Intro and Plea for help with Nautilus Mini

[jodd]

hey everyone, my name is todd. i recently purchased my beginner kit of an eleaf istick and nautilus mini. the first 72 hours were glorious and i knew quitting analogs would be easy. vaping this guy was clear as a cloudless day and the throat hit came right behind it.

all of a sudden, i am having to drag very hard to get any kind of good hit on it. my attachment to analogs was definitely throat hit, which this baby first delivered. althought i don't get throat hit, the vapor is there. flavor is not as present as it was, either.

i typically use 50/50 vg/pg juice (12mg nicotine) that is not dark or anything. i've even tried 40vg/60pg with 18nicotine and the results are basically the same.

i've tried different coils (4 to be specific), cleaned the tank multiple times, tried different juices, primed it, didn't prime it, etc. etc. - in fact, work has gone by quite quickly the last 48 hours because i've been reading and subsequently trying basically every troubleshooting method i could find (a lot from this forum, as well).

i really don't want to switch to analogs or buy a new tank if i don't have to. i'm going through unnecessary amounts of juice and not enjoying myself. i just don't really know what to do anymore.

TL;DR - bought nautilus mini, was great for 72 hours, now i have to turn blue in the fact to get my beloved TH

thanks in advance.

 

[Warpigs]

Welcome to ECF!

 

[jodd]

appreciate it, my friend. thanks for having me.

 

[gandymarsh]

Welcome!

Have you changed the airflow?

 

[jodd]

yes. i am typically always on the largest airflow, but have tinkered around with the other airflows just to see. the problem still remains.

is it worth maybe boiling the airflow ring and seeing if something is trapped in there? i have attempted to clean it with how water and moved it from hole to hole while blowing on it to clean out any excess.

 

[InTheShade]

Hi jodd, welcome to the forum. i'll just preface by saying I don't have a Nautilus mini but there are some things you can do to try to get a better vape.

Take everything apart (again) break it all down into as many pieces you can and give it all a really good clean in hot running water. Shake it off and dry it, then put it all back together. Try your mini on the various air holes and blow through it with no liquid in the tank. Are you getting an airy draw on the largest air hole setting? Does it change when you twist the air / juice flow ring?

If you are getting the air through it, install a coil and try again. If you are not, then there could be an issue with the air flow control.

One thing I will say, and I am not trying to patronize in any way, is you have to draw on an e-cig slightly differently with longer smoother draws rather than quick pulls. By pulling on it hard (esp with the air flow turned down) you could be drawing too much liquid into the coil and this will give a tighter draw (along with some gurgling)

Failing that, it's a popular tank, I am sure others will have some advice to add.

Stick with it, we all had teething problems at first, but you can work it out

 

[jodd]

hi shade -- appreciate the response. when you suggest "Try your mini on the various air holes and blow through it with no liquid in the tank," do you mean, clean it all with hot water, put it back together (coil and all?) and then blow downwards into the drip tip?

 

[gandymarsh]

Just trying to narrow it down. That was the first thing I thought of.

It could be a bad coil, if you have replacement coils you could try to swap one out. If it's not that, I really don't have any other ideas, sorry. Maybe someone else has an idea.

 

[InTheShade]

hi shade -- appreciate the response. when you suggest "Try your mini on the various air holes and blow through it with no liquid in the tank," do you mean, clean it all with hot water, put it back together (coil and all?) and then blow downwards into the drip tip?

Or suck, yes. Exactly that, I'm just trying to help you eliminate the possibility it's the liquid flooding the coil or a problem with the vacuum in the tank somehow.
I figured if you could blow through an empty tank, and the air flow changes when you move the ring, you would know it's not the air flow ring...

 

[Mccannch]

Just a note if you want more TH you will want more PG not VG. Nic and PG make up the TH. Also, have you tried increasing the power at all? You have to be careful on an iStick as its power is weird but maybe try increasing the wattage one click at a time to see if it comes back? What setting are you running on?

 

[gandymarsh]

I would advise you not to rinse the coil in water. The other parts, yes. The instructions for the Nautilus mini say to not rinse the coil.

 

[jodd]

Or suck, yes. Exactly that, I'm just trying to help you eliminate the possibility it's the liquid flooding the coil or a problem with the vacuum in the tank somehow.
I figured if you could blow through an empty tank, and the air flow changes when you move the ring, you would know it's not the air flow ring...

so clean and dry, assemble completely (with coil and all), and then blow INTO the drip tip, yes? and presumably air should be coming sufficiently out of the airflow control device.

 

[jodd]

Just a note if you want more TH you will want more PG not VG. Nic and PG make up the TH. Also, have you tried increasing the power at all? You have to be careful on an iStick as its power is weird but maybe try increasing the wattage one click at a time to see if it comes back? What setting are you running on?

i misspoke - i meant to say i tried 60pg/40vg with 18mg nic. edited OP.

 

[InTheShade]

so clean and dry, assemble completely (with coil and all), and then blow INTO the drip tip, yes? and presumably air should be coming sufficiently out of the airflow control device.

Yes sir. And it should change when you twist the airflow. Just don't rinse the coil (as gandymarsh said), but do re-install it after you cleaned and rinsed the tank section to check airflow.

 

[jodd]

Yes sir. And it should change when you twist the airflow. Just don't rinse the coil (as gandymarsh said), but do re-install it after you cleaned and rinsed the tank section to check airflow.

appreciate it. will try now.

do you recommend boiling (everything but the coil and probably the glass tank..) or just thorough rinsing with hot water? that's just about the only thing i have not done.

 

[pup5050]

I had that problem once, and I disassembled and cleaned it and that fixed it, but to be honest I'm not sure which step in the cleaning process actually fixed it. I have had to remove the coil from the bottom assembly and dry it out before, but that was to remedy a gurgling issue. I've also had the airflow adjustment ring lock in a position that wasn't actually lined up with the air holes in the assembly, so I just rotated it slightly until they lined up correctly. The next cleaning took care of that. Beyond those two possibilities, I'm not really sure what the problem could be. Hope this helps, keep us posted.

 

[gandymarsh]

Hot tap water is probably sufficient.

 

[jodd]

Hot tap water is probably sufficient.

so when the drip tip is on just the bell and the glass piece, everything sucks just fine. once i screw the glass into the base is when the lack of airflow occurs. should i try adding some juice and vaping regardless?

i cleaned everything and even blew as i went from hole to hole, also.

 

[jodd]

same results, unfortunately. i'm going to get some coils on friday when my local b&m reopens. going to try and stick it out until then (don't want analogs..)

 

[Uncle00Jesse]

Sounds like you need an Atlantis. From my experience, after a couple weeks I needed that extra airflow. Grab yourself an IPV Mini or comparable 30 watt mod, get an Atlantis and for a total of $100 you'll be set for a long time.