Kanger protank rebuild

[roasted]

So over the last few days, I've built about 20 new heads. I've built them all with 32ga kanthal and a mixture of different wicks. 3mm silica, cotton from cottonball, and cotton from a q-tip.

I will say this... when you DO manage to get a sweet cotton wick, nothing beats it. It's absolutely solid with a lot of vapor and good taste. But for the 19 other times you fail, it's so frustrating that I cannot put my finger on it.

Overall, silica was a failure all of the time. Works great for about 10 drags, then burn burn burn. Happened no matter how many different times I rebuilt the heads with different styles. All the same.

Cotton from the q-tip seems to be almost too packed down to properly wick. Not to mention it's not properly sized since it's got a teardrop shape, so you really have to work with it to finaggle it into the shape you need. Cotton balls are far easier to manage, but if the cotton is too thin it'll burn immediately.

So far in my experience, I'm lucky to get a cotton wick to last more than a day. Granted, I'm chain vaping the thing, but a few hours into the next morning it begins to lessen up on the vapor output considerably. It's kind of like a drag race. It's great, but so short lived.

Through all of this, I realized I have a stock Nova head, so I fired it back up. Oh LAWDY this thing is still a gem. I cannot believe at one point in time I was like "man this twirling thing is a pain." No. No it's not. It's not a pain in the slightest degree. What's a pain is having trash heads from Kanger. What's a pain is having to rebuild heads and the vast majority do not stack up. So far, every Nova head I had was fine. I think I'm going to keep this gizmo going for a little bit. It's turning into my ye olde faithful device.

I'm sure in time I'll revisit the Protank, but damnit, I'm busy these days.

 

[Miss Chris]

I haven't attempted a rebuild yet but I have everything I need here to do it. Hoping to muster up the patience to give it a try this weekend. Hard to make myself try when I still have lots of new heads in my stockpile.

 

[CJ797]

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

That sounds like a short bud. Are you sure your coil isn't hitting the top or side of the atomizer? Pull off the stem and check it, them put the stem back on and check it. If that doesn't work, make sure the sides aren't touching (well at least one of them)

 

[cobrascat]

All this week, it was my goal to rebuild a protank head this Saturday morning. My main concern was being able to work with small parts with aging eyes. Guess what? I did it! Wrapped 32 g. kanthal around a toothpick, I think, 5 wraps. Put all pieces and parts back together and tested it on my ohm tester.....1.98 ohms! Glows a bright red on all coils! Inserted a cotton wick from a cotton ball, and voila....great vape at 7 watts on my SVD! Now I know I will be successful using the IGO-L I just ordered.

To anyone wondering if they can do this-if I can, with old eyes and fingers, you can! And I can't believe I just typed all this vaping lingo with ease and comfort! Three months ago I was lost sitting here with my V2 thinking this was all too much to understand. Thanks to ECF forum, it's all good!

 

[Krazirob]

when i did the protank the first time the coils were somewhat tight around the wick which didnt work for me......so i wrapped around a toothpick and then fed two wicks into the coil which allowed for more absorption. just an idea in case anyone runs into this problem with the wick being too tight in the coil.

 

[bingo6104]

when i did the protank the first time the coils were somewhat tight around the wick which didnt work for me......so i wrapped around a toothpick and then fed two wicks into the coil which allowed for more absorption. just an idea in case anyone runs into this problem with the wick being too tight in the coil.

That's what I was thinking. To tight doesn't allow the wick to expand. Especially if you use cotton.

Sent from my Motorola Galaxy s3 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Foxman]

Anybody got a broken protank that they can spare a base from? I broke my threads on one this am? lol

 

[76bridget]

That's what I was thinking. To tight doesn't allow the wick to expand. Especially if you use cotton.

Sent from my Motorola Galaxy s3 using Tapatalk 2

I wrap the cotton wick with a large straightened paper clip, then slide it out. Works well.

 

[CJ797]

I picked up a VapeOne Mini BCC last night. If the performance keeps up, I might just be done with the Protanks/Evods.

 

[Spazmelda]

Anybody got a broken protank that they can spare a base from? I broke my threads on one this am? lol

I ordered 5 of these a while back. Price is very reasonable. 510 Kanger Protank Base

 

[roasted]

All this week, it was my goal to rebuild a protank head this Saturday morning. My main concern was being able to work with small parts with aging eyes. Guess what? I did it! Wrapped 32 g. kanthal around a toothpick, I think, 5 wraps. Put all pieces and parts back together and tested it on my ohm tester.....1.98 ohms! Glows a bright red on all coils! Inserted a cotton wick from a cotton ball, and voila....great vape at 7 watts on my SVD! Now I know I will be successful using the IGO-L I just ordered.

To anyone wondering if they can do this-if I can, with old eyes and fingers, you can! And I can't believe I just typed all this vaping lingo with ease and comfort! Three months ago I was lost sitting here with my V2 thinking this was all too much to understand. Thanks to ECF forum, it's all good!

I am infinitely jealous of you. I've been building heads just like you describe (except using a drill bit, not a toothpick) and I have yet to get one that works worth a damn. I'll happily buy Nova heads if this is the kind of performance I keep getting out of the PT2, as it's nothing more than gag-worthy burnt hits.

I tried wicks being tight, loose, and anything in between. Nothing has worked so far.

 

[JustMe2]

All this week, it was my goal to rebuild a protank head this Saturday morning. My main concern was being able to work with small parts with aging eyes. Guess what? I did it! Wrapped 32 g. kanthal around a toothpick, I think, 5 wraps. Put all pieces and parts back together and tested it on my ohm tester.....1.98 ohms! Glows a bright red on all coils! Inserted a cotton wick from a cotton ball, and voila....great vape at 7 watts on my SVD! Now I know I will be successful using the IGO-L I just ordered.

To anyone wondering if they can do this-if I can, with old eyes and fingers, you can! And I can't believe I just typed all this vaping lingo with ease and comfort! Three months ago I was lost sitting here with my V2 thinking this was all too much to understand. Thanks to ECF forum, it's all good!

Pretty cool isn't it! My experience is almost identical to what you just wrote..3 months ago I was getting frustrated trying to fill my V2 carts using the condom method..lol

Hmmm, wonder where I put my V2 starter kit?

 

[ElectricalSocket]

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

With 32ga, I do roughly 10ish wraps around a needle as close as possible and get 3ish ohms. I've heard 30ga is pretty good and want to get some. People using 28-30 are usually wanting lower ohms though. See how many wraps will fit in the head, you might be able to get 10 or so in there if you compress the coil with some tweezers or hemostat and then torch it (that'll make it stay compressed). Maybe wrap it around something fatter too, at least toothpick thickness.

 

[ElectricalSocket]

One thing I noticed: If I have a 3ohm micro-coil (10ish close wraps around a needle, but not 100% compressed and touching), that whole 'start around 2v over the ohms' thing really doesn't apply. I'm staying around 1v over the ohm, give or take a little. 2ohm=3-3.5 max. 3ohm=4-4.5 max. I don't get it, but a 3ohm micro-coil will still sizzle away at 3.5v. Just an idea. I wanna get a Russian 91% and turn the heat up though lol.

 

[xtwosm0kesx]

Finally got my hands on some 0.5x.1mm ribbon.

So just for fun, i built a 4 wrap 1.1ohm coil on a piece of spaghetti (lol), put it in a PT head, crammed it full of as many .5mm silica fibers as i could, then topped it with a tiny cotton flavor wick.

Thing is scary.

Id recommend it if i wasn't concerned about running that hot around the rubber grommet in the head.

 

[Krazirob]

The heads that came with the Protank 2 have no-resistance wire fused to the resistance wire.

what do you mean by that???

 

[roasted]

Just found a review on YouTube that mirrors my frustrations with the PT2.

Manofkp Reviews the Protank 2 - YouTube

Along with this PT2 video giving it a thumbs down, he also had another video review of the Smoktech ARO which he gave two thumbs up. I have one on order. I'm anxiously awaiting it as I hope and expect it'll be a winner versus the current I'd-rather-buy-analogs frustrations I've had as of lately.

 

[truen00b]

I just rebuilt my first ever heads with the protank 2. I have 32 ga kanthal with cotton from ear cleaners and its going so so. My hands werent so clean as i was sweating a lot so i can taste that in some of the ones i built. I built about 5 or 6 because some werent coming out right with the resistance.

So i cant say a definite good or bad seeing as how im just fooling around but how I am going about it is taking a 5/64 drill bit or around there and wrapping it 7 times with the 32 ga wire and getting 2.8 to 3 ohms. I then get the cotton off the swabs pinch and roll it into the coil and then setting it in. Works great so far but i do want to try cotton twine and balls next time.

Not sure if it was how i built it or what but sometimes I would test the resistance and get .1 or .2 and going what the hell. I think that was happening because i didnt have the head securely in the base as i kept the base on my vamo v3 and twisted the head in. Be sure to add the head and then add the base to test right.


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[roasted]

Last night, I built about four heads for the protank. I took my time and made them as perfectly as possible. In short, the performance was pretty bad on all of them with lots of burning. Tonight, using the same head pieces, I built a new head without the over analyzing it and making it perfect like the prior heads on the protank, and yet this new head on the evod was flawless without any issues.

I used to think the silica was bad, or that the wire wasn't a good fit, but now there's only one common denominator remaining. Come onnnn ARO.... give roasted some vape mail.

My 2c

 

[Foxman]

alright, who has protank bases?