My review of the Kamry X6 tank in Alpha.
This is after a day of testing this tank. I have not evaluated this for long term leakage, but I will post if I notice any.
Construction.
The tank feels solid and well machined. As noted on the GotVapes site, the tank is not removeable. The upside of this is that the plastic shell shouldn't leak at the metal threading. There are a few downsides, and this will come up in a minute.
The stainless steel has a nice sheen to it and a nice heft. It feels quality. The threading on the top cap is smooth and well machined. The top has an o-ring on the outside, the function of which is a total mystery to me. The bottom of the tank is flat, like a Vapeonly BCC, with no air channels built in. So if you have a mod that does not have is own air channels, you will have zero airflow without an adapter. I tested this on an eVic, so I did not experience this issue.
The included drip tip has a few problems. In contrast to the quality of the tank, the tip is cheap. It has a sharp edge on the inside that bugs me when I vape. It came installed, but when I removed it and reinserted it, it didn't fit. The o-ring is too big to fit easily. The top cap shaves off rubber every time you put it in. Thank goodness regular 510 tips fit securely.
Now lets talk about the atomizer.
There are two 2mm wicks that run through the coil. Each of the 4 ends goes down through individual holes drilled in the top of the tank. This design, while seeming promising has a few drawbacks:
1. The atomizer head screws in securely, but then you have to feed each wick through each hole, which is impossible as the wick unravels when you try. (I finally figured out you have to moisten the tip of each wick to be able to hold it together to do this.)
2. The holes are larger than the wick diameter. When laying on its side, this allowed juice to leak out the bottom two holes and air to flow in the top two. It doesn't happen fast, but it does in time. No matter which way I laid it, the 4 holes eventually allowed this leakage into the upper chamber. The top cap seals kept it from leaking out all over the place however. Flooding when on its side can be prevented simply by keeping it straight up when not in use, and minimizing the time on its side. At least floods with this rig are not messy.
The coils in all three of my heads are poorly wound, as you can see in the pictures. They have serious hotspot issues on the legs, and are loosely and irregularly wound. I haven't tried rewinding them yet, but the head design seems similar to a vivi nova, so it might be fairly easy. I don't feel I should have to rewind pre built heads to get an acceptable vape, though.
Above you can see the hotspots and the glow coming from UNDER the wick and coil.
Using the X6
Airflow is nicely airy on the draw, as long as you have a mod that allows air in the bottom as mentioned before.
The flavor was muted, and replaced with an acrid burning taste. This is due to both the coils firing improperly with the aforementioned hot legs under the coil, and the fact that even with 4 wicks in the juice, the system so far seems unable to wick efficiently enough to vape with my normal vaping practices. Perhaps after a longer break in time this will improve.
[UPDATE: after spending some time fiddling with one of the stock coils, poking prodding and adjusting, I now have one firing properly, and the vape is now QUITE GOOD! The adjustment has also somehow allowed the system to wick properly, and it can now keep up even when I chain vape. This is splendid. Too bad it didn't come like this.]
Filling the tank is a syringe-only affair. The first drawback of the one-piece design. Using an 18 gauge needle is simple enough, however.
Cleaning is another issue altogether. Another drawback of the one piece design. You have to take the wicks and atomizer head off to clean the wicks, which of course are a pain to put back in. You can only clean the tank by flooding it over and over with water, and you can only air dry it. Not fun.
The last drawback of the one piece tank is if the plastic tank cracks, you have to replace the entire unit. Bummer.
In conclusion, by making the tank removable, by building the atomizer coil better, and by including a higher quality drip tip, this would be a nice rig. It looks great, and the build quality is otherwise high.
Thanks GotVapes for the chance to test this rig, and the opportunity your Alpha program offers!
I'd love to see a standard-length version, I'd order 5-10 immediately. (The existing ones swap in place of 'xl' cartos but only some of my gear is xl.)
