My Protank and Nova experiences.

[roasted]

Hello friends. I have been vaping for a few months now. I have a Vamo V2 as my mod and originally I bought a Kanger Protank due to the positive reviews. Initially I read some reviews going back and forth about bottom coil vs top coil, etc. I figured this didn't largely pertain to me yet since I had no idea what I liked and didn't like. I bought a Vivi Nova from a local vape shop as a backup, and it's been a pretty decent backup tank.

Recently I've been experiencing some frustrations with my Protank. I'm starting to put into perspective how often I find myself having to turn the Protank upside down, pull the head off, and while holding the tank upside down, blow all of the juice out of it that managed to get into the center tube. I've also experienced a series of repeated, yet entirely random metallic hits. There are times, like now, when I vape all I get is a solid metal taste. Thinking I tainted my liquid and my head was burnt out, I dumped the liquid, cleaned the Protank entirely, put a new head on, filled it up, and let it sit upright for a few hours as I worked on some home projects. Figuring enough time had elapsed to get a good, thorough wick soak, I popped the Protank back on this evening, took a hit, and solid metal all over again. I might as well be putting used motor oil in the tank.

Lately I've found myself using the Nova a bit more. While the vape is warmer due to it being top coil, I'm noticing that even if I continuously hit the Nova, it doesn't get nearly as hot as the Protank. There are times with the Protank that I'll touch the thing and it'll be so hot it's hard to hold a finger against it. My main reason behind staying true to the Protank was due to the glass, as I didn't want to have to deal with looking to see which liquids are likely to crack plastic tanks. I just popped onto a vape site to pick up more liquid and I see a glass (with metal covering) Nova tank now. This, to me, seems like an absolute winner. I am definitely going to order one and see how things go. It has window cutouts so I can see the liquid level, which is a huge bonus vs the metal sleeve I have for my current Nova, which is solid and leaves me unable to tell what level I'm at.

Since lately I've been using the Nova more, I've been finding out a few things. For one, I really *never* find myself having to disassemble the thing to blow air into the tube and push the droplets of liquid out. Likewise, I have yet to experience any sort of metallic taste. I have no idea what it is as I'm using the same liquid and I'm using both with identical vaping habits. The only downside I am seeing to the Nova is the nature behind the top coil design, meaning you have to tilt the device and twirl it around a bit to make sure the wicks are soaked. This is typically not a major issue as I tend to keep my tanks on the fuller side, not to mention when I set them down they normally are laying horizontal on a flat surface. But this being the only con, versus what I've experienced so far with the Protank, it's absolutely far from a deal breaker.

I don't mean this post to be a Protank slam by any degree. I quite love my Protank. It looks great, it's well designed, the vape hits are solid, heads are cheap, etc. I just find it interesting when I really sit back and think about how I've experienced gurgling, metallic hits, and leakage, whereas on the Nova I've literally experienced none of that. I've been surprised at how little care I have to take with my Nova yet how well it works. I'm also finding how much I prefer the air draw of the Nova vs the airy draw of the Protank. The Protank feels like I'm drawing through a milkshake straw. Some people prefer that, and that's fine, but the slightly less airy draw of the Nova is something I am beginning to appreciate more. Both tanks have solid hits, so I haven't found that to be any sort of deciding factor since experiences with both in regard to hits and vape clouds have been similar.

At any rate, I understand this entire world is based around YMMV, and that we as users need to use what works best for our specific needs. Each time I see a positive review I just find myself thinking, dang, what on earth am I doing wrong? I HAVE to be doing something wrong... but given what steps I've taken, I'm not sure what else is left...

On the flip side, I've seen enough fans of top coil designs and a large number of positive reviews about the Nova to feel confident that I wouldn't be backpedaling by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps there truly are design benefits to top coils that are reasons why I'm having such lopsided experiences with these two tanks. When the Protank works, it's fantastic, but the frequency of issues have been enough to let the Nova show its true colors, and as of now, those are some mighty bright colors.

Has anybody experienced similar findings? Thoughts, comments?

 

[HeavyUser]

When I first started vaping I bought 5 protanks based on reviews. Bad idea on my part, I had nothing but issues with flooding and that nasty nasty metallic taste. Switched to carto tanks, better flavor, no dry hits, no flooding ever! Wish I knew this before I spend the cash on so many protanks lol.

 

[bluemark]

I've had the same type of experience with the Protank (oily taste even after cleaning and putting a new head on). I also have a Vision Viva Nova here but I don't get good solid flavor from it. I keep coming back to the iClear 30's I have. Good flavor and good throat hit. Very consistent. You might want to try one. I really want to make the Protank work so I ordered a Tatroe base for it.Tatroe tank bottom cap It should be here today. It accepts the same head though so I'm not sure how much it can help the flavor thing. It's supposed to cut down the air flow a little. I'll post results here if it comes.

 

[Robino1]

You're review of both was very well thought out and unbiased, in my opinion. I have been a Vivi nova user since October. When the Protanks came out, I thought about getting one. Then I decided to give it a few months until people really started to use them regularly and get reviews after they had gone through the paces.

I'm glad I waited.

If you're happy with the Nova, stick with it. There will be many, many other things that are out there. If you want to try them, go for it. I love the flavor of my liquids just fine in my Nova. I'm staying with this since I understand when tiny things pop up. Most of those happen when it's time to change the head and the juice is not heated up quickly enough.

Great job on the side by side comparison.

 

[roasted]

When I first started vaping I bought 5 protanks based on reviews. Bad idea on my part, I had nothing but issues with flooding and that nasty nasty metallic taste. Switched to carto tanks, better flavor, no dry hits, no flooding ever! Wish I knew this before I spend the cash on so many protanks lol.

Dumb question... was your plan with 5 protanks to just have a bunch of ready-to-swap flavors, or to have 4 available hot spares if you broke one? I tend to stick to one flavor now (vanilla) as I've tried a few fruit punch and other cherry flavors that are just so... bad... and I hate spending money blindly on liquid. I had one cherry that rocked my socks, then another that just bummed me out. In the wake of home renovations I guess I'm trying to pinch pennies a bit than normal so, I guess that's where my hesitancy comes from with liquid experimentation.

Perhaps with my glass Nova coming, with my plastic Nova still being here and usable, I can swap out different flavors and see. Hmm...

I've had the same type of experience with the Protank (oily taste even after cleaning and putting a new head on). I also have a Vision Viva Nova here but I don't get good solid flavor from it. I keep coming back to the iClear 30's I have. Good flavor and good throat hit. Very consistent. You might want to try one. I really want to make the Protank work so I ordered a Tatroe base for it.Tatroe tank bottom cap It should be here today. It accepts the same head though so I'm not sure how much it can help the flavor thing. It's supposed to cut down the air flow a little. I'll post results here if it comes.

I had the oily taste as well, but that subsided after a while. I'm not sure what caused it or what got rid of it, as it persisted even despite the intense cleanings I gave the tank, heads, and fresh untouched liquid, but then one day just kind of subsided and I was like, oh okay, cool. Hard to complain when it works the way you want, know what I mean? But like I had mentioned above, the metallic taste was something entirely random and impossible to troubleshoot further given the magnitude of cleanings/swaps/whatever else that I tried. It just gets frustrating to have everything swapped and it's like, okay, IT HAS TO BE THE LIQUID, so you dump it, put new liquid in, nope. Oh sweet, a Protank's worth of liquid is gone now. So then I get over that and it floods, so I do the blow-out-the-center-tube trick and I can just see droplets of what would otherwise be vape amazingness just shooting up in the air only to hit the floor in some sort of depressive ending to existence.

Dumb question... was your plan with 5 protanks to just have a bunch of ready-to-swap flavors, or to have 4 available hot spares if you broke one? I tend to stick to one flavor now (vanilla) as I've tried a few fruit punch and other cherry flavors that are just so... bad... and I hate spending money blindly on liquid. I had one cherry that rocked my socks, then another that just bummed me out. In the wake of home renovations I guess I'm trying to pinch pennies a bit than normal so, I guess that's where my hesitancy comes from with liquid experimentation.

Perhaps with my glass Nova coming, with my plastic Nova still being here and usable, I can swap out different flavors and see. Hmm...

You're review of both was very well thought out and unbiased, in my opinion. I have been a Vivi nova user since October. When the Protanks came out, I thought about getting one. Then I decided to give it a few months until people really started to use them regularly and get reviews after they had gone through the paces.

I'm glad I waited.

If you're happy with the Nova, stick with it. There will be many, many other things that are out there. If you want to try them, go for it. I love the flavor of my liquids just fine in my Nova. I'm staying with this since I understand when tiny things pop up. Most of those happen when it's time to change the head and the juice is not heated up quickly enough.

Great job on the side by side comparison.

Thanks! I know some users love the Protank (myself included, when it works), so I didn't want to sound too harsh, but I'm just so far beyond caring with the issues that I've described above. I thought I was just crazy, as everybody was recommending the Protank to me over the Nova. That said, the more I look at things in hindsight, I think it was the glass tank in the Protank that sold myself (and a large portion of users recommending it to me) as it was a no-worries device. This glass Nova I just ordered will even the playing field substantially.

In other news, I see the Protank 2 was announced. At first I felt a sense of "ahh dangit" since I ordered the glass Nova last night, however as I read some of the features about the Protank 2 I began to realize I made a wise choice (as of now, since there are 0 reviews to be had about the Protank 2, so this is based on speculation entirely). The removable tank suggests there COULD be leak issues introduced, and the same head compatibility/same bottom coil design suggests there's a chance that my issues won't have been improved on.

That's fine. Different strokes. Love the thing but, heavy vaping took its toll I guess. Also, I can see now that I posted this thread in the wrong section. Last night at 4 am or whenever I posted all I saw was "smoking" (from e-smoking discussion) and dropped down to the next sub forum underneath that had the words "general discussion" in it. Only this morning did I realize it was general e-liquid discussion. Derp!

Thanks for the responses everyone.

 

[Heavyrocker]

What a turn off on the Pro tank,im happy i use RBA tanks now,i love the easy draw,i tried my Nova again and it was like sucking a golf ball tru a garden hose.

 

[roasted]

What a turn off on the Pro tank,im happy i use RBA tanks now,i love the easy draw,i tried my Nova again and it was like sucking a golf ball tru a garden hose.

Haha, you think so? I quite like the draw on the Nova. The Protank draw was something I didn't prefer but could deal with, but I traded that off with the +1 of the glass tank and whatnot.

I'm not sure what happened to my EVOD, but that thing is definitely like sucking a golf ball through a garden hose. I remember it being more of a draw like my Nova, but I have no idea what happened, I get light headed drawing on that thing for more than a few seconds at a time. I cleaned it out, put a new head in, etc. I have no explanation for it. The EVOD served me as a direct backup to the Protank, which was largely due to the EVOD's lower capacity and plastic tank. Once I get the glass Nova in, I'll likely use the glass Nova/plastic Nova in a main/backup type of relationship as I used the Protank/EVOD.

At any rate, I'm just super happy to be vaping with no odd tastes and so far, no leaks whatsoever. The convenience of top filling with the Nova is a super nice touch as well.

 

[Alter]

The metallic taste is from a hotspot, maybe when you blew thru your base you coulda moved the coil or bent the bottom leads. Get a pair of tweezeers and lift up, center and straighten the coil and evenly space the coil wraps. Slide a small pin (paper clip is too big) through the coil and wick, level the coil and adjust the wraps to help stabilize it. Its quite slick and easy and prolong the life of the coil.
For the flooding. Cut a piece of wick from a old topwick and replace the flavor wick with something a bit longer. I find the stock flavor wick too short, especially in protanks and also they are cheap on the wicking inside the coil or replace the flavor wick with a chunk of 2mm wick. Most throw coils away when sometimes its just the flavor wick that needs to be replaced.
I found 8 outta 10 coils that I've worked with being brand new have to be tweaked to burn right before I can add juice to them cause there is almost no such thing as quality control with some companies that make coils.
I find it just amazing how many people think electronic cigs are just plug and play like your TV. They are a fairly high maintance item that will let you down in the blink of a eye if you don't take care if them.
I use a ego/510 adapter along with the collar that comes with the protank, it doesn't look all that bad but it sure helps on coralling some of the airy draw protanks have.

 

[Talyon]

Well written piece OP, I love a good honest story.

I guess I've been lucky with my protank, no flooding whatsoever no metallic taste etc, however the airy draw was corrected by using EVOD coils which are Kanger, they fit and cut down the airy draw. The filling is a drag but I'm use to it now though.

I use one of my protanks to test flavors, by putting in about 1ml of liquid, giving me several hours of Vaping to get a real good taste, only takes a few seconds for newly added liquids to get going, after I clean of course. I find this method true and easy.

Only thing I don't like on my novas is they mute the flavor a bit, so I tend to only use stronger flavors ie menthols etc in my novas or a flavor that is very strong like some cigar ones, works great that way for me.

I rather enjoy a nice semi tight draw on my heads, however if they feel like I'm sucking the chrome off of a trailer hitch, then it's time for a good cleaning. Warm water rinse followed by a few hours soaking in a vodka bath, the heads not me, lol. Then another warm rinse let dry and vape on!

 

[Caridwen]

Good post. I'll move this to the clearomizer section so others can see this.

 

[HeavyUser]

Not a dumb question at all dude. I bought 5 because I am a very very restless person and would never be able to stick to one flavor for longer than a hour. I like to change out flavors everytime I pick up my vape, one session one flavor. I have 6 IBTanks now filled with 6 different tastes of ejuice goodness

 

[kbjoran]

I see Vamo, ProTank, and metallic taste and wonder if you might have the voltage too high or too low. Check the ohm reading on the tank then refer to the card that came with your tank. Make sure your voltage is set within the proper parameters. I know on my Vamo, I quite often accidentally hit those little buttons while attempting to fire.

 

[Thunderball]

I had the oposite experience. Ordered two Novas and they were gurglers and leakers, not a great draw either. I was always having to adjust them/ take apart/clean/ work for a while , then here comes the gurgle. I tried my best, but couldnt get any satisfaction out of them. I ordered them due to all the posative posts here about them.

My first two Protanks were of the original design and they leaked after a while from the glue to the glass (i call them gurglers)..the newer ones have been great. I do like the airy draw so much that I cant even use an Evod anymore. I only use 1.8 ohm heads wheather they be evod or pro tank at 3.4 to 3.7 volts.

I do clean and change heads every 2 days/rotate. Never had the metalic taste.

Neither one is as good as a "good ol" dripping Attomizer... for taste IMHO....

 

[flowerpots]

I find it just amazing how many people think electronic cigs are just plug and play like your TV. They are a fairly high maintance item that will let you down in the blink of a eye if you don't take care if them.

No joke there. Smoking is easy...light and puff. Vaping, on the other hand, is like a petulant child who can't be satisfied no matter what you do. And yet I love her.

 

[kbjoran]

Also, the juice in the center pipe normally comes from a bit of juice seeping in when you unscrew the head to refill the tank. (There are several warnings about this.) I take a Q-Tip and run it up through the mouth piece to the end of the pipe while I'm refilling. I know I go through a lot of Q-Tips this way but it makes my vaping experience so much more pleasant. I also have 5 ProTanks as well as 3 carto tanks and I like them all for different reasons.

 

[kbjoran]

No joke there. Smoking is easy...light and puff. Vaping, on the other hand, is like a petulant child who can't be satisfied no matter what you do. And yet I love her.

Uh oh, does someone have a petulant child?

 

[Equus5O]

Haha, you think so? I quite like the draw on the Nova. The Protank draw was something I didn't prefer but could deal with, but I traded that off with the +1 of the glass tank and whatnot.

.

Exactly my opinion.

 

[roasted]

Exactly my opinion.

Indeed. Given the fact a glass Nova now exists and it cuts down the +1 I was headstrong with in regard to favoring the Protank.

The more I use the Nova, the more this design makes sense. Keep in mind this is strictly my opinion, so just keep that in mind. When I need to fill my Protank, I need to take it off the base, flip over, unscrew, and fill. With the Nova, I just pop the top off and dump the liquid in. Likewise, the same goes for when I get the gurgling liquid spurts coming up the center tube. So far, I have yet to experience this with the Nova, however on the Protank I have to disassemble it, hold it steadily upside down, hold it above my head so I can face the ceiling and blow into it to shoot the liquid spurts out, then reassemble.

I get the idea behind pros and cons of top vs bottom coil, but as a 3 month rookie into this scene, the design of the Nova makes so much sense. The only downside to the Nova is if I'm vaping heavily I need to be mindful of twirling it to make sure the wicks are getting soaked. Since I often set my device down on its side, it's not something that is really much of a bother. I would certainly prefer to deal with twirling it if it works great in other areas instead of needing to disassemble it a few times an hour.

In other news, I did try the EVOD heads in the Protank. I found it to be a nicer experience in terms of air draw, but that's about all that changed. I was hoping that perhaps it would help with the other issues I ran into, but ahh, no luck there.

I'm also trying to be aware of the muted taste that has been reported in this thread with the Novas. My EVOD is working great yet, so I've been using that to directly compare (since like I said, all I get is a metallic taste from the Protank), but so far I haven't gotten much of a different experience, taste wise, with the Nova vs EVOD. Both taste great.

Like I said, use what works for you. We're spoiled with endless choices. This is just my 2c on the subject based on what I've experienced.

A question about cleaning with vodka - is there a specific type of vodka that is good to use? I would assume that a non-flavored vodka would be preferred, but I figured I'd ask instead of wonder.

EDIT - It's funny... not even two minutes after I posted this I got to thinking, eh, why is this tasting not-awesome anymore? I pulled everything apart and looked inside. I couldn't even see the individual coils. It looked like there was charcoal sitting across the top of the coils. I dryburned it a few times but I didn't see it heat up red, it just sizzled a bit and that was it. I ended up taking the head apart and looked inside. At this point, I had somewhat destroyed the head (never took apart a Nova head before) so I figured, eh, let's rip the wick out and see what happens. As I unwound the wire around the wick I could see little black specs of something breaking off the top of the coil. Looks like I was either due for a new head or I was... due for a new head. It's hard to say how much I've used this Nova as I used it here and there for never as my only device to gauge when the head needs changing.

At any rate, I dropped in a 1.8 ohm that came with the kit. I'm letting it soak up now while I do home work around the house and hopefully it'll be hitting like a gem then.

Do you guys dryburn your heads when you sense an issue, or do you do it out of preventative maintenance every so many x-days? I wonder if I had dryburned this Nova head earlier on had I been able to get more life out of it.

 

[roasted]

I've noticed something on my Nova that perhaps I hadn't caught onto earlier on with my Protank. I used to think that the amount of taste/vape that you get is directly translated to the amount of 'burn' time you give per hit. As a result, I would tend to vape slower, almost in an effort to let the liquid get a good burn with each hit. I was trying super fast draws on the Nova and I noticed I was actually getting more vape. Of course, super fast draws on the Nova where it's less airy can make you light headed after a bit. I got to wondering if the super slow draw I was giving to the Protank was slow enough that I was giving the liquid 'too' much burn time per hit. I'm sitting on the deck vaping now with the Protank. Considering the more airy draw, it's significantly easier to get a faster pace going.

I think this is largely due to my cigar-smoking history, as with cigars you tend to draw really slow as the tobacco is packed so thick it's obnoxious. Likewise, even when I was smoking little cigars like Cheyennes, they were packed super tight. I remember lighting up a cig when I was out with friends and there was a distinct difference.

I'd also like to notate that I'm not saying I draw fast like a crazy thirsty 5 year old with a large coke. I just wonder if I had been drawing slow enough that I was scorching things in the process.

So far, I'm not experiencing any of the metallic taste that I was hitting with the Protank the other night. The funny thing is, I took the Protank off when I was hitting the continual metallic taste and have not touched it. Same head, same liquid, same everything.

Let's see how this pans out...

 

[DoogieTony]

I really dig my vision vivis too. If you learn how to rebuild them they are much better than stock.
In regard to the "golfball through a garden hose" draw, you people may have some personal issues to work out because theres really no need to draw that hard on a vivi Imo.

If you get the pyrex vivi just be aware that its not made by vision so if that's what you're using it will most likely need different heads.

As for the funky oily taste, it is oil. These things aren't cleaned very well before leaving the factory and can have leftover machine oil on them. I always clean any new equipment before use, I alternate isopropyl alcohol and hot water until that plastic-y smell is gone, dry, and you'll be good to go.