Rebuilding Evod/Protank coils, need help!

[bdpf]

So Yesterday, I tried for the first time rebuilding my Evod heads.
As you can imagine, I read quite a bit about it, watched some videos on youtube, etc, etc...

I am using 3mm silica, 32 awg kanthal. I'm doing 4 wraps and the coil come to about 2 ohms.

I have no idea what I am doing wrong but I get this nasty, and by that I mean as nasty as can be, burned rubber taste, it's just plain awful (my stomach is becoming sick just thinking about it)!

I have tried 5 builds on 3 different heads and get the same result every time. And it's not the silica because on my last 2 builds, I tried dry burning it before putting liquid and even then I can smell the burned rubber already.

What am I doing wrong? Please help.

Thanks.

 

[Alter]

My best guess is that the 3mm ekowool is too big for protank builds. You have too much wicking and prolly too short of coil legs and the legs are heating up and burning the insulator and or once the top stem is inplace the wire might be too close to the stem and going to get a metallic hotspot taste.
I use 2mm hollow, slide a pin through the hollow and 5-6 wraps gives me 1.9-2.4 ohms. I bought some 2.5 hollow and IMO thats too fat for my protank builds so I can imagine the 3mm is the same way. Incase you didn't know the 3mm is the inside diameter of the hollow not the outside diameter of the wool. I wrap the coil just tight enough that you have to wiggle the wraps to move them.
Be sure of your supplier cause there is chinese knockoff wool out there and its nasty crappy with all kinds of tastes, the real stuff is from Russia.

I misread your post , I thought I saw ekowool but it could still be the same problem with the 3mm silica

 

[bdpf]

Thanks.

After reading your post, I removed the silica from the coil. When I do a dry burn of the coil alone, I see smoke coming from the insulator and the smell is here. Does this mean that the wick being 3mm is not the problem and the problem is somewhere else with my build?

 

[retired1]

I know some who get good results with 3mm wicks on Protank rebuilds. I use 2mm wick with a 1mm flavor wick. Works great.

I suspect you may be setting your coil too low inside the head. Try raising it up a bit. I use a paper clip to wrap my coils, and don't remove the paper clip from the coil until the insulator and plug are inserted into the bottom of the head. The paper clip acts as a "stop" so to speak that prevents the coil from being placed too low inside the head.

 

[SupplyDaddy]

When you put the coil on the head, I suggest you stick a sewing pin or needle through your coil (with and along your wick) so that the coil is forced to stay at one spot.
More than likely when you secure the legs, you're pulling one side or both down too far and too close to the insulator. Remove the needle/pin once you have the legs secured and you should be good to go!

 

[bdpf]

If the insulator has been a bit burnt, is the head pretty much useless?
I used the same head, made sure that the coil is not sitting low and I got the same result.

 

[Talyon]

Pretty sure u well need to replace the insulator, once burnt always burnt, I my limited exp.

 

[SupplyDaddy]

If the insulator has been a bit burnt, is the head pretty much useless?
I used the same head, made sure that the coil is not sitting low and I got the same result.

Yea, the taste /smell of that is going to stay. This is where having many of these low cost coils comes in handy..

 

[vdaedalus]

You could try soaking the insulator in vinegar or similar, but yeah, it's probably a goner.

My recommendation would be to try building microcoils in your EVOD/Protank heads and using cotton for the wick. I actually find micros easier to build as you wrap around something solid like a drill bit, rather than a piece of wick with maybe a needle to keep it stiff. Plus they're easier to seat properly in that tight protank head. MOST importantly, the heat starts in the middle of the coil and takes a second to spread to the edges of the coil; your leads stay cooler, barely any heat at the insulator at all.

There's a fairly active thread on the subject here.

I use 30AWG, 7-8 wraps around a 1/16" drill bit, as tight as you can. Compress with tweezers and torch, put the drill bit back through to hold it steady while I get the legs over/through the insulator and put the post in. They come out between 1.4 and 1.6 ohms, which is versatile if you use VV/VW devices and eGos. Then I pop some cotton into the coil (no top wick), let it get nice and wet, and fire away. Depending on the juice, I get anywhere from 2-7 days out of a wick, and changing them is easy: slide out the old one, dry burn your coil, rinse off the burnt stuff, and put new cotton in. Good as new. You can use the coil itself over and over and over and over.

I'm going to experiment with 28-gauge as soon as I get some.

 

[danny4x4]

Burnt rubbery smell/taste likely caused by grommet where the legs are, getting burnt.

Possible solutions-

1) coil may be too close grommet. Use a pin when coiling and mounting the coil. Ensure pin is at the bottom, facing the grommet when mounting. This lifts your coil up higher by a little bit.

2) use nr wires for legs. I've never tried it and don't plan to as it's too much of a hassle for me.

3) twist/fold your legs to lower resistance at the legs. I haven't tried it and as I don't have the problem with hot legs.

4) MICROCOIL! With micro coils, the legs do not get red hot. Yes, the legs can still get hot and burn your grommet, but the likelihood is lower. With a proper microcoil, it should never get red hot.

Solution 2 ensures that you'll never get hot legs and burnt rubber, but it's a hassle. It may have it's own issues like the nr and r wires breaking easily or other issues. I don't know as I've never done it.

Solution 4 is what works for me. Coil once, and use for a long long time. I just dry burn and rewick with cotton when the vape is not up to par. I've been using the same coils on my kanger mt3 for about 2 months.


How to get rid of the rubbery taste/smell from the burnt grommet?

1) soak in warm water overnight?
2) soak in alcohol overnight?
3) trash them? Lol.

You can get the grommets from kidney puncher (sold as insulator for aga t I think), or lightning vape.

Happy coiling and experimenting!

 

[Alter]

I know some who get good results with 3mm wicks on Protank rebuilds. I use 2mm wick with a 1mm flavor wick. Works great.

I suspect you may be setting your coil too low inside the head. Try raising it up a bit. I use a paper clip to wrap my coils, and don't remove the paper clip from the coil until the insulator and plug are inserted into the bottom of the head. The paper clip acts as a "stop" so to speak that prevents the coil from being placed too low inside the head.

I do agree that you might have the coil too low in the head and not enough leg space thus burning the insulator. You can mildly sand(320 or 400 grit) the insulator to help remove the blackness, put the insulator on a nail and go at it. I also read that you can cut the top flange of the insulator and that could help, I've tried cutting the top flange but I might have cut too much and it leaked some. Someone in the classifieds is selling PT insulators if you wish to go that route. I have those greyish insulators from a different source and they are mighty nice. Sliding a pin through the wick(silica, ekowool, cotton and hemp) as your installing the coil is almost mandatory and gives you control of the height. The best height for a coil is when looking from the side you see 3/4 above and 1/4 below the line of sight.
I also see in videos that they bend the legs at the bottom before installing the insulator and pin just anywhere and I see problems with just having the legs stick out and bent just anywhere. I have the legs in a east/west, parallel with the wick.
Another thing I've come across when building the PT heads is that when you put the insulator and positive pin back inplace, you do push the last wrap up especially with microcoils enough to produce a hotspot and/or metallic taste. Before you clip off the excess wire, gently pull on the legs from the bottom to settle the last wraps back into place and look to see if the coil wraps are straight across.
When I dryburn ekowool or silica, the smell is most important cause if the coil smells burn't and still smells burnt after a dryburn clean then chances are the coil is toast, remove the silica and put a twisted piece of cotton qtip swab into the coil still inside the head, prime and chances are you be goin to shoppers drug mart to buy some cotton balls and be usin the silica for a flavor wick. With cotton and most other wicking materials the flavor wick prevents juice from splattering up the mouthpiece more than plugging up the gap the stock coils have so I have 1.5 mm silica onhand just for that propose.
Last but MOST IMPORTANT is to go to staples and buy yourself a clamp on magnifying lamp, they are bout 40 bucks but IMO a invaluable asset for my old aged eyes. I don't see how anybody can DIY or rebuild a coil without somesorta magnification and good lighting.

 

[bdpf]

Thank you all for the input.

The placement of my coils doesn't seem low, if anything, I'd say a bit high.
I tried inserting a needle underneath the coil when putting it in place, and removed it once the pin was inserted. The coil seemed very high. I still tried it and same taste.
If using a pin as mentioned above, I don't see how when looking through the side I can have 1/4 below since the pin will not let anything be below.

I also tried what I've seen in a video, wrapping 5 times around a tooth pick and removing the tooth pick at the end when everything is in place, and then wicking with cotton. Same thing.

I'll think I'll give up on recoiling the Evods for now. I mean, I've done over 20 builds and always have this nasty burned rubber taste, no matter what I do.
I'd love to try micro coils but unfortunately, I only have 32 awg at the moment.

Edit: Oh, and on a side note, I forgot to mention that yesterday I also rebuilt my first Vivi nova (actually even before trying the Evod) and no problem, worked on the first try, go figure...

 

[bdpf]

Quick update.
I thought tyhe build that I had done for the Vivi was fine but it turned out that I was using a strong flavor juice (Karamel Bacco) that was masking the taste. Once I put in a more subtle juice, I get the same burned rubber taste as I get from the Evods.

 

[retired1]

Last but MOST IMPORTANT is to go to staples and buy yourself a clamp on magnifying lamp, they are bout 40 bucks but IMO a invaluable asset for my old aged eyes. I don't see how anybody can DIY or rebuild a coil without somesorta magnification and good lighting.

Amen! I tend to let the heads stack up until I'm desperate for a fresh one. Rebuilding 18 of those little buggers at a whack does a number on my eyesight AND back.

 

[Glenn_K]

Amen! I tend to let the heads stack up until I'm desperate for a fresh one. Rebuilding 18 of those little buggers at a whack does a number on my eyesight AND back.

Amen + 1! I just can't seem to rebuild PT heads using my eyeballs as is. I saw a coil rebuild video where the presenter recommended some sort of jewelers magnification device (not a loup) that is head mounted, and can be lowered in front of the eyes.

Regards
Glenn

 

[Alter]

Here's a link to the lamp I bought from Staples in Cranbrook. Magnifying Lamp... It works like a hot dam

 

[runout_mick]

Burnt rubbery smell/taste likely caused by grommet where the legs are, getting burnt.

Possible solutions-

1) coil may be too close grommet. Use a pin when coiling and mounting the coil. Ensure pin is at the bottom, facing the grommet when mounting. This lifts your coil up higher by a little bit.

2) use nr wires for legs. I've never tried it and don't plan to as it's too much of a hassle for me.

3) twist/fold your legs to lower resistance at the legs. I haven't tried it and as I don't have the problem with hot legs.

4) MICROCOIL! With micro coils, the legs do not get red hot. Yes, the legs can still get hot and burn your grommet, but the likelihood is lower. With a proper microcoil, it should never get red hot.

Solution 2 ensures that you'll never get hot legs and burnt rubber, but it's a hassle. It may have it's own issues like the nr and r wires breaking easily or other issues. I don't know as I've never done it.

Solution 4 is what works for me. Coil once, and use for a long long time. I just dry burn and rewick with cotton when the vape is not up to par. I've been using the same coils on my kanger mt3 for about 2 months.


How to get rid of the rubbery taste/smell from the burnt grommet?

1) soak in warm water overnight?
2) soak in alcohol overnight?
3) trash them? Lol.

You can get the grommets from kidney puncher (sold as insulator for aga t I think), or lightning vape.

Happy coiling and experimenting!

Listen to Danny. Danny knows.

bdpf: It sounds like you're a high heat vaper. Your legs are getting hot and scorching the grommet, so you need to find a way to cool them down. The easiest way is to fold the legs in half and twist them together to halve their resistance. That's a pretty good solution. The best way is to twist nr wire the entire length of the leg.

I use the nr method. I have a set length that I cut my pre-burnt nichrome at, and then I twist my nr (solid silver) wire onto my legs BEFORE I coil the nichrome. I make sure that the length of resistance wire between where the nr ends is always the same, this way my resistance is pre-set.

After that, it's simple to coil it onto the smooth shank of a drill bit and then thread my wick into it.

Perfect, consistent, cold-legged rebuilds every time.

It sounds like a lot of work, but once you get your system down you'll never go back to a hot-leg setup again. Even on my genisis I use a cold leg on the bottom terminal. The trick in any coil is to try and minimize resistance wire that is open to the air, uncooled by juice.

Good luck!

Edit: I also had no idea what a microcoil was, so I looked it up. Turns out that I do that too.

 

[vdaedalus]

Edit: I also had no idea what a microcoil was, so I looked it up. Turns out that I do that too.

I'm surprised you need to use no-res for the legs with micros. When I have my coils touching, the legs never get hot. They might after say, a ten-second burn, but I haven't had a single grommet scorch since I started recoiling. I vape anywhere between 7.5 and 11W on Protanks, depending on the juice. Higher than 11W and I find the juice just can't get to the coil fast enough.

 

[timshead]

Use one of the clearer grommets that look like silicone. The rubber ones burn like crazy. Trust me, this will solve your problem.

 

[retired1]

Moved to Clearomizers