fired up my CHOBRA last night

[EagleTa2]

So, I bought the cobra close genesis RBA from fasttech...the stainless one for $12. It sat in the box for a month or so...just intimidating me until I had the time to tinker with it. I finally played with it last night and am so far generally unimpressed.

First, the coil that came on it was terrible to say the least. It popped from a positive lead hot leg when pulsing. No loss really... I pulled the mesh wick out and wrapped a nice pretty even coil with 31ga Kanthal A1. This coil also has a really bad positive hot leg...so in my inexperience I thought I did something wrong. I pulled it off and made a new one...again.

The new coil...almost perfectly evenly spaced had a hot leg again... this is when I realized that fasttech probably hadnt torched the mesh prior to rolling the wick. since it was all installed and looking good I startee adding juice to the wick only and pulsing it. after about 4 sequences of doing this, the hot leg subsided...probably because the mesh was oxidized now and wasnt shorting out against the coil.

I filled it with my favorite non cinnamon juice (wish it was a pyrex sleeve) and it is now producing clouds of vapor...but the taste is muted and metallic tasting... not good with my DIY juicy Peach.

the next thing I did was to take the extra wick that came with it and unroll it. I clamped it into a hemostat and oxidized it as best I could with the mini bic lighter from my vape kit. (currently away from home and no torch available). Then I rerolled it and did about 4 juice burns on it with more juicy peach.

like I said, I really do not like the flavor of the original mesh wick because it was presumably unoxidized. I am not sure if I should try the wick that I fiedled with or if I should try a plain ole silica wick. What do you guys think?

also...if you think I should try the silica wick, please link to a video or good tutorial if you have one.

Thanks in advance

Geo

 

[Thrasher]

try oxidizing just the top of the wick under the coil, no need to torch the rest of it.
then look for videos on the drillbit or peterk method of wrapping coils and the pulsing method and try to learn how to do an unoxy wick it takes some practice but flavor wise you will thank yourself later.

most likely the mystery mesh that came with it is covered in who knows what and needed to be cleaned. get some 500.

the more oxidized the wick the longer the break in period.

any metallic taste is shorting or hot spots, even if you dont see it.

find a screwdriver or drill bit. or anything the size of the hole wrap the coil on that and lock it in. then make the wick barely fit this coil. and it will work better at avoiding hotspots.

 

[EagleTa2]

try oxidizing just the top of the wick under the coil, no need to torch the rest of it.
then look for videos on the drillbit or peterk method of wrapping coils and the pulsing method and try to learn how to do an unoxy wick it takes some practice but flavor wise you will thank yourself later.

most likely the mystery mesh that came with it is covered in who knows what and needed to be cleaned. get some 500.

the more oxidized the wick the longer the break in period.

any metallic taste is shorting or hot spots, even if you dont see it.

So will they yucky metallic taste eventually go away? Or am I stuck with it for the time being?

thanks
Geo

 

[Thrasher]

no its a short or a hotspot and will stay that way till you kill it.

try taking a drillbit or screwdriver and making a coil, then make a wick that just fits. fire it dry and fix any hot spots before you fill the tank.





also running the voltage too high will keep triggering hotspots sometimes.


dont give up! the first few times with a geni can be a nightmare sometimes but is well worth the effort.

my very first effort was a disaster. lol after about 3 feet of wire i threw it in a box and said F THAT SHT.

 

[txredxj]

i have the same chobra from FT. i cleaned the stock mesh with soap then torched it. tried the peter k method but kept getting hot spots. it would only work at low power and even then it sucked. i watched some more videos and saw one where the guy folded the edge of the mesh so it didnt have all the frays on the outside. he also dripped vg on it and set it on fire couple times, i did it 4. put it in and started pulsing my coil till it glowed even. filled with juice and got a great vape off it. worked for about 4 puffs then it went bad. took off the cap and found a hot leg. worked it out and it was great again. been using the same set-up for about 10 tanks and working great. every third tank or so i pulse it to check for hot spots. only hotspot ive had since was when i managed to catch the wick on the cap threads. it impressed me so much i ordered an agat2 to mess with. ibtanked has a chobra glass tube that should work. havent measured mine to make sure it is right yet but i have seen some videos of people with the screw cap chobras that use them.

 

[tincbtrar]

You will need to fully oxidize your wick. The chobra is probably made of mystery metal. I set mine up today with some trazz from mtbaker and it tastes great with 500 mesh 29awg 7/8 wraps.

 

[EagleTa2]

Thinking I'm going to order some 500 mesh and try the PetarK method...unoxidized first.

If that doesn't work, I'll try oxidizing the mesh and doing juice burns and the folded edge.

If that still fails I'll just try silica and see what that is like. By the time I get to that point tho, I will have probably bought another igo-l for my provari...which is where the chobra is designed to go. The problem is that I'm paranoid about running out of juice while at work and will vape more than 3ml in my 9 hour shift...so I always have my bottle of juice with me.

Since I have my bottle, I can drip it at my desk easily... and I'm loving the flavor I get off of my IGO-L on my Sigelei 20.

So many options...lol

Thanks
Geo

 

[Thrasher]

and the folded edge.

this should be a mandatory step no matter what else you do differently, the outside of the mesh should always come to a clean edge, makes life easier and eliminates mystery shorts.

 

[txredxj]

+1 on the folded edge. i watched about 4 or 5 videos and there was no mention of folding the edge when i started out. then i found a video that was longer and after following it i got a great setup. search youtube for "Stainless Steel Wick Tutorial" by vapingwithdave if you want to check it out.