Herakles plus floods, then leaks down into the airflow and right out!

[swayback]

someone gave me a Herakles plus today, they were so frustrated with it that it was worthless to them!
It leaked something awful!
And they bought it from the wrong store, and were told that it's your problem sorry, basically told to get out, thanks for the $40!
This person wasn't very happy! They also hadn't done much to find the issue themselves.
So I took it, broke it down cleaned it up, and put it back together. I spent a few hours online reading about it and how to fix leaks with it.
I followed all the recommendations, closed off air and juice flow, filled it about halfway, opened the juice flow ever so slightly and started vaping. All seemed well! It was flooding some, even with the juice flow open only a crack, 20% is guess, not much... But while vaping it was basically ok.
I was done vaping, closed off the juice flow and left it sit. Thank god I didn't trust it and took of my mod!
I came back an hour later and it was almost empty! It leaked out atleast 2ml in an hour, with the juice flow closed but airflow open...huge mess!
I'm at a lose, it seems that all the o rings are seated fine, everything is dry thst should be, it looks like the juice is seeping out the closed juice flow, into the coil and right through the bottom into the airflow...
I'll be working on it more to try to sort it out, I've heard it's a great tank and figured it was user error, but after doing what I did, I'm not so sure...
Clearly the coils wick very well!
But with the juice flow closed, 80vg juice, you really don't expect 2ml to find its way out in only an hour.
If anyone has any suggestions, ideas or experience here, I'm all ears! But I think it might just be a malfunctioning tank... Sad really, my original Herakles is pretty nice with the right coils, not my fav but still good, and from the reviews, this seemed like a nice improvement!
Most owners seem very pleased, even claiming it might be the best flavor tank around, or atleast top 3...
Might just go in the junk drawer ...
Thanks in advance to anyone who replies!

 

[OlderNDirt]

I have had my H+ for about 3 weeks, and the leaking is my only complaint. But it is not so bad I can't use it and haven't even put in another coil yet, but was going to take a close look when I do. It certainly has not been to the degree that it is noticeable by the amount in the tank going down. But it does concern me that it may be noticeable after changing coils. I try to make sure the wick holes are "closed" when not in use, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. Looking forward to what you find and if there is a "fix".

 

[swayback]

Well I closed everything down real tight, added about half a tank of juice and left it site overnight, I've still not touched it. The juice level is about the same as it was but I can see juice pooled up at each airflow hole, no idea how much juice is in the air chamber.
I saw online that coils wick so well that you only need the juice flow open a crack, stuff about flipping the tank upside down after filling to open the juice flow holes... Several other tricks that really seem like a lot of trouble and hassle.
I'm not sure that it's worth all the trouble at this point, it really drinks the juice and requires a lot of power to get going.
I did notice that the base of the tank got ridiculously hot! I mean after 10 mins of pretty steady puffing, seriously at 55w it was too hot to hold! Hot enough to that the top was even beyond warm and approaching hot!
That in itself may be the cause of the flooding and leaking!
If it's generating that much heat, then it's certainly creating a lot of pressure from it, that pressure only has one place to escape and that straight through the coil...
I've heard 65-80w is where people like to vape these at... I was only at 55...

 

[BlownFuze]

I had the same experience with leaking and I didn't find the flavor worth the aggravation. After 2 weeks of wasting coils and juice - I kept the driptip and threw the tank in the trash.

 

[OlderNDirt]

About 20 hours ago, I changed coils to the SS that came in the box without changing the juice. I rinsed the base, top cap, and drip tip well under warm water and wiped, cleaned and dried well. I inspected all O-rings that looked fine. The only thing that looked like a possible "problem" was the airflow channels to the drip tip. So I primed the coil, reassembled, close all the airflow and wicking openings, and let it sit for a couple hours. I checked it out and saw no signs of leakage, so fired it up starting at low wattage and worked upwards to 65 watts. I opened the wicking channels around half, bottom airflow about half, but left the drip tip airflow closed and vaped away for maybe 2 1/2 hours. There were virtually no leaks, just a very slight moistening on the bottom of the base. I took it off the mod, closed all wicking/air flow channels, put it in the rack and let it sit overnight. Checking it this morning there are no signs of leaking whatsoever.

While this is a very limited test over a very short time, I thought I would pass it along should others want to try similar tests in our efforts to rectify this problem. And I am going to continue using it with the drip tip airflow closed for a couple days before opening them back up half way like I was doing from the start. Pretty much just a FWIW.

 

[swayback]

Mines been sitting a few days now, unused, juice flow closed, everything else is wide open, no leaking anywhere.
Considering that, and the fact that all my disassembling and Checking for the source of the leaking, I'm convinced that it's simply flooding the coil to an extreme degree, thought the coil, And right down through it, into the airflow chamber.
So that's not actually leakage really... It's just flooding to an extreme degree!
So either; the coil wick TOO good, the coil is faulty(but it's done the same with the 3 coils that came with it) or, the heat build up is creating a lot of positive pressure inside the tank, forcing the juice through the coil. I think it's heat build up that's to blame, that easily explains it, especially since I experienced just as much flooding and leakage with the juice flow wide open as I did with the juice flow barely cracked open. Positive pressure will easily push juice through the coil even through the tiniest hole.

 

[swayback]

Ugh!
I'm getting nowhere with this thing!
I continued to leave it with the juice flow off until today, everything else open an no leaks!
I slapped it on my mod, and opened the juice flow up an imperceivably tiny amount, vaped it a few mins(boy it drinks the juice) and left the juice flow open that little bit after I was done, took it off my mod and an hour later it had filled the airflow with juice!
I can't find a diagram of where o rings should be... But it seems like they're all in place as far as I can tell, everything that should be dry and free of juice is in fact dry... Still leading me to think it's flooding straight through the coil!
It's driving me nuts!
I really get good vapor and flavor off this tank and really wanted it to work but al this point I'm not sure it's worth the $15 for a new pack of coils to keep testing... If it's just flood through the coil it could be a faulty coil... But the previous own said it did the same thing with both the other coil heads she used...
Ahhhh
Does anyone have an exploded view of one, showing o ring placement?
I guess I could look it over and describe where each one is to see if ones missing but I swear it's just flooding the coil to an extreme degree!
So frustrating!

 

[rice721]

Just googled herakles plus leak and dug up this old thread. yeah it leaks thru the bottom airflow vents...as the OP said its probably because the coil wicks too well and thus the juice just floods thru it going into the base and coming out of the airflow...sad, I like this tank...good flavor, good vapor, love the asthetics...why can't all tanks be like the crown.