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Yup yup. I just do a couple quick bursts. Don't wanna burn that gromment. Right after the coils glow I let off, and do that a few times.
Well, that was seemingly short-lived. I built three more heads using a cotton wick, but the all resulted in some immediate problems, such as burning etc. All of them measure out to be 2.1 ohms in resistance, and visually appear to be identical to the original that was working great in terms of coil spacing and the amount of cotton in the actual wick. I do have to say, despite what level of inconsistencies that some people see with cartomizers, they seem *far* more predictable then what these heads appear to be, whether we're talking stock heads or rebuilt heads. I say this because there have been stock heads that were fabulous, and the next ones were terrible...the exact seems to be true even with rebuilt heads. Originally I was excited about this because it means over the course of the year I might save a couple bucks by rebuilding my own heads, but of course at the expense of my time and a degree of frustration in situations like this where one is perfect and the next 1 or 10 is terrible. I have a feeling when this is all said and done, I'll side with just buying cartomizers and using my carto tank full time. I hate to have the standpoint, because I really want to love this device, but that's where I'm at right now.
Roasted, I am sorry you are having such issues. After several rebuilds, I am now able to rebuild a protank and/or evod head in short time and with fairly consistent results. It took me a while to get it down, but I am now fairly confident in the results. I do, however, feel that each individual user has to work out their own little process, although based on basically the same thing, with a few modifications. I am now building heads for some family and myself and it's going well and we are saving some money.
Since I vape 100% VG, due to allergy, my atty's, cartos, clearos and coil heads seem to clog faster, which is natural with even thinned down VG. Therefore I am not getting a lot of usage out of a build, maybe a couple of days, but I am a very heavy vaper also. Not unusual for me to vape through several tank fills per day.
Good luck with your journey.
For my part, I have been vaping five years and analog free for 4 1/2. I have tried so many devices, and such over the years and so far this works for me, and well. I make my own juice, and now wrap my own coils. Use a VAMO so have good control over voltage and watts to adjust for any difference in resistance. I get 2.4-2.8 ohms resistance on rebuilds using 2.5mm silica and 32ga kanthal. The wire mesh nor the ribbon wire worked for me. I think we just all have to find our sweet spot.
Happy vaping to all !
Since I vape 100% VG, due to allergy, my atty's, cartos, clearos and coil heads seem to clog faster, which is natural with even thinned down VG. Therefore I am not getting a lot of usage out of a build, maybe a couple of days, but I am a very heavy vaper also. Not unusual for me to vape through several tank fills per day.
Good luck with your journey.
For my part, I have been vaping five years and analog free for 4 1/2. I have tried so many devices, and such over the years and so far this works for me, and well. I make my own juice, and now wrap my own coils. Use a VAMO so have good control over voltage and watts to adjust for any difference in resistance. I get 2.4-2.8 ohms resistance on rebuilds using 2.5mm silica and 32ga kanthal. The wire mesh nor the ribbon wire worked for me. I think we just all have to find our sweet spot.
Happy vaping to all !
Oddly enough, now that I put down my Protank in favor of the carto tank for this afternoon, I am not getting the same amount of vape nor flavor out of my carto tank with this particular liquid as I was getting in the Protank. That, coupled with your post, has me wanting to revisit the Protank heads when I get home. It's definitely a frustrating process, but I can't help but to wonder I am indeed doing something wrong. The caveat to cotton is it's difficult to get an *exact* thickness on one wick vs another since you roll it on your own. That said, it makes me wonder if you can just buy pre-rolled cotton wicks, which judging by a few quick Google searches seems to be the case.
I might give silica another try as well when I get back to it. I wonder if it'll behave differently given the fact I am on a new liquid now. On the previous liquid I used, the carto tank had the upper hand, but in this case my vanilla swirl from the local vape shop is definitely better on the Protank.
I'm determined to make this work at this point. I don't mind rebuilding heads, but only as long as 90% of them aren't failing hard. I also tried the mesh and was not overly enthused by its performance. I'm sure it's better in an RBA, but not this particular device. I tried ribbon wire as well, but ribbon wire is difficult to get the amount of necessary wraps given the small size of the head diameter. I can easily build a ribbon wire head, but of course that sucker will be like .4 ohm. Ha...
I might give silica another try as well when I get back to it. I wonder if it'll behave differently given the fact I am on a new liquid now. On the previous liquid I used, the carto tank had the upper hand, but in this case my vanilla swirl from the local vape shop is definitely better on the Protank.
I'm determined to make this work at this point. I don't mind rebuilding heads, but only as long as 90% of them aren't failing hard. I also tried the mesh and was not overly enthused by its performance. I'm sure it's better in an RBA, but not this particular device. I tried ribbon wire as well, but ribbon wire is difficult to get the amount of necessary wraps given the small size of the head diameter. I can easily build a ribbon wire head, but of course that sucker will be like .4 ohm. Ha...
Yessss don't stray away from the protank roasted xD It took me 10+ rebuilds to finally get 1 working head. It's all trial and error my friend, also if your having trouble with cotton try ekowool i say. Wicks a lot faster than silica and flavor is definitely better than normal silica but i can't say anything compared to cotton since i've never used it before. Hope the best of luck at rebuilding =)
I built another head tonight using the cotton from a q-tip. This seems to be a more error-proof method to getting the cotton the exact thickness. I basically carefully ripped it off and rolled it relatively thin. It came out right around identical to the 3mm silica I have, so I used the same drill bit to wind up the coil and fed the cotton through. Snipped the ends and bam, a new head. I primed it with about 2 drops of liquid then put it all together. Once done I left it sit upright for about 10 minutes. Afterwards, it performed nicely. Can't complain (so far). 
I built another head tonight using the cotton from a q-tip. This seems to be a more error-proof method to getting the cotton the exact thickness. I basically carefully ripped it off and rolled it relatively thin. It came out right around identical to the 3mm silica I have, so I used the same drill bit to wind up the coil and fed the cotton through. Snipped the ends and bam, a new head. I primed it with about 2 drops of liquid then put it all together. Once done I left it sit upright for about 10 minutes. Afterwards, it performed nicely. Can't complain (so far).
I just rewicked mine with cotton. I think I got it right. its not leaking but if I take more than one hit I get a dry hit? Is their something I have done wrong? Or does it need a good break in? I've had the juice in for about a hour and have been vaping lightly on it.
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It's hard for me to really give advice yet as I'm still working out the kinks with the way I build heads. All I really did with the successful head tonight was this:
- Cut a length of kanthal
- Using a lighter, scorched the entire length of it to burn off any impurities before installation
- Using a drill bit, I tightly wrapped the coil around the drill bit
- I tore the cotton carefully off of the q-tip in a way that kept it all one piece yet kind of elongated it a little bit to the appropriate size
- Threaded the end of it into the first loop of the coil and continually twisted it until it worked its way entirely through the coil
- Cut the extra cotton off
- Installed the head into the base, checked ohms
- Dripped about 2 drops of liquid onto the wick (one on each end)
- Installed the air tube thing-a-ma-bob and the rubber grommet
- Installed head/base into the Protank 2
- Let it sit upright for 10 minutes
- Began vaping
Keep the airflow/suction in mind too. On the Protank v1, I found that I liked the airy draw but needed to block at least one of the air slots to keep it from burning cotton. If it's airy, no super-slow drags. If it's a PT-2 or modified PT-1 with a tighter draw, slower draw is ok. The suction (or lack of) sucks juice into the coil area. There's a balance you have to find when using cotton, but it's not too hard. You'll know it's burning a bit if it irritates your throat. Also, if you're playing with it and it floods you can easily dry it up with your handy dandy pieces of toilet paper. If you burn it, well that just sucks worse (especially for your throat).
If that doesn't help, make sure the silicone cap that rests on the wick doesn't crush the wick down too much cutting off juice flow. Also make sure the wick isn't rolled super tight (too packed together). You don't have to over-think it or anything, just make sure you don't intentionally press it together really hard. That's all I got for now.
If that doesn't help, make sure the silicone cap that rests on the wick doesn't crush the wick down too much cutting off juice flow. Also make sure the wick isn't rolled super tight (too packed together). You don't have to over-think it or anything, just make sure you don't intentionally press it together really hard. That's all I got for now.
Oh yeah I've also been wanting to get something a bit more uniform. I love cotton balls, but it would help to have something 100% consistent. I'm thinking Peaches & Creme white yarn from walmart, but need to search a bit more on what's best. This place is information-overload central. Which is good and bad lol. I think the P&C will be most similar to using balls and q-tips. I've gotten some cotton butchers twine and didn't like it at all.
Dark juice a few days, light/clear juice a good week. Some change it every day for best flavor. I think I'll do that when I get some good yarn. Won't even be a 30 second hassle.
Wow only that long ? I wish the silica wick would be as good..
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Yeah but the best thing is you don't have to re-coil or any nonsense like that. Just a quick pull it out and throw a new one in there. If you used unflavored juice it would last even longer. It's just that some of the flavoring gets trapped and "gunks" up the wick. It really acts like a filter basically. The more it builds up, the more it will wash back into fresh juice and make it taste different.
Actually I just got back into all this and forgot something. When I first got a Protank I would rinse out the wick with distilled water and it would look like new. If you had 2 heads in rotation, you could use one for a few days, rinse it out and let it dry while you use the other head. They could last over a week doing that, but at some point you'll wanna dry burn the coil for a second, wash it, and use fresh wick.
Actually I just got back into all this and forgot something. When I first got a Protank I would rinse out the wick with distilled water and it would look like new. If you had 2 heads in rotation, you could use one for a few days, rinse it out and let it dry while you use the other head. They could last over a week doing that, but at some point you'll wanna dry burn the coil for a second, wash it, and use fresh wick.
I have been trying to recoil my PT heads and I'm about to give up. I have used 32g wire and 2.5mm silica, and 32g wire with 2mm ekowool, all heads about 1.8-2.2 ohms (checked with a Fluke). I also have been torching the wire and wick and then giving it a dry burn before using them. Each time I have gotten a weird bitter taste. I can't figure it out. If I use a brand new head with the same tank of juice, that weird taste is there. Any ideas? I'm about ready to give up and just buy heads, but I really don't want to throw in the towel.
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Protank 1? When you say new head gives the same taste, do you mean a new factory head?
Assuming that's the case, I would strongly suggest:
*Dump the juice if you can afford it
*Rinse out the tank real quick
*Look right under the threads on the inside of the tank.
*You should see the clear adhesive with some little air bubbles in it.
*If you see any YELLOW, the adhesive is burning.
*If that is the case, STOP using it and at least feel good about not doing anything wrong. I wouldn't recommend doing what I did and temporarily going back to smokes. A gas station e-cig wouldn't be a whole lot more expensive than a pack a day. Then get a PT-2 ordered asap. Of course this is just assuming the glue is burning.
Assuming that's the case, I would strongly suggest:
*Dump the juice if you can afford it
*Rinse out the tank real quick
*Look right under the threads on the inside of the tank.
*You should see the clear adhesive with some little air bubbles in it.
*If you see any YELLOW, the adhesive is burning.
*If that is the case, STOP using it and at least feel good about not doing anything wrong. I wouldn't recommend doing what I did and temporarily going back to smokes. A gas station e-cig wouldn't be a whole lot more expensive than a pack a day. Then get a PT-2 ordered asap. Of course this is just assuming the glue is burning.
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I have this issue in the PT2 and Evods (using PT heads). And yes a new factory head gives me no weird taste at all. I don't want to go back to analogs after 8 weeks of not having them....lol.
After thinking about it, the only common denominator is the wire. So maybe I'll try and get some different wire from a different vendor.
Need some help guys.
I tried to rebuild the kanger protank like 4 times....I keep on getting 0.2 and 0.4 ohms...Im trying to get 2.0 ohms...What am i doing wrong? I'm using 30 kanthal and 3mm wick...You think 32 kanthal would be better? Thanks in advance
I tried to rebuild the kanger protank like 4 times....I keep on getting 0.2 and 0.4 ohms...Im trying to get 2.0 ohms...What am i doing wrong? I'm using 30 kanthal and 3mm wick...You think 32 kanthal would be better? Thanks in advance
Been following this thread for a while... I just rebuilt my first coil yesterday using 32 g kanthal (temco) and cotton yarn. With fancy tools like tweezers, nail clippers, a large straightened out paperclip, and a dental threader, lol! 2.3 ohms.
Peep, you might need to give a little more info to get some help - how many wraps?
Peep, you might need to give a little more info to get some help - how many wraps?
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