My experience and confusion with the Subtank mini

[nwasiq]

So after looking at ALOT of reviews and reading alot of discussions about it, I decided to buy a subtank mini. As a Lemo owner, the convenience of getting to the base (of the RBA section) without using syringes to transfer juice back and forth, and changing the airflow settings without unscrewing anything seemed a brilliant upgrade. While the stock coils of the subtank were great, I still preferred the vape of the Lemo over them. So I thought I should use the RBA section, thinking that the experience would be better and that the stock coils would eventually burn on me.

So, I put on the RBA section with the prebuilt 0.5 ohm 5 wrap standard coil, wicked it like I wick my Lemo with japanese cotton and after 3-4 pulls, I started getting dry hits. I pulled out the RBA section, removed the cotton, used more cotton this time (since I thought that the coil was heating up too quickly and the normal amount of cotton wasn't getting wicked at the same pace) and still got dry hits. I made another coil, still no luck. I looked at countless reviewers on youtube that used the same prebuilt 0.5 ohm standard coil and they gushed about how they chain vaped at 25 watts without any issues. It was so frustrating! I even tried using rayon but to no avail. Yesterday, I googled about this and a guy on another forum said that his subtank mini was also having wicking issues and he solved it by looseing up the cylinder of the RBA section so that more juice is allowed to flow throught the channels. I tried this and even though I was able to take more pulls than before, I started getting dry hits yet again (at 17.5 watts)

Today, I wanted to do SOMETHING different, so randomly, I decided to use a micro coil instead of a standard coil. I made a 7 wrap 26 guage coil which comes at about 0.8 ohms (the same build as my lemo) and voila! No dry hits! Now the thing that confuses me, is that why are the prebuilt standard coil style builds working for everyone and not for me? I watched many videos and I followed exactly what those people did; I didn't even go to 25 watts (which is the preferred wattage of almost every youtube reviewer for the subtank mini)

 

[iamthevoice]

I picked up a Subtank Mini last week and I was also looking forward to trying out the RBA section! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the RBA section essentially all ready to be wicked (didn't expect that one and did not remember reading about that detail!). So wicked it with Shiseido cotton, trimmed the ends to the top of the chimney (similar to trimming the wick length on a Kayfun), stuffed them down, off to the side so I could see the juice channels, saturated the wick with juice and put the whole thing back together. I had prefilled the tank with 6mg Mastermind (a fantastic caramel/custard/banana bread juice from Sir Vape A Lot).

I set it to 25W on my box mod and let her rip for a short 3 second test drag; fantastic! Kept it like that and pretty much kept hitting it for about 1/4 of the tank that session! No dry hits whatsoever!

I'm thinking that you might have put on too much cotton, or perhaps you might have blocked the juice ports. Do you have a pic to help troubleshoot?

 

[Vapenstein]

I think the rba section of the ST Mini is sensitive to overwicking. You have to wick like a Kayfun, and then trim the tails a little shorter than you would for a Kayfun. Finish by taking a piece of Kanthal and pulling the wick away from the juice inlets. This is what I do. I'm one of the guys who hasn't got a dry hit yet, and the ST Mini is all I vape on now, so I've been hitting it all day every day for weeks now.

 

[nwasiq]

I picked up a Subtank Mini last week and I was also looking forward to trying out the RBA section! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the RBA section essentially all ready to be wicked (didn't expect that one and did not remember reading about that detail!). So wicked it with Shiseido cotton, trimmed the ends to the top of the chimney (similar to trimming the wick length on a Kayfun), stuffed them down, off to the side so I could see the juice channels, saturated the wick with juice and put the whole thing back together. I had prefilled the tank with 6mg Mastermind (a fantastic caramel/custard/banana bread juice from Sir Vape A Lot).

I set it to 25W on my box mod and let her rip for a short 3 second test drag; fantastic! Kept it like that and pretty much kept hitting it for about 1/4 of the tank that session! No dry hits whatsoever!

I'm thinking that you might have put on too much cotton, or perhaps you might have blocked the juice ports. Do you have a pic to help troubleshoot?

No sorry, I dont have pics and I removed the standard coil it came with. Nonetheless, I tried little cotton, alot of cotton, 'just right' cotton; I usually wick without the cylinder (I dont like stuffing the cotton from top of the cylinder due to fear of blocking the channels) and screw it on after setting the saturated cotton away from the channels. That cant have been the problem for me, with the way I wick. I'll post pictures of how I do it and how much cotton I use when Im about to refill my tank

 

[nwasiq]

I think the rba section of the ST Mini is sensitive to overwicking. You have to wick like a Kayfun, and then trim the tails a little shorter than you would for a Kayfun. Finish by taking a piece of Kanthal and pulling the wick away from the juice inlets. This is what I do. I'm one of the guys who hasn't got a dry hit yet, and the ST Mini is all I vape on now, so I've been hitting it all day every day for weeks now.

I've never seen a kayfun deck. The only other deck I have to compare it to is the Lemo's deck (started vaping little over 3 months ago) and the Lemo's deck is HUGE compared to this subtank mini's and I trim it just about the size of the deck (on the lemo). On the subtank, I trim the cottona couple of millimeters away from the width of the tank. I tried trimming more though

 

[Vapenstein]

I've never seen a kayfun deck.

Just go watch this then, but he leaves too much tail on his build.

 

[nwasiq]

Just go watch this then, but he leaves too much tail on his build.

Like I said man, I've watched EVERY reviewer do it and Rip Trippers was the first

 

[alljokingaside]

Kinda curious about picking up another tank besides the Lemo. (The clearos aren't really doing it for me and the cost of the Nauti Mini coil heads make it less attractive). How's the Kanger compare?

 

[nwasiq]

Kinda curious about picking up another tank besides the Lemo. (The clearos aren't really doing it for me and the cost of the Nauti Mini coil heads make it less attractive). How's the Kanger compare?

EVERYONE seems to love it but I prefer the Lemo's vape, though I think the subtank mini is the only other option if you want a new tank with great flavor that's not a power and juice hog (delta 2, arctic) and is simple to build on/ You could get a lemo drop too

 

[Waddle]

Kinda curious about picking up another tank besides the Lemo. (The clearos aren't really doing it for me and the cost of the Nauti Mini coil heads make it less attractive). How's the Kanger compare?

Sorry nwasiq going off topic here for one post but if you really want to step up your game try a dual coil atomizer. The most under rated RTA is the Orchid V6 /w glass tank (~ $10). This device will chuck clouds like a dripper while maintaining excellent flavor. And while dual coils are somewhat intimidating to some at first, they really aren’t that hard if you know how to build a coil. I use 26ga Kanthal for most of my builds and the coils last me months. The UD Goblin (~$25) is also the rage right now among cloud chasers (3mm air holes) . And yes they are juice whores but you can't make clouds otherwise.

 

[edyle]

So after looking at ALOT of reviews and reading alot of discussions about it, I decided to buy a subtank mini. As a Lemo owner, the convenience of getting to the base (of the RBA section) without using syringes to transfer juice back and forth, and changing the airflow settings without unscrewing anything seemed a brilliant upgrade. While the stock coils of the subtank were great, I still preferred the vape of the Lemo over them. So I thought I should use the RBA section, thinking that the experience would be better and that the stock coils would eventually burn on me.

So, I put on the RBA section with the prebuilt 0.5 ohm 5 wrap standard coil, wicked it like I wick my Lemo with japanese cotton and after 3-4 pulls, I started getting dry hits. I pulled out the RBA section, removed the cotton, used more cotton this time (since I thought that the coil was heating up too quickly and the normal amount of cotton wasn't getting wicked at the same pace) and still got dry hits. I made another coil, still no luck. I looked at countless reviewers on youtube that used the same prebuilt 0.5 ohm standard coil and they gushed about how they chain vaped at 25 watts without any issues. It was so frustrating! I even tried using rayon but to no avail. Yesterday, I googled about this and a guy on another forum said that his subtank mini was also having wicking issues and he solved it by looseing up the cylinder of the RBA section so that more juice is allowed to flow throught the channels. I tried this and even though I was able to take more pulls than before, I started getting dry hits yet again (at 17.5 watts)

Today, I wanted to do SOMETHING different, so randomly, I decided to use a micro coil instead of a standard coil. I made a 7 wrap 26 guage coil which comes at about 0.8 ohms (the same build as my lemo) and voila! No dry hits! Now the thing that confuses me, is that why are the prebuilt standard coil style builds working for everyone and not for me? I watched many videos and I followed exactly what those people did; I didn't even go to 25 watts (which is the preferred wattage of almost every youtube reviewer for the subtank mini)

You don't know what guage the first 0.5 ohm coil was. Thicker gauge takes more watts per ohm.

 

[Waddle]

So after looking at ALOT of reviews and reading alot of discussions about it, I decided to buy a subtank mini. As a Lemo owner, the convenience of getting to the base (of the RBA section) without using syringes to transfer juice back and forth, and changing the airflow settings without unscrewing anything seemed a brilliant upgrade. While the stock coils of the subtank were great, I still preferred the vape of the Lemo over them. So I thought I should use the RBA section, thinking that the experience would be better and that the stock coils would eventually burn on me.

So, I put on the RBA section with the prebuilt 0.5 ohm 5 wrap standard coil, wicked it like I wick my Lemo with japanese cotton and after 3-4 pulls, I started getting dry hits. I pulled out the RBA section, removed the cotton, used more cotton this time (since I thought that the coil was heating up too quickly and the normal amount of cotton wasn't getting wicked at the same pace) and still got dry hits. I made another coil, still no luck. I looked at countless reviewers on youtube that used the same prebuilt 0.5 ohm standard coil and they gushed about how they chain vaped at 25 watts without any issues. It was so frustrating! I even tried using rayon but to no avail. Yesterday, I googled about this and a guy on another forum said that his subtank mini was also having wicking issues and he solved it by looseing up the cylinder of the RBA section so that more juice is allowed to flow throught the channels. I tried this and even though I was able to take more pulls than before, I started getting dry hits yet again (at 17.5 watts)

Today, I wanted to do SOMETHING different, so randomly, I decided to use a micro coil instead of a standard coil. I made a 7 wrap 26 guage coil which comes at about 0.8 ohms (the same build as my lemo) and voila! No dry hits! Now the thing that confuses me, is that why are the prebuilt standard coil style builds working for everyone and not for me? I watched many videos and I followed exactly what those people did; I didn't even go to 25 watts (which is the preferred wattage of almost every youtube reviewer for the subtank mini)

Bad coil? Have you only tried one pre-built coil? Sometimes you just get a dud coil for whatever reason. I thought people were taking the OCC up to 25 watts. Dry hits happen for basically a couple of reasons 1) hot spots or 2) too much wick in the coil or channels ( can't wick fast enough to keep up).

 

[nwasiq]

Sorry nwasiq going off topic here for one post but if you really want to step up your game try a dual coil atomizer. The most under rated RTA is the Orchid V6 /w glass tank (~ $10). This device will chuck clouds like a dripper while maintaining excellent flavor. And while dual coils are somewhat intimidating to some at first, they really aren’t that hard if you know how to build a coil. I use 26ga Kanthal for most of my builds and the coils last me months. The UD Goblin (~$25) is also the rage right now among cloud chasers (3mm air holes) . And yes they are juice whores but you can't make clouds otherwise.

Thanks waddle, I'll checkout the orchid v6

 

[nwasiq]

You don't know what guage the first 0.5 ohm coil was. Thicker gauge takes more watts per ohm.

I'm pretty sure it was 26 guage. 5 wraps, 2.5mm diameter (I checked using my coil jig) and my IPV mini read 0.5 ohms, which means the coil was actually 0.6 ohms.The OCC coils are truly 0.5, since the IPV read it 0.4 ohms (which it isnt supposed to do btw)

 

[nwasiq]

Bad coil? Have you only tried one pre-built coil? Sometimes you just get a dud coil for whatever reason. I thought people were taking the OCC up to 25 watts. Dry hits happen for basically a couple of reasons 1) hot spots or 2) too much wick in the coil or channels ( can't wick fast enough to keep up).

The OCC coils were great - 25 watts, no problem. I'm talking about the coil that came pre-made in the RBA section. The subtank comes with 2 pre-made standard coils with 5 wraps and 2.5 mm diameter.

Maybe there's a problem with the japanese cotton I have (I tried rayon too). While it wicks great at 0.8 ohms and above, maybe the cotton doesn't have as much cotton as, say, Koh Gen Do for anything as low as 0.5?

 

[Waddle]

The OCC coils were great - 25 watts, no problem. I'm talking about the coil that came pre-made in the RBA section. The subtank comes with 2 pre-made standard coils with 5 wraps and 2.5 mm diameter.

Maybe there's a problem with the japanese cotton I have (I tried rayon too). While it wicks great at 0.8 ohms and above, maybe the cotton doesn't have as much cotton as, say, Koh Gen Do for anything as low as 0.5?

Well if it comes wicked from the factory then it's probably just too much cotton. Can you dry burn it to check for hot spots. Tear out the cotton and use less. Its only Kanthal so no biggie if you have to change it. I wouldn't take it personally