I purchased a Phoenix rba and a Phoenix clone several weeks ago. They both came with a wick and wire in place so I used them that way for a while though I was not satisfied with either of them as the vapor and flavor were weak. I have since consider maybe I didn't give them enough voltage. I'll never know.
Recently I began experimenting with one of them and trying my hand at making my own. The first coupe I built the wire snapped also immediately on firing them up. I was discouraged. BTW I am using nichrome wire, 36 or 38 gauge, and cotton gauze. I assumed there must have been a kink in the wire and it broke there on application of voltage. My next one I made sure to use a piece with no kinks. This one came out at 3.5 ohms and it fired up without breaking. It gave good vapor but I noticed that some of the vapor trails would rise a bit then arch out and then go back down. I knew there had to be something there other than vapor. There must be some material coming off the wick or wire. I fired it many, many times in the hopes it would "break-in" and quit dispensing bits of something. This never happened. My thought was maybe I wrapped the wire to close and this was causing some type of problem. Also the ohm rating was a bit high so I decided to go with less wraps further apart.
On this next attempt I went with 4/5 wraps rather than the 6/7 of my previous attempt. When I fired this one up and did a test fire with liquid I got lots of vapor and no vapor trails coming back down. Finally success. I put the top on and tried it and got good vapor and the flavor was well pronounced as well. I rebuilt the other one and it turned out well also.
I look forward to more tinkering in the future with these as well. They seem to be good RBAs with a good price. My only complaint is that they have to be kept upright all the time. That's a minor problem though considering I can rebuild one of these for about 25 cents as opposed to buying a premade one for a few dollars.
Question: Does anyone know what the vapor trails that went up and then back down would have been and what would have caused it. Thanks.
Recently I began experimenting with one of them and trying my hand at making my own. The first coupe I built the wire snapped also immediately on firing them up. I was discouraged. BTW I am using nichrome wire, 36 or 38 gauge, and cotton gauze. I assumed there must have been a kink in the wire and it broke there on application of voltage. My next one I made sure to use a piece with no kinks. This one came out at 3.5 ohms and it fired up without breaking. It gave good vapor but I noticed that some of the vapor trails would rise a bit then arch out and then go back down. I knew there had to be something there other than vapor. There must be some material coming off the wick or wire. I fired it many, many times in the hopes it would "break-in" and quit dispensing bits of something. This never happened. My thought was maybe I wrapped the wire to close and this was causing some type of problem. Also the ohm rating was a bit high so I decided to go with less wraps further apart.
On this next attempt I went with 4/5 wraps rather than the 6/7 of my previous attempt. When I fired this one up and did a test fire with liquid I got lots of vapor and no vapor trails coming back down. Finally success. I put the top on and tried it and got good vapor and the flavor was well pronounced as well. I rebuilt the other one and it turned out well also.
I look forward to more tinkering in the future with these as well. They seem to be good RBAs with a good price. My only complaint is that they have to be kept upright all the time. That's a minor problem though considering I can rebuild one of these for about 25 cents as opposed to buying a premade one for a few dollars.
Question: Does anyone know what the vapor trails that went up and then back down would have been and what would have caused it. Thanks.
