Chest pain. Harsh hits. Can't seem to fix the problem

[cakemuncher]

Hello Vapors,

I've quit analogs about 4 months ago, however, ecigs are giving me a chest/throat burn and I'm not sure why. I first purchased a Protank 2 with the iTaste SVD. I also bought one for my aunt because she also wanted to quit. But the wicks burn in less than 2 days. And I have never had a smooth hit. I bought my juices from Vapor Chef, Mt. Baker and from the Gremlin juices. I've tried 30/70 50/50 and 100 VG.

My friend owns an iTaste 134 with a Protank 2 and 100% VG and uses 2.5 ohm. I tried it and it was sooo nice. I didn't even feel the vapor going in and out of my throat. It tasted so good! On mine, I can never get it to taste as good. It always tastes burned. Everyone I let them try it cough a lot from it and dislike it. I dislike it myself.

Because of that, I started to make my own coils. I bought Kanthal A-1 and Organic cotton from CVS (Boiled with distilled water). I've been recoiling my Protank for the past 2 months and it’s never as smooth as my friend’s stock heads for the Protank. It ALWAYS has a harsh hit. I tried a range from 1.5-3.0 ohms and it’s never the same or was nice enough to not hurt.

So I switched. I thought maybe the Protank wasn't good or the SVD is not regulating voltage correctly. I bought an HCigar Nemesis with a Clone Kraken. I first did one coil and it tasted like chemicals. Read online that clones need washing. So I did. I submerged it in alcohol and cleaned it good. All the chemical taste is gone. But it STILL burns!! I'm not sure why AT ALL! I bought new cotton; sterile cotton from CVS. Tried it but it’s still just as bad. I dry burn my coils just in case there is any manufacturing residue on them.
It’s not only the taste that’s the problem, but also the clouds generated. My friend’s clouds were insane and he was using 2.5 ohm. I’m coiling my Kraken with dual coils measured about .5-1 ohm. But it barely makes any clouds. The vapor is so little that it’s not even white. I can easily see through it.

Please help me. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

My current set up is an HCigar Nemesis, Kraken clone, Efest 18650 2000mAh. Could the battery be my problem? My aunt used the ecig for less than 2 weeks and went back to cigarettes from all the burns she was getting.
Picture of my coil and wick

 

[Talyon]

Steal your friends device it seems to work ok.

 

[30+Years]

Try your friends battery and see if that changes anything?

LOL @ talyon

 

[Steamer861]

From your discription It sound like your volts /wats are to high on your SVD what do you use for volts or wats?

 

[patkin]

Question: Why are you doing all that... IE: spinning your wheels... when you know this:

" iTaste 134 with a Protank 2 and 100% VG and uses 2.5 ohm" works for you? What voltage? Might be a clue.

 

[cakemuncher]

On my SVD I was using less than 6.5W because more than that it would char the wick.

My friend lives in another city. I wont be able to try his battery or steal his ecig lol.

The iTaste 134 was adjustable with a metal ring around it. I think he had it set around 7. I'm not sure if that was Watts or Voltage.

 

[Seanvot]

Nothing but problems with kanger tanks for me. Finally got them working every once in awhile but its seriously not worth it for me. Many people like protanks and say they have no problems but not me, just my opinion. I got a vivi nova and its awesome for me the flavor and vape are great and never had a weird taste. It's the first tank that I have loved. I'm about to load up my iclear 30s and see if I like that more than my protanks also. I need something glass that works good though.

I don't understand when people say they have no problems with protanks!$%? HOW? I know I'm a noob but i have tried different ohms, volts, juice, techniques, batteries(just vv stick batteries nothing fancy).

sorry had to rant...

 

[porkchop_express]

No cloud, burnt wick, awful taste...sounds like your wick isn't supplying enough juice to the coil. Try using a tiny bit less cotton and see if it improves.

Also you may want to pick up a simple rebuildable dripper like an IGO. Once you get that set up to your liking, I bet you will be able to figure out what's wrong with the other setups.

 

[Nataani]

There could be a couple reasons for your problems:

1) On the Itaste:

- Defective device. Your device could not be regulating properly and supplying far too high of a voltage. You can test this by using a multimeter. Place one lead against the pin at the bottom of the 510 connection and the other lead against the threads on the 510 connection. Fire the device and measure the voltage.

- Blocked air flow. A severe block will result in very harsh hits. This will also result in a burnt taste.

- Choked wicks. Stock coils are pretty terrible at best. I have seen some coils which are wrapped far too tightly around the wick, which restricts air flow and also results in a harsh/burnt taste.

2) With regards to rebuilding a protank:

This can be somewhat of a masters art. My first coils way back when were just awful. Here is a build that is pretty much foolproof.

1/16th drill bit for wrapping
8 wraps of 30awg Kanthal A-1
Contact (micro) coil
1 strand of peaches n cream cotton yarn as a wick

Look up micro coil on youtube and you will see the general procedure for making them.

3) With regards to the nemesis/kraken:

- Kraken clones are very hit and miss. Some are ok, others are terrible. None of them really come close to the real thing.

- Make sure that your air flow is wide open on the clone, restricted air flow or choked wicks are the most common result of harsh/burnt taste.

- Your battery cannot handle anything below 0.7 ohms. As soon as you put in something less than that the results tend to be less than stellar and can also be dangerous.

- Just to make sure - never dry burn with a cotton wick in. If you mean that you dry burn without a wick, glowing the coils and blowing on them, spot on.

4) General tips:

- Cotton balls are a royal pain to use when starting out. I highly recommend putting them aside for now and grabbing some Ekru Peaches n cream cotton yarn from walmart. It wicks about as well, and is consistent, very freindly to folks who are new to rebuilding.

- Stick to contact coils at first, they are much easier to wrap consistently.

- Always dry fire your coils with no wick, check to see that the glow starts on the inside and works its way out. On the protank however, make sure to pulse the coil rather than simply hold down the fire button. If you scorch the rubber grommet you may as well throw away the atomizer.

 

[k702]

the two problems, though they seem similar are most likely not connected.

With your pro tank try turning the grommet that sits on the center post inside the tank upside down so the cup side is facing up, it'll give more room for your thick juice to get down to the coils. And give it a primer puff or two without triggering the battery to pull some juice into that area. You should be able to look in the tank after a primer puff and see a bubble of air pop up to the top of the juice inside, that's juice going into the atomizer and pushing air out of the way. try that and see if it does anything for you.


As for the kraken can you post a picture of your coil/wick setup? rebuildables are all about airflow.. If you don't have the propper air flow it's not going to hit right. not familiar with the kraken clone, does it have airflow holes in it's top cap? if so make sure the airflow is directly over the coil when you put the top cap on.

There could be a couple reasons for your problems:



- Your battery cannot handle anything below 0.7 ohms. As soon as you put in something less than that the results tend to be less than stellar and can also be dangerous.

I believe he's using the kraken clone with a nemesis. don't see what type of battery he's using in it.

 

[cakemuncher]

Thank you all for your help.

For the Protank, I can't do any attempts with that anymore because I returned it to Fasttech along with the SVD because I thought they might be broken. The Protank after I started coiling them my self non of the rubbers were getting burned anymore. When I flip the the rubber I used to get a lot of flooding and the juice would all get in my mouth.

For recoiling. I watched a lot of videos in the past 4 months about coiling. I used various amounts of cotton. I coils are always Microcoils and I use a small screw driver to make them. I have switched to a bigger small screw driver recently because I bought the Kraken but it doesn't seem like it made any difference.

For the airflow, the Kraken has two side holes that you can adjust to make them bigger or smaller. I usually have them 3/4 open. I just opened them completely and they really didnt seem to make any difference at all.

The only things I haven't tried so far is trying a different wire (I'm using a Kanthal A-1 30g) and a different battery. I'm tired of keep spending money trying to get them to work so I want a for sure answer before I jump the gun and buy more stuff.

For the battery, I'm using the Efest 18650 2000mAh. I have two of them and when I switched them out the results don't really change.

Attached is a pic of the coil I have right now




EDIT:

Here is a better picture

 

[30+Years]

Don't know anything about rba's but yours looks like it's been chared or something?

 

[k702]

don't go spending more money.. You can get what you have to work, it's just going to take trial and error.

the trial and error will be well worth it. try not to get frustrated. The collective knowledge and experience at this forum will be able to help you through to a delicious and satisfying vape.

I haven't played with the genesis style atomizers with the tank underneath that much yet.. I know from a ton of videos I've watched that getting the right amount of cotton is important. This still sounds like something to do with airflow to me though... or a mix of the two.

where do the airflow holes line up?

Looking at the kraken I might want to bow out right now and let someone that has one come in and advise you..

you might have already watched this video already.. it has a good tutorial on how to build the genesis for a dual coil.. You can use the basics for a single coil though..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgiIT2pAC-g

 

[30+Years]

Phew... second looks nothing like the first.

 

[k702]

edited to not confuse... i probably wasnt right

 

[Talyon]

OP that's one ugly coil, why is there washers under the screw? And it looks offset, and the leads the one I can see is to far away from post.

Wicking looks good though nice and wet, does the SVD have a rms and mean setting? U might have it in the wrong mode ergo it's not regulating the voltage properly.

 

[Camaroboi13]

I'd bet you dollars to sense that you're getting the top leg of that coil way too hot. I'm not familiar with the cotton setups as of yet, although I heard sometimes that once you've burned them you're going to get a burnt taste no matter what.

That being said, it takes trial and error to get your coil & wick setup just right. Your wire looks to be twisted, which is said to reduce ohms, making it a hotter running device. Most people tend to use a single strand of untwisted wire and do 7-9 wraps on their coils which makes anywhere from 1.2-1.8 ohms, and is kind of a happy medium for not getting a burnt taste vs getting enough vapor. You're probably running too low ohms for your likings and it's muting out the flavor. When I do twisted wire on my kraken on a mesh wick, I only run a 3/4 wrap, sometimes a 4/5 wrap. My airholes are usually only about 1/3 the way open for a mouth hit (like a regular cig style hit) and I'll close the back hole completely and open the front hole all the way for a lung hit (inhaling directly into your lungs without letting it sit in your mouth first).

Oh BTW, the coil is supposed to be wrapped between those two washers, not above them. Hope this helps.

 

[Nataani]

I believe he's using the kraken clone with a nemesis. don't see what type of battery he's using in it.

My current set up is an HCigar Nemesis, Kraken clone, Efest 18650 2000mAh.

Battery type is in the OP