Why Taifun flavor is muted / plain (with solutions)

[tiyantiyan]

I got the well reviewed Taifun and used it for a few days.

Tried different wick diameters, and different ways to put the wick (e.g., adding flavor wick), but the vapor is always very dry, and almost no flavor. It generates lots of vapor but quite useless vapor imo. From time to time I had to go back to my old setup. All my old setups generates less but much more satisfying vapor.

The dry/muted vapor is not caused by dry wick as I checked several times: wick is very very wet, like how the cotton looks like when it is put in water.


After comparing the taifun with my old setups and many experiments, I realized the reason for the dry and muted vapor is because the much larger air hole directly under the wick!
The reasoning is simple, with much more air directly from the wick, the moisturous and tasty vapor is diluted too much. So that moisturous and tasty vapor becomes dry and tasteless.

My current solution is simple: wrap the base with some tape. Punch a smaller hole (about 1/3 of the size of the original air hole).

Result: I see slightly less white vapor, but the vapor is far more moisture and tasty! One draw now worth 10 draws before the mod to me!

FYI, I use about 4.5W to 6W power, 3-4 round of 2.5mm coil. Cotton wick.



I remember someone mentioned that he gets muted vapor on taifun too, and he solves it by using stainless wick and power all the way to around 10+W. I suspect his reasoning is actually same as mine, but his method is to increase the vapor amount dramatically. For me I try to limit the power to <6W, as thought it's easier on the body.


If you are in the same boat and find my solution works for you, please reply so more people know!

If you have better solution, or other findings, please also reply. Many people get muted vapor on taifun so your input or simply bad/good experience will help many people here!

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

Or try 25W of micro coil and get both vapor volume and taste. 6W is generally wayyyyyy too weak for an rba. I dont go below 15.

 

[tiyantiyan]

Wow, that's a lot power!
For me 4.5W is usually enough, but probably can try 15+W in future and see how it goes. I think that requires stainless mesh? With cotton I got cotton burnt smell at 7W, uh... very unpleasant...



Just FYI so others know the background to compare and decide. Or I get a chance to know better setup

I was heavy smoker before, and uses 24mg at the beginning. After 6 month, and with my now more matured cotton setup, I am happy with 6mg @ 4.5W.

juice: Wizardlab Ice Nic base, 2% menthol, 2% fruit Lorann flavor.
Wick: Organic cotton. With a thin 'film' of cotton on top to keep the top of the coil wet.
Coil: 3/4 round 2-2.5 mm. With this diameter + the flavor 'film', Taifun doesn't leak.

The vapor is very moisturous, so that sometime my nose has small drop 'water' dripping down very tasty and satisfying.
Uses about 4ml juice daily before.
After switching to Taifun, uses 6-8ml daily.
Now after modding the air hole smaller, the vapor is much more satisfying, so I expect I will use less juice with Taifun now, probably 5ml

Or try 25W of micro coil and get both vapor volume and taste. 6W is generally wayyyyyy too weak for an RBA. I dont go below 15.

 

[tiyantiyan]

(Correction on 1/25: changed "CE2" to "CE3". Thanks for several folks who found the typo)


BTW, several concluded that CE3 (the old, trusted bottom coil clearomizer that takes tons of time to maintain well) still win now in terms of flavor.

I just compare the CE3 with my current Taifun setup.

Taifun's flavor is still a tiny bit off compared to CE3, but close now. Considering that CE3's coil is cleaned every 1ml juice, and Taifun's coil is cleaned every 5ml, I think it's good enough

As far as I know, all the bottom coil clearomizers are designed after CE3 becomes popular.
RBA was top coil before and now there is a clear trend going to bottom coil.
Actually Taifun is essentially a huge CE3. Taifun is just bigger so can be rebuilt much more easily.

 

[Aal_]

Wow, that's a lot power!
For me 4.5W is usually enough, but probably can try 15+W in future and see how it goes. I think that requires stainless mesh? With cotton I got cotton burnt smell at 7W, uh... very unpleasant...



Just FYI so others know the background to compare and decide. Or I get a chance to know better setup

I was heavy smoker before, and uses 24mg at the beginning. After 6 month, and with my now more matured cotton setup, I am happy with 6mg @ 4.5W.

Juice: Wizardlab Ice Nic base, 2% menthol, 2% fruit Lorann flavor.
Wick: Organic cotton. With a thin 'film' of cotton on top to keep the top of the coil wet.
Coil: 3/4 round 2-2.5 mm. With this diameter + the flavor 'film', Taifun doesn't leak.

The vapor is very moisturous, so that sometime my nose has small drop 'water' dripping down very tasty and satisfying.
Uses about 4ml juice daily before.
After switching to Taifun, uses 6-8ml daily.
Now after modding the air hole smaller, the vapor is much more satisfying, so I expect I will use less juice with Taifun now, probably 5ml

burning cotton at 7 Watts? you can go waaaayyyy above before burning your cotton. 20 Watts is not unusual with cotton. If you are burning your cotton at 7 Watts then you don't have an optimal build.

 

[Sad Society]

Cotton takes time to break in. Meaning that cotton needs time to 'soak' in ejuice. Even with using a cotton wick, and putting ejuice directly on the cotton all the cotton fibers have not become fully saturated with juice.

Now I don't presoak my cotton wicks. I just build my coils and put alot of juice on before firing. I get that cottony taste at first. But since I use a bottom feeder RBA the cotton taste goes away soon enough. If you can build a coil with cotton and let it sit in juice overnight before vaping the taste will be much better. When the cotton is fully saturated and broken in, the taste will be better. Eventually the cotton will burn after a while with use. I had the juice control off on my RBA once and didn't realize until I vaped all the juice in the cotton and then had the burned taste. Once the cotton gives the burned taste...the only thing you can do is replace the wick and/or coil, because the burned taste will not go away until you do.

You can go higher power than 7W on cotton, but the cotton needs to be broken in with juice. I try to stay on low power with a fresh cotton wick until it is more saturated...about an hour. Then I up the power when feel like it. I'm using a 1.6 ohm with cotton at around 11W now.

Cotton does wear out. After a while I can vape and feel that the cotton is not able to keep up with holding the juice while taking a vape, I get gurgling or sometimes flooding, meaning that the cotton is on its last legs. If I keep going, the cotton gives me the bunt taste. And it's time to change it out.

 

[Sad Society]

I still have some vintage unused CE2's. I thought CE2's were top feeders. I don't know about all CE2's being this way (with all the different styles that come out of China).

But IMO a top feeding CE2 modded with cotton will not work good...unless you want to hold your ecig upside down all the time. I used to mod CE2's before I got into RBA's, particularly the bottom feeding RBA's.

 

[Rule62]

The CE2s are actually top coil/bottom feeders. I believe the poster was referring to the CE3s, which are bottom coil, and do operate with the same principle as the Taifun. Protanks also operate with the same principle.
Anyway...as with the Protanks, many people found that adding a separate piece of wicking material over the top of the coil has the opposite effect. It tends to mute flavor, not enhance it. Many Protank users remove it. With the Taifun, I've never seen the need to add a piece of material laying on top of the wick. I just use a 1/16 diameter micro coil, with a cotton wick through it.
As for the draw, assuming your Taifun is an original, various size draw tubes are available from smokerstore.de. No need to wrap tape around your device. I don't know if the draw tubes fit the clones or not.

 

[Thrasher]

FWIW: the small airtube under the wick inside the Tiafun can be exchanged for different sizes to adjust the airflow. no need to modify the atty.
I run the 1.5mm in all of mine but I also have like a 6mm wick in there running around 9 watts.

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

I run 40-50W in my REO with cotton wick just fine. Its the coil build and wick that matter.

 

[BobC]

Or try 25W of micro coil and get both vapor volume and taste. 6W is generally wayyyyyy too weak for an RBA. I dont go below 15.

If you want to try something I think is better, make the inside diameter of the coil, the size of the air hole, place the coil directly over the air hole, stuff with hemp fiber, tell me if you find a better vape

 

[tiyantiyan]

I still have some vintage unused CE2's. I thought CE2's were top feeders. I don't know about all CE2's being this way (with all the different styles that come out of China).

But IMO a top feeding CE2 modded with cotton will not work good...unless you want to hold your ecig upside down all the time. I used to mod CE2's before I got into RBA's, particularly the bottom feeding RBA's.

The CE2s are actually top coil/bottom feeders. I believe the poster was referring to the CE3s, which are bottom coil, and do operate with the same principle as the Taifun. Protanks also operate with the same principle.
Anyway...as with the Protanks, many people found that adding a separate piece of wicking material over the top of the coil has the opposite effect. It tends to mute flavor, not enhance it. Many Protank users remove it. With the Taifun, I've never seen the need to add a piece of material laying on top of the wick. I just use a 1/16 diameter micro coil, with a cotton wick through it.
As for the draw, assuming your Taifun is an original, various size draw tubes are available from smokerstore.de. No need to wrap tape around your device. I don't know if the draw tubes fit the clones or not.

Yes you are right, I mean CE3!

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

If you want to try something I think is better, make the inside diameter of the coil, the size of the air hole, place the coil directly over the air hole, stuff with hemp fiber, tell me if you find a better vape

Youre referring to the vertical coil build with fiber stuffing in the chamber? Never tried it, never really found it all that interesting.

 

[tiyantiyan]

That's good to know. do you have a link for the replacement airtube?

FWIW: the small airtube under the wick inside the Tiafun can be exchanged for different sizes to adjust the airflow. no need to modify the atty.
I run the 1.5mm in all of mine but I also have like a 6mm wick in there running around 9 watts.

 

[Rule62]

That's good to know. do you have a link for the replacement airtube?

Taifun GT/GS - Service Set - SmokerStore

 

[EDO]

What guage of wire are you using that it can produce any vapor at 4.5 watts? Most people use a minimum of 32 gauge wire and even that wire would have a hard time producing vapor at 4.5 watts. It sound to me like your using 34g wire. With cotton I would try using at least a 30g wire and increasing the number of wraps and increasing the wattage. Shoot for a minimum of 6 wraps and then up the wattage to your liking. Watts don't mean anything ....you can vape a 28g 0.8 ohm coil at 10 watts and it would hardly produce any vapor...same with a 0.5 ohm coil made with 26g wire at 15 watts...it won't produce any satisfactory vapor.

 

[tiyantiyan]

32 gauge 3/4.
Use 5/6 as well, at the same wattage.

What guage of wire are you using that it can produce any vapor at 4.5 watts? Most people use a minimum of 32 gauge wire and even that wire would have a hard time producing vapor at 4.5 watts. It sound to me like your using 34g wire. With cotton I would try using at least a 30g wire and increasing the number of wraps and increasing the wattage. Shoot for a minimum of 6 wraps and then up the wattage to your liking. Watts don't mean anything ....you can vape a 28g 0.8 ohm coil at 10 watts and it would hardly produce any vapor...same with a 0.5 ohm coil made with 26g wire at 15 watts...it won't produce any satisfactory vapor.

 

[tiyantiyan]

I am glad to report back that after a few days' experiments, I have matured the process:

1. make a 3/4 or 4/5 coil. I use a tooth pick, it has the right diameter.

The gap between each round doesn't have to be very tight, but should be close (0.5mm to 1mm).
Make sure the two ends of the coil are parallel and point to direct opposite position . This will make it easier to tighten the two ends.

Unlike micro-coil, all the above requirements can be achieved in one step (15 seconds!) once you are familiar.

This is important as it will result in much faster process allowing new coil every day.


2. while the toothpick is still in, put the coil in position.

The two ends should now touch the two screws already, without the need of bending the wire. Screw them tight.
Cut the extra wire.

3. Thread in a strand of organic cotton.

Not too loose that the cotton could fall out freely, and not too tight that it takes effort to move the cotton around.
After a few trials you will find this is pretty easy. As long as you don't have too much or too less cotton, it's good.

4. Put a very thin film of cotton on top of the coil.

This way the top coil has enough juice and won't create any black tar (which is bad).


Done!

The whole process above took me at most 2 mins.

The best part of this, is that I can change the coil every day! Fresh coil every day!

2 mins is faster than cleaning and dry run the coil. Plus 100 ft 32 wire costs minimum ($5 on ebay).
So why not just use new coil instead of cleaning Faster and cheap enough, and most importantly, you get the best coil and vapor from that coil's life time!
IMO this is how we take advantage of Taifun as recoiling is so easy.


When I take off the old coil, it's still shining but a little discolored: just passed its best time!


A small tweak I am thinking is, make 20 or more coils in a batch and boil the coil a bit. So every day I just need to pick a coil and done. I put the coil and cotton in a small plastic box so they can be reached easily every morning or night.

The vapor is good! plenty of them, moisturous, tasty, and satisfying.
Power? 4 to 5W. I still prefer low power if that does the job.


All the above is based on the factor that you reduce the air hole a bit, to about 1/3 or 1/2 of the original size.

cheers!

 

[Rule62]

I am glad to report back that after a few days' experiments, I have matured the process:

1. make a 3/4 or 4/5 coil. I use a tooth pick, it has the right diameter.

The gap between each round doesn't have to be very tight, but should be close (0.5mm to 1mm).
Make sure the two ends of the coil are parallel and point to direct opposite position . This will make it easier to tighten the two ends.

Unlike micro-coil, all the above requirements can be achieved in one step (15 seconds!) once you are familiar.

This is important as it will result in much faster process allowing new coil every day.


2. while the toothpick is still in, put the coil in position.

The two ends should now touch the two screws already, without the need of bending the wire. Screw them tight.
Cut the extra wire.

3. Thread in a strand of organic cotton.

Not too loose that the cotton could fall out freely, and not too tight that it takes effort to move the cotton around.
After a few trials you will find this is pretty easy. As long as you don't have too much or too less cotton, it's good.

4. Put a very thin film of cotton on top of the coil.

This way the top coil has enough juice and won't create any black tar (which is bad).


Done!

The whole process above took me at most 2 mins.

The best part of this, is that I can change the coil every day! Fresh coil every day!

2 mins is faster than cleaning and dry run the coil. Plus 100 ft 32 wire costs minimum ($5 on ebay).
So why not just use new coil instead of cleaning Faster and cheap enough, and most importantly, you get the best coil and vapor from that coil's life time!
IMO this is how we take advantage of Taifun as recoiling is so easy.


When I take off the old coil, it's still shining but a little discolored: just passed its best time!


A small tweak I am thinking is, make 20 or more coils in a batch and boil the coil a bit. So every day I just need to pick a coil and done. I put the coil and cotton in a small plastic box so they can be reached easily every morning or night.

The vapor is good! plenty of them, moisturous, tasty, and satisfying.
Power? 4 to 5W. I still prefer low power if that does the job.


All the above is based on the factor that you reduce the air hole a bit, to about 1/3 or 1/2 of the original size.

cheers!

My goodness; I don't know why you'd feel you need to change coils every day. I'm going to buy stock in Temco.
If you pull the cotton wick, and dry burn the coil, it will be good as new, and should last a long time. I've had the same coils in my Taifuns for probably 4 or 5 months.

 

[tiyantiyan]

I'm going to buy stock in Temco.

LOL, I am for sure a good customer of Temco and will help to increase your stock value

My tongue and throat are sensitive. For example, all the fine nic tests done in this forum, I can smell or tell the same subtle stuff.
Similarly, when the wire has some black tar on it, or even a little bit discoloring/ash (after dry burning) on it, I can tell.

And it's not pleasant. It sometimes irritates and hurts the lung to me. That's a big alarm to me. I am afraid the tar and ash are not good to the body, especially when they are heated this hot.

So, when a brand new coil takes only 1 cent + 2 mins, it's a no brainer to me to use a new coil.

Now, whether a coil lasts 1 week or 5 months, doesn't really matter.
I get the best flavor, less risk in minimum time. What more can I ask for?