Confusion and possible Reo issues.

[Keega]

Good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and gents of the Reo-sphere.

I've had my little mini 2.1 for about 3 months now and I do love it to death. For a little while now I've been fighting with the firing pin/bar. It moves around a little and rubs on the little black casing. It was hard to get it to make contact with my button top efest IMRs.
I thought maybe I was over tightening my RM2 and moving the bar, but even though I am exceedingly careful this issue still persists.
Any tips for resolving this? I hate monkeying with the bar every few hours. It's like the way I press the button ends up moving the bar...

The other issue I'm having is I recently switched over to these sanyo flat top 18500s. There is some serious arcing/sparks and the whole area housing the firing bar heats up a lot. That doesn't seem normal to me
These batteries were recommended to me by several other Australian Reonaughts, they have zero issues with them. Any advice would be highly appreciated. I love my little reo and I am becoming a little sad that I am fighting with it so much.
Thank you all in advance.

 

[supertrunker]

Clean it - file the firing pin, and noalox it.

mod maintenance - YouTube

I use flat top batteries - i have for a year, and nobody recommends it, because it distorts your firing pin because you have to push it down harder to make contact with your battery. So i use a magnet on top of the battery! This is not highly praised either.

The proper batteries are AW IMR button tops.

But really - clean it - and file the pin HARD!!

T

PS: if you do not deal with that sparking/arcing - it will melt your delrin firing pin. i speak from bitter experience

 

[Raynman]

I might also suggest putting the Noalox on the top of the battery as opposed to the firing pin. This will cause the firing pin to be submerged in the Noalox when it makes contact. Stops the arcing for me, YMMV

 

[Keega]

Thank you very much. I'll make another pass at it with the file and noalox it.

Looks like I should have just stuck with button top IMRs, these were damned expensive batteries too. Ah well! I'll pick up some AW 18490s.

 

[supertrunker]

Two other things:

1) if you have a button cover on the top of your firing pin then you might want to remove and reset it to make sure you are not pushing too hard on the firing button. It is easy to mash the things with those on top.

2) When your Mini is all clean and filed and noaloxed (is that even a verb? anyway) you can tell when it fires by holding the drip tip to your ear and listening for the hiss when you have contact. That is your future benchmark for how hard you need to push the pin.

You can then reinstall any cover for your firing button by padding under it until you just reach that hissing point in 2) as you push the button down. I realise that bit sounds "huh?" so it's optional!


T

 

[Tontomoses]

Always have been interested in the Reo, is it high maintenance and always in need of fiddling with and sanding to keep it going strong and smooth? I've moved away from any gear like that because I just want to happily vape and the reo seems like a great thing but wonder after reading about the above.... THANKS!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[supertrunker]

Not at all - i run mine all day long and go thru about 12ml of juice - i clean it once a week is all and about once a month or so i clean and file the pin is all.

It's about as low maintenance as you could wish for - and that's good because i am lazy!

T

 

[supertrunker]

I run mine with a rebuildable atomiser on top - i DO spend a lot of time farting about and making new coils for that - but that is thru choice - there are plenty of people here that make a microcoil and it will last them a month easily.

I'm just too much into fiddling for the sake of it.

Compare that to any tank system i was weaned using and you'll see the difference - lots of other devices force you to have to mess about with them - just to get them to work!

T

 

[Filthy-Beast]

Always have been interested in the Reo, is it high maintenance and always in need of fiddling with and sanding to keep it going strong and smooth? I've moved away from any gear like that because I just want to happily vape and the reo seems like a great thing but wonder after reading about the above.... THANKS!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

high maintenance, no. A little preventative maintenance yes, like wash it in the sink, hit it with an emery board and put a drop on noalex on it. 5 minutes every two weeks and it will be running 10 years from now. This is one of it's best features, I'm tired of buying $50 to $200 mods that last 3 months to year before they are dead and need to be replaced. Reo will last forever and performs way better.

 

[Tontomoses]

Awesome information. I'm really intrigued by these and love low low maintenance quality Vaping thanks again

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[nerak]

Always have been interested in the Reo, is it high maintenance and always in need of fiddling with and sanding to keep it going strong and smooth? I've moved away from any gear like that because I just want to happily vape and the reo seems like a great thing but wonder after reading about the above.... THANKS!

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

As others have said usually running and maintaining a REO is very easy. Pretty low maintenance. Now if you run a RBA with lower ohm coils you will increase the need for firing contact cleaning. That is quickly done with a few hits from a file and Noalox.

I have run my metal REO's for months with just applying a little Noalox after washing.

 

[ltrainer]

Reo owners have a lot of respect for their Reos. They are what we use 24 hours a day to keep us off of stinkies. THey preform extremely well and are very durable. Thats an understatement. Because of these qualities we seem to develop a special attachment to our vaping devises. Because of this any "fiddling" that we might give to our equipment is done with a special kind of enthusiasm and intent. Its sort of like giving a treat to the grandchild or buying flowers for the spouse or giving a meal to someone that is hungry. Its like grooming your cat or dog. Its the Japanese Tea Ceremony. A ritual seldom done but done with care and a certain respect. Actually it can be relaxing. Some might think its fanboy talk but those people haven't used one for any period of time. Maintenance is part of the Reos ethos but its not required often and its not a chore

 

[supertrunker]

i'm sending you mine to clean return mail included!

japanese tea ritual indeed!

T

 

[Keega]

I took another pass at the pin with my emery board and dabbed a bit of noalox onto it, popped in a fresh button top efest IMR... Perfect vape.

I keep my little reo quite clean, warm water bath every week, sometimes twice a week if I am clumsy. None of the normal maintenance bothers me in the slightest I wouldn't have invested in a reo if that was going to be an issue.

It seems that my primary issue was the use of these flat tops, which is a shame, they're quite good batteries. Now if I can figure out a way to keep the bar from wriggling out of position things shall be grand.

 

[supertrunker]

make sure you are not pressing it so hard - which ought to be easy now. The delrin insert - that black plastic with a screw in the middle if you remove the door , is what guides your/my firing pin.

the firing pin (technical term for the metal bit with a point on it) will bend under pressure and slip - and btw it has nothing to do with bathing it and putting it in nice fluffy towels after it's washed - it needs a good old rasp!

If when you fire it - it still sparks do it again. The pin is made from spring steel - it will easily take a filing.

You can use a magnet on top of flat top batteries! they are $5 from radioshack - i have no idea if you have them in Aus. Just realise that my advice about batteries is mine alone.

Now - down to the business - an RM2 - easiest thing in the world - make sure the bottom bit of it (take it off and turn it upside down) - that bit that has a groove in it that a flatblade screwdriver will fit - i.e. the middle bottom bit is level with the outside threads - but only level - not sticking out below them.

if it's not, remedy it. clockwise is up.

There are enough coil building methods on youtube to not mean i have to make one!

T

 

[ancient puffer]

I admit it, I'm lazy, and have taken that to "art form" level. I build a coil, vape on it for upwards of a month (about 4-6ml per day), and *maybe* when I decide to make a new coil, wash the REO under warm water. Sometimes I file the tip of the firing pin and put a dab of noalox on it, sometimes not.

All totaled up, I probably average 5 minutes a month on maintenance. Other than that, I swap out battery/juice bottle as needed. About the only way to have less maintenance is to use disposables, and we all know what a crummy experience that is. OTOH, 5 minutes a month for what is arguably the best vape you can get.

ETA: You can certainly make a hobby out of building/rebuilding coils, cleaning, filing, checking voltage drop, but you don't HAVE to.