Is an RBA Right for Me?

[yelibe]

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]I have a 33 gage 4/3 wrap that reads at 2.4 ohms and when I vape it on my mechanical mod the flavor is there but it is very weak to vape. But when I stick it on my vamo at anything higher than 3.5 it is extremely harsh and burning. I am beginning to wonder if an rba is even right for me. Can I get a gnarly flavorful vape from it? My typical vape is using a UDCT with a single hole punch 2.0 ohm smoketech carto 60/40 pg/vg with double stacked 16350s at 5.8 to 6.0 volts. It's what seems perfect. Nothing else seems to work for me.. My pyrex/boge setup also doesn't work. I really want to expand my collection of vaping systems. But I want them to vape well too.[/FONT]

 

[Ryedan]

I have a 33 gage 4/3 wrap that reads at 2.4 ohms and when I vape it on my mechanical mod the flavor is there but it is very weak to vape. But when I stick it on my vamo at anything higher than 3.5 it is extremely harsh and burning.

I assume this coil is in a RBA using SS mesh? If not, let us know. A mechanical with one battery will give you about 3.6 volts average under load. The Vamo at 3.6 should be about the same vape. I don't have one, so this is just from what I've read about it; there are two modes it can run in, RMS and AVG. I believe RMS is the accurate one and AVG will give you more power than you set. If your Vamo is ver 3, I believe it only has RMS.

Another possibility is that there is a short in the mechanical mod which is robbing power. If so, something will eventually get warm. If it is the switch area you will need to clean the switch. You get the idea.

Is the battery in the mechanical discharged? It must never get below 2.5 volts. I try to change batteries at 3.6 to 3.7. You do have a multi meter, right?

Also, make sure you don't have a shorting coil. I say this because it should not be tasting burnt at 3.6 volts. Typically these occur at the top of the coil. You didn't say how well you know coil building, so if you don't know how to work with shorts, let us know.

I am beginning to wonder if an RBA is even right for me. Can I get a gnarly flavorful vape from it? My typical vape is using a UDCT with a single hole punch 2.0 ohm smoketech carto 60/40 pg/vg with double stacked 16350s at 5.8 to 6.0 volts. It's what seems perfect. Nothing else seems to work for me.. My pyrex/boge setup also doesn't work. I really want to expand my collection of vaping systems. But I want them to vape well too.

I run a AGA-T on a K100 and it is the best vape I've ever experienced. It did however take me a month of experimenting with it and doing a lot of reading in the RBA forum to get me there. I always use this now when I can. When I go out, I take something more portable as gennies leak if not kept vertical.

Your 2.0 ohm carto at 5.9 volts = 17 watts. The 2.4 ohm RBA at 3.7 volts = 6 watts. That's a huge difference and if the RBA was running well with no shorts I'm sure you would not be happy with the vape.

I run at 3/4 wraps, 0.7 ohms, with 27 gauge Kanthal for around 20 watts of power. You will get about 15 watts from a 1.0 ohm coil and I suspect this would work for you if it was setup right.

There are also micro coils which can be run at higher resistances and still deliver a ton of vape. All the info is in the RBA forum. Then again, if cartos work for you, you could always just stick with them.

Hope this helps a bit

 

[yelibe]

Hi Ryedan,
Thank you for your response. Yes I am using an SS mesh 400. I have a Panasonic Li-ion that measures at 4.1v on the meter. When I stick that into my Natural and vape it, whatever tank I put on there, wether it is my AGA-T2 or my UDCT it is a pretty weak vape. Anything I stack with seems highly superior to using a battery like that. It appears to be God of my vaping universe. Now I am guessing that if I go down to a very low low ohm with one of those batteries I can expect to see some improvement in output, or if I stack and raise the ohms to very very high this might give my RBA a fighting chance. However, I’m not so sure the SS wick can wick fast enough to handle that.
I haven’t been wrapping coils very long. You might say I am a beginner with it since I have never gotten it to work to my satisfaction. I have tried it on a few occasions over the months with failures at first with my wire snapping, when I had a higher gauge wire. Now that I have been experimenting with the 33 gauge, I played around with it until there appeared to be no hot spots and all the coils were glowing the at the same intensity with the middles going outwards. I watched every video I could find on doing this and do not see my coils looking any different than what is shown to look right. I am not really sure what a “short” is. I have the Vamo V2 It appears that I have been running it in RMS mode. I hadn’t thought of that until you called to my attention to check it.

I think I might gain some insight if you explain what a “short” in my coil is. I don’t appear to have any hotspots.

Your 2.0 ohm carto at 5.9 volts = 17 watts. The 2.4 ohm RBA at 3.7 volts = 6 watts. That's a huge difference and if the RBA was running well with no shorts I'm sure you would not be happy with the vape.

I run at 3/4 wraps, 0.7 ohms, with 27 gauge Kanthal for around 20 watts of power. You will get about 15 watts from a 1.0 ohm coil and I suspect this would work for you if it was setup right.

There are also micro coils which can be run at higher resistances and still deliver a ton of vape. All the info is in the RBA forum. Then again, if cartos work for you, you could always just stick with them.

Hope this helps a bit

When I have my Vamo set to 6.0 v and I switch over to watts it says I have 15 w. It probably doesn’t measure higher than that. If I get to .7 ohms with a 33 gauge it will be different than having that on a 27 gauge wire? I’m not sure of the difference there. I’m sure 27 would be easier to work with. Maybe the efficiency is better.

I don’t want to hear you say that if cartos work for me I should stick with them. Lol I got two of these dang ATA-T2s and want to make them work. One for me and one for the wife. Now you mention micro coils which I have never heard of and my interest is peaked about that. Lately it appears that there is nothing more to life than my playing around with the RBAs.

 

[ukeman]

Hi Ryedan,
Thank you for your response. Yes I am using an SS mesh 400. I have a Panasonic Li-ion that measures at 4.1v on the meter. When I stick that into my Natural and vape it, whatever tank I put on there, wether it is my AGA-T2 or my UDCT it is a pretty weak vape. Anything I stack with seems highly superior to using a battery like that. It appears to be God of my vaping universe. Now I am guessing that if I go down to a very low low ohm with one of those batteries I can expect to see some improvement in output, or if I stack and raise the ohms to very very high this might give my RBA a fighting chance. However, I’m not so sure the SS wick can wick fast enough to handle that.
I haven’t been wrapping coils very long. You might say I am a beginner with it since I have never gotten it to work to my satisfaction. I have tried it on a few occasions over the months with failures at first with my wire snapping, when I had a higher gauge wire. Now that I have been experimenting with the 33 gauge, I played around with it until there appeared to be no hot spots and all the coils were glowing the at the same intensity with the middles going outwards. I watched every video I could find on doing this and do not see my coils looking any different than what is shown to look right. I am not really sure what a “short” is. I have the Vamo V2 It appears that I have been running it in RMS mode. I hadn’t thought of that until you called to my attention to check it.

I think I might gain some insight if you explain what a “short” in my coil is. I don’t appear to have any hotspots.



When I have my Vamo set to 6.0 v and I switch over to watts it says I have 15 w. It probably doesn’t measure higher than that. If I get to .7 ohms with a 33 gauge it will be different than having that on a 27 gauge wire? I’m not sure of the difference there. I’m sure 27 would be easier to work with. Maybe the efficiency is better.

I don’t want to hear you say that if cartos work for me I should stick with them. Lol I got two of these dang ATA-T2s and want to make them work. One for me and one for the wife. Now you mention micro coils which I have never heard of and my interest is peaked about that. Lately it appears that there is nothing more to life than my playing around with the RBAs.

sounds like you are motivated... it takes a lot of fiddling to get these right (unless you get lucky
not sure if the Vamo is regulated to stop working if below a certain resistance...
* always use basic safety protocols when doing sub 1.0 Ohms... check resistance with a meter first...

sometimes burning / harsh comes from lack of wicking... but to get that with Vamo at 3.5 volts doesn't make sense; could be a short.

thicker wire will get you lower resistances... my favorite is .7 to .8 Ohms. 28g, 27g, 26g is not necessarily "easier" to work with; its very stiff, but holds up better.
Some use twisted 32g or 33g kanthal to imitate thicker wire and love it.
3/4, 4/5 wrap of 28g will get you from .6 to .8+ Ohms.

be careful... i don't feel qualified to guide you in sub 1.0 Ohms vaping ... use caution

 

[Statistic]

The required time spent learning how to set up a good RBA on a good mech mod is so much more worth it than I can express in words, in my opinion.

You seem to have some sense of how resistance and voltage relate to one another. The details are easy to learn.

To answer your question simply I say yes, go for it. Either go for something low end so if you don't like it you haven't made a huge investment. OR go for something of higher quality so if you like it you will either save money in the long run and if you don't like it you won't loose much reselling it.

That said... get a REO and an RM2 to go on top of it, then roll up a nice micro coil and wick it with plain cotton.
It just doesn't get any better, in this guys opinion.

 

[markent]

Bit of thread jacking here, but to offer op some encouragement I got my first RBA last week, and have gone through 2 metres of silica wick and only got one coil right on my Igo L, when it wasnright it was great, loads of flavour and a fair amount of vape. The other coils have all been rubbish, no vape and burny flavour. It is hard to know what is wrong unless you know what to look for, Eg shorts and hot spots, are there any good threads to read for this?

 

[Statistic]

It's a long thread, I know.. if you want to cut to the chase and make the best performing coils you could ask for then read through the Micro Coil Thread. There is a wealth of knowledge and experience there. Don't hesitate to ask questions or post a pic of a coil if it isn't performing how you think it should. There is no elitism about it, plenty of people are still just discovering micro coils and the amazing vapes you can get from a good one

 

[Sick HP]

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]I have a 33 gage 4/3 wrap that reads at 2.4 ohms and when I vape it on my mechanical mod the flavor is there but it is very weak to vape. But when I stick it on my vamo at anything higher than 3.5 it is extremely harsh and burning. I am beginning to wonder if an RBA is even right for me. Can I get a gnarly flavorful vape from it? My typical vape is using a UDCT with a single hole punch 2.0 ohm smoketech carto 60/40 pg/vg with double stacked 16350s at 5.8 to 6.0 volts. It's what seems perfect. Nothing else seems to work for me.. My pyrex/boge setup also doesn't work. I really want to expand my collection of vaping systems. But I want them to vape well too.[/FONT]

That sounds like a wicking issue to me (Harsh and burning) if I were to wrap a coil @ 2.4 ohm I would need to hit it @ 5+ volts to taste and vape well for me on ether a genny or an RDA. I mostly use silica drippers (RDA) @ .8 ohm on 18490 batts and found this to be a great vape, but before you go into sub ohms please do read as much as you can on the best way to do this safely as ukeman stated you need to know how to do it proper.... wicking is one of the things that can be a pain on genny's I know it took me awhile to get it right it didn't help that I use thick VG juice the hardest stuff to wick!

I will say I have been building my own coils for 2+ years now and it will be worth all the effort you will put into it

 

[G2matt]

I had the burnt taste issue until I switched my vamo to mode 2, + I've found if you get burnt taste sometimes theres to much carbon build up on the wire, a few brushes with a tooth brush sorts that.

 

[yelibe]

sounds like you are motivated... it takes a lot of fiddling to get these right (unless you get lucky
not sure if the Vamo is regulated to stop working if below a certain resistance...
* always use basic safety protocols when doing sub 1.0 Ohms... check resistance with a meter first...

sometimes burning / harsh comes from lack of wicking... but to get that with Vamo at 3.5 volts doesn't make sense; could be a short.

thicker wire will get you lower resistances... my favorite is .7 to .8 Ohms. 28g, 27g, 26g is not necessarily "easier" to work with; its very stiff, but holds up better.
Some use twisted 32g or 33g kanthal to imitate thicker wire and love it.
3/4, 4/5 wrap of 28g will get you from .6 to .8+ Ohms.

be careful... i don't feel qualified to guide you in sub 1.0 Ohms vaping ... use caution

Yay! Thanks for the support. Yes I am motivated. I am not just vaping because I replaced smoking with it but because it is a fun hobby too. When I smoked I used to roll my own. Now I want to coil my own. Sure I love a carto, but I want to learn to make everything work. I'm throwing the same juice flavors into all the gizmos, so it isn't like I'm switching brands. I make my own juices anyway. So I can adjust there if need be. Anyway, since I bought a good amount of 33 gauge, I guess I shall try twisted with it, so as to not have to chuck it or otherwise make an art project out of it. lol I think I am going to like to have .7 or .8 ohms too. This evening I did manage to get my coils down to 1.15 but I suspect hotspot. I can't really tell since I have a bunch of juice all over.

 

[yelibe]

Thanks Statistic!

I did want to go for something low end until I got it to work. That's how I roll. Funny thing is, when I started with carto/tank I did the same thing. It did take me a while to master that. Then I got a more expensive carto/tank and I am not happy with it at all. So once I get a thing to work, I expand. I don't expect the RBA to be perfect overnight, but once I have read everything and watched all the videos I know of I just wasn't sure what else to do. I know a lot of people like weak airy draws, so I wondered if there was more to the RBA than that.

The required time spent learning how to set up a good RBA on a good mech mod is so much more worth it than I can express in words, in my opinion.

You seem to have some sense of how resistance and voltage relate to one another. The details are easy to learn.

To answer your question simply I say yes, go for it. Either go for something low end so if you don't like it you haven't made a huge investment. OR go for something of higher quality so if you like it you will either save money in the long run and if you don't like it you won't loose much reselling it.

That said... get a REO and an RM2 to go on top of it, then roll up a nice micro coil and wick it with plain cotton.
It just doesn't get any better, in this guys opinion.

Can you tell me what an REO and an RM2 are? Thanks!

 

[yelibe]

Well, I suppose it could well be that the SS wick is just not doing its job. I'm not sure what to do to make it work better. I tried cutting the diagonal cut like Pbusardo and tried make a fan, I stuck a paperclip down it to make sure it's open. But it doesn't seem to matter. I'm almost ready to start trying with silica, but I did want to try to get the SS to work with first.

That sounds like a wicking issue to me (Harsh and burning) if I were to wrap a coil @ 2.4 ohm I would need to hit it @ 5+ volts to taste and vape well for me on ether a genny or an RDA. I mostly use silica drippers (RDA) @ .8 ohm on 18490 batts and found this to be a great vape, but before you go into sub ohms please do read as much as you can on the best way to do this safely as ukeman stated you need to know how to do it proper.... wicking is one of the things that can be a pain on genny's I know it took me awhile to get it right it didn't help that I use thick VG juice the hardest stuff to wick!

I will say I have been building my own coils for 2+ years now and it will be worth all the effort you will put into it

 

[yelibe]

I had the burnt taste issue until I switched my vamo to mode 2, + I've found if you get burnt taste sometimes theres to much carbon build up on the wire, a few brushes with a tooth brush sorts that.

I suppose there could be too much carbon build up on the wire. I haven't used it much though.

 

[Sick HP]

One quick test for wicking is drip on the coil and vape it right away if you get good taste and vapor you know your wick is just not wet enough. I fight the wicking issue because I vape 100% VG I use 325 mesh and I still have to tilt my pipe (PV) more than I want. I have ceramics on the way and I just got some nickle foam to test out as I like gennys even with there issues.

Silica is my main vape both standard and ekowool. I like both tanks and drippers my ody and penny have great taste and vapor but it is a little work getting the wire right for Ohm's (once you figure it out not to bad to set up though) the drippers are just a breeze to set up and they work fantastic I have a russian 91% on the way and have high hopes that it will take the place of my ody as it only uses 1 wire and I like the idea of that!

 

[Jazzi Mike]

You should either try a silica coil in your RBA or get a silica based RBA. I never could get my genesis style atty set up right. Then I got a Kayfun and set it up in a few days. It took some definite time and effort to get it set up correctly, but I think it hits better than any of my clearos now!

 

[Statistic]

Thanks Statistic!

I did want to go for something low end until I got it to work. That's how I roll. Funny thing is, when I started with carto/tank I did the same thing. It did take me a while to master that. Then I got a more expensive carto/tank and I am not happy with it at all. So once I get a thing to work, I expand. I don't expect the RBA to be perfect overnight, but once I have read everything and watched all the videos I know of I just wasn't sure what else to do. I know a lot of people like weak airy draws, so I wondered if there was more to the RBA than that.



Can you tell me what an REO and an RM2 are? Thanks!

Hey, sorry for the delayed response..

The REO is a box shaped bottom feeding mod. The RM2 is the best atomizer I have used to date and fits the REO like a glove, they are a perfect match. You can learn all you could ever want to know about the REO and RM2 over in the REO Sub Forum

Hope to see you there.

This is a current "family photo" of my REOs.. I just love em