Getting beyond frustrated at my ProTank2

[TastyClouds843]

Ok, so I recently dived into the big boy pool that is rebuilding.. got my 28 gauge kanthol, starting to wrap some simple coils, figuring out to not have the leads crossing / touching metal, etc etc.. Finally get the build up and running andddd...

Mouth full of e-liquid. No matter how large or small I do the wick, the coil.. I've tried doing everything different that I can think of and I have no luck. My build produces a tiny bit of vapor, and then just throws a bunch of juice in my mouth.

I have the rubber cup thingy on, and on properly, so that isn't the issue.

I really really *REALLY* want this to work but I can't for the life of my get it to quit flooding like crazy. Bout to just get a couple RDAs and call it a day.. but I don't want the 3 ProTank2s I have go to waste.

 

[gpjoe]

What are you using for wick?

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[TastyClouds843]

What are you using for wick?

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Organic boiled cotton (boiled with distilled water)

Edit: Would over-saturating the wick possibly be the culprit? I don't feel like I'm overdoing it, but I'm definitely down to try priming it a bit less if it'll work.

 

[gpjoe]

That should work fine. Is there juice leaking out of the bottom of the coil onto you 510 connection? That would mean that your wick may be too thin and not filling in the gaps where it exits the coil. That would cause too much juice to flow into the coil and flood it.

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[jpcwon]

When I re-wick/recoil my wife's PT2 coil heads, I always use a 'flavor wick' on top of the regular wick (both organic cotton)...this does a few things; one is that it enhances flavor a bit, and it also serves to 'seal' the openings that the wick stick out through...

maybe try this?

 

[TastyClouds843]

That should work fine. Is there juice leaking out of the bottom of the coil onto you 510 connection? That would mean that your wick may be too thin and not filling in the gaps where it exits the coil. That would cause too much juice to flow into the coil and flood it.

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I've noticed a small amount of juice on the 510 connection, but not much. I can try thickening the wick a lil bit, def worth a try.

When I re-wick/recoil my wife's PT2 coil heads, I always use a 'flavor wick' on top of the regular wick (both organic cotton)...this does a few things; one is that it enhances flavor a bit, and it also serves to 'seal' the openings that the wick stick out through...

maybe try this?

Sadly I've been doing this all along. Just to clarify my wicking procedure has been to twist a small bit of boiled organic cotton into the coil itself roughly the length of the stock wick that comes w/ it, and adding a strand of flavor wick roughly the same length.

Gonna try building a couple more coils and trying a few more things.

One thing I'm a bit confused about, when you're done wicking and have it saturated, do you push it into the cup so it sits in the actual tank, or leave it longways and hanging out of the sides a bit?

 

[WileECoyote]

leave it hanging out the sides a bit. Have you watched any videos on this? That is how I learned. Frustrated me at first but now i can leave a tank setting for 3 days on its side and no leakage or dry hits. Keep it up, you will get that perfect build!

 

[TastyClouds843]

leave it hanging out the sides a bit. Have you watched any videos on this? That is how I learned. Frustrated me at first but now i can leave a tank setting for 3 days on its side and no leakage or dry hits. Keep it up, you will get that perfect build!

Aye, I've watched RipTripper's Micro Nano coil build or whatever, and a few other build videos for the protank. I do my wrap a tiny bit different because I don't have my 20 gauge syringe needle yet, but everything else I do essentially exactly the same and I just can't seem to get it working. I suppose I'll keep trying.

Are there any videos you recommend?

 

[gpjoe]

Go to the Tips and Tricks forum and check out the thread "Protank cotton rebuild, the way I do it". Follow his directions. It's the best tutorial I've seen and it works. I rebuild all of my Kanger coils using his method.

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[TastyClouds843]

Now I'm just getting 0.0 coils over and over again.. .... I just wanna taste my juices, I'd really hate to accept defeat and just use stock kanger heads..

 

[TastyClouds843]

Update: Finally got a 1.2 ohm nano microcoil working, still having a pretty significant issue with gurgling / getting liquid in my mouth though. Even tried using thicker / more wick w/ no avail. I've tried soaking the tanks, small wick, medium wick, large wick, completely full tank, half full tank, 3/4.. idk what to do to fix this issue.

Really bittersweet to finally get my MVP v2 to read out 1.2 ohms consistently and then to still get a mouthful of liquid. That's my reward for my first ever successful coil build. =\

Also, hardly getting any vapor if that helps at all. Running it at the 3.7 watts my MVP recommends, currently only around 8 volts.

Edit: Played with the variable voltage a bit, just kept vaping on it and vaping on it and now I'm getting less juice in my mouth and more vapor / flavor. Looks like I finally have my first successful build guys! Now if only I could get it to completely not flood / gurgle, I'd be the happiest noobie on Earth.

 

[WileECoyote]

It is ll about how much you fiddle with it. You will get it. If you need to, turn the tank over and blow it out through the connection end onto a tissue. Also, check the area under the drip tip. I find it sometimes collects condensation and makes a gurgle. I keep a QTip in my kit just to use as a "mop" to keep that area clean. Let me know how that works for you.

 

[folkphys]

You may be able to get better results using the MVP in Variable Voltage mode instead of wattage. If the Amp limit of the MVP is 3.5A, you might actually be able to get up to 14 watts out of it with a 1.2Ohm atomizer and the MVP (in VV mode) set at ~4.1 Volts.

Beyond this, most often the flooding and gurgling is caused by a less-than-ideal wick size/density (especially if it is cotton) in the slots between the coil cup and tank area. Because cotton is a great sponge and thus will swell beyond its dry size (and sometimes more so as it ages) and because not all balls of the stuff are created equal (with varying strand densities and differing profusions of those little clumps), cotton can be a real PITA to wick up properly. Protank heads being so small doesn't help things either. Also, and this is perhaps the most important confounding circumstance, Protanks rely on a semi-vacuum and a pressure differential to function properly. This means that the wick slot is both a point of juice-entry and a point of air-escape. Thus, the wicking material must be dense enough to provide both a good seal between coil and tank in order to keep the coil chamber from flooding, but it must also be not too dense so that air is allowed to pass from the coil chamber into the tank.

I find the best cotton wicks for protank heads can slide through a 5/64" ID coil without overly snagging it, are trimmed flush with the edge of the outer plate (~3mm past the slots) and then whose ends are fluffed out to the sides and upward of the wick slots (I poof 'em and squish 'em after I snap on the chimney).

Other possible flooding causes:
1. Bad seal somewhere, e.g. tank-to-base; head-to-base; head-to-chimney
2. A coil that is slow-to-reach-maximal temperature, i.e. your coil is f-ed up by a hot leg, soft short, really uneven wrappings, etc... such that you're sucking in juice faster than your coil can vaporize it.

 

[TastyClouds843]

Thank you so much for the help / advice everyone, so great to have so many people willing to help. I think the main issue I was having was wick density / length, using a bit thicker of a wick threaded through the coil & then trimmed essentially to the specifications in the above post & then a pretty thick flavor wick of essentially the same length placed over top the coil is seeming to do the trick.

I think the gurgling / flooding I was having was from the initial rush of juice down into the coil -- either the wick didn't saturate and expand enough to compensate all this juice, or there was too much juice flowing down into the coil for the wick to function properly.

Of course, I'm aware that being a noobie probably didn't help my issues with getting a build to work properly. I would catch myself doing dumb ...., like .....ing up my leads inserting the rubber grommet / pin, trimming the leads too short / not short enough (& having trouble screwing it back down into the coil base / outer plate), etc etc. Also, all I've had to wrap coils so far is a toothpick lol, waiting on my 20 gauge syringe needle to arrive & will probably go buy some drill bits today.

 

[gpjoe]

Update: Finally got a 1.2 ohm nano microcoil working, still having a pretty significant issue with gurgling / getting liquid in my mouth though. Even tried using thicker / more wick w/ no avail. I've tried soaking the tanks, small wick, medium wick, large wick, completely full tank, half full tank, 3/4.. idk what to do to fix this issue.

Really bittersweet to finally get my MVP v2 to read out 1.2 ohms consistently and then to still get a mouthful of liquid. That's my reward for my first ever successful coil build. =\

Also, hardly getting any vapor if that helps at all. Running it at the 3.7 watts my MVP recommends, currently only around 8 volts.

Edit: Played with the variable voltage a bit, just kept vaping on it and vaping on it and now I'm getting less juice in my mouth and more vapor / flavor. Looks like I finally have my first successful build guys! Now if only I could get it to completely not flood / gurgle, I'd be the happiest noobie on Earth.

Glad to hear it's working better for you. Using cotton is a bit different than the standard silica wicks, but it is so easy that I am willing to accept the occasional gurgle or tiny bit of juice on the battery connector. I mainly use my Protanks at my desk at work, and keep q-tips an kleenex handy if I need them. Not a big deal for me.

There can be a lot of trial and error with these things, but eventually you will find the "sweet spot".

 

[brekehan]

My problem is that I get everything set up fine, test the ohms after I get the ends cut, replace the rubber and the metal piece that goes into the rubber and its usually about 2.8 ohms, which is right where I want it. Then when I put the chimney piece on BAM its all screwed to hell. Either I get 0.5 ohms which won't fire or it keeps going up and down between 3 and 0.

I'd say it is obviously making contact somehow with the coil, but even after 15 attempts I cannot seem to make one that works anymore. I had success twice, my first two actually, but after that no luck.

I am using 32 guage Kanthal A1 and 2 mm Ekowool.
The shop here charges $10 for 10 feet a piece for each! So, I feel like I am just wasting it, and never mind that it takes me 30 minutes every attempt.

I wish I could go out and just buy a real rebuildable. I'd slap down $100 for a Russian 91% or Kayfun Light, but no one in the US seems to have anything in stock. I can find the Tobeco ones, but that whistling would annoy the piss out of me.

 

[gpjoe]

My problem is that I get everything set up fine, test the ohms after I get the ends cut, replace the rubber and the metal piece that goes into the rubber and its usually about 2.8 ohms, which is right where I want it. Then when I put the chimney piece on BAM its all screwed to hell. Either I get 0.5 ohms which won't fire or it keeps going up and down between 3 and 0.

I'd say it is obviously making contact somehow with the coil, but even after 15 attempts I cannot seem to make one that works anymore. I had success twice, my first two actually, but after that no luck.

I am using 32 guage Kanthal A1 and 2 mm Ekowool.
The shop here charges $10 for 10 feet a piece for each! So, I feel like I am just wasting it, and never mind that it takes me 30 minutes every attempt.

I wish I could go out and just buy a real rebuildable. I'd slap down $100 for a Russian 91% or Kayfun Light, but no one in the US seems to have anything in stock. I can find the Tobeco ones, but that whistling would annoy the piss out of me.

If the coil is fine until you mount the chimney, then you may be mounting your coil too high in the base. I wrap the coil around a 1/16 drill bit and drop it with the coil into the slots of the lower cup. I hold that in place with one finger while I install the rubber insulator and pin, making sure it stays down inside the cup. Once that is done I check and adjust the coil to make sure it doesn't contact anything and then slide out the drill bit. If I do all of that, and still have a short, it is because legs are poking out around the insulator or pin. I just push those in and it fixes the problem.

And you need to buy your wire directly from the maker, on-line, or go to ebay. I just bought 100ft of 28ga wire on ebay for well under 10 bucks shipped to my door. I have bought wire by-the-foot locally just to get started, but no more.

 

[TastyClouds843]

And you need to buy your wire directly from the maker, on-line, or go to ebay. I just bought 100ft of 28ga wire on ebay for well under 10 bucks shipped to my door. I have bought wire by-the-foot locally just to get started, but no more.

Aye, I got 50 ft shipped to my door for ~$5.00, B&M's will beat you over the head on kanthol / rebuildable supplies.