RBA Rants/Venting

[Vego]

I'm just sorry the OP can't experience the kind of blissful, full flavored vape I'm experiencing right now on my genny with a seasoned wick just re-coiled a moment ago. It saddens me that some folks have difficulty culling the performance out of these things. I wish every vaper could experience the kind of perfect vape I get out of my genny. I almost feel guilty that I settled in with the genny so seemlessly. Sure, I've experienced the common problems, but I've been able to work them out quite successfully and reap the benefits.

 

[StaircaseWit]

I think part of the problem is there are 10, 000 videos on YouTube showing people getting nearly-instant perfect results. In reality, most of those people have built a lot of wick and coil setups to become that proficient. But it leads people to expect their results to be similarly easy, and they consequently think their two-minute first-try setups are how a well set up gennie vapes. It's not in the majority of cases. Usually it's only after quite a few wick and coil setups that you get there.

They don't suck when properly set up, but I still end up using my igo-l more than my gennies.

 

[Statistic]

I sincerely hope that you have the "ah ha! moment", that so many of us have experienced. I can't tell you how many people have posted here saying, "I did everything that everyone suggested and it still doesn't work, then all of a sudden, I realized what I was doing wrong, and low and behold, they warned me of that over and over".

I hope that you have success. Good luck brother.

Well I did as I said I would and followed your blog post to the letter.

Dude.. seriously..

I. Am. Speechless.

Thank you for the specific arrangement of words you compiled into two purposely separate posts.

For one.. I just rolled the best wick so far, out of about 12. I've tried rolling a hollow wick but the solid ones I've rolled were never like this. I wasn't taking care to get the center as solid as it could be. Before I was having trouble fitting 2" into this wick hole, this time a 3" strip was the perfect size, that really surprised me. Rolling from the middle outward as though you're trying to stretch the wick made perfect sense.

I had been wrapping my coil either too tight on the wick or leaving it too loose wrapping it around a drill bit that was slightly too big. Something about the way you said not too tight, not too loose just hit home. Insisting that one annihilate hot spots before going to the next step was helpful, not be afraid to poke and prod the coil into shape and do this all at very low power.. I realized I had been jumping the gun. Even when I had wrapped a decent coil I was slipping on QC.

THEN.. this was a big one for me.. suggesting that after obliterating hot spots one remove the wick, test resistance, put it back in and test again.. I thought this would be akin to wiping the slate, starting over with hotspots all over the place, not so. Yeah I had to tweak it once I got the wick back in but it was very close right off. I realized the coil is more durable than it appears and I'm using 32g lol

I hadn't planned on filling this tank. I was gonna just drip onto the wick for a while and see how the coil goes. However things had gone so well to this point when you said fill the tank I filled the tank. The test fire before capping produced a thicker stream of vapor than I have seen at such low voltage.

So I crossed my fingers and put a lid on it, and a drip tip. Lined up the air hole. Puffed.. and puffed.. I think I might blow my own house down!

Nirvana.

I've been wanting to be glad I bought this AGA-T+ for a week. It is now the best vape in my house. Wicking great with all the screws in place. Excelent flavor, excellent vapor, absolutely no metallic taste.

32g wrapped 5/4 at 1.9 ohms. vaping at only 3.2v - 3.4v but still performance is better than any tank I've used so far (vision clearo, vivi nova and u-dct dual and single coil)


Ok I'll stop typing now. Thank you for that blog post.

 

[eHuman]

I seriously love it reading about when someone has that aga-t AH HA moment. One more person understands my passion.

If at any time your set up starts to taste harsh, either empty your tank, or tilt the pv horizontal with wick up, burn the juice off the wick and find/eliminate the hot spot. I use 30g for vv pvs and 28g for mechanicals. I don't use 32 any more but it works out fine, I just find the coil needs replacing sooner than with thicker gauge wire. My wife's aga-t has been set up for over a month without a new coil, but every once in a while she will nudge it wrong while filling the tank so it needs some TLC to bring it back in line.

 

[eHuman]

I am not sure when this turned into a discussion about honesty or preference. I can list off 100 reasons why RBAs suck but I am not trying to prove that point as I've already made it clear that when i say "they suck" is an opinion and not meant to be taken as a fact. While this may be an interesting conversation about semantics I would rather discuss another interesting point. What exactly do you feel is the promise of a genesis tank? Perhaps the problem is my expectation is far exceeding the reality of what the genesis can provide?

You will be my hero if you can help me figure out what exactly it is I am doing wrong.

Maybe my problem is that I just don't know what your expectations with it are. Maybe the aga-t in all it's glory just isn't what you are looking for. That may be a valid preference. But check out Statistics post above and see if it doesn't ring as promising. I would hate for you to toss or sell your aga-t before finding perfection with it.

Preference wise, I never used to take my aga-t out in public because of leaking and pocket friendly issues. Now I don't have that problem with them and it goes where I do unless I happen to be digging on one of my igo-ls. But at least now I have a choice in it, I'm not slave to it's poor performance.

 

[BentWookie]

Maybe my problem is that I just don't know what your expectations with it are. Maybe the aga-t in all it's glory just isn't what you are looking for. That may be a valid preference. But check out Statistics post above and see if it doesn't ring as promising. I would hate for you to toss or sell your aga-t before finding perfection with it.

Preference wise, I never used to take my aga-t out in public because of leaking and pocket friendly issues. Now I don't have that problem with them and it goes where I do unless I happen to be digging on one of my igo-ls. But at least now I have a choice in it, I'm not slave to it's poor performance.

I have a variety of RBAs coming in the mail. Maybe it's just this particular RBA that I'm having trouble with. I've been at it non stop now for the pas 10 hours. Every time my wick and wire were great. Nice even glow on the coils. I tried your solid wick instructions in your blog, i tried the paper clip method, small fold method and the vape just was not great. I did find though that once I backed out my wattage between 6-7 watts it was better but the vape was really cool. I think I am done rebuilding the wick/coil on this unit but I will keep using it to see if it's a "break in" issue of the wick.

I will try some more too when I get my other gennies in the mail.

What I'm currently using.
Genesis Style Rebuildable Electronic Cigarette Atomizer

Anyone have any experience w/ that one?

 

[Telescope Neil]

Break-in is the key if you believe you have a good coil and wick. Freshly built gennies do suck at flavors, but when it breaks in, it's vape heaven.

 

[CountSmackula]

That's a did clone. They have pretty small wick holes, so the wick needs some time to season before the flavor comes alive. IMO anyway. They aren't "big" vapor producers in stock form (big defined as massive plumes of vapor).

 

[NancyR]

ok I love my aga-t and my iHybrid, and can set both up without issue, and I had a did clone, it was the worst thing I ever tried to set up. If I hadn't already been using other gennys before getting one I might not have ever tried another genny.

 

[Uma]

I agree, those did clones suffer. (and, to be fair to the real DID, they are not "clones", they are only attempts at cloning. The DID was the first genesis China tried to clone, but they didn't use calibers or anything of importance).
The DID clones have (or did have in the past) super weak insulators, too large of center positive post hole which makes it wobble, tiny screws that barely screw into the hole to tighten the negative wire, too small of wick hole, non-aligned air hole, ..... and on and on. They may have improved a little over the months, I don't know.
I bought one months ago, to see what all the fuss was about. It sucked big time. But it's great for practicing drilling on before drilling out a more expensive genesis wickhole or airhole. So, don't despair.
Some vapers actually really like them. (they're bonkers I tell ya, pure bonkers).
Like the poster above me, if I had of started with one of these, I never would have bothered to try another. Fortunately, I was already happily vaping a better genesis.
I feel for you.
But, today there are better clones out there, such as the AGA-T+ (with it's quirks that are workable), and the RSST. They perform nicely and are of okay material. They're nothing like the real thing, the genuine articles, but at least they're workable and enjoyable.
Good luck to you.

 

[michaelsil1]

I agree, those did clones suffer. (and, to be fair to the real DID, they are not "clones", they are only attempts at cloning. The DID was the first genesis China tried to clone, but they didn't use calibers or anything of importance).
The DID clones have (or did have in the past) super weak insulators, too large of center positive post hole which makes it wobble, tiny screws that barely screw into the hole to tighten the negative wire, too small of wick hole, non-aligned air hole, ..... and on and on. They may have improved a little over the months, I don't know.
I bought one months ago, to see what all the fuss was about. It sucked big time. But it's great for practicing drilling on before drilling out a more expensive genesis wickhole or airhole. So, don't despair.
Some vapers actually really like them. (they're bonkers I tell ya, pure bonkers).
Like the poster above me, if I had of started with one of these, I never would have bothered to try another. Fortunately, I was already happily vaping a better genesis.
I feel for you.
But, today there are better clones out there, such as the AGA-T+ (with it's quirks that are workable), and the RSST. They perform nicely and are of okay material. They're nothing like the real thing, the genuine articles, but at least they're workable and enjoyable.
Good luck to you.

If you haven't tried a Genesis then the Chinese knockoffs are a plus (IMO) it allowed me to try it without spending a lot of money. Most off the originals are all sold out and fairly expensive.

 

[Railrust]

I agree, those did clones suffer. (and, to be fair to the real DID, they are not "clones", they are only attempts at cloning. The DID was the first genesis China tried to clone, but they didn't use calibers or anything of importance).
The DID clones have (or did have in the past) super weak insulators, too large of center positive post hole which makes it wobble, tiny screws that barely screw into the hole to tighten the negative wire, too small of wick hole, non-aligned air hole, ..... and on and on. They may have improved a little over the months, I don't know.
I bought one months ago, to see what all the fuss was about. It sucked big time. But it's great for practicing drilling on before drilling out a more expensive genesis wickhole or airhole. So, don't despair.
Some vapers actually really like them. (they're bonkers I tell ya, pure bonkers).
Like the poster above me, if I had of started with one of these, I never would have bothered to try another. Fortunately, I was already happily vaping a better genesis.
I feel for you.
But, today there are better clones out there, such as the AGA-T+ (with it's quirks that are workable), and the RSST. They perform nicely and are of okay material. They're nothing like the real thing, the genuine articles, but at least they're workable and enjoyable.
Good luck to you.

I agree the clones lack. I will say that the more you mess with them the better you get thus the better they produce. I have an AGA t and got it working great. The RSST works as well as my real AC9. Just have to get use to coiling and fixing the coil if it gets a hot spot. I have wrapped just a few coils that I didnt have to prod a hot spot out of it. I have all 4 of my real and clones working well....I will say that the ribbon wire has decreased the hot spots a lot.

 

[NancyR]

If you haven't tried a Genesis then the Chinese knockoffs are a plus (IMO) it allowed me to try it without spending a lot of money. Most off the originals are all sold out and fairly expensive.

I agree, but lets face it not all clones are created equal, some are pos and some are very good attys. The aga-t is china made, easy to get and works as well as many of the high end stuff. The DiD clone on the other hand IMO is a major fail.

 

[michaelsil1]

I agree, but lets face it not all clones are created equal, some are pos and some are very good attys. The aga-t is china made, easy to get and works as well as many of the high end stuff. The DiD clone on the other hand IMO is a major fail.

Luckily I had this community to help with my choice!

 

[Telescope Neil]

the did clone was pretty finicky to build, had a really bad time making a good wick. I just stopped trying and made a worse than bad wick for it and kept doing the genny tilt. After 2 days of use I was really happy with it but my arms always get sore and tired. went for the aga-t2 and couldn't be happier.

 

[seahawkin]

Don't know I was of the same opinion, muted flavor, not travel friendly and a pain in the .... Got a ZAP and it all changed, they are real forgiving, so I got an idea what it was supposed to be like and got my cobra singing. I don't mind a the tweaking if the juice is worth the squeeze, but because of the travel thing I only carry one and can't see myself buying more.

I carry ibetanked, some vivis and a kanger so I can change out the flavors. But my fave juices (Sin City & White Rabbit), sit in the RBAs.

 

[CountSmackula]

I agree, those did clones suffer. (and, to be fair to the real DID, they are not "clones", they are only attempts at cloning. The DID was the first genesis China tried to clone, but they didn't use calibers or anything of importance).
The DID clones have (or did have in the past) super weak insulators, too large of center positive post hole which makes it wobble, tiny screws that barely screw into the hole to tighten the negative wire, too small of wick hole, non-aligned air hole, ..... and on and on. They may have improved a little over the months, I don't know.
I bought one months ago, to see what all the fuss was about. It sucked big time. But it's great for practicing drilling on before drilling out a more expensive genesis wickhole or airhole. So, don't despair.
Some vapers actually really like them. (they're bonkers I tell ya, pure bonkers).
Like the poster above me, if I had of started with one of these, I never would have bothered to try another. Fortunately, I was already happily vaping a better genesis.
I feel for you.
But, today there are better clones out there, such as the AGA-T+ (with it's quirks that are workable), and the RSST. They perform nicely and are of okay material. They're nothing like the real thing, the genuine articles, but at least they're workable and enjoyable.
Good luck to you.

I must be pure bonkers then. I started with the Chid. Once I had it mastered, I've been able to roll & wick any other genny since. I use them pretty much daily on my Twists: #400 mesh, wrapped w/ 32ga kanthal @ ~2Ω.

 

[jamesfarrell]

I've got 5 AGA T+ RBA's working flawlessly, and if you know me, I was ready to strangle somebody when I started out. The worse part for me is rolling the wick. I can not do 1.5 x 3"

Impossible for me. So I do a smaller one, with cigarette paper method, 28G wire, 4 wraps, done.

 

[jamesd1628]

I have been using gennies for about a year and a half, beginning in the fall of 2011. Once you figure out how to build them, they work really well. I have been able to get all of them (DiD clones, AGA-Ts, real DiDs, GTUS, etc.) working perfectly. Great flavor, great TH, etc.

However, they do have a high fiddle-factor, even after you've figured out how to get them set up. It doesn't take much to throw one off, so that you have to take it apart and fix it. There is pretty much daily fiddling, adjusting, etc. I didn't really consciously notice this until that "mesh will kill you" thread that came out a couple of months ago. At that point, I started looking at other options, at which point I discovered cotton. Since then, I've been using cotton in drippers (mostly) and now have a Spheroid and an A7-oid (it also works well in tanks like the AGA, but with somewhat less flavor).

The cotton (or silica/hemp/etc.) provides many advantages. Setup is super-easy compared to a genny. There is no fiddling whatsoever. Performance is on par with gennies (flavor, TH, vapor, etc.) and even better in some cases. The drawback is that a cotton wick only lasts a couple of days. However, replacing it is very fast an easy - maybe 3-4 minutes, and that includes buring the coil clean. Pull out the old wick, burn the coil (been using same coil for weeks), insert new wick. Easy as pie, and you have basically a brand new setup. I spend a fraction of the time setting up and using cotton wicks compared to gennies. Also, the Spheroid and A7-oid never leak. Gennies can be set up with limited leaking, but it's hard to get them totally leak-free and - again - you have to constantly fiddle with them to maintain that status.

Now, does all this mean that I hate gennies or will will never use them again? Obviously not, but for ease of use and convenience, I'm definitely gravitating toward the cotton (silica/hemp/etc.) devices.

 

[pdib]

I have been using gennies for about a year and a half, beginning in the fall of 2011. Once you figure out how to build them, they work really well. I have been able to get all of them (DiD clones, AGA-Ts, real DiDs, GTUS, etc.) working perfectly. Great flavor, great TH, etc.

However, they do have a high fiddle-factor, even after you've figured out how to get them set up. It doesn't take much to throw one off, so that you have to take it apart and fix it. There is pretty much daily fiddling, adjusting, etc. I didn't really consciously notice this until that "mesh will kill you" thread that came out a couple of months ago. At that point, I started looking at other options, at which point I discovered cotton. Since then, I've been using cotton in drippers (mostly) and now have a Spheroid and an A7-oid (it also works well in tanks like the AGA, but with somewhat less flavor).

The cotton (or silica/hemp/etc.) provides many advantages. Setup is super-easy compared to a genny. There is no fiddling whatsoever. Performance is on par with gennies (flavor, TH, vapor, etc.) and even better in some cases. The drawback is that a cotton wick only lasts a couple of days. However, replacing it is very fast an easy - maybe 3-4 minutes, and that includes buring the coil clean. Pull out the old wick, burn the coil (been using same coil for weeks), insert new wick. Easy as pie, and you have basically a brand new setup. I spend a fraction of the time setting up and using cotton wicks compared to gennies. Also, the Spheroid and A7-oid never leak. Gennies can be set up with limited leaking, but it's hard to get them totally leak-free and - again - you have to constantly fiddle with them to maintain that status.

Now, does all this mean that I hate gennies or will will never use them again? Obviously not, but for ease of use and convenience, I'm definitely gravitating toward the cotton (silica/hemp/etc.) devices.

▲ me too! ▲ I had pretty much gotten to where I use cotton in everything, including gennys. This week I've been playing with Nextel XC-116 braided ceramic rope, and this stuff is great! In any case, I had become proficient with ss mesh wicks; but found some flaws in the design/materials. Primarily the way the juice loses flavor as it sits in the tank and is heated by the wick. All my setups have an absolute minimum of wick in or beneath the wick hole, and I avail myself of the fact that I always tilt some when enjoying a vape. So my "wick" is gravity (instead of fighting it), and my atomizer/coil filler material is cotton/ceramic braided rope, and my juice tastes fresh like it was just dripped throughout the whole tank.