Kanger Rocket Science

[Keyn]

Subox Mini:

Day 1, 3 analogs (instead of the 20 or so I used to smoke). Loving the WTA.

Day 2, 2 analogs, trying a little mix of different flavors.

Day 3, WTA running low, ordered more and decided to try out this RY4 stuff.

Day 4, Houston, we have a problem. Getting dry hits. Changed coils and all was good...for about 5 hits. Changed back coils, no joy. Wicked up the included RDA. GREAT flavor! Lasted about 1hr. Dry hits. Researched, rewicked 5 more times. Still all dry hits...

The tank is gurgling and air holes leaking ml's of juice all over, and it's DRY HITTING AND THE SAME TIME! WTF?!

Hypothesis: all seemed good on the WTA. The moment I began changing liquids, all hell broke loose. I suspect it has to do with pg/vg blend. The WTA was 70/30, the other flavors are all 100%vg.

Maybe even though the tank was juiced up (half way), the wick couldn't keep up with my vaping, resulting in air hole leaking, yet still total dry hit. Overheated kanthal tastes horrible, if you didn't know.

What do you peeps think?

 

[Rickw57]

At what wattage are you vaping with this setup. Can you include pictures of your wicking/coil?

 

[Keyn]

At what wattage are you vaping with this setup. Can you include pictures of your wicking/coil?

I found wattage to be a funny thing. I varied as I vaped between 10 and 22 (as flavor changed). Hits were never consistent enough to dial a perfect setting in. This is true with the 1.5 ohm and .5 ohm OCC's, and the .5 ohm RDA. All of them are dry hitting. I will try to post a pic. I'm a forum newb, so I may not be able to yet. In the meantime, it's back to analogs, because I'm a nic monster.

 

[Sir2fyablyNutz]

100% VG is very thick and wicks slower than a vg/pg blend. You could try adding a couple drops of distilled water (buck a gallon in grocery stores) to a small amount of 100%vg juice and shake well. It could thin out the VG to make it wick easier. You don't want to use very much as it will dilute the nic and flavorings as well. I would recommend trying a couple drops in 5 or 10 ml to test the consistency before a larger amount.

If you've toasted the coils/wicks, there is nothing you can do but swap out the coil (or rewick the rba) and start over. Also check to see if there is a small rubber o ring on the bottom of each coil head and rba as it is the most common place for leakage getting into the air flow section.

 

[Keyn]

I found wattage to be a funny thing. I varied as I vaped between 10 and 22 (as flavor changed). Hits were never consistent enough to dial a perfect setting in. This is true with the 1.5 ohm and .5 ohm OCC's, and the .5 ohm RDA. All of them are dry hitting. I will try to post a pic. I'm a forum newb, so I may not be able to yet. In the meantime, it's back to analogs, because I'm a nic monster.

Also, the leakage came about because I kept seeing folks say not to block the juice holes on the Kanger mini subtank. So I didn't...so now juice pretty much has free reign. I'm asking instead of more experiments because I only have a little bit of cotton left, and no vape shops around. So I wanna get it right this time.

 

[Keyn]

100% VG is very thick and wicks slower than a vg/pg blend. You could try adding a couple drops of distilled water (buck a gallon in grocery stores) to a small amount of 100%vg juice and shake well. It could thin out the VG to make it wick easier. You don't want to use very much as it will dilute the nic and flavorings as well. I would recommend trying a couple drops in 5 or 10 ml to test the consistency before a larger amount.

If you've toasted the coils/wicks, there is nothing you can do but swap out the coil (or rewick the rba) and start over. Also check to see if there is a small rubber o ring on the bottom of each coil head and rba as it is the most common place for leakage getting into the air flow section.

Thanks. O rings are good, so I really think it's the open juice holes letting too much in.

Do I need to replace the coil too? I've been dry firing (sans wick) each time I rewick to remove extra juice. The coil is firing alright still.

 

[Sir2fyablyNutz]

Thanks. O rings are good, so I really think it's the open juice holes letting too much in.

Do I need to replace the coil too? I've been dry firing (sans wick) each time I rewick to remove extra juice. The coil is firing alright still.

I'd just re wick and go.

 

[Keyn]

I'd just re wick and go.

So, with the OCC's, I think it's safe to say they just can't handle the viscosity of the super high vg, and that's why they're dry hitting? I will try diluting and see how that goes.

Also, going to try rewicking (again) to see if I can get it properly worked out. Will report.

 

[Sir2fyablyNutz]

The new version of OCC's (vertical) are supposed to handle the High VG, it's why they have larger wick holes. It's the same with the new version rba, they added larger wick holes in the side of it. Adding distilled water to max vg is a common practice, just do it sparingly.

I practically chain vape my Subtanks but I'm using a 40pg/60vg diy juice and therefore have no issues. Chain vaping max vg probably wouldn't allow the wicks time to re supply juice properly as vg is so much thicker than pg.

 

[Keyn]

The new version of OCC's (vertical) are supposed to handle the High VG, it's why they have larger wick holes. It's the same with the new version rba, they added larger wick holes in the side of it. Adding distilled water to max vg is a common practice, just do it sparingly.

I practically chain vape my Subtanks but I'm using a 40pg/60vg diy juice and therefore have no issues. Chain vaping max vg probably wouldn't allow the wicks time to re supply juice properly as vg is so much thicker than pg.

Well, I am a chain vaper with normal nic juice. So it's good to know I probably need to stay closer to 50 vg and lower until I can ween off the WTA. When I use non WTA, I vape like it was a respirator and I still don't even kind of get what my brain is craving. Fortunately the WTA I got is like 30 vg and performed perfectly.

So here's an oddity. I opened up the RDA and the wick is fully saturated and in contact with the coil all around. Still tastes very dry and flat with a very small amount of a kind of grey 'vapor' (instead of the normal white). I don't get how it can be 'dry hitting' if it's actually wet. 100% vg, so it should be at least kinda sweet.

Utterly dumbfounded.

 

[stormjib]

I've used the subtanks since last december, almost all that time with the rba. As others have said, 100% vg is very thick and hard to wick, in fact I find that anything over about 80% vg poses a challenge. 30/70 pg/vg works a charm, however. You do want to cover up those holes, and make sure your wick doesn't come into contact with the airflow hole. The occ's can be modified by poking them with a pin repeatedly, which can help with wicking thicker juices, but max vg will likely still be a challenge.

 

[LarryYo]

Have you made sure that your build doesnt have any hotlegs on your RBA portion that could possibly be an issue. It wouldnt explain why the pre built coils weren't working though.

 

[Keyn]

I've used the subtanks since last december, almost all that time with the rba. As others have said, 100% vg is very thick and hard to wick, in fact I find that anything over about 80% vg poses a challenge. 30/70 pg/vg works a charm, however. You do want to cover up those holes, and make sure your wick doesn't come into contact with the airflow hole. The occ's can be modified by poking them with a pin repeatedly, which can help with wicking thicker juices, but max vg will likely still be a challenge.

Thank you, I'll give that a go on the OCC's!

 

[Keyn]

Have you made sure that your build doesnt have any hotlegs on your RBA portion that could possibly be an issue. It wouldnt explain why the pre built coils weren't working though.

Hot legs... School me Larry, I dunno what those are (non anatomically speaking). I would guess a short caused by the leads?

The leads don't go past the posts at all. The coil was already installed on the deck out of the box. All I did was fire it until it stopped the little smoking it was doing, wick, prime, and vape. Is ejuice conductive? If so, maybe that's a problem?

 

[LarryYo]

hot legs happen a lot you can have one wrap or a leg lead that heats up faster then the rest of the coil... even though everything looks fine there maybe something wrong with the coil causing one part to super heat and gives you the dry hit after you prime your wick and have a good juice flow. I would re wick but before you do pulse and pinch the coil as well as adjust it so the coil fires fine again.

 

[Keyn]

hot legs happen a lot you can have one wrap or a leg lead that heats up faster then the rest of the coil... even though everything looks fine there maybe something wrong with the coil causing one part to super heat and gives you the dry hit after you prime your wick and have a good juice flow. I would re wick but before you do pulse and pinch the coil as well as adjust it so the coil fires fine again.

OK. The stock rba coils are spread instead of closed. Not sure if I can close those up, or even 'should'.

Teli ya what, I'm showing' full member' now. I'll post some pics to show the rba as is, wick removed, and coil in a fired up state.

 

[LarryYo]

ok sounds good and it can be that one of the coils are making contact with the chamber and causing a short there as well.

 

[Keyn]

hot legs happen a lot you can have one wrap or a leg lead that heats up faster then the rest of the coil... even though everything looks fine there maybe something wrong with the coil causing one part to super heat and gives you the dry hit after you prime your wick and have a good juice flow. I would re wick but before you do pulse and pinch the coil as well as adjust it so the coil fires fine again.

Cap off

Sans wick and fired up (little blurry, but color of coil show well)

Originally, the wick wasn't that voluminous, so I guess it's wicking for the most part...

 

[LarryYo]

that could be it when i wick that RBA section up i like to place the cotton through the coils.
then lift the ends up to allow the middle chamber to be put on.
cut the cotton at the top of the chamber
then just kinda pack it in on the sides so it just hovers over the juice ports.

 

[Keyn]

that could be it when i wick that RBA section up i like to place the cotton through the coils.
then lift the ends up to allow the middle chamber to be put on.
cut the cotton at the top of the chamber
then just kinda pack it in on the sides so it just hovers over the juice ports.

Alright. But you see how saturated it is. Why does it taste dry and like #@&$? It's so weird. I will rewick again and see what happens.