RDA All My RDAs - My Own Soap Opera

[lanye]

I have no idea what life is right now. I ain't even lying.

I was SO excited to get an rda and start dripping. Everybody makes it out to be unicorn rainbow farts and magical fairy dust...but it's been like a BAD Hallmark movie marathon on the Lifetime channel.

I went to my local B&M and snatched up a Mutation x 4 - authentic, not a clone. I had the dudes build it out for me 'cause I'm not trying to fly solo on my first surgery. Dual coil, came out to right above 0.5ohm, plain old organic cotton ball wick.

Great right? WRONG.

This sumbich sucks. I know it's got to be user error but DAYUM, I seriously do not want that going anywhere near my lips anytime soon. It's all dry hits and sizzle-pop-burn juice spitting. No matter how much (or little) juice I use, how much (or little) cotton I use to wick, how low I turn down my HexOhm - this thing gets burned more than Justin Beiber. I'm smarter than the average bear and have a bit of an engineering background, so this shouldn't be so hard right? Surely there's just something simple my blonde self isn't picking up on. I've re-wicked it no less than 10 times in the four days that I've had it. I didn't touch it at all Sunday or yesterday because I was so freaking frustrated with it.

I just can't. HALP.

@itskohler @dcfluegel @David M

 

[Train2]

Show us a pic.
No, silly...of the atty. So we can see the coil, placement, height, and wick...

 

[dcfluegel]

yeah - definitely sounds like something is wacky - topless atty pic, please (atty with top off that is...)

 

[lanye]

Show us a pic.
No, silly...of the atty. So we can see the coil, placement, height, and wick...

Here goes nothing!

 

[lanye]

yeah - definitely sounds like something is wacky - topless atty pic, please (atty with top off that is...)

Check out my underbits.

 

[eddiea]

Not enough wick could be the culprit. Have you tried rewicking with a slightly thicker wick?

 

[dcfluegel]

only thing i am seeing off the bat is that wicking may be loose (seeing some gapping between cotton/ wick as it goes into coil)... coils look centered... wicking going down into juice well...

 

[dcfluegel]

you want cotton to be snug in the coil, but not stuck - should have a little play when you pull it side to side

 

[Train2]

Soo...nothing obviously critically wrong there.
A few thoughts:

1 - you've checked the resistance since you got it home, right? Still 0.5-ish? Good. What ARE you setting the mod at? I know you said you turned it down...but to what? Personally, I tend to run about 30-35 watts on a 0.5 ohm coil (cuz that's what you get in a mech with a fresh battery )

And..of course...here's exactly the opposite of what eddiea just said. lol.
2 - The cotton looks like maybe you "rolled" it? Personally, I mostly use bottom-feeders, so I re-wet the wick every couple puffs, but even if dripping, my vaping happy place is usually with LESS cotton. Like wispy. It should be fluffy and light and slide a little through the coil, and drape down touching the bottom of the little juice pond. I know a lot of folks stuff a lot of cotton in drippers, but if you get burning, often it's the cotton too TIGHT inside the coil. I really can't tell from the photo, but if the cotton is "tight" it constricts the juice flow.

3 - finally, it doesn't look real wet. And there IS a little reservoir down there. Squirt some juice on it - unless you've done that and just took a pic when it happens to be running low...

Good luck - I'm sure you'll get it!!
And don't feel bad - I had a HARD TIME learning to build coils. Gave up twice, I think, before I got the hang of it (I still suck at it - but I end up with an excellent vape, so it's worth it).

 

[Train2]

You don't happen to know what gauge wire they used, do you?
Cuz that's a dual 7-wrap. Which for 0.5 ohms, would imply something like 27 gauge wire. Which is unusual. I have some, but a lot of folks don't.

Now coincidentally, if that's THICK wire - as in 24 gauge, then a SINGLE coil 7 wraps would be...guess what? Right about 0.5 ohms. Did they measure ONE COIL at 0.5 ohms and then give you a dual? That would make your resistance 0.25. Easier to burn, if maybe you're hitting some low limit of your mod...

 

[Rex Everything]

Also the mute v4 post screws are junk....they don't do a good job of trapping the wire causing the ohms to jump...so one hit your at .5 ohms the next your at .8...hot burny hits are gonna be the result....the screw also he a tendency to back out also

 

[David Wolf]

Here goes nothing!
View attachment 486516 View attachment 486517 View attachment 486518

Look Lana Turner or whatever....you've already built more coils than me. when my kayfun Lite V2 get's here from China I'll come to you for advice. You'll have it all figured out by then with the help from the folks in this thread. For what its worth, looks like a fine build to me, haha.

 

[David Wolf]

I have no idea what life is right now. I ain't even lying.

I was SO excited to get an RDA and start dripping. Everybody makes it out to be unicorn rainbow farts and magical fairy dust...but it's been like a BAD Hallmark movie marathon on the Lifetime channel.

I went to my local B&M and snatched up a Mutation x 4 - authentic, not a clone. I had the dudes build it out for me 'cause I'm not trying to fly solo on my first surgery. Dual coil, came out to right above 0.5ohm, plain old organic cotton ball wick.

Great right? WRONG.

This sumbich sucks. I know it's got to be user error but DAYUM, I seriously do not want that going anywhere near my lips anytime soon. It's all dry hits and sizzle-pop-burn juice spitting. No matter how much (or little) juice I use, how much (or little) cotton I use to wick, how low I turn down my HexOhm - this thing gets burned more than Justin Beiber. I'm smarter than the average bear and have a bit of an engineering background, so this shouldn't be so hard right? Surely there's just something simple my blonde self isn't picking up on. I've re-wicked it no less than 10 times in the four days that I've had it. I didn't touch it at all Sunday or yesterday because I was so freaking frustrated with it.

I just can't. HALP.

@itskohler @dcfluegel @David M
View attachment 486498

You are hilarious girl. I hope you get the help you need from some hardcore coil builders. I'm just here to watch lol.

 

[lanye]

only thing i am seeing off the bat is that wicking may be loose (seeing some gapping between cotton/ wick as it goes into coil)... coils look centered... wicking going down into juice well...

I've tried a few different wick volumes, I was going for "less is more" this time. With less cotton it seems to take longer to get those dry hits, but I also had margaritas over the weekend and a chronic migraine for the last 2.5 weeks so I'm not totally trustworthy.

Soo...nothing obviously critically wrong there.
A few thoughts:

What ARE you setting the mod at? I know you said you turned it down...but to what? Personally, I tend to run about 30-35 watts on a 0.5 ohm coil (cuz that's what you get in a mech with a fresh battery )

And..of course...here's exactly the opposite of what eddiea just said. lol.
2 - The cotton looks like maybe you "rolled" it? Personally, I mostly use bottom-feeders, so I re-wet the wick every couple puffs, but even if dripping, my vaping happy place is usually with LESS cotton. Like wispy. It should be fluffy and light and slide a little through the coil, and drape down touching the bottom of the little juice pond. I know a lot of folks stuff a lot of cotton in drippers, but if you get burning, often it's the cotton too TIGHT inside the coil. I really can't tell from the photo, but if the cotton is "tight" it constricts the juice flow.

3 - finally, it doesn't look real wet. And there IS a little reservoir down there. Squirt some juice on it - unless you've done that and just took a pic when it happens to be running low...

Good luck - I'm sure you'll get it!!
And don't feel bad - I had a HARD TIME learning to build coils. Gave up twice, I think, before I got the hang of it (I still suck at it - but I end up with an excellent vape, so it's worth it).

1. I've had the potentiometer nearly turned to 0 and all the way up to 20 watts. 20 watts is pretty hot and comes with a singed cotton glaze with a spitback garnish. It DOES look like one side is burning faster than the other (i.e. getting hotter than the other).

2. Like I said, I've dried different amounts of wick and within the first few hits they all turn to disgustingness. It's more taxing than Obamacare. I was trying to stay away from rolling the cotton, though I rolled the edge to feed it through and then snipped some.

3. Yeah, the photo was about an hour and 4-5 hits after I had dripped onto the wick. After a few puffs the bottom of the atty and the top of the HexOhm are wet enough to make a brothel look clean.

I got 99 problems but a tank ain't one...

 

[Woofer]

Have you fired it with the cap off, what is it doing...

 

[lanye]

Have you fired it with the cap off, what is it doing...

Yep, I've done that. Basically this;

 

[Train2]

Sorry, but with stuff flying off in all directions like that...I just have to "like" this.
I know it's not fun when the little flying bits hit you on the lip though...

Yep, I've done that. Basically this;

 

[lanye]

Sorry, but with stuff flying off in all directions like that...I just have to "like" this.
I know it's not fun when the little flying bits hit you on the lip though...

True story bro.

 

[eddiea]

And..of course...here's exactly the opposite of what eddiea just said. lol.
2 - The cotton looks like maybe you "rolled" it? Personally, I mostly use bottom-feeders, so I re-wet the wick every couple puffs, but even if dripping, my vaping happy place is usually with LESS cotton. Like wispy. It should be fluffy and light and slide a little through the coil, and drape down touching the bottom of the little juice pond. I know a lot of folks stuff a lot of cotton in drippers, but if you get burning, often it's the cotton too TIGHT inside the coil. I really can't tell from the photo, but if the cotton is "tight" it constricts the juice flow.

Rolled or not, cotton will expand when juiced. Any less/thinner wick would make things worse. A close-up seems to suggest not enough wick through the coil.

@lanye, I know you said you've re-wicked numerous times, but if you're not using enough cotton (or too much nonetheless as @Train2 mentioned) then each re-wick would yield less-than-average results. This other close-up below suggests not enough wick as well...to me it seems there's too much empty space (not enough thickness) just outside the coils. Also, inside the coil, if there's not enough cotton touching the entire coil on the inside then more problems would occur. In addition, the top coil appears darker than the bottom coil (bottom coil also seems to be firing unevenly) which might indicate another issue...[as I was typing this response, I see you've noticed that as well].

For comparison's sake, below is a build I currently have on my Velocity (single coil 26g twisted Titanium). Notice the difference. No gaps (nor excess space where cotton should be) on either side of the coil...performance is ideal with nice flavor, dense vapor, and no spitting.

One final note, you can also try moving both coils down slightly closer towards the airflow holes...you might be surprised with the result. This could be causing your migraines.

Just my observations. If all else fails, then I'm stumped! Hope you resolve it.

 

[lanye]

@eddiea You're my hero. I will play around with it a little more and report back!