Kanger SubTank Mini (dry hits)

[claybuster]

Having some difficulty after replacing the wick and the problem is a dry-cotton hit/taste. Worked great for this first week (factory coil/ OCC 0.5) using 100%VG. After the first week, performance seemed to slow so I decided to dry burn and wick change. Pulled all the old cotton out, made sure the wick was still centered, gave the coil a little dry burn to clean, then replaced wick with some fresh cotton (bacon). Primed the wick using same juice as the first week (100%VG), replaced the tank, gave it a few minutes extra just to make sure full absorption.

Working great for about 5 or 6 pulls then in comes the dry cotton taste and I am not hitting it with a lot of power (the minimum). So I decided to do a second wick change, same process with the Bacon), but this time making sure the cotton was not in the coil too tight in hopes it was just an absorption issue. Same exact thing happened, worked great for about 5 or 6 pulls then suddenly the dry hit/taste. Interesting thing, after I pulled the cotton from the first re-wick, it looked fine, no brown or burnt look. Still though, I must be doing something wrong because this taste is clearly not right.

Any help here would be appreciated, thanks.

Charlie

 

[Miata GT]

Are you sure you're not getting a hot spot on your coil?

 

[VidGamrJ]

Too much cotton would be my guess. I never rebuilt the OCC coils, but my RBA was getting dry when I first started rebuilding it. After a couple rebuilds, I found that too much cotton was my problem. Now I use just enough that is needed and I haven't had a problem since. I've seen someone say on these boards that when it comes to cotton, less is more. That is true.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[claybuster]

Are you sure you're not getting a hot spot on your coil?

Coil looked okay, I made sure it was still centered after getting the cotton out...and in.

 

[claybuster]

Too much cotton would be my guess. I never rebuilt the OCC coils, but my RBA was getting dry when I first started rebuilding it. After a couple rebuilds, I found that too much cotton was my problem. Now I use just enough that is needed and I haven't had a problem since. I've seen someone say on these boards that when it comes to cotton, less is more. That is true.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll have to keep working with it. On my second attempt I made sure the wick was sliding through nice and easy. I'll give it a few more shots but I may have to try coil rebuild. Appears to be 24 or 26 gauge.

 

[VNeil]

When the new V2 RBA decks show up, with holes in the deck cylinder like the occ coils, buy one. Kanger finally got the STM right with that deck. No more dry hits and wicking is not an art form. Any monkey - or even me - can get it right every time. The subox ships with that deck

 

[classwife]

Moved to Clearomizers from Tanks

Tanks
A forum for general discussion of carto tanks

 

[BallSweater]

I can confirm I am a noob at building and just picked up the mini starter kit which has the latest version of the RBA. Never had a dry hit even with the max VG juices I recently picked up.

This is my first RBA setup and I couldn't be happier =) Sadly this doesn't help you immediately.

 

[coilburner]

Sorry to hijack the thread but this should be short and quick. Does the subtank mini come with a warrantee? And did anyone get a warrantee card in there box? I swear I saw one when I first opened the package but I don't have one.

 

[claybuster]

Are you sure you're not getting a hot spot on your coil?

You are correct! Problem is solved. I tried one more time with a wick change, but had noticed my coil wasn't heating properly. Only 2 wraps in the center of the coil were glowing red, the ends of the coil were not getting hot. The very second I removed the bottom plug, out falls a piece of wire! I wrapped a 26G Kanthal A1 coil, made it just under 1Ω and the coil was heating fine. Got new wick in coil, gave it a test vape and working/tasting as it should.

Now, the 64K dollar question...where to find the larger red coil insulators? I tried my insulators for my SMOK BBCs, but they are too small. The insulator pushed up into the head when I tried to install the plug. Maybe if a bit more careful in may work, but the insulator is clearly larger than the ones I have. Lightning Vapes has Kanger insulators, but when looking at the pic, it looks exactly the same as the smaller SMOK insulators. I was able to reuse the red one I have but eventually these do wear.

 

[claybuster]

Well, I guess it always help to read the booklet first. That wire must have popped because I tried to dry-burn clean the coil after the first week. I just read: CAUTION do not dry burn coil. Now I know why.

 

[VNeil]

Anyone that wants to convert their old RBA deck to the new can try drilling two 1/8" holes into the deck cylinder. The holes should face the ends of the coil such that the wick, sticking straight out from the coil, can poke through a bit. I have a bunch of spares but haven't gotten around to drilling them. You need to mark the hole locations with the cylinder installed and build tight. Some have enlarged the existing juice channels with a Dremel.