Need some advice on funky taste with replaced coil...

[Krafted Khaos]

Please excuse my lack of proper terminology here, but if it's not written on the box or the equipment, I don't know what any of this stuff is called.

So, I have an e-Go-T, with an iClear 16. I just bought the iClear about a week ago, maybe less. I had to replace the coil today (the box says iClear16 1.8 Ohm Replaceable Dual Coil) and at first, things were fine... but more and more often, I'm getting hits with a really WEIRD taste to them.

I would think that the coil was a dud and I had to put another one in, but every hit doesn't taste this way, just 3, sometimes 4 out of 5.

I can't describe the taste, but it doesn't taste burnt to me. I've never had a coil burn out on me though, so I don't know what that tastes like... maybe a slight plastic taste? I've been using this bottle of juice since Sunday (bought it either Friday or Saturday, so it's not old, either) so I'm positive it's not the juice (again, some hits taste fine, others taste like crap).

If anyone has any suggestions or advice, I would greatly appreciate it... especially if that suggestion/advice can be put in layman's terms so someone who doesn't understand the lingo can understand!

Thanks!

A.

 

[Amberina]

I know that when I use any of the iTaste tanks (the 16 or 30) I get that weird taste. That is why I don't use them. I think it is the wicks that you are tasting. For me it makes the juice to harsh. I switched to the protanks (mini and protank 2) and it is much better. You can also remove some of the wicks and see if that helps out with the strong taste.

Good Luck!!!

 

[InTheShade]

Hi KK, have you just tried a really good clean for it?

You can (and should) give them a clean every 2-4 fills. Just a rinse in hot running water, take everything apart that you can (remove the coil from the clearo) and then shake and blot dry. I usually do this before using a new coil as well as I am always wary of residual manufacturing oils and residues.

You can also try a dry burn every few days too to remove the gunk from the coil. This will not only improve the flavor, but it will, generally, make them last a bit longer.

Regular cleaning and dry burning, I could make a coil last anywhere north of 4-5 weeks.

If you can put up with the accent, the below video shows a pretty good way to clean them.



Now if that all doesn't help, I'd suggest it might either be a wicking issue where not enough juice is getting to the coil (which is possible to fix too) or maybe you just got a bad coil.

 

[Krafted Khaos]

I didn't have this taste with the one that came in it, and right after I replaced it, my juice tasted great, like it did when I first got it... I replaced the coil maybe 4 hours ago.

I keep it in my hand all the time, so I've been puffing on it basically constantly in that time... did I do something wrong when I replaced the coil? The lady at the store told me I just unscrew the old one and screw in the new one and fill it up and I was good to go... did she leave anything out, perhaps?

I'm going to go brush my teeth and see if that helps any... my mouth feels like it's coated with something icky.

It's so weird. I've never had this problem before.

Thanks for your suggestion though... I think I may have to end up going with something else if all the replacement coils leave this taste in my mouth.

 

[nmackan]

My friend since I dont know your clearo cause I didnt use them This may be a blind shot. I think you use a dark liiquid VG based and sucking it like a pacifier. in short your wick dont have enough time to be wet. dilute your liquid a bit adding a few drops of distilled water (or votka at that)

 

[Krafted Khaos]

I'm supposed to clean it??

Now, why didn't the lady at the store tell me THAT???

Thank you so much for posting the video! I'd seen people mention cleaning, but I thought they were talking about one of the fancy setups that I'm not using.

Another thing I noticed right about the time I started to notice the weird taste is that my tongue feels kind of tingly???

Again, I had none of these issues with the coil that came already inside the thingy... it worked/tasted fine, and I'd been using it for a week (obviously without cleaning it, lol).

Thank you thank you thank you for your help/advice/video!!!

A.

 

[Krafted Khaos]

...I think you use a dark liiquid VG based and sucking it like a pacifier...

LOL! In short... yes.

It's Butter Pecan, so it's about the color of, well, pecans, lol, and indeed, I do suck on it like a pacifier most of the time.

If brushing my teeth or cleaning doesn't work, I'm going to try that next!

Thank you so much!

A.

 

[sda2010]

My mouth becomes like that when I do not drink enough water when vaping a lot.

 

[InTheShade]

You are most welcome.

The tingly tongue might be a mild case of what they call vapers tongue. It's basically your body's reaction to vaping.

I found that my tongue swelled slightly, I felt a little dizzy and discombobulated for a few days after starting vaping. The best defense for this is simply to drink more water. I almost always have a iced water (or other adult beverage perhaps ) with me when I am vaping. It dehydrates your membranes in the nose and mouth and can cause some weird tastes - so drinking more water than you think you need can often help with this.

 

[nmackan]

cleaning and dry burning is an essential part. I even dry burn my new atomiser heads before use. When you see the smoke when you try it you will see. By cleaning and dry burning you can use it more. And you learn how to change coil and so... . There you are in the vaping world

 

[Krafted Khaos]

...You can also try a dry burn every few days too to remove the gunk from the coil...

I had seen this term before too, and had no idea what it meant. Thanks so much for this, it was REALLY helpful!

 

[Krafted Khaos]

...And you learn how to change coil and so... ...

I'm actually fairly mechanically inclined, if I have someone to walk me through something the first time.

I thought all these terms (dry burning, cleaning, etc.) were just things that people who are really into vaping as a hobby do... I hadn't run across the information that even with my simple little setup, I should be doing these things!

This has been the most helpful thread (as a new vaper) that I've read so far... you guys are great

A.

 

[fabricator4]

I usually boil new heads before I use them to make sure there's no residue from manufacturing on them. Rubbery or machine oil tastes are sometimes due to this. Pop them into boiling water for a couple of minutes to clean. This works for cleans between tanks also, though you should leave them to dry out before using.

Apart from that, consider if a 1.8 ohm coil is a bit low for a fixed voltage battery - eg 3.7V fixed is nearly 8 watts. You might be happier around the 6.5 watt mark and this will make the coils last a lot longer and reduce the amount of maintenance that you have to do.

I've done a primer on dry burning coils here:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/fabricator4/5266-dry-burning-clearomiser-heads.html

 

[Innercitydk]

When I used CE4+ with replaceable coils I got this nasty taste from the wick and found that the coils were not genuine. Since then I have switched to Kanger Protank 2 with genuine coils and have not had any issues since. If it tastes funky it must be the wick itself burning, smelting or similar. I will avoid these at any cost since it has some similarities to the smell/taste of burned nylon string and I do not think that is healthy for the human lungs

 

[InTheShade]

When I used CE4+ with replaceable coils I got this nasty taste from the wick and found that the coils were not genuine. Since then I have switched to Kanger Protank 2 with genuine coils and have not had any issues since. If it tastes funky it must be the wick itself burning, smelting or similar. I will avoid these at any cost since it has some similarities to the smell/taste of burned nylon string and I do not think that is healthy for the human lungs

Hi Innercitydk, and welcome to EC Forum. The wicks are usually made from silica and are impossible to burn. If you want to test it, take a lighter and try to burn one. They will usually glow red and not burn. Even though the taste can be similar to the smell of burnt nylon, I can almost guarantee that you were not inhaling burnt silica.

What you probably had was what is called a dry hit. This is when not enough juice is getting to the coil to burn, and so you are actually inhaling super-heated air, mixed in with coil taste - not pleasant for sure.

With the CE4, you can improve the wicking by trying a thinner juice (or cutting yours with a few drops of distilled water), swirling juice around inside the CE4 so the wicks are really nice and wet with juice, and finally you can often improve the flavor by rinsing them out with hot running water and drying before re-filling.

Just thinking about it, the CE4 is actually a non-replaceable clearomizer, so you probably had a CE5. When I first started vaping I used these clearos for about a month with a few issues, but nothing insurmountable with a little love and attention for them.

 

[Krafted Khaos]

Okay, so...

Brushed Teeth: No change, except film-like sensation went away, taste still terrible.

Cleaned Original Coil & iClear Housing, Refilling with Fresh Juice from Uncontaminated Larger Bottle: No change, brief return of film-like sensation on tongue, return of tingling on tongue, no 'weird' taste, but not the same buttery, smooth taste I've come to expect with this flavor... waited a few minutes and the next hit tasted more like normal, but still got the tingly feeling on my tongue and a little bit on the roof of my mouth.

So, my inexperienced conclusions are thus:

1) There may or may not be something wrong with the replacement coil... but after a thorough cleaning, the original one works fine, so I'll put that conundrum aside for a later date

2) It's a strong possibility that it was just dry hits... still had the odd taste with the first couple of hits on the freshly cleaned coil, but not when I let the PV sit for a while between hits.

This is slightly confusing to me, since I haven't had an issue with this before, and I've vaped a total of about 3 weeks up to this point, and I've always chain vaped, and had what I considered 'dry' hits, but they were just weak w/no vapor... never an icky taste along with that.

Thank you all so much for your replies... you've been so helpful!!!

Any suggestions on how to improve the wicking... speed? Efficiency? (Not sure of the correct term here)

 

[Ryuukon]

What kind of juice are you using? Is it a high VG blend? High VG juices are thicker and harder to wick, so you might just have to slow down your vaping a bit or modify your technique to allow the wicks time to do their job. Are you leaving the button pushed down too long with a high VG? VG is slower to wick, so if you take long hits with the button pushed down for a long time, the wick could be getting too dry before you let off.

I usually take a quick hit to get the flavor going, then do a slight inhale to get it into my lungs then a quick exhale through the nose to get the flavor train rolling while still taking a big hit before the fun begins.

Aside from that the only thing I can suggest is that you make sure the silicone cap on top of the coil post isn't pushed down too tight. You actually want it pretty loose on an iClear 16 so the drip tip can do all the work, pushing it down on the post to create a seal so it doesn't leak. If you have the silicone tip pushed too far down on the post it will tighten around the wicks, which is the perfect environment for dry hits.

 

[Innercitydk]

Hi Innercitydk, and welcome to EC Forum. The wicks are usually made from silica and are impossible to burn. If you want to test it, take a lighter and try to burn one. They will usually glow red and not burn. Even though the taste can be similar to the smell of burnt nylon, I can almost guarantee that you were not inhaling burnt silica.

What you probably had was what is called a dry hit. This is when not enough juice is getting to the coil to burn, and so you are actually inhaling super-heated air, mixed in with coil taste - not pleasant for sure.

With the CE4, you can improve the wicking by trying a thinner juice (or cutting yours with a few drops of distilled water), swirling juice around inside the CE4 so the wicks are really nice and wet with juice, and finally you can often improve the flavor by rinsing them out with hot running water and drying before re-filling.

Just thinking about it, the CE4 is actually a non-replaceable clearomizer, so you probably had a CE5. When I first started vaping I used these clearos for about a month with a few issues, but nothing insurmountable with a little love and attention for them.

Thanks for that clearification and welcomming me I was kinda worried since I knew that taste did not come from my juice. I will never go back to ego/ce4 anyways after i switched to APV Chinabuye.com lists ce5 as ce4+. CE4 is the one where the coil can not be changed and CE4+ has changeable coils (at chb).

Best regards

 

[Krafted Khaos]

What kind of juice are you using? Is it a high VG blend?

I'm using a 70/30 mix of PG/VG, 30mg/ml

...modify your technique to allow the wicks time to do their job...

Modify how? Would probably definitely be worth knowing, since I vape so often, there's probably not much difference between slow wicking and vaping so often the wicks just can't keep up, lol.

Are you leaving the button pushed down too long with a high VG? VG is slower to wick, so if you take long hits with the button pushed down for a long time, the wick could be getting too dry before you let off.

I don't think my juice is considered high VG... but I do take long hits (or so it seems to me, lol... I'm not a pro, so for all I know, they're baby hits). I hold the button down for anywhere from 6 - 10 seconds.

Aside from that the only thing I can suggest is that you make sure the silicone cap on top of the coil post isn't pushed down too tight. You actually want it pretty loose on an iClear 16 so the drip tip can do all the work, pushing it down on the post to create a seal so it doesn't leak. If you have the silicone tip pushed too far down on the post it will tighten around the wicks, which is the perfect environment for dry hits.

Thanks for this tip! I'm so new to this, all these little tips and tricks will be extremely helpful. I'll read all of them you're willing to type, lol.

I did notice that the new coil I put in was actually leaning pretty far to one side, although I checked when I pulled it apart to put the newly cleaned one in, and it wasn't threaded improperly, it just sat off to the side. After putting the original back in, I noticed it was doing the same thing, but I'm not having the gross taste anymore (have slowed down the vaping this time - reluctantly - to avoid this, in case dry hits were the culprit).

 

[edyle]

I usually boil new heads before I use them to make sure there's no residue from manufacturing on them. Rubbery or machine oil tastes are sometimes due to this. Pop them into boiling water for a couple of minutes to clean. This works for cleans between tanks also, though you should leave them to dry out before using.

Apart from that, consider if a 1.8 ohm coil is a bit low for a fixed voltage battery - eg 3.7V fixed is nearly 8 watts. You might be happier around the 6.5 watt mark and this will make the coils last a lot longer and reduce the amount of maintenance that you have to do.

I've done a primer on dry burning coils here:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/fabricator4/5266-dry-burning-clearomiser-heads.html

I keep reading that everywhere and wondering why.

I have a suspicion that its not good to leave the coil in water for to long because the coil might rust or something. I'd left a coil in water for a long time; every now and then I would throw out the water and pour in some hot water to let it soak in hot water; but last night when i went fiddling around with it, it was dead; checked it with a multi.