Rebuilding the upgraded Kanger dual coil heads

[tchavei]

Hi all.

First, I wasn't sure where I should post this so moderators are free to move this topic to where they feel more appropriate ( the Garbage section is also accepted )

Second, I only started this because I got a new Aerotank mini today and I made a mistake of trying a new e-liquid with it (blueberry). As it happens, I didn't identified "blueberry" with the portuguese counterpart and didn't realise I HATE blueberry... I mean, I really really find it horrible to the point wanting to throw up just with the smell with it... LOL... ok... sorry... anyway, as you can imagine, I had to dismantle the whole tank and wash and clean everything to get rid of that horrible taste. The new upgraded dual coil head was about to be thrown because I knew it couldn't be rebuilt like the old ones and it would be impossible to wash it out so, while I was about to throw away that new style dual coil head, I started to look at it and as the seconds went by, an idea formed...

I removed the silicon o-rings on top and bottom, removed the lower pin and base silicone grommet, pulled the old coils with a pair of tweezers trough the bottom, inverted the head and put it in on a vice, sticked a 2mm drill bit inside and hit it gently with the back of a screwdriver... "ping" it made and the chimney was out without a scratch ... next I pulled off the metal jacket and voilá... its fully dissassembled without damage (except the coils of course)


I reassembled the structure twice to check it was doable and it is. There is only one bad thing to it... after a rebuild, you can't service the coil or wicks... you have to use it like it was stock... once its dead, then you can dissassemble it over and over again but you will destroy the existing coil every time because you have to pop that chimney out from the bottom (if you try to wiggle it out, it will break off).


You could use the head as is without that metal jacket/collar and in that case it would be perfectly servicable HOWEVER... you will miss that top thick silicon seal that comes with the old syle ones... so a) you rebuild it like an old style and reuse a top silicone grommet from another head (or manage to find silicone grommets somewhere online) or b) you rebuild it exactly as original and use it as long as you can... when you want to change, just repeat the process I described before whil sacrificing the old (hopefully bad and worn out?) coil...


Hope this will help the comunity in making more recoils with this new style head.

I'm making a 28 gauge (0.3mm) coil with 7/6 turns on a 2.5mm precision screwdriver right now. Will try to rebuild that head like stock (except for the duals... I prefer single coil... its easier to make, needs somehow less power and doesn't go through the juice as quick)

I will report back on how the rebuild went. Wish me luck.

I'll post step by step picture if the project is a sucess.

Best Regards
Tony

 

[tchavei]

Small Update: finished the rebuild and... its working!! Well sort of... I have some gurgling so probably not enough wicking material (using ekowool). As one has to shave the threads coming out so that the metal jacket can fit, I believe that next time I shouldn't cut them but roll them up inside adding pressure and density stopping that gurgling. For now it works but not happy... I guess I need to experiment more. Maybe someone else will also jump on the band wagon and figure out a better wicking method now that we know how relatively easy it is to dissassemble the head (killing the coil in the process of course).

Regards
Tony

 

[tchavei]

update 2: Its possible to remove the chimney without destroying the coil... at least once it was opened before. Don't know if it would work on a new head... put the head in a old 510 adapter and put the adapter in a vice. With some tweezers or small grips, pull off the chimney strait up, no wiggling or it will break... it will come off with a "pop" and you have access to the wicks and coil.

Still fighting with correct wicking... it still gurgles... oh well...

 

[asvaldr]

update 2: Its possible to remove the chimney without destroying the coil... at least once it was opened before. Don't know if it would work on a new head... put the head in a old 510 adapter and put the adapter in a vice. With some tweezers or small grips, pull off the chimney strait up, no wiggling or it will break... it will come off with a "pop" and you have access to the wicks and coil.

Still fighting with correct wicking... it still gurgles... oh well...

Can you post a picture? I wanna see the upgraded head cause i think i never saw one yet

 

[tchavei]

Right now I can't but here's one from google:

Its the same head as the old one but Kanger replaced the top silicone grommet with that metal jacket... makes it harder to rebuild at home, probably is cheaper than that silicone cap and needs less wick somehow. Its a win-win situation for the company... not so for us.. the old heads will dissappear sooner or later so we better find out how to efectively rebuild these ones or we will be depend on their offerings.

In the meanwhile I got another idea but too tired to try it out now (its 2 am here): modify the metal jacket but opening the two holes a bit and cut them out in a C-shape so the jacket efectively does the same job as the previous silicon cap leaving and compressing the wick a little... it would only require to be done once for each head and you could use the jacket in new heads if the one somehow becomes worn out... it should be a hybrid head because the material would be from the new type but the wicking style would be from the older one... don't know. I rewicked the head 3 times already and eventhough I used massive wicking, it still gurgles even with almost no draw... I think the problem must be somewhere else. Looking at the original dual coils, there isn't almost any wicking material used but the original one doesn't flood... maybe the problem is that I'm putting a strand below the coil but it isn't a problem in the old style head where I'm doing the exact same thing... bummer.

Regards
Tony

 

[Unforeseen]

Moved to Assorted PV Topics - Clearomizers

 

[Jason Voorhees]

Awesome posts.
I tried this the other day (before I found this thread) but couldn't get the chimney off.
Of course I wrecked the coil and thought I just had a useless piece of junk left.
Cheers for working out the solution.
Will have another go when I have the time.

 

[jafmf95]

So I've been rebuilding these heads for a while now and I've come up with two excellent builds that don't leak or gurgle.

First, getting the chimney off. If you are using authentic Kanger heads, just put the head in an Evod/T3 base (or whatever), put some cloth on the chimney, grab it with pliers and pull. If you need to wiggle it a little, use the wicking holes as an axis, as that's where there is a gap in the head structure. I've got some I've rebuilt 10 or 15 times now and the chimneys aren't damaged. The non-authentic heads are another story. The chimney on those will bend or break off and if you apply too much pressure with the pliers you can crush them flat pretty easily.

Second, I've started using pre-welded Non-resistance/Resistance/Non-resistance wires to do my coils instead of just plain Kanthal. Two reasons: 1) Even though I've gotten pretty good at judging the res I will end up with, these are spot on every time. 2) the positive post insulators seem to be getting smaller and I worry they will take less heat damage from the coil. With the pre-built NR-R-NR wires, the post insulator doesn't get heat and will last a lot longer. I guess there is a third advantage - they are only $2.50 per 100 at Fasttech.

Okay here are my builds:

Single coil, 2.0Ω. I use these in my Evod Glass, Mini-Aerotank, and Aerotanks that I plan on putting on an Ego, don't want heavy battery drain or juice drain.

- Coil is 1 x 2.0Ω NR-R-NR wire wrapped around 2 x 1mm hollow Ekowool (Note: Use 2 pieces of 1mm wick here. 1 piece of 2mm wick does not get the same result.) I use a small paper clip through one of the Ekowool wicks and wrap the coils fairly tight.
- I use one 4 inch piece of 28ga Kanthal doubled over to set inside the head. This lets the coil rest in the head at the optimum position and not fall too far down.

- Secure the coil with the insulator and post, trim wires, remove the Kanthal. Then trim the bottom wick even with the channels. I trim the top wick so that it is a mm or so outside the head.
- Replace the outer sleeve. As you slide it on, push the top wick up inside the sleeve. So you have the lower wick sitting even with the head and the upper wick filling in extra space.


Dual Coil, 1.3Ω. These go in my Aerotanks and Mega Aerotanks that are going on mods.

- Coil is 2 x 2.6Ω NR-R-NR wire, each wrapped around 1 x 1mm hollow Ekowool. I use a small paper clip through the Ekowool to build each coil. Wrapped fairly tight.
- Use the Kanthal to rest the lower coil on.

- Use an extra piece of Ekowool as a 'flavor wick'/spacer between the two coils.
- Secure the coils with the insulator and post, trim wires, remove the Kanthal. Then trim all the wicks even with the channels.
- Replace the outer sleeve.


So I hope this info helps out. Obviously,as pointed out above, you can't really clean, burn, and re-use the dual coil heads. But you can on the single coil.

 

[tchavei]

Very nice way to rebuild them.

I got tired of rebuilding them trying to find a way for them not to gurgle or get dry hits. Its much more easy with the old style heads. Anyway, I found a "perfect" solution for me:

1. remove chimney (through bottom, destroying the original (old and worn) coils)
2. remove metal jacket and throw it away
3. use a new "old style" silicon cap (you can buy then in the US or on Ebay (UK))

And presto... you have an "old style" assembly that I can rebuild under 10 minutes (dual coil).

Sometimes I just go the easy route

Regards
Tony

PS: I noticed the same thing as you... 2 x 1mm ekowool is not the same as 1 x 2mm ekowool... kinda wierd... anyway, I'm using 3mm silica right now with great success

 

[rowdyplace]

Slightly off topic, but I think worthy of mention.
To extend the life (between rebuilds) of these coil assemblies as well as removing (bad) flavors between juices, soak them for about an hour or more in a bath of 91% iso alcohol (or vodka) then drop them in a cup of very warm water and add an (unflavored store brand) denture tablet. Stir several times as they soak for 12 - 24 hours and rinse thoroughly in warm water. Then, rinse again in clean iso or vodka. Allow to dry. I use a hair dryer or the Alabama sunshine.

While YMMV, mine do not even need a burnout before the next use.

 

[tchavei]

Thats a great idea, especially for folks that don't actually do rebuilds yet but are starting to worry about the lifetime of their stock heads. Many people don't know this but each time you dry burn a silica wick, it will loose some of its wicking capabilities... 4 or 5 dry burns and its junk. Your method might avoid dry burning to a large extend.

For someone who likes to rebuild and does it often, a rebuild job might be much faster than cleaning the whole thing... money wise its peanuts to rebuild a kanger head even in dual coil mode.

Regards
Tony

PS: Some folks (me included), torch their silica wicks prior to installation. Most do it to remove any manufacturing or residue leftovers. I do it to "stiffen up" a bit the wick so that I can work with it easier... well the truth is that when you torch it, it becomes harder but also less effective because of what I said above... its somethng to consider.

 

[h0tsh0t]

Thanks for these posts, which helped me get the chimney off without breaking it. I used a longish machine screw that was just small enough to slide into the base, but too big to go through the chimney hole (i.e a "drift" in engineering terms). I sat the base upside-down in a metal tube (the mouth of an old brass cartridge actually - I have a firearms licence - but any small tube of the right bore will do) and gave the head of the screw a sharp tap (I also used the handle of a screwdriver as a hammer - naughty!) and out popped the chimney (neatly caught in the cartridge)! Excellent! I'm planning to build it, as I do the older dual coil heads (which I prefer), with a single, oval, coil which I wind as 6/7 turns of 28 gauge kanthal on two 1.5 mm drill bit shanks and either wick with a loop of 2mm silica (pulled through with a needle threader) or possibly cotton wool. The hard part for me was getting the chimney off without breaking anything, so many thanks to tchavei for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[tchavei]

You're welcome, good luck

Regards
Tony

Sent from my GT-I9195 through Tapatalk

 

[AquaLung22]

Awesome thread!! I've been waiting for someone to tear one of these apart and rebuild them.

It seems more difficult than the older style coils, but thank you!

 

[sedition]

Great to see that these heads are rebuildable, thanks everyone! My Aerotank Giant is in semi-retirement in favour of Kayfuns, but I might just get the old girl out again. (yes, by Kanger's release schedule the Giant is now ancient)

 

[leekeylee]

Hi All,

Just been reading this as I have a EMOW Mega arriving today with these new coils. Currently with my PT2 heads I rebuild them vertically for great airflow through the coil and wick with Muji japanese cotton around the coil.

Thinking of trying the vertical build with these new coil design. Anyone tried it yet? will post back when I have tried it myself

 

[specter9mm]

Thanks for the post! I just reassembled one of these with a single coil, 7 wraps of 30 gauge kanthal a1, and a hemp wick. I love the sleeve design, excellent wicking without leaking if it's done right. I ran a string of hemp through the coil at the bottom feed hole level, then brought them straight up, put the sleeve on(that sucker was not easy to get back on). Then I cut the ears of the wick I brought up, wet it with fluid, and pushed it lightly against the top wick holes, making sure the bottom holes didn't become exposed from pulling up on it. Works like a champ. Now I just wish I had put some good fluid in instead of icky test fluid. Update:Working great! Went through two tanks so far and no leaks. One note, I did have to use channel locks to push the sleeve and chimney back on. Could have used something smaller, if it opened wide enough to push flat on the top and bottom, but channel locks were all I had handy.

 

[st0rm6]

So I just joined the forum and saw this post while googleing mini protank 3 rebuilds. I was about to buy some of the old atty models online before i saw this thread so thank you guys for saving me a couple of bucks. I havent rebuilt mine yet but I think I'm going to try to rebuild with dual coils with the sleeve taken off. the reason i want to try it with the sleeve off is that I'm having some trouble with some local made juice i bought getting kinda clogged up and gumming up the wick. my thought is that if i give it more wick with a better wicking material than whatever they came with (seriously guys have you looked inside these things!) and leave the sleeve off it will allow more liquid to go through faster so hopefully it won't get bottlenecked and gum up.

If you think this is the wrong solution or have had this kind of problem please let me know as I'm rather inexperienced