Burning Coils, multiple mods/ohms/etc

[Mentholoverlord]

I've been vaping for years and in the last 6 months I've had more issues with coils than I thought possible. I burn through coils in hours or days, I have tried everything. I have two friends that I'd consider "experts" on mods, cloud chasing, all the crazy ...., one has worked at a vape shop for years. So here is my issue.

I just bought a Smok Procolor w/ a new baby beast tank. I'm using Q2 0.4 ohm coils. 50/50 juice, I burned through 3 coils in under 2200 hits between at 45W and 35W.
I have had the same experience with 4 different mods, 3 types of juices, 5 tanks and 4 different resistance coils.

Obvious answer is user error. Well.

I've used 2 Smok mods, a halo mod, a joyetech mod. 2 Smok tanks, 2 Halo tanks, an aspire tank. I've tried 80/20, 70/30 and currently 50/50. I've tried 3 and 6mg nic. I've mixed my juice at ~7%, 10% and 15% flavor. I've tried vaping at 25w to 50w, I've tried low/norm/high settings. I've tried TC and non TC. I've tried .15, .4, .6 and .8 ohm coils. I've tried Q2s and Q4s.

I have tried literally every itteration of priming I can think of including literally letting a coil saturate in juice overnight. I've tried poking pin holes in the cotton through the sides to increase saturation, I've tried thinning juice with vodka.

----

Does anyone have any clue what the hell the issue is? I feel like I've considered every possible user error and in my mind, even if I was a complete ..... I'd have got lucky one time in the last 6 months or so with a coils lifetime being 1 week +

I bought this mod at the suggestion of my friend who works at the vape shop, he essentially said "when people come in and have no clue what they're doing, I suggest this setup to them, it's essentially idiot proof and I know there's no way you can burn coils up that fast using this."

When I told my friends I somehow burned up 3 coils in 2200 hits, they checked theirs and currently are at like 8k and 13k pulls on 100W+ with their setups.

I am perplexed and hope that somebody here can prove me a fool, vaping for a coil per day is getting very very obnoxious.

 

[bombastinator]

Well for some reason or other your coils are drying out. Could be juice type, could simply be the things not keeping up with your vaping, could be your mod has stopped being accurate, could be something else. There’s just not enough information here to do more than guess wildly

 

[Mentholoverlord]

Ask any question possible, I have never been this annoyed at an activity that I choose to do.

This mod/tank combo is like 4 days old and it's the 3rd I've tried in the last 3-4 months.

I buy my liquid from Best DIY E-liquid Supplies - Make your own vape e-juice!
The flavor blend ive used this week is blue lemonade, assume it's mixed by the company, and regular lemonade from LO as the manufacturer, I can't recall what they stand for, ie. LO FW TFW or whatever they were.

 

[bombastinator]

Ask any question possible, I have never been this annoyed at an activity that I choose to do.

This mod/tank combo is like 4 days old and it's the 3rd I've tried in the last 3-4 months.

I buy my liquid from Best DIY E-liquid Supplies - Make your own vape e-juice!
The flavor blend ive used this week is blue lemonade, assume it's mixed by the company, and regular lemonade from LO as the manufacturer, I can't recall what they stand for, ie. LO FW TFW or whatever they were.

I’m not a coil cartridge guy so I’m a bit limited here, but standard debug procedure is to change one variable at a time till something works. You’ve changed tank type and gotten nothing so it’s probably not that. What other variables are involved? I’m off hand seeing mod, juice, and coil preparation as being some of them

 

[Mentholoverlord]

That is the breadth of my issue - I have changed every possible variable that I can think of.

 

[OlderNDirt]

When I told my friends I somehow burned up 3 coils in 2200 hits, they checked theirs and currently are at like 8k and 13k pulls on 100W+ with their setups.

I buy my liquid from Best DIY E-liquid Supplies - Make your own vape e-juice!

It seems your common denominator is your DiY juice. You might try getting some flavors from another vendor or picking up a bottle of store bought juice. Or have one of those friends use a bottle of your juice in their set-up. Even though you were very complete in your posts, there may be some "how you hit it" contributors to your problem. There was even a similar post once that the poster eventually commented about taking 9 hits in 30 seconds. Just counting number of hits is not a great indicator. Some take 3 second hits while others take 9 second hits.

If your friends are being honest and accurate with their 8k and 13k pulls claims, maybe getting what they are using is your best option. Or see if they will swap with you for a couple weeks?

 

[Mentholoverlord]

I have used juice from the site from 3 different "vendors" or suppliers, I've also used a Halo "lab" juice that's very expensive and some trash juice from a local shop. I found the site originally through one of the friends, two of the flavors I mix, he suggested, originally it was his suggestion to even use the site.

I considered chain vaping as the cause, my average hit is like 3 seconds, pretty much never more than 5 seconds. The times in which I've taken more than three hits in 30 seconds is minuscule, I'd consider chain vaping something like hitting it 2-3 times a minute for 2-4 seconds for 5 minutes. I generally prefer breathing oxygen LOL.

This was just a last ditch hope to find someone with some ingenius idea, vaping isn't all that complicated but I seem to be having inexplicable, idiotic issues, my last coil I even purposefully avoided any version of chain vaping for the duration, and never went above 35 W, let it saturate overnight and vaped on 15 and 25 W for like 30 minutes before going up to 35.

 

[djsvapour]

When I told my friends I somehow burned up 3 coils in 2200 hits, they checked theirs and currently are at like 8k and 13k pulls on 100W+ with their setups.

I don't know what kind of diversion from the truth this is, but most factory coils in standard set-ups (not <80-150w) are good for somewhere in the region of 1,000-3,000 puffs per coil depending on juice.

Nobody gets 8,000 puffs without flavor-free or DIY juice. That's not possible. Somebody is showing off (not telling the truth) and making you feel bad.

 

[AzPlumber]

Is your inhale style MTL (mouth to lung) or DL (direct to lung)?

 

[NicotineRush]

Had the same problem and tried all the same things you did. 2 yrs of frustration before folks here finally convinced me to build my own coils. What a freakin difference! Coils and wicks now last me many months as opposed to the factory crap that lasted just a few days. If I got a week out of a factory coil, I thought I'd hit the jackpot. Average was 3 days.

It is pathetically easy do do your own. Don't know why I put it off for so long. Once you do build your own, it becomes painfully obvious why factory coils don't last.

 

[stols001]

I have no idea what the answer is given what you've stated. You've changed batteries, I assume.

I will say that an RTA coil is going to last you longer and at this point you may have nothing to lose. May want to look into a single coil, large build deck and trying to set up an RTA. I'm sorry I don't have more to offer, but it sounds like you have tried a TON of things, with different equipment and juices, so other than turning your wattage lower (and I understand that may not be possible) or trying some unflavored juice and seeing what your coil life is like with that, I have really nothing helpful to offer, I don't think.

Best of luck, ugh, this sucks.

Anna

 

[Coastal Cowboy]

JUUL says their pods are good for 200 puffs, or about one pack of cigarettes. Blu used to say their disposable was good for 150-200 puffs, or about one pack of cigarettes. You're on the order of 11 packs by these admittedly dubious standards.

A better standard is the amount of juice consumed and at what temperature. My best performing drop in coils are Vaporesso EUC's. I can get 40-50 mils out of them. I don't count puffs or days.

You aren't doing anything wrong except expecting throwaway coils to last beyond reason.

Best bet is to get a dual coil RTA with good airflow and build your own. Then when the wicks get funky, pull those and rewick.

 

[Letitia]

I'm in the rta camp as well. If you like staying in the 20-40w range a single or dual coil rta would work for you. Building coils is easy, bit of a learning curve for wicking. I use single coil rtas and enjoy the OBS Nano, OBS Crius 2, and GeekVape Zeus.

 

[Mentholoverlord]

Nobody gets 8,000 puffs without flavor-free or DIY juice. That's not possible. Somebody is showing off (not telling the truth) and making you feel bad.

The one guy is building his own coils, the other is not. Not sure if he is chatting .... but he has a family so maybe he is on 2 coils @ 8k puffs, not sure. He legitimately looked at his mod when he told me so doubt much thought went into the "manipulation." The guy literally gave me a new tank for free a few months ago believing it would fix my issue.

@ the other question, direct lung hits.

@ the other replies, Ironically I have a 3rd friend who is a doofus, he is clueless and has been vaping for years on the same mod and his idea of priming is "i juice it up and vape at 60 watts" which he told me last night when I asked, I tried another coil, wet it, popped it in, filled the tank and havent vaped under 50 watts and the life of the coil has already exceeded the previous 3 this week with a full ...... approach.

@ temp/quantity, I'm not using tc but I'd say I got like 40-50ml each @ 200-300 F on average

My first subohm setups my coils would last weeks "chain vaping" and when they started to taste a bit bad I could vape for another day or two before they were obviously just trash, gunky and done. These coils aren't getting dirty at all, just an off white color from the juice.

I'll try vaping 0 flavor on the next coil and see what the difference is, I don't particularly care about flavor anyway I just like vaping. Not sure why I've avoided building my own, also avoided diy juice for like 4 years. I just like vaping, like a hobby, I've quit for months at some points it's not really about nicotine even, guess I try not to dilute the hobby with chores. If 0 flavor or one more attempt at a different coil pack, maybe more cotton or a different type doesn't net better results I guess I'll give in and build my own.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[QcVaper]

The one guy is building his own coils, the other is not. Not sure if he is chatting .... but he has a family so maybe he is on 2 coils @ 8k puffs, not sure. He legitimately looked at his mod when he told me so doubt much thought went into the "manipulation." The guy literally gave me a new tank for free a few months ago believing it would fix my issue.

@ the other question, direct lung hits.

@ the other replies, Ironically I have a 3rd friend who is a doofus, he is clueless and has been vaping for years on the same mod and his idea of priming is "i juice it up and vape at 60 watts" which he told me last night when I asked, I tried another coil, wet it, popped it in, filled the tank and havent vaped under 50 watts and the life of the coil has already exceeded the previous 3 this week with a full ...... approach.

@ temp/quantity, I'm not using tc but I'd say I got like 40-50ml each @ 200-300 F on average

My first subohm setups my coils would last weeks "chain vaping" and when they started to taste a bit bad I could vape for another day or two before they were obviously just trash, gunky and done. These coils aren't getting dirty at all, just an off white color from the juice.

I'll try vaping 0 flavor on the next coil and see what the difference is, I don't particularly care about flavor anyway I just like vaping. Not sure why I've avoided building my own, also avoided diy juice for like 4 years. I just like vaping, like a hobby, I've quit for months at some points it's not really about nicotine even, guess I try not to dilute the hobby with chores. If 0 flavor or one more attempt at a different coil pack, maybe more cotton or a different type doesn't net better results I guess I'll give in and build my own.

Thanks for all the replies.

IMHO, i've never been a fan of smok, basically all their stuff is either hit or miss. Tried 2 of their tanks myself and never was really impressed, both coils of both tanks didn't even last me a week each, so i never tend to recommend their stuff anymore, but that's just me. My best sub 0hm tank easily lasts a week with the same coil (Fat Scylla sv from freemax) but again nothing lasts longer than going DIY. I don't build coils either as frankly i'm too lazy so i buy them already rolled and ready to go, i use claptons exclusively because again imho i get better taste than anything else. i don't chain vape much,but for what's it worth i'm using dual fused claptons @ 3mmId at around 60 watts. Ofc coil life on my ends is mesured in months as i "clean" the coils and don't just replace them, what you do replace is the cotton which i do about every few days (i don't use tanks and tend to use gunky/sweeter liquids, so that's normal). Imho if you really can't get better life out of your product try another, not all tanks are made for everyone and you must find one that "suits" your vaping style more.

NB: No idea if Op is even using smok tanks, just thought i'd share my 2 cents in the matter. But what i don't suggest to beginners is building their own stuff right away or getting into rdas (in this case a single coil rta might be a great option though)

 

[AzPlumber]

I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised at the taste and how long a coil will last with unflavored juice.

 

[QcVaper]

I'm sure you will be pleasantly surprised at the taste and how long a coil will last with unflavored juice.

While i can just change my cotton in about 5 mins and even change flavors if so desired ?
Thanks but no thanks

 

[BrotherBob]

I've been vaping for years and in the last 6 months I've had more issues with coils than I thought possible. I burn through coils in hours or days, I have tried everything.

I've used 2 Smok mods, a halo mod, a joyetech mod. 2 Smok tanks, 2 Halo tanks, an aspire tank. I've tried 80/20, 70/30 and currently 50/50. I've tried 3 and 6mg nic. I've mixed my juice at ~7%, 10% and 15% flavor. I've tried vaping at 25w to 50w, I've tried low/norm/high settings. I've tried TC and non TC. I've tried .15, .4, .6 and .8 ohm coils. I've tried Q2s and Q4s.

Might try 1 and 1.X ohm builds with 28 ga.Kanthal A1 single coil at lower watt settings around 12 watts and work up. Just a guess.

 

[Brewdawg1181]

I'm using Q2 0.4 ohm coils. 50/50 juice, I burned through 3 coils in under 2200 hits between at 45W and 35W.

I'm not using tc but I'd say I got like 40-50ml each @ 200-300 F on average

Hi Menthol - Sounds like you've tried a lot of things, and have gotten some great advice here. As others have said, I don't think if you have any tastebuds at all, that you could get a couple of thousand hits out of a factory coil. I never got more than 800-1,000 or so, and that was at much lower wattage doing mtl.

And I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure at 0.4ohm @ 35-45W, you'd be far above 2-300 F in just a second or so, and that can char the cotton. Your mod does temp control, so you might consider setting it at a safe level - low 400's or lower. If you play around with the TC, you probably can save coil life by using the lowest temp limit that still gives you a satisfactory hit.

I'm assuming those coils use cotton, and cotton burns at 491F, so definitely stay below that. Worth a try, anyway. But a big +1 on getting an RTA- I'll never look back. Better flavor, better hit, longer life, and a tiny fraction of the cost.