Status
Not open for further replies.

Mr.Reliant

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Aug 6, 2010
119
175
Ceti Alpha V
I'm getting the same airflow from the rba as the OCC. I thought I'd just stick with the OCC's too for simplicity but out of curiosity I gave the rba a try. Super simple and I actually think the flavor is a touch better. Amazing tank either way. I just clicked the check out button on a 2nd LOL!

I just re-checked my RBA... I stand corrected the airflow IS the same as the OCC. It was the big 25mm RBAs that had the reduced air. My Bad
I still can't imagine my thick juice is going to feed through those tiny holes fast enough to keep up with my chaining though.

What are your coil stats? I might give it a try before my next OCC rewick just for grins. (wire gauge : mandrel diameter: wrap count) I am interested in trying some of the twisted 28 I have lying around from my dripper days. Twisted does give more surface area but also requires more juice flow to keep up.
 
Been lurking in this thread for a quite a while now and thought I'd share my two cents.

Got the Subtank Mini about 2 weeks ago and haven't touched my "old" Nautilus Mini's since this came through the door. Ran the .5ohm OCC up until today when I got bored on a few days off from work and tried building on the RBA. First off, SUPER easy and simple to build on the RBA. I started with (and am currently running) a twisted build. I was going for .5 or .6 but came out at .7. I'll go with it for a while. Anyway, after experimenting with some airflow and wattage/voltage settings (on my iStick 30) I settled on wide open or 2 air holes at 24 watts. If I went much higher it'd get too hot for my liking. Wicking (my weak point thus far) seems to be feeding just fine. I should have snapped more pics but got too excited and forgot. Anyway, love the deck, love love the tank, and really dig the OCC's. So far I have yet to find a real downfall on this tank/setup aside from I now need to go to 3mg or 0mg nic as 6 is just too much for my head lol

IMG_20150210_135059.jpg
 

Bklynzfinest

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Nov 4, 2013
90
125
Brooklyn,NY
Didn't want to start a new thread so I figure I would ask here... has anyone experienced burnt hits on these coils? I've been using the OCC .5 ohms exclusively for about 3 weeks, and when it works it works amazingly well, however taking a drag longer than 2.5 seconds gives me terrible burnt hits. A new coil works great for about 3 days or less, after that I start getting less vapor & flavor drop off. I was hoping these coils would at least last me a week or so but it's just not happening. I prime them very well, 70/30 ratio & 6mg typically between 20-25 watts. Airlfow channel is usually the biggest slot. After about a week the coil is BLACK and super gunky, the cotton seems fine though. Wondering if switching to 50/50 would help...

Also finding that my favorite juices are no longer my favorites in this tank (honey pearry!) :(
The flavor is just TOO intense and sweet at this level.
 
Ok, so after my first post a few posts ago, I wasn't quite happy with the performance of what I did (first one on the RBA, after all). So I went back to the drawing boards. This time I did 4 wraps of my braided 28ga Kanthal on a 3/32 drill bit. Tweaked it, tightened it, and locked in it. It came out to .4ohm and once wicked and installed, I tried it out. 100x better than my first build. Flavor is better than the OCC's and no dry hits at 30 watts. I think I'm in love!!

IMG_20150210_135059_Custom.jpg


IMG_20150210_153603_Custom.jpg


IMG_20150210_153610_Custom.jpg


IMG_20150210_154230_Custom.jpg
 

Jayscuzzi

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Sep 20, 2014
210
284
North Central, Il.
Ok, so after my first post a few posts ago, I wasn't quite happy with the performance of what I did (first one on the RBA, after all). So I went back to the drawing boards. This time I did 4 wraps of my braided 28ga Kanthal on a 3/32 drill bit. Tweaked it, tightened it, and locked in it. It came out to .4ohm and once wicked and installed, I tried it out. 100x better than my first build. Flavor is better than the OCC's and no dry hits at 30 watts. I think I'm in love!!

IMG_20150210_135059_Custom.jpg


IMG_20150210_153603_Custom.jpg


IMG_20150210_153610_Custom.jpg


IMG_20150210_154230_Custom.jpg
Very nice build. Every do that with the occ coils?
 
Very nice build. Every do that with the occ coils?

I haven't taken apart one of the OCC's yet but when the .5 starts to get tired I plan to give it a shot but at this point, why fix something that isn't broken? lol Then again, if this build holds up well enough, maybe I won't go back to the OCC's.
 

Mr.Reliant

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Aug 6, 2010
119
175
Ceti Alpha V
Didn't want to start a new thread so I figure I would ask here... has anyone experienced burnt hits on these coils? I've been using the OCC .5 ohms exclusively for about 3 weeks, and when it works it works amazingly well, however taking a drag longer than 2.5 seconds gives me terrible burnt hits. A new coil works great for about 3 days or less, after that I start getting less vapor & flavor drop off. I was hoping these coils would at least last me a week or so but it's just not happening. I prime them very well, 70/30 ratio & 6mg typically between 20-25 watts. Airlfow channel is usually the biggest slot. After about a week the coil is BLACK and super gunky, the cotton seems fine though. Wondering if switching to 50/50 would help...

Also finding that my favorite juices are no longer my favorites in this tank (honey pearry!) :(
The flavor is just TOO intense and sweet at this level.

Assuming you have tried more than one OCC (in case you got a dud or something) it has almost GOT to be your juice. As you prolly already found out, when you go lower ohms and higher watts you increase your juice consumption. If there are any flavor components in your juice that get gunky and don't vaporize well at high heat it is gonna gunk up those coils faster than it would at lower power settings on a higher ohm coil.

Have you tried using the 1.2 OCCs at arround 14-15 watts yet. I find my really sweet stuff works best on the 1.2's and the flavor is just as good as with the .5's. 1.2's have a bit more ramp up time and won't blow as big of clouds but are great for flavor. They also use less juice and battery to run them.
 

inspects

Squonkamaniac
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Dec 15, 2014
4,455
10,798
Arizona, Ecuador
I haven't taken apart one of the OCC's yet but when the .5 starts to get tired I plan to give it a shot but at this point, why fix something that isn't broken? lol Then again, if this build holds up well enough, maybe I won't go back to the OCC's.

I been using the same OCC coils on three different mods for almost two weeks, still the same flavor and great overall performance...!

When one finally bites the dust, I'm going to rebuilt it too.
 

vincom

Ultra Member
ECF Veteran
Jun 19, 2014
1,151
1,948
Philippines
Didn't want to start a new thread so I figure I would ask here... has anyone experienced burnt hits on these coils? I've been using the OCC .5 ohms exclusively for about 3 weeks, and when it works it works amazingly well, however taking a drag longer than 2.5 seconds gives me terrible burnt hits. A new coil works great for about 3 days or less, after that I start getting less vapor & flavor drop off. I was hoping these coils would at least last me a week or so but it's just not happening. I prime them very well, 70/30 ratio & 6mg typically between 20-25 watts. Airlfow channel is usually the biggest slot. After about a week the coil is BLACK and super gunky, the cotton seems fine though. Wondering if switching to 50/50 would help...

Also finding that my favorite juices are no longer my favorites in this tank (honey pearry!) :(
The flavor is just TOO intense and sweet at this level.

i have w/the included coils and doesnt seem to matter the watts, ive learned to take a primer after a few hits just to avoid the burnt hit, my feeling it cant keep up w/the wicking even on 60/40 vg/pg.
but when its working it tastes great, my nautilus mini tastes like crap now.
im almost exclusively on the rba now, once i got the wicking right w/the included coil, so i havent bought a new pack of occ coils to test them out
 
Last edited:

jj6404

Super Member
ECF Veteran
Jan 15, 2015
945
342
VA
Didn't want to start a new thread so I figure I would ask here... has anyone experienced burnt hits on these coils? I've been using the OCC .5 ohms exclusively for about 3 weeks, and when it works it works amazingly well, however taking a drag longer than 2.5 seconds gives me terrible burnt hits. A new coil works great for about 3 days or less, after that I start getting less vapor & flavor drop off. I was hoping these coils would at least last me a week or so but it's just not happening. I prime them very well, 70/30 ratio & 6mg typically between 20-25 watts. Airlfow channel is usually the biggest slot. After about a week the coil is BLACK and super gunky, the cotton seems fine though. Wondering if switching to 50/50 would help...

Also finding that my favorite juices are no longer my favorites in this tank (honey pearry!) :(
The flavor is just TOO intense and sweet at this level.

What kind of juice are you using? I'm guessing it's something really dark. I was vaping 65/35 fine on the OCC no dry hits, but I think you should just build and use the RBA head. I vape 80/20 vg/pg all day on the RBA no problems whatsoever. (at 0.5 ohms and 20-25 watts nonetheless)
 

Bklynzfinest

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Nov 4, 2013
90
125
Brooklyn,NY
I have been through about 4-5 so far and all performing similar in terms of lifespan. How long do the coils usually last for most people? I will say there were a couple odd pulls that were totally my fault, juice level was below the wicking holes and I didn't notice and well, yeah. They somewhat recovered in terms of flavor once I refilled but is there no going back after that first dry hit?

I was vaping Lemonem by Beantown btw... it's a lemon sugar cookie flavor. I tried the 1.2 that came with the subtank, and it was decent until randomly I got the worst dry hit of my life, this time with a full tank and short draw... I don't know if it's that the istick is overpowered and can't really do higher ohm coils without scorching em (?) , but whatever the case I'm tentative to go back.
 

Mr.Reliant

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Aug 6, 2010
119
175
Ceti Alpha V
I was vaping Lemonem by Beantown btw... it's a lemon sugar cookie flavor. I tried the 1.2 that came with the subtank, and it was decent until randomly I got the worst dry hit of my life, this time with a full tank and short draw... I don't know if it's that the istick is overpowered and can't really do higher ohm coils without scorching em (?) , but whatever the case I'm tentative to go back.

Weird! That has not happened to me yet. KNOCK ON WOOD
However...
I took one of these OCCs apart the other day just to check how they were built. (just take some channel lock pliers to the top cap and rock it back and forth gently DO NOT TWIST)
IMHO they put WAY too much cotton in these. I went ahead and rewicked it with a 5mm strip of Koh Gen Do (almost half what Kanger stuffed in there) and it has been working fine for the past 2 or 3 days. No flooding and no dry hits. Then again the factory wicked OCCs worked just fine for me as well.

BUT... To anyone getting dry hits you might wanna TRY rewicking with a 5mm strip of some good quality JOC.

To get the old stuff out you just need a fine point tweezers. No need to take the top cap off. Grab the cotton through the juice hole and start pulling gently. As parts start poking out squeeze & twist it a bit and then go back in deeper and grab a little more. Do this a couple times on one side and then switch to the other side and repeat. The goal is to get the big lump just inside the hole squeezed down enough to fit through the coil without messing it up too bad. Once the wads have been squeezed down and are sticking out a bit grab one side and twist it out of the head with a gentle pressure.

Once you get the right amount of cotton back in there see if it clears up your dry hit issues.

I will say though I have NOT gotten a single dry hit on the factory wicks but if you DO then this will likely help. ALSO once you get this wicking process down you will not have to buy new heads again for quite a while. Those coils should last forever. Dirty wicks are what cause these to drop off in performance.
 

Bklynzfinest

Senior Member
ECF Veteran
Verified Member
Nov 4, 2013
90
125
Brooklyn,NY
Weird! That has not happened to me yet. KNOCK ON WOOD
However...
I took one of these OCCs apart the other day just to check how they were built. (just take some channel lock pliers to the top cap and rock it back and forth gently DO NOT TWIST)
IMHO they put WAY too much cotton in these. I went ahead and rewicked it with a 5mm strip of Koh Gen Do (almost half what Kanger stuffed in there) and it has been working fine for the past 2 or 3 days. No flooding and no dry hits. Then again the factory wicked OCCs worked just fine for me as well.

BUT... To anyone getting dry hits you might wanna TRY rewicking with a 5mm strip of some good quality JOC.

To get the old stuff out you just need a fine point tweezers. No need to take the top cap off. Grab the cotton through the juice hole and start pulling gently. As parts start poking out squeeze & twist it a bit and then go back in deeper and grab a little more. Do this a couple times on one side and then switch to the other side and repeat. The goal is to get the big lump just inside the hole squeezed down enough to fit through the coil without messing it up too bad. Once the wads have been squeezed down and are sticking out a bit grab one side and twist it out of the head with a gentle pressure.

Once you get the right amount of cotton back in there see if it clears up your dry hit issues.

I will say though I have NOT gotten a single dry hit on the factory wicks but if you DO then this will likely help. ALSO once you get this wicking process down you will not have to buy new heads again for quite a while. Those coils should last forever. Dirty wicks are what cause these to drop off in performance.

Thanks for your advice! I'll try reducing the cotton. I really don't want to give up on these tanks bc the flavor and vapor production for those first few days are fantastic. I just can't afford to run through 2-3 coils a week. Does the 1.2 really use less juice than the .5? I might have to give it a second chance.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread