What am doing wrong?

[wafflnator55]

hey guys, i just recently "upgraded" from my eGo-c (not variable) 1300mah, to a eleaf istick. so far im a little disappointed and confused. from my experience with my eGo, i usually take a 5-7 second, reasonably slow drag. this gives me plenty of throat hit, lots of vapour and never tastes burnt. with my new iStick, it seams like i basically have to suck as hard as i can to keep it from tasting burnt. i can comfortably puff on it for 3 seconds but getting closer to 5 seconds takes a seriously deep breath. this occurs even on lower settings, and i dont get quite as much vapour as i did with the eGo. ive fiddled with the airflow adjustment on my iJust tank, and that makes little difference, even if i take the screw right out.

so basically im finding that my eGo was just more enjoyable. besides the portability of the iStick, im not seeing much of a "upgrade" in my enjoyment. i dont want to be out of breath after hitting the vape for a session. its not quite a deal breaker, but if i was able to try it out before i bought it, i probably wouldn't have bought it.

am i missing something? is it the iStick, the iJust or me thats the problem?

 

[phanner]

I'm thinking it's your tank

 

[Redruth]

Don't have that problem with mine. Maybe you need to have it replaced? Hope you get it resolved.

 

[radmama]

I don't know about that particular tank, but what are you setting your watts/ voltage at? Also, are you giving the coils enough time to soak up the juice before vaping? Does that tank have adjustable air flow?

 

[ian-field]

hey guys, i just recently "upgraded" from my eGo-c (not variable) 1300mah, to a eLeaf iStick. so far im a little disappointed and confused. from my experience with my eGo, i usually take a 5-7 second, reasonably slow drag. this gives me plenty of throat hit, lots of vapour and never tastes burnt. with my new iStick, it seams like i basically have to suck as hard as i can to keep it from tasting burnt. i can comfortably puff on it for 3 seconds but getting closer to 5 seconds takes a seriously deep breath. this occurs even on lower settings, and i dont get quite as much vapour as i did with the eGo. ive fiddled with the airflow adjustment on my iJust tank, and that makes little difference, even if i take the screw right out.

so basically im finding that my eGo was just more enjoyable. besides the portability of the iStick, im not seeing much of a "upgrade" in my enjoyment. i dont want to be out of breath after hitting the vape for a session. its not quite a deal breaker, but if i was able to try it out before i bought it, i probably wouldn't have bought it.

am i missing something? is it the iStick, the iJust or me thats the problem?

Assuming its the type you can strip the head down and re-wind your own coils - you can find by trial and error how much wire to use for the taste you want.

My set up is a basic Vivi-Nova V2 with single cell, I find anything less than 1 Ohm gives a burnt taste. The lowest resistance head for that is 1.8R, which is OK - but I usually rewind for a little bit lower.

 

[rusirius]

hey guys, i just recently "upgraded" from my eGo-c (not variable) 1300mah, to a eLeaf iStick. so far im a little disappointed and confused. from my experience with my eGo, i usually take a 5-7 second, reasonably slow drag. this gives me plenty of throat hit, lots of vapour and never tastes burnt. with my new iStick, it seams like i basically have to suck as hard as i can to keep it from tasting burnt. i can comfortably puff on it for 3 seconds but getting closer to 5 seconds takes a seriously deep breath. this occurs even on lower settings, and i dont get quite as much vapour as i did with the eGo. ive fiddled with the airflow adjustment on my iJust tank, and that makes little difference, even if i take the screw right out.

so basically im finding that my eGo was just more enjoyable. besides the portability of the iStick, im not seeing much of a "upgrade" in my enjoyment. i dont want to be out of breath after hitting the vape for a session. its not quite a deal breaker, but if i was able to try it out before i bought it, i probably wouldn't have bought it.

am i missing something? is it the iStick, the iJust or me thats the problem?

The issue is that everything I've heard about the iStick says that it can't buck voltage, only boost it. (Despite it's specs stating that it can go down to 3v) So with that in mind a little ohm's law will tell us that on a freshly charged battery at 1.5 ohms it's going to be outputting 12 watts even at it's lowest settings... On a 2 ohm build it will be doing 9 watts, and 2.5 ohm build will get you down to 8 watts. 3 ohm build 6 watts, etc...

So anyway, the point is, it really can output as low as your old ego could. The "fix" is to use a tank that can handle more wattage or run higher resistance coils to get the power down at it's lowest settings.

 

[crxess]

Problem is not your iStick, it is your coils. they cannot handle the minimum available power. You need to see if you can get 2.2ohm or above coils or go to a better tank system.
Most BVC tanks will handle the power with lower ohm coils installed.

 

[tj99959]

You're use to vaping at 3.4v with your eGo-C battery. The iStick doesn't have "step down", so with a fresh charge you are now vaping at 4.2v. So now what you need to do is a little bit of a math puzzle, and figure out what resistance coil will give you the same wattage at 4.2v that you were getting at 3.4v.

This will make it a little easier to figure out.
Ohm's Law Calculator

 

[bigbob2322]

My Istick worked great the first week I got it vapeing at 9-11 watts. After the 1st week everything tasted burnt even at the lowest setting it would allow me to go both in watts and volts. I was ready to toss it but tried a hit at the max in watt mode then droped down to the min watt and hit it again, I then did the same in volt mode and when I fired it the 2nd time nothing happened , it didn't fire. Tried it again and all is good again. It must have reset itself. I love this little beast.

 

[EBates]

Here is p.busardo's review of the Istick. The issue you are experiencing are due to using Mean Mode vs RMS, which is used by virtually all good regulated mods.
A PBusardo Review & Contest - The Eleaf iStick - YouTube
The discussion of it's regulation begins at 22 minutes.

 

[wafflnator55]

Thanks for the help guys. Im starting to get used to it. Ill try out some bigger coils, see of thats better. One more question. For reducing the burning, do I want more air flow, or less?

 

[dc99]

I never like using voltage. If you use the wattage setting I think you will be much happier.

 

[rusirius]

I never like using voltage. If you use the wattage setting I think you will be much happier.

Please don't take offense, but that's a little bit like saying, "eat those ribs off a paper plate instead of a real one, they'll taste much better". You can only control one thing going to the coil. Voltage. Wattage is just another way of adjusting the voltage.

 

[readeuler]

I never like using voltage. If you use the wattage setting I think you will be much happier.

Normally, I'd agree. But since the iStick uses 'eLeaf volts' (That is, mean, and not RMS), I'd probably stick to voltage in this case.

A good rule of thumb for voltage between 3 and 4: Add 1 to whatever voltage it's displaying. EBates kindly linked to PBusardo's video that gives you the full details. So, if you've got a 1.8ohm coil set to 3.4 eLeaf volts, the rest of the world would say it's 4.4(ish) actual volts. So, while the iStick will tell you you're getting 3.4*3.4/1.8 = 6.6 watts, it's actually closer to 4.4*4.4/1.8 = 10.8 watts.

For the istick in particular, it's best to just turn it all the way down, and work your way up to a sweet spot. Like you mentioned, OP, increasing the resistance of your coils (or using a dual coil) should make it less intense.

 

[EBates]

Thanks for the help guys. Im starting to get used to it. Ill try out some bigger coils, see of thats better. One more question. For reducing the burning, do I want more air flow, or less?

I would recommend decreasing the airflow if you are getting burnt vapes. This should cause more juice to be supplied to the wick(s).

The first exposure I've had with Mean mode vaping was when I got a Vamo V3, which according to the propaganda on it, only had RMS mode. After a tank of juice I was ready to return it for a refund. Running it at it's lowest setting (3.0W) I still was getting burnt vapes. I instead found that it did indeed have RMS mode. I reset the Vamo and am still using it set at 5-8W.

 

[Frenchfry1942]

The burnt taste may be that your wick is not drawing in juice and what is in your coil area is slowly running out and you are burning the wick. Getting more air doesn't help. What I do when I notice the first indication of burning is to close the air line with my finger and take small, one second, draws. Since I am drawing fluid from the tank only, it is getting fluid through the wick to the coil area. I usually do it between 5-10 times. It is really experimental as to the number of draws because how we take draws is so different. What tank and coil set-up also influences it. How well the coil is primed is another consider

It could be other things, but, getting more liquid through to the coil area helps. BUT, doing it to much can flood it. It really is experimenting.

Because of this and other concerns, I use no more than 2-3 types of tanks or wicking set-ups.

Having adjustable airflow lets me fine-tune the flow.

 

[Trailz]

I was getting burnt hits using the aerotank v2 on the istick even at lower wattage using 1.8 coils and a lower airflow setting. No burning with the nautilus mini. For now I keep the Aerotanks paired with the MVP 2 and the nautilus mini on the istick.

 

[HMav]

The iStick boosts battery voltage to about 5.8 volts and ONLY outputs 5.8 volts. To adjust the heat to the coil it turns that 5.8 volts on and off really fast, higher power settings equate to longer ON time and shorter OFF time.

I've read the threads and seen the discussion about RMS vs Mean and it is a moot point, as the actual power in watts is the same (you cannot calculate power using V^2 / R when using RMS volts, this is a heavily repeated mistake). The problem is that the stock coils use very fine wire that heats very quickly in combination with relatively poor wicking, so these coils see 5.8 volts and don't have sufficient thermal time constants to average the modulated voltage from the battery and provide the "expected" vape. This means that if you have tempermental juice it can burn during that short ON time at 5.8V.

The solution is to upgrade your atty, use higher resistance coils, or use more heat tolerant juice. Many swear by the nautilus mini as the go-to atty for the iStick.

 

[wshanncap]

Here is p.busardo's review of the Istick. The issue you are experiencing are due to using Mean Mode vs RMS, which is used by virtually all good regulated mods.
A PBusardo Review & Contest - The Eleaf iStick - YouTube
The discussion of it's regulation begins at 22 minutes.

^...Yeah. I vote with that comment.

 

[wafflnator55]

My problem seams to be that im getting too much juice, and its the juice that is burning. Ive tried puffing without the button pressed. And decreasing the air flow just seams to make it harder to suck, which in turn, makes it pop and burn more. So far the best I can do is put it at 3 to 4v, and inhale hard in short hoots. Which does work, just not what I was expecting, or what im used to.