Clearomizers: What am I doing wrong?

[SINphul]

So I've started my newbie vaping journey into the realm of clearomizers. I really like the simplicity of them. Problem is, with my current set of clearomizers, the vaping quality has been spotty at best. I have 1 eGo-CC, 2 Aspire CE5-S, and 1 Aspire ET-S.

eGo-CC: This was my first clearomizer. The first time I vaped on it with Boba's Bounty was amazing. From the second filling onward, with a variety of alien Vision juices, the flavors are all completely muted. I can barely taste anything from it anymore. Lots of vapor, but the taste is completely absent. I've tried cleaning it, different juices, but have no solution. So I bought a pair of Aspire CE5-S clearomizers to give them a shot.

Aspire CE5-S: These ones started out great. Strong flavor and vapor, but I started getting hits with a burnt ejuice taste shortly after the honeymoon period. The atomizer also flooded very, very frequently and would leak onto my battery. I did some research, and it seemed the Apsire ET-S was the next step up in quality, so I picked one up to see if it cured the burnt taste and leaking issues.

Aspire ET-S: This one was the absolute worst all around. The atomizer seems to be having difficulty soaking up the ejuice, so I get dry hits like crazy. In the rare situation where it did get juice, it would taste burnt and nasty. It also flooded that atomizer and leaked like crazy on my battery as well. So much for my expectations.

TL;DR, what the hell am I doing wrong with these clearomizers? They can't possibly all suck this bad. I'm so frustrated with them now that I've purchased yet another brand clearomizer (Kanger Protank 2 Mini) in the hopes that it will be the answer to my prayers. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[*deleon517*]

I have never heard of the aspire clearomizers, but they could just be a remake of another type with a company branding on them.

the most popular ones on the market seem to be the protank 1-3 series, vivinova, and the kanger t2/3's. hope the protank mini helps fix your problems

 

[Nightcall]

It's not you, it's hit and miss with these vaping devices. Some people rave about the Protanks, and some people want to smash them on the street and sue Kanger for emotional distress.

I have one Aspire ET-S, and although the flavor is sometimes good and sometimes a little off depending on the juice, I've very rarely had any performance issues. No leaking, burning, and only the occasional flood. I don't know, I've had it for more than a month. I did have one bad head that sucked though of the 2.1 ohm variety. I have more of them we'll see how they hold up.

Right now my dependable devices are a Vision V-Fate, the Aspire, and some E-Smarts. Also, one cheap no-name bridgeless dripping atomizer for $5 from Desert Vapes, that is working surprisingly well. Nice flavor, vapor and throat hit, and I've dripped too many drops in there without it leaking. Better than the Joyetch atomizer I had which leaked when it glanced at a bottle of liquid.

 

[Train2]

Don't have Aspires, but the PT2Mini is the very best of the Kangers. And I have like 7 different Kanger clearomisers.
Tips:
- wash it with hot soapy water before using. Some Kanger stuff comes with a machine oil that nothing else will remove (I tried vodka, I tried boiling....). This preventative step will prevent you from having juice taste like WD40...

- Mostly, PT2's are great right out of the box, but if it's "not keeping up" - if you're getting dry or burnt hits, you can wiggle the airstem off the coil, and using tweezers, remove ONE bit of the flavor wick running across the top. Don't take it all out - just one strand. This lets MORE juice get to the coil...

 

[Harlen]

Go with the T2 they are what I use most when they get to the point that the flavor stops coming thru I just put a new coil in it and it's like new again . For .76 every three weeks or so they are great lol
Best wishes
H

 

[Train2]

Oh - what resistance coils, and what battery are you using? If it's VV or VW, what power/voltage setting?

 

[SINphul]

Thanks guys. Glad to hear the Kanger Protank 2 Minis are good...here's hoping it does the job for me.

As for my current coils, on the Aspires, I'm using the 1.8ohm atomizers. On the eGo-CC, I'm using whatever the standard Type-A atmoizers are (didn't list the ohms on cignot.com).

My current battery is an eGo-C Upgrade Passthrough 1000mah. I've tried both on regulated and unregulated power modes on all of these clearomizers to no avail. I do have a Vision Spinner 1300mah coming along with the shipment for the Kanger Protank Mini, since I heard good things about it.

 

[SINphul]

I think I figured out the issue, at least on the Aspire clearos. I was using Alien Visions juice in them, and that's 100% VG. I switched to some Texas Select Vapor juice, which is 70% PG / 30% VG, and it seems to be wicking much better. No dry hits thus far, and only a little flooding. I think I need to thin out my AVE juice with some distilled water...

 

[UnclePsyko]

I think I figured out the issue, at least on the Aspire clearos. I was using Alien Visions juice in them, and that's 100% VG. I switched to some Texas Select Vapor juice, which is 70% PG / 30% VG, and it seems to be wicking much better. No dry hits thus far, and only a little flooding. I think I need to thin out my AVE juice with some distilled water...

Glad to hear you found a solution to your issues... Boba's Bounty is a known and notorious coil clogger and many people have issues with wicking.
I remember all too well the issues I had back in the day with Boba's, and other coil-clogging liquids. I seem to gravitate to cloggers, so I did learn how to dry-burn my heads, and eventually rebuilding/re-wicking to get around the issues.

If you're handy with tinkering, you may want to do a little research yourself on how-to's. Get yourself a couple EVOD's and a Protank Mini, some heads and check out the videos on doing dry-burns... it not a cure for these issues, but it will get a little more life out of your equipment if done correctly.
Check out a few videos on rebuilding the EVOD heads using micro-coils and cotton. I, and hundreds of others now do this and swear by the results! It's not all that hard to do and you get to save yourself some $$$... and you don't need to be an engineer to do it.

And of course, if you have any questions... don't hesitate to ask!

 

[Baditude]

The clearomizer class as a whole has been rather notorious for inconsistancy. I've come to the conclusion that is the nature of the beast. Believe it or not, today's clearomizers are hands over feet better than they were just a year ago. It seems every other month a new model hits the market, everyone falls in love with them for a couple of months, and then the issues show up.

In the last few months, I've been using the Innokin iClear 30, four of them in fact. I've never had any flooding issues. I like the huge 16 silica wicks. I do occassionally get a dry hit, but doing 3 -4 short dry burns and then doing a couple of "pipe smoker" primer puffs seems to get them wicking again. I've been pleased with the flavor and vapor production of these, nearly comparable to my cartotanks. I've not tried the new iClear 30S. Innokin is about to release yet another clearo, the iClear 30B - now a dual-bottom coil clearo.

I don't think any delivery device that depends upon string wicks or polyfiller will hold up long to dark or thick e-liquids. For these liquids I'm nearly convinced you need to use a drip atomizer or a bottom feeder mod.

 

[Ryuukon]

Sorry to hear you're having a hard time with clearomizers.

They have their good and bad sides. Some people just can't get some brands to work for them very well. Flooding, leaking, dry hits, bad heads, etc.

Here's a couple I'd recommend you try out before giving up on clearomizers.

Aspire Mini BDC Glassomizer - Viper Vape Inc

I just picked up one of these a couple of weeks ago, and loved it so much I went back and bought 2 more. These are one of the cleanest tanks I have ever used. The flavor is pretty much spot on. It's a dual bottom coil tank, and has been working amazingly for me, and I vape high VG juice.

CE5 iClear 16 Dual Coil Clearomizer by Innokin - Viper Vape Inc

Innokin's iClear 16s are another very nice clearomizer. Really good flavor from them. They are dual top coil, so they do use wicks. If you vape hard and heavy, you WILL get dry hits. They also sometimes leak if the head post isn't straight (sometimes they come out of the factory a little... off). If the post isn't straight, then the mouth piece won't make a good seal on the silicone top of the post. Still one of the best flavors I've gotten out of a clearo.

I'm not a big fan of Kanger's tanks. I have several, and the only one I ever got to work well was the EVOD. Might also look into one of those. They're fairly cheap, around $6, so if it doesn't work out for you, you're not out much. They also use the same heads as the Protank, Protank 2, etc.

The one clearo that I am REALLY looking forward to trying is the iClear 30B. A dual coil bottom tank. I love iClear's, and with this one being a bottom, it's probably going to be my go to tank for my 100% VG juices.

Anyway, hope you have better luck with your tanks.

 

[NT_Pork_Hunt]

I've got Kumiho iTanks and just picked up some Smoktech MBC's and they all leak. I don't blame the manufacturer however, I put it down to where I live in the tropics.

I spend all day in the air conditioning at work and step out into 36 deg C so I put it down to expansion of the juice. The extra pressure from the expansion has to go somewhere, pretty much why I keep my stand by's in a small click clack container. I'm not big on a daily clean out of what ever I had them in so a plastic container does the trick.

Once they get up to ambient temp and I get them vaping they stop with no worries at all..... Until the next day...lol

 

[patkin]

If you're going to keep vaping Boba's or any dark, thick, juice I would recommend iSmoka BCCs (also branded Anyvape) as the wicks are easy to change or, new, are fairly inexpensive to just replace. I buy mine at Rocky Mountain Vapor and they usually give a 20% discount.

 

[Tepid]

I have not used those Clearo's
I use Authentic Vision Vivi Nova's
I have Mini's that I use, and I just got some of the new Dual Coil Vivi Nova's from MadVapes
These are nice. Vision Dual Coil 3.5ml ViVi Nova Tank Clearomizer

I do not like Bottom Feeders (aka BCC's), they have a tendency to flood and leak very easily.
I had a Protank, I also had Kanger T3's gurgle gurgle fest. Sold them all.
However, I am very interested in the IClear 30B

1. I read that you are using 1.8 ohm atty, at what Volt?

You should start at around ohms+1.4 for volts and then adjust up or down from there
You may need to go to a 2.4 Ohm atty.

2. What Battery Mod are you using?

3. How long have you been vaping, exclusively?