Need help w/new Aspire Nautilus tank

[Smoking In Seattle]

I've been using a basic 6ml cartomizer tank with 3.0 ohm single coil cartomizers on iStick 20w-ers with 18mg e-liquid (diluted w/25% vg) for 5 years. Have been perfectly happy with the vape, all these years. Good flavor, tons of clouds. But those 20w iSticks are just about obsolete and are hard to find at a reasonable price anymore (plus, I've had to toss several of them due to stripped threads).
Figured it was time I updated my equipment. Bought a 30w iStick. It runs a bit too high for my regular (menthol) vape with the cartomizer tank (I'm usually set at 3.5 - 4.0w on the iStick 20w; the iStick 30w STARTS at 5w), and the clouds were wimpy. So... Purchased an Aspire Nautilus tank (1.8 ohm clearomizer installed). Holey cow! Two pulls and I thought I was going to pass out! WAY too much nicotine! I kept ^v-ing the wattage, trying to see if that would calm things down, but no such luck (and as a side note, the clouds weren't as big).
Simple solution is to lower the mg on the nic, right? (not right?). I'd like to know WHY this is the case (and why are my clouds so reduced? I thought the Nautilus was supposed to deliver TONS of clouds?), as well as if someone else has had this same issue, did you go down to 3mg or 6mg? Anyone out there have the patience to explain it to me? I've surfed the web for hours on end and have not gotten any wiser (possibly more confused).
6 years ago I came to e-cigarette forum to help me get off cigarettes and on to vaping and everyone here was AMAZING! I thought I'd turn again to the pros for this new issue.
Thanks in advance!

 

[bombastinator]

.....Simple solution is to lower the mg on the nic, right? (not right?).

Right

I'd like to know WHY this is the case (and why are my clouds so reduced? I thought the Nautilus was supposed to deliver TONS of clouds?),

Not really. It produces a big cloud for a MTL tank, but that won’t compare to a DL tank cloud for example. If you’re having to reduce nic level I suspect the problem is not vapor delivery. The big question I think is are you a MTL vaper, a DL vaper, or a restricted DL vaper? My suspicion is the last but I don’t know for sure.

 

[r77r7r]

I've been using a basic 6ml cartomizer tank with 3.0 ohm single coil cartomizers on iStick 20w-ers with 18mg e-liquid (diluted w/25% vg) for 5 years. Have been perfectly happy with the vape, all these years. Good flavor, tons of clouds. But those 20w iSticks are just about obsolete and are hard to find at a reasonable price anymore (plus, I've had to toss several of them due to stripped threads).
Figured it was time I updated my equipment. Bought a 30w iStick. It runs a bit too high for my regular (menthol) vape with the cartomizer tank (I'm usually set at 3.5 - 4.0w on the iStick 20w; the iStick 30w STARTS at 5w), and the clouds were wimpy. So... Purchased an Aspire Nautilus tank (1.8 ohm clearomizer installed). Holey cow! Two pulls and I thought I was going to pass out! WAY too much nicotine! I kept ^v-ing the wattage, trying to see if that would calm things down, but no such luck (and as a side note, the clouds weren't as big).
Simple solution is to lower the mg on the nic, right? (not right?). I'd like to know WHY this is the case (and why are my clouds so reduced? I thought the Nautilus was supposed to deliver TONS of clouds?), as well as if someone else has had this same issue, did you go down to 3mg or 6mg? Anyone out there have the patience to explain it to me? I've surfed the web for hours on end and have not gotten any wiser (possibly more confused).
6 years ago I came to e-cigarette forum to help me get off cigarettes and on to vaping and everyone here was AMAZING! I thought I'd turn again to the pros for this new issue.
Thanks in advance!

Same history here. Didn't change nic but went down to 12mg years ago. You're simply not going to get good clouds @5W. And, it'll possibly stay over soaked at that low wattage giving even less clouds.
Try at least 6.5w. The 20 ran RMS voltage output and that equals minus 1w for any other mod.

 

[r77r7r]

Plenty of us old school vapers around, we'll get you sorted. What mix are you running? 18mg/ml with higher PG levels is going to flow differently, produce less clouds, and give a higher throat hit. Many of us moved to 50/50.

 

[Smoking In Seattle]

Right

Not really. It produces a big cloud for a MTL tank, but that won’t compare to a DL tank cloud for example. If you’re having to reduce nic level I suspect the problem is not vapor delivery. The big question I think is are you a MTL vaper, a DL vaper, or a restricted DL vaper? My suspicion is the last but I don’t know for sure.

Thanks for your thoughts Bombastinator. I'm a MTL vaper.

 

[Smoking In Seattle]

Same history here. Didn't change nic but went down to 12mg years ago. You're simply not going to get good clouds @5W. And, it'll possibly stay over soaked at that low wattage giving even less clouds.
Try at least 6.5w. The 20 ran RMS voltage output and that equals minus 1w for any other mod.

Thanks for your response R7... On the Nautilus, I started at 5w. Increased a few watts each pull over a period of an hour or two (so not all at once to knock me on my fanny from too many draws), up to 13 watts. At the higher wattage, the e-liquid was frying (or something) and tasted nasty. Even so, every pull made my head spin! Too much nic!

 

[Smoking In Seattle]

Plenty of us old school vapers around, we'll get you sorted. What mix are you running? 18mg/ml with higher PG levels is going to flow differently, produce less clouds, and give a higher throat hit. Many of us moved to 50/50.

I'm not sure of the *exact* mix, but I know it's not 100% pg. Probably a 60/40 or 50/50. I also dilute it with 25% vg, just because that "softens" the menthol. I use Vapor Cast's "Smooththol" (used to be Prothol).

 

[r77r7r]

Lol, 18 would kick my .... too. I run at 8.5w with the airflow decently open. You'll get there... There are a few more mtl tanks that would fit also. Gl

 

[Izan]

I'm not sure of the *exact* mix, but I know it's not 100% pg. Probably a 60/40 or 50/50. I also dilute it with 25% vg, just because that "softens" the menthol. I use Vapor Cast's "Smooththol" (used to be Prothol).

Hi SiS, welcome back.
If you are diluting the18mg/ml with an additional 25% VG, your liquid is more in the neighborhood of 15-16mg/ml. at approx: 50/50 +/- 1%or 2%
In your place, I would order the same flavor in 12mg/ml and follow your normal procedure. That should leave you with juice in the 9mg/ml-10mg/ml range @~50/50
Keep some of the high test around if you need an extra kick.
"Standard" Nicquid is 60%PG.

Cheers
I

 

[classwife]

Welcome back !

I moved you from Tanks, clearomizers and drop-in coils to General Vaping Discussion.

 

[Tmebs]

Ok, so my Mom uses the eleaf 20 W mods with Nautilus and 1.8 coils at 7-7.5 watts. BUT uses the same Nautilus on other mods at around 11-12 watts.
The reason being that the original 20 w eleaf were set, old school for when they came out, RMA I think is what it was called. There was an option on Smok Z max's to run them that way also. Most mods moved past this type of setting.

The Nautilus coils were made to handle 10-14 watts even though they were 1.8.

 

[Smoking In Seattle]

Hi SiS, welcome back.
If you are diluting the18mg/ml with an additional 25% VG, your liquid is more in the neighborhood of 15-16mg/ml. at approx: 50/50 +/- 1%or 2%
In your place, I would order the same flavor in 12mg/ml and follow your normal procedure. That should leave you with juice in the 9mg/ml-10mg/ml range @~50/50
Keep some of the high test around if you need an extra kick.
"Standard" Nicquid is 60%PG.

Cheers
I

Okay, that's what I thought... That the NicQuid was 60/40 (pg/vg). And thanks for reminding me that when I add the 25% vg, I *am* reducing the nic mg (forgot that). But why is the Nautilus vaping SO COMPLETELY differently than a basic cart tank? I understand that the 3.0 ohm sc carts are very different than a 1.8 ohm bvc, but is that enough to cause such a difference in the vaping? Going from a very comfortable/pleasant vape to two pulls that make my head spin and stomach lurch? Am I trying to force a square peg in a round hole?

 

[r77r7r]

Okay, that's what I thought... That the NicQuid was 60/40 (pg/vg). And thanks for reminding me that when I add the 25% vg, I *am* reducing the nic mg (forgot that). But why is the Nautilus vaping SO COMPLETELY differently than a basic cart tank? I understand that the 3.0 ohm sc carts are very different than a 1.8 ohm bvc, but is that enough to cause such a difference in the vaping? Going from a very comfortable/pleasant vape to two pulls that make my head spin and stomach lurch? Am I trying to force a square peg in a round hole?

I run my carto tank right alongside my other ones like the Nautilus and they are pretty similar to me. Have you tried another coil yet?

 

[Tmebs]

I had to check myself.............its been 4 yrs. LOL
It was MEAN and not RMS (not RMA) that the 20 watt was firing at. It made it overpowered to most of the other mods out at that time because of that.
Watch the pbsaurdo review video at around the 20 min mark he explains it.
If you were happy with the 20 watt eleaf at a certain setting you are going to find a new mod will likely need to be set higher than you were used to.
And as a side may try lowering you nic also.
Hope this helps and doesnt muddy the waters.
Also those bvc coils really can handle higher watts than you would expect for 1.6 or 1.8 ohms
Also the 30 and 40 and 50 watt devices that Eleaf came out with later were not set for MEAN.

 

[JCinFLA]

@Smoking In Seattle - First, you can still get Eleaf 20W iSticks, if you really like them and want to keep using them. I just bought 4 of them about 3 months ago @ $21 each. Second, I agree with everyone else about lowering your nic mg so you're not getting too much to make your head spin.

About a MTL tank for you...You're not the only one who doesn't care for the Nautilus tanks. I bought a Nautilus Mini because many people said they were so great. I put about 2 tanks of eliquid through it and it has sat unused in my rack for a few years now. I hated it!

I, personally sometimes enjoy using some of the "old school" MTL tanks that are still available. (I've moved on to RTAs for the most part, but sometimes I just gotta vape on a favorite, older, drop in coil tank.) Some of my favorites are the Aspire K1 and Aspire K2, and the older Kanger Protank 2, Protank 2 Mini, and Protank 3 Mini. Even the Kanger Evod Glass are still nice, too, IMO. Several people I've gotten switched over to vaping from smoking are still regularly using those tanks, too.

They can ALL still be found for sale and so are their drop-in coils. The Kanger ones are especially inexpensive, too. Though the Aspire K1 and K2 BVC coils aren't bad either. The Kanger coils for their tanks come in varying ohms from 0.8 up to 2.5ohms, depending on which tank it's for and if it's a single or dual coil. The Aspire BVC coils come in 1.6 and 1.8 ohms.

Just a few things to think about that may be more what you're looking for as a next step from cartos. By the way, there are still websites that have the 3ohm cartos, too. I just ran across one a couple weeks ago. They were IIRC 3 for $1.99.

 

[Smoking In Seattle]

Sigh... I guess I'll just keep fiddling/experimenting with the Nautilus...
I just don't understand why 18mg on my carto tank/iStick 20w setup is lovely, but on the Nautilus/iStick 30w setup it's dizzying/nauseating.
Thanks to everyone for your responses!

 

[DeloresRose]

Sigh... I guess I'll just keep fiddling/experimenting with the Nautilus...
I just don't understand why 18mg on my carto tank/iStick 20w setup is lovely, but on the Nautilus/iStick 30w setup it's dizzying/nauseating.
Thanks to everyone for your responses!

The fast answer is, no two tanks or mods vape quite the same. And that’s why many of us have tried multiple tanks and mods sometimes we find our sweet spot, and sometimes we enjoy the diversity. I have several set ups, and the juice tastes and functions differently in all of them.

 

[Topwater Elvis]

The nautilus is much more efficient at vaporizing e liquid & concentrating vapor than a carto tank.
There is a large difference between the amount of actual nic being suspended in the vapor produced by a 3ohm carto vs a 1.8 ohm head.
In essence the nautilus head is a miniature high power carto (3.0 vs 1.8) with much improved airflow.

It isn't unusual at all that as you go from old tech to newer tech all sorts of changes must take place to take advantage of these improvements.
A few of those are lower nic mg/ml, more airflow, experimenting with pg/Vg ratio & power ranges.

Nautilus bvc heads are avalible in .7, 1.6 & 1.8.
The isitck 20 has poor power regulation & is unable to buck / step down output, the istick 30 is much improved & does both well.

 

[DaveOno]

Also, try the Aspire Triton Min Clapton Coils for the Nautilus. Those coils work in the Nautilus and Naughty mini. Now you have more choices.
I stick to kanthal, not into the Ni temp thingy...
I also used the iStick 20. But I used a 510 adapter with the curved "beauty ring" included with the tank. Find an adapter with threads that will reach deep into the female part on the mod, and then don't remove it. It saves the cheesy iStick threads.
I found the istick 8w to be equivalent to about 11 or 12 watts on my other mods.
And I always have 2 tank/mods with me. (backup first). And when I was finding my nic strength, I'd have 12 in one, and 18 in the other, until I got used to the 12.

I'm now at 5 or 6mg, at 11.5w to 13.5watts in Triton minis or my Nautilus mini (but I still don't like how hard it is to sometimes remove that bottom for filling.

Good luck!

 

[stols001]

Yeah every tank is different every tank is special in its own way. I would agree compared to stuff I started out with like almost a decade ago (these little tiny dripper things) and well I think I had 36 mg liquid and I quit for 6 weeks with that.

The Nautilus is for sure, a MTL tank and draw. But there's no WAY I'd put 3 6 mg of nic in one. Draw is different, the coil itself is different (even if of the same OR HIGHER resistance) it is just going to vape differently. Play around until you find what you like.

I use 18 mg nic in most of my tanks but it's super rare for me to even get to the mid teens with any of my MTL vapes.

That makes me a middle school girl, I guess. Oh LORD AND BEWARE, I am the most terrifying creature on earth.

LOL in all seriousness, just play around with it and un preconceive any notions you might have. It's gonna be a great vape, when you get there. Etc.

Anna