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subtank mini, rewicking RBA coil

John C

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Guys,

I spent an hour last night, re-wicking the RBA coil on the kanger subtank mini. Several times. The first time I didnt have enough cotton and it was popping. Someone online said it was due to too little cotton. So i rewick. Too much cotton then, no air flow. Rewick...airflow fine but after 10 hits it started tasting burnt. Rewick. After 7-10 hits, same burned taste. Again, same thing.

Any idea what could be causing that?
 

AmandaD

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You have to really stuff those wicks with as much cotton as you can. Just have the wicks touching the deck, but then push them away from the channels slightly.

They vape very nicely at 25 watts for me, using a 2.5mm coil at around 1.2 ohms. I use around 50/50 mostly, but I'm told you can vape max VG with heavy enough wicking.
 

Nailz

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Amanda is spot on, I got 3 subtank minis that I use the RBA deck on, I have the wick where it is tight in the coil, but can still move it back and forward a little, cut the tails short, wet the cotton with juice, they should only just be touching the deck, and once put 1st part of the chimney, push the cotton away from the juice channels, I also use 50/50 and vape at 25watts, I chain vape alot, but never get dry hits.
 

AmandaD

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Amanda is spot on, I got 3 subtank minis that I use the RBA deck on, I have the wick where it is tight in the coil, but can still move it back and forward a little, cut the tails short, wet the cotton with juice, they should only just be touching the deck, and once put 1st part of the chimney, push the cotton away from the juice channels, I also use 50/50 and vape at 25watts, I chain vape alot, but never get dry hits.

Yes - I chain vape also, and mine gets so hot I have to wait until it cools down to refill, because I can't touch the base to unscrew it LOL (I have three also!)
 

John C

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Thanks a ton guys, going to try again shortly...ill update with hopefully good results :cool:
 

AmandaD

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Thanks a ton guys, going to try again shortly...ill update with hopefully good results :cool:

Don't be afraid to squish that cotton in there. For some reason in this RBA it doesn't appear to choke the wick when it's absolutely stuffed! (I do make sure to fluff out the ends so that they're not compressed after I've wicked the coil).
 

John C

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Guys, couple things. I just did it again. Basically I tried to follow the advice here as best I could. the draw is a tiny tiny bit harder than before on wide open. I assume that I should maybe clear the area around the coil a bit better? And also popping quite a bit.

That was at 17 watts. I just did 22.5 watts and it pretty much instantly got burning tasting again. ARGH.

Attached a pic of it wicked and wet. After taking off the tank and just snapping a pic.

Does this look right to you guys?

0513152042(1).jpg
 

Nailz

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Looks to me like cotton wicks to long, I cut them shorter than that, what gauge wire are using and what are the ohms?
 

John C

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.6 ohm, this is the coil they give in the subtank RBA kit. Two of them. I am not sure gauge/
 

John C

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if they are too long, woud that explain the consistent burn taste over 20 watts? .6 ohm coil. Is the coil ruined maybe?
 

John C

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just like it is in that pic, no cover, i fired for a second and it popped loudly. dont know if thats normal
 

Nailz

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Just took a picture of mine, can see how short the wick is, looks longer on one side, but that is just juice

hxLSeiJ.jpg


Can get some popping at times, but not very often though.
 

Nailz

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One problem I have had that I just thought of, and that is the resistance changing due to either the screws not been tightened down enough on the coil legs or the bottom 510 pin screw being loose, check your resistance is staying the same, it will taste burnt if got a 0.6ohm coil, but your mod is reading as 2.0ohms.
 

madmonkey

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I agree with @Nailz .... one of the biggest problems with cheaper or clone RDA's in general is the screws either "pinching" the leads and clipping them causing the resistance to jump and short or the screws coming loose on their own and then wiggle even more loose rewicking causing again shorts and resistance to jump...always want to check your screws before, during, and after wicking to make sure they're tight with any rebuildable.

I have to default to what @AmandaD is saying about stuffing the coil with cotton as apparently this little guy is the exception to the rule but I can tell you that the "popping" and crackling you're hearing is your atomizer rapidly heating up liquid as is normal. If I let an RDA dripper sit fully soaked for a couple days without firing and then pick it up and fire it the atomizer will give me a loud pop to let me know the wicks drying out and sticky and that it's gone from cold to vaper in 0.003 seconds :) ....The kind of "popping" you need to worry about is when you overheat a coil lead and it "pops" meaning the lead connected to the post got too hot and popped apart from overheating....it happened a lot when we used thinner gauge wire, especially nicrome and would overamp those thin wires and small coils....you don't have to really worry about it though with the Subtanks as we use much thicker wire that is really hard to do that with. You would have to dry fire the coil at a really high wattage to to "pop" it like that....the popping and crackling sounds of liquid vaporizing are good sounds and I would be more worried if they stop than if they continue as they normally should :)

Hope that helps a little and and as far as the wicking...I agree that you could try and cut your leads a little shorter...they need to be just long enough to touch the deck and wick up the juice but not so long that the liquid has to travel over so much cotton that it can't wick the coil fast enough for the wattage and airflow you have it set at. Plus if you have too long of wick blocking the juice channels than it can have a hard time feeding as it hinders the "vacuum" effect of juice being sucked it as the wick is partially blocking the channel. It's a lot to think about i know, but once it clicks it will be so simple you won't understand how it was ever hard in the first place :)
 

John C

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You guys have been an amazing help. I have worn out "thank you" haha!

Alas, I just quit. I dont know if the coil was screwed or what. I have used the same coil throughout this process. Basically I probably rewicked the thing `10 times total. 1 was popping a ton. Second too stuffed with cotton, so closed off. The next 8 tasted burnt after about 10 hits, each.

Im resigning myself, for the time being, to using OCC and buying them. Maybe I will try with another tank sometime.
 

madmonkey

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You guys have been an amazing help. I have worn out "thank you" haha!

Alas, I just quit. I dont know if the coil was screwed or what. I have used the same coil throughout this process. Basically I probably rewicked the thing `10 times total. 1 was popping a ton. Second too stuffed with cotton, so closed off. The next 8 tasted burnt after about 10 hits, each.

Im resigning myself, for the time being, to using OCC and buying them. Maybe I will try with another tank sometime.

Don't be so hard on yourself...wicking is a PITA in the beginning for everyone...it's more of a finesse thing than any other aspect of vaping or rebuilding for that matter....you'll never grab the same amount of cotton twice...you have to smooth it out and make sure all of the fibers are going in the same direction as much as possible...and in general you want just the right amount of wick. The right amount being just enough so that there is ever so the slightest amount of resistance when you pull it threw the coils...too much wick (ie..tight fitting or pulls on the coils as you try and pull it threw) and you "choke" the coil...that is there is so much wick that the liquid bottlenecks and the end of the coil and can't feed properly the whole thing and you burn out the center and ruin it. By the same token...too little wick (the wick moves freely with no resistance at all or doesn't even touch the entire inside of the coil,) and when you go to fire the coil there is not enough density in the wick and it collapses inside the coil, again not feeding the whole thing and since only half the coil is getting juice it will either make a horrible vape or again burn threw the wick since there's not enough of it ruining it.

And even though everyone says a Kayfun is the easiest thing to start rebuilding I dissagree....I think a single coil on a dripper is the easiest way to start rebuilding because you only have to worry about getting the right amount of wick to feed threw the coil...if the ends of the wick are too long in a dripper you juice waste some juice because not all of the juice on the wick will make it to the coil before you have to redrip and too short of of a wick in a dripper and you just have to drip that much more because it can't wick the juice on the deck. but you still can get a decient vape off of the wrong length of wick in a dripper even if it is too short or long to soak up the deck properly.

The problem with wicking RTA's is it adds a new factor into the equation. Now, on top of having the correct wick density in the coil for the juice to feed properly you have to have the correct length of wick to soak up the liquid being fed from the juice channels because you can't just drip more if you get it wrong...if you could drip in a tank it would defeat the whole purpose of a tank. The other thing about tank wicking is there is no standard for length because some tanks require you to feed the wick into the juice channels and others require you to cut the wick to sit on the deck just toughing it and beside the juice channel opening so the liquid can flow opening into the deck and then be "mopped up by the wick" like in Kayfuns.

The Subtank RTA deck is very simular to a Kafun deck in theory...with the exception @AmandaD said about having to stuff the coil with a denser than average wick (there's always an exception to a rule and here it is.) I would try again but trim your leads so that they spit around the juice flow opening and are fanned out to both sides of it so they absorb and wick quicker....

The best way I have found to test out if you have your wicks in the right place with a deck like that is to wick your coil and fan them out in place, but before you juice up your wick and test fire the coil cover or close the airflow opening on the deck and suck on the opening of the chimney. if you can somewhat easily suck air threw the juice flow openings then your wicks are in the right place...if you can't suck air threw them at all then your wick's are clogging the channels and need to be repositioned. Remember, those are small channels and you won't get much air threw them even if the wicks are not blocking them at all but you will be able to tell the difference if your wicks are blocking them or not.

I know it's frustraiting but cotton is cheap and once you get it you'll wonder how it didn't make sense before because when it clicks it clicks...I hope this helps...I wouldn't fight it now while it's pissing you off, i'd pick it up later when you're ready to tackle it and try again. Best of luck and happy vaping! :)
 

Maynard

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Hey John, here's a pic of my setup, you may find helpful. Short wicks just touching the deck are most effective, clear of the juice holes.
(I also (extremely carefully!) dremeled the juice holes to make them 15% larger in order to accommodate max VG juice.)
Kanger_Drem.jpg
 

John C

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GREAT pic, thank you. Will try this again sometime in the next week or two. Report back here, if nothing more than to help future noobs!
 

John C

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For any future vapors having issues wicking the RBA on the kanger subtank mini, I found this video great -- great video quality and they really dumb it down (lol) and show details.


It's for the vaporfi volt, but its just a rebranded subtank mini.
 

AmandaD

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For any future vapors having issues wicking the RBA on the kanger subtank mini, I found this video great -- great video quality and they really dumb it down (lol) and show details.


It's for the vaporfi volt, but its just a rebranded subtank mini.

Interesting - I wick mine with at least twice (or more) that amount of wick - did you do it as in the video, and did it work?
 

John C

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Amanda, not yet -- gonna pick up some cotton soon and try it. I used up a ton of cotton during those attempts. haha
 

John C

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Oh, I forgot to add -- I did the pancake method, known on youtube pretty well. I would probably have done fine with standard methods....I think before that I was not letting the wick just touch the deck. Either it didnt touch the deck at all, or it was way too much cotton on the deck.

Hope this helps any other future searchers
 

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