I need serious help. Just started vaping already wanting to stop. Protank problem?

[Utsuru]

Alright, so I'll try my best to keep this short but I tend to ramble, so I apologize ahead of time. I've been smoking cigarettes for 10 years, and a few weeks ago I somehow stumbled upon this whole vaping thing. I thought it would be a great thing to try so I did a ton of research before I made my decisions of what setup and juices to try out.

So I ordered a Joyetech eGo-C Twist, a Kanger Protank, and some juice from Mt. Baker Vapor, Alice in Vapeland, and Halo. I started off with Mt. Baker Vapor's Hawk Sauce, it was alright, a bit fruity but a pretty pleasent taste, probably needed to be steeped a bit but the flavor was generally nice. I vaped it for a few days and it was decent. Then my Halo order came in and I figured I'd try some of them out. I popped in some of their Turkish Tobacco, and I liked it fairly well. I vaped this for about a day. Then my atomizer head died, and the other one in my kit was a dud, so I had to get more heads. Mt. Baker Vapor sent me a 5 pack for free (great customer service.)

I continued to vape my Halo juice, patiently waiting for my Alice in Vapeland sampler to get here. I've heard great things about their juices and how many of them are awesome right out of the mail, but I steeped them for a day anyways. I continued to vape on my Halo and then started getting a very awful, terrible taste. I'm not sure if it's the famous "burnt" taste, but it's dreadful, chemically, nasty, gagging taste.

I thoroughly cleaned out my tank, twice, with warm water, same thing with the connecting ring. I then dried them thoroughly as well. I took a brand new head out of the pack and put a few drops of Alice's Zombie Apocalypse on the wicks, then filled my tank, and let the juice soak into the wicks for about a half hour before trying it out. I still get a horrible, nasty taste with maybe hints of strawberry. I thought what gives? So I cleaned my tank thoroughly again and loaded up some Hawk Sauce, since I knew the flavor I could at least do some troubleshooting if it still tasted bad. I used a brand new head. Sure enough, it was hints of goodness with massive amounts of awful.

So, needless to say, I don't know what to do. Everything now tastes bad out of my protank, even with it being cleaned and with new heads. Someone, please, if anyone reads this that can gives me some advice how to save vaping, please chime in. In the meantime, I'll be at the store buying a pack of cigarettes.

I also tried removing the top wick on a clean head on a clean tank with a new juice and same thing. Awful. I'm very upset at the amount of money I've wasted and much of the juice from the samplers I was so excited to try have simpily gone to waste. A Quiet Morning tasted like tires, Twas Brillig like chemical runoff and Zombie Apocalypse, tires and chemical runoff. Please, please help me.

Kindest regards,

Adam

 

[Thrasher]

alcohol is your friend. i would soak everything in some high proof vodka then rinse in hot water.

 

[Utsuru]

Will soaking the protank and the heads in say, pure grain alcohol work? And won't damage them? I just find it hard to believe that being so new it would have had time to develop any residue or "funk."

 

[bnrkwest]

I don't have a protank so I can't help there, but you should have some back up delivery devices, my advice is get some cartos. They are very reliable. All clearos are fiddly in my opinion, I use some too, but I use cartos more because they are always there for ya Good luck! bnrk

 

[Utsuru]

Would it be possible that I burnt a wick and as a result have had that taste permeate my tank and "stick"?

 

[brock957]

Vodka is you friend. Bourbon for drinking. Vodka for soaking.

 

[Thrasher]

its just there are so many little seams and cracks and places to get juice in and some of the juices are so strong that they stick around real well. pga should be ok too. i dont own a protank but its what i did when i used clearos and the alc almost always stripped and residue out.

Would it be possible that I burnt a wick and as a result have had that taste permeate my tank and "stick"?

thats always a possibility also, as well as you may be vaping the juice too hot and need to turn everything down some, not every juice vapes great at the same setting.

with clearos i would run them a little lower and either take a prepuff to get them going or just hold the button for a sec before hitting it.

 

[retired1]

What voltage are you setting the Twist to, and what are the ratings (resistance) on your ProTank heads? Sounds as if you may have the voltage cranked up too high for the resistance of the head.

 

[brock957]

Would it be possible that I burnt a wick and as a result have had that taste permeate my tank and "stick"?

Could have burnt wick. But no permanent taste in tank. It will wash or soak out.

 

[Ozarklady]

You do need help, I wish I could help you but I'm new too. I've been burning my Boge cartos up. I think I've figured it out though. I chain vape and I read somewhere that you have to give it 30 seconds between drags. So, if you get cartos, don't chain vape them. Hope it helps, I feel for you as I've been off to a rough start too. oops, just did it again

 

[NotoriousJDP]

I went through a phase like that went I first started vaping. I was really liking vaping all these wonderful flavors then one day outta the blue all my juice and all my equipment just started tasting horrible. It was like this for about 5 days. Is it a chemically/metally taste that you can taste even a few minutes after you exhale? That's how mine was. I tried everything I could to get rid of it. I changed heads and clearos and juice and even batteries but it wouldn't go away. People kept telling me it was vaper's tongue but I didn't think so since I could taste something...this horribly acrid taste. It wasn't a burnt taste either, I knew what those tasted like. I actually gave up vaping because I couldn't stand it. On day three of quitting vaping I decided to try again since I had spent all this money on vaping and whadya know, I could taste my juice again. I don't have any real advice, sorry, I just wanted to share my experience. Oh wait, yeah I do, if your taste buds recover, switch juices a lot. I mean a couple times a day. That's what I do and haven't tasted that taste since.

 

[Utsuru]

What voltage are you setting the Twist to, and what are the ratings (resistance) on your ProTank heads? Sounds as if you may have the voltage cranked up too high for the resistance of the head.

I've tried everything from the lowest -3.2v all the way to about 4.2v and roughly the same flavor. These are on 2.5ohm heads with a 1000mah twist.

 

[Borescoped]

I know protanks are different than evod's (which I use). But I can't see it being the tank itself holding the nasty flavors if cleaned really well. I would think either it would be the heads, or voltage... But yo already said it was tried with all settings. You get nasty flavor immediately when taking a drag? Maybe some folks with more experience will chime in on this, but try not to give up! Definitely look into getting back up delivery systems though (like cartos or a different style clearo), for situations like this. I'm not a carto fan, but I still have my original carto tank from volcano to use if I have to.

Good luck, stay strong and stick with it!

 

[retired1]

Strange. I ran the same exact setup for a while before getting the Vamo. I usually have several heads in rotation. I'll use one for a day or two, soak it for 2-3 days then let it dry for one day. Rinse and repeat. (Yeah, there are several heads in rotation at any given time with 3 Protanks in use.)

 

[McVaip]

Have you got more than one battery and if so is the same thing happening with both batteries? Maybe check the voltage with a meter and make sure that it isn't an issue with the battery.... If it is "stuck" at 4.8v you would get a pretty awful burnt taste no matter what you do.

Just an idea

 

[jefsview]

It might just be the metal of the Protank mouthpiece. It takes a while to get use to having metal in ones mouth. It's like biting on a bullet with a bleeding tooth.

Even after cleaning, the metal is still the metal mixing with the heated vapor. I have a Protank and an iclear, and they both have a metallix taste to them, which mixes with the vapor and it takes a while before your mind allows you to assimilate and disseminate the flavor profiles properly.

It's like a new grill. You have to burn it a few times before you get any flavor besides metal.

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

Most likely, the first head you used was faulty and the rubber grommet at the bottom of the head got burnt. This burnt rubber smell does stick to the tank and is pretty much impossible to wash off. But, you can disassemble the tank and leave it next to your opened window. The next morning the smell will have evaporated.

 

[Utsuru]

I know protanks are different than evod's (which I use). But I can't see it being the tank itself holding the nasty flavors if cleaned really well. I would think either it would be the heads, or voltage... But yo already said it was tried with all settings. You get nasty flavor immediately when taking a drag? Maybe some folks with more experience will chime in on this, but try not to give up! Definitely look into getting back up delivery systems though (like cartos or a different style clearo), for situations like this. I'm not a carto fan, but I still have my original carto tank from volcano to use if I have to.


Good luck, stay strong and stick with it!

Yeah it's a pretty awful taste immediately.

Strange. I ran the same exact setup for a while before getting the Vamo. I usually have several heads in rotation. I'll use one for a day or two, soak it for 2-3 days then let it dry for one day. Rinse and repeat. (Yeah, there are several heads in rotation at any given time with 3 Protanks in use.)

What do you soak them in?

Have you got more than one battery and if so is the same thing happening with both batteries? Maybe check the voltage with a meter and make sure that it isn't an issue with the battery.... If it is "stuck" at 4.8v you would get a pretty awful burnt taste no matter what you do.

Just an idea

No I only have one battery unfortunately.


Okay, here are a few things that I think could be going on. I have thought that it could possibly be "stuck" on a high voltage, I don't have a way to check it. There is however a local e-cig shop that just opened up right by my house. I went by there earlier for the first time and talked to the guy, he seemed to not know a whole lot but was puffing on a volcano, they had some decent products in there but it was sketchy. Anyways he gave me a "vivi nova" for free, long story short its a knock off but eh it was free. I loaded it up with a different, new flavor from my AiV sample and put it into it and let it soak into the wicks. I got a terrible taste, so... Its either the battery or these juices need serious, serious steeping. I've heard from the owner herself that she likes to ship the juices where they're good to vape right out of the box, but I don't know, they're pretty foul.

So I did some more searching and found a post on ECF(can't find it) that after you fill up your tank, you have to kind of tilt it and see if air bubbles are coming up to indicate that it's wicking. I also saw a post on vapor lady's blog:

"Most of the burnt hit problem seems to come from screwing the tank down too tight on the battery, this twists the atty which in turn twists the wicks and warps them out of place, it can even twist the coil, so do not over tighten to try and reduce the airy draw. This was my first NOOB error."

So, I did these two steps with yet again, a "cleanish" tank, and yet again, a brand new head. I filled it up with some of my remaining sample of MBV Hawk Sauce, my control in the experiment, and what would you know it's starting to taste normal again. It still seems somewhat off, it may need a good soaking but it isn't the putrid foul taste by any means. (The horrific flavor could just be burned in my mind ruining the experience now.) But it is much better.

I think a lot of AiV juices are really really high in VG, they seem to be pretty thick and I remember reading a bit into it but I could be wrong. Also, some of these Halo juices seem pretty thick as well. Does the protank have problems with high VG juices? Is it not drawing in juice properly and I'm burning up the wicks causing that foul nastiness?

I'm sorry for these essays that look like posts but would greatly appreciate more input. Thank you!


Edit: Also, this may be important. Most of this "taste" is coming from the exhale primarily through the nose. When I smell those juices in their containers, they smell like their descriptions. Rich, sweet tobacco, strawberry cupcake, blackberry crumble, green tea and passionfruit, etc. etc. etc. but their vapor "taste/smell" is very putrid. ???

 

[Utsuru]

Most likely, the first head you used was faulty and the rubber grommet at the bottom of the head got burnt. This burnt rubber smell does stick to the tank and is pretty much impossible to wash off. But, you can disassemble the tank and leave it next to your opened window. The next morning the smell will have evaporated.

It had sort of a burnt tire vibe going on with it, a very heavy chemical taste/smell. Could you help me identify which exact rubber grommet you're talking about and do you have any additional input on cleaning the protank? I've heard people mention vodka, your thoughts? Thank you kindly.

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

It had sort of a burnt tire vibe going on with it, a very heavy chemical taste/smell. Could you help me identify which exact rubber grommet you're talking about and do you have any additional input on cleaning the protank? I've heard people mention vodka, your thoughts? Thank you kindly.

If you unscrew the head off the base, the end that goes into the base is the bottom. At that end, there is a white rubber grommet that is secured into place by a metal pin that goes into the head. That grommet is in direct contact with both the wire legs; one hot leg fire and that smell will haunt your tank. I wasted few tanksof juice before i figured it out.

I also show those parts in my video if you want to watch.

To clean the Protank, disassemble everything, pop the center post off the head and rinse thoroughly with warm water. The inside of the tank itself is smooth glass and should be relatively easy to clean. The part that gets gunked up the most and generally creates the most trouble is the coil chamber. Rinse it, let it dry. You can carefully so a dry burn after each rinse to check if a hot leg has developed.

As for vodka, i have never used it to clean any of my devices. Its just too much hassle, and frankly, you dont need to do all this crazy stuff to maintain a coil head. A rinse under warm tap water should do for most cleaning purposes.