Kanger protank rebuild

[roasted]

Tonight I built a new head using 3mm silica and 32 gauge kanthal. It came out to 2.1 ohm. I'm running it at 3.5v right now and using 80/20 juice.

I must admit, I'm growing more and more disinterested in the Protank. It's not that the head rebuild was bad at all, it vapes decently, but I'm really not sensing any sort of monumental improvements. It gurgled at first, but stopped, yet still definitely has a faint tinge to it that I do not care for. It's something not apparent in my carto tank, which begs the obvious question... why am I bothering?

Likewise, if I'm going to be rebuilding anything, I might as well get an RBA with a tank where I have more room to work with. Rebuilding heads for the Protank isn't the simplest of things to do in the world.

 

[ElectricalSocket]

Have you tried a RDA? I bought a mini RDA/ERA and it's rediculously easy to wrap a coil and tighten it down. I personally wouldn't like it for any kind of regular use, but it makes experimenting or trying different juices super simple. I think you honestly might find that you don't like the taste/wicking properties of silica. There wouldn't be any massive difference with the coil/wick you have now in an RDA/RBA for instance. You can't beat $6-15 for a device that lets you easily find out what your favorite fiber wick is.

Of course there's RBA's with SS mesh, cable, etc, but it sounds like you're looking for less hassle (which I completely understand). Just throwin that out there. Wrapping coils with the mini RDA was a good stepping off point to then attempt protank heads. It is a really small space to work with though. Random: I think the Russian 91% is going to be one of the best devices there is.

The Kayfun, Russian 91%, etc are basically rebuildable clearomizers. Might want to look at those if you find a fiber wick you really like.

 

[melloyello]

i have 3mm ekowool coming, from the sounds of things it might not be anything i can use for my protank or davide?
im still going to give it a try. also got .32 kanthal today so i will try wrap a coil around my too thick ekowool.

 

[ElectricalSocket]

The protank head wick slot is 1.8mm wide, 2.45ish tall, just for reference. I'm sure there's some way you could get use out of it though. Maybe flattened and then folded over? Maybe with a sliver of cotton or silica in the middle of that fold so it doesn't create a channel that causes leaking. Won't need/couldn't use a "flavor wick" over the coil I don't think. The slot will be stuffed.

 

[SilverZero]

i have 3mm ekowool coming, from the sounds of things it might not be anything i can use for my protank or davide?
im still going to give it a try. also got .32 kanthal today so i will try wrap a coil around my too thick ekowool.

I haven't used EkoWool but I can tell you that using a single piece of 3mm silica in my Protank heads works perfectly. No leaking and no dry hits to speak of.

 

[melloyello]

my eko wool wont be here until monday or tuesday.
Meanwhile i got Peaches&Creme cotton yarn from walmart (looks like maybe 3mm) and the past 24 hours its working flawlessly on my protank and davide.

never rebuilt anything before, wrapped 5 coils so far.

 

[pizza2me]

I just got the peaches and cream too. Do most folks boil this or not?

 

[melloyello]

i didnt boil it and got no funky taste at all.
sometimes ive used cotton from a q-tip and the first couple puffs tastes like a hospital smells like.

 

[gmoney$]

I half expected red-hot wire shards to shoot into my eyeballs and boiling hot battery acid magma to flow out of the battery cap of the ProVari.

^^^^ Ha-- Awesome.

 

[roasted]

I know some users have had success with 3mm silica and 32 gauge kanthal, but I unfortunately have not had much luck. Tonight I built 3 heads, which brings my total count of rebuilt heads up to 6. All of them came out nearly identically in terms of resistance, with either 1.9 ohm or 2.0 ohm. Each coil was cooked to clean/prepare it. Liquid is 80/20. I kept the voltage around 3.5v and gave it a go. It performed fine, no complaints. About 20 minutes in, oh hey there burnt hits, so happy to see you again. Happened on every head whether stock or built, which altogether is upwards of two dozen at this point.

I really cannot put into words how disinterested I am in using the Protank or Protank 2 in the future. The big reasoning behind wanting to use the Protank 2 was largely due to the fact I could save a few nickels by rebuilding my own heads, but this just isn't worth it. My carto tank is, if anything, easier to refill than the Protank 2 and outperforms it ten times over again. I'll happily drop a few more coins on buying cartomizers into the future. Prime it, drop it in, oh hey there easy to use great tasting vape - we meet again.

I know some users are big fans of their Protank(s), but I've revisited it more times by giving it the benefit of the doubt than what I consider sane. Use what works for you. If it's the Protank, that's great - use it and enjoy it. Everybody's mileage varies.

 

[stashbldr]

I know some users have had success with 3mm silica and 32 gauge kanthal, but I unfortunately have not had much luck. Tonight I built 3 heads, which brings my total count of rebuilt heads up to 6. All of them came out nearly identically in terms of resistance, with either 1.9 ohm or 2.0 ohm. Each coil was cooked to clean/prepare it. Liquid is 80/20. I kept the voltage around 3.5v and gave it a go. It performed fine, no complaints. About 20 minutes in, oh hey there burnt hits, so happy to see you again. Happened on every head whether stock or built, which altogether is upwards of two dozen at this point.

I've been using the Protank (and now the Protank 2) since they first came out in February. I've always built my own coils. The only time I ever gotten dry hits like you describe was back in the beginning when I first started building my own coils and I wrapped the kanthal too tight around the silica, so since back when that happened I always wrap using a needle as a spacer between the silica and the kanthal, just to be sure the kanthal isn't to tight and ultimately choking the coil .. which is what can cause dry hits.

I use 3.5mm silica with no flavor wicks and I remove the silicone cup thing .. I don't get any leaking or dry hits. Once in a great while a brand new coil might give a dry hit when you first start using it, but a few "primer sucks" eliminates that. I know you're probably fed up with the Protank but you might want to make a coil with the kanthal being wrapped just a little looser than you've been doing and see how that goes.

 

[roasted]

I've been using the Protank (and now the Protank 2) since they first came out in February. I've always built my own coils. The only time I ever gotten dry hits like you describe was back in the beginning when I first started building my own coils and I wrapped the kanthal too tight around the silica, so since back when that happened I always wrap using a needle as a spacer between the silica and the kanthal, just to be sure the kanthal isn't to tight and ultimately choking the coil .. which is what can cause dry hits.

I use 3.5mm silica with no flavor wicks and I remove the silicone cup thing .. I don't get any leaking or dry hits. Once in a great while a brand new coil might give a dry hit when you first start using it, but a few "primer sucks" eliminates that. I know you're probably fed up with the Protank but you might want to make a coil with the kanthal being wrapped just a little looser than you've been doing and see how that goes.

The first head I did I'm pretty sure it was too tight. The following heads I built using different sized drill bits. That way I could thread the wick into the perfectly rounded coils. As I said the coils varied in sizes due to the different drill bits, but if you twist the wick and push very carefully forward, you can get it all to eventually catch and get worked into the coil. In short, I have no idea what else I can try, as I felt like I've hit every level of strangling vs way-too-loose with similar results across the board.

About the only thing I didn't try is removing the rubber grommet, which doesn't exactly excite me, but perhaps it's worth a try if I'm every braindead bored and would love a few frustrating moments. In my testing I used three different liquids, but all were 80/20. Some were almost clear, others were a dark amber color, but like I said all the same consistency.

I guess the thing is, I'm sitting here with something that performed better than my Protanks did even at their best, so it's difficult to justify another round. I may give it another shot since I am infinitely curious how some people have had great experiences with the Protank while every time I've tried it I've wanted to punch through a wall, but we'll see what the next rainy day brings.

 

[ElectricalSocket]

I seriously feel your frustration. Even with cotton, I've had to do a lot of fiddling and adjustments to see what I like and what works best. All I'm saying is, the poor/decent performance you're experiencing really is the wick material, not the device as a whole. Glass fibers can't absorb the liquid, even though there is some capillary action that happens.

Just saying, if you do decide to mess with it again, consider cotton. I'm not going to lie and say it will be fiddle-free, but you *might* enjoy the flavor enough to think it's worth playing with. With microcoil to avoid burning that god awful rubber grommet. They really need to stick with the mini RDA head design and build a tank around that. Which again is basically what the kayfuns are, but they could be made a lot cheaper.

but hey, if cartos work for you then stick with that. Different strokes, mileage varies, beat of a drum, and all that stuff

 

[roasted]

Well I'm on a cotton wick now. So far it's working decently, but the day is young. The silica was perfect at first for an hour too then turned terrible so we'll see what happens as I hit this more. Assuming it does perform acceptably I do wonder how long cotton will last versus silica...

 

[Adamneedssomehelp]

I wrap mine with a needle as a spacer and it works great. Did you untwist the silica after getting it in? It helps a lot with the wicking. Another thing is i flipped the rubber grommet over so it is pointing up and it helped to not restrict the slow. Another wick you may want to try is eokwool. I have been told by my friends in the vapure shop it works the best. I use a kamry k200 would it be better to invest in a different MOD like a provari or a vamo? Or maybe a mechanical?

 

[Adamneedssomehelp]

Oh what size eokwool are use of said product using? I got 1mm and it is a lot smaller than 3mm silica. Feed back and tips please!

 

[Foxman]

2mm works good in mine. BUT I also get a craft needle and work a 1mm silica thread thru mine and BAM.

 

[roasted]

Well, so far I'm on day 2 of great vape with no burnt hits using a cotton wick and 32ga kanthal. For once I am actually liking my Protank 2. This is a good thing. Building coils is pretty easy... I had first ran with a 3mm silica wick, which sucked, but I used that wick and eyeballed it against all of the misc drill bits I have to find one that matched, then I use that to wrap the coils. I take some cotton from a cotton ball, roll it between my fingers to kind of get a pointy edge and thread it into the coil. It's to the point a head is a 5 minute process, which is definitely a nice feeling. I hope this keeps up, as I am certainly enjoying this gizmo now. The only question remains is the thickness of the wire... sure, 32ga seems to work for me now, but I am questioning if I should be using a slightly thicker wire as I've heard some people say that works better. Any cotton wick PT2 owners out there want to chime in?

In other news, I am still enjoying my carto tank, but I've been trying to put it down in favor of giving the PT2/cotton combo a serious run for its money. Crossing my fingers that this thing doesn't begin to suck as it did with the silica wicks - but the silica situations came about within 20 minutes, and like I said, I'm on day 2 here... Hmm...

 

[ElectricalSocket]

That's awesome!

I've also heard using thicker wire gives a better TH. I'm thinking about getting some 30ga to play with. 32+cotton is where I'm at. If your juice is dark just pull out the wick and replace it every few days. Clearer stuff could let you go a week or so. The best part is not having to re-coil every time. That would be an inconvenience if it was a daily necessity, even though it is pretty quick.

I would also love to hear opinions on 28-30ga in a clearo head.

 

[roasted]

That's awesome!

I've also heard using thicker wire gives a better TH. I'm thinking about getting some 30ga to play with. 32+cotton is where I'm at. If your juice is dark just pull out the wick and replace it every few days. Clearer stuff could let you go a week or so. The best part is not having to re-coil every time. That would be an inconvenience if it was a daily necessity, even though it is pretty quick.

I would also love to hear opinions on 28-30ga in a clearo head.

Yeah - when I first went the cotton route, I was kind of surprised how I was able to reuse the coil. I just ripped out the silica, saw the bare coil, and thought... hmmmm....... spun some in and it worked. It was a slight fight to get the little metal nubbins into the tube and into their appropriate location (one inside the rubber grommet, one outside) but it really wasn't that bad at all.

Here's a question though. I understand cotton wicks will scorch themselves faster than other wicks, which leads me to believe dryburning is a bad idea. What if you do a dry-wickless burn in between wickings? Example... Protank 2 cotton head goes bad, pull out old cotton (leaving the coil and rest of the head intact), dryburn it to burn the gunk off, thoroughly wash the head, thread in new cotton, prime wick (at least I do) pop into Protank 2 and done. Winner?? If you don't I can only assume that some gunk would be left behind and eventually build up...