It's Official... I'm recoiling all of my dead protank heads!

[nova_did_it]

So today was my first evening of recoiling. My Ekowool 2mm and 32 gauge Kanthal wire arrived. I took the advice of tomzgreat and went to my local vape shop to get me an RDA and asked them to show me how to coil. They were kind enough to do so! They are so awesome. Honestly, my coiling of the Smoktech RDA was a great build.. however, the RDA itself didn't bring enough air to the coils therefore not working out so well. BUT I took to recoiling my dead protank heads.

Wowzer! 6 coils around the Ekowool, fidgeting with the coils a bit to get them even then reassembled. Checked the ohms and 2.1 ohms! One less wrap and I'm thinking it will fall around 1.8ohms.. not sure, will have to try it. But after making sure everything was safe and sound I primed the coils and put them on my tanks.. wow.. flavor! no dry hits!! YES!!!!

I will have to say, my first build went a little nuts.. my ekowool unbraided itself. so I learned to use a little tape at the ends to help keep things nice and neat on my second coil and cut off the end when I was done assembling. Had to fidget a little to get the coils nice and neat, compressed enough but not touching to get it to fit in the base of the atomizer. Laying an additional layer of Ekowool 2mm on top of the coil made the whole assembly too thick so had to use one wick of what came with the coils. So I need to get a smaller diameter of Ekowool or.. get just regular silica wicks.

3 builds in now. Can't say I've mastered it yet, but each build registers 2.1 ohms (6 coils around each 2mm ekowool) Wrapping the ekowool is my biggest challenge. Have to fiddle with the coils gently to not tear up the silica.

You guys are right however, building your own coils does work way better than the stock coils. So now I will build my own coils!

The best thing I could have done was research as much as I could and get a clear understanding of what I was doing. Got some help with a local guru and I was able to do this myself! So far so good. No dead batteries.. no dead nova! yippie!

Next step, trying to get this RDA to work properly....

 

[The Blue Max]

Were you using a Smoktech RSST? I noticed the airflow wasn't great on those and just drilled the hole larger with a 1/16th drill bit. Hits like a champ now!

 

[Sthur]

Woot! Congrats on building the coils.

 

[nova_did_it]

this is what I got: SMOKTech RDA Rebuildable Atomizer

the hole lines up with a hole on the base of the atomizer and a little air tube that is drilled into the base comes up under the coil. It's nothing like the IGO-L's I've been looking at. Maybe the air tube is blocked and I have to free it.

 

[nova_did_it]

Woot! Congrats on building the coils.

Thanks! I was pretty excited when they fired up!

 

[calvinguy]

Thanks! I was pretty excited when they fired up!

Yes it feels awesome when your first coil build fires up and actually works. Might I suggest picking up some 28g kanthal and building some microcoils, they work so much better. Check out riptrippers on youtube to see how he builds his.

 

[nova_did_it]

Yes it feels awesome when your first coil build fires up and actually works. Might I suggest picking up some 28g kanthal and building some microcoils, they work so much better. Check out riptrippers on youtube to see how he builds his.

I think this will be my next foray! I keep hearing great things about micro-coiling. baby steps for me!

 

[RubyRoo]

You can also use a traditional coil around a 1/16 drill bit and a strand of organic cotton! (This is a semi-nano/micro coil build.) This is how I rebuild all of my Protank heads now. I do a 5 wrap of 32 gauge around the drill bit and thread the cotton through. I use a teeny tiny "favor wick" on top as this aides wicking and prevents flooding. Rebuilding Protank heads is easy and pretty stress-free after a few builds. Congrats on your builds! It's so satisfying to vape on something that you've made yourself.

Edit: This turns out to be between 1.6 and 1.8 Ohms. Forgot to mention that!

 

[nova_did_it]

You can also use a traditional coil around a 1/16 drill bit and a strand of organic cotton! (This is a semi-nano/micro coil build.) This is how I rebuild all of my Protank heads now. I do a 5 wrap of 32 gauge around the drill bit and thread the cotton through. I use a teeny tiny "favor wick" on top as this aides wicking and prevents flooding. Rebuilding Protank heads is easy and pretty stress-free after a few builds. Congrats on your builds! It's so satisfying to vape on something that you've made yourself.

Edit: This turns out to be between 1.6 and 1.8 Ohms. Forgot to mention that!

Oh I will have to try that. Wrapping the coil is my biggest struggle right now. the wick is just floppy so it takes some patience for me to wrap. Thank you!

 

[gotch23]

You can insert a needle into your wick-bundle
as a wrapping aid. I keep it in there, while positioning
the coil. Gives stability and keeps it properly aligned
during assembly.

The airhole under the coil (link times out on me...
probably my end)... The coil should be lifted a little
off the airhole, so there is unrestricted airflow.
Closer for more flavor, further away for more throathit.
Also of course it shouldn't be obstructed by wick material.

 

[nova_did_it]

You can insert a needle into your wick-bundle
as a wrapping aid. I keep it in there, while positioning
the coil. Gives stability and keeps it properly aligned
during assembly.

The airhole under the coil (link times out on me...
probably my end)... The coil should be lifted a little
off the airhole, so there is unrestricted airflow.
Closer for more flavor, further away for more throathit.
Also of course it shouldn't be obstructed by wick material.

Thanks for the tips! I'm going to rebuild the RDA tomorrow and see if I can fix the issues. I pulled the top off and indeed wicking material was blocking the air to the coil. It still isn't performing well even when I moved the wick out of the way. *crosses fingers* for a better build tomorrow.

 

[WattWick]

I know where you can find some thinner strands of silica for your flavor wicks.... right inside your ekowool.

(Disregard this if you got the hollow kind)

Just cut a tiny little piece and try to push something small through it. You could always cut it open, too.

 

[nova_did_it]

I know where you can find some thinner strands of silica for your flavor wicks.... right inside your ekowool.

(Disregard this if you got the hollow kind)

Just cut a tiny little piece and try to push something small through it. You could always cut it open, too.

This kind indeed is hollow. So I think I need regular silica wick. But I did twist some of the strands that unwound to use as a flavor wick. It worked but a pain

 

[Criticalmass]

You can insert a needle into your wick-bundle
as a wrapping aid. I keep it in there, while positioning
the coil. Gives stability and keeps it properly aligned
during assembly.

The airhole under the coil (link times out on me...
probably my end)... The coil should be lifted a little
off the airhole, so there is unrestricted airflow.
Closer for more flavor, further away for more throathit.
Also of course it shouldn't be obstructed by wick material.

I think this is the best piece of advice on recoiling using Silica or Ekowool that I have seen. lol. It's such a simple solution.

 

[cocacola31173]

I have a IGO L and a IGO W...Love them! I learned off Youtube and tried using cotton which is soooo much better and a whole lot cheaper. I stay at home at lot so now this is all Im using. My poor Protanks and Carto Tanks are getting dusty! But yeah on these you def have to bore out the hole some.

 

[bhswmc01]

Woo hoo - congrats!

I recently started rebuilding evod/protank heads as well, using 32 gauge kanthal and cotton yarn. The needle trick mentioned earlier is something I'd recommend for sure. I'm going to try wrapping the wire around a machine screw and threading the cotton through next.

 

[devauto]

Okay, I guess it's time for me to give this a try!!! I have been putting it off since new coils are so cheap, and I'm lazy ... But if they work and taste better, then I will have to give it a shot. Anyone here that can recommend what size wicking and kanthal is best for the protank coils? I sure don't want to leave enough room for them to leak, that will end this foray really quickly!

 

[searcher]

What works well for me is to use 32 AWG wrapped 5 wraps (1.7 ohms) on a 2mm screw. I then roll the end of peaches and cream yarn small enough to fit easily through the coil and postion the coil on the yarn. I use a 2nd piece of the yarn for the flavor wick. The same procedure minus the flavor wick works well on Vivi Novas It works so well that I even recoil my new coils.

 

[nova_did_it]

I have a IGO L and a IGO W...Love them! I learned off Youtube and tried using cotton which is soooo much better and a whole lot cheaper. I stay at home at lot so now this is all Im using. My poor Protanks and Carto Tanks are getting dusty! But yeah on these you def have to bore out the hole some.

I'm thinking if the IGO - L airhole is the same diameter as this Smoktech RDA I might have to keep looking for another RDA. This tight air draw is a doozy for me especially after getting REALLY used to the Protanks airy draw. I have no means of drilling holes in these puppies so I might have to look for adjustable airholes like the trident or Phoenix V6 RDA. Hmmm...

 

[nova_did_it]

Woo hoo - congrats!

I recently started rebuilding evod/protank heads as well, using 32 gauge kanthal and cotton yarn. The needle trick mentioned earlier is something I'd recommend for sure. I'm going to try wrapping the wire around a machine screw and threading the cotton through next.

Thank you! I'm so excited.. I think I'm on coil rebuild overdrive! LOL I tried using Peaches n cream cotton yarn. I dunno.. the taste came out really funky. I must be doing something wrong! I boiled it once.... maybe I have to boil the yarn again?