Hello, and an RDA question

[ConcreteJungle]

Hi y'all,

First time posting, but I've learned a lot from this forum over the past few months--thanks for that! Been off the smokes for several months (not even exactly sure how long, once I started vaping, I just ran out of cigarettes and never felt the urge to buy more). Awesome.

Anyway, I'm starting to nerd out about vaping (I tend to do that about stuff), and would like to get into dripping without spending a million bucks. I have an Istick tc40 currently, and would ideally like to use that with an rda, as I'm not looking to spend the cash on a new mod if I don't have to. Is that even possible (with good results, I wouldn't bother if it wouldn't improve flavor and vapor). I'm currently running the istick through a Kanger Subtank Mini.

Long story short, is it worth it to venture into the world of RDAs now, or should I wait until I'm willing to spend the dough on a more powerful mod?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Susan~S]

Hello and welcome to the forum @ConcreteJungle. Glad to have you here!

You can use a rebuildable on your mod. You can even use a rebuildable on an ego battery.

Below are some basics. Make sure you purchase an ohm reader (even if you mod can tell you your ohms).

Reading Materials

• Basic Coil Building And Safety For Beginners
• Information Resources for Your First RBA -- a blog by @Baditude (one of ECF's battery/safety experts)

Coiling Calculator

• Steam Engine
• If you are interested in learning more about how to use the Steam Engine (especially heat-flux) check out many of these great blog posts by ECF member State O' Flux. <=link

Basic Dual Coil Building Video

• Quick and Effective Coil Build for RDA Atomizers

Once you decide on a specific RDA then you can go out an watch some more coil building videos for your specific atomizer.

 

[dcfluegel]

howdy! and welcome!

really will come down the coils you are using on the atty - don't necessarily need moar power (though moar power never hurts, lol)

 

[suprtrkr]

Hi and welcome. 40 watts will do for anything but super clouds. You can buy clone drippers all over the net in the 10-15 bucks range. A Dark Horse clone that comes with both a 510 drip tip and a chuff cap can be built for either flavor or cloud. I also like a Plume Veil and a Velocity clone. Any of them can be had on FleaBay for 10 bucks or less. For authentics that won't break the bank, look at the Wotofo Sapor for a flavor chaser. That can be bought online for 20 bucks or so. My personal favorite is probably the Aris Pro by Council of Vapor, in the 25-30 dollar range. I have a Wotofo Mini Freakshow that, coiled in the .5 range, is nice for flavor. For clouds in an authentic, it's hard to beat a Fishbone for the money; they're like $15. I have my Fishbone coiled .3 on top of my Snow Wolf right now. Run it at 70 watts and it'll make your eyes water. If the budget will stretch, go authentic. It's worth the money. Sometimes you get a bad clone.

 

[speedy_r6]

At 40 watts, you can get pretty decent clouds and a very good vape with a lot of different atomizers. If you are looking for flavor, I am a huge fan of the magma RDA(or a clone if you don't feel like paying through the nose for an authentic one). As other people said, the wire you use will be the determining factor in what you can do with it. I have a magma clone that I use for flavor chasing with two basic coils using 26 gauge. I think they are 3mm diameter and 7 wraps each(not spaced). It comes out to right at 0.5 ohms and I get great flavor running it at about 25-35 watts. The only gripe I have about my clone is that the posts aren't perfectly centered. It still gives a great vape, though.

If you want to go for clouds, I would suggest something like a mutation RDA or a dark horse(or clone to save money). Again, with 40 watts, you can get decent clouds, but don't expect to be winning any cloud chasing competitions.

 

[Aadavis94]

I like my velocity clone. Lots of building room, easy to build on and a deep juice well means no leaking! I got in on Amazon for about 15 bucks I think. 40 watts is plenty to start off with. I find 8 wraps of 26 gauge kanthal around a 2 mm core is about .5 ohms is about perfect.

 

[ElevenEleven]

I'd say its worth it, but you'll need a few things first if you don't already have them.

An ohm meter will be the most important thing you buy. They range anywhere from $10-50, sometimes higher depending on how fancy you want to get. Try not to cheap out on this since its such an important tool. USA Ohm Meters make some of the best in the business.

You'll need wire to make your coils. You mentioned that you have a mod that does temperature control. What I suggest is that you start off working with Kanthal so that you'll learn what it is you want from your vape. 26g and 28g Kanthal will be your best bet considering the watt range you have. Practice building and finding what wattages you like before you venture into using TC.

Two other things you'll need are micro screwdrivers for coiling and cotton for wicking. Make 100% sure you're using organic cotton. Rayon/cellucotton and Koh Gen Do seem to be the crowd favorites.

As far as RDA's go, you're spoiled for choice. The only bit of advice I can give is to stay away from bottom airflow (due to leaking from over-dripping) and cloud chasing (due to lack of flavor) designs. I purchase my RDA's from 101Vape and Eciggity. VaporDNA is another good vendor but they only deal in authentics.

Welcome to ECF!

 

[Two_Bears]

Hi y'all,

First time posting, but I've learned a lot from this forum over the past few months--thanks for that! Been off the smokes for several months (not even exactly sure how long, once I started vaping, I just ran out of cigarettes and never felt the urge to buy more). Awesome.

Anyway, I'm starting to nerd out about vaping (I tend to do that about stuff), and would like to get into dripping without spending a million bucks. I have an Istick tc40 currently, and would ideally like to use that with an RDA, as I'm not looking to spend the cash on a new mod if I don't have to. Is that even possible (with good results, I wouldn't bother if it wouldn't improve flavor and vapor). I'm currently running the istick through a Kanger Subtank Mini.

Long story short, is it worth it to venture into the world of RDAs now, or should I wait until I'm willing to spend the dough on a more powerful mod?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

You istick40tc is fine. I used it up until a few days ago a Vaper friends mod died and asked if I would sell it. So I went and bought another Istick60tc.

Now that your mod is good for a while.

You will need some stuff and there is no need to break the bank.

1. Get a good ohm reader cost $10
2. You need a set of ceramic tweezers. Mine came in a kit.
3.you need to decide if you want clouds or flavor.
4. Do you want to drip (RDA) or do you want the convenience of a tank.(RTA)? In my opinion a few RTAs has better flavor than some RDAs.

Cover RDAs first.

Cloud chasers
Velocity, Mutation X.

Flavor chasers
Magma, Veritas, Freakshow Mini, Rogue. Of these I liked the flavor of the Freakshow Mini best. Second best was the Rogue. I did not own the Darang but a friend let me test drive it. Darang had the best flavor of all.

RTA flavor chasing

My favorites are Goblin Mini between the Freakshow Mini and Darang. The Orchid and Kayfun Nano is behind the Rogue in flavor but still better than the Veritas and Magma.

5. Get a good coil jig. Cost $8+ on eBay. I have a nice one I got on Fasttech. For $4-5 that does 3.5,3.0,2.5,2.0 and 1.5 mm coils. This can wait. In the beginning you can wrap around dril bits and screw driver shafts.

 

[JavaJunkie]

Gather an ohm reader and some patience. There's a learning curve to coil building. It's steeper for some people, but if you want to learn and you take your time to read up on it, I'm sure you'll tackle it in no time.

 

[djsvapour]

I only use one of my collection on 30w and 40w iSticks.

M.... A.... G.... M.... A

I have others, of course.

 

[edyle]

Hi y'all,

First time posting, but I've learned a lot from this forum over the past few months--thanks for that! Been off the smokes for several months (not even exactly sure how long, once I started vaping, I just ran out of cigarettes and never felt the urge to buy more). Awesome.

Anyway, I'm starting to nerd out about vaping (I tend to do that about stuff), and would like to get into dripping without spending a million bucks. I have an Istick tc40 currently, and would ideally like to use that with an RDA, as I'm not looking to spend the cash on a new mod if I don't have to. Is that even possible (with good results, I wouldn't bother if it wouldn't improve flavor and vapor). I'm currently running the istick through a Kanger Subtank Mini.

Long story short, is it worth it to venture into the world of RDAs now, or should I wait until I'm willing to spend the dough on a more powerful mod?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

1: "would like to get into dripping without spending a million bucks"
you can get an rda for as little as $5, often $10, and certainly $20

2: " I'm not looking to spend the cash on a new mod if I don't have to"
You do not have to buy a special mod for using an rda. You can use an rda on any mod.

3: "Is it worth it to venture into the world of RDAs now"
Of course! It's not expensive and requires no special other equipment; all else you really need is a few samples of different wire sizes to try out; (and you need something to check ohms with, and your istick will do that).

 

[sofarsogood]

My favorite RDA, the only one I use, is called an SV, $10 from Fasttech. I run it in TC mode with titanium wire. The signiture area at the bottom of this post is my vape. I use the ohm meter on the TC mod. I try to keep ohm's near the max for battery efficiency.

 

[djsvapour]

My favorite RDA, the only one I use, is called an SV, $10 from Fasttech.

Good find!

I'll bag one next order.

 

[sofarsogood]

Good find!

I'll bag one next order.

THe original one I got first was discontinued. I have the new one, my second, in transit from fasttech. $10.56 SV Style RDA Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer - stainless steel / 22mm diameter at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

I have 4 other styles of RDA's,, a derringer, tugboat, marquis, and a couple others that I can use but prefer the SV. The reasons are I prefer the vapor quality and the flavor I'm getting. It's a bit harder to build than a derringer or tugboat but I put up with that for the flavor I'm getting.

 

[ConcreteJungle]

Wow, thanks for all the great info, everybody! This is very encouraging, I was mostly just concerned that I would have to spend big bucks on a higher powered mod to get a decent vape. Good stuff!

One more question: to all who said I need to get an ohm meter, is the resistance reader on the istick not adequate? No big deal if not, as they're pretty inexpensive, just curious if there's any safety risk to just using the mod's ohm meter.

Thanks again everybody!

 

[Two_Bears]

Wow, thanks for all the great info, everybody! This is very encouraging, I was mostly just concerned that I would have to spend big bucks on a higher powered mod to get a decent vape. Good stuff!

One more question: to all who said I need to get an ohm meter, is the resistance reader on the istick not adequate? No big deal if not, as they're pretty inexpensive, just curious if there's any safety risk to just using the mod's ohm meter.

Thanks again everybody!

A lot of people say the ohm meter in the Istick family of mods is no good; BUUUUUUT I found with my istick40tc was consistently .02 ohms below what my ohms meter reported. I have found the ohm meter in the istick60tc is not as accurate as the one in the Istick40tc I had.

However I would still recommend a good ohm meter and the power of 2 AA batteries can't Fire the coil and would be safer in the beginning until you get used to building.

I know the gauge wire I am using and the resistance I want so I can usually get within 1/5th of an ohm to the resistance I want without using an ohm meter so I gave my ohm meter to a friend who was rebuilding a Freakshow Mini. Maybe someone would be willing to PIF (Pay It Forward) an ohm meter for you.

But a new builder REALLY needs one doing sub ohm coils because some batteries just can't handle super low resistance.

If we can be of more help just ask.

 

[ConcreteJungle]

A lot of people say the ohm meter in the Istick family of mods is no good; BUUUUUUT I found with my istick40tc was consistently .02 ohms below what my ohms meter reported. I have found the ohm meter in the istick60tc is not as accurate as the one in the Istick40tc I had.

However I would still recommend a good ohm meter and the power of 2 AA batteries can't Fire the coil and would be safer in the beginning until you get used to building.

I know the gauge wire I am using and the resistance I want so I can usually get within 1/5th of an ohm to the resistance I want without using an ohm meter so I gave my ohm meter to a friend who was rebuilding a Freakshow Mini. Maybe someone would be willing to PIF (Pay It Forward) an ohm meter for you.

But a new builder REALLY needs one doing sub ohm coils because some batteries just can't handle super low resistance.

If we can be of more help just ask.

Righteous. Makes good sense, I'll be grabbing one! Thanks again to all who replied, y'all are great. I think I'm gonna like this place.

 

[Two_Bears]

Righteous. Makes good sense, I'll be grabbing one! Thanks again to all who replied, y'all are great. I think I'm gonna like this place.

It's a good place here. You have everybody that is thinking of their first vape to people that make their own Mods. Also keep your eyes open for Mooch. He knows more about batteries and battery safety than anyone I know. He tells whether hype about a new battery is real Or someone is trying to pull a fast one.

I know what it is like about getting into rebuilding and trying to watch their budget but sub ohming on some batteries can be an iffy situation. If you insist on going ultra low when your battery can't go that low you could have an explosive situation.

Recently a guy was sub ohming on a mechanical mod and his battery exploded shooting his Aspire Triton across the wall and sticking in a wall.

With a regulated mod there are safety features but can still get interesting or kill your mod through lack of attention.

 

[Wolfenstark]

Looks like its all been covered already.