% and drop your nic level a bit both will help and with tanks like the subtank you get more impact from the nic then say traditional kanger tanks or clearo's. My diy is 50\50 with above flavour ratios at 12mg nic and all my liquids have vaped great.

 

[OTownB]

Lower flavour to between 15-20% and drop your nic level a bit both will help and with tanks like the subtank you get more impact from the nic then say traditional kanger tanks or clearo's. My diy is 50\50 with above flavour ratios at 12mg nic and all my liquids have vaped great.

My most recent batch was at 12.5% flavoring and I am still coughing. The previous poster described it perfectly when he said a "peppery" taste; that is exactly what I am getting. I am going to try going a little lower on the flavor to see if that makes any difference. Whipping up a batch now.

 

[Rizzyking]

Only time I had a peppery taste was with a bad batch of nic base and since I changed supplier not been a problem, out of curiosity what device are you using it on might be as simple as device firing bit hotter then set for hitting that small zone between too much heat but not enough for burnt liquid taste just trying to think of anything that might influence flavour.

 

[mrcoolbp]

18mg? I DiY and have a 16.5 mg recipe I use in BCC tanks. When I got my subtank I dropped it to 6mg. Too strong, threw it out, tried 4mg: Perfect. Drop your nic level! "Peppery" is how the taste of nic is often described. What flavor(s) are you using?

Edit: I'll also add I've switched from "mouth to lung" inhale (as I did with cigs AND with every other ecig I've ever used) to the "direct lung inhale" method with the airflow WIDE OPEN. I'm vaping around 15 watts (80/20 pg/vg 4mg Vanilla + Ry1) and it's great. Try that maybe?

 

[dangkhoa02106]

I diy my juice and used it with Subtank mini without any problems. My juice is 6mg nic strengh, 30/70 PG-VG, 10% mango flavor and vape it at 23W (I wrapped a 28g parallel coil, 3.5mm ID, space coil).
I wonder if you vape at your sweet spot. When the power is not enough, your device can not vaporize your juice
immediately so maybe you inhale not only vapor but hot liquid and this thing will make you cough.

 

[Spidey2011]

Stock coils? Everything I ran through the stock .5 OCC coils had muted flavor and a horrible peppery taste. Built my own coil and it was waaaayyyyyyy better.

 

[OTownB]

Only time I had a peppery taste was with a bad batch of nic base and since I changed supplier not been a problem, out of curiosity what device are you using it on might be as simple as device firing bit hotter then set for hitting that small zone between too much heat but not enough for burnt liquid taste just trying to think of anything that might influence flavour.

Didn't think about maybe having a bad batch of nicotine but that could very well be possible. I am using it on a P3. The liquid does not taste burnt; it has more of a peppery taste with a harsh hit. I cannot figure out why the store bought liquid is fine. I am thinking you might be on to something....I have a fresh bottle of nicotine from Wizard Labs that am going to use in my next batch.

18mg? I DiY and have a 16.5 mg recipe I use in BCC tanks. When I got my subtank I dropped it to 6mg. Too strong, threw it out, tried 4mg: Perfect. Drop your nic level! "Peppery" is how the taste of nic is often described. What flavor(s) are you using?

Edit: I'll also add I've switched from "mouth to lung" inhale (as I did with cigs AND with every other ecig I've ever used) to the "direct lung inhale" method with the airflow WIDE OPEN. I'm vaping around 15 watts (80/20 pg/vg 4mg Vanilla + Ry1) and it's great. Try that maybe?

I am going to drop down to 3mg of nicotine and see how it tastes. I am using Capella flavors with a few drops of EM. My bases and nicotine are from Wizard Labs. I have been using the SubTank with the airflow wide open and I have been doing direct lung inhales as well.

Stock coils? Everything I ran through the stock .5 OCC coils had muted flavor and a horrible peppery taste. Built my own coil and it was waaaayyyyyyy better.

Yes, I have been using the stock 0.5 coils. I need to build my own and see where that takes me.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

 

[Wolfenstark]

Im fine with the subtank mini using DIY juice 4mg 67% vg currently a rebuilt OCC at 1Ω and 20 watts.
Flavour I think is 27% but it varies from 24 - 28 spending on what I make.

 

[Gahh]

I didn't read this entire thread but my recommendation is to use the smaller air port setting. If your use to sucking really hard on an old protank or other non adjustable clearomizer, you might be geting an airy hit from the new tank setup. Try the smallest air port 1st.
Hope this helps.
VAPEON

 

[mrcoolbp]

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

No problem. The subtank was quite a step from what I was using (BCC clearos, think Evods/MT3s). The vape is hotter, even at 15 W. One trick I'm learning is to actually suck pretty hard, if you don't suck hard enough the hot air is too dense. This thing is a beast.

Another poster suggested 12 watts was low, I might agree, but maybe stick to 15-17 watts until you can get that to work well before you go any higher.

Another poster suggested building your own coils. While I encourage getting into this, I don't think simply building your own coils to .5 ohms will help, but trying the device at a higher resistance might be what you are looking for (they sell 1.2 ohm heads, I haven't tried them yet but are told they are also nice).

I only just got my subtank a week ago, and have been on older tech for the last few years, but I've been vaping for a LONG time, and I try to pay attention to the videos/info going about. Still, take my 'advice' with a grain of salt.

 

[mrcoolbp]

I didn't read this entire thread but my recommendation is to use the smaller air port setting. If your use to sucking really hard on an old protank or other non adjustable clearomizer, you might be geting an airy hit from the new tank setup. Try the smallest air port 1st.
Hope this helps.
VAPEON

As I understand the smallest airhole is for mouth-to-lung, my only method of vaping...until the subtank. The small airhole leads to really hot air, and I'm afraid that will only make things worse if he is already coughing. After messing with the thing for a few minutes, I (much to my surprise) quickly converted to direct lung inhale technique. It's far less hot, much more vapor, flavor is great, I really feel this is how it's meant to be used. Just my .02 pesos.

 

[dhood]

I have a 70VG, 3mg vanilla custard in my subtank. If I set it for the single airhole and try to mouth-to-lung it, it is REALLY harsh. If I do a direct lung hit on the second or wide-open setting, it's fine. If you're new to the Subtank, try slip-streaming - allowing a little air in beside the drip tip while you inhale. And take shorter draws. That helped me to adapt. As far as a peppery taste, that is indeed nicotine. I never knew what everyone was talking about until I tried some Cloud Sauce from MFS. First time I tasted it and definitely like pepper.

 

[OTownB]

I think, with pretty high certainty, that I had a bad batch of nicotine.

My latest batch is 20% PG / 80% VG @ 6 mg of nicotine with 10% flavoring. I made the same recipe with two different bottles of nicotine from Wizard Labs. The first bottle was purchased several months ago with an expiration date of 8/1/15. The second bottle I ordered last week. They are obviously way different in coloring....the older bottle has a much darker color. Furthermore, the older bottle has a very noticeable nicotine smell while the newer bottle I can barley smell the nicotine. I never thought about opening the new bottle to compare them until Rizzyking suggested I might have a bad batch. I am wondering if the older bottle went bad or if it was actually much higher in nicotine than labeled. I always keep my DIY supplies in a cool dark cabinet so I don't know. See attached pics.

Anyway.....the batch made with the newer bottle of nicotine vapes wonderful. Actually, I think I might be able to up the flavoring a little as it is a tad bland (but then again, I haven't really given it time to steep). Going to play around with my PG and VG ratios as well to figure out what I like best on the SubTank.

I think my problem has been solved!!! Thanks again for everyones help and suggestions.