3 days with leaky Kayfun :(

[Avid]

I have the Tobeco clone Kayfun Lite Plus 2mm edition. And it leaks through the air hole. A LOT.

Over the past 3 days I have tried tightening up the tank parts, loosening them up, cleaned and checked all the O-rings, put an extra ring on top of the chimney, tried top filling it, bottom filled it, changed out the 1.1ohm coil and built a 1.5ohm coil, changed the cotton wicking from a thinner one to a thicker one, did the wicking 'bunny ear' style, also did another one by measuring from the side of the deck. The wick does not block or run down the channels. It's not been laying on it's side, it's straight up on top of my Nemesis. As soon as I draw on it, it gurgles and juice comes out the air hole but it is not overfilled. I've inverted it, blown through the air hole, tightened the draw, loosened the draw. Nothing works.

It's probably some silly little thing I've overlooked or haven't tried yet but I can't for the life of me figure out why it won't stop leaking. I've gone through 15ml of 50/50 juice trying to get this to work right. Most of the juice was wiped of my Nemesis. This is my first Kayfun and I'm not having a good time with it. Any suggestions?

 

[defdock]

going to say, i do not own a kayfun yet, but from the sounds of it. its not creating a vacuum like it should. maybe try laying the wick SLightly over the juice channels?

 

[AzPlumber]

Plug off the air hole/s with your finger/s and take a long hit without pushing the fire button, If the tank is leaking somewhere you should be able to track it down.

If you're using one of the plastic tank sections check to make sure you don't have it cross threaded.

 

[ddkl7780]

Never had that issue with my kayfuns only one I ordered from fasttech and that one was garbage. I have 2 Ephro clones never leaked on me. Seems like you went over it throughly. Check the plastic like azplumber said or maybe switch to the metal. If you have the full plastic piece that could be the issue the threading gets worn easily. Go with the plastic center piece with metal top and bottom see what happens. I never use the full plastic due to the threading.

 

[Avid]

Plug off the air hole/s with your finger/s and take a long hit without pushing the fire button, If the tank is leaking somewhere you should be able to track it down.

If you're using one of the plastic tank sections check to make sure you don't have it cross threaded.

Just tried hitting with the air hole blocked. Still leaking I'm not sure what you mean about cross threaded... Both times I disassembled/reassembled the tank, the plastic middle part fit in easily and I didn't force it (though I made sure it was tight enough to be secure) because, being plastic, I was afraid the metal rings would ruin the threads. It only seems to leak through the air hole and nowhere else. Thanks for the help, though!

 

[VaPreis]

Plug off the air hole/s with your finger/s and take a long hit without pushing the fire button, If the tank is leaking somewhere you should be able to track it down.

If you're using one of the plastic tank sections check to make sure you don't have it cross threaded.

....and make sure that the plastic tank section has o-rings installed on it.

Some Tobeco clones don't come with the o-rings pre-installed on the plastic tank section. Don't ask me how I know this......

Also, your chimney o-ring should be installed in the top cap for assembly, not on the chimney itself.

 

[AzPlumber]

Just tried hitting with the air hole blocked. Still leaking I'm not sure what you mean about cross threaded... Both times I disassembled/reassembled the tank, the plastic middle part fit in easily and I didn't force it (though I made sure it was tight enough to be secure) because, being plastic, I was afraid the metal rings would ruin the threads. It only seems to leak through the air hole and nowhere else. Thanks for the help, though!

If the plastic tank section gets cross threaded it won't sit straight (flush) on the o-ring and will leak air. Once cross threaded it will tend to follow the crossed threads on future assembly.

 

[Morrolon]

I've found that placing the coil too high can also cause leaking. If you haven't checked this already, make sure your coil is sitting only about 1-2mm of the deck.

 

[realsis]

I' have several kayfuns and I've not had any issues with them leaking. If you have checked all your o rings and made sure your threading correctly and that all checks out , I suggest you try to manually pressurize the tank by getting a napkin and wrapping the bottom of the kayfun, then after you have filled it, blow into the drip tip a few times. Some excess liquid will come out into the towel but after that she should be good to vape without leaking. After expelling the excess liquid, put it on your unit and vape. It should be pressurized and good to go. I do this automatically after each fill and I've never had any leaking issues. Let me know how this works for you. It has always worked great for me.

 

[Avid]

I' have several kayfuns and I've not had any issues with them leaking. If you have checked all your o rings and made sure your threading correctly and that all checks out , I suggest you try to manually pressurize the tank by getting a napkin and wrapping the bottom of the kayfun, then after you have filled it, blow into the drip tip a few times. Some excess liquid will come out into the towel but after that she should be good to vape without leaking. After expelling the excess liquid, put it on your unit and vape. It should be pressurized and good to go. I do this automatically after each fill and I've never had any leaking issues. Let me know how this works for you. It has always worked great for me.

I'll give it a try, thank you

 

[Avid]

I've found that placing the coil too high can also cause leaking. If you haven't checked this already, make sure your coil is sitting only about 1-2mm of the deck.

I will have to check. I don't *think* it's sitting too high, but I may have overcompensated for fear it would touch the deck and short. Thank you!

 

[Alter]

Are you using the fill screw or filling it by removing the top cap? I had nothing but leaking after I tried the top cap fill method but success with using the bottom fill screw (there is a trick not to loose the airbubble that creates the vacuum). IMO you are not getting a seal from the little chimney oring or its wet from juice and not holding vacuum.

 

[gray]

I've had a number of problems starting out. The o-rings on the authentic leaked right out of the box. Vaperev sent a spare set with it and they were probably aware of this issue. Good that they took care of it before sending it out. I replaced all of them and it worked. A favored swap for me is a one piece tank from Ehpro. 4 rings to fail opposed to 6. My Ehpro kayfun nano clone works perfect too.

Outside of this, it was the cotton. Too much and in the wrong place. The "bunny ears" didn't work for me.

I start with the 2mm coil with the open hole perfectly in line with the juice channels.
Place the cotton through the coil. Just enough to completely fill the coil with a little friction. It will look slightly larger than the outer diameter of the coil.
Trim it to a length just beyond the tank threads.
Wet it down.
Form it in to shape with small picks or drivers into an "S" shape. You will find a similar looking wick shape in the kayfun manual.
The ends of the wick will end up laying on the deck at a perfect length. It will be just shy of where the top of the deck and chimney threads meet.
Pull the wick away from the top posts slightly. My theory is that it wicks too much juice onto the air hole area if it's touching.
Pull the wick tail away from the juice channel towards the posts. I may even compress it a little.
Make sure the lower chimney will clear without disturbing the wick while threading it. If it moves, Use a tool to hold/adjust wick while threading if necessary.
Tighten it down good and snug with fingers. Tighten the upper chimney down good too.
Lube all o-rings with juice before going through the final assembly. I saturate them personally and lube the outside upper chimney pipe. I can feel the rings bind and see them bind at times. I just back off a thread or so and repeat until it seats well.

My pocketed builds are now lasting over a week before the flavor drops off. No wet spots on my pocket.

 

[Avid]

Thanks to all who responded! I now have a few more things I can try. I'll get this bad boy working yet

 

[SgtSponge]

A primer hit will only help if you get a dry hit. On the KFL if you do a primer hit, it forces more liquid to the coil and will only make it leak out the air holes more. Sounds most likely like o-ring problems, or you just might have a lemon....My friends got KFL clones and had the same problems on some they purchased for their shop as taste testers.. some of them just have leak issues.. if its not o-ring or crossthreading you might just have to find that "sweet spot" on how to set it up, I had to do that with mine I got one from my friends.


P.s. Also if you fill from top it will immediately drip through air holes. It will just go through the airhole underneath your coil.

 

[DaveP]

Laying the Kayfun on its side between vapes can cause gurgling and an occasional juice spit in the mouth while vaping. Top heavy as it is, I've found that keeping it vertical is a good practice. Juice in the wicking responds to gravity. If it's vertical, then excess juice runs back down the wick to the deck. If it's lying on its side, then juice can run from the wick right outside the coil and into the air hole under the wick. You won't get much in the mouth unless you dry hit it hard to feed the coil, but a small amount can run up the chimney and get into the smaller section if it's tilted.

Juice running out of the side air hole is generally a vacuum leak somewhere. There were two clear sections that came with my EHPro Kayfun 3.1. One is a full clear polycarbonate tube and the other one is maybe 3/4" tall. With the full tube the o-ring goes on the male metal threads at each end where the tube screws on. With the short one the o-ring goes on either end of the tube itself.

 

[crxess]

I have to agree with others. Leaking seems to be about 80% sealing issues and 20% build related.
i.e. the Kayfun has a fairly wide forgiving range compared to some tanks.
Remember looking to see the o-rings are present and not broken/damaged, does not guaranty they are fitting properly. If a section easily screws down then suddenly stops - the o-ring may be to thin.

Check my blog for another build that seems to help with wicking related issues.

<<<<<<<<<<<<

 

[coaldriller]

I' have several kayfuns and I've not had any issues with them leaking. If you have checked all your o rings and made sure your threading correctly and that all checks out , I suggest you try to manually pressurize the tank by getting a napkin and wrapping the bottom of the kayfun, then after you have filled it, blow into the drip tip a few times. Some excess liquid will come out into the towel but after that she should be good to vape without leaking. After expelling the excess liquid, put it on your unit and vape. It should be pressurized and good to go. I do this automatically after each fill and I've never had any leaking issues. Let me know how this works for you. It has always worked great for me.

^^^^Everytime with my 2.1...Chimney o-ring sounds to be the problem..Might look okay, but never hurts to replace

 

[ROM CGY]

Juice leaking from the air hole may be due to juice flowing to the coil faster than it is being vaporized. This will cause excess juice to flow down the air inlet hole and out the side of your Kayfun. When you take a draw on your Kayfun it creates pressure inside the bell section which draws juice through those channels at the base of the build portion and up to the wick. Try opening up the air flow (small slotted screw on bottom of atty). Open air flow = less juice, tighter air flow = more juice.

 

[Avid]

I suggest you try to manually pressurize the tank by getting a napkin and wrapping the bottom of the kayfun, then after you have filled it, blow into the drip tip a few times. Some excess liquid will come out into the towel but after that she should be good to vape without leaking. After expelling the excess liquid, put it on your unit and vape. It should be pressurized and good to go. I do this automatically after each fill and I've never had any leaking issues. Let me know how this works for you. It has always worked great for me.

Actually, it seems to be working great! Thank you

I took it apart again yesterday and made yet another coil, but instead of building on 5/64 drill bit, I made it on the next largest (3/32?) so I could put a bit more wicking in it and made sure it didn't sit too high. I filled the tank, left it inverted (it fills from the bottom), blew through the drip tip with a paper towel near the air hole (and sure enough, some liquid came out) and let it stay that way for a few seconds for the juice to settle before turning it over. Put it on the Panzer, one small drip came out the air hole and none since.

I really don't think my builds were off but they could have been. And I checked, rechecked and re-rechecked the seals and just never found the problem. I don't think the larger coil fixed the problem entirely although being able to use more cotton without choking the coil didn't hurt. It must have been a filling issue - for some reason the tank won't vacuum properly. Maybe I pushed the needle in too far when filling so it wasn't getting enough air to form the vacuum? This last time, besides the filling method Realsis mentioned, I also made sure that while I was filling it I let some air get in.