Serpent SMM Revisited

[Vapemesilly]

I bought the Serpent SMM when they first came out. I love the flavor and ease of building on this unit but I have just about had it with the weeping juice under the tank. I bought the Zeus a while back and love it and am ready to toss the SMM into the trash and get another Zeus to replace it.

So...anybody bought an SMM recently? I'm just curious as to whether the leaking and weeping juice issue has been corrected with newer models?

 

[Raider87]

Maybe im lucky, but i havn't had much leaking, don't have the recent ones, bought mine months ago, maybe 6 or 7 months ago.

 

[score69]

I bought the Serpent SMM when they first came out. I love the flavor and ease of building on this unit but I have just about had it with the weeping juice under the tank. I bought the Zeus a while back and love it and am ready to toss the SMM into the trash and get another Zeus to replace it.

So...anybody bought an SMM recently? I'm just curious as to whether the leaking and weeping juice issue has been corrected with newer models?

I use the SMM pretty much daily. I get a small amount of weeping, but here's the main things I've found .

Remove the 510, pull the positive post, reseat it completely flat, tap with a rubber malet it needed, and screw the 510 pin back in. I have several, and only one was properly seaten out of the box. If liquid can seep between the insulatir, it will leak right into the airflow and ends up under the tank on the mod.

I rewick at least twice weekly, this seems to help.

Depending on your coil mass, it will condense due to bottom airflow. Smaller, simple coils help with this. I'm currently running double twisted 26g, much better than fused captors as far as condensation goes.

Biggest problem is the same with most top fill tanks. When you screw the fill cap back on, it will push some liquid up through the cotton in the wick holes and that can leak. I've tried the invert, close the airflow, blah, blah. That doesn't help much in my experience. What I do is don't fill it up all the way to the fill ports. The air/space will compress some, liquid doesn't and it will get forced onto the deck. Also, right after filling, I take a few good drags right after screwing down the cap. This seems to help vape off liquid that is getting pushed through the wick holes from screwing down the cap before it has a chance to leak.

Anyone please add if you have any tricks that work for you. I really like the SMM, easy to build and wick. I use mine daily. It does get a bit frustrating sometimes though. A rewick seems to stop the leaking for a few days, and smaller mass coils reduce liquid from condensation. A few good pulls to vape off liquid pushed onto the deck from screwing on the cap works well too.

Maybe I need to just build my Zeus and give it a try. It's been sitting in the box since it arrived because I'm familiar with the ease of building and wicking the SMM.

 

[Vapemesilly]

Thanks for the comments. While I appreciate your effort to maintain your SMM it seems to me that we as consumers shouldn't have to do that. I got home from work the other night after starting this thread and found that my SMM had leaked down the side of the mod onto the dresser. It now resides in the trash can and will soon make a trip to the landfill. I ordered another Zeus. It will be here Friday.

 

[Mysteron]

I like the Serpent SMM, slightly better flavour for me than the Ammit 25. Coil placement needs care I find, I've tried numerous different ways and for me I find it better with the coil placed so the top airflow is hitting the middle. I tried it lower with the top airflow hitting the top third of the coil but the flavour drops off me.

Never had any problems with leaking or condensation either. I don't leave too much density of wick in the wells and don't have them touching the floor. Works well with the Wotofo claptons I find (4*28+40 NiCr 80) and also with SS 24 and 26 ga.

Can't compete with RDAs of course, even the similarly designed (build deck wise - if you like the style Nudge 22). I also find the vape slightly dryer on the Serpent.

The supplied coils, at least the ones Wotofo are mostly using now, are their 4*28+40 NiCr 80 and can be bought direct from Wotofo, I use Ali Express. I actually really like those coils, around 0.25 ohms and they are better IMO than the 0.15 ohm coils they were bundling with their attys previously.

 

[ShaneR42]

Still have my SMM in rotation, although I just deal with the weeping. No other issues, for me, with it.

That said, the Kylin Mini is my main goto now. Wicking can be a pain, but the flavour and quality blows the SMM out of the water....for me, anyway.

 

[Mysteron]

Still have my SMM in rotation, although I just deal with the weeping. No other issues, for me, with it.

That said, the Kylin Mini is my main goto now. Wicking can be a pain, but the flavour and quality blows the SMM out of the water....for me, anyway.

Yeah I still keep the SMM but I found the flavour a bit of a disappointment compared to what I was expecting. Yet another where the reality didn't match the hype! It's better than the Ammit on flavour, JUST, but IMO not enough to have warranted me buying it, I also prefer vaping the Ammit, the SMM is quite noisy. Just not prepared to try any more tanks now.

One thing with the SMM with fancy coils I find it needs to be wicked WAY more loosely than I'd normally wick for RDAs or indeed other tanks. Normally I wick coils quite tight, up to just before the stage it would start to tug the coil. With this, having tried multiple wicking and materials, I finally got a massive flavour improvement by doing 3 things:

1) Wicking so there is barely any resistance in the coil to the wick, not dead loose, but up to the point where you only just start to get resistance

2) Thin the wicks a lot, like about 50% and trim the sides and top, almost looks like there is not enough to wick.

3) Trim the wick ends so they don't touch the floor of the wells, about half way between the baseplate and the bottom works for me.

 

[peteyboy]

I have been using this tank for at least 6 months, no issues at all, it's the only tank I use, love it.