Kanger Protank - Burning taste... I can't seem to get rid of it. Ideas?

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roasted

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So I fired up the evod on the protank. At first I didn't bring the head with the center post and the ohm level was low and the vamo wouldn't fire. I brought over the center post and it fired at this point. It was still doing the same thing. The draw was a bit heavier but it wouldn't vape like I was expecting. I opened it up and the liquid was not pooling in the cup by the atomizer and wick like it should have been. Still a mystery in progress. I put the evod head back in the evod and its vaping like a boss. Only downside with the evod vs the protank is what the tank is made out of. I like the Pyrex so much that its upsetting I'm having issues with the protank.

Has anybody seen this before with the protank? As I said it is not pooling liquid in the cup by the wick like it should be. The protank the shop owner had looked mighty different....
 

roasted

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Some further discussions with other users lead me to consider custom building the head with a new wick. What exactly is needed for that? Do I just need a wick and wire of some sort? One user in particular told me that he considers using custom heads a must, as he never used a regular protank head that was half decent, in his opinion. He told me he prefers 3mm silica or 2mm ekowool. What do you guys think?

Also, in particular to the coils and their ohm readings, is the ohm resistance measured by wire/coil thickness or is there a specific art to correctly installing a custom coil to reach a specific resistance?
 

Leithan

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You don't even need to wrap a new coil to benefit from a rebuilt head, If the coil is still sound, just carefully remove the old wick and replace with good old fashion cotton. Roll the cotton between you fingers until its compacted enough to slide into the coil with little to no resistance. Once the wick is saturated with juice it will swell and become tight in the coil. I only use cotton, I think most of the protank rebuilders on here advocate cotton as well. I pull the cotton off of the head of Qtips, 1 Qtip has enough cotton for like 4 wicks. The secreat to cotton is always ensure that the wick is saturated with juice, never vape a dry or semi dry wick.....you will be sorry. The best vapes I have had to date have all come from protank heads with cotton wicks.
 

roasted

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That's awesome to hear. I'll definitely do that when I get back from my trip. In your experience how long do cotton wicks last pending that you use them appropriately in comparison to other alternative wicks like silica, etc? I sort of sensed from somebody at some point that cotton wicks don't last that long, but I could be entirely wrong.

Also, thanks again for the qtip idea. :)
 

KerryK

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You don't even need to wrap a new coil to benefit from a rebuilt head, If the coil is still sound, just carefully remove the old wick and replace with good old fashion cotton. Roll the cotton between you fingers until its compacted enough to slide into the coil with little to no resistance. Once the wick is saturated with juice it will swell and become tight in the coil. I only use cotton, I think most of the protank rebuilders on here advocate cotton as well. I pull the cotton off of the head of Qtips, 1 Qtip has enough cotton for like 4 wicks. The secreat to cotton is always ensure that the wick is saturated with juice, never vape a dry or semi dry wick.....you will be sorry. The best vapes I have had to date have all come from protank heads with cotton wicks.

Nice suggestion, I'm so gonna try this! Cause I'm way to lazy for RBA.

Thanks!

:toast:
 

roasted

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Is my understanding correct that the amount of times you wrap the coil around the wick is related to the level of ohms? I guess each one is trial and error to dial it in to what you prefer.

Pending that you don't dry burn it, does cotton still not last as long as silica?

When you rebuild a head that you custom built, can you reuse the wire or must you change it with the wick?

I'm definitely going to give it a shot sometime soon. I'm also going to buy some factory heads to do some comparisons of stock head vs my custom ones.

For kicks I put my pro tank back on after it sat upright for a day, but this sucker is leaking terribly. I have no idea how it leaks into the center tube where I can taste droplets of the liquid as I draw, but it never fails. New heads, custom or stock, I'm hoping will yield some better results.

Thanks again for the insight everyone.
 

Myrany

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My cotton heads are lasting as long as silica did for me. YMMV

Sometimes you can pull out the wicks and insert new ones. I just generally wrap a new coil. It is easy to do and the wire is cheap from TEMCO on ebay 100ft is like 6 bucks and you only use a few inches. that way I know I have a good clean coil and a fresh start.
 

Leithan

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yup, I have yet to replace a wick because it needed it, I change them when I change flavors but thats it. I just pulled a wick out of a head that has a .8ohm coil in it. That head is a beast..it's almost a dare vape, you defentaly don't complain about how airey the vape is. any ways the wick has been in there for 5 days and I figured it had to be done......nope, the part that was inside the coil was still snowy white:) After you have replaced your first wick, you will be an expert and be able to change them out in less than a minuet or two. Deffinetly quicker than punching, priming and changing a carto.
 
i have to be honest i love mine i have two and a kranger3 bottom viva a dripper and a gen- did clone... i use the protanks the most. when they dont burn right i burn them hot to burn off the gunk just like you did and it hasnt messed mine up. now one thing you have to do is burn them at the recomended watt / volt for mine its like 6watts and thats abit less then a lot like to use. the way i see it if you change the head every 4-7 days and keep the watt/volt where it should be then its a nice clean device that doesnt really leak and has been very reliable for me. in the winter when its cold the juice gets thicker if you have a vg base which is all ready thick then you have to remove half of the flavor wick or it will not wick right. in the summer i leave it all in there and puff like a champ. i wish you the best and that you find something that works for you
 

roasted

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So I've tried a few things since I've gotten home from my trip... I took a spare EVOD head and a spare Protank head and took the wick out. I used the cotton from a qtip to roll a new wick and insert it into the coil. At first they worked great, however for some reason the EVOD head is not cooperating whatsoever at this point with the Protank. At first it worked without issue. I decided to swap out the custom EVOD head for the custom Protank head, but once I started interchanging I couldn't replicate better results that I originally had. I also felt like the vape was pretty weak on the ones I did, despite at first they were seemingly awesome.

I ended up pulling the Protank head I originally had issues with off the shelf. I can see a different in the amount of vape I get between the stock head and the one I redid. Not really sure what I did wrong that may have caused this, but eh, whatever.

I can say though that now that I'm using this Cherry Sweets juice in the Protank that I don't sense a burning flavor at all. Judging by the fact that another user reported a burning taste with only their menthol juice I can't help but to wonder if that's it, especially considering the fact I am now on a Protank head I once had a burning taste issue with before.

For what it's worth, I absolutely love both the EVOD and the Protank. I'm leaning towards giving the Protank the edge though just because it's glass, easy to see, easy to fill, holds more, etc. The EVOD is still an awesome bang for the buck considering how cheap it is.

I have no idea what I did wrong with the heads, if anything at all. I just can't get the custom EVOD head to work in this guy again. I get gurgling sounds and ultimately I can taste a drop or two of juice. Washed it out, dried it, re-tried, same deal. Meanwhile, the custom Protank head I did works without issue but has a weak vape. On the flip side, using the stock head for the Protank yielded a solid, solid vape. This information coupled with the frustration I had with re-wicking these heads makes me want to just stick with stock heads. Then again, I wonder if it's something simple. Maybe I just have to cut back the cotton wicks a bit more? I may pick up some more heads, coil, and wick regardless. I can't help but to think this would be easier if I had more to work with. I'm sure wrapping coil around the wick and then installing it and cutting the extra off is much easier than twisting some cotton through the existing coil, because I found re-installing that thing to be quite a headache.

Anybody have any recommendations for coil or wicks for the Protank? I'd love to pick up some to tinker with. Particularly with EVOD heads as I kind of liked the slightly-less-airy draw.

EDIT - Guess the EVOD head I custom wick'd just needed some paper towel dabs. Seems to be working without issue... for now. :p Perhaps this is a sign my wick is a bit too thick?
 
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