!! WARNING !! Kanger Subtank RBA Insulator Dissolving Into my Juice !!! What should I use to make one?

[ErnieKim]

If that's so, then it's entirely uncool of them. The only time I've seen that come up was when people weren't willing to provide purchase & authenticity information, so if they're requiring people with the bad insulator to purchase them it's really bad form. I get that they don't really come with a warranty, but if you're selling a product that has a substandard component and don't make it right, ugh.

ECFs TOS about posting emails here is annoying me in this instance, so I'm going to send a PM if you're willing to send their reply to my personal account.

Isn't there something like "implied warranty"? In that a product needs to "work", warranty or not, otherwise it's false advertising?
I'm not a lawyer but ya gotta "draw a line in the sand" sometimes. My guess is that the credit card company would handle it.

ErnieKim

 

[drunkenbatman]

Isn't there something like "implied warranty"? In that a product needs to "work", warranty or not, otherwise it's false advertising?
I'm not a lawyer but ya gotta "draw a line in the sand" sometimes. My guess is that the credit card company would handle it.

You'd definitely think so, but places like myvaporstore basically classify them as consumables and say there's no warranty whatsoever -- even on the product page. Some give a short DOA window, but after if you contact them they'll point you to Kanger and then it's up to them. How a credit card sorts that is up to the card and the store.

Erie followed up (thanks dude!), and without betraying his confidence, I'm hopeful he'll get sorted with some rewording of his email and look forward to hearing how it shakes out.

 

[ErnieKim]

Waiting to get a reply from a store over here if the mini's they are selling have the white - clear - brown insulators.

Absolutely, they should change them out to the brown insulator or give you some kind of credit if they don't. In summary, the brown ones are holding up good for me but I don't go sub-ohm.

ErnieKim

 

[JC87]

So you did, I misunderstood that! Two things:

1. It hasn't even been 24 hours, you might have to wait a few days to get a response but I hope you get it soon.

2. If the tank isn't letting go of the flavors, I might suggest giving it a soak with a bit of dawn eliquid, and/or swapping out the o-rings as opposed to just distilled water? You can use alcohols on the glass and metal, but it's not good for o-rings.

If Kanger wont replace my unit, how would one go about removing the O-rings from the airflow base portion of the mini (where the occ heads and rba screw into)? They look pretty secured and don't come with a replacement pair, which sucks because I suspect portion of the mini this is where the chemically aftertaste may be coming from. However, I don't want to do anything to it until I hear back from Kanger

I emailed them a few days ago. Apparently they are now making us pay for the new insulators

I certainly hope not! I am a huge kanger fan but will never buy a product from them nor recommend them to anybody if this is the case.

JC,

Wow, you really torched that thing! Is that discoloration that I see in the steel? If so, you got it so hot that it affected the temper of the steel, that takes some significant heat to do that.

Did the discoloration wipe right off of the steel? If not, you tempered the steel, as I said, wow.
If, on the other hand, it wiped right off then it was just off-gassing of some kind from the plastic, which is bad in itself but not as bad.

Seems that heavy duty cleaning and replacing all o-rings and plastic should do the trick; be aware that there's another separate insulator on the bottom-side of the deck where the post goes in. Is it still there?

You shouldn't have to go to all this trouble though, not in your case as bad as this is. The retailer should just replace the whole thing. If this isn't a legitimate warranty problem, what is?

You could also send the picture to your credit card company or however you bought it and let them take care of it. They'll surely give you your money back. If they don't, PM me and I'll be happy to share my contacts at Kanger China and Kanger USA; they did right by me in the end.

ErnieKim

I think it was just the lighting in that picture, I have taken some new ones. I would also love to hear in a PM what was required of you to do to get the service that you deserved! At the very least I need a new Insulator, RBA (since the insulator is melted to it), and bottom airflow base (the area the occ heads and rba screw into that i suspect is why every coil and juice is now tasting like burned chemicals). I would honestly like to see them offer a show of good faith and replace the whole thing for my troubles, but at this point I just want my favorite tank back in working condition and tasting the way it did on day 1. I haven't even had the thing a week yet!

Also, it has been 2 days now and I still haven't heard a word from them :\

 

[underwhelmd]

Looks to me like it melted from heat.

 

[JC87]

I honestly dont know why it melted, all I know is it wasnt from any fault of my own, or from any eliquid I was using. I did not build the RBA myself, it came with a factory coil already installed inside the RBA which was the one I used. I didnt have any time to try any of my own builds because the insulator melted after the first tank of e-liquid. It wasn't from a short because I use an Istick30 watt which wont fire on one.

 

[underwhelmd]

I honestly dont know why it melted, all I know is it wasnt from any fault of my own, or from any eliquid I was using. I did not build the RBA myself, it came with a factory coil already installed inside the RBA which was the one I used. I didnt have any time to try any of my own builds because the insulator melted after the first tank of e-liquid. It wasn't from a short because I use an Istick30 watt which wont fire on one.

Last edited by JC87; Today at 05:24 PM.

Hi, Just a hint if you want to be taken seriously: don't go back an hour later and edit your post to say exactly the opposite of what you said first. it smells of dishonesty.

You agreed it melted due to heat. It's obvious from the pics anyway. I'll let any of the veterans explain why heat would be at that level in your RBA or you could read about it.

 

[drunkenbatman]

I honestly dont know why it melted, all I know is it wasnt from any fault of my own, or from any eliquid I was using. I did not build the RBA myself, it came with a factory coil already installed inside the RBA which was the one I used. I didnt have any time to try any of my own builds because the insulator melted after the first tank of e-liquid. It wasn't from a short because I use an Istick30 watt which wont fire on one.

What underwhelmd is saying is that the issue with the original insulator was it breaking down with very caustic eliquids, and that it doesn't look like that's the case here (and he's right), but rather it melted hardcore via heat.

It may not have been a hard short, but it's entirely possible there was some buildup/gunk from the machining process causing it to get super hot, or any number of things like the prebuilt coil having weirdness once it got going. This was talked about earlier in the thread as to why/how this happens with different insulators.

It's possible your insulator wasn't able to handle the normal heat generated, but there haven't really been any reports of that so you'd be a data point. I sincerely hope you get good news from Kanger about it but I'd focus on trying to get the tank not tasking nasty to hedge your bets.

 

[underwhelmd]

I hereby authorize DrunkenBatman to speak on my behalf or interpret my posts in a more diplomatic fashion.

peace, out.


Edit: This does not include signing of cheques or making CC purchases. lol

 

[JC87]

Hi, Just a hint if you want to be taken seriously: don't go back an hour later and edit your post to say exactly the opposite of what you said first. it smells of dishonesty.

You agreed it melted due to heat. It's obvious from the pics anyway. I'll let any of the veterans explain why heat would be at that level in your RBA or you could read about it.

I agreed it might have been heat because I am also not an electrician and I have no idea why it melted other than It was from no user error of my own. I have absolutely no reason to be dishonest about any of this, as I am singing Kangers praises in regards to their product, and am only trying to have my issue resolved by them and also warn others of the clear insulators. I dont want to cause any problems here because this is a friendly community and I am glad to be a part of it, but judging by your recent post history, you seem to have a clear agenda in discrediting anyone with this issue. Makes me suspicious of your motives...

 

[JC87]

What underwhelmd is saying is that the issue with the original insulator was it breaking down with very caustic eliquids, and that it doesn't look like that's the case here (and he's right), but rather it melted hardcore via heat.

It may not have been a hard short, but it's entirely possible there was some buildup/gunk from the machining process causing it to get super hot, or any number of things like the prebuilt coil having weirdness once it got going. This was talked about earlier in the thread as to why/how this happens with different insulators.

It's possible your insulator wasn't able to handle the normal heat generated, but there haven't really been any reports of that so you'd be a data point. I sincerely hope you get good news from Kanger about it but I'd focus on trying to get the tank not tasking nasty to hedge your bets.

I understand what you are saying, and I appreciate your reply. At the same time, should a paying customer really have to go through all of this to get the product that he paid for in working condition? It is not my fault the insulator melted or was damaged, and any factory defects or issues with the coils, tanks, insulators, etc should be handled by Kanger if there are issues as serious as this arising. Its just common courtesy. I've loved Kangers stuff and Im hoping they make this right

 

[Rizzyking]

Kanger are replacing insulators that may suffer from eliquid causing the insulator to melt/degrade your the first person I've seen with heat damage to the insulator maybe you got a bad one but your issue is unrelated to the current replacements.

 

[JC87]

I dont see how its unrelated. They might specify that its only due to eliquid, but who can be sure of that? They also released the original insulators that had problems, and now the clear ones that had problems. They are on their third revision. I had a problem with my insulator, seems pretty related to me, regardless of how it happened considering it was from no user error of mine. Thats the definition of a defect.

 

[JC87]

If you dont want to risk damaging your tank using the clear insulators that are defective, you can buy the latest upgraded ones here, though I think kanger really should provide them to anybody that received their RBA with the clear insulator. Notice the only insulators offered are the upgraded brown ones (blended peek material, their third revision of insulators)

Subtank Parts - KangerTech US, LLC

I will not be purchasing them. I feel it is up to Kanger to resolve this issue as my product was defective and damaged my rba itself.

 

[ErnieKim]

JC,

Heat or no heat, I don't see how this could be your fault. The only thing that you can screw up on is the coil, common sense would say that if the coil was shorting, the coil would have burned away quickly (broken) and the short would have stopped, kind of like the sacrificial in a fuse. So as D Batman said, it was likely something else, out of your control.
At this point, the proper thing for Kanger to do would be to send you all of the parts and if that's the case, It would be easier for them to just replace it. The fellow I dealt with in China was a bit "higher up the food chain". Follow up on my last PM and keep your fingers crossed, it worked for me.
ErnieKim

 

[JC87]

Thanks for your help ErnieKim! Hopefully this gets resolved and I can continue to highly recommend Kanger to all of my friends as I did in the past.

 

[erieboyz]

Ok guys, I contacted kanger again as Drunken advised me to. They are sending me new insulators for free. They were pretty quick to respond and very friendly. Thanks for the help

 

[JC87]

Thanks for updating us! Unfortunately I and many others have not heard back yet

 

[JC87]

Ugh, more bad news This sucks! A user on another forum has received the updated insulators but they dont fit his subtank mini RBA deck!

I am not giving up on kanger just yet, as I still think the subtank mini is the best clearomizer out there right now. I will be patient and hope these problems get fixed, because before my RBA insulator melted, it worked flawlessly!

 

[Wolfenstark]

Absolutely, they should change them out to the brown insulator or give you some kind of credit if they don't. In summary, the brown ones are holding up good for me but I don't go sub-ohm.

ErnieKim

Got a reply and they were not sure what colour they were but now they're out of stock and getting more in perhaps next week.
They did say thanks as to seemingly not knowing about the different insulators that have been sent out with these tanks.
You get that here and well perhaps everywhere , some stores do the research and know about the products and issues and other stores just get a product to sell.