Yes. You should drip about 6-8 drops of juice into a new tank, then about 2-3 drops during tank refills. The tanks hold at least 10 drops in their reservoir.
When you take those 3-4 hard puffs without engaging the battery, you are actually drawing juice back up to the coil from the bottom reservoir, in addition to releasing more juice from the tank.
If you ever pull out the spike/plate, you'll see this in action. You can "drip vape" with the plate off. You'll notice that regular puffs with the batt engaged will yield about 3-4 good draws before tasting dry. If you take 4 quick puffs, you'll actually see juice fill the ceramic housing/coil fill up with juice even though you didn't add any.
The nickel mesh in the tank absorbs & wicks juice to the coil.
Dropping in a few drops of juice with the plate/spike on, & then inserting the tank cart will eliminate your initial dry hits.
Also- don't fill your carts up completely. You need a little room in there for the juice to be able to flow without being vacuum locked.
Finally- If you replace the wicks, & keep the coil clean, it will last for months. I have one that is a year old, & works like new.
You can buy wicking material from Clouds of Vapor.
I lube the wick with vg to make it easy to handle, add two - three more strands to make it thicker, & place it back in the nickel mesh "cap" which keeps it in place in the spike. I then cut it long enough to drake over the coil, & torch it to burn off any residual chemical traces.
Finally- I place a couple of drops of juice to directly & evenly prime the wick, pop the wick/spike plate back in, & enjoy a tank which is literally better than new.
