Bad taste from nemesis clone?

[NickFitt]

Some quick back story: After experimenting with e-cigs for a bit, I relapsed and went back to smoking a pack a day of analogs for about a year. Couple weeks ago I decided to go bac to vaping and leave the analogs behind for good.

I thought it would help to get into the hobby aspect of it. My main device is a Reo mini that I use boge LR cartomizers on. I wanted to try something new so I got an hcigar nemesis clone. I ordered a Kayfun Lite with it, and also ordered a Phoenix RDA and a Kanger Protank 2.

Got the nemesis and the kayfun a few days ago, I took them both apart and cleaned them with rubbing alcohol, then built a microcoil on the kayfun using the wire that came with it and a cotton wick (came out to about 3 ohms, much higher than I would have liked but thought I'd try it anyways), filled it up with some nice liquid, but all I got was a burnt metallic taste.

I got the protank and the Phoenix today, to be honest I did not clean these as carefully, but tried them both out and got the same taste. I cleaned the nemesis again using dish soap in case there was some machine oil on it still, tried the protank and Phoenix again, same terrible taste. I then tried one of the boge cartomizers on the nemesis, first couple puffs tasted okay with very muted flavor, then started tasting burnt. I checked the carto and the nemesis had scorched the crap out of the filler inside.

Any idea what is going on here? I had read that these devices give amazing vapor and flavor and so far I'm really disappointed. I'm using AW IMR 18650 batteries.

 

[KevinKing]

Im about to get my nemesis in from vaportek, not hcigar version but ive seen some people give decent reviews on it, anyway, i hope someone responds to this because I may have the same problems, I have the Nimbus and I have an Igo-L im gonna experiment with, got the 30 amp 1600 mah imr batts from madvapes. I get a metallic taste in my nimbus though, but not in Igo-L

 

[markdek]

Try silica

 

[VaporDragon]

Some quick back story: After experimenting with e-cigs for a bit, I relapsed and went back to smoking a pack a day of analogs for about a year. Couple weeks ago I decided to go bac to vaping and leave the analogs behind for good.

Congrats on putting the cancer sticks away for good!

I thought it would help to get into the hobby aspect of it. My main device is a Reo mini that I use boge LR cartomizers on. I wanted to try something new so I got an Hcigar nemesis clone. I ordered a Kayfun Lite with it, and also ordered a Phoenix RDA and a Kanger Protank 2.

Good choice of mod and atomizers!

Got the nemesis and the kayfun a few days ago, I took them both apart and cleaned them with rubbing alcohol, then built a microcoil on the kayfun using the wire that came with it and a cotton wick (came out to about 3 ohms, much higher than I would have liked but thought I'd try it anyways), filled it up with some nice liquid, but all I got was a burnt metallic taste.

Hard to really tell you what's going on here. So many possibilities. Could be you have a hotspot on your coil or you may not have the wick setup properly.

I got the protank and the Phoenix today, to be honest I did not clean these as carefully, but tried them both out and got the same taste. I cleaned the nemesis again using dish soap in case there was some machine oil on it still, tried the protank and Phoenix again, same terrible taste. I then tried one of the boge cartomizers on the nemesis, first couple puffs tasted okay with very muted flavor, then started tasting burnt. I checked the carto and the nemesis had scorched the crap out of the filler inside.

Again, hard to tell what's going on without some more information. Assuming you have a fully charged battery putting out about 4.2 volts then you shouldn't have been able to burn up your cartomizer so easily. Sounds to me like you didn't properly prime the carto.

 

[VaporDragon]

I'd like to add that the Nemesis clone is most likely not the problem. Sounds to me like it's firing just fine. The taste is from the atomizer you have attached to the Nemesis clone. The mod is just the thing providing the power to the atomizer. The atomizer is where you're getting your flavor and vapor production from.

 

[VaporDragon]

One thing we do know is that you're getting the same result from all of the atomizers right. Well, let's start by finding the common denominators. Off the top of my head two things pop to mind. One is user error and (assuming you're using the same juice in all of them) the other is the e-liquid.

 

[crxess]

Nemesis is a battery tube with a switch.
If you install the proper battery, you will get 3.7v nominal - 4.2v fully charged

Any and All Burnt taste you have thus far described can be attributed to not properly setting up or not properly using your top devices.

Put every thing you have to the side, EXCEPT the Kafun - Wash it once more
Get on Youtube and watch as many KAYFUN builds as possible. Skip the fancy Uber high tech builds for now and concentrate on building a GOOD simple Micro Coil with Cotton Wick.
A 28ga coil 8 wraps around a 5/64 drill bit should put you in decent ohms range.
I use a 30ga. 7 wraps on 14ga needle

Once you have a good coil in the right ohms range. You will not need to build another for a while.
Now you can concentrate on learning Proper Wick setup.
The wick needs to be thick enough to fill the Coil for good contact/transfer
The wick needs to be long enough to reach the base of the Well(with center tube installed)
The wick needs to be full enough to avoid open gaps around the wells, but not to pack it tight.
The wick cannot be packed down to the bottom of the well or you block the juice channels

Learn to build the KayFun properly and you will never want to remove it from your Nemesis

For a super nice Vape and consistency you can add a kick module and build coils in the 1.5-1.8ohm range and set your preferred power(wattage) It will always produce the same through battery life.

 

[ZombieJuice]

Yeah hate to say it but VaporDragon has it right. The mod itself is not going to affect the flavor of anything directly. I'm surprised your even getting much of any vapor on you Kayfun with a 3ohm coil on your mech. Wouldn't think 4.2-3.8 volts is near enough.

To be honest it is highly unlikely that all 3 of the devices your using are faulty giving you a bad taste. Either something funky is up with your juice or there's some sort of user error going on here.


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[maxd]

... The mod itself is not going to affect the flavor of anything directly. ...

agree,
unless only one point - airflow control from the bottom, which can be controlled on Nemesis
HOWEVER, it is not needed for Kayfun, as it takes air from the side
and not bottom.

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

I agree with crxess, the device (Nemesis Clone) isn't going to directly affect flavor and it's not what produces the vapor; it's the tank, atty or carto that affects flavor, as well as the juice and airflow.

As a general rule of thumb, higher resistance coils (2, 2.2, 2.5 3 ohm coils) require less voltage and wattage and lower resistance coils (1.3, 1.5 or sub-ohm) require higher voltage and wattage. So for a higher ohm coil, you may simply be pushing 3.7-4.2 volts which may be a bit too high for what you need.

 

[VaporDragon]

I agree with crxess, the device (Nemesis Clone) isn't going to directly affect flavor and it's not what produces the vapor; it's the tank, atty or carto that affects flavor, as well as the juice and airflow.

As a general rule of thumb, higher resistance coils (2, 2.2, 2.5 3 ohm coils) require less voltage and wattage and lower resistance coils (1.3, 1.5 or sub-ohm) require higher voltage and wattage. So for a higher ohm coil, you may simply be pushing 3.7-4.2 volts which may be a bit too high for what you need.

I think you have that backwards. A higher ohm coil is going to need more power not less and vice versa with the low ohm. Resistance means exactly what it sounds like. The higher the resistance, the more it resists the flow of electricity. Let's say for instance you have a variable wattage device and let's say you like to vape at 8 watts. Well with a 1.5 ohm coil it's only going to need 3.5 volts to reach 8 watts. Now let's say you put a 2.5 ohm coil on that same variable wattage device. You're going to need 4.5 volts to get to 8 watts.

 

[NickFitt]

Wow thanks for the replies. Since I was getting the same taste from all three atomizers I thought maybe the nemesis clone was the common factor, but maybe I just wasn't setting them up properly. I don't think it's the juice because the same stuff tastes fine in my reo.

Got some kanthal wire on the way so I will try what crxess suggested and try rebuilding the kayfun and see how it goes

 

[NickFitt]

Vapor Dragon do you have any advice on how better to prime a cartomizer? On the reo I just give it a few squonks and puff on it a few times without firing until the polyfill is all wet and I'm good to go. I actually took one off the reo that I had been using for a couple days and put it right on the nemesis clone, still got all burnt up.

 

[Bad Ninja]

Wash the kayfun and be sure to clean the air flow holes.
Machine oil gets trapped there and is hard to clean.
I'll bet ya a dollar that solves it.
Might have to wash it a few times, but it'll work.

 

[crxess]

Basic carto fill

Remove condoms from carto
Remove rubber tip(insert)
Fill 1 condom 1/2 full of e-liquid
Slowly press carto into condom, STOPPING as liquid rises out the center.
Allow to absorb a while and press further down
Continue cycle until all e-liquid is absorbed
If needed, drip additional e-liquid into top to reach full saturation. (like a soggy sponge)

Check Carto after 15-20 draws and add up to 10 drops or so as needed to fully wet again.
Repeat, repeat,repeat...................or get a Carto Tank

Vaping on a Kanger T3-mini on top of an 18650 Mod now(goofing off) T3 has rebuilt 1.6ohm head. Working like a champ.

Take your time and just get comfortable with your new devices. All will end well.

 

[NickFitt]

Success! I soaked everything in alcohol for about an hour and then rinsed and dried it, to hopefully get rid of any lingering machine oil. I rebuilt the phoenix and the kayfun with some 30ga kanthal that came in today, Phoenix came to 2.2 and Kayfun to 1.8 ohms. Tried the Phoenix first and got the same burnt taste, but I did not build that coil as well, going to have to clean it again and rebuild.

The Kayfun is working great! I'm getting huge clouds of vapor from it, so much that I will probably have to step down the nic strength of the juice I use for it. My only complaint is that the flavor is not as good as I was expecting, so I suppose I'm still going to have to experiment with wick sizes and work on wrapping better coils. Is there any way of changing out wicks in the Kayfun without wasting all the liquid I filled it up with every time?

Thanks to everyone for your help.

 

[VaporDragon]

Success! I soaked everything in alcohol for about an hour and then rinsed and dried it, to hopefully get rid of any lingering machine oil. I rebuilt the phoenix and the kayfun with some 30ga kanthal that came in today, Phoenix came to 2.2 and Kayfun to 1.8 ohms. Tried the Phoenix first and got the same burnt taste, but I did not build that coil as well, going to have to clean it again and rebuild.

The Kayfun is working great! I'm getting huge clouds of vapor from it, so much that I will probably have to step down the nic strength of the juice I use for it. My only complaint is that the flavor is not as good as I was expecting, so I suppose I'm still going to have to experiment with wick sizes and work on wrapping better coils. Is there any way of changing out wicks in the Kayfun without wasting all the liquid I filled it up with every time?

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Awesome! Glad you got things going a little better. Hate to see someone get discouraged because they can't get it right away. You may want to step your nic down a notch with a Kayfun. I know with my Russian 91% the first time I filled it and was puffing away to make sure it was wicking right and I had it setup right, I got a HUGE nic overdose. Started feeling sick and shaky and all that jazz. Learned my lesson there! Just take out the fill screw in the bottom and suck out as much juice as you can with a needle. One thing I like to do is build my coil and wick, put the two chimney pieces on, and take a vape right out of the top of the chimney (after putting some juice on the wick of course) and you will tell right away if it's vaping properly or not. Just don't EVER do a dry burn or get the coil hot in any way with a cotton wick. That stuff is very flammable and will burn up with a quickness if it's not saturated. HTH

 

[Bad Ninja]

Drop that Kayfun down to a 1.2-1.0 ohm coil.
Flavor will improve and so will vapor production.


Wicking is also key.
Wicking is extremely important to flavor, so fiddle around with your wick styles until you find one that works for your taste.

 

[NickFitt]

After a little more experimenting I think I isolated the problems I was having. The main one was torching my tweezers. I had been following the Pbusardo review/tutorial where they recommend holding the coil in tweezers and torching it to get it into a better shape. I noticed the tweezers I was using (cheap ones made for eyebrows, not coils) got a nasty smelling black residue when torched. I've built a few coils without torching the wire at all and they have worked great.

Second was my coils, after some practice they are much tighter and I'm sure my early builds had some hot spots that were burning my juice. Speaking of which, the juice may have been a problem. I was mainly using Vapor Chef Butterbeer, which smells fantastic. After having great success using some other juices on my rebuilt Phoenix I tried the Butterbeer again and got hints of that same metallic taste from earlier. I love the Chef and have been really enjoying some of his other juices but maybe Butterbeer is not for me.

So far I have rebuilt both the Kayfun and the Phoenix, coils are coming in at about 1.7 ohms. I love how simple the Phoenix is, it produces a ton of vapor, and I never truly experienced flavor until I got it working. It is going to be my main atty for at home vaping and testing new flavors. The Kayfun is absolutely amazing as well, I only have tried a DIY peppermint juice in it but it is going to be my main on the go device.

I broke my Reo mini, I plan to repair it and use it as a backup.. at least until I can get a newer Reo that is compatible with an RDA. Then I will probably pass the old mini (along with a pile of Boge cartomizers I will hopefully never need again) on to a new vapor in need. Thanks again for all the help, this is really a great community.