Please help me understand coils/protank coils

[kdubbie]

Ok, I know this question must have been asked a number of times and I have read a bunch of posts, but can't seem to find the right answer and this has been driving me batty for some time now.

So I pretty much use protanks for my clearomizers. When the coils are fresh and primed they go great, taste great, everything works fine and very easy to manage. Usually about a week, sometimes two they start to go bad ... I replace them and vape away.

Tonight, instead of throwing out an old head, I decided clean it out (this coil was about 8 days old). I removed the head, and rinsed it out for a good while with hot water. I dried it off, attached it back to the based, screwed it into my mod, pulled off the top cap and pulled out the top wicks in order to dry burn. I decided to dry burn in 2 to 3 second intervals until I saw the coil turning red, when I started the dry burn, I could hear the sound of the burn very loudly and see the smoke rise, I knew I was burning the coil, which was ok, because I was going to throw it out anyway.

So here's my dilemma, as I was dry burning, the burning sound came to a complete halt, almost like there was no connectivity whatsoever. One minute, it seems like it's firing as it should, the next, nothing.... The coils were still turning red when I pressed the button, the base was getting hotter but nothing was burning. Half way through the dry burn, the wick became white again, and coils seemed to be cleaner. So I thought it was just dry. I put the head back together and screwed it into the tank. Primed the wicks just a little, let it sit, and nothing. No connectivity whatsoever and no vapor being generated.

Why do coils all of a sudden stop loosing their connectivity and producing vapor like that???

In this case, throwing away the coil was no big deal, but this happens not just with old coils, but sometimes new ones that I just popped on ... So if anyone can shed a little insight on how coils work, why they go bad, etc, I would be greatly appreciated ... Thanks

 

[xtwosm0kesx]

You were doing a proper dry burn, but sounds like something went wrong.

The noise was the residual water burning out of the wicks, then the coil started to heat up which burned the gunk off of it and the silica wicks(ie why the wicks turned white, and you saw smoke). Generally once wicks back to white again, rinse, then you're ready to slap in (new) flavor wicks, prime, and go.

If the coil died, it may have been over-pulsed or you melted the grommet or something. But that's how you would normally dry burn a PT head.

Doing this every few days(depending on juice), will greatly increase your head performance.

 

[mvroman]

When it stops smoking and making sound, its technically clean. After you do that you should rinse it off with a little force like under a faucet or shaking it in water.

I would be willing to bet that the coil was fine and didnt need to be thrown away, whenever I used to dry burn like that I would let it sit attached to a tank soaking for at least a couple hours before using it to make sure its fully soaked. Even then it still takes a few good pulls to get it flowing, your wick may have had some water in it still.

Its helpful to know this, I rebuild my own protank coils and use cotton for wick so I cant dry burn I just replace. 10 cents or so per head is a lot better than however much replacements cost.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Mike Sheda]

Think of coils as a light bulb.... you have current passing through a filament. If it gets too hot, the filament breaks... maybe 2-3 seconds dry was too much... might not seem like it, but on your next experiment (and I'm sure there will be a next time) try 1 second on.. let it cool, another second on.. let it cool... and on until there is no smoke. If you pulsed 2 seconds, stop then right back to 2 seconds.. the heat never got a chance to dissipate.

 

[Mike Sheda]

you can also try this:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...7-recoiling-rewicking-evods.html#post10399932

 

[razor4432]

When it stops smoking and making sound, its technically clean. After you do that you should rinse it off with a little force like under a faucet or shaking it in water.

I would be willing to bet that the coil was fine and didnt need to be thrown away, whenever I used to dry burn like that I would let it sit attached to a tank soaking for at least a couple hours before using it to make sure its fully soaked. Even then it still takes a few good pulls to get it flowing, your wick may have had some water in it still.

I'm willing to bet my paycheck this is what was going on. I just cleaned and dry burned my PT head tonight (rebuilt coil a few weeks ago) and it took a good 3-5 pulls while firing during each to get vapor and flavor back. You were doing it right

 

[kdubbie]

Thank you, thank you for the very much for the useful information ... I just have a quick couple of follow ups

Has anyone ever experience a head go from hitting perfectly one minute, to producing a very burned taste another minute .... Then a few minutes later it's back to hitting perfectly again (without doing anything) ... Stays that way for a while, then starts producing burnt flavors, then good flavor ... on and on??

Also, I just had another 3 day old coil go bad on me (burned flavors don't go away) ... I tried cleaning it again, the same way mentioned above but also taking the advice above a not over doing the dry burn, making sure the heat has time to dissipate. I also primed the wick and let it sit for a good half hour. When I went to puff on it, it puffed fine, but I still got the same terrible burning taste, I let it sit for another 15 minutes and again, burned taste. Should I assume at this point the coil is dead even if it's a couple of day old, or should I try another round of cleaning and dry burn? Any recommendations for not burning coils so fast?

Thanks again

 

[retired1]

Here's my routine when I clean my Protank heads.

I normally soak the heads for a couple of days then boil them for about 5 minutes.

After they've cooled down, I'll pop the stem and remove the flavor wicks. Dry burn until the coils all heat evenly and brightly. Blow the gunk out and then put everything back together. THEN, I'll boil them again for about 5-10 minutes to help get rid of the residue.

After that, they're placed back into my Protank head rotation. (I usually wait until I have close to a dozen in the soaking glass before I start the cleaning process.)

 

[Screamin Eagle]

In this case, throwing away the coil was no big deal,

Hey, if your just throwing your coils away I'll send you a SASE and you can mail me a handfull of them.
I'm just starting to get into rebuilding them and could use some dead ones to play with.

Sorry i can't help answer any of your questions, but I don't know enough about the subject to give you an objective answer. But I'm learning more and more as I go along. And the more I learn the better I'll become at being able to answer questions like these.

 

[ScottP]

When dry burning you have to blow onto the coils to keep them from getting too hot. If they get too hot the wire can break and then it will not work any more.

Here are detailed step by step cleaning instructions I typed up on cleaning EVOD/ProTank type coils awhile back. It looks long, but the whole process is really only a few minutes other than soak time. See if this helps.
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...-great-but-how-do-i-clean-2.html#post10502114

 

[Wow1420]

Thank you, thank you for the very much for the useful information ... I just have a quick couple of follow ups

Has anyone ever experience a head go from hitting perfectly one minute, to producing a very burned taste another minute .... Then a few minutes later it's back to hitting perfectly again (without doing anything) ... Stays that way for a while, then starts producing burnt flavors, then good flavor ... on and on??

Not on a Evod/protank, but I've got that right now on a ViviNova. If I let it sit for a few minutes and I can get one very nice pull from it, then the second drag goes dry and burned. Let it sit again and back to normal for one hit. The wicks aren't doing their job in delivering liquid fast enough to the coil. This is a coil I wrapped myself. Either the wick material is poor, or I wrapped the coil too tightly around the wick, or the wicks are getting pinched and restricted where they enter the head. I haven't taken it apart yet to find out which, because I don't want to dump a full 3ml tank of liquid.

With a protank head, the cure might be as simple as removing one of the loose "flavor wicks" that sits on top of the coil.

Also, I just had another 3 day old coil go bad on me (burned flavors don't go away) ... I tried cleaning it again, the same way mentioned above but also taking the advice above a not over doing the dry burn, making sure the heat has time to dissipate. I also primed the wick and let it sit for a good half hour. When I went to puff on it, it puffed fine, but I still got the same terrible burning taste, I let it sit for another 15 minutes and again, burned taste. Should I assume at this point the coil is dead even if it's a couple of day old, or should I try another round of cleaning and dry burn? Any recommendations for not burning coils so fast?

Thanks again

I suspect you were too gentle with it this time, I'd do another full round of rinse, dry burn, rinse. I make sure the coil gets nice and evenly red a few times after all the visible smoke stops. I haven't popped a coil yet, so I tend to be more aggressive with the dry burning than what's sometimes recommended here. Until ALL the crud is burned off and ashy residue rinsed away, the burned taste will remain.