An interesting piece that I have to share...

[MiamiMom63]

It's so crazy how each of us experience different with these devices. I use 100% VG juices with alcohol based organic extracts on the vivi novas and they feed real nicely and the flavor is great. I do admit I can't allow the tank to get too low or it starts to get that gnarly taste though. I keep seeing so many people rave about the Kanger T3's and I have 3 of them and extra heads I bought but never used on them because they all leaked so badly. I dunno. Just thought I'd mention how everyone has such different experiences with this stuff it makes me wonder ALOT. lol. As long as we find our happy zone, that's all that matters! vaping is truly a personal experience in so many ways!

 

[Kopfstimmen]

It's so crazy how each of us experience different with these devices. I use 100% VG juices with alcohol based organic extracts on the vivi novas and they feed real nicely and the flavor is great. I do admit I can't allow the tank to get too low or it starts to get that gnarly taste though. I keep seeing so many people rave about the Kanger T3's and I have 3 of them and extra heads I bought but never used on them because they all leaked so badly. I dunno. Just thought I'd mention how everyone has such different experiences with this stuff it makes me wonder ALOT. lol. As long as we find our happy zone, that's all that matters! Vaping is truly a personal experience in so many ways!

The only time I've had the T3 leak is while filling it, when for some reason a drop or two always falls out of the mouthpiece. (?) I got the tip somewhere here on ECF to put a q-tip in the mouthpiece while filling, and now everything's cool.

 

[fabricator4]

So my ViVi nova came in today... I wanted to point out some observations to see if anyone else has noticed this as well

1. The resistance on a 2.4 ohm head started at 4.2 ohms, after I dripped a bit of juice onto the coil/wick directly (and is now down to 2.4)
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Don't know, there's no scientific reason for this to occur that I know of. Stainless steel is a really bad conductor of electricity, and the coil wires are just jammed between the metal and a flexible grommet. Knowing what I do, I'm amazed any of these systems work at all, let alone as reliably as they do. I'd suggest it's a contact problem, nothing to do with the actual coil or the juice itself, or whether or not it is new.

2. When I use the Safe Vaping Power chart, to get my voltage, it tastes horridly burnt

The vivi is a notoriously bad/slow wicker. I've noticed that first time priming is very important. Also notch the top rubber cap so that it doesn't come down hard on the wicks and pinch them off. Don't notch too much otherwise you will then have leaks through the center post. It has to touch the wick, but not leave any gaps, and not put any undue pressure on the wick.

3. When I use the Taste Method for determining voltage, it is finicky by the .1 volts (3.8v seems to be the sweet spot)

Depends on the juice, but yeah 3.8V on the Twist works well for most things with the Vivi Nova. They are a peice of cake on the Vamo - I set 6.5 watts and forget about it, regardless of coil resistance. Volts on the Vamo? Dunno, I've never put it into volts mode after I took it out of the box and set it to RMS program 2 and watts. Vaping is recreation, not science. That's why I like the Vamo so much.

4. When it does not have a burnt taste (I got the voltage just right) it has a better throat hit, and better flavor than a cartomizer (I use 2 ohm Boge XL, double punched, which are primed after punching, blown out properly, and then put into a tank full of juice)

Dunno, I've never used a carto tank, but I've already got one on the way. I'll be running dual coil cartos to start with and I'm expecting better vapour and flavour but I guess I'll find out. I find the Vivis to have better flavour and more vapour than the CE5 top coils even though the actual design is different but the best vape I get is the Phoenix atomiser, on which I can generally run 8 watts instead of 6.5 for the same juice.

Has anyone else shared my observations as well? I am brand new as of today to the Atty world... Once I get my Kanthal wire, and my Cotton (Unbleached, organic) from the hobby store, I will start rebuilding on the ViVi nova, thanks to Phil Busardo, who pointed out how easy this non-rebuildable atty is to rebuild.

Notch the top cap as discussed, and tilt & twirl to keep the wick wet as the level drops. I find that I *can* turn the twist up to 4.2V for some juices, as long as I don't chain vape. Two or three good long toots is about the best the vivis can do without some recovery time.

 

[bilbobaggins30]

I do agree, I am noticing the wicking is slow, but I do plan on rebuilding these myself, so hopefully I can fix that issue...

 

[fabricator4]

I do agree, I am noticing the wicking is slow, but I do plan on rebuilding these myself, so hopefully I can fix that issue...

I'm trying to figure out a better system too, but I've only tried one method. One method, five attempts, one partial success.

My idea was to wrap a 2 - 2.2 ohm 32g kanthal around two pieces of 2.5mm wick, so those are the supplies I bought - it's my first time. Some of the heads I got with my vivi's were pretty ordinary - lopsided coils that look like they should hardly work. One of them will only glow one side of the coil, and the resistance is all over the place. Surely I could do better, right?

The kanthal arrived wrapped around a piece of card, so it's a bit kinked up. I used a needle and two pieces of wick, and started wrapping my coil, trying to keep in mind the small space the coil has to fit into. I got I think four wraps on the wick and looked good, nice and even. I then assembled the head and checked the resistance; It was 1.5 ohms. I wanted minimum 2.0, not 1.5. I figured that I'd need 5 or six loops of kanthal to get to 2.0 ohms. Pulled it apart to try again.

Do you know how hard it is to get five or six wraps of kinked kanthal to fit evenly into those 3mm of space you have in the vivi head? Aaagh! Four more attempts later I had something that was over 2 ohms, was so close the side of the head that I was surprised it didn't short out. On the good side, two pieces of 2.5ml wick not wrapped too tight work very well to suck up juice. On the really bad side 2.5mm wick is pretty hard to fit back into the head.

The head gurgles a little, tending more to flooding than drying out, but I guess I can tweak that a little. It still runs dry if you don't twist and twirl when the tank gets lower though - I guess we just have to live with that one.

I think the next time I'll try the other method for two wicks and see if it's easier to manage - wrap the coil around only one wick but lay another wick over the top in the head during assembly. I'm hopeing it will make assembly a bit easier. I need to figure out a way to straighten this kanthal too.

 

[Aheadatime]

Easy method to rebuild your Nova coil is to wrap the kanthal around a small screw that has very tight threading. The kanthal will mold into the grooves of the screw if you do it with a bit of strength, and youll have perfectly spaced coils every time. After it has X amount of wraps, you'll need to just twist the screw until your molded kanthal unscrews freely. Take your hemp/cotton/silica, and insert it into the coil anyway you'd like. This method is not mine, here is the video that helped me out -

Machine screw coil wrap for Vivi Nova / Kanger T3 - YouTube

Remember that you can use cotton or hemp, so your screw doesn't need to be the exact same size as his, nor do you need that sewing tool thing he uses to pull the silica through. I use two strands of 2mm hemp and am able to simple roll the hemp tighter than it should be for enough time to squeeze it through the coil. It expands as the juice flows and its a perfect fit.

Oh, and to avoid the first few dry hits of a new coil, or a fresh washed coil, remove that little rubber cap that sits on the coil and put a drop or two of juice directly onto the coil. Put the rubber cap back on, fill the tank, and you should be good to go with little to no waiting time.

 

[bilbobaggins30]

The .... we come up with... However that is a very handy tutorial!!!

 

[bilbobaggins30]

Actually, Phil Busuardo has a great tutorial for rebuilding them, that I plan on using... He just does it by sight, and it works great for im...

 

[Ken_A]

It's so crazy how each of us experience different with these devices. I use 100% VG juices with alcohol based organic extracts on the vivi novas and they feed real nicely and the flavor is great. I do admit I can't allow the tank to get too low or it starts to get that gnarly taste though. I keep seeing so many people rave about the Kanger T3's and I have 3 of them and extra heads I bought but never used on them because they all leaked so badly. I dunno. Just thought I'd mention how everyone has such different experiences with this stuff it makes me wonder ALOT. lol. As long as we find our happy zone, that's all that matters! Vaping is truly a personal experience in so many ways!

try your diveces without taking out any wicks to see how they work, then if you get dry hits take one out. Also, I found the taste in my Protank to be muted until I rebuilt the head myself.

Easy method to rebuild your Nova coil ...

Machine screw coil wrap for Vivi Nova / Kanger T3 - YouTube

Oh, and to avoid the first few dry hits of a new coil, or a fresh washed coil, remove that little rubber cap that sits on the coil and put a drop or two of juice directly onto the coil. Put the rubber cap back on, fill the tank, and you should be good to go with little to no waiting time.

good video find there! for the non-dry hit, I just use 8th grade science and swing the device a few times. Centripetal force wets the wick very well.

 

[D4rk50ul]

Sometimes the leads that go to the bottom of the head ground against the side of the nova's, if you give it a gentle pull on the coil upwards you can take out the slack and get a solid reading before firing it. Very easy fix and it works 99% of the time.

 

[bilbobaggins30]

For some reason, Drinking and Vaping on the Vivi Nova don't mix... Maybe I forgot to twirl it, and wet the wicks, because no matter what I did, once my tank was down to 1.5 ml, it was burning until I filled it, and dropped a drop onto the coil directly, and then it worked properly. Either way, it tasted god awful.

 

[fabricator4]

For some reason, Drinking and Vaping on the Vivi Nova don't mix... Maybe I forgot to twirl it, and wet the wicks, because no matter what I did, once my tank was down to 1.5 ml, it was burning until I filled it, and dropped a drop onto the coil directly, and then it worked properly. Either way, it tasted god awful.

Yep, the Vivi Novas can show their true colours when you toot on them more than usual. The heads as supplied are slow wicking - fine if you take the occassional drag.

I've now got these working exceptionally well. Last night I was using my mini Vivi Nova in front of the TV and got a nearly dry hit - just the start of an off flavour. Looking down I realised the tank was empty, right down to nearly the last drop. 1.6ml in less than an hour... I must have been vaping like a demon.

The first thing I did was notch the top cap where it fits over the wicks as per many instructions on the internet. This got me half way there as it vastly imprved the flavour and wicking. The silicon cap should just barely touch the wick, and if you cut too much it will leave a slight gap and have a tendancy to leak.

The last part of the puzzle was to re-build the head. I had one LR head that just would not work well even after notching the cap. It was built on skinny silica and the coil was unevenly wound. The only silica I have is 2.5 ml which I got for when I want to rebuild my Phoenix, but I got lots of it. I used a needle to wrap 6 coils on the 2.5mm silica and installed in the head. Resistance was 2.0 ohm. I then dropped a second 2.5mm piece of silica on top of the first one for a flavour wick. The wicks are just long enough to barely touch the bottom of the tank.

Thats it, it was as simple as that. Since the Vivi heads were my first attempt at wire and wick the learning curve was very steep, and the first couple were just awful. I eventually worked out a technique that worked for me though.

I was going to re-do the heads in the vivis last night ready for the week ahead, but really they are just coming into their own. They taste great, are wicking great, and my current juices are light enought that I don't think there's a problem with the coils that really needs fixing. Since they're not broken yet I'll see how they go for another week (or two...) My theory is that once you eliminate the dry hits the wicks and coil last much longer and need much less maintenance. Previously I was always having to fiddle with the heads and was never quite happy.

Edit: Just saw my previous post in this thread from when I was having trouble re-winding the heads. That was the 25th of last month. I got these working around then or shortly after, so they must have been in service about 10 or 11 days. Time flies...