The Innokin iTaste VV V3 owners group

[Capt.shay]

I should probably post this since someone else is getting the vv3 with the iClear16s -- I personally think those iClear16s SUCK. They made the vape so hot it nearly burned my lips; I'm told this is because of the top coil. Last night I went to a local B&M and got a bottom coil clearo, the Kanger T3S, and it's MUCH!!!! better; at the iTaste's lowest setting, the vape is really not all that warm at all; it gets slightly warmer as you boost either the v or the ww; I've been using the v and boosting it to about 4.5-ish, and it gives a very good, very realistic throat hit and really full flavor to the Virginia e-juice I like best.

I really wish now I'd just bought the express kit and saved the money, but oh well, live and learn, vape and learn... I will never knowingly buy another top coil clearo of any kind. With this bottom coil one, this iTaste is MAGNIFICENT!

Just my own ...
Andria

PS -- @DavidOck -- I've been charging mine as soon as the button shows yellow instead of green, so I'm glad to know that's actually good for it. But I didn't know that charging light would actually go out; I checked the voltage when it stayed on green for a while, and it showed 3.8, so I unplugged it -- thanks for letting me know I can just leave it, and it will eventually go out!

I use to take a mooched drag off of some ones Marlboro Light every now and again and almost gag and wonder " How can any one smoke these?" yet millinons did/do. Taste is about the most subjective thing there is. Me, I like a warm vape but am not a huge fan of the i-Clear in particular.

On the battery; Charge early, charge often. Green light goes out when the battery is at full charge.

 

[JaxMike]

Very glad I found this thread, I have two VV V3 that will be here on Monday and may have some questions. I am sad to read about the iclear 16 as I saw such good things about them on vendor site reviews. Maybe they will be okay for me, all I have ever used are the CF4's and CF4S. I do have a protank 2v2 but I didn't like it, as I felt it made everything taste muted and/or burnt/metallic. IDK, clean it, tried multiple coils different ohms, of course this was on my Ego C twist.

Sadly enough I do not even have them yet and have already started looking at upgrading to a mod, so it was also nice to see some chat here about that as well as some chat about coil building as I know that is the next logical step. I have to admit, I told myself that I would never get into mods or coil building......well what I can I say.

FWIW, my vv came with five iClear 16's and I've been very pleased with them. Haven't run hot at all (though I'm sure a bottom coil would be cooler... that's just a matter of preference), and aside from one or two tiny mouth leaks, no issues whatsoever. Easy to clean and dry burn.

I am obtaining a couple of new tanks (a couple of protank mini's and maybe something else) just because I've ordered some citrus-y juice that requires glass.

I don't know that they're the best tanks out there (I'm sure they're not, really) but I wouldn't feel any remorse at having bought a few.

 

[Storm52]

Since I have 2 itastes, I have 2 of the iclear 30s, still sealed in the plastic. With all of the armageddon talk, I'm not tossing them or handing them off. Glad you are having great vape and luck with them.

 

[AndriaD]

I use to take a mooched drag off of some ones Marlboro Light every now and again and almost gag and wonder " How can any one smoke these?" yet millinons did/do. Taste is about the most subjective thing there is. Me, I like a warm vape but am not a huge fan of the i-Clear in particular.

On the battery; Charge early, charge often. Green light goes out when the battery is at full charge.

I know what you mean; the week before I quit, I smoked 3 on Sunday, 2 on Monday, and 1 each on Tues Wed and Thurs... and those last couple tasted HORRIBLE, I was smoking so few, and vaping all the rest of the time. I smoked 120s, so I usually only smoked half at a time, to save money, but the last one, I made myself smoke the entire thing, right down to the filter, in just-below-freezing weather, shivering the whole time. I wanted to remember how awful that was for the rest of my life, so I also took a pic of the one last .... in the filthy ashtray. I'm pretty sure that as long as I can vape, I'm completely done with smoking. And good riddance!!!!

I have another question, but this probably pertains more to the clearo than the iTaste itself; I have a kanger T3S as I said, and Im wondering how low is safe to let the juice get; I've seen some that recommend not letting it get below a certain level, and I wondered if that's true of this one, and what that level might be. I ask because I'd really prefer to lower my nic level at night, but I don't know how low to let it get before I need to put more in it. And until I get that ARO, probably Tuesday-ish, this is the only top I have for the iTaste, that I can stand.

Thx!!!
Andria

 

[DavidOck]

You can vape it down to (near) the bottom, but it may increase the chances of some leaking. Most of the bottom coils "like" to be 1/3 or more full. But when the coil and wicks are doing their job properly, I seldom have any problems. You just don't want to vape it dry. Tastes bad! And can singe the wicks, so the bad taste doesn't go away until you replace them (or the whole coil/head assembly.)

Coils are pretty cheap, and can also be rebuilt even cheaper, if you're so inclined.

 

[AndriaD]

You can vape it down to (near) the bottom, but it may increase the chances of some leaking. Most of the bottom coils "like" to be 1/3 or more full. But when the coil and wicks are doing their job properly, I seldom have any problems. You just don't want to vape it dry. Tastes bad! And can singe the wicks, so the bad taste doesn't go away until you replace them (or the whole coil/head assembly.)

Coils are pretty cheap, and can also be rebuilt even cheaper, if you're so inclined.

Well it got down to about 1/4" above where the chimney ends and the white ring begins, about 4 marks, so it still had about 1 ml in it. I needed to plug it in anyway, so I figured it was a good time to go ahead and refill, and let it charge a bit while I did the dishes. The diff in nic in what I vape in the daytime, and the 6mg I want at night, is so slight, but it does seem to help if my refills in the evening are the lower nic, I don't have the fast heartbeat when I try to go to sleep, if I lower it just a little. When I do go to bed, I'll plug it in and let it recharge fully, and by then the level will be back down somewhat, so I can put in some higher nic in the morning.


Andria

 

[DavidOck]

As long as it doesn't start to leak, there should be no problem with that. Although every few fills - 2 to 4 depending on the juice - you may want to open it all up and wash under hot running water. There will be a gradual build up on the coil and wick, that will gradually reduce its effectiveness. You'll start to notice a drop off in flavor and vapor. Then it's time to clean and dry burn, or replace the coil.

And normal vaping can darken the juice, as some of the gunk works back into it. Washing the tube under hot water is fine to clean the inside. A good "thermometer shake" will get most of the water out, a pipe cleaner is great to dry the small air tube inside.

But it's generally not recommended to charge un-attended. And if you're asleep, you're not in attendance

Chargers (built in on the VV3) and batteries can both fail, although it's rare. I have two large ceramic ashtrays that I stack, so I have about 4" between my chargers and the table. And never charge unless I'm there. Pays to be safe!

 

[AndriaD]

As long as it doesn't start to leak, there should be no problem with that. Although every few fills - 2 to 4 depending on the juice - you may want to open it all up and wash under hot running water. There will be a gradual build up on the coil and wick, that will gradually reduce its effectiveness. You'll start to notice a drop off in flavor and vapor. Then it's time to clean and dry burn, or replace the coil.

And normal vaping can darken the juice, as some of the gunk works back into it. Washing the tube under hot water is fine to clean the inside. A good "thermometer shake" will get most of the water out, a pipe cleaner is great to dry the small air tube inside.

But it's generally not recommended to charge un-attended. And if you're asleep, you're not in attendance

Chargers (built in on the VV3) and batteries can both fail, although it's rare. I have two large ceramic ashtrays that I stack, so I have about 4" between my chargers and the table. And never charge unless I'm there. Pays to be safe!

Ok, cool; good info!!

I wanted to let it charge "all the way" at least once, and if I'm awake, there's no way it's going to charge all the way, because I need it when I'm awake! But, it wasn't *completely* unattended -- I plugged it in in the bathroom off my bedroom, right in front of the mirror; I'm a *very* light sleeper, waking about every 90 mins when I turn over, and I could see the green reflection very clearly from the bath, until it was *just* about to get light outside. The next time I woke, I saw it had gone out, so knew it had finished charging; the next time I woke after that, I got up. But trust me -- the *slightest* unusual noise, or unusual *anything* wakes me IMMEDIATELY, on full alert -- that ol PTSD hypervigilance.

There will be a gradual build up on the coil and wick, that will gradually reduce its effectiveness.... Then it's time to clean and dry burn

Is there a video someplace about doing this? The other night when I was having that problem with it, because that "post" had loosened slightly, I realized that I don't truly understand the way this thing is made, nor the proper names for all its parts; although I normally prefer written instructions, for this I think it might be necessary to see someone else going thru the steps to get it cleaned and dry burned. I'm sure it must be easier than with those *tiny* attys for the eRoll, just because it's bigger and easier to see, but I'm honestly afraid of doing something wrong and REALLY breaking it.

Thx!!
Andria

 

[Storm52]

Andria: Cleaning can be as easy as running under hot water, blow through chimney, plop in a cup of hot water. I change out coils every 2 days. I also dry burn, which consists of removing the chimney, taking out the top wick (flavor wick), putting the coil assembly with the head (not tank) on the battery and pulsing it for about 5 second while the coils get red. Blow out between burns. I do that until the silica wick is clean and white. Put the flavor wick back on and reinstall the chimney. You are good to go.
If the coil isn't working any longer, put it somewhere with other non workers for future recoil/rebuild...when you want to approach that.

 

[AndriaD]

Andria: Cleaning can be as easy as running under hot water, blow through chimney, plop in a cup of hot water. I change out coils every 2 days. I also dry burn, which consists of removing the chimney, taking out the top wick (flavor wick), putting the coil assembly with the head (not tank) on the battery and pulsing it for about 5 second while the coils get red. Blow out between burns. I do that until the silica wick is clean and white. Put the flavor wick back on and reinstall the chimney. You are good to go.
If the coil isn't working any longer, put it somewhere with other non workers for future recoil/rebuild...when you want to approach that.

Ok, I can deal with cleaning the tank, as you described; the reason that I thought a video would be helpful, though, is that I don't have the first idea how to remove the chimney, nor, once it's removed, how to get it put back in; I'm not really sure what the coil assembly is, or what it looks like, what a wick really looks like or where it's located, or how to "pulse" the "coil assembly", or where I should "blow out", and since I don't know anything about the coil or the wick(s), how I would go about putting a "flavor wick" back in, or where.

All I know is: press the button, inhale from clearo; how to fill it; how to make sure the "post" isn't loose (and why!!!); and how to clean the chimney and mouthpiece (with a pipe cleaner). Everything beyond those basics is entirely greek to me -- I figured a video would illustrate all those things I don't know, what they're called, where they're found, and how to go about both disassembling and then reassembling. Or maybe even hands-on would be best; one of the B&Ms near here has a Thurs night "clinic" to teach folks all the minutiae of these things, and it just occurred to me that attending one of those might be even more beneficial for a complete neophyte to all this technical detail.

Thx!
Andria

 

[alisa1970]

Ok, I can deal with cleaning the tank, as you described; the reason that I thought a video would be helpful, though, is that I don't have the first idea how to remove the chimney, nor, once it's removed, how to get it put back in; I'm not really sure what the coil assembly is, or what it looks like, what a wick really looks like or where it's located, or how to "pulse" the "coil assembly", or where I should "blow out", and since I don't know anything about the coil or the wick(s), how I would go about putting a "flavor wick" back in, or where.

All I know is: press the button, inhale from clearo; how to fill it; how to make sure the "post" isn't loose (and why!!!); and how to clean the chimney and mouthpiece (with a pipe cleaner). Everything beyond those basics is entirely greek to me -- I figured a video would illustrate all those things I don't know, what they're called, where they're found, and how to go about both disassembling and then reassembling. Or maybe even hands-on would be best; one of the B&Ms near here has a Thurs night "clinic" to teach folks all the minutiae of these things, and it just occurred to me that attending one of those might be even more beneficial for a complete neophyte to all this technical detail.

Thx!
Andria

Hi Andria,

Here you go:

 

[Katdarling]

Last night we went to our grandson's hockey game. We always stand on the top row to get a better view. Well I decided to sneak a vape or two and reached into my pocked and pulled out my Pearl Chrome VV3 with one of my new IB Tanked on top. Sure enough I dropped it. The first fall was just a few feet, but then it took a bounce off the aluminum stands and sure enough found an opening and dived down to the concrete floor.

Next move was the excuse me, excuse me as I went down the stands and found an opening under the seats. There it was in one piece minus the drip tip. A quick scan and I saw the drip it and picked it and my VV3 up. After getting out from below I went into the main waiting area to look it over. The VV3 had a few minor mark on it and the IB Tanked looked like a tank. Not a mark on the glass or on the stainless end caps. I put the drip tip on and gave it a vape. Vaped like the pro it is. Later when we arrived home I checked the 510 connector and no damage there as the tank screwed right off and back on.

The top row of the stands is about a 20 foot drop to the concrete as it's not like I dropped it from the upper deck of Yankee Stadium, but all in all it took a lick and kept on ticking (vaping).

Speed, I started reading your post with all good hopes that the tumble didn't affect your V3. Whew! Good news!

But, did you REALLY pick up the drip tip and then vape from it?? EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

 

[Katdarling]

Well, gosh, I'm flattered. Thanks.

Maybe Vice president, sounds like it'd be a lot more fun!

Ok, Mr. VP. I think it's time for you to create a Blog with all the V3 info you so generously and graciously supply. It appears we keep getting more and more new fans, and everyone has questions. I would love to refer people to a centralized info space.

C'mon, share the wealth of your knowledge!

 

[Bikenstein]

Last night we went to our grandson's hockey game. We always stand on the top row to get a better view. Well I decided to sneak a vape or two and reached into my pocked and pulled out my Pearl Chrome VV3 with one of my new IB Tanked on top. Sure enough I dropped it. The first fall was just a few feet, but then it took a bounce off the aluminum stands and sure enough found an opening and dived down to the concrete floor.

Next move was the excuse me, excuse me as I went down the stands and found an opening under the seats. There it was in one piece minus the drip tip. A quick scan and I saw the drip it and picked it and my VV3 up. After getting out from below I went into the main waiting area to look it over. The VV3 had a few minor mark on it and the IB Tanked looked like a tank. Not a mark on the glass or on the stainless end caps. I put the drip tip on and gave it a vape. Vaped like the pro it is. Later when we arrived home I checked the 510 connector and no damage there as the tank screwed right off and back on.

The top row of the stands is about a 20 foot drop to the concrete as it's not like I dropped it from the upper deck of Yankee Stadium, but all in all it took a lick and kept on ticking (vaping).

Glad you had a happy ending. I dropped my VV3 with a PT3 hard on a tile floor today. Drip tip popped off, sounded like it shattered but that was it. The case was already dented and scratched from previous drops. They seem to be pretty tough.

 

[brookj1986]

Ok, Mr. VP. I think it's time for you to create a Blog with all the V3 info you so generously and graciously supply. It appears we keep getting more and more new fans, and everyone has questions. I would love to refer people to a centralized info space.

C'mon, share the wealth of your knowledge!

I second that motion.

As I've said in previous posts, he simply knows about flipping everything.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk. Excuse typos and stupid autocorrect errors.

 

[peraspera]

I'm not sure what you mean by extend the battery life. The battery shuts down before it has a chance to over-discharge. If you charge it twice at 50%, isn't it the same as once at 0%? (not really 0% as battery shuts down before this) Doesn't 0.5+0.5=1?

Your math assumes that running lithium batteries down all the way doesn't adversely affect the total number of useful hours a battery will provide over its lifetime. That is not correct. This article, Battery University -> How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries, explains why. Click through to see a chart comparing battery life at different depths of discharge.
Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The shorter the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life, other than to calibrate the fuel gauge on a smart battery once in a while.

...I wanted to let it charge "all the way" at least once, and if I'm awake, there's no way it's going to charge all the way, because I need it when I'm awake! But, it wasn't *completely* unattended -- I plugged it in in the bathroom off my bedroom, right in front of the mirror; I'm a *very* light sleeper, waking about every 90 mins when I turn over, and I could see the green reflection very clearly from the bath, until it was *just* about to get light outside. The next time I woke, I saw it had gone out, so knew it had finished charging; the next time I woke after that, I got up. But trust me -- the *slightest* unusual noise, or unusual *anything* wakes me IMMEDIATELY, on full alert -- that ol PTSD hypervigilance. ...

Charging a battery unattended is not safe, period. Things can go extremely badly south much, much faster than what you might think. The cost of purchasing another battery or two so it is not necessary to charge unattended is trivially cheap insurance for your house not burning down.

When I first started vaping one of my Joye brand Twists melted its Joye brand charger. Thankfully, I was only a few feet away so I caught the problem quickly. Also, the battery was on top of a Lipo bag in a large glass ashtray so there was no damage aside from the battery and charger. The partially melted charger was easily more than hot enough to start a fire.

I slip any batteries with the charger inside the Lipo bag if I leave the room for any longer than a couple of minutes. I never charge if I'm sleeping or going outside the house.

 

[Katdarling]

Charging a battery unattended is not safe, period. Things can go extremely badly south much, much faster than what you might think. The cost of purchasing another battery or two so it is not necessary to charge unattended is trivially cheap insurance for your house not burning down.

When I first started vaping one of my Joye brand Twists melted its Joye brand charger. Thankfully, I was only a few feet away so I caught the problem quickly. Also, the battery was on top of a Lipo bag in a large glass ashtray so there was no damage aside from the battery and charger. The partially melted charger was easily more than hot enough to start a fire.

I slip any batteries with the charger inside the Lipo bag if I leave the room for any longer than a couple of minutes. I never charge if I'm sleeping or going outside the house.

BOLD underlined... and worth repeating!!!! Good job, peraspera!

 

[DavidOck]

I second that motion.

As I've said in previous posts, he simply knows about flipping everything.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 3 using Tapatalk. Excuse typos and stupid autocorrect errors.

Golly, constituents.... Guess I'll have to get to work on that? It actually would be easier than typing a whole new post every time

 

[Katdarling]

golly, constituents.... Guess i'll have to get to work on that? it actually would be easier than typing a whole new post every time

My thoughts preeeeeeeeeeeecisely, Mr. Veep!


If it's helpful, and you haven't already discovered it,,,

you can go back thru your own posts here and should you find one you want to include in the blog, there's a little (hidden?) icon to the bottom left of the reply box... "Blog this Post".

 

[Ed_C]

Your math assumes that running lithium batteries down all the way doesn't adversely affect the total number of useful hours a battery will provide over its lifetime. That is not correct. This article, Battery University -> How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries, explains why. Click through to see a chart comparing battery life at different depths of discharge.
Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The shorter the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life, other than to calibrate the fuel gauge on a smart battery once in a while.

That is interesting. I knew that running a battery down to 100% DoD was bad for longevity, but regulated devices shut down quiet a bit before that happens. My VV shuts down at about 3.5V and I believe 3.0V would be 100% DoD. I'm also not clear how they are defining discharge cycles. They say there's not a standard and they don't say what standard they are using (or at least I didn't read enough to find out). When they say 1200-1500 recharge cycles at 50% DoD are the stating that there are that many discharges of 1/2 that battery's capacity or are they talking about discharges that are equivalent to full discharges (whatever standard they set for this. 80%?). I'm assuming it's the former. If it is the former, the only gains would be between 100% and 50% and if they are really draining the battery all the way I would expect this. It would be interesting to see what the differences between, say 100%, 80% and 50% were, as 80% might be closer to where PV's shut off.


If they are calling a discharge cycle, a discharge to the percentage of DoD for that trial, their argument doesn't make sense, except between 100% and 50%
100% DoD 300 to 500
50% DoD (.5)1200=600 to (.5)1500=750
25% DoD (.25)2000=500 to (.25)2500=625
10% DoD (.1)3750=375 to (.1)4700=470