this really sucks.. Iclear 16 and protank mini 2

[Zackh18]

So I vape on an itaste vv 3.0 , and I got the protank mini and the 5 Iclears that came with it.
So I decided to deep clean all my Iclears, so I took them apart and let them so in warm to hot water for an hour and built them back up and let them dry, I THINK the mix is 50/50 in my liquids but on one of the Iclears the ohms read .6 witch isn't right at all. I don't know what went wrong as I've cleaned them before.

Now the second part, my protank mini 2 , I've used up the 1.8 ohm coils that came in the box and I bought 5 more official coils at 2.5 ohms and it doesn't taste the same as it used to within the first week of getting it. All I taste it burnt and nothing and this taste even comes when I take the first puff on a brand new coil,

I'm about to scrap them and get the new Aspire nautilus BDC and settle at that , since I heard that doesn't have as many problems as the protank.

Thanks for any help you all can give me

 

[Christopherja]

Search ECF for "protank dry hits", and you'll find a wealth of fixes/troubleshooting.

In general, it's usually a wicking issue. You can try removing a flavour wick from atop your coil, or else flipping the silicone "cap" upside-down on top of the atomiser chimney.

Also, what voltage are you vaping at? It may be too high, and your wicks may be singing, due to your their not being able to keep up the liquid supply.

 

[edyle]

So I vape on an itaste vv 3.0 , and I got the protank mini and the 5 Iclears that came with it.
So I decided to deep clean all my Iclears, so I took them apart and let them so in warm to hot water for an hour and built them back up and let them dry, I THINK the mix is 50/50 in my liquids but on one of the Iclears the ohms read .6 witch isn't right at all. I don't know what went wrong as I've cleaned them before.

Now the second part, my protank mini 2 , I've used up the 1.8 ohm coils that came in the box and I bought 5 more official coils at 2.5 ohms and it doesn't taste the same as it used to within the first week of getting it. All I taste it burnt and nothing and this taste even comes when I take the first puff on a brand new coil,

I'm about to scrap them and get the new Aspire Nautilus BDC and settle at that , since I heard that doesn't have as many problems as the protank.

Thanks for any help you all can give me

What setting do you use on your VV 3.0 ?
For a single coil, 5 watts is pretty standard.

I hope the new coils are clean but I wouldn't bank on it; I would boil brand new coils in case they have factory chemicals.

When you put in a new coil, it still needs time to get wet; sucking on the mouthpiece with your fingers over the 2 airholes on the miniprotank base without firing the power, will help draw some liquid in to the wick.

 

[*deleon517*]

wont be much help no the burnt taste as I dont really use tank systems, but it is usually due to an issue with wicking, some will remove a strand, dry pull, use a thinner more pg based liquid(50/50 should be fine however).

as far as the ohm drop there are a few things that could have happened. the coil could have shifted making it short out against the base make sure its not touching any visible metal.
Or
they are getting older which can also cause a change in the resistance you will see. Think of the coils like railroad tracks, each season depending on hot or cold weather they expand or contract from their normal size to larger or smaller. Now the coils do the same thing every time you press the button, just doesn't take as long as the tracks do being a small surface area and dealing with extreme hot/cold changes repeated. I know with cartomizer they typical would go up in ohm's and atomizers I noticed go down in ohm's. Why they react differently in my experience is beyond me.

If the coils aren't touching and you can find a reason why its reading so off toss them or if you can rebuild them. They are really only meant to be used as disposable item's most will get a good 2-4 weeks off a coil depending on usage.

 

[Agamer]

Something I noticed with the mini protank and all tanks really is you need to either let it sit for like 10 min after filling to let the wicks get saturated or take a few puffs without pressing the fire button to draw the juice into the wicks. Once you can taste the flavor a little bit then you are good to go

 

[Zackh18]

I normally vape at 8 watts and 3.7 volts on the 2.5 ohms

 

[edyle]

I normally vape at 8 watts and 3.7 volts on the 2.5 ohms

I figure you are vaping at 8 watts, and the 3.7 volts is just the measurement of the battery voltage, not the voltage going to the tank.

you either set the watts or the volts not both.


for the typical single coil, normal wattage seems to be around 5 watts: 4 to 6 watts.
8 sounds high for a single coil.


the iclear 16 's come with dual coils; so vaping at 8 watts with them would be 4 watts per coil.

if you vape the protank single coil at 8 watts I wouldn't be surprised if you get burning.

I vape my protank coils at 4 watts and 5 watts;

to dryburn them I start maybe 6watts to get them dry, then go down to 3 watts so they can get red without burning out.

 

[revco]

Forgive me for pointing out the obvious here, but you do know that atomizers need to be replaced, right? That it's part of the ongoing expense and maintenance of e-cigs? With atomizers, the juice you use can heavily affect the life of a given coil/atomizer. Sometimes it's a failure out of the box, sometimes a day, sometimes a week and maybe 2-3 weeks at the very most. There's a lot of knock off coils, too, out there and you may not have received a quality atomizer.

When you're cleaning, things can get bumped around or what have you. It sounds like a short may have developed in your iClear, which is entirely possible. These atomizers are fairly cheap items...you can't expect all of them to be perfect for what amounts to probably 20 cents worth of work.

Also, make sure you're priming your wicks with the Kanger. Just dab a little juice on the wicks and let it sit for a few once you load 'er up. Not doing this will almost always burn the silica, which will result in a burnt taste. The mini-pro's have been very solid for me and many others here...but every atomizer out there has it's own unique issues. I do get an occasional wicking issue with some juices, but I usually just draw on the tank a few times without hitting the fire button and I'm good to go. When you do develop an issue, the last thing you want to do is keep firing it...it'll probably make the problem worse.

 

[Zackh18]

So wgat do you think I should do vape at 4 watts on my protank mini 2 2.5 ohm coil

 

[quigonmat]

Stock voltage on my protank mini 2 is the only way to go. I use the 2.2 ohm coils. If I run it at unregulated with my ego it will taste burnt a little because they don't wick well as has been well pointed out.

I was planning ahead and bought 3 x 5 pack replacements and Im still on my first coil that came with the tank (of the 2). From what I can see the coils are pretty durable. I guess I'll see when I finally have to put a new one in if this one is just a fluke. I also don't use heavy/sweet juices which could be why.

 

[*deleon517*]

I personally would keep it around 5-7 watts which would translate to 3.5-4.1 volts. You can set one or the other not both as they are by products of each other. to determine watts with out a mod being set to it you would need to square your voltage and divide by the resistance(ohms of the head).

as mentioned above most find a happy place at 4-7watts and 8 can be a bit high for a single coil.

 

[quigonmat]

How long do you find your coils last roughly?

 

[edyle]

So wgat do you think I should do vape at 4 watts on my protank mini 2 2.5 ohm coil

5 watts.

 

[EBates]

How long do you find your coils last roughly?

You wouldn't think yours would be a hard question. My guess based on actual hours vaping (not days between changing) would be 48 to 60 hours between cleanings.
I vape continuously throughout the day, so what might take you a week to vape I may do in two days.
I change atomizers when the draw is producing weak vape, wattage required goes above normal (never reaching 8w for sure), any hint of leaking/gurgling.
Been vaping for about 8 months now and don't think I have ever thrown an atomizer head away, even though I have approx 20 new ones still on the box. I clean and dry burn and in my opinion the cleaned ones work better than new ones.

 

[quigonmat]

You wouldn't think yours would be a hard question. My guess based on actual hours vaping (not days between changing) would be 48 to 60 hours between cleanings.
I vape continuously throughout the day, so what might take you a week to vape I may do in two days.
I change atomizers when the draw is producing weak vape, wattage required goes above normal (never reaching 8w for sure), any hint of leaking/gurgling.
Been vaping for about 8 months now and don't think I have ever thrown an atomizer head away, even though I have approx 20 new ones still on the box. I clean and dry burn and in my opinion the cleaned ones work better than new ones.

Thanks for the great reply, and I know what you mean by it being hard to compare as your habits are likely different than mine.

 

[Zackh18]

Can you link me to legit good coils for protank mini 2

 

[jcco]

I cant post a link for some reason but Discount Vapers has most coils at a good price & usually in stock.

JC

 

[Talyon]

I've only had to replace 1 coil, and that's because I broke off part of what holds the chimney in place.

I have 4 others in rotation and use them almost exclusively I clean them every 2 tank refills, some do this after every refill.

To clean I out under running warm water then let dry overnight, next day I put in vodka for several hours to overnight, after this I resoak under running warm water and let dry for a another day. Once dry I install just the coil without the flavor wick and dry burn a few times, then low on it to get rid of any lingering crud. I then install a brand new flavor wick only and leave the existing main wick in place, I use 1mm ecowool or organic cotton as the flavor wick, reassemble and Vape happily. Warning never dry burn cotton as it will burn.

I always allow a coil to sit for about 5 min after filling before Vapeing to allow the wick to saturate, I use mainly high VG liquids.

Hope that helps your future endeavors.

 

[EBates]

Can you link me to legit good coils for protank mini 2

Protank Atomizer Head
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10004861/1476404-authentic-protank-clearomizer-coil-heads-5-pack

Atomizer Cleaning Process

Soak in alcohol (Not Rubbing Alcohol) overnight
Rinse throughly with warm tap water forcing water into the wick area
Towel dry and blow out any water
Remove the gasket and stem
Remove the flavor wick(s)
Dry burn 6 watts, 5 seconds on/off. Repeat until coils are all turning red and wick is clean.
Blow the burned off crud away

Hold the flavor wick with tweezer while burning them with a lighter or torch until wick is clean.
Place the flavor wick back on top of the coil
Or
Place the flavor wick back on top of the coil
Dry burn as above to cleanup the flavor wick (4-5 cycles should do it)
Or
Replace the flavor wick with the material of your choice

Reinstall the stem and gasket.

 

[03FXDWG]

If your iClears are dual coil--most new ones are--.6 ohms is probably right--both coils together would be 1.2 which is a little low but it's ok.

There is a big difference between 1.8 and 2.5 single coils. I can vape happily away at 3.2 to 3.7 volts or 6-7 watts with a 1.8 coil but if I go any higher than that, especially with a mint liquid--SCORCH!

Another thing I have noticed and heard others caution is to start on low power or voltage with a new coil and work your way up to "break it in." I popped 2 brand new 1.8 ohm coils in a row before I took that sage advice. They might have been duds but I haven't blown another one since I started breaking them in. Newly dry-burned coils should also be babied at first and during the process of dry burning, use a low volt/wattage and do it in 3-5 second pulses. You will eventually see the entire coil glow red, the wick will turn white (if using silica--remove cotton wicks before dry burning), and the coil will start to glow faster when it's "clean." I think it still tastes funky at this point so I give it another vodka bath. Some of the older Kanger coils used a rubber insulator which can easily get scorched during dry burning and that flavor is permanent if you don't replace the burned insulator which is too much bother even for a penny pinching scrooge like me.

Regarding the vodka soaking--I put all new, used & newly dry burned coils in a vodka bath for several hours to 1 day. I don't pull the chimney off unless they are being cleaned after a dry burn--it's already off as are the flavor wicks for dry burns. New coils could have machining residue--oil, gunk, cooties, etc. and that bothers me more than burnt on e-liquid.

Did you let your coils completely dry (air out for a day) before you re-installed them in the tank? I know some people claim that they can put them in wet and they will eventually start soaking in the liquid but sucking on wet cotton or silica is not a pleasant experience so I would just rather wait a day for them to dry out. That's what spares are for!

I also agree with what the others said about letting new or newly dried coils sit for 10 minutes or prime-puffing them to get the wicks saturated. I always put a few drops on a the center of a dry burned coil since I have it apart already but new coils and rinsed/dried coils need a little more time since you can only apply it to the tiny bits sticking out from under the chimney & grommet thing.

Coil life is very hard to estimate. Some are duds to begin with. Some can't handle high voltage/wattage and burn up, the coil wire can get kinked or shorted causing it to fail. Clear, thin, unsweetened liquids will not build up nearly as fast as chocolate, tobacco, very sweet liquids. Higher ohm coils use thicker wire so theoretically they shouldn't be as fragile and last longer but you have to have a device that can push more power than a normal ego to get a satisfactory vape and it takes a little longer for the coil to fully glow.

The only way I know of to get a more consistent experience than coils can give you is to switch to carto tanks but without priming, they will also suffer dry hits.