New guy with a leaky rocket rba

[kcp93t]

Hello all, I've been lurking for a while but never had the need to post due to the amount of awesome info on here. Awesome forum everyone!
No on to the good stuff... well not so good for me...

I recently purchased a rocket RBA after having read some great reviews and comments. Since I've set this thing up I've had nothing but problems. As cotton is my preferred wick I set it up with that. First it was gurgling like a drowning diver. After 3 wicks I got that to stop only to find juice leaking out of the air intake hole and the filler hole. Both set screws are installed. I can make the air intake hole stop leaking if I tighten it to the point where I can barely draw through it but the filler hole seems to leak no matter what I do. Someone help me out here. I've wasted some of my fave (expensive) juice and I'm ready to chuck this POS out the back window!!

 

[jackmormon]

Soak it in soap & water for a few hours and watch what comes out of it. Then decide if you REALLY want to inhale anything out of it. (I couldn't get mine to stop oozing rust colored gunk after several soaks so I tossed it.)

 

[danny4x4]

I don't have the rocket rba but I have the Kayfun lite. They are about similar in design and here are my suggestions:

1) check that coil is not too close to base/deck
2) the device prefers light draws/pulls. If you draw too hard, it creates a stronger vacuum which draws more juice into chamber, leading to flooding.
3) insufficient cotton? Try a longer piece of cotton (NOT thicker). Tuck the legs of the cotton in a "z".

I suspect (2) might be the cause of your flooding.

 

[kcp93t]

Soak it in soap & water for a few hours and watch what comes out of it. Then decide if you REALLY want to inhale anything out of it. (I couldn't get mine to stop oozing rust colored gunk after several soaks so I tossed it.)

Interesting... and scary. Any idea what it was? Or what part of your atty it came from?? Some have suggested removing the bottom sealed portion but mine would only unthread a little then it would tighten up again.. I didn't want to force it and cross a thread or something. My juice seems pretty clear as of now so I'll wait toll its all gone than I'll give it a god soak.

I don't have the rocket rba but I have the Kayfun lite. They are about similar in design and here are my suggestions:

1) check that coil is not too close to base/deck
2) the device prefers light draws/pulls. If you draw too hard, it creates a stronger vacuum which draws more juice into chamber, leading to flooding.
3) insufficient cotton? Try a longer piece of cotton (NOT thicker). Tuck the legs of the cotton in a "z".

I suspect (2) might be the cause of your flooding.

Awesome response Danny. Thank you.

1)My coil is about 1.7mm above air hole. This was my initial thought too.

2)The problem is even when it's standing on the table, it still leaks (through air hole and filler hole). The only way to stop it thus far is to tighten the air flow screw until I can barely draw through it. Which works and drys it out but the air flow is sooo tight now.

3)The z was done on my second attempt. I even tried to shove a little down the side channels but it still gurgled. it wasnt until I actually had a small amount of cotton in the channels running almost down to the deck that the gurgling stopped. Now it only gurgles after sitting for about 10 or 15 min and juice starts coming out of the filler and air holes.

 

[kcp93t]

OK, I think I've fixed the problem but the solution somewhat defys logic..

So I completely removed the air control screw and there's no more juice coming out of the air hole.. However, it was still coming out of the filler hole. I tightened the filler hole screw and put the (now leftover) air control screw in there as well (2 screws in filler hole) and voila!! No leaking for the last hour. If it starts again I'll update.

Big thanks to danny4x4 and jackmormon for the quick responses.

 

[snout71]

Rocket RBA, is this the one from fasttech as mine is leaking all over the place

 

[spolen23]

I've had a few occasional leaks. But they stop rather quickly. I blow any juice out the holes holding it upside down into a paper towel. Clears it out. Mostly been working rather well. Want to step it up to actual Russian 91% but can't find any.

 

[BDUAres]

Strange. I have bought 2 Rockets from FT in the past 3 months. Neither leak. Only problem I had was a defective clear tank, which I replaced through a USA vendor for $3.

I have used cotton yarn and silica in them, and after a short learning curve I got the AFC screw set to where I have been able to leave it for over a month. I did find that wick placement was crucial. Wick going above the air hole below the coil tends to flood things, and wick that is allowed to block the flow of juice by falling into one or both of the 2 juice flow slots in the base/tower causes very dry hits. I tend to screw in the coil, put on the chimney without the little cap, and use a tiny screwdriver to push the wick down on each side of the posts below the air hole, and then screw on the chimney cap. That works well.

O-rings are another possible cause of flooding. One of my Rockets came without an o-ring where the tank screws onto the base, which was present on the other Rocket. A medium sized o-ring from my o-ring collection fixed that easily. Also the small silicone o-ring in the center of the top cap under where the drip tip screws in is very easy to lose if it falls out. This o-ring is necessary in order to prevent flooding.

One serendipitous find on FT was the pre-coiled wicks in 50 packs for less than $10. I bought a 50 pack of both the single silica wick and the double silica wicked coils, and by merely unwrapping a couple of coils of the wire from the wick I have been getting very nice 1-1.5 coils that take just a couple of minutes to swap in or out whenever I need to change something, and the $7-9 for 50 is well worth the lack of hassle and time expenditure. Added bonus: they also work great in my Protank type heads.

One other thing that can cause flooding is to not use the fill hole, and instead to take off the top and fill it direct. That gets rid of the vacuum that the Rocket uses to operate and can easily flood things.

 

[snout71]

Thanks for that BDUAres

 

[Chuck2]

Here's something I have used to prevent the flooding and leaking I was having with mine, Rocket Kayfun 3.1 Clone Build (Flood fix) - YouTube.