Drop RDA / Smok AL85 / No flavor

[TjNyc]

Hi folks,
I'm trying to diagnose the reason why I am barely getting any flavor from this setup. I installed a single 24GA spaced SS316 coil, ohm'ing out at 2.85 and vaping @ 35 watts and wicked with Japanese cotton. Initially, the first vape or two tastes okay, if not a bit muted, but then rapidly declines in regard to flavor. When threading the wick, I wicked such that there was tension on insertion, but not enough to move the coils (which is, what I understand, optimal?)

At any rate, not sure what I'm doing wrong here. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've included a pair of images as well.

Thanks!

- John

 

[puffon]

Looks like the coil is too low.
No air is hitting the coil.
Look at this thread for some build tips:
The Drop Rda

 

[stols001]

Your ohms are fairly high for vaping at that wattage, if they are correct. Was it your intention to build to such high resistance? There's not really anything wrong with doing so, but you may need less wattage if you have a coil with such high resistance. It's possible your coil is not keeping up with your wattage, although as puffon pointed out there may be other build issues.

Did you use steam-engine.org to calculate out your ohms?

Anna

 

[Izan]

Hi folks,
I'm trying to diagnose the reason why I am barely getting any flavor from this setup. I installed a single 24GA spaced SS316 coil, ohm'ing out at 2.85 and vaping @ 35 watts and wicked with Japanese cotton. Initially, the first vape or two tastes okay, if not a bit muted, but then rapidly declines in regard to flavor. When threading the wick, I wicked such that there was tension on insertion, but not enough to move the coils (which is, what I understand, optimal?)

At any rate, not sure what I'm doing wrong here. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I've included a pair of images as well.

Thanks!

- John

View attachment 746155 View attachment 746157

Hi J,
2.85Ω... It doesn't look like 57 wraps.. it looks like 6... So maybe .28Ω?

Raise coil as mentioned.

cheers
I

 

[TjNyc]

My bad, not sure where my head was when typing that — it is indeed 0.28 ohms with a 3mm ID.

With that, thank you all for your replies. I’ll raise the coil as suggested and see how that goes.

Thanks folks.

 

[Budgie]

At the level you have that coil, there is no air travelling over the coil. IMO whenyou look through the air vents on the side of the Drop, you should be able to see through the other side through the bottom 6 vent holes, and the bottom of the coils should be visible through the top 4 vent holes, that way you are gonna get a huge amount of air over your coils.

 

[Rex Everything]

along with it being a bit low, that is a tiny coil for that big chambered atty.

 

[Asbestos4004]

I found a single coil on the drop lacking. The best I got was diagonal and about 50% peeking over the top of the posts .

 

[Budgie]

I found a single coil on the drop lacking. The best I got was diagonal and about 50% peeking over the top of the posts .

I’ve never tried a single coil, but if you were, would it not be better to go straight across the posts and bend the coil inwards to the centre?

 

[Asbestos4004]

I’ve never tried a single coil, but if you were, would it not be better to go straight across the posts and bend the coil inwards to the centre?

Just saying what worked best for me.... diagonal had better flavor.

 

[Edward Denison]

Raise the coil for more air and go up another 10-15 watts. My stuff runs .25-.15 and no less than 50 watts for good flavor 70-75 for max flavor. Just need to play with ohms, watts and coil position for air.

 

[Zaryk]

My AL85 eats batteries alive above 50w being single 18650 mod. It really struggles at 70w and up. It really isn't designed to do that kind of wattage.

 

[Edward Denison]

It will go to 85 watts a single 25 amp batterie will give 75 watts and the mod shouldn't cut out. On a single batterie setup I use 2 batteries in a day. Maybe look at getting a 2 batterie box if 1 won't last long enough.

 

[Zaryk]

It will go to 85 watts a single 25 amp batterie will give 75 watts and the mod shouldn't cut out. On a single batterie setup I use 2 batteries in a day. Maybe look at getting a 2 batterie box if 1 won't last long enough.

I only run mine at 8-11w with my Ares tank. I just wanted to mention that the AL85 is not good at handling the higher wattage. I'm not sure if you used one before, but it does seem to struggle above 70w. My other single battery mods handle higher wattage much better than the AL85, I guess it is something to do with the chip smok used. And just because it can go up to 85, that doesn't mean it is good at it. There is no good reason to push a battery to its limits.

Edit- The way I think of it is, just because my truck can do 140, I don't run it at that speed because I know the dangers outweigh the benefits. Running your mod maxed out (or close to it) is the same thing.

 

[Edward Denison]

Sounds like you have it figured out,have fun!