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An open letter to Kangertech concerning the Protank 4/Review

cascadian

Bronze Contributor
Member For 4 Years
To whom it may concern,

I was pleasantly surprised with some of the new design features of your newest sub ohm tank the Protank 4. As your products have always been somewhat popular in our stores, I ordered them without procuring a sample first. Even though the top/side fill isn't what I would call convenient it is very serviceable and does prevent some of the issues we saw with the Toptank series.

Please note however, your tanks will never be better than their weakest link. The weakest link has been your coils since the Subtank Mini V2. Some consider your ceramic coils an improvement but they still limit the vaping experience on your products to a pedestrian level. If you are unable to improve your coils to compete in the market, perhaps it is time to partner with a manufacturer that can.

After growing frustrated by the same old Kanger issues with the Protank 4, I tried some 3rd party manufacturer coils in the tank. They solve every single issue and improve the performance of the tank to a more than respectable level. The first alternative used was the CoilArt .4 ohm SS Clapton coil. It turns your mediocre newest offering into a stellar performing device. Exceptional flavor and vapor production with never a drop of leaking. The second was the VaporWerxUSA Zombie Head Shot .5 ohm coil. Once again, this coil provides exceptional flavor and vapor production with absolutely no leaking in the Protank 4. So the issues are most certainly a result of your coils.

Lastly, whatever type of plastic you are using for your drip tips has a noticeable impact on flavor to many of our customers. You might want to consider changing it too. And while including the 1.5 ohm Clapton coil as a MTL option in the package is a nice touch, doing so without including a smaller bore drip tip is somewhat pointless.

Sales of your Protank 4 have been better than any offering from you since the Subtank Mini in our stores. But that is because we have demo units set out, one with your coil and one with a CoilArt coil for our customers to try. 90% of our customers are purchasing the CoilArt coils with the Protank 4 at time of purchase. What is even more scathing about this "endorsement" is the CoilArt coils sell for less than the Kangertech offerings. Enough less that Kangertech could buy them for what I pay and still make substantial profit reselling them at what I pay wholesale for the Kangertech branded coils.
 

pdasterly

Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
To whom it may concern,

I was pleasantly surprised with some of the new design features of your newest sub ohm tank the Protank 4. As your products have always been somewhat popular in our stores, I ordered them without procuring a sample first. Even though the top/side fill isn't what I would call convenient it is very serviceable and does prevent some of the issues we saw with the Toptank series.

Please note however, your tanks will never be better than their weakest link. The weakest link has been your coils since the Subtank Mini V2. Some consider your ceramic coils an improvement but they still limit the vaping experience on your products to a pedestrian level. If you are unable to improve your coils to compete in the market, perhaps it is time to partner with a manufacturer that can.

After growing frustrated by the same old Kanger issues with the Protank 4, I tried some 3rd party manufacturer coils in the tank. They solve every single issue and improve the performance of the tank to a more than respectable level. The first alternative used was the CoilArt .4 ohm SS Clapton coil. It turns your mediocre newest offering into a stellar performing device. Exceptional flavor and vapor production with never a drop of leaking. The second was the VaporWerxUSA Zombie Head Shot .5 ohm coil. Once again, this coil provides exceptional flavor and vapor production with absolutely no leaking in the Protank 4. So the issues are most certainly a result of your coils.

Lastly, whatever type of plastic you are using for your drip tips has a noticeable impact on flavor to many of our customers. You might want to consider changing it too. And while including the 1.5 ohm Clapton coil as a MTL option in the package is a nice touch, doing so without including a smaller bore drip tip is somewhat pointless.

Sales of your Protank 4 have been better than any offering from you since the Subtank Mini in our stores. But that is because we have demo units set out, one with your coil and one with a CoilArt coil for our customers to try. 90% of our customers are purchasing the CoilArt coils with the Protank 4 at time of purchase. What is even more scathing about this "endorsement" is the CoilArt coils sell for less than the Kangertech offerings. Enough less that Kangertech could buy them for what I pay and still make substantial profit reselling them at what I pay wholesale for the Kangertech branded coils.
i want to order some coilart coils from you, I looked on their website and the have many offerings, I use MTL style on protank 4. reuleaux rx200 is my daily driver for around the house. thanks
 

Canadian Vaper

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
Reddit Exile
There has been literally no real innovation by Kangertech in their coil department since the release of the subtank series, they are finicky at best, I used the subtank mini for a very long time and rebuilt their coils upon purchase, I've had ones that shorted, most leaked and all of them the wicking was either too little or too much, maybe 2/5 were ever good, not to mention the resistances were all over the place from .4 to .6............

There was so much hype built around those vertical coils I went out and bought some, guess what I still prefer my rebuilt horizontals.. I've even gone as far to modify them, I expanded the juice holes to 3mm and tapered the hole to allow better juiceflow and I'll tell ya running SS316L with the modified juice holes is a step Kanger should have taken, I can run my STM up to 60 watts no problem producing almost 4 times as much vapor and tonnes more flavor from a single coil than i've gotten from any of their factory coils...

What I find absolutely hilarious is there's tonnes of extra room in my STM that would allow for them to create bigger coil heads like dual or maybe even tri coil heads similar to the TFV4/8...

Kanger needs to step up their game substantially if they want to remain a top player... Even look at the dripbox series, it's one of the worst RDA's on the market, tonnes of people just buy it to have a squonker mod...
 

nightshard

It's VG/PG not PG/VG
VU Donator
Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
To me Kanger lost their charm a long time ago.
If you're making a new protank it needs have some similarity to the older protanks which it doesn't.

All they make is low quality mods and entry level attys.
 
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The first alternative used was the CoilArt .4 ohm SS Clapton coil.

Hello dear friend, I was looking for that coil, however all I find is:
1. CTOCC KANTHAL DUAL COIL (5 PACK) BY COILART - only this one is compatible with Kanger Protank 4 (0.2 and 0.5)
2. CTCO KANTHAL DUAL COIL (5 PACK) BY COILART - not compatible with Kanger Protank 4.
3. CTUL KANTHAL DUAL COIL (5 PACK) BY COILART - not compatible with Kanger Protank 4.
4. CTTF KANTHAL DUAL COIL (5 PACK) BY COILART - not compatible with Kanger Protank 4.

I can't find the one you've suggested: SS and 0.4ohm.

Please refer me to the place I can find it online, many thanks!
 

Lefty

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
Member For 5 Years
Yes I know Coilart doesn't. May be discontinued IDK you'd have to ask them. You didn't specify your location just said online. It is included in the Monster Kit some vendors are selling. You could ask Coilart for a European or perhaps Chinese source. Good luck.
 

HitShane

Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
Will the older square subtank coils work in the protank 4?

Yes, the OCC (square) coils work in the Protank 4. I just got my Protank because I broke my last subtank mini and decided not to replace the glass, again. I had tons of OCC .5 coils left. I actually prefer them over the SSOCC style that came out last year or so.

These coils only leak when you overfill or over prime them. I never have an issue with the OCC coils. I have been running two sub tank minis with these coils since they came out. I make my own juice and probably vape about 10-15ml a day at >1mg nic.
 
I recently picked up the protank 4 after owning three or four other Kanger products. I've always liked the construction of their products, but the Protank 4, honestly, is lame.

Straightforward stuff: the driptip is just strange. Even when it's closed it feels like air is coming through it. When it's opened, unless you're some kind of lipless ape, you will inevitably cover the vents with your mouth. Also the side-filling thingy is bizarre. You have to turn the thing on it's side and sort of tilt the top up or else the tank just won't swallow thick juices. I've never had as much juice on my hands before (that's what she said).

I had some particular problems but browsing the internet I see that they're not isolated.

Within a week of buying the thing a post on the rba deck was wiggling and the voltage on my mod was jumping up and down like a nine-year-old on m*th.

I wrote to Kanger asking for a refund. Response was, if the post is moving, do not use the rba deck for now. That's it. Not a word about a refund.

I wrote again asking for a refund and whether I could get a replacement rba deck. Again, no mention of the refund request. Here's the entire message.

"Hello,
Sorry for your case but the pro rba is not seperately .
You can use mini rba in your protank4,thanks."

So Kanger is unwilling to address my request for a refund, wants me to buy a replacement part not designed for this tank, and doesn't even make the appropriate replacement piece for a part that has failed on many people and failed on me.

I should have mentioned that I previously wrote to Kanger asking for the specs on the pre-wound coils included with the tank, the grub nut and the allen wrench size but I got no response.

I'm afraid I'm done with Kanger. Geekvape and Smok are both making more reliable products now and I don't want to throw more money away on this company.
 

HitShane

Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
The RBA deck is worth a few $. The drip tip does suck I'll give you that. But, it is a standard size and I have several that fit the Protank 4. It doesn't leak, it hits great, and it looks good. You can pull the entire top off also if you need to to clean it. If you wanted an RTA then maybe you should have got one that's dedicated for it. The Protank after all is made to be used with the prebuild coils. I recommend the square shaped OCC and not the newer design SSOCC. I love the Protank. It's like the subtank but it doesn't leak. I just wish the fill hole was a little bigger, but the end of a glass dripper fits just right as it is.
 

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