Very tight draw and barely any vapor with IKV 306 LR
- Thread starter EvilGnome6
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I've been following this tread from the beginning but didn't want to comment until I did enough testing on my own to see what I find out. For the past few days I've been messing around with five IKV 306 LR atties which were sitting in a box since I purchased them about a month ago. They all metered between 2.1-2.2 ohm before ever used. Here are my findings.
In the past, I always found that 306 atties work best for me when de-wicked. So I de-wicked the first one, properly primed it and attempted to use it on my ProVari at 4.5V. As reported by others, there was very little vapor and TH and the draw was rather tight. Adding more juice simply resulted in flooding and leakage without increasing the performance. I blew out the juice, re-primed and attempted to use it at 5V. The result was very similar. The atty still metered at 2.1 ohm. Just to make sure the issue was not somehow related to this PV, I tried using this atty with a fully charged AW IMR 16340 batt on my P16 and the result was even less desirable due to lower loaded voltage. So, I took out a second new IKV LR306 atty, de-wicked it and did everything exactly the same as described above and results were nearly identical.
Then I remembered Isaac's post from a few weeks ago regarding de-wicked 306 atties. If you all recall, Isaac was planning to have his new 306 atties manufactured without the wick installed since most of us who loved his HV306s preferred them dewicked due to reports of much better flavor. Isaac stated that he was advised by the manufacturer NOT to have them built that way. Also, after de-wicking one of the new ones himself, Isaac reported unfavorable results.
So, I decided to try using the third new IKV LR306 atty with the wick. After priming it fired it up on the ProVari at 4.5V. The vapor and TH were great. At 4.8V the TH was excellent. But the draw was milkshake-through-the-straw tight, much tighter than I prefer. After using it for about half an hour I decided to remove the wick to see what will happen and if maybe the draw would become lighter. Bad idea! After de-wicking this particular atty it was confirmed by two PVs and two DMMs that this atty is now dead! Hmmm...
To make the story shorter, I used the 4th and the 5th atty with the wick where they both had a very tight draw while producing great vapor and TH. After de-wicking them, the 4th one started "performing" like the first two and the 5th one died like the 3rd one. So, after de-wicking five IKV LR306 atties, I have three under-performing and two completely dead atties.
My conclusion based on my experience is very simple: These new IKV 306 atties are not de-wickable. It seems that the de-wicking process somehow ends up ruining them and makes them unusable. I know this goes against everything I've said in the past regarding 306 atties and de-wicking but something appears to be different here imo.
In the past, I always found that 306 atties work best for me when de-wicked. So I de-wicked the first one, properly primed it and attempted to use it on my ProVari at 4.5V. As reported by others, there was very little vapor and TH and the draw was rather tight. Adding more juice simply resulted in flooding and leakage without increasing the performance. I blew out the juice, re-primed and attempted to use it at 5V. The result was very similar. The atty still metered at 2.1 ohm. Just to make sure the issue was not somehow related to this PV, I tried using this atty with a fully charged AW IMR 16340 batt on my P16 and the result was even less desirable due to lower loaded voltage. So, I took out a second new IKV LR306 atty, de-wicked it and did everything exactly the same as described above and results were nearly identical.
Then I remembered Isaac's post from a few weeks ago regarding de-wicked 306 atties. If you all recall, Isaac was planning to have his new 306 atties manufactured without the wick installed since most of us who loved his HV306s preferred them dewicked due to reports of much better flavor. Isaac stated that he was advised by the manufacturer NOT to have them built that way. Also, after de-wicking one of the new ones himself, Isaac reported unfavorable results.
So, I decided to try using the third new IKV LR306 atty with the wick. After priming it fired it up on the ProVari at 4.5V. The vapor and TH were great. At 4.8V the TH was excellent. But the draw was milkshake-through-the-straw tight, much tighter than I prefer. After using it for about half an hour I decided to remove the wick to see what will happen and if maybe the draw would become lighter. Bad idea! After de-wicking this particular atty it was confirmed by two PVs and two DMMs that this atty is now dead! Hmmm...
To make the story shorter, I used the 4th and the 5th atty with the wick where they both had a very tight draw while producing great vapor and TH. After de-wicking them, the 4th one started "performing" like the first two and the 5th one died like the 3rd one. So, after de-wicking five IKV LR306 atties, I have three under-performing and two completely dead atties.
My conclusion based on my experience is very simple: These new IKV 306 atties are not de-wickable. It seems that the de-wicking process somehow ends up ruining them and makes them unusable. I know this goes against everything I've said in the past regarding 306 atties and de-wicking but something appears to be different here imo.
That's weird. I have five HV306 atties from the new batch (black caps) and the first from it is dewicked and performing just fine on my Reo Grand. It seems like the wick is a little more woven into the coils, or it looked that way when I dewicked it. I don't know...
I'm really happy to hear that since IKV HV306 has been my favorite atty for a long time! All the ones I tested were LR with orange / tan caps...
I have six or seven of them in my stash (for the wifey) but I'll open one now and dewick it and see what happens. Just need to make sure I change my batteries... those @ 6v = kaboom. Nickel bridge in my mouth? Bahaha... that'd be funny yet painful.
Thanks for the detailed report, Vaporologist. I've left the other four atties from my order unused to see where this was going. An even tighter draw than I was getting out of a de-wicked one would still mean it's unusable to me (or at least very unpleasant). On top of that, I think being able to de-wick is an essential option on an attie since it's the only way to get rid of that scorched flavor, which is inevitable for VG only vapors like me.
The question now is if this is an intended new design or a manufacturing flaw.
Yea, that's what I'm wondering as well. We know that Isaac redesigned these by incorporating the US made internals. He also prefers a tighter, smoking-a-cigarette like draw from atties but I imagine not this tight. I wonder if there were any other intentional modifications incorporated into this batch as well.
Btw, did yours come with black or orange mouthpieces? I wonder what is the difference...
Mine came with the black mouthpieces (which I always yank off in favor of a drip tip).
I pulled out my 306 and it is working much better. I wonder if it just needed to rest with some juice to open up a little.
I got 5 of the LR 306's with the black caps a week or two ago.I have tried them all and they all are hard to draw on to the point that I use my LR 510 instead.I dewicked some of mine and have had no problem with any of them dying from it yet.I hope he gets some good ones in,and maybe we can trade our tight ones for them.
I have 5 IKV LR 306 attys. All had black caps, and they work great on my Grand after fixing the threading issue. All are dewicked and vape well with great flavor and TH.
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