Help with Nautilus Mini

[Sk8r44809]

There may be rules against this, I didn't see any but some forums are picky. Anyway, my problem, randomly, is almost exactly the same, so I thought I'd tack it on here:

I also have a stick prince, and dropped it and broke the glass. Mine is definitely beyond even being able to tape it temporarily though. FYI since you guys mentioned it, I found the box it came in and there was definitely not a spare glass. I also see in the instruction booklet that the coils are supposed to be quads, and I don't believe that they were, so it's possible the guys I bought it from (it was a stall at a flea market) cannibalized the product before they sold it to me. Anyway, not a huge deal, I ordered a replacement already online, hopefully that one does end up having a spare glass with it.

So, the actual question in my post is that I started vaping with a Nautilus Mini that came with a variable battery pack. My wife is using that one now, and I upgraded to the Smok Stick Prince a couple months back. I tried it with the Nautilus head back then, because the Stick Prince's cloud is a lot thicker and sometimes I'm in a store or church or something and don't want to visibly be exhaling a cloud. Anyway back then it worked fine, as far as I remember, so I bought a second Nautilus Mini for when I wanted to be discreet.

So naturally when I shattered the glass on my TFV12 Smok Head, I ordered the new one and just swapped it back out with the Nautilus in the meantime. Only problem is that now for some reason it has a somewhat major leaking issue. Once I fill it, it runs fairly well for maybe 15 minutes, but soon enough there's too much juice in the chamber, so it bubbles and doesn't vape as well, and then soon after THAT it starts leaking down out of the air intake hole, and a full tank is down to basically nothing within a half hour. I did figure out that if I only fill the tank about a quarter of the way then the leak is less bad.

The last theory I can come up with is that the Stick Prince's set voltage isn't high enough to vaporize the liquid fast enough. But then if that's the case I don't get why it seemed to work fine when I tried it before. If anyone can help me to some solution, you'll not only help me out for the next couple days till my new TFV12 arrives, but also I can keep using the Nautilus when I wanna be discreet. Thanks very much for any input you may have

 

[Sk8r44809]

Oh yeah, I guess I forgot to cover my first couple theories lol. I thought it might be a bad coil, so I replaced it even though this one was still pretty much new. That didn't help. I also ran the Nautilus Mini through the wash by accident a while back and got soap in the juice, so I took it all apart and rinsed everything and put it back together, so my next thought was maybe I did it wrong, but I checked a few times and can't find anything out of place or broken or any of that.

Actually, having looked at the Nautilus Mini and the coils more closely the last couple days, I really don't understand why it was ever not having leaking issues. The way I see it, there's a mesh opening in the side of the coil that's exposed to the juice all the time, and the air hole opens right into the chamber inside of the coil, so there doesn't seem to be anything actually stopping the juice from running right down the air hole constantly. Obviously I must me missing something so maybe someone who knows can enlighten me how it normally works.

Thanks again, and I'm sorry if I'm in the wrong for more or less derailing the original post.

 

[classwife]

I moved your posts from that other thread and made you your own thread for this

 

[Baditude]

Maybe you didn't assemble it correctly, or lost an o-ring washer. If the tank can't hold a seal (missing o-ring or out of place o-ring), it will leak. Also check that you didn't cross thread the coil or base or any other threaded piece.

You're filling it from the bottom, right?

 

[Sk8r44809]

Thanks Classwife, I appreciate it!

And thanks Baditude, I do know it's not crossthreaded anywhere, just because I've reassembled it completely to check for that several times by now. I think that the seals are all there, I at least am sure the coil isn't missing a seal because I've checked it against the other coils I haven't opened yet. Beyond that, I'm pretty sure the only other seals are at the top and bottom of the glass cylinder, and those are both intact (and brand new actually, I haven't really used this particular head since I got it since it's meant to be a spare).

My new best theory is that I have just gotten used to pulling harder through using the Stick Prince the last month or two, I experimented with pulling a lot slower and more gently, and so far it seems to be working without leaking.

Back before I got the Stick Prince, I did occasionally have issues with getting too much juice inside the coil, and it would bubble for a while (I'm guessing till I had vaporised my way through the excess)... it was just much less a problem and didn't happen regularly. So I'm guessing if I just change my habits for the next couple days I will hopefully be ok and stop leaking.

 

[Baditude]

My new best theory is that I have just gotten used to pulling harder through using the Stick Prince the last month or two, I experimented with pulling a lot slower and more gently, and so far it seems to be working without leaking.

The Mini Nautilus was designed to be a MTL (mouth-to-lung) tank, which requires a slower and gentler drawing technique. I think you may have diagnosed the problem yourself. Maybe you were flooding the Nautilus with a DTL technique.

 

[r77r7r]

Tightening That top part in Bad's post is pretty essential to keep from leaking. Some also flipped the gasket inside. I had a coil that somehow constantly loosened that.
Unless faulty, I never had the main part more than snug.

 

[Storm52]

May sound moronic, but are the coils authentic and for the Nautilus? The nautilus coils, at least the 1.6 & 1.8Ω don't have a mesh opening on the side. There are juice holes on the sides. As previously mentioned, the top/chimney needs to be securely tightened to the glass. The coil needs to be tightened in the base. The base should be secure to the glass, but not "cranked down tight" or you could deform that big gasket. How old is the mini? The bottom white gasket could be worn. Check that the gasket is seated entirely inside the grove on the base. The glass tank is sealed on the bottom with the gasket, as well as the bottom inside.

 

[uthinkofsomething]

Aaaaand... What vg pg mix is your juice? Thicker higher vg juice will generally leak less.

 

[Sk8r44809]

Nah, it's not moronic lol, but yes, I get the name brand Nautilus BVC coils, they look exactly like the ones in Baditude's pictures. Whatever is inside the juice hole on the side looks like mesh to me, but I'm sure you're right.

This particular Nautilus Mini is brand new, so none of the seals are worn down or anything like that. And I've taken it apart and put it back together several times now trying to find something wrong like a seal being backward or whatever. I'm pretty sure at this point I'm just used to pulling too hard for this vape, since I was using the Smok Stick Prince for a couple months there. So I've been pulling about as lightly as possible last night and this morning and for the most part it works.

I don't know about vg and pg of the juice, but I would not call it thick at all. I buy Strawberry Ice from Evape.us and until the last couple days I never had this kind of problem with it, but it's not what I'd call a thick liquid.

 

[BrotherBob]

I'm pretty sure at this point I'm just used to pulling too hard for this vape,

Welcome and glad you joined.
I think you may be on the right track.
The MTL Nautilus Mini BVC coils are available in two different resistances. 1.6ohm and 1.8ohms.
Might like to read:
Above-Ohm Vaping vs Sub-Ohm Vaping
Vaping and Inhaling: Everything You Need To Know

 

[Topwater Elvis]

The .7Ω nautilus bvc heads work well in the mini also.

 

[Sk8r44809]

The new TFV12 arrived today! And wouldn't you know it... a couple minutes after I'd installed it, it was leaking all over the place! Haha, I think this time it was simple operator error though, I took the coil back out and reinstalled it and it stopped leaking, so I'm guessing the seal wasn't seated properly the first time. But I about lost it for a second there lol. It's also possible that I over-primed the new coil and it was just the excess juice leaking out. Either way it's been sitting there for a good 20 minutes now with no more leaking so I think I'm good.

Some parting thoughts:
-This one did come with a spare glass, so that's really nice. The glass is also different in this model, the one I broke was like a bubble, with a curve in the middle that sticks out (and is the widest part of the whole ensemble... just asking for broken glass), but the new one is a straight cylinder, so I hope that means it'll be less likely to break if I do end up dropping it again. There was also a band in the packaging, and I remembered someone in the thread mentioning that can help prevent broken glass too so hopefully I'm good there.
-Everything was tightened SUPER tight out of the box. I tried using rags and then damp rags to get enough grip to loosen it by hand but it wouldn't budge (and I have relatively strong grip, to boot), eventually I had to break out the pliers and vice grips just to get the tank open. The coil was installed just as tight. I'm just glad I managed to do all that without breaking anything else, I really think they should ship them hand tight, since almost everyone is going to want to take it apart before using it.

Thanks again for everyone's advice and input! I'll definitely be back if I need anything else in the future.

 

[Budgie]

The new TFV12 arrived today! And wouldn't you know it... a couple minutes after I'd installed it, it was leaking all over the place! Haha, I think this time it was simple operator error though, I took the coil back out and reinstalled it and it stopped leaking, so I'm guessing the seal wasn't seated properly the first time. But I about lost it for a second there lol. It's also possible that I over-primed the new coil and it was just the excess juice leaking out. Either way it's been sitting there for a good 20 minutes now with no more leaking so I think I'm good.

Some parting thoughts:
-This one did come with a spare glass, so that's really nice. The glass is also different in this model, the one I broke was like a bubble, with a curve in the middle that sticks out (and is the widest part of the whole ensemble... just asking for broken glass), but the new one is a straight cylinder, so I hope that means it'll be less likely to break if I do end up dropping it again. There was also a band in the packaging, and I remembered someone in the thread mentioning that can help prevent broken glass too so hopefully I'm good there.
-Everything was tightened SUPER tight out of the box. I tried using rags and then damp rags to get enough grip to loosen it by hand but it wouldn't budge (and I have relatively strong grip, to boot), eventually I had to break out the pliers and vice grips just to get the tank open. The coil was installed just as tight. I'm just glad I managed to do all that without breaking anything else, I really think they should ship them hand tight, since almost everyone is going to want to take it apart before using it.

Thanks again for everyone's advice and input! I'll definitely be back if I need anything else in the future.

That’s strange about it being SUPER tight, mine was quite loose when I got it, but pleased you didn’t damage it to get it apart. I’ve already broke one bubble glass, so always use that band on the replacement glass, hopefully it will protect it against knocks etc.

 

[uthinkofsomething]

In the future instead of using rags and pliers or channel locks or whatever, try wrapping a rubber band or two around it and use that for grip.