Kanger Subtank RBA frustration

[Maiar]

Hey everyone, it's been ages since I've actually had to ask for help on here. But here we go. I usually still use my nautilus for daily use, but I got a subtank mini for christmas and the Plus as a treat to myself for making it so long without smoking. Long story short the short coil life pushed me into trying the RBA deck. The flavor is phenomenal with cotton bacon V2. However it's the burnt hits that are driving me nuts. It hits fine until you stop inhaling and let go of the button, then it feels like it's still firing for an extra second and just goes from great taste to sucking on a ....ing car muffler in the one second. I know when I hear that sizzle that it's gonna get bad in a second. I've looked around online before trying my luck here since it's such a popular system. Some say it's not enough wick. So I go thinner and doesn't help. Some say it's too little wick, so I go thicker and nothing. Tried the pancake method, which is a just a recipe for a flood. Tried kinda combing out any wick that wants to come out. Doesn't help. Tried cutting the cotton longer so it kinda sticks out the holes (it's a v2) and nothing. Tried cutting it short so it just brushes the edges of the frame, nothing. Tried packing it in, nothing. Tried making it all fluffy and thinner, nothing. Tried fluffy and longer. Nothing. Anytime you go too thin of course you start pissing juice.
I'm using the premade coils you just mount in the deck and wick, that's pretty easy. I think they're around 2mm diameter. I've tried making my own coils smaller at 1.4mm, those are ..... Tried making them bigger at around 3mm and that doesn't help. I'm using muffin man by OHW in there at 80VG, figured maybe it's too thick. But I put some 50/50 in there just to check, same ..... Just continues to sizzle for a second when you're letting go of the button. Also tried on 4 different mods and they all do that, so my batteries are working fine.

Holy .... that was way longer than I wanted. I apologize. But what the .... am I screwing up here?? The worst part is I had it working first try when I started, hence how I got hooked on the imporoved flavor, but now I'm literally hemmoraghing juice here. I'm trying to save money, not just switch from spending too much on coils to too much on juice lol.

 

[Shawn Hoefer]

If your coils are sizzling for a while after you've released the button chances are you're using to heavy a gauge of wire or too high a power setting. I typically build with either 24 or 26 gauge. I also make spaced coils (contact coils hold the heat better for subsequent hits - something not needed on variable wattage mods). I keep my builds around .4 Ohms at 40 Watts, and I rarely get burnt hits until I accidentally empty the tank...

Hope this helps, and best of luck!

 

[MMcQ]

You might try continuing the hit after you release the button to continue drawing juice to the coil and cool it down faster. If its still sizzling after you try this than its usually a sign of a dry wick that burning. Now you have to figure out if its dry because its too little wick (collapses and the coil is overheating from lack of juice) or too much wick (can't wick the juice fast enough as its too condensed). Hope this helps. Used to drive me crazy too but I went to 28g 1+ ohm coils. Quick to heat up, quick to cool down.

 

[Maiar]

Thanks for the reply. I'm pretty sure the premade guys you just mount in there are 26 gauge, that's the gauge I'm building with anyways. The coils do kind of get pushed together when you screw them in though... there isn't a lot of room in there. I try to keep them seperated, but maybe there getting pushed together at the bottom of the coil. Hard to see. These guys are supposed to be .5ohm but usually read around .6, problem is, they still do this at power levels barely enough to fire the thing. So when they read .6 I can barely get them above 20w before it's unbearable.
I'm pretty much giving up for the time being though, just gonna take notes for awhile

 

[Maiar]

And yes I tried continuing the hit after releasing the button, still happens. Interesting...

 

[MMcQ]

To be honest I've found that too little wick was usually my problem.. Try stuffing the hell out of it. If it works, you've found the solution. If its still bad you have a baseline for too much and can whittle it down from there. Cotton pads help with this as they're really dense to start with. I usually take them apart and put the outside on the inside if you can picture that. Dense inside, fluffy outside.

 

[Maiar]

To be honest I've found that too little wick was usually my problem.. Try stuffing the hell out of it. If it works, you've found the solution. If its still bad you have a baseline for too much and can whittle it down from there. Cotton pads help with this as they're really dense to start with. I usually take them apart and put the outside on the inside if you can picture that. Dense inside, fluffy outside.

That's a pretty good idea. In all the videos I've seen people seem to know how much to measure out for their cotton from those pads, this cotton bacon stuff is just a ....ing jumble though, hard to measure. But I'll try stuffing the hell out of it.
I kinda need this to work, I'm on a tighter budget lately with school, I can't afford to replace a factory coil every 2 or 3 days for what they cost. Basically for the amount, I should take up ...... instead of vaping.

I was just running some experiments. It doesn't seem as bad in my subtank mini versus my plus, which is weird considering they're basically identical except for size... It also doesn't seem as bad now with other 80% to max vg juices in the mini. But in the plus it's a nightmare. And I don't want to use my mini as the only rba because the plus holds so much more juice, enough to get through a day of school. But for some reason it doesn't like muffin man. Which is just perfect since it's my favorite juice and ml for ml it's the cheapest of my juices, hence that's the one I need to get working here...

One last question though... when priming before putting it back together, should I be soaking it? Or just a few drops and then let sit? Like a factory coil?

 

[MMcQ]

I'd say soak it. Then let it sit for maybe 5 or 10 minutes with a primer puff to see if it makes any air bubbles pop into the tank. Put it on the max airflow to "even" it out if its flooded a bit and then see if you have to decrease the airholes to increase juice intake. Gentle hits at first gradually increasing wattage.

 

[Zanzabar78]

Hey everyone, it's been ages since I've actually had to ask for help on here. But here we go. I usually still use my nautilus for daily use, but I got a subtank mini for christmas and the Plus as a treat to myself for making it so long without smoking. Long story short the short coil life pushed me into trying the RBA deck. The flavor is phenomenal with cotton bacon V2. However it's the burnt hits that are driving me nuts. It hits fine until you stop inhaling and let go of the button, then it feels like it's still firing for an extra second and just goes from great taste to sucking on a ....ing car muffler in the one second. I know when I hear that sizzle that it's gonna get bad in a second. I've looked around online before trying my luck here since it's such a popular system. Some say it's not enough wick. So I go thinner and doesn't help. Some say it's too little wick, so I go thicker and nothing. Tried the pancake method, which is a just a recipe for a flood. Tried kinda combing out any wick that wants to come out. Doesn't help. Tried cutting the cotton longer so it kinda sticks out the holes (it's a v2) and nothing. Tried cutting it short so it just brushes the edges of the frame, nothing. Tried packing it in, nothing. Tried making it all fluffy and thinner, nothing. Tried fluffy and longer. Nothing. Anytime you go too thin of course you start pissing juice.
I'm using the premade coils you just mount in the deck and wick, that's pretty easy. I think they're around 2mm diameter. I've tried making my own coils smaller at 1.4mm, those are ..... Tried making them bigger at around 3mm and that doesn't help. I'm using muffin man by OHW in there at 80VG, figured maybe it's too thick. But I put some 50/50 in there just to check, same ..... Just continues to sizzle for a second when you're letting go of the button. Also tried on 4 different mods and they all do that, so my batteries are working fine.

Holy .... that was way longer than I wanted. I apologize. But what the .... am I screwing up here?? The worst part is I had it working first try when I started, hence how I got hooked on the imporoved flavor, but now I'm literally hemmoraghing juice here. I'm trying to save money, not just switch from spending too much on coils to too much on juice lol.

I have no problems with my Kayfuns, hurricanes, lemos or Russian 91 but I do have all the issues you have with my stm v2.

What did it for me was 3mm coils, don't stuff the coil too much, nor too little, and cut it right above the red o ring, that's just enough to keep it wicked without flooding (for me at least).push it down towards the holes n that's that. Drove me crazy for a week but now it vapes great. Still can't compare to the tobeco hurricane clone though but good enough to be in my small rotation

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[jackmormon]

I have no problems with my Kayfuns, hurricanes, lemos or Russian 91 but I do have all the issues you have with my stm v2.

What did it for me was 3mm coils, don't stuff the coil too much, nor too little, and cut it right above the red o ring, that's just enough to keep it wicked without flooding (for me at least).push it down towards the holes n that's that. Drove me crazy for a week but now it vapes great. Still can't compare to the tobeco hurricane clone though but good enough to be in my small rotation

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

This and I will add 2.5 to 3MM coils work best for amount of wicking material. One other thing to try if you still have difficulties is after wicking, soak the cotton and use a toothpick or something similar to create a very small gap between the wick and the juice hole. just push the cotton back towards the coil a bit like you would do with the old V1 RBA head.

 

[Maiar]

I'm also finding that 2.5-3mm coils seem to work best after making a few. I tried just stuffing the .... out of it and that actually seemed to reduce it but not totally. But I made progress! And I also tried once it's wicked, kinda spin the wick inside the coil. That seems to fluff it up inside.
Thanks for the help everyone. I feel like I'm moving in the right direction here.

Also note to self... remember to screw the top part of the chimney back on before you assemble... that was a ....ing mess!

 

[rabgary]

............
Also note to self... remember to screw the top part of the chimney back on before you assemble... that was a ....ing mess!

I have had mine for a couple of months now and I still do that probably about 25% of the time so don't feel too bad.

 

[Maiar]

Just a little update. I stopped using the cotton bacon and went back to the old bag of organic cotton balls I picked up when I was rewicking my old evods. Just packed the .... out of it too, and nothing, no problems. Not a single dry or burnt hit and I've put like 14ml of 80VG juice through it. The only difference I can see is all the cotton for vaping has that layer of harder stuff in there that just won't fluff right. So I'm going to have to make an effort to get that layer out or just keep doing what I'm doing. Vapor production is great, the flavor is slightly weaker than the cotton bacon, but I'm sure I can work on that with maybe a little less wick.

 

[Clydde26]

Notice how the coil opening is centered on the screws. This is a 2.5mm ID that seems to be the sweet spot.

Plenty of cotton running through the coil enough for gradual resistance but not enough that your cotton is pulling apart as your pulling it through the coil.

Tails go up through the coil housing like bunny ears and then the housing is slid over them and secured.

I then pull them to the side and trim leaving approximately an 1/8 inch tail left on each side.

Using a small flat head or equivalent i gently poke the tails down on each side no stuffing them tightly but ensuring that it touches the bottom of the build deck. I also inspect and make sure that none of the cotton is wildly poking down the air hole under the coil. this will cause leaking.

As you turn the housing on its side you should be able to see just enough poof of cotton poking out of the juice channel holes. This means you have enough cotton in your device.

The only way you can shut the air off on the top tank mini is in between the small hole and medium hole...there is no true "all the way off" setting so you will just have to play with it.

Ensure you leave your slight air bubble at the top for proper juice flow then close the top and open your afc back up. You should have no issues with leaking if these steps are followed.

If you follow this wicking method no matter the mass of the wire or type of cotton you will not get a burnt hit even with the sizzling.

 

[Bakseated1]

I had the exact issue and tried everything like you to fix it. I solved it by buying a temp controlled device. Otherwise it was going in the trash. All these people talking about 30 watts and I couldn't go above 15. It was driving me nuts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Clydde26]

That build pictured handles 50 plus

 

[puffon]

 

[GeorgeS]

I build all my tanks with TC wire and run on TC mods. The STM is one of the easiest tanks to build on.

I agree with the others - 2.5mm ID is the sweet spot and make sure the two juice holes are covered with wick!

(I've switched to Silica rope and no longer use cotton)

 

[SLM]

With my STM and either the V1 or V2 deck I'll get dry hits if I fill the tank full. It doesn't seem to like that. If I forget and fill it up, I give it a little puff after I hit it. It's like it makes a vacuum and won't wick. Once the juice level is down a bit, the problem goes away... Until I overfill it again.