The real Walter White would have figured it all out. Jesse could have fixed it as well. Better call Saul.
Very Irritating Experience (Kanger ProTank II)
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Lots of great info here. I have two protanks, and my problems with them came down to me. Some issues:
Look down inside the tank while you're filling it. Make sure the juice level doesn't rise above the inner tube. I usually block that tube with a qtip while filling. IF you overfill, separate the tank from the head, run a qtip through the tube in the tank, just rub the head dry with a towel, and blow through the narrow tube in the head to get rid of liquid. You don't have to take apart the head the way you would for a dryburn.
Protank is liable to gurgling if the juice level gets too low. See above if this happens.
After installing a new head or a new wick, you'll get a few dry hits. Give it a minute or two; it will pick up.
Make sure the silicone cap on the head is in place. I've forgotten to put it on a few times, and the results were not good.
If you're getting zero results, it could be that while dryburning, etc., you moved the coil out of place. I don't know of any cures for this other than a rebuild, which I don't do, or a new head, sadly.
Sometimes after dryburning, the long tube on the head goes on crooked. If so, you'll have a hard time screwing in the new head, and there will, again, be leaking. Check to make sure it's on evenly.
I remove the flavor wicks and dry burn the coil every second or third day. I then replace the wicks with cotton wicks. It takes about five minutes to do this, and the head will be as good as new. A head lasts me 2-3 weeks.
If nothing is working, then it's highly unlikely that it's the protank itself. It has to be the head. Replace it.
Look down inside the tank while you're filling it. Make sure the juice level doesn't rise above the inner tube. I usually block that tube with a qtip while filling. IF you overfill, separate the tank from the head, run a qtip through the tube in the tank, just rub the head dry with a towel, and blow through the narrow tube in the head to get rid of liquid. You don't have to take apart the head the way you would for a dryburn.
Protank is liable to gurgling if the juice level gets too low. See above if this happens.
After installing a new head or a new wick, you'll get a few dry hits. Give it a minute or two; it will pick up.
Make sure the silicone cap on the head is in place. I've forgotten to put it on a few times, and the results were not good.
If you're getting zero results, it could be that while dryburning, etc., you moved the coil out of place. I don't know of any cures for this other than a rebuild, which I don't do, or a new head, sadly.
Sometimes after dryburning, the long tube on the head goes on crooked. If so, you'll have a hard time screwing in the new head, and there will, again, be leaking. Check to make sure it's on evenly.
I remove the flavor wicks and dry burn the coil every second or third day. I then replace the wicks with cotton wicks. It takes about five minutes to do this, and the head will be as good as new. A head lasts me 2-3 weeks.
If nothing is working, then it's highly unlikely that it's the protank itself. It has to be the head. Replace it.
idk. I get a great vape without rebuilding. At least I don't consider occasional dry burning and replacing the wicks with cotton wicks rebuilding; it's way cheaper and more convenient than driving to the gas station to get a new pack of smokes in any case
idk. I get a great vape without rebuilding. At least I don't consider occasional dry burning and replacing the wicks with cotton wicks rebuilding; it's way cheaper and more convenient than driving to the gas station to get a new pack of smokes in any case
Rebuilding isn't the right word I guess. I should have said fiddling. It's not that much trouble... But what ever happened to, "it should just work"?
Very true; nothing vape related but the non-mod batteries seem to "just work." What takes me minutes now took far longer than that to figure out, and lots of people don't have the time or the patience for that, for excellent reasons--they have lives, jobs, places to be.
On third thought yes, it should "just work," and long explanations and youtubing should be unnecessary.
Actually, the Aspire BDC with 3 coils costs ~ $6 less and just works. Flawlessly.
But Aspire needs to be refilled--which means it can be overfilled. It still needs replacement heads, which means something can go wrong with those heads, etc. It's still very different from buying a pack of smokes which will always work, and give people cancer while working.
I don't know why so many people have leaking problems. I never have a leaking problem unless it's something I did, like forgot to put the rubber piece back on the head after dry burning or accidentally unscrewing the base when I'm taking it off the battery or something. The protanks aren't that complicated. I mean, if you're overfilling the tank and spilling juice all over the place you can't blame the tank when it starts malfunctioning.
I think when people say leaking they're referring to gurgling aren't they? My PT2 never "leaked" per se, but it constantly sucked juice up into the tube.
I do not believe that it is "generally accepted". Kanger has sold thousands of these. I think that we just happen to be in the one place that people come to for help, so we read about the outliers that have problems.
Most people won't go seeking out a web forum just to say "I just bought a gazornoblatz. It works great. No issues.". However, if that freaking gazornoblatz isn't gazornoblatzing correctly, the gazornoblatz internet forum would be the first place they go for help...
I'm on multiple forums where vaping threads come up... reddit, offtopic, FB, etc. PT's not being reliable is a pretty common theme.
I'm not trying to put down anyone's choices or anything like that... keep in mind, I have 3 kanger tanks myself. and they all are equally unreliable.
It can happen on any atomizer and for a wealth of reasons including chaining that exceeds the design/build capacity of the coil and assembly. But one of the most common reasons, and price is not a factor, is bad assembly or construction of the coil element itself…
http://www.sun-vapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Atomizer-heads-faulty.jpg
For many who start vaping it's more common than some may think. It's not perfect and doesn't have to be. But there is a tremendous variation in the quality of production of these consumer items abroad. Some of us are spared. Others are miserable because of differences in the supply chain to the vendors. And we have little way to predict that. Often they don't either. Bottom line is eventually the catastrophic failure will hit you. I hit it immediately testing product for a retailer with the very first batch of pre pack coil heads I got for the test. It happened in the past few days with 100% DOA of Kamry original carto's furnished with tanks and pre pack replacements too. One-hundred percent. So to say that because it hasn't happened to us it may not be right or understood is suspension of disbelief. Like the suspension that we'll never have an auto accident.
As for Walter, I know what he's struggling with. Been there, done that. Glad those above me have been so far spared.
Good luck to all'a ya's.
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It comes down to the person, their way of vaping. My only problem with the pt is that it gurgles when the juice level gets too low. Solution is to fill it, obviously. The dryburning and the new cotton wicks are necessary for me, because I'm miserly lol. Someone else would replace the old head with a new one every time juice tastes funky, and that would be that.
I've been looking on reddit, too, and some people do better with Protanks than they do with Vivis, and vice versa; some love cartos while others can't deal with them, and on and on. It's subjective and unpredictable, and there is a learning curve. That learning curve imo discourages people from switching to vaping, and that's a shame.
I had nothing but issues with the kanger protank 2's. I ended up just tossing them cause they were such a PIA I couldn't even bring myself to offering them to others it felt like just passing on a problem
Rhean you said a mouthful. I couldn't agree more. And there seems to be almost a tolerated right of passage that seems to be tolerated watching many of us as newb's struggling through it. There is simply too much good information on this forum to go through and connect-the-dots.
That's why I decided to contribute here. Join a few others who are making a feeble attempt in the midst of this tsunami to consolidate some facts. I often wish there was a catch-all one-size-fits-all solution you could drop into an atty and it just does the job. Unfortunately, that utopian ideal doesn't exist and probably never will. No, the big secret is we most of us hit the wall where nothing works sooner or later. Sometimes not until our minimalist expectations surrender to what is possible.
Then we wanna make somethin'. That's when the doors to the rest of the vaping universe, the real one, opens. Until then we're prisoners to production, we just don't know it.
Good luck!
There's an aspire with 3 coils? Where did you get this, I've only seen 2 coil models.
Now that I mention it, there seem to be several models, e.g. Aspire CE5 and CE5-S BDCCs, Aspire Vivi Nova-S BDC (3.5 ml and 2 ml versions).
Regards
Glenn
Rhean you said a mouthful. I couldn't agree more. And there seems to be almost a tolerated right of passage that seems to be tolerated watching many of us as newb's struggling through it. There is simply too much good information on this forum to go through and connect-the-dots.
That's why I decided to contribute here. Join a few others who are making a feeble attempt in the midst of this tsunami to consolidate some facts. I often wish there was a catch-all one-size-fits-all solution you could drop into an atty and it just does the job. Unfortunately, that utopian ideal doesn't exist and probably never will. No, the big secret is we most of us hit the wall where nothing works sooner or later. Sometimes not until our minimalist expectations surrender to what is possible.
Then we wanna make somethin'. That's when the doors to the rest of the vaping universe, the real one, opens. Until then we're prisoners to production, we just don't know it.
Good luck!
Very true. Being a prisoner to production is not good, and making stuff for ourselves is (imo) good. However, our culture teaches us to expect convenience, and there is nothing wrong with that. Smoking is convenient. For a substantial number of people to switch, vaping needs to be as convenient.
Consolidating info, especially here, would be an excellent thing. I just reread this thread, and the op got any number of conflicting bits of info, from Pts don't work, move onto something else (expensive) to rebuild the head from scratch (inconvenient) to dryburn (inconvenient), etc. I reread my own first post, and it was an incomprehensible list.
Being new to vaping is not easy. I speak as one relatively new to vaping.
Good luck to all.
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