AGA t2 Stainless Wick Questions

[serenity21899]

Just set up a new AGA t2 today. Besides a more intense vape, I noticed a funky taste which I assume is the stainless wick. Just to verify that I get the same thing with another juice I tried. When does that taste go away? I know with silica it's about a tank or so. Hoping it's not longer than that cuz I don't like it.

 

[UncleChuck]

That gross funky metallic taste is indicative of a short or hotspot somewhere. There shouldn't be any metallic taste when the coil and wick are working properly. I think this is why some people don't like genesis devices, as you can wrap a decent coil that looks good and performs well, but will have a small hotspot somewhere and cause off-flavors. Not knowing this is an actual issue not just the standard genny flavor, some people just get a bad opinion of mesh.

To attempt to find the hotspot, you can fire the atty with the top off continuously while blowing slightly on the wick. This should closely approximate what happens when you take a vape, so do this for 10-15 seconds and see if any part of the coil starts to glow. A properly functioning genny should be able to fire continuously like this without ever drying up or having any glowing coils. If you see some part of the coil that quickly glows, that's your hotspot. Try to look closely around where the positive and negative legs meet the wick. Also look at your wick sideways to see if there are any coils that look to be sticking out further than the rest. This could be a loose wrap also causing a hotspot.

Whenever I have had a funky taste this method always revealed a section of glowing coil somewhere. You can either try to wiggle the coil around to work it out, or dry everything out and pulse it on a mech to fix any shorts. All shorts are hotspots, but not all hotspots are shorts, so even if your resistance is stable there could still be hotspots lurking around somewhere.

 

[serenity21899]

That gross funky metallic taste is indicative of a short or hotspot somewhere. There shouldn't be any metallic taste when the coil and wick are working properly. I think this is why some people don't like genesis devices, as you can wrap a decent coil that looks good and performs well, but will have a small hotspot somewhere and cause off-flavors. Not knowing this is an actual issue not just the standard genny flavor, some people just get a bad opinion of mesh.

The added issue is that I have a ProVari. It's a 1.2Ω coil and causing occasional e1 errors. Since it's the first coil I have built for it, I don't want to rebuild it if I don't have to.

 

[UncleChuck]

The added issue is that I have a ProVari. It's a 1.2Ω coil and causing occasional e1 errors. Since it's the first coil I have built for it, I don't want to rebuild it if I don't have to.

Very understandable, although if you are going to use rebuildables (and gennys especially) you're going to have to get used to tinkering and working on it until it's just right. With silica builds a bad build will result in poor performance at worst (usually) with mesh a bad build can result in that horrible taste, as well as jumping resistance, shorts, etc.

You wouldn't have to rebuild the coil if you had a mech you could pulse it on. Even if you only want to use a provari and don't want to delve into subohm builds, picking up a super cheap mech makes building WAY easier. No juice burns, no quenching, just torch your mesh and wire, wrap your coil, and pulse it on a mech until the shorts are worked out. Using this method my initial shorts are minor enough they cause a .2ohm change at most, which are gone within a few pulses. This step is the most important as far as getting a quality build IMHO, using nothing but a regulated mod that can't pulse shorts out makes the build much more difficult and iffy. After the shorts are worked out you can switch it back to your provari for actual use.

You very well could fix the coil right now by fidding with it. Basically all I'm saying is that there is definitely a problem with your build, that taste shouldn't be there. Trying to fix it by prodding the coils with a regulated device is a tedious process that sometimes never ends up working. Then you'd have to totally rebuild the coil (you could really use the same wire and wick and just torch them and straighten the wire out) and hope no issues come up. Using a mech as a tool for building instead of an actual PV makes things way, way easier, and fidding around with coils and wicks is something you will have to get used to if you want to use RBAs. Dabbling doesn't cut it if you want them to perform. It's like buying a track-only car and never wanting to work on it.

 

[Thrasher]

the fact the provari is throwing an error is evidence of a shorting coil or hot spot.

 

[serenity21899]

The real frustratation is that I had taken it to a class in rebuildables at my local vape shop. I had 30 guage on me, and could have bought 32 guage there if I had to. The guy helping me, knowing the limitations of the ProVari had me use 28 guage. Although he tweaked it on his mechanical I know it's not gonna work for what I have or want. I just wanted to make sure before I try it again.

 

[Thrasher]

knowing the provari im not sure why he went down in wire which is down in resistance. very odd.

the best range for a pro would be the 1.5 to 2 range.

 

[serenity21899]

knowing the provari im not sure why he went down in wire which is down in resistance. very odd.

the best range for a pro would be the 1.5 to 2 range.

I agree with you. I posted in the ProVari forum to get an idea of how other ProVari achieve those ohms. I put it aside for tonight before I throw it. And I'll try to fix it tomarrow.

 

[Baditude]

If you don't have a mech mod, you can still adjust for hot spots on a Provari. The best video I've seen yet on setting up a Genesis-style RBA is the one that Zen did for the ZAP for Provape.

 

[serenity21899]

If you don't have a mech mod, you can still adjust for hot spots on a Provari. The best video I've seen yet on setting up a Genesis-style RBA is the one that Zen did for the ZAP for Provape.

Thank you I also have a Silver Bullet sitting in a shopping cart right now if I get too frustrated.

 

[Baditude]

I personally try to shoot for 2.0 ohms with my AGAs for the Provari. I've had some earlier coils as low as 1.5 ohm and they just were not pleasant to me. I tend not to like low resistancy anyway, even with cartomizers, as I prefer a cooler vape.

I have a hunch you'll never be too happy with the 1.2 ohm coil on the Provari.

 

[UncleChuck]

You totally can adjust the coil and fix minor shorts with regulated devices, but you have the issue of the resistance getting too low if it starts to short which stops your progress dead in its tracks. You then have to fiddle to get it back up to a resistance that the device can actually fire, which can potentially undo any progress you already made trying to iron the coil out.

There are just more issues that way and it's a more fiddly process than slapping it on a mech and pulsing until the coil is perfect. There are also more limitations. If you are lucky enough not to have your coil jump into resistance levels that the regulated device can't fire it would work fine. But unfortunately the OP isn't that lucky

 

[serenity21899]

I personally try to shoot for 2.0 ohms with my AGAs for the Provari. I've had some earlier coils as low as 1.5 ohm and they just were not pleasant to me. I tend not to like low resistancy anyway, even with cartomizers, as I prefer a cooler vape.

I have a hunch you'll never be too happy with the 1.2 ohm coil on the Provari.

Me too. My cartos are mostly 2 ohm and a few 1.5. I am going to redo it with 30 guage and see where that gets me. When I had a Reo, my coils were in that range, too, and it was not unpleasant.

 

[serenity21899]

You totally can adjust the coil and fix minor shorts with regulated devices, but you have the issue of the resistance getting too low if it starts to short which stops your progress dead in its tracks. You then have to fiddle to get it back up to a resistance that the device can actually fire, which can potentially undo any progress you already made trying to iron the coil out.

There are just more issues that way and it's a more fiddly process than slapping it on a mech and pulsing until the coil is perfect. There are also more limitations. If you are lucky enough not to have your coil jump into resistance levels that the regulated device can't fire it would work fine. But unfortunately the OP isn't that lucky

Final decision is to recoil it in a range that will work for me and my ProVari. And to seriously consider a mechanical.

 

[Thrasher]

you can get to 1.1 i think on a pro, cant remember but there should always be room to play so all my coils are at 1.8 - 1.9
dropping to 1.2 will work but no room to go lower with the voltage. sometimes on a coil just backing off a bit on the V can salvage everything.

and i got a cheap mech strictly for setting up my coils, when done i move them to the pro

 

[speedemon]

I tried my agt2 with ss to me it sucked that way no matter what I did and yes I have lots of experience with rba's of all sorts. I went to using silica and ecowool now it works very good. Yes I have provaris as well as others, stick silica wick in there you will be better off. I do also like ss wick in other rba's not the agt2 though to much hassle!

 

[Rule62]

My experience is that 28ga doesn't work very well on a Provari. 30ga is much better. Shoot for about 1.5 ohms on your coils. This will give you good range of voltage adjustment.

 

[serenity21899]

I tried my agt2 with ss to me it sucked that way no matter what I did and yes I have lots of experience with rba's of all sorts. I went to using silica and ecowool now it works very good. Yes I have provaris as well as others, stick silica wick in there you will be better off. I do also like ss wick in other rba's not the agt2 though to much hassle!

I appreciate your input, but I would like to get at least one working stainless coil before I write it off.

 

[serenity21899]

My experience is that 28ga doesn't work very well on a Provari. 30ga is much better. Shoot for about 1.5 ohms on your coils. This will give you good range of voltage adjustment.

I have 30 on hand and will be rebuilding it cuz I am not going to fight with it. Fussy and errors are 2 different things IMO.

 

[Tanis143]

I too am a newby to RBA's and using a provari with a T2. Right now its ohm'ing out at 1.3 and works just fine. I do find that when my batt starts to get low or the juice level gets low/not tiling enough, I get either an E1 or E8 error. What I do to find the hotspot is take the top off, tilt to the side with the wick down and fire until I see a hot spot. So far the main hotspot has been at the top with the wick too far from the center post. However I did have a hot spot at the bottom and was easily fixed by moving the wire further in at the neg screw. Original coil was about 1.8, after adjusting for hot spots it finished out at 1.3 and so far has had little issues. The ONLY downside is that the coil sits on the same side as the button, so I have to hold it backwards from what I'm used to holding it lol. My setup is using 32g Kanthal with 325 pre-ox/rolled wick. The two juices I've used is Niquid Butterscotch and Halo Malibu. Found out I can only do so much butterscotch before it gets too sweet for me lol. The Niquid was 70/30 pg to vg and the Halo is around 85/15 pg to vg. If you are using a vg heavy liquid try using a looser weave mesh. I've heard that the high weave mesh has problems wicking heavy vg liquid. Also I left one of the screws by the negitive post off to provide better ventilation to the tank. This allows more juice to wick through if your coil is too tight (a common problem with pre-rolled wicks I've heard).