Whats wrong with my RDA?

[XGVX]

So my $40 Helios rda clone came in. It was the first rda I have ever gotten that already had a coil built in it. It was a single 1.2 ohm coil with some silica. I had the airholes right in front of the coil.I put it in my sentinel M16 running at 3.7 volts on an 18500 efest imr battery. I saturated the wicks with 50/50 e juice and took the first puff; It was a very very muted flavor. Then there came the second puff; it was pretty darn burnt. The third puff; it was so damn burnt it almost made me not want to vape anymore and made my throat burn like hell. Was the pre-built coil just so poorly put together it sucks? What might be the problem and whats a way to fix it? I ran out of 28 gauge kanthal so i have to wait for it to get here to build on it.

 

[xtwosm0kesx]

So my $40 Helios RDA clone came in. It was the first RDA I have ever gotten that already had a coil built in it. It was a single 1.2 ohm coil with some silica. I had the airholes right in front of the coil.I put it in my sentinel M16 running at 3.7 volts on an 18500 efest imr battery. I saturated the wicks with 50/50 e juice and took the first puff; It was a very very muted flavor. Then there came the second puff; it was pretty darn burnt. The third puff; it was so damn burnt it almost made me not want to vape anymore and made my throat burn like hell. Was the pre-built coil just so poorly put together it sucks? What might be the problem and whats a way to fix it? I ran out of 28 gauge kanthal so i have to wait for it to get here to build on it.

If the airflow is adequate/holes properly aligned, and wick saturated, the likely culprit in oil/residue contamination on the coil/wicking material.

I'd try pulling the silica while keeping the coil intact (only because you have no wire), completely clean the unit(be gentle around the coil obv) and try rewicking it fresh silica or cotton if you have some.

Build a new coil when you get you wire, the prebuilt coils on RDA's are almost always terrible.

 

[Joey13091]

Rebuild coil when you can and maybe drill the air hole wider.

That's what I had to do.

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[jakhazen]

pull the wick and check for hot spots. When you get it lighting evenly rewick it and vape away

 

[MarkD77]

I'm pretty new to this, and don't have any experience yet in building my own, so take my 2 cents for what it's worth.

According to voltage charts I've seen, 3.7v on a 1.2ohm would be well into the red. What experience I do have so far, is that I get burnt taste with stock coils if I don't listen to the chart, whereas i've seen people who can vape twice the chart "recommended" output with DIY coils. So my guess would just be what others have said and build your own.

From what I've gathered, if it were me in your shoes, the first thing I'd probably try is to replace the wick with organic cotton, and maybe turn the voltage down a hair, just to get what you can out of it until you get some wire for a rebuild.

 

[*deleon517*]

since the helio's clone has adjustable airflow i would start at the largest airhole and work my way down till you find your sweet spot on airflow. as for the coil, most prebuilt's are garbage. make sure its not choking the wick, and that its not shorting out somewhere.

the charts that markd77 is probably talking about is for a vv/vw mod. with a good battery anything .8 and above can be pretty low of an ohm for some but most it will be more then enough. i run my trident clone(also has airflow control) at .8-1.0 ohm's all day wide open hole. and its perfect for me. the wife coughs every time she uses it.

 

[TheVapingNinja]

from what i've read, they need a thorough cleaning before use and that the stock wicks are horrible

 

[Joey13091]

Yeah I wouldn't give up yet when you get your wick build yourself a nice coil and maybe drill that hole bigger if need be.

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[TheReign]

Cleaaaaan it Lol as others have said. If it's a Helios Style and not the helios itself, whoever makes them sure doesn't take the time to clean it before sending it to vendors.

 

[Fittytigsic]

There is a huge learning curve for building solid coils. It took me trying just about everything to find my right setup
Currently I'm running a single micro coil on my trident clone with cotton at .82 ohms and its peeeerrrrfffeeect

 

[Papa_Lazarou]

The prebuilt coil is not worth saving, IMHO. You can try cleaning and rewicking, but it's not liable to result in a good vape.

Build your own (I recommend 28 gauge microcoils wrapped around a 1/16th in drill bit with cotton wicks) and then tune the air and so forth. You'll be better off to work from this stronger baseline.

Also, clean the entire unit before you build your first coil on it - machining residue and oil are no fun to vape.

It's a good atty. You'll enjoy it.

 

[revco]

Depending on how you built your coil, you may have to wait for that Kanthal. My suspicion is that maybe the coil's too tight and constricting the flow of juice to the coil. You want your wick secure, but not so secure that you can't move it inside the coil at all. It's also a good idea to torch your kanthal and wick to clean up the nasties mentioned above.

Make sure you're getting a nice even burn that glows from the inside out. You can try manipulating the coil with a pair of tweezers to perfect it or sometimes clean up cold/hot spots. If it doesn't after a few dry burns, you'll probably need to rebuild the coil. It'll take some practice.

As was mentioned before, cotton's a good material to learn on with RDA's IMO. It's easy to replace if you mess up and a little bit easier to gauge the size wick that's needed for the coil. You'll get it. Just keep practicing...Kanthal's super cheap, so it literally can cost pennies to build a number of coils to get your technique down.

 

[K_Tech]

Cleaaaaan it Lol as others have said. If it's a Helios Style and not the helios itself, whoever makes them sure doesn't take the time to clean it before sending it to vendors.

True statement. I've gotten a few atomizers here and there that absolutely STANK of machine oil..

 

[SnoopS]

your in California, pull the wick and toss it, then thoroughly clean your atomizer. take the atty, fresh charged battery, and mod to a local vapeshop there, I am sure they will help you and have wick and wire for the rebuild. pay attention and ask alot of questions. the order wick and wire online or just get enough from them to experiment with builds. NEVER vape a brand new atty without cleaning it.