Every RTA I build leaks...

[cpa5oh]

I've been vaping for a month and I'm getting frustrated building RTA's because everything I build leaks through the air flow hole - I'm specifically talking about Rose V2 and Orchid V2 clones.

The actual building seems easy - I can create what seem to me to be perfect coils (super easy with the wrap-tight-then-squeeze-and-torch method,) I can get the coils positioned right above the air flow hole (pre-bending the legs works great,) and I'm wicking with a material that is supposed to be the best (the rayon cotton stuff.) The builds come in just under 1 ohm and they light up fast and evenly.

Example: yesterday I built two Rose V2 clones - dual small coils wrapped around a 1.4mm screwdriver, enough wick to barely fit through the coils, the 4 juice openings blocked off completely by the wicks, chimney/juice controls tightened all the way down (I don't understand how juice even gets to the wicks with the chimneys screwed all the way down let alone have the air flow hole get filled with juice) - if I fill either tank above the level of the ceramic cup/air flow hole, at some point I'm getting gurgling and then juice weeping out of the exterior air flow hole.

I have to be completely missing something - anyone have any thoughts as to what in general causes RTA's to leak through the air hole? Is this just an inevitable reality of rebuildable tank atomizers? Could it be related to me using clones and not authentics? (The Rose V2's are from two different cloners - Tobeco and I think Infinite.)

I can't find any pattern to this - sometimes I tinker with them and they leak right away...sometimes I thinker with them and they don't leak for a few hours and next thing I know the tank is emptied and there is juice all over my mod...

 

[3mg Meniere]

My leak problem on my Orchid stopped when I used BOTH o-rings on the chimney. I also am using it as single coil, and I blocked the air-hole that I am not using.

I have tried several things on my Russian, but it is still leaking.

 

[roxynoodle]

The only time I had a Rose leak I'm nearly certain I had the juice control open too much. Are your wicks completely filling the slots? I usually have to fold them back over and trim.

 

[cpa5oh]

I'll try that folding back over and trimming - with the smaller coils I'm sure the wick isn't as thick as it otherwise might be. Looks to me like the bottoms of the slots are filled, and the most I've ever opened the juice control was 1/4 turn from screwed all the way down. You've given me something to try, though, so I'll do it tonight if not sooner!

 

[roxynoodle]

Fill the wick slots completely. And don't open the juice flow more than 2 turns. Agree, with the little coils, the wicks are skinny so I have to fold them back over.

My one leak was weird. I had wicked and filled it the night before. It was fine all night. And all day. I went outside for 5 minutes, came back and she had peed out all the juice! So strange it went almost 24 hours and then leaked. I've had it close to 2 months so wasn't expecting that.

 

[edyle]

Well with the rose, you can turn the drip tip to close off the juice from flowing to the juice channels.

 

[edyle]

And with the orchid:
It's got the same problem as the kayfun: that top oring

That oring has to be up inside the cap so that when you screw down everything, the top of the chimney presses against it and seals the top.

If the top is not sealed then any liquid above the height of the center airhole will just flow into the fog chamber and leak out through the airhole.

If you loose that little rubber you'll have a permanent leak, and if you turn the tank upside down, all the liquid will drain out through the driptip.

 

[edyle]

If you get the same symptom on the rose, the problem is on the rubber seal on the rose driptip; same function as the rubber seal on the chimney of the orchid; it is to seal the top otherwise air can get in and allow liquid to flow downwards.

 

[3mg Meniere]

I put a size 60 o-ring on the chimney of my Russian, and that helped a lot. The original was too big and skinny.

 

[cpa5oh]

edyle, I put the o-ring up in the top cap (rather than let it sit at the base of the chimney top) when putting my Orchids back together - it worked like magic: NO LEAKS.

roxynoodle, I rewicked one of my Roses with the end of the wick doubled up to fill the slots - also worked like magic with NO LEAKS. Only problem is that, no matter how much I unscrew the chimney, I get very little flavor. I get vapor, but very little flavor. I'll keep playing with it, and maybe I just had a bad mouth night...

 

[roxynoodle]

edyle, I put the o-ring up in the top cap (rather than let it sit at the base of the chimney top) when putting my Orchids back together - it worked like magic: NO LEAKS.

roxynoodle, I rewicked one of my Roses with the end of the wick doubled up to fill the slots - also worked like magic with NO LEAKS. Only problem is that, no matter how much I unscrew the chimney, I get very little flavor. I get vapor, but very little flavor. I'll keep playing with it, and maybe I just had a bad mouth night...

Hmm, its my favorite tank for flavor. I have 2 now. One is running the diagonal single coil build, 1.3 ohm. I like it about 12.3W.

The other is dual coil, 0.65 ohm. I'm running that at 24.6W. Basically its 2 of the first's coil.

The vape is basically identical.

 

[themyst]

My Orchid V4 also leaked like a sieve when I first got it. Admittedly it was my first RTA so I didn't know much about it other than the build. Initially I had some leaking issues because of loose connections and o-ring placement, but still leaked out of the airholes. I stopped using a dropper bottle and used a needle tip, angled it down all the way (you'll feel it go all the way down if you toy with it) and SLOWLY filled it through the fill hole (you will see bubbles come up out of the fill hole when it is filling) when the bubbles stop and it starts welling up in the hole, you stop.

Then you screw it into the mod upside down, and immediately vape the .... out of it right side up. Doing this, I minimized, if not completely eliminated the leak from the airholes. I've wasted a ton of juice and endured many sticky fingers figuring it out.

It's so worth it though....