Problems with my Berserker Mini V2

[EIHYPI]

Hello everyone. I'm really hoping someone can help me out here because I really cannot figure out what is wrong with my materials.

Recently I decided to buy the berserker mini v2, a building tool kit, 28G kanthal wire and Cotton Labo Japanese organic cotton pads from Amazon. This was an investment after getting rid of a lot of my old vape stuff which was a bad idea.

I'm very good at building my coils. I tried spaced, contact, between 6 to 10 wraps, 3mm to 2mm inside diameter, must've tried building too many coils and would always taste burnt and bad flavor after about 20 hits.

The eliquid I use is a net eliquid, a very highly reputable company and their eliquid is not supposed to gunk up the coils so fast. When I would open up my tank at the sink to unfortunately spill out the liquid because I would have change the coil again, the cotton underneath the coil was all black. When I use the Nautilus coils they seem to last a lot longer and this is very upsetting because for those few moments that I got good flavor, the flavor was amazing.

Can someone please help me try to figure out what is wrong here? I was so excited to get back into building coils and now I had to purchase Nautilus coils. Thank you in advance.

 

[Ryedan]

A couple of questions for you. How many watts are you vaping at? Is your juice really high VG? And are you using a regulated mod?

One more thought. You should be able to turn the tank upside down and unscrew the deck from the rest without having to dump the juice. The glass sleeve should stay on the drip tip end. Hope this makes sense.

 

[EIHYPI]

A couple of questions for you. How many watts are you vaping at? Is your juice really high VG? And are you using a regulated mod?

I'm using the aegis mini at 6 watts. My juice is 50 50. I just put another build in there, a 8 wrap spaced coil (2.5mm inner diameter) but this time I didn't do the Scottish roll.

 

[SlowTalker]

Sounds like a wicking problem. Too much cotton in the coil so the juice isn't wicking fast enough to keep the coil wet after the initial prime. When you insert a wick in the coil you should be able to thread the cotton back and forth easily without the cotton fraying or any movement of the coil. Thinning out the tails will also help.

 

[EIHYPI]

Sounds like a wicking problem/ Too much cotton in the coil so the juice isn't wicking fast enough to keep the coil wet after the initial prime. When you insert a wick in the coil you should be able to thread the cotton back and forth easily without the cotton fraying or any movement of the coil. Thinning out the tails will also help.

Thank you. Should the cotton tails not be too long? Currently I've been making them so that they come a little past the wicking bottom ports so that if the tank bumps into something the cotton won't come out of place. Is that wrong?

 

[EIHYPI]

Should I be doing the Scottish roll too or not?

 

[SlowTalker]

I make the tails just long enough to touch the deck. You want the cotton to follow the direction of the wick to the coil and it can't do that if the cotton is bunched up on itself. Think of it as laying a trail for the juice to travel. Every tank has it's bugaboos. I have been an OBS Engine fan for years but when I tried wicking their MTL version it was hell getting it to work right. Try checking out some Youtube vids for your particular tank.

 

[Ryedan]

Thank you. Should the cotton tails not be too long? Currently I've been making them so that they come a little past the wicking bottom ports so that if the tank bumps into something the cotton won't come out of place. Is that wrong?

I agree with @SlowTalker, I think you've got too much cotton through the ports and it's not allowing enough juice to feed through. I use tanks with the same style ports and I find them quite forgiving, but too much is too much. So try just rewicking the coil you have now using less cotton there. It does not want to be tight there, certainly less tight than what is going through the coil.

You can cut them flush with the bottom, or long enough to hit the deck under them, it doesn't matter.

You can do the Scottish roll, it doesn't matter for this, but it may be easier not to. I used to do this a while back but these new tanks don't need it.

And 6 watts is not a problem

 

[EIHYPI]

I agree with @SlowTalker, I think you've got too much cotton through the ports and it's not allowing enough juice to feed through. I use tanks with the same style ports and I find them quite forgiving, but too much is too much. So try just rewicking the coil you have now using less cotton there. It does not want to be tight there, certainly less tight than what is going through the coil.

You can cut them flush with the bottom, or long enough to hit the deck under them, it doesn't matter.

You can do the Scottish roll, it doesn't matter for this, but it may be easier not to. I used to do this a while back but these new tanks don't need it.

And 6 watts is not a problem

Do you think I should be making a 2mm coil because there's less cotton?

 

[SlowTalker]

Should I be doing the Scottish roll too or not?

Have never tried the Scottish roll myself so I can't advise. Just remember not to over stuff your ports. Cotton expands when wet so you don't need as much in there as you think.

 

[Ryedan]

Do you think I should be making a 2mm coil because there's less cotton?

It doesn't really matter. You need to make the coil big enough in diameter so you have enough cotton to fill the wick openings, but if you have too much cotton there just cut it smaller there (thinner). We call it wick thinning. I'm going to have a look for some Youtube vids that show this, there are a lot out there. I'll post when I find one.

 

[SlowTalker]

Do you think I should be making a 2mm coil because there's less cotton?

Size of the coil doesn't matter. It's all about the amount of cotton you run through it.

 

[Ryedan]

Here's a video that shows how to comb out your wick ends. Go to minute 7:15 of the video and let it run till he's done with that. He's got a completely different type of atomizer, but this way of thinning a wick tail is really good to know. I do that to some degree whenever I feel the need to use it to make my wick smaller (thinner) and/or to help the wick move juice faster. Still going to try to find an example of how to cut the wick end thinner.

 

[smacuser]

I have a v1.5. Took a few tries to get it right. I actually use a 2.5 inner diameter tool and cut the ends so they're nice and just touching the bottom of the wells.

 

[Ryedan]

Then there's fluffing a wick. Start at time 9:20 and see what he does. Another great tool to know. A fluffed wick tail is way better at moving juice than if the fibers are compressed. Combing them achieves this too, but it also thins them.

 

[Ryedan]

OK, my GoogleFoo has failed me at finding a video showing how to trim a wick tail with scissors. I hate when that happens

Basically, once you realize that you need to thin the wick tail more than what combing it can do easily, you just make a cut at a slight angle lengthwise instead of across it like you would do if you wanted to shorten it.

Let us know how things go for you @EIHYPI, and don't hesitate to ask more questions if you need to. You've got a great tank, it just needs to be set up right

 

[EIHYPI]

I took the advice here and had success finally. No Scottish roll. 8 wrap 2.5mm spaced kanthal coil at about 1.5 ohms at 6 watts with my aegis mini. I made sure to use less cotton, enough but that it's a little snug in the coil although it could've been shifted back and forth manually. I made sure to also make the cotton tails long enough to meet the bottom of the wicking ports but not longer. I left the cotton the way that it was after I cut it in strips, mini strips meaning very narrow and didn't have to do any fancy folding like the Scottish roll. I simply put the cut cotton in the coil with the two thicker cotton sides on top and bottom and that's how I made sure to put it into the cotton ports. I think I did it right because I'm seeing bubbles and getting great flavor too! I still have to watch the videos about fluffing the cotton but I'm nervous about causing the cotton to get out of shape if this makes sense. I hope every build I do is good like this one.

 

[SlowTalker]

I still have to watch the videos about fluffing the cotton but I'm nervous about causing the cotton to get out of shape if this makes sense.

It helps when fluffing out the tail to hold onto the other tail so that you don't pull the wick clean out of the coil. Learned that one the hard way. Goal is to have the thickest part of the wick inside the coil and the rest fluffed out so it can pull juice upwards.

 

[EIHYPI]

It helps when fluffing out the tail to hold onto the other tail so that you don't pull the wick clean out of the coil. Learned that one the hard way. Goal is to have the thickest part of the wick inside the coil and the rest fluffed out so it can pull juice upwards.

Do you think I'll have overall better luck with the Innokin Ares 2?

 

[SlowTalker]

There will be something of a learning curve with every tank you try. The easiest MTL RTA I have found to date is the Dvarw.