More faulty products are out there than you know!

[carrielsal]

I actually don't use anything with these heads anymore...I like my Kayfun and some gennys...Ithaka...lately it's been great vaping! I do have some EVODs and some Protanks that I've givin to my wife. She's not so much of a tinkerer...she recently made the switch, no more smokes and exclusively vaping. It cost me one of my ProVari's and an IBTanked tank but so worth it to see her not smoking! After hearing so much complaining (from the same person) about these heads, I decided to do some experimenting. I put a new head in a Protank 2 and vaped it. It wasn't bad at all...not great but not bad. Then I pulled the head apart and built a micro coil using .28 ga kanthal and a cotton wick. 10 wraps came out to 1.6 ohms...I was shooting for 1.8. Soaked the wick, put it back together and was blown away! An excellent vape! Great taste, lots of vapor and 5 whole minutes invested. Maybe 30 cents worth of materials. I liked it so much, I rebuilt a bunch of EVODs. I tried one on a stick battery....perfect. So, not only were they "not too bad" from the factory, they quickly became excellent with very little work. I'll take one of those little guys with me for a really good back up.

I am not much of a DIY'er. I just want something easy that works. There are so many options in the marketplace today and a million different opinions for each option. Last year I had a zmax that I probably paid $100 for at a B&M. When I lost it I ended up going back to cigarettes for a while. What a mistake. Right now I have two iTaste v3 VV's. I just want something simple that's satisfying. Last year I went through different carto's and tanks (not really happy with any of them) and finally ended up with Viva Nova's, but they had their own issues.

 

[Caridwen]

Damn, now I remember why I quit using clearos.

You guys need to go back and read some of the old CE2 threads on ecf. This is nothing new.

Isn't that the truth!!

When they come out with version 6 or 7, or even better, rename them- I got tired of being a tester.

 

[Vchick]

Hmmm, Conspiracy......highly unlikely

Your first post to ECF is a negative review...

Then spending 600. in two months on vaping stuff... more dollars than cents I suppose

Not coming back to comment in your thread...priceless

 

[Bawn]

Isn't that the truth!!

When they come out with version 6 or 7, or even better, rename them- I got tired of being a tester.

Amen!. the problem is the idea of just buying a pack of heads and screwing it on is very appealing to most people and me. i used to be a lot more hands on with vaping, had tons of mods and would rebuild everything but now my life is a little hectic really don't have the time and could care less about the big devices any longer. all i use now is a spinner and a device on top thats it. i like the idea of just filling something up and go and not worry. all these products claim that their product is a fill and go no hassle. its been 2 years, and have yet to find a juice delivery device that performs right out of the box, no fiddle required no frills. the only that that has come close that is a boge cartomizer and even those now your risking getting crappy or bad tasting ones which i have right here. i have 5 boxes of boges that are unusable (bogegate). i dont have the patience to test each one but i have taken one out of each pack and they all have a very odd taste, or no taste or burnt taste. i am still chasing the dream for that perfect no frills vape. will i find it? probably not, but i am still trying. i have tried genesis style attys, genesis style tanks, RBA's you name it i have tried it. i haven't tried the insanely expensive ones because i cant justify spending $150 on any juice delivery system. so the chase is still on, i am at 2 years and counting and probably well into the high $900 range of just juice delivery systems. yes i could have bought $150 product but again RBA and rebuilding things are a thing in the past for me. don't have time and just want something that works out of the box. is that so hard to ask for? all these manufacturers claim their products are just that. i don't mind fiddling but when you start to get frustrated it takes the fun and enjoyment out of it of vaping.

 

[Myrany]

Amen!. the problem is the idea of just buying a pack of heads and screwing it on is very appealing to most people and me. i used to be a lot more hands on with vaping, had tons of mods and would rebuild everything but now my life is a little hectic really don't have the time and could care less about the big devices any longer. all i use now is a spinner and a device on top thats it. i like the idea of just filling something up and go and not worry. all these products claim that their product is a fill and go no hassle. its been 2 years, and have yet to find a juice delivery device that performs right out of the box, no fiddle required no frills. the only that that has come close that is a boge cartomizer and even those now your risking getting crappy or bad tasting ones which i have right here. i have 5 boxes of boges that are unusable (bogegate). i dont have the patience to test each one but i have taken one out of each pack and they all have a very odd taste, or no taste or burnt taste. i am still chasing the dream for that perfect no frills vape. will i find it? probably not, but i am still trying. i have tried genesis style attys, genesis style tanks, RBA's you name it i have tried it. i haven't tried the insanely expensive ones because i cant justify spending $150 on any juice delivery system. so the chase is still on, i am at 2 years and counting and probably well into the high $900 range of just juice delivery systems. yes i could have bought $150 product but again RBA and rebuilding things are a thing in the past for me. don't have time and just want something that works out of the box. is that so hard to ask for? all these manufacturers claim their products are just that. i don't mind fiddling but when you start to get frustrated it takes the fun and enjoyment out of it of vaping.

I found my setup that is about as fill and go as possible once the original setup is done.

Reo Grand + RM2

Set up the RM2 with a 1.2 ohm Micro coil. Thread Rolled cotton through it.

6 mL bottle on board. The most maintenance I have to do is pull out the cotton and dry burn the coil clean. Then just stick in fresh cotton. My current coil is 2 weeks old and no sign of quitting.

 

[Thrasher]

While I do think the OP has a few vape related issues that need to be worked on first... lol

Chinese suppliers and manufacturers have stated quite openly to people who ask for better quality, "that as long as people buy it why should we care about making things better"?


and that has been posted and discussed more then once. you want it to get better? quit buying it and vote with your wallet, too many users go "oh well the quality suck, ill just fix it myself" and then complain because they wont make them better.....huh?

if you are willing to keep buying broken crap quit complaining about it being broken.

 

[stevegmu]

I'd be more than willing to pay a good amount of $ for US made coil/heads for ProTank 2s, but no one makes any. Re-building and poking and prodding coils to get them to work like in the Z-Atty Pro video just isn't for me. As it is, I buy and go through a lot of coil/heads, as I won't settle for a mediocre vape.

Ideally someone would make a re-buildable with a screw on section that contains the wick and coil that is disposable- if one doesn't have the time or doesn't want to put in the effort to re-build.

 

[Alter]

I'm not just vaping as a pastime, this is a way of life for me now. We've all had those awful dryhits, throat ripping harshness of a hotspot and the metallic taste of 2 wraps overlapping. I just don't know how people can have those kinda hits day after day. People are either too lazy or intimidated with a simple coil head that with less then 2 minutes if DIY can improve your vape quality tremendously. I really don't care if you want to learn or not to fix your heads up a bit and live with them being plug and play, but the fact is that I've opened up brand new heads and found the coil being a lump of mass on one side just waiting to burn the crap out of my throat, protank heads that have leaked and gurgled, tight draw and loose draw and its not just my few random heads out of the millions sold, its bad quality control, and its not just kanger but the CE's I was using before and carto's(Take a new carto apart and see how they wound the coil). Learning to rebuild and DIY my coils is the best vape asset I have.
I read others having troubles and PIF some information that helps their vape experience just like someone before PIF'd info to me.

 

[carrielsal]

I'd be more than willing to pay a good amount of $ for US made coil/heads for ProTank 2s, but no one makes any. Re-building and poking and prodding coils to get them to work like in the Z-Atty Pro video just isn't for me. As it is, I buy and go through a lot of coil/heads, as I won't settle for a mediocre vape.

Ideally someone would make a re-buildable with a screw on section that contains the wick and coil that is disposable- if one doesn't have the time or doesn't want to put in the effort to re-build.

I wish that was the case. I sure of there next couple of years there will be huge changes as vaping gains popularity.

 

[carrielsal]

While I do think the OP has a few vape related issues that need to be worked on first... lol

Chinese suppliers and manufacturers have stated quite openly to people who ask for better quality, "that as long as people buy it why should we care about making things better"?


and that has been posted and discussed more then once. you want it to get better? quit buying it and vote with your wallet, too many users go "oh well the quality suck, ill just fix it myself" and then complain because they wont make them better.....huh?

if you are willing to keep buying broken crap quit complaining about it being broken.

There are many of us, me included, who just want their setup to work. I just wanted to successfully quit smoking cigarettes, not make this a time consuming hobby (which it has become in my quest).

 

[Moodyfisherman]

Hey guys, I've been recently calling any vendor I can get ahold of in my State to see if anyone has ever experienced what I have with faulty heads (and if there may be any rare cause like battery issues or whatnot) and while most of the vendors try to skirt around the problem at first, when I eventually get very adamant with them about my level of vaping experience and knowledge, they finally admit to me that "faulty heads are an extreme problem" and "we've gotten entire boxes upon boxes of Protank/iClear/Whatever heads that burned up juice instantly and none of our tests could explain it." I'm actually shocked by this explanation because it's come from both big and small vendors alike, and every single vendor has said this.

To me, this sounds like an epidemic. They all claim that these events have happened quite recently. Are our companies using different wicking material? Are they using cheaper wire? Are they placing rubber or other materials too close to the coils? What is going on here, and how do we protect ourselves from this type of fraud? I myself have been severely financially damaged by faulty heads and faulty products, and this is not the type of emotional stress and financial setback that someone needs when trying to stop smoking - it only makes the smoking habit worse.

The question has to be asked: Are the good heads that are still going around possibly just older models that still exist? What would you do if suddenly all of the heads of your favorite tank (and every other tank in your stock) burnt up and tasted like acid or charcoal on the very first hit, no matter what you did to prepare the tank? Are you really prepared to take up rebuilding or dripping? To me, it seems like there may just be a problem with the wick material used across multiple brands, and does it strike anyone that brands like Kanger, Innokin, ect ect may just order wicks from the same exact company? Wicks are made in controlled labs that are way too expensive and complex to run, the company that makes silica wicks makes them in spindles and ships them out to Kanger and whoever, Kanger or Innokin or whoever don't own their own wick factory.

I mean, it doesn't take much chemical altering for the wicks to change from fire-resistant to combustible. A slight change in chemical composition could make these things taste horrible and actually give off a lot more smoke than usual when dry, it could be anything. I just know that across the board, I am getting such extreme and strange results with the heads of my e-cigs, and to be honest, the only luck I've had in the last month is with a CE4 clearomizer where the head was brand new, but MONTHS old (sitting on a shelf.) No new product I've bought in the last month has worked. I think there's some epidemic going around and I hate to sound conspiracy about it, but all the vendors are now saying it too.

P.S. Just to ask, if I didn't want to use silica, and I wanted to take a Protank head and simply slide the original wick out, and slide some new wick back in (nothing complex), what is the absolute safest material to use? I probably don't want to use cotton....

Bad News not comming back and commenting on his post really gets my goat......if you look at is profile he has ..... after ..... to write about products.....he should become an inventer and make his own parts if he has so much knoweldge about the subject

 

[tearose50]

Hmmm, Conspiracy......highly unlikely

Your first post to ECF is a negative review...

Then spending 600. in two months on vaping stuff... more dollars than cents I suppose

Not coming back to comment in your thread...priceless

And -- for those interested ---- part of that wasted $600 on gear included $250 on analogs per his post. Drama anyone?

BTW, I spent way more than $600 on vaping gear my first two months and didn't waste a penny.

 

[Caridwen]

I'm not just vaping as a pastime, this is a way of life for me now. We've all had those awful dryhits, throat ripping harshness of a hotspot and the metallic taste of 2 wraps overlapping. I just don't know how people can have those kinda hits day after day. People are either too lazy or intimidated with a simple coil head that with less then 2 minutes if DIY can improve your vape quality tremendously. I really don't care if you want to learn or not to fix your heads up a bit and live with them being plug and play, but the fact is that I've opened up brand new heads and found the coil being a lump of mass on one side just waiting to burn the crap out of my throat, protank heads that have leaked and gurgled, tight draw and loose draw and its not just my few random heads out of the millions sold, its bad quality control, and its not just kanger but the CE's I was using before and carto's(Take a new carto apart and see how they wound the coil). Learning to rebuild and DIY my coils is the best vape asset I have.
I read others having troubles and PIF some information that helps their vape experience just like someone before PIF'd info to me.

I do see a lot of blame the user mentality for some pretty inferior products on the market. They don't work and instead of saying they don't work they slap a new number on it.

They sort of hold us hostage. We want to vape, all of this stuff probably comes out of two factories and they know we'll keep buying the stuff if we want to keep vaping.

Name another product you buy that doesn't work when you get it and you have to fix or rebuild to get it to work.

 

[Rickb119]

Name another product you buy that doesn't work when you get it and you have to fix or rebuild to get it to work.

A certain government medical website comes to mind.

 

[Caridwen]

Yea, OK. Not gonna go there.

 

[Asbestos4004]

I do see a lot of blame the user mentality for some pretty inferior products on the market. They don't work and instead of saying they don't work they slap a new number on it.

They sort of hold us hostage. We want to vape, all of this stuff probably comes out of two factories and they know we'll keep buying the stuff if we want to keep vaping. Name another product you buy that doesn't work when you get it and you have to fix or rebuild to get it to work.

You can fix or rebuild to get it to work BETTER. They, for the most part , already work. They work a lot better than the things I started with. The more I vape, the more I want out of the products I use. When I got my first Vivi-Nova, I was in heaven! I thought it was the greatest thing ever and I could stop searching for anything better. Now, I think they make good givaways and I won't use them. Aspire DOES make better heads...and they cost more. People seem to love them. Our OP thinks they taste like burnt rubber or acid or dry , everything sucks.... I've never tried them...don't need to. I'm using other stuff that I works for me....I've gone through a ton of stuff finding what works for me. I'm not a big fan of dripping....I have 1 eye that works better than the other so my aim when dripping sux. Should I buy $600 worth of drippers and start numerous threads telling everybody how much all of these drippers suck and that they're going to make me smoke?? No, I should find a device that works for me. Usually when folks have trouble with a device on here, they take suggestions or try something else.
Name another product you buy that doesn't work when you get it and you have to fix or rebuild to get it to work.[/QUOTE]

 

[H. Hodges]

Does your sarcasm detector need recalibrating or mine?

Mine probably because I forgot global warming! Now where did put that calibrator.......

 

[DaveP]

I agree with opening up the head and having a look at it to see the 3 wrap-space-3 wrap coil setup kanger produces inside their heads. IMO this is a crappy way to wrap heads cause the middle space doesn't vaporize the juice just heats it up to burn, and shortens their lifespan. Quality control is non extistant so its up to you.

The reason for the space in the center is supposedly because the juice feed comes from both sides of the wick. The center stays dryer because of that, so the coils are split to the sides. It's by design from what I've read.

Kanthal works better in the Kanger heads with a doubled 2mm silica wick or a single 4mm wick in my experience.

The Kanger T3/Evod/Protank head incompatibility is being fixed by Kanger by designing one head that fits all. I was told that the T3S coil fits all and that has proven true on my Evod and Protank.

The box says "Coil unit for T3S MT3S BCC cartomizer". It doesn't say Kanger anywhere on it, but it's a black box with 5 heads in a pop out foil/plastic container. There are so many back door knockoffs these days it isn't funny anymore.

This site shows them. The box is white, though. It's a USA supplier.
Kanger Universal Coil Heads, Kanger Protank Coil, Pro Tank 2 Coil, EVOD Coil

 

[GoodNews!]

Hey guys, I'm sorry I haven't come back to reply to this, I just haven't been on ECF overnight and this thread really exploded.

Yes, I've spent hundreds upon hundreds on bad devices and bad heads, my rent is $525 a month, I spent a whole month's rent, where I'd have only spent less than half of that if I never bothered with vaping again, (I'm not including all the money I've wasted over the past 4 years) that's a pretty big deal to me, so sue me.

So guess what, I have some discoveries, points, and replies to bring up:

1. One current question that I actually do not know anything about (*gasp* no way!), is I watched some of Phil's graphical checks into voltage, where he'll check the voltage and the analysis on the computer shows exactly what's going on. To my eyes, it looks like, either from the natural way that electricity works or some sort of manipulation from a microchip or whatever, that the voltage in our batteries fires for like a second and takes a few microseconds of rest (not talking about the 6 second cutoff), something that none of us would know just by vaping. Phil said that with batteries that take "shorter" voltage rests, that the battery ends up giving a hotter vape even at the same voltage. Could my battery not be "resting" at all, causing an immediate, too-hot vape?

(^I have no clue wether I'm interpretating that correctly or not, I may just be ignorant about the whole thing.)

2. By sheer luck, I've found a guy that rebuilds coils with hemp wick and sells them! Mountain Vapors (not Mountain Oak Vapors) sells clearomizers with rebuilt 2.6-ish coils with hemp wick, for only $7. I really want to try this out - however, the wicks in his devices look very, very dingy and brown, and if this is the same type of wick as others call "hemp cotton wick" then the technique is to boil that type of wick until it is pearly white, and it did not look like he took this step with these wicks. Anyone care to chime in on that?

3. I'm tired of people believing that there could be no problem with Chinese products, even by respectable companies. Phil recently did a review where he proved that the "bad" tasting Aspires have a different internal build with the heads than the ones that both he and his buddy Russ deemed as "better tasting" (Russ was specifically getting a burnt rubber taste with his.) Now you guys can call me crazy all you want to, I don't really care and I'm not here to be buddies with anyone, I just want to solve my vaping issue for my health and sanity, find a great product, and then recommend it out the wazoo, but for you guys to say that Phil is also done gone crazy? I think it's a point where you have to sit back and say "Okay, something is going on."

4. Wicks. Maybe I just don't like the taste of silica. I've noticed that with drier hits and silica, that most people "get used" to acidic, dry hits after they first taste it, and it's not so bad from there. But then their whole bodies smell like burnt socks after they vape (mine included). Is this healthy? Is this what vaping is supposed to be like? I say not. All it takes is going to a vendor and trying out a juice on their CE4. It always tastes great and it always smells great. I have no clue what vendors do to make their CE4's so indestructable and so flavorful, but something is going on. Do they specifically use name-brand clearos for the samplers to hook people, then turn around and sell clones? Who knows. I just know that, just concerning a local vendor, I have not had any luck with anything they've sold me, and I've sat there and filled them up right in front of them. Yet again, their own samplers are heavenly.

5. Tanks. My iClear 30 leaked like crazy between the plastic and the base, and Innokin already announced a recall about that. The vendor I bought it from tried to deny it and I became very approximate with them really quick. Vendors will tell you anything to keep you thinking that companies make perfect products, and the usual lines are "You screwed it in too tight, your voltage is too high, and your puff is too strong." when it is absolutely none of that. I have real vendor buddies in the real vaping world that tell me the truth about this.

I bought 3 CE5's from one of my vendor buddies, and one of them had the same leaking problem as my iClear (between the plastic and base). He asked no questions, put up no fuss, and simply gave me another one and gave me some free heads as a bonus. Have had no problems with leaking since. This just goes to show that if problems exist on a 1 out of 3 level, concerning leaking, how well could our heads possibly be made?

6. Rebuildables. Predominantly, it's because I don't want to fool with Ebay, and because, I'll modestly say this, I want to wrap a coil with real live help from a vaping buddy. Even my local vendor buddies aren't big on rebuilding at all (the nearest true rebuilder lives an hour away, he's been great for a chat and keeping me updated on the standards of the industry and the problems with his own products) but money is tight and I can't make the trip. Other than those factors, rebuilding a coil isn't rocket science, there's only a few guidelines to follow. I know the exact type of coil that in my preference I would try for. But what good would it really do? I'm the type of vaper where I like simplicity and ease. I'd enjoy getting my friends into vaping and I'd love to sit there and say "Oh yeah, just order X from X . com, fill it up, wait an hour, and vape." I want that myself.

Sure, I'd do anything for a good vape at the moment, but it'd be just as easy to find someone who rebuilds coils and will mail them out, and that's what I'm searching for. I just don't want to frustrate myself with the whole rebuilding side of vaping, no matter who you are, you'll spend a good few days getting it right, and on top of shipping times from ordering materials from different places, I'd rather just order these hemp wick heads from Mountain Vapors, if someone could chime in about the boiling.

I agree with everyone else that my vaping problems have been quite severe, but I've had several professionals look over my filling/vaping techniques, and no one can figure out what is wrong. I turn around and take a toot on their own device, same set-up, and wahlaa, good vape. It's absolutely batturd nuts.

P.S. Ya'll should know better than to think I'd purposely buy clones.

P.S.S. I am one of those "people" whom restaurants ALWAYS mess up the order (I have to order specific things because I'm allergic to quite a few foods). McDonald's ALWAYS messes up my first order, and sometimes they mess up the order again. Do I still go to McDonald's? Yes, because their return policy is fantastic. Half the time, they give me free food for it. E-cig vendors, no so much. I get good, correct food by the time I walk out of McDonald's. I get faulty products and hateful messages from vendors if the product fails. That's my "main" issue with vaping as a whole - I don't care how many products mess up, as long as I get a working product that works for at least 1 day for free after I originally buy it. That's my business standard. Either the head works for a day, or it's fraud, imo. I'm not picky about life duration. I am picky about if the thing tastes like a burnt sock right off the bat, after utilizing perfect vaping techniques.

 

[B1sh0p]

First, I've had 1 bad Kanger head over the last few months. However, I don't really use Kanger products anymore, mainly because of taste, not build quality.

With that said, we're talking about $1.50 parts that should last a couple weeks. What type of quality control do you expect? They cost $1.50. Even if they were made in America, the quality would be poor. Why? They're $1.50. Personally. I think the quality is pretty remarkable for such a cheap product. In my area. These heads are the price of 5 or 6 cigarettes.

There are dozens of quality, inexpensive vape products.