Vaping woe :-(

[Feuille]

Have been happily vaping for ~5 years and after trying various things, settled down to a basic set up. Yay.

tanks: Nautilus mini; Eleaf GS; Aspire K1; occasional use of good old 510 Boge's
Coils: Proprietary 1.8Ω (usually BVC) and sometimes 1.6Ω.
Batteries: Joyetech Ego 650 mAh or 1200 mAh; CoV Mini-Volt Box mod.
Chargers: Joyetech Ego USB; CoV mini-USB passthrough.

Then, about six months ago, things began to go a bit awry. Made tweaks, searched online, replaced rubber o-rings etc., replaced hardware.

But the issues got worse. Even with a full set of new, verified genuine, carefully set up, carefully maintained and tweaked hardware, using all the stuff I knew from all the time prior. Am at my wits end and on the brink of returning to smoking.

My hands are constantly covered in nicotine. As are my clothes. I can only leave tanks down on plastic or a towel if I don't wish to stain the surface. Consequently a lot of liquid gets wasted - it feels horrible & pale clothes are out. Everything stinks of stale liquid. Gross. The tanks often spit hot liquid onto my hands/chest/arms from the air holes.

Atomisers that used to last ~1 week now last 2 days.
Atomisers get stuck in the post of the tanks so that they cannot be replaced and/or do not make proper contact with the base (and thus the battery).
Frequent trouble unscrewing tanks to refill them or to change out atomisers.
Egos & box mod running out of charge markedly faster.
Egos & box mod needing to be replaced markedly faster.
Chargers dying VERY fast.

I know that these issues are not attributable to heavier vaping and/or to the use of different liquids - for some odd reason I have kept charts of purchases and suchlike and things have been very stable. I believe I am now way more careful about maintenance etc., but omg. Am at my wits end.

When I look online at all the gear, I see these huge big chunky ugly things and feel overwhelmed and confused. With the new EU regulations coming into force, I don't have masses of time to settle on a new set up.

I need something small, slim, portable & low power.

Any ideas?

Right now smoking seems positively less disgusting.

 

[Bonskibon]

There are small boxes like the iStick 30 and 40 watts. If you want the ego type batteries I can personally recommend the Spinner 2 as I have one that I'm still using after almost a year and a half. The Nautilus mini tanks may fair well with you also. Please don't smoke. You've come so far. Hang in there as I'm sure others will chime in to help.

 

[Feuille]

Found spinners to be worse than regular egos, and the main issue seems to be the Nautilus minis - suspect the leaking is messing with the batteries. :-(

 

[r77r7r]

Found spinners to be worse than regular egos, and the main issue seems to be the Nautilus minis - suspect the leaking is messing with the batteries. :-(

Make sure the top is snug to tight on the nautilus. Some people also flip the inner gasket.

 

[Feuille]

Aye, check for both of those issues several times a day. Makes zero difference.

In the past, the mini Nautilus gave me no issues at all - it was perfect. The last four I've had have all had major problems.

 

[Bonskibon]

Maybe the Triton mini?

 

[Feuille]

Shall have a look...

 

[englishmick]

Definitely a mystery. I've seen quite a few posts like yours over the years. It's happened to me. I get into a routine where everything goes well for a while, then suddenly nothing goes right. I wondered whether I was just getting complacent and not concentrating so hard. It seems to pass after a while though.

I don't know those particular tanks. Did you say you got new Nautilus minis recently? Or do the problems just happen on the same tanks you've had for a while? Major flooding like you are getting is generally caused by a failure in the vacuum seal, which lets too much juice through to the coil. Or the heads not getting a good seal on the tank. That can be caused by damaged or missing orings. I guess it could be caused by the threading on the tanks parts getting worn and loose, if it's an old tank.

But you seem to have already checked the obvious stuff, and it's happening on several different setups and new gear. The only common factor left would be the juice, which you haven't changed either.

Maybe your old Nautis are getting worn, and quality control is slipping so the new ones aren't as good.

My suggestion is get some completely new gear you haven't used before. Maybe a Spinner and a Protank or something simple and foolproof like that. Pretty cheap too.

Good luck.

 

[mattiem]

My personal favorite is the gs-air 2. It comes with a .75Ω coil installed but I replace it with a 1.2 or 1.5. I have 4 of them in my rotation right now and "knock on wood" I have had zero leaking issues with any of them. They are the perfect size for ego type/size batteries.

 

[Feuille]

Yup. My old Nautilus Mini lasted for ages with no problem, as did the backup I bought at the same time. Coils all worked great for a good few years.

So, yes, you may be right that the new Nautilus Minis are not being produced to the same standard. Is a bit of a bad move on their part though - they leak like crazy from the outset.

I used, and quite liked Protanks in the past, but hated Spinners. Shall see if I can still obtain Protanks reasonably easily - still have a stack of coils for them at least, and spare glass for that matter

 

[Feuille]

Yeah, have not tried the air version but liked the GS a lot - seems hard to find in Europe now, but I guess I can stock up from the US or similar.

 

[mattiem]

Yeah, have not tried the air version but liked the GS a lot - seems hard to find in Europe now, but I guess I can stock up from the US or similar.

I bought a supply of them from Fasttech $6.05 Authentic Eleaf GS Air 2 Bottom Coil Tank Clearomizer - 2ml / 0.75ohm / chromed brass + glass at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

I also order my coils from them $5.60 Authentic Eleaf GS-Tank Pure Cotton Coil Head (5-Pack) - 1.2ohm(8-30W) at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

 

[Feuille]

Nice prices - about half what Eleaf UK charges. Yay.

 

[ZCAR1]

10% off today @ FT with "ILOVEMOM"

 

[Txaggiesaunt]

I finally solve my leaking issues. I went to squonking. If it leaks it's my own fault for over squonking....lol

 

[Smoke_too_much]

Hi Feuille
If you don't mind a small step back to the simpler days a year or two ago then I'd recommend the Joyetech Evic Mini VTC 75 watt mod with the Wismec Theorem RDT. They are on sale at EfunTop right now at $14.98 & $9.98 and for a good simple vape they are hard to beat.

 

[jamesbeat]

I had leaking problems with all tanks I tried until I started using rebuilables.

I'm currently using Kayfun Lite V2's and I get absolutely no leaks as long as I keep the fill screw o rings in good condition.

I think a lot of tanks leak because of the seal around the coil.

 

[lil_buddy]

Li-Ion batteries are consumables like any other battery. If you get over a year out of an eGo battery, that's really great. It's not reasonable to hope for more.

The o-rings in tanks are also consumables. They wear out, lose elasticity, deflate, crack, tear over time.

The things you are describing can easily be attributed to normal aging with regular use.

 

[jamesbeat]

I am a little cynical about the quality of ego batteries in particular.
I have an 18650 battery that I have been using constantly for over a year now.
It's the only battery that I use, and it gets charged every day.
I haven't noticed any drop off in performance whatsoever yet.
I put it in charge every morning when I get to work and the level is always the same every morning.
I can still get two days out of it if I forget to charge it at the weekend.

I think it's because I spent the money on a good quality battery.
Those ego ones are probably just whichever cheap cell they could get at the time.

 

[Feuille]

What is squonking?