Tfv4 mini

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Ou2mame

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My TFV4 was such a let down. I cant pull myself to even consider a mini unless a few months go by and I see nothing but 100% positive feedback from it
And this is reguarding the use with the rebuildable deck, not the coils.
What's your issue with it? And which rba did you use?
 

absoluttalent

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What's your issue with it? And which rba did you use?

I used the single coil deck that came with the kit. I also had to exchange the whole unit at my local B&M 3 times.

The biggest thing is that it leaks like crazy when filling.
1- The holes in the air control ring are slightly larger than the airholes in the base. Even when "closed", it isnt really closed. Trying to compare it to filling a lemo (only RTA I have thats similar), if you dont close the lemo base, theres none of that pressure to keep the juice in, so it comes right out. Same thing with the tfv4. Close the base, fill it up, it all comes right out the bottom.
Filling with a dropper? Forget about it, takes too long and you lose everything. I had to dig out an old squirt bottle just to get it filled in time to slam it shut and get a few puffs on it to build pressure. Depending on juice, max vg was mostly ok. Anything 70-80% VG, flooded for the first 5-15 pulls. Below 70%? may as well just dump my bottle on some paper towels and forget the middleman.
Even tried the cotton "bandaid" fix thats been suggested (laying some extra cotton over the juice channels to slow it down enough to get pressure going). It helped a little, but then hurt the wicking for use.

2- The fliptop lid.... im mixed on. It is definitely easy to use, terrible QC and machining. Thats part of the reason I needed to exhange it. First one was so loose from the pin joint, the seal gasket would cause the topcap to rise just enough to break any sort of seal it had. Thus dumping all juice down and out the base, and all over whatever mod I was using. Took me awhile to figure out why it was dumping all liquid, at first I thought faulty o-ring around base of rba, or that it was too small and wasnt stopping anything.
The 2nd unit I received, the top cap wouldnt even stay on. You could hold it upside down/sideways, and even with the seal gasket in place, it could still swing open. And heres the kicker, once swung open, it would fall right off. It was my understanding that the pin was more or less press-fit. That leads me to another issue, when filling, you sometimes get juice around the fill port. Some can be missed from wiping it up. Eventually it will get into the nook and cranny by the hinge pin. If it was supposed to be press-fit, then no real easy way to cleaning it when it gets to that point.

3- Not really a SMOK problem, but I was having a hell of a time with wicking it. Straight cut wick and lay it on deck, angle cut wick and lay it on deck, barely touching juice channel, into juice channel around the inner shelf level (the one between threading for rba chimney cap), into juice channel all the way to the bottom, etc...
I burned through quite a few sheets of cotton trying to figure out a good wick. Wasnt made easier when dealing with filling problems mentioned in #1

4- I wanted to love this drip tip it came with. But wasnt tight. Loose fitting and never wanted to sit flush. It also isnt closed off when closed. So even if I turned my airflow ring to where I wanted it, there was always more air than I wanted comming from the top. It was good it could be completely taken apart for cleaning (which it would need from condensation accumulating), i still viewed it as one more thing that needed some more R&D love.

At the time, I didnt have a mod that could fully utilize the coilheads, so I let them sit and used the RBA exclusively.
So recently I took the heads out to give them a shot. No leaking issues with either one. All the cotton really helps act as a buffer. Triple head was alright, quad tasted much better. I wouldnt mind giving the TC and Clapton heads a shot.
But I didnt buy this to use as another pre-built coil money pit. I wanted a larger RTA that had plenty of room for coils in it's rba and juice.
 

Croak

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Right behind you...
@absoluttalent : Just out of curiosity, what ratio PG/VG are you using? I've got two TFV4's, and both the single and dual coil RBA decks (I'm with you on not wanting a prebuilt money pit), and I don't have any issues with leaking, never have, even when I've done some piss-poor wick jobs. Getting the wicking down so that I don't get dry hits was a bit of a challenge, but no issues with leaking/flooding. But then again, my thinnest juice is 80% VG.

That said, as an RTA, the TFV4 is average at best. It's better than a Subtank for building on (but that's a low bar), and it has solid resistance unlike the wild fluctuations on a STM, but that's about all I can say for it. It still doesn't compare to a "real" non-MTL RTA though, not even close.

As for size, I can build coils just as big in my Goliath V2 and get far better flavor, hold as much juice, and only give up a bit of airflow (and not even give that up, since I really don't run the TFV4's airflow wide-open), in a design that's much more compact and looks good on all my mods.
 
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EDO

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@absoluttalent : I don't have experience with the TFV4 but recently I purchased the Uwell Crown with the RBA deck. I am very impressed with it. The QC on this tank is amazing. It is beautifully built and all the threads are buttery smooth. It wicks incredibly well if you wick it like this guy:



I have a ton of RBA, RDAs, and gennies, but I think the Uwell Crown with the RBA deck is my favorite. It produces ridiculous amount of vapor and the best taste... all at 30 watts.

Also its pre-built coils heads are top notch.
 

absoluttalent

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@Croak
I have tried multiple ratios, nothing below 50/50. Majority of my juices are 70vg, but a few are max vg or 95 vg. The max/higher vg was easier to fill and pressurize before a leak occured, but all of them did require the use of a squirt bottle to get it filled quick enough. Even the maxVG couldnt be done with an eye dropper. Was still too slow.
I will look into a goliath in the near future

@EDO
Everything I have heard and read about the crown is making it be my next RTA purchase. I just wish the RBA wasnt separate. Unless they changed it and offer a RBA+tank kit now?
 

EDO

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You can buy the Crown at FT for about $25 and then get the RBA section some place else for $10-15. For about $40 you get a top notch atty. I have a bunch atties and the machining on this thing is as good as gets. The only draw back to the RBA deck is that its performance very much depends how you wick it to get the most out of it. If you wick like the guy in the video above I am sure you would be super impressed with it. I still cant believe how much vapor I get out of this thing at 30 watts. If you look in my recent posts I made a more detailed post regarding this atty a few days back. Since then I discovered a way of top filling it that works like a charm.
 

DenisCoben

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Mini Patel

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ogie56

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Just got mine today to, totally awesome I'm using RBA with 1.5 ohm 28 kanthal & ... cotton at 13 watts. also the small air adapter. the only thing is my top swing cap is very loose so using a band that came with it to hold it closed. and the deck screws are short, but the flavor is real good and it does not get hot of course at that wattage. no leaks so far. glass tanks are very smooth no chips , I do mtl think this will work great for me
 

Gillistration

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So I got my tfv4 mini last week and I love it so far. I've been trying to build on the dual coil RBA, but I haven't been able to get it to wick right. I've tried all sorts of wraps using 26ga kanthol, mostly ranging from .35-.4. I also watched a handful of YouTube videos with varying degrees of success. Any tips you got would be helpful.
 

Jimmy Go

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