I wanted to update this thread with some new findings. I was doing some reading about the EVOD and Protank and it seemed apparent that for my Protank and I to live happily ever after, I'd have to just order EVOD heads. Then, literally hours later, I read that the EVOD head was being discontinued, and Kanger was refocusing their head shipments to be all Protank based... so EVODs would now use Protank heads and of course Protanks would use Protank heads. This was a pretty substantial bummer, so I discounted this plan almost immediately.
Curiosity got the best of me and I ordered a SmokTECH DCTank. Unfortunately, I haven't even filled the thing up yet and already I can tell it'll be a flop. Reason being the carto, when inserted into the tank, has a distinct metal on metal feeling/sound, indicating that the o-ring is not making appropriate contact. I can only imagine this sucker will leak... but whatever. Likewise, it seems as if you cannot replace the o-rings on the pyrex units, which is what I have. Yet another *doh!* out of the gate.
Fortunately, I'm a curious person, so along with my order of the SmokTECH, I decided to pick up a new 5 pack of Protank heads. Reason for this is I read that the heads were slightly altered once the EVOD/Protank head shift took place. Whether this is true or not I am unsure, but it was a rumor going around that I picked up somewhere on this forum. Being slightly bummed about the SmokTECH findings, I decided to pull out a new Protank head. What also instigated me to give the Protank another shot (despite having the heads here, I was still skeptical) was I called the local vape shop to discuss with them what carto tanks they have in stock in an effort to get a carto tank in my hands tonight. The guy I spoke to, who was clearly unbiased and was all about "use what works for you man", indicated that he prefers his Protank over most other carto/clear/whatever devices that are out there. I told him about my Protank woes and he informed me that he read about an issue from Kanger directly regarding their heads. It was something about the mineral oil that was used during the manufacturing process that rendered a lot of recent batches with terrible flavors. This got me wondering... is it possible that my brand new pack of heads that arrived today are actually perfectly okay? And so, the ball began to roll.
This time, like every other darn time, I washed the head off thoroughly, let it fully dry, then installed it in my Protank. I put a drop of liquid on the ends of each wick along the bottom plate of the Protank. I let it sit for a minute or two, filled the tank, and put everything together. Then I did a few dry hits to kind of draw the liquid in more. Again, this is all old news - exact same protocol as before.
Then, it happened. I fired the Protank and I received the sweet taste of my black cherry/peach blend with a massive cloud of vape. Say whaaat? Yes. Exact opposite of what I was facing when I posted this thread originally. No overwelming burning taste whatsoever, no "why did I waste money on this stupid thing!" feelings, etc.
So far, it's been a relatively short run (about 2 hours), but I have yet to experience any sign of a burning taste. As I said no less than 60 times so far, this is exactly opposite of what I experienced before. Before, it was one hit and BAM - I felt like I was vaping recycled motor oil.
I'm going to keep this going a bit and see how it does. So far, so good. I'm not betting the farm on it yet, but I'm becoming more optimistic with each drag. I'm really liking what I'm seeing here. Considering I (as unbiased as possible) started this thread to simply share my frustrations, I feel like I owe it to post a follow up now that I'm experiencing a rather positive situation here.
Vape on, friends. *crackle crackle* --- 'hoooooooooooo'
