The Lemo RTA: A Build With Pics

[horton]

how the hell are you guys going so long without changing the wick? 10ml (15 vary max) of juice im changing my wick

I'm using cotton -- either the cotton balls that came with the Lemo, KGD, or CVS sterile batts. I'm not trying to intentionally make the wicks last a long time I mainly go by how the vapor tastes. Something else I've noticed and I can't come up with any logical reason for this is that the Lemo wicks seem to stay cleaner than the ones in Kayfun type devices. Makes no sense, but that's what I'm seeing. Same juice, same Ω's, same volts, etc.
The one change I did make quite a while ago was to not worry about "less is better" with the cotton. Now I "rip" off a hunk of cotton, jam it through the coil, and as long as it doesn't "shoulder" on the way through the coil, I call it good. I've probably doubled or more the amount of cotton and hence wick I use. Maybe that has some bearing on the wicks lasting longer, but I didn't notice the increased longevity until I seriously started with the Lemo's.
The flavors and other components used in the juice also must have a large bearing in the wick lasting longer. My juices tend to be clear to slightly tinted. I don't vape anything that is dark or turbid.
Man, I hope I'm not starting an argument because I'm saying and doing things that go against the current trends so to speak. But I can only report what I observe. YMMV.....

 

[narrdarr]

i use cotton too. i was using organic cotton balls but i now use cotton bacon. it holds up only slightly better but taste way cleaner than anything else i've tried. anyways i almost clear juices and after 10ml my wicks are still black as black gets.

i dont mind changing my wicks at all. i was just curious.

 

[Yorkshire_pudding]

These tanks look great, but I'm a mouth to lung guy and I hear this is too airy for that.

It has airflow control and when closed right down almost no air gets through so i think you would be fine with M2L hits. I have always lung hit even on my mini naughty so i can't say how good it is for it.

 

[cjpeltz]

I have the mini and other more accurate and higher quality devices. Me thinks the wattage reading on the Mini is misleading. Not a fan.

 

[KGB7]

Quick update.

After vaping for a day (10 hours) at 31watts, around 8ml of juice, a mix of various juices that gives me roughly a mix of 2mg of Nic; the coil is not cleaner and the Rayon Wick is more gunked up between coils.

So im back to vaping at 24watts. Will re-test again at later time with new coil and fresh wick at higher wattage (35watts) to see if the wick and coil stays cleaner for longer periods of time.

Set up; Lemo Drop with moded airflow, spaced coil, 7 wraps, 0.71ohm, 24guage, Rayon Wick. Juice mixtures; Vape Juice, 6mg Nic 70vg+ White Label Max VG 0mg Nic, Bombies Max VG 0mg Nic.


I prefer to delude 6mg NIc juice down to 2mg instead of using straight up pre-mixed 3mg Nic juice. 3mg Nic juice IMHO, doesnt have nice smooth vape, its like vaping tiny needles.

 

[KGB7]

I'm not trying to intentionally make the wicks last a long time I mainly go by how the vapor tastes.
The flavors and other components used in the juice also must have a large bearing in the wick lasting longer. My juices tend to be clear to slightly tinted. I don't vape anything that is dark or turbid.
.

Same here as well.

I use Rayon, and i have gone as long as 40ml of juice, but that time juice flavor has diminished by about 20% and thats when i rewick it.

@narrdarr
Coil set up, wattage, juice type, wick material also makes a difference. There is no black and white, there are a lot of shades of grey. One of the reason people buy multiple tanks to test different setups simultaneously.

 

[KGB7]

Another update.

New coil and new Rayon wick; 24g kenthal wire, 7 wraps, 0.74 ohm, spaced coil. Vaped it at 35w and 2ml of juice later the coil is gunked up between coil wraps.More gunked up then when i waped at around 22watts for over 30ml of juice.

Lowered it to 20w. Will update at later time with new results.

Sig 100+ with Samy 25R batteries.

 

[ahmadmfz]

I've moved to nickel and with temp control it is much harder to gunk up. Maybe it is the temp? Idk.

 

[Bored2Tears]

Guys and gals - I'm trying to narrow down my wicking issues on the Lemo. I feel like I have seen a marked improvement in my wicking skills recently...and improved more by starting to use spaced coils. I usually do 8-9 wraps of 28g Kanthal on a 2.5 mm id, for aprox 1.5 ohms. Vape normally at 13-15.5 watts now, depending on the juice. Using 50/50 juices mostly.

I know that I probably need to post pics to confirm my wicking is OK, but I always compare to everyone else's photos and seems the same.

I'm starting to suspect that I have a bit of a vacuum leak. If I prime regularly about every 3-4 vapes, things seem to be fine ...but I don't seem to get the bubblies coming up without priming. I have been vaping on this Lemo constantly since about November.

Does anyone think that changing the orings/ silicone washer seals would help me? It's funny that this tank operated without a hitch early on when my rebuilding was sketchy at best, but now I have more trouble.

Is it possible for juice to gunk up through the center post airflow and cause a vacuum pressure issue? I've not torn the Lemo down to that point and am hesitant to do so...but it's almost as if the draw/ airflow is not as open as I expect.

Suggestions are welcomed......even if everyone just tells me it's all the wicking. I dunno. Maybe I've developed a habit of using too much wick and it's constantly blocking the juice channels after filling. But, I'm VERY careful to be sure those juice channels are clear prior to filling up the tank.

 

[NOVA jon]

Look in your spare parts bag, pull the O ring off the top of the chimney and replace it with the thickest one in the bag. I did this on one of mine, no more problems! (That's a long run on sentence!)

 

[Bored2Tears]

Look in your spare parts bag, pull the O ring off the top of the chimney and replace it with the thickest one in the bag. I did this on one of mine, no more problems! (That's a long run on sentence!)

OK. Will do. I wasn't sure how long to expect the life of those o rings and silicone washers to last but none of them look compromised / torn, cracked or anything. But at this point, I need to try something else. I've tried everything with wicking and it all seems to result in the same thing. I've tried every extreme of too little wick, too much wick, longer wick, shorter wick. I do get some obvious performance problems when I go too extreme on one end or other with wicking bet even when it seems perfect, the tank still doesn't bubble up after vaping. When the tank was new, I always got some bubbling up from juice wells after almost every pull.

So you feel the top oring on the chimney most likely is the culprit? Sometimes if I prime REALLY hard, I actually see liquid sucking up inside the tank toward the drip tip, but still get no air bubble from the juice well. That is what tells me I don't have a good vaccum going on.

 

[Mellowbuzz]

how the hell are you guys going so long without changing the wick? 10ml (15 vary max) of juice im changing my wick

In my experience, wick longevity is effected greatly by the type of build you're running. I've found that spaced coils gunk up far less than coils where each wrap is touching. If you haven't done so, try a spaced coil in the 1.5 ohm range. I'll bet your wick will last a lot longer.

 

[Elyptic]

Guys and gals - I'm trying to narrow down my wicking issues on the Lemo. I feel like I have seen a marked improvement in my wicking skills recently...and improved more by starting to use spaced coils. I usually do 8-9 wraps of 28g Kanthal on a 2.5 mm id, for aprox 1.5 ohms. Vape normally at 13-15.5 watts now, depending on the juice. Using 50/50 juices mostly.

I know that I probably need to post pics to confirm my wicking is OK, but I always compare to everyone else's photos and seems the same.

I'm starting to suspect that I have a bit of a vacuum leak. If I prime regularly about every 3-4 vapes, things seem to be fine ...but I don't seem to get the bubblies coming up without priming. I have been vaping on this Lemo constantly since about November.

Does anyone think that changing the orings/ silicone washer seals would help me? It's funny that this tank operated without a hitch early on when my rebuilding was sketchy at best, but now I have more trouble.

Is it possible for juice to gunk up through the center post airflow and cause a vacuum pressure issue? I've not torn the Lemo down to that point and am hesitant to do so...but it's almost as if the draw/ airflow is not as open as I expect.

Suggestions are welcomed......even if everyone just tells me it's all the wicking. I dunno. Maybe I've developed a habit of using too much wick and it's constantly blocking the juice channels after filling. But, I'm VERY careful to be sure those juice channels are clear prior to filling up the tank.

It's possible that replacing o-rings will help, but from my experience, bad o-rings generally make a tank leak, not provide dry hits.

To your point, seeing photos may help, but I would double check the following:

- Are the juice channels clear of any debris? I've seen some issues on one of my RTAs (not sure if it was the Lemo to be fair) that had some slight imperfections in the machining of the juice channels and it caused all sorts of weird issues.

- Is your wick just barely touching the bottom of the juice wells? I know a lot of people advocate the "bunny ear" method where they install the chimney with the wick tails sticking up and then stuffing them down into the wells. I've done this with success, but am finding that if I trim the wick to length and then sort of stick it down into where the juice wells before installing the chimney I can get a much better feel for whether or not the wick well is too full or blocking the juice channels.

- Make sure the wick is really well saturated prior to buttoning up the Lemo. This will allow it to wick well right from the start.

Just my $0.02

 

[NOVA jon]

OK. Will do. I wasn't sure how long to expect the life of those o rings and silicone washers to last but none of them look compromised / torn, cracked or anything. But at this point, I need to try something else. I've tried everything with wicking and it all seems to result in the same thing. I've tried every extreme of too little wick, too much wick, longer wick, shorter wick. I do get some obvious performance problems when I go too extreme on one end or other with wicking bet even when it seems perfect, the tank still doesn't bubble up after vaping. When the tank was new, I always got some bubbling up from juice wells after almost every pull.



So you feel the top oring on the chimney most likely is the culprit? Sometimes if I prime REALLY hard, I actually see liquid sucking up inside the tank toward the drip tip, but still get no air bubble from the juice well. That is what tells me I don't have a good vaccum going on.

I have not replace that O ring on all 3 Lemo's that I have. Like you, I noticed that I was having to "pull" much harder to get good juice flow on one of them. I think that O ring in particular is the most stressed one having to take the brunt of screwing and unscrewing to wick each time.

If you have had it since November. I would think you have wicked that thing dozens of times right!!?? That would be the first one I would look at!!

 

[Bored2Tears]

Thanks all. I'm gonna try replacing all three seals. That'll be the easiest fix to try first. I've also sent a message to Eleaf US to see where to source extra spares. I know they can be had from Fasttech but with the Chinese holiday, it will be slow going. I'd prefer to source them direct from Eleaf if possible. I think they should give some sources for replacement stuff since they build this tank.

I know this tank is a rock star. It performed wonderfully in the beginning and I had never had an RTA before. I will double check everything again but I really think I'm wicking correctly. I quit doing the bunny ear thing too, because I find it easier to verify my wick placement if I wet it good and position it to slightly touch the deck, but clear of the juice channels. At one point, I even was using a piece of music wire the same diameter as the juice well to be sure that hole stayed clear. Maybe I marred that juice well by accident? I can't imagine the machining of that well has to be 100% perfect just to allow juice flow, but maybe I'm wrong.

I like this tank so much that if I can't things going right, I'll buy another and start again. I know it's not the tank. Something happened with the performance of mine but troubleshooting the issue has really gotten me stumped.

Starting with seals seems like a good place. I've rebuilt/ rewicked probably 50 times since I bought the tank, so I may have prematurely worn things out. It would help if I owned more tanks so I would not have to re wick constantly.

 

[NOVA jon]

I've wicked those things a million ways to Sunday and have had most success with the bunny ears method. To me, the trick to get that wicking method correct on the lemo is to cut just above the chimney base, "blow fluff" the wick and start to lightly tuck the wick from the wall of the chimney base working the wick to the coil. Then clear the juice channel with a piece of kanthal or your music wire would work too, then juice the wick, fill and vape!!

I was getting some minor leaking when I was gluing the wick to the deck and then screwing on the chimney pieces, I know you can always readjust you wicking after you screw on the chimney base, this way seems to be working better for me!!

 

[Elyptic]

I've wicked those things a million ways to Sunday and have had most success with the bunny ears method. To me, the trick to get that wicking method correct on the lemo is to cut just above the chimney base, "blow fluff" the wick and start to lightly tuck the wick from the wall of the chimney base working the wick to the coil. Then clear the juice channel with a piece of kanthal or your music wire would work too, then juice the wick, fill and vape!!

I was getting some minor leaking when I was gluing the wick to the deck and then screwing on the chimney pieces, I know you can always readjust you wicking after you screw on the chimney base, this way seems to be working better for me!!

I think it all depends on the individual doing the wicking! My vote - stick with what works!

 

[NOVA jon]

I think it all depends on the individual doing the wicking! My vote - stick with what works!

I couldn't agree more, just chuckin' some options out there!

 

[MidwestGuy]

I'm running low on Lemo seals as well ... I sent a note to eLeaf US last weekend and have not received any response yet. I'll post here as soon as or if I do.

 

[Bored2Tears]

I'm running low on Lemo seals as well ... I sent a note to eLeaf US last weekend and have not received any response yet. I'll post here as soon as or if I do.

Midwest Guy, How long have you owned your Lemo, and how often have you replaced seals, out of curiosity.