General Q's about Tanks and Coils

[BeOne]

Hi All,

I have some very beginner's questions about tanks and coils and just wondering what you veterans do and any insight would be greatly appreciated. Please bear in mind I've only been vaping for days

Firstly, my set up is a Cool Fire 4 (set at 25W) with a Protank 4 using a Clapton 0.5 Ohm coil with high VG juice (80%).

Tanks:
When do you fill your tanks? On my coils there's two holes where the cotton wicks up the juice. I fill up before that becomes uncovered. Suppose to make sure juice is wicked and the coil doesn't burn dry. Seems logical so just checking.
How often do you clean your tank? I tend to change juice flavours once a day for a variety so whenever I change I wipe down the inside of the tank before putting fresh juice in. Also, I would say I use two refills of any one juice before cleaning. Is this ok or should I be cleaning more often? The little bit of juice that's left (~1ml) when I change juices I discard. Does everyone else discard too?

Coils:
How often should I change my coil? Will I know when it's time to change because of the taste of the juice, a burnt taste, or some other indicator?
Should I dry burn clean my coils? I have read about people doing this but I've also read people saying 'No way should you do that'.
If dry burning coils is a 'no no' is there another method for cleaning my coils or is it time to replace when it's 'dirty' from deposits? As of date I haven't cleaned my coils. In fact I haven't replaced it yet in the 6 days its been in. Not sure if this is right or not.

Maybe pretty obvious answers to these questions but for someone like me who's new there's a lot of, sometimes contradictory, information out there.

Cheers

 

[djsvapour]

Hi @BeOne

Yes, fill your tanks when the level gets down to the juice holes or sooner. Some tanks you can get low (eg. Joyetech Cubis) and others not so low (eg. Kanger Subtank) - you'll know.

Can't say I've ever wiped a tank, I either fill up with what's in there (1ml?) or just wash it out with warm tap water and have entirely fresh liquid. If I really want to change flavours and what I have is good/worth keeping, I have a syringe in my box.

Change your coil when the taste has gone and/or the vapor is dropping. I sometimes change coils when I know it's still got a day or two but the taste is already less than fresh. You'll get a feel for that. Now and again, I might have a 2 week old coil and know it's not finished but want to change to a different family of flavours, so 'what the hell'... it's cost me 10p a day.

Dry burning is NOT for cotton coils. No, Never... unless you can remove the cotton. This is easy on rebuildables and almost impossible on the latest complicated designs.

I remember seeing a video of someone claiming to dry-burn a Nautilus BVC (cotton version) and to be honest, what a crock of nonsense. In the old days with Silica wicks, you could dry burn almost everything... not any more. It will burn the cotton.

6 days would be about when you might notice a drop in taste... (depending on the exact coil) but 8-10 is more likely and then you might stretch to 2 weeks depending on the liquid.
I have one liquid that won't make 1 week and others that will do 2 weeks.

 

[Baditude]

I agree with what djsvapour said above.

The byproducts of vaporizing e-liquid is a gunky residue on the wire coils, which degrades the flavor and vapor production. "Dry burning" involves pulse firing the coils to burn off the gunky residue on the wire; the remaining ash is quickly rinsed off the coils, and the cleansed coils are nearly like new.



When to change factory-made coils depends upon the model/brand of replacement-type coil, and also the juice you are using. I have had early-generation coils that needed to be replaced every two weeks; the coils in my newer Uwell Crown tank can go up to a month or more before needing to be replaced. Since the vast majority of today's tanks use cotton, these coils can not be dry burned so they must be replaced with a new one.

early generation clearomizers with silica wicks

Thicker, darker, and sweeter flavors are harder on coils/wicks than thinner, lighter/clear, and non-sweet flavors. Therefore, e-liquids that are heavy on the vg ratio (thicker) will be harder on coils while the e-liquids with more pg (thinner) in the ratio will be easier on coils. Darker flavors (eg coffee) will be harder on coils. You get the idea?

Early generation tanks used silica string as the wick. Silica doesn't burn when you dry burn coils. The downside to silica is it didn't wick as well as cotton, and didn't carry flavors as well as cotton. The vast majority of later generation tanks now use cotton, and because cotton will burn if dry-burned, it is ill-advised to try to dry burn the coils if it uses cotton as the wick.


Kanger Protank 4 replacement coil uses cotton

People who are using RBA's (rebuildable atomizers; see above video) and making their own coils and wicks are able to dry burn their coils (after removing the cotton wick) to extend the life of the coils for up to 4 months or more. However, the cotton wick needs to be replaced about every 3 - 4 days.


rebuildable drip atomizer with homemade coils and wicks

Proper Terminology: Is it a carto, a tank, or what? A Guide to Juice Delivery Devices

• A picture dictionary for beginners with descriptions of clearomizers, nano's, drip atomizers, bottom feeding mods, cartomizers, cartotanks, and RBA's (rebuildable atomizers). Includes video demos/reviews of all devices.

 

[rice721]

Hi All,

I have some very beginner's questions about tanks and coils and just wondering what you veterans do and any insight would be greatly appreciated. Please bear in mind I've only been vaping for days

Firstly, my set up is a Cool Fire 4 (set at 25W) with a Protank 4 using a Clapton 0.5 Ohm coil with high VG juice (80%).

Tanks:
When do you fill your tanks? On my coils there's two holes where the cotton wicks up the juice. I fill up before that becomes uncovered. Suppose to make sure juice is wicked and the coil doesn't burn dry. Seems logical so just checking.
How often do you clean your tank? I tend to change juice flavours once a day for a variety so whenever I change I wipe down the inside of the tank before putting fresh juice in. Also, I would say I use two refills of any one juice before cleaning. Is this ok or should I be cleaning more often? The little bit of juice that's left (~1ml) when I change juices I discard. Does everyone else discard too?

Coils:
How often should I change my coil? Will I know when it's time to change because of the taste of the juice, a burnt taste, or some other indicator?
Should I dry burn clean my coils? I have read about people doing this but I've also read people saying 'No way should you do that'.
If dry burning coils is a 'no no' is there another method for cleaning my coils or is it time to replace when it's 'dirty' from deposits? As of date I haven't cleaned my coils. In fact I haven't replaced it yet in the 6 days its been in. Not sure if this is right or not.

Maybe pretty obvious answers to these questions but for someone like me who's new there's a lot of, sometimes contradictory, information out there.

Cheers

You refill your tank whenever you feel like it. But yes I usually fill when the juice reaches the juice hole level.

With prebuilt coils you change them out once you feel like the juice isn't tasting right. This can be days, weeks or maybe even months depending on coil, type of juice (some types of juice gunk coils quicker).

You can only dry burn your coils when there is no cotton. With most prebuilt coils, the wicking material is usually cotton and it's a pain to disassemble rewick and reassemble. Therefore most cotton wick prebuilt coils are disposable meaning you never dry burn them. When people talk about dry burn they are usually making their own coils and therefore can remove and reinstall the wicking material. If you want a prebuilt coil you can dry burn and Vape straight without priming check out ceramic tanks. I recommend the cerabis by ceravape. It's the only sub ohm tank I have in rotation along with my 20 something RTAs.

As mentioned prebuilt coils are disposable items. So when they gunk up its time to throw them out.

 

[daviedog]

You don't have to refill a tank when fluid reaches the wick. Cotton is very absorbent, 15 or more drags before dry. Just turn your device upside-down like the old top coil tanks, clearos. This technique will come in handy when out & about without a bottle of juice..

 

[BeOne]

@djsvapour
@Baditude
and @rice721

Thanks for your lengthy replies. I'll need to go through them when on a PC and I have some peace and quiet but you all essentially reinforced what I already thought...except the dry burn bit which I was lost. I'm not making my own coils yet so they'll be getting chucked when they're done. I'm using different juices everyday to find the ones I like it'll be more challenging to know when it's the coil or just the taste I don't like.

Thank you again for the information which I shall fully digest later

 

[OlderNDirt]

Welcome @BeOne !

Looks like you've gotten all the answers you were looking for, but will just add a suggestion. For those of us who frequently change flavors (I switch several times each day), multiple tanks work wonders. Think of picking up a second tank when you can, load up a second flavor, and switch whenever your heart desires.

 

[Baditude]

...will just add a suggestion. For those of us who frequently change flavors (I switch several times each day), multiple tanks work wonders. Think of picking up a second tank when you can, load up a second flavor, and switch whenever your heart desires.

I agree. Before I began using a RDA, that's what I did.

Now, with my RDA (rebuildable drip atomizer), I just switch flavors on a whim by dripping the different flavor on the cotton. No need for multiple juice attachments.

 

[rice721]

@djsvapour
@Baditude
and @rice721

Thanks for your lengthy replies. I'll need to go through them when on a PC and I have some peace and quiet but you all essentially reinforced what I already thought...except the dry burn bit which I was lost. I'm not making my own coils yet so they'll be getting chucked when they're done. I'm using different juices everyday to find the ones I like it'll be more challenging to know when it's the coil or just the taste I don't like.

Thank you again for the information which I shall fully digest later

Personally, if I didn't build my own coils and wanted to save some $$$ on prebuilt coil packs, I would consider a tank that uses full ceramic coils.

Why?

1. Once you finish your tank and want to swap flavors, you simply dry burn the prebuilt coil in your tank, rinse the tank and fill the tank with the new flavor.

2. Ceramic coils last much longer than traditional cotton wick coils. The ceramic tank I have (Cerabis) claims that their coils last 3 months. So far I've gone through 40-45mls of juice in the same coil and its vaping like day 1.

3. The flavor is just super clean. The Crown was my favorite sub ohm tank before I went the RTA route due to the flavor it puts out. The Cerabis is better than the Crown.

3 Cons with the Cerabis

1. You cannot fully disassemble the tank. Once that glass breaks you're out and need to get a new one.

2. Due to the nature of porous ceramic, the tank heats up very quickly. However, the heat does not transfer much to the drip tip (its got a delrin/plastic insulator).

3. I find that I need at least 40W to power up the 0.4-0.5ohm coils on the Cerabis, this might be a con for some people.

 

[OlderNDirt]

I agree. Before I began using a RDA, that's what I did.

Now, with my RDA (rebuildable drip atomizer), I just switch flavors on a whim by dripping the different flavor on the cotton. No need for multiple juice attachments.

I got into that a while back with a Freakshow, but due to hand tremors, I mostly use it for trying new flavors. Some days it is virtually impossible to "hit the cotton."

 

[medleypat]

I use my coils until the flavour gets mutedf then soak them in vodka for 12 hours then in water for 12 hours then reuse them has worked great for me. Have been vaping for 10 months and have only had to toss 3 coils still using some that are 8 months old. Still have the first ones I bought just don't use them because of upgraded equipment.

 

[BrotherBob]

Might like to take advantage of the search function in upper right hand corner of this post. Could type in " How often do you clean your tank ".
Low effort "help" requests will often harm the poster and folks will eventually come to ignore your posts.

 

[BeOne]

@BrotherBob

What makes you think I didn't use the search function? If you cared to read my whole post you would see the last paragraph which clearly states:

Maybe pretty obvious answers to these questions but for someone like me who's new there's a lot of, sometimes contradictory, information out there.

Surely that would indicate that I did indeed search the forum but not only that I used a wider Google search and found a great deal of contradictory information on the subject. So what I did was write my own question (which was only 1 of 5 questions - 20% of my entire post) and then state what I did to see what other people said on my method.

You should never 'assume' anything in life...after all we all know what that does!? So, show me one post which contains my question and comment and also which contains the rest of my questions and I shall remove this one.

Anyway, on to the very helpful responses given.

@Baditude

Thanks for that terminology link. Very helpful.

@rice721
The Protank 4 comes with a 0.5 Ohm Ceramic. The guy at the shop where I bought it from made a right mess of priming it and filling it up that it continued to leak everywhere so he put a 0.5 Kanger Clapton in and gave me 5 spare coils and a few bottles of liquid plus a massive apology. I was happy with that primarily because of my ignorance and had no idea that Ceramic was better or I would have pushed for a replacement.

Saying that, my understanding is that the ceramic coils need to be run at 35W+ which for me I've found is a wee bit too high for my liking. I'll stick with my cotton just now until when (if) I upgrade.

@daviedog
Thanks for letting me know about the absorption of cotton. I did swirl the juice about the first couple of times but what I noticed is that it starts spitting hot juice into my mouth. I put this down to it being too dry so try to avoid that now.

@OlderNDirt
Aye, I've been considering another tank for that reason and next time I'm in the city I think I'll grab one. Strangely they're cheaper in the shop than online!

@medleypat
Is that prebuilt coils you do that with? Interesting. Never have any vodka kicking around but will Whisky do? Good old Scottish Whisky not that Bourbon stuff It certainly cleans up Gold and Silver jewellery.


I ventured deeper into my Protank box and I have this:

2 x 0.6 coils, 2 x grub screws, an Allen key and some cotton. Think the coils go in parallel to give a 0.3 Ohm coil. Might play with this today and see how I get on.

Thanks again all

 

[rice721]

I believe not all ceramic coils are the same. some are full ceramic while others are not. but yes, the ones I'm using does require a certain amount of power and might be a con to some vapers preference.

going the rebuildable route is great as well. enjoy your vape.