Learning to love the Zenith Tank...

[Falconeer]

As some of you will know, because I rattled on about it long enough on here, a few weeks ago I bought a Zenith tank and didn’t initially take to the thing.

I was then going to consign it to my “Failure Box” but .... I am a Scotsman who hates to waste his money and I was born under the sign of Taurus the Bull and Taureans are noted for their persistence and stubbornness.

Someone on here gave me a hint for a step when he mentioned that he’d always found nautilus Mini tanks produced a wetter vape than Zenith’s and the Proverbial Light Bulb came on - Brit pipe smokers, which I was for many many years, prefer a moist tobacco, Americans are the opposite and even dry out their already drier tobacco before loading their pipes with it.

I wondered, could I replicate/improve on the vape I’d got from a Nautilus?

And so The Bold G tried an experiment - he turned down the power, and got, for him an instant improvement in both flavour a quality of vape. Changing the drip tip previously had helped matters but this simple voltage change sealed the deal! When the original coil gave up the ghost and was replaced with a O.8 Ohm job, instead of firing it at the recommended 15 -18 watts I gave it a go at 9 watts and loved it.

That left only my other source of dissatisfaction - the thing hadn’t originally fitted on any of my Pico mods. I returned to the fray and Bingo it went on … a close fit to the battery cap admittedly. but not a forced one … I still don’t know why I couldn’t fit it the first time round ... and yes it fits on all three of them!

So there you are, the Old Dog’s learned new trick ot two - thanks to all who helped in their different ways.

 

[Maytwin]

Glad you're learning to love it @Falconeer ! I use both the 1.6 and 0.8 at something between 8 and 9 watts and that's fine for me. Love the photo - I suspect you're in Spain rather than Scotland at the moment

 

[Baditude]

Glad you figured out a way to like your gear.

Some wise and experienced ECF member has in their signature that most of the gear that doesn't seem to work all that well initially, WILL WORK well if you take the time to figure out how it was meant to work. Or something to that effect. It may require adjusting the mod's wattage or tank's air flow, trying a different coil resistance, a different juice ratio, etc. Tinker with all of the possible options before giving up on a specific piece of gear.

If the majority of ECF members are recommending a specific mod or tank, that means that gear has earned a good reputation to work well for a majority of vapers who have used it. And there's a good chance that it will work well for a novice, too.

Having said that, there are no mods or tanks that will suit every vaper. Otherwise, everyone would be using the same mod or tank.

 

[Falconeer]

Glad you're learning to love it @Falconeer ! I use both the 1.6 and 0.8 at something between 8 and 9 watts and that's fine for me. Love the photo - I suspect you're in Spain rather than Scotland at the moment

Yes indeed down in Andalusia in the hills behind Malaga - in old money when we went out to lunch at our favourite restuarant just outside town, we couldn't get a taxi back and it was 104 F by the time we had walked back - hence the large G&T on the terrace! That's our excuse and we are sticking to it!

The lower power really does make the Zenith shine for me and again I do really like the 0.8 coils - they are good , really good for flavour.

 

[Falconeer]

"Some wise and experienced ECF member has in their signature that most of the gear that doesn't urned to the frayseem to work all that well initially, WILL WORK well if you take the time to figure out how it was meant to work. Or something to that effect.!"

That actually is so true! I know I tend to stick with the familiar, another Taurus trait, and I worked out long ago how to get a Nautilus to do just what I wanted - I'm glad I returned to the fray with the Zenith as it'll be a lot easier to get coils for it locally in Spain. I will actually get another before I go back and leave them here for when I'm back in September.

 

[Zazie]

I'm glad you found a way to make it work for you. I honestly can't imagine any MTL vaper not being happy with it eventually.

 

[DaveP]

And so The Bold G tried an experiment - he turned down the power, and got, for him an instant improvement in both flavour a quality of vape. Changing the drip previously had helped matters but this simple voltage change sealed the deal! When the original coil gave up the ghost and was replaced with a O.8 Ohm job, instead of firing it at the recommended 15 -18 watts I gave it a go at 9 watts and loved it.

That answers my question. I was wondering why the coils were all rated at 14W and over. I'm anywhere from .5 to as high as 1 ohm in a Kayfun Lite Plus, but hardly ever see the need to vape at 14 to 18 watts suggested by the ad copy at most seller sites. Your comment about vaping the Zenith at 9 watts will probably clear up my resistance to ordering a Zenith MTL tank.

With a new coil and wick on a Kayfun clone I sometimes vape at 7 to 8 watts for a day or so and then crank it to 10W for the life of the wick and coil.

I've learned to enjoy coiling and wicking my own RTA's for years, but if factory coils top out in flavor and last 3 or 4 weeks I'm not against buying them.

 

[Jebbn]

I always used the zenith around the 9w mark with the occasional 12w hit.
Right before I switched completely to DL I was using the zenith 1.6 at around 6w and the aspire 1.6 in an ijoy elf around the same wattage. Any mtl rta was a 30ga coil at about 6w.

 

[Zazie]

That answers my question. I was wondering why the coils were all rated at 14W and over.

The 1.6ohm coil is rate for 10-14 watts.

 

[SP013]

As some of you will know, because I rattled on about it long enough on here, a few weeks ago I bought a Zenith Tank and didn’t initially take to the thing.

I was then going to consign it to my “Failure Box” but .... I am a Scotsman who hates to waste his money and I was born under the sign of Taurus the Bull and Taureans are noted for their persistence and stubbornness.

Someone on here gave me a hint for a step when he mentioned that he’d always found Nautilus Mini Tanks produced a wetter vape than Zenith’s and the Proverbial Light Bulb came on - Brit pipe smokers, which I was for many many years, prefer a moist tobacco, Americans are the opposite and even dry out their already drier tobacco before loading their pipes with it.

I wondered, could I replicate/improve on the vape I’d got from a Nautilus?

And so The Bold G tried an experiment - he turned down the power, and got, for him an instant improvement in both flavour a quality of vape. Changing the drip previously had helped matters but this simple voltage change sealed the deal! When the original coil gave up the ghost and was replaced with a O.8 Ohm job, instead of firing it at the recommended 15 -18 watts I gave it a go at 9 watts and loved it.

That left only my other source of dissatisfaction - the thing hadn’t originally fitted on any of my Pico mods. I returned to the fray and Bingo it went on … a close fit to the battery cap admittedly. but not a forced one … I still don’t know why I couldn’t fit it the first time round ... and yes it fits on all three of them!

So there you are, the Old Dog’s learned new trick ot two - thanks to all who helped in their different ways.

View attachment 813835

Nice setup and background, lovely weather! Happy you find the way to vape the Zenith. Question, is that the Pico S? I also would like to get myself a single battery mod for my Zlide and that one looks lovely! Would you recommend it?

 

[Falconeer]

@SP013 - many thanks for your kind comments.

The Pico is the 75w model running on a single 18650 external battery. I have three of them back in Scotland ( black and silver coloured ) - these resin models were on special offer here in the vape shop in Fuengirola so I grabbed three (they may be last year or the year before's colours IDK but they were new and unopened) - I find them simple to operate and to my mind they are good looking - I have one more to get to make up a seven day set - they are replacements for my set of iSticks which have given excellent service but are now fading away.

I have only once charged one using the cable direct with the battery still in the mod but it got rather warm so I now charge the batteries in an external charger.

For what I do, which is basically Tootle Puffing on 18 strength liquid they do a grand job and so I can recommend them and mine have never given me any problems.

As - I've said on another thread though, if I am doing a lot of travelling I do prefer a mod with a built in battery as I can charge it anywhere simply, so I'll still get either another couple of iSticks or a couple of Aegis Minis purely for travel use.

 

[Falconeer]

Ignore this one - I was trying to reply but must have hit the wrong button or something, and I can't just delete the post!

 

[mark40511]

I'm using the Plexus .5 ohm coil at 11 watts, maybe I"ll go lower. My experience with the Nautilus mini even with thin e liquid, was that I had to do constant primer puffs to get that wet flavorful vape you're talking about. I know exactly what you mean. The big nautilus wicked much better, but it leaked through the air holes, so I suffered with the nautilus mini for so LONG and just dealt with it. But this Zenith, I'm getting that wet vape with every single puff, no leaking.......it's amazing. I'm really surprised because people were talking about how horrible the .5 ohm Plexus coil is and so far, it's awesome. Maybe much lower wattage or volts is key. The peach eliquid I bought from Ecblend and then I added menthol drops to it is so damn good I can't put my mod down.

 

[Jebbn]

@SP013 - many thanks for your kind comments.

The Pico is the 75w model running on a single 18650 external battery. I have three of them back in Scotland ( black and silver coloured ) - these resin models were on special offer here in the vape shop in Fuengirola so I grabbed three (they may be last year or the year before's colours IDK but they were new and unopened) - I find them simple to operate and to my mind they are good looking - I have one more to get to make up a seven day set - they are replacements for my set of iSticks which have given excellent service but are now fading away.

I have only once charged one using the cable direct with the battery still in the mod but it got rather warm so I now charge the batteries in an external charger.

For what I do, which is basically Tootle Puffing on 18 strength liquid they do a grand job and so I can recommend them and mine have never given me any problems.

As - I've said on another thread though, if I am doing a lot of travelling I do prefer a mod with a built in battery as I can charge it anywhere simply, so I'll still get either another couple of iSticks or a couple of Aegis Minis purely for travel use.

I love the Pico 75's, though I prefer the Pico 25 more, simply because of the dimensions, they are spot on for me as far as hand feel. The 75's feel a little too small and cramped but I really like the aesthetics of them. I dont like tall mods.
I put 24mm rta's and tanks on my pico 75's but it requires filing the battery cap very slightly. The 24mm rta's do over hang, obviously. On a plain pico 75 a silicon cover hides the over hang and also helps a little with the cramped feel of it. But most silicon covers look a bit ordinary.
The other down side of filing to get a 24mm tank on the 75 is to take the battery out you have to remove the tank to get the battery cap off.
I keep an eye out hoping some one makes a higher quality variation of the pico75 or 25.

 

[Pete M]

I'm really surprised because people were talking about how horrible the .5 ohm Plexus coil is and so far, it's awesome

I think the usual issue with the plexus most people have isn't that it tastes bad or anything (quite the reverse), but that the coil life is really short. Which is strange because the coil life on the regular coils are known for being extremely long lasting

YMMV of course. I personally liked the flavour of them but couldn't get them to last longer than 4-5 days experimting with different wattage juice etc. Apparently there's now some new mesh coils for the zenith though

 

[Jebbn]

I think the usual issue with the plexus most people have isn't that it tastes bad or anything (quite the reverse), but that the coil life is really short. Which is strange because the coil life on the regular coils are known for being extremely long lasting

YMMV of course. I personally liked the flavour of them but couldn't get them to last longer than 4-5 days experimting with different wattage juice etc. Apparently there's now some new mesh coils for the zenith though

This is my experience as well. Thought they replicated the taste of the juice well and were an all round good vape. It was just after running the 1.6 and 0.8 ohm coils for up to 6 weeks the 3-5day life span of the plexus Z was really disappointing for me.