A Beginner's Take on Gennies (Namely a Kraken Clone)

[st-tches]

Okay, so go back to a month or two ago and the most complex setup I had lying around was a Davide on an eGo-C Twist. I had been reading about/drooling over the more advanced stuff, primarily mods and Genesis RBAs. Finally, I ordered an iTaste VTR after falling in love with the looks of it while internet window shopping. It came with the 30S of course, and I had bought a 30 JUST before it arrived so I could try both devices. Since I had the money to spend (Not really, lol) I ordered an AGI dripper/genny to go along with my VTR (At the same time I purchased the VTR) and it arrived just after my VTR (I also ordered materials). So before the AGI arrived I was amazed at how well the 30 and 30S performed, and ecstatic over my shiny VTR. Well, the AGI came, and for some reason I had it in my head that the AGI was 18mm and could fit in the VTR's ring. Well, I was wrong and wound up buying a dremel. A day later and I had my first successful build using 400 SS Mesh and 28ga A1 Kanthal.

I immediately began 'window shopping' again, and now that my VTR could fit larger devices I was looking at all the pretty Genesis atomizers. Not being able to spend a lot of money but at the same time being drawn to the looks of the expensive RBAs I ordered a Kraken clone on eBay. By the time the Kraken came with my fresh abundance of SS Mesh and Kanthal I had been obsessively building single-coil builds on my AGI in Genesis mode (Tried building in dripper mode but I couldn't give up my new love for SS mesh and the overall look/style/feel of a freaking Genesis tank lol) and had it down well enough to build consistently-working builds. I open up and clean the Kraken, then build a single coil build that works well and wicks much better than the AGI, has godly airflow control, and unfortunately leaked from the bottom. I found a spare o-ring in a bag that was from my AGI IIRC, but there is a SLIGHT possibility it fell off of or came with the Kraken and I forgot. Anyways, I put that in an empty space at the very bottom of the deck/510 combo thing that looked like it was made to hold an o-ring that wasn't there. Since it was opened up I decided it was time to try something new...

What I wound up with was a .9 Ohm dual-coil build (The VTR fires down to .6) using two 11/10 wraps of 28ga Kanthal on 400 SS Mesh. I had the airholes both open, but only halfway because up to this point I was always a mouth to lung smoker when it came to tobacco. The throat hit had that insane Genesis kick and flavor, but I decided to open the air holes all the way and try a straight to lung hit. WOW. I mean, I never even considered the whole 'cloud chasing' thing that seems to be going around now, but after building something like this and getting such a (very, very) dense, gigantic cloud of vapor every time with no leaking issues whatsoever I can't help but feel the most satisfaction I have ever gotten from vaping. This was even after having my mind blown by the AGI. I then tried a single coil build with the bottom o-ring removed and the vape was neither as good nor as leak-proof. Today I re-made the build and put the o-ring back in. Back to no leaks, the best vape of my life, and the only con is that with the lazy o-ring fix (I believe I only needed to do this because it is a clone, and haven't heard much about other people having this problem. Contacted the seller and he promptly sent another one free of charge) the 'top cap' (Or w/e you call it on the Kraken since it covers the whole thing) is horrible to remove, and the struggle usually ends messily. However, I love the vape so much I don't even have an urge to tamper with it until the coils go bad.

This has become more than a hobby for me. I now want to build coils just to build them, and I love the feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction after you successfully build a Genesis atomizer. I love how well SS Mesh wicks and how cheap it is to rebuild an RBA over and over again. I even love the aesthetics of Genesis tanks in general. In my opinion most of the people that hate Genesis tanks just don't know how to build them well enough or just don't want to. I don't know, is there anyone else that feels this way? I haven't touched a non-Genesis tank since I got the Kraken clone, and the only reason I still used clearos/BCCs/BDCs was simply because I only had one Genesis tank. Now that I have two and a third on the way I see no reason to go back unless I need extreme portability (I've found that it's very easy to keep gennies from leaking even when I take my VTR with me because of its form factor and weight, plus with the o-ring addition you pretty much have to want this Kraken build to leak).

Sorry for the long post, I tend to ramble :/

 

[WattWick]

Good going!

Just wanted to give a little tip on getting the cap off without any mess or fuzz. Easier to do than to explain... Put your thumb on the engraved parts of the cap and push it up like you would open a bottle of champagne.

 

[Grimmda]

I too am a big kraken fan. Probably the best tip I can give you is this: tons of wick!!!! I don't know about the mesh, and maybe you can enlighten me. But with organic cotton it is bound to gunk up and get black. I spin a lot of wick inside the tank so when that gunk appears I can pull the cotton through the coils thus giving me nice clean wick!

. You can see in the picture how I spun it gently around the center post inside. They key is very minimal cotton through the coil so you can pull it freely.

It saves the effort of burning all your tasteless juice off just to dry burn and rewick.

 

[st-tches]

Good going!

Just wanted to give a little tip on getting the cap off without any mess or fuzz. Easier to do than to explain... Put your thumb on the engraved parts of the cap and push it up like you would open a bottle of champagne.

Sweet! I'll definitely have to try that out when I top off my juice, I've been doing it through the hole for the drip tip and waiting for it to drain in, this sounds a lot more effective lol.

I too am a big kraken fan. Probably the best tip I can give you is this: tons of wick!!!! I don't know about the mesh, and maybe you can enlighten me. But with organic cotton it is bound to gunk up and get black. I spin a lot of wick inside the tank so when that gunk appears I can pull the cotton through the coils thus giving me nice clean wick!

[Image here]

You can see in the picture how I spun it gently around the center post inside. They key is very minimal cotton through the coil so you can pull it freely.

It saves the effort of burning all your tasteless juice off just to dry burn and rewick.

I've been using small amounts of SS Mesh that loosely fits in the coils and wick hole, and though it wicks like a beast you're right about the coils; they get really gunked up. I've been using a mainly VG juice and when I took my top cap off the first build, after only two days of use (This was at the end of the second day), the coils/wicks were crazily gunked up. Tried rinsing them off and everything but it wasn't coming off with ease and I just decided to re-coil/wick it. I'll definitely have to get some cotton, plus I believe my personal favorite coils are considered micro coils, and I've heard great things about cotton in micro coils. This sounds like an awesome way to keep them burning clean without rebuilding every couple days or tediously cleaning them.

 

[SkvLTD]

Nice OP. I honestly am starting to go back to just wanting my setups to work consistently instead of having to tinker for hours just to get em to work right. Its fun when there's nothing else to do, but when you need it to work for a whole day and have NO time to tinker, then that smile quickly turns into a frown.

 

[Asmo6]

I too am a big kraken fan. Probably the best tip I can give you is this: tons of wick!!!! I don't know about the mesh, and maybe you can enlighten me. But with organic cotton it is bound to gunk up and get black.

And once the wick gets funky, it begins to wick funky down into your fresh juice... you'll notice your vape went from 60 proof to 100 proof. On the harshness scale.

Good idea on setting up extra wick to just keep it rolling!

 

[DurtyZ]

I love my Kraken. I have an authentic one, but I can't imagine the clone would be any different.
First build I did was great, 1 ohm. Now I'm at .6 ohms. Hits great, amazing flavor and no wicking issues, except with high vg, I'll have to let it sit after a big hit. No tilting, but I am using cotton in my build.
Glad you like it OP! Amazing genny, if I do say so myself.

 

[st-tches]

Nice OP. I honestly am starting to go back to just wanting my setups to work consistently instead of having to tinker for hours just to get em to work right. Its fun when there's nothing else to do, but when you need it to work for a whole day and have NO time to tinker, then that smile quickly turns into a frown.

Well, I don't know what you typically use for your builds but I have a suggestion: Build a micro coil on an SS Mesh wick. Wrap the coil nice and tight (I use 28 gauge and it seems to me most people go for 32 when they start because of the higher resistance, but 28 actually seems more beginner-friendly IMO) around something the size of your wick hole. Use a good amount of wraps and keep torching and pinching the coil to compact it. After it's compact put it back on the thing you used to wrap the coil and make it look pretty. Wrap a little SS Mesh (I use 400) around something the same size you used for the coil and then roll it in your fingers to tighten it up until it's skinny enough to slide through the coils with just a little resistance. Position the coils on the wick and torch the hell out of it (Also torch both before coiling if you want to go the extra mile, and the wire will be easier to work with). Now slide the wick into the wick hole and carefully tighten your leads making sure the coil stays nice and pretty. By the way, I'm saying pretty because I've found that generally the better a coil looks the better it performs. Check the ohms and fire it up on a battery. If you have any hot spots tinker with the coil. Even everything up, tap hot sections when you're heating the coil, etc... Once that's done fill it up. Every time you have an empty-ish tank just dry burn the wicks, maybe burn water off them a couple times, whatever you need to do to de-gunk the coils. As long as you keep those coils free from major gunkage that setup should last you a WHILE because of the mesh wick.

I love my Kraken. I have an authentic one, but I can't imagine the clone would be any different.
First build I did was great, 1 ohm. Now I'm at .6 ohms. Hits great, amazing flavor and no wicking issues, except with high vg, I'll have to let it sit after a big hit. No tilting, but I am using cotton in my build.
Glad you like it OP! Amazing genny, if I do say so myself.

From what I can tell the clone I have is actually pretty close to the real thing in terms of performance (I know people yell out 'counterfeit' but IMO it's not counterfeit if the people are selling it as clones. A copy, or rip-off sure, but they're not trying to pass them off as genuine. Anyways, if I could afford a genuine one ATM I would have gotten one haha). I haven't ran a cotton build on it yet but maybe a little less wick would remedy that VG problem? I'm using SS Mesh (As stated) and I don't get wicking issues at all, plus I've been running Unicorn Blood through it most of the time. I think the reason for this is that the SS mesh is fairly loose in both the coils and the wick holes, that in combination with the Kraken's fricking awesome tiny airflow hole (Or what turns into the fill hole with the dual coils) makes for AMAZING wicking. Got sidetracked a little lol, what I'm saying is maybe if you use a little less wick in the coils and wick hole, especially since cotton expands, the wicking will improve. If you already know this and built your build accordingly, I guess cotton just doesn't wick upwards fast enough for chain vaping high VG. Wouldn't surprise me though, as there aren't much wicking materials that do allow for chain vaping high VG blends. Gotta get some cotton and start experimenting with cotton Kraken builds as soon as possible for sure