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TFv4 micro/ general help

first off I am new to vaping but have done my research and am committed to make this work so I can quit smoking. I bought a starter kit (smok tfv4 micro with rc80 mod) and after about 14 days ive went through 2 SS fused dual coils(0.3 ohm) and a 30ml bottle of liquid. Is this normal? before I started vaping I was led to believe these things would last me longer. I have tried to do everything correctly like priming the coils and I am only running my mod at 40watts. I also have issues with taste where sometimes I get a good flavor and other times I can barely taste anything at all. I have just recently purchased a backup kbox 200 so I could have something to smoke while the rc80 charges(internal battery)

can someone lend some tips or let me know what I could be doing wrong? Thanks
 

Whiskey

Diamond Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Doesn't sound like you are doing anything wrong, the higher the wattage one vapes at, the more juice you are going to go through, and that is also true with the flavors of some juices, higher wattages can make for less flavor in some cases, everyone is different on how they perceive full flavored tastes also. I vape my set up at about 15-30 watts.
 

IMFire3605

Bronze Contributor
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
ECF Refugee
Statements of coil longevity are baseline averages only, an average of runtimes that means some people have longer run times while others have shorter run times giving the average baseline number.

Coil Longevity Affecting Factors:

1) Biggest Killer - Sweeteners. Any and all sweeteners in a liquid are not efficiently vaporized off, they most times just crystalize and carmelize on the coil wire and in the wicking. These will begin to block the flow of liquid and leads to not only burnt and nasty tasting hits, it can lead to liquid seeping and causing what appears like leaking, sweeter the liquid the worse it gets.
2) Color of the liquid. Clearer the liquid is to pure clear color the longer the coils will last, if there is any food colorings at all, these like sweeteners will not vape off efficiently, leading to the same problems as sweeteners, dark or more color the liquid is, the worse it will be on coils
3) Flavor types. Creamy, Savory, Bakery, custardy, caramels, vanillas, tobaccos, coffees, there are many others, are notorious coil killers, these extra addatives are generally sweet, and or very dark, or creamy or yogurt types will by their very nature be coil killers due to their flavorings, and a lot of times are offenders of the above 2 factors listed above.
4) Wattage (Power) supplied to the coils vs amount of airflow. Here the wattage can play a factor, 40watts may not sound like a lot of power, but about 60% of real vapers are below 40watts. The TFV4 line of tanks were generally pretty airy to begin with so watts really do not affect them that bad as other tanks. Still, if you are running into clogging issues due to one or couple of the above 3 factors, if the wicking gets dry and there is a lot of power and heat at the coils, that dry wicking can begin to burn prematurely. However being the coils are SS316L and fused claptons, they need to much power to begin with due to wire mass so, my exposure to prebuilt coils with claptons and fused claptons, they don't last long due to the issue of them needing to much power and heat to function right, but not enough wicking flow in their design to counter-balance the needed power, so thus they burn out faster than a standard coil head.

Next issue will be with your ordered KBox200, which is a safety issue regarding the batteries. Be cautious what batteries you get for it, the link in my signature line has a break down of the highest suggested batteries and safest batteries available currently as well as what battery for what battery configuration the max wattage ratings. Being a dual battery mod, the three best batteries are as follows

If you do not see yourself going above 120watts - so 120watts and below, the Samsung 30Q 3000mah 20amp CDR
150 to 160watts and below - Sony VTC5A 2500mah 25amp CDR
180 watts and below - LG HB2, HB4, HB6 1500mah 30amp CDR <=Do not trust any battery that says on its label that it is higher than this amp rating, there is no such true animal, no 18650 battery rated for higher than 30amp continuous discharge, other batteries claiming 35 or 40 amps, that is a short pulse discharge rate (generally 1/2 to 2 second short pulse, after which the battery needs to shift down to CDR or overheat and vent or explode), no getting around this limiter in the 18650 form factor.
 

gbalkam

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
Reddit Exile
for flavor, try lowering your power, reducing the air flow and tweek both until you get the vape you like. High air = low flavor, but higher wattage requires higher airflow to keep the coil from burning the wick.
Also changing juice flavors may help. Just in case you are suffering from vapers tongue.
I believe the factory made coils for that tank are fairly pricey, however, I looked at one online and it includes a rebuildable mini atomizer coil!
a nice 30' spool of 28ga clapton wire will run about $8 and a pouch of cotton bacon about another $8. Now, there are several advantages
1 you dont need to replace the whole coil if you get a dry hit and burn the wick.. just pull out the cotton and replace it. Might cost 2 cents worth of cotton
2 when your coil gets dirty, remove the cotton, dry burn it (heat it up) to burn off the gunk, rinse under water or brush with a tooth brush and rinse or just blow on the coil if you cant be arsed to rinse. Put in fresh cotton, and put everything together as normal.. remember to prime the new wick well.

Making a new coil is basically just wrapping the wire around that little blue handled screwdriver bit that comes with the kit. (it is a 2.26mm inner diameter when you figure the coil has had it, or get bored and want to try something a bit different, just make a new coil and replace the old one.
core, if you want to be technical) 5 or 6 wraps should do it. Reduce power, put the coil dry on your mod, and fire quickly at low power, to get the coil resistance. It should be above 0.30 and below 1.2 (most likely, around 0.5 ohm) but this is just FYI.. if your mod fires the coil, it is ok.
*There is a lot of help here to get you started making your first coil, it is very easy.*
I like to remind people that they have probably already made a coil, when they were 7 yrs old. That paper clip you straightened and wrapped around a pencil IS a coil. It is pretty much that easy.

Im suggesting buying pre-made claptoned wire to start. Clapton wire is like a guitar string. A strand wrapped around an inner core strand. This will provide better flavor than a simple single wire coil.

Youtube has numerous videos on coil wrapping, but KEEP IT SIMPLE at first. Trying for complex coil porn at the start will frustrate you.

If you want to try building a coil before spending any money on it, just get a piece of wire (like from the inside of a co-ax cable or rabbit snare wire) and wrap the wire around a nail, try to keep the loops close together. Easy!!! Only the first coil is hard. After you build that first one, you realize... "That was it??? WTH was I spending all that money on premades for????" lol

The best part is.. if you do want to try to build your own, you dont have to buy any special tanks... what you need comes right in the kit.
 
Thanks for the replies. I want to add a few details. I'm currently vaping a 70 VG 30 pg eliquid and really like the flavor so don't want to have to change right now. I also like to chain vape. Coming from smoking I use my mod like a cig. I want to hit it several times in a row and then put it down. I think the coils are not wicking fast enough for this.



I'm not sure I want to start building coils myself right now. Is there another option for me until I decide? Perhaps another tank that uses quick wicking atomizers?
 
Statements of coil longevity are baseline averages only, an average of runtimes that means some people have longer run times while others have shorter run times giving the average baseline number.

Coil Longevity Affecting Factors:

1) Biggest Killer - Sweeteners. Any and all sweeteners in a liquid are not efficiently vaporized off, they most times just crystalize and carmelize on the coil wire and in the wicking. These will begin to block the flow of liquid and leads to not only burnt and nasty tasting hits, it can lead to liquid seeping and causing what appears like leaking, sweeter the liquid the worse it gets.
2) Color of the liquid. Clearer the liquid is to pure clear color the longer the coils will last, if there is any food colorings at all, these like sweeteners will not vape off efficiently, leading to the same problems as sweeteners, dark or more color the liquid is, the worse it will be on coils
3) Flavor types. Creamy, Savory, Bakery, custardy, caramels, vanillas, tobaccos, coffees, there are many others, are notorious coil killers, these extra addatives are generally sweet, and or very dark, or creamy or yogurt types will by their very nature be coil killers due to their flavorings, and a lot of times are offenders of the above 2 factors listed above.
4) Wattage (Power) supplied to the coils vs amount of airflow. Here the wattage can play a factor, 40watts may not sound like a lot of power, but about 60% of real vapers are below 40watts. The TFV4 line of tanks were generally pretty airy to begin with so watts really do not affect them that bad as other tanks. Still, if you are running into clogging issues due to one or couple of the above 3 factors, if the wicking gets dry and there is a lot of power and heat at the coils, that dry wicking can begin to burn prematurely. However being the coils are SS316L and fused claptons, they need to much power to begin with due to wire mass so, my exposure to prebuilt coils with claptons and fused claptons, they don't last long due to the issue of them needing to much power and heat to function right, but not enough wicking flow in their design to counter-balance the needed power, so thus they burn out faster than a standard coil head.

Next issue will be with your ordered KBox200, which is a safety issue regarding the batteries. Be cautious what batteries you get for it, the link in my signature line has a break down of the highest suggested batteries and safest batteries available currently as well as what battery for what battery configuration the max wattage ratings. Being a dual battery mod, the three best batteries are as follows

If you do not see yourself going above 120watts - so 120watts and below, the Samsung 30Q 3000mah 20amp CDR
150 to 160watts and below - Sony VTC5A 2500mah 25amp CDR
180 watts and below - LG HB2, HB4, HB6 1500mah 30amp CDR <=Do not trust any battery that says on its label that it is higher than this amp rating, there is no such true animal, no 18650 battery rated for higher than 30amp continuous discharge, other batteries claiming 35 or 40 amps, that is a short pulse discharge rate (generally 1/2 to 2 second short pulse, after which the battery needs to shift down to CDR or overheat and vent or explode), no getting around this limiter in the 18650 form factor.


Thank you for the detailed response. I have seemed to "dial in" my smok rc80 setup to just the way I like it by poking a needle through one of the wick holes in the coil and also running in temp control mode at about 360f°. For some reason I can't stand the taste I get in watts mode no matter the setting.

Anyway to my question. When charging the rc80 and using the kbox 200 everything changes. To get a "similar" hit I have to run it at 520f° and its not even close to the same flavour. I'm thinking this could be a battery issue since I already had a set before you gave me the list. Maybe the batteries don't stand up like the internal battery of the rc80? I'm using 2 brillpower batts, do you think this is the issue or will the Kbox never perform the same as the rc80 at the same temp? Thank you again
 

IMFire3605

Bronze Contributor
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
ECF Refugee
It could also be a difference in the way the two mods handle not only temp mode, but also their pulse width modulation (pwm) and at what frequency that pwm is at. Have to remember both Smok and Kanger are Chinese companies, and both make devices as cheap as possible, so variances of accuracy will be different. So variances will be seen between two different manufacturers, the Kbox 200w I owned when in TC mode was a little unstable compared to Evic VTC Mini, and definitely when compared to my HCigar VT75 which has an Evolv DNA75 control board. I'd run those Brillpower batteries at no more than 120watts total no matter the amp rating they have printed on them, treat them as 20amp batteries max being they are most likely B or C bin grade batteries bought from one of the manufacturers like LG, Sony, Samsung, or Panasonic/Sanyo.
 
It could also be a difference in the way the two mods handle not only temp mode, but also their pulse width modulation (pwm) and at what frequency that pwm is at. Have to remember both Smok and Kanger are Chinese companies, and both make devices as cheap as possible, so variances of accuracy will be different. So variances will be seen between two different manufacturers, the Kbox 200w I owned when in TC mode was a little unstable compared to Evic VTC Mini, and definitely when compared to my HCigar VT75 which has an Evolv DNA75 control board. I'd run those Brillpower batteries at no more than 120watts total no matter the amp rating they have printed on them, treat them as 20amp batteries max being they are most likely B or C bin grade batteries bought from one of the manufacturers like LG, Sony, Samsung, or Panasonic/Sanyo.

Will do. I will get some different batteries soon. Since TC seems to be what I like do you have any TC mods you would recommend with dual batteries? I really don't have any issues with my RC80 now that I've got it set the way I like Im just not crazy about how long it takes to recharge leaving me without something to smoke. Also have no idea how long the internal battery will last
 

MWorthington

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
Will do. I will get some different batteries soon. Since TC seems to be what I like do you have any TC mods you would recommend with dual batteries? I really don't have any issues with my RC80 now that I've got it set the way I like Im just not crazy about how long it takes to recharge leaving me without something to smoke. Also have no idea how long the internal battery will last

The Smoant Battlestar and the Smoant Charon both do an acceptable job of TC but if you really want kickass TC, go to

https://www.mainevaporroom.com/product-page/hohmtech-hohmwrecker-g2

and grab one of these.

There's a bit of learning curve involved but nothing serious, plus there's 2 whole threads dedicated to this awesome mod in the regulated mods section. I finally managed to grab one for myself and wish I had the money to pick up at least one more.
 
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