New member needs help! Russian 91% losing vacuum.

[BeerGolfClouds]

Hello everyone!

A little background: I've been off analogs for 9 months, and have been trying my hand at coil building and RDAs for about the last two months. Having some prior experience with electrical has made it simple and most rewarding, the quality of my vaping has reached new highs. However, I have run into a problem.

I recently picked up a Russian 91% and it rocks! However, I can't seem to get through a tank without losing the vacuum and juice spilling out everywhere from the airhole. It will work fine for a while; sometimes a quarter tank, sometimes half or more. But eventually it all goes south. It seems to happen often while I am driving, so I'm wondering if the normal vibration of a car ride is doing it. I do keep it upright all the time. I have checked all the o-rings, everything appears to be sealing fine. Not sure what else to do, I'd hate to have this beauty get stuck as a stay home vape.

If it helps, I'm running a 1.3 ohm 28 ga microcoil w/cotton wick on a nemesis clone. I've rebuilt many times and watched tons of videos, so I'm confident that the build and wicking are not the issue. I also bottom fill if that makes a difference. Currently vaping Nicoticket Gravity at 65%/35%. Hope that takes care of the variables...if anyone can help me out I'd really appreciate it!

 

[Equilibrium]

I don't think it's the car ride that's doing it. I have a kayfun 3.1 clone. The Russian 91 and KF are almost identical and I don't have any flooding/leaking issues with mine. I use a similar build with a 28g micro coil and cotton but my resistance is a little bit lower at 1 ohm.
Hopefully someone will have some answers for you.

 

[drummerskey]

The only thing that could affect the vacuum is air pressure changes or altitude changes for the same reason.

It could be the way you are filling it and I have the Kayfun 3.1 but if the Russian also has the fill hole, you could have an issue somewhere with that as another possibility. The spring could be broke, it could be pushed in the fill position and didn't pop back out, etc, etc. Although I don't have a ton of experience with either, the old CE3's were also pressure sensitive and had to be filled and handled in the same way. Fill it up ever so slightly wrong and it leaked.

It is closer related to putting your finger over the top of a straw in a soda glass. Pull it out of the soda and the liquid stays in there but move your finger just a bit and it all drains out.

 

[BeerGolfClouds]

The fill hole was initially a problem, it leaked rather heavily. I was able to use an o-ring from the included parts on the fill hole screw though, that took care of the leaking.

I just disassembled, cleaned, re-wicked and reassembled using a 50%/50% juice, maybe the added thickness of more VG will make a difference. So far, so good.

Do you think rapid temperature changes could also affect the vacuum? It's been in the 50s here with wind chill, but the sun is beating down and my car interior is usually in the 80s before the AC kicks in.

 

[BeerGolfClouds]

Well, I always need to tinker. I'm sure I'm not the only one here! Anyway, I wrapped up a new coil at 1 ohm, wicked, and filled 'er up with 50%/50% Honey Pearry. For the last hour it's been vaping like a champ with no leakage. Maybe the thinner juice was the culprit. I'm about to take a ride to the local skatepark, so I'll test the car theory; if there's no more leakage then I'll consider this issue closed!!! Thanks for the responses.

 

[Marc411]

I had the same problem.

I wasn't getting a good seal at the contact points of the tank, I needed to snug down the connections. Once I fine turned it everything worked fine. I find that I didn't want to over tighten the plastic tank but I wasn't getting it quite tight enough.

 

[KhausReigns]

Are you creating the vacuum seal? After I fill my Kayfun with juice, I hold the tank upside down and blow air into the tank just enough to where it feels like there is no air going into the tank to create the vacuum. Make sure the air holes are covered tightly where no air can escape when you do this or else juice will just come out of the air holes.

 

[BeerGolfClouds]

Yes, I am initially creating a good vacuum in the tank. I just got some more leakage, as a result of keeping it in my pocket. Got it all cleaned up and vaping fine again, and tried the pocket again; same thing. I think maybe the DT is getting covered up and forcing pressure back. I need a holster lol.

 

[PoeDung]

Do you think rapid temperature changes could also affect the vacuum? It's been in the 50s here with wind chill, but the sun is beating down and my car interior is usually in the 80s before the AC kicks in.

Temp shouldn't affect it. I live in MN and was using mine outside in -20 degree weather this winter. have you watched videos on it to make sure you're putting it all together right and not missing any o-rings?

 

[KhausReigns]

Hmm...is everything thread well? The chimney, parts of the tank, tip, etc.

 

[BeerGolfClouds]

Temp shouldn't affect it. I live in MN and was using mine outside in -20 degree weather this winter. have you watched videos on it to make sure you're putting it all together right and not missing any o-rings?

Wow, -20?!??!! Guess I'm spoiled out this way. Yeah, I researched the R91 a ton before I bought it, and played around with it quite a bit before I did my first build on it. I even tried adding an extra o-ring to the bottom of the chimney just to see if there was a difference; there wasn't. Now it seems as long as I don't run around with it in my pocket there are no problems. Maybe something is getting loose in there.