Kangertech Frustrations, Part III - RBC Pops and Cracks

[tedsmith]

As part of my ongoing "settling period" with this Kangertech Subox, I have now resorted to using the RBC coil, the previous two stock coils having burnt out.

It's working OK except that when I press the power, I get quite a lot of popping and crackling, so much so that on occasion hot little blasts of juice fire up the chimney and hit my tongue, or, as was the case just now, my lip as I went to "put my mouth on it", so to speak. It's set to 16W, which is far less than it's maximum capability of 50W.

I have tried increasing and decreasing the power.

Before I just give up on the thing and try and quit the habit entirely (no bad thing, every cloud and all that) ,how do you prevent\reduce this? I've read a few posts on the subject and some say up the power, some say decrease it, some say leave it to burn for a second or two before breathing on it, etc. I've tried those to no avail.

 

[smacksy]

As part of my ongoing "settling period" with this Kangertech Subox, I have now resorted to using the RBC coil, the previous two stock coils having burnt out.

It's working OK except that when I press the power, I get quite a lot of popping and crackling, so much so that on occasion hot little blasts of juice fire up the chimney and hit my tongue, or, as was the case just now, my lip as I went to "put my mouth on it", so to speak. It's set to 16W, which is far less than it's maximum capability of 50W.

I have tried increasing and decreasing the power.

Before I just give up on the thing and try and quit the habit entirely (no bad thing, every cloud and all that) ,how do you prevent\reduce this? I've read a few posts on the subject and some say up the power, some say decrease it, some say leave it to burn for a second or two before breathing on it, etc. I've tried those to no avail.

Usually a high PG ratio will cause excessive popping and crackling ..
Personally I drip VG max that dosent pop at all..I also use it in all my subtanks..I do get the occasional pop once in a while but for 99% of the time its a smooth vape...

sent from my XT1080 via Tapatalk

 

[tedsmith]

Oh right. The liquid I have is by "Paramount", 10ml bottles, 1.8% strength. First listed ingredient is Propylene Glycol, so I guess it's a PG liquid instead of the vegetable VG liquid. So maybe I need to switch liquids. Shame because I have a bag of 10 bottles!

Where is a good UK based supplier to buy VG liquids from?

 

[Mattp169]

@tedsmith your right....that popping and so forh ca be a pita.; and figuring out how to stop it is a pain as well. Also understanding why your stock coils shit out on you is pita
this is all part of the learning curve.

1st lesson - nothing always works right all the time.
ive used the subtank for 5 months or more now. Its a wonderful tank. I mainly use the stock coils. They usually last 2 to 3 weeks. But I have had coils crap out in a day, in a week, in 3 days etc. They re mass manufacturered and they can just be crap form the get go
OR
it can be user error as well.

I think you learned form your threads that priming these things is ultra important and that it takes a little more juice to prime then you were using.

Point is - your first 2 stock coils could have been bad or it could have been user error - welcome to the learning curve.

I would highly suggest picking up a couple new stock coils.

Now there are like 6 different stock coils you can get now adays

1st one that is easy to recognize is the .15 Ni200 coil - it has a blue oring DO NOT GET THIS- repeat DO NOT GET THIS. it is for a device that can do Temperature control. Your subbox can not. running a Ni200 coil on the subbox will tste horrible and could actually be slightly dangerous. SO DO NOT DO IT

the other coils are all fine and are broken down into 2 categories.
category one
the horizontal coils. These are the original coils they came out with for these tanks. ANd many places still have them in stock. They are great little coils with some quirks. They are available in .5 and 1.2 ohm variety. the 1.2 ohm coils usually are run at a power of 7 to 15 watts the .5 areusually run between 10-20 watts

category 2
vertical coils
these are teh newest coils. not everyone has them and many who do have them actually say they are VERTICAL COILS
whats the big deal. well some say they taste better then the horizontal. I think if their is any difference its minimal. But becuase of the design and whatever you can run these higher so the .5 can go up to like 30 or more watts and run well
the 1.2 can do like 20 ish or os watts
and the 1.5 i think probably will top off at 15ish watts.

Now my watt numbers are just a guideline. Everyone has their own thing. The numbers I used are based off my own likes and general statements others have made on these forums

Ok so what own coil for you

well if you like to do mouth to lung hits, 1.2 or 1.5 coils for sure

if you prefer the direct lung style - .5 all the way

I can direct lung all the coils but thats me.


Now to your RBA issue
which BTW to remember it stands for ReBuilable Atomizer

the whole popping and cracking thing can be several things

1. juice. yeah high PG juice is thinner and can do that more often then high VG juice - but hey I use max VG and I can make it happen on mine.
2. a horizontal coil which is what you have set up in your RBA is more prone to this then a vertical but building that deck with a vertical coil is no small feat
.3. it could be your wicking. you may have too much or too little. Basically when you which this thing you want the cotton to just be thick enough to go in the coil with just a little resistance. You dont want to force it through and bend the coil up. Then in general you cut the wick short enough so it can just barely touch the base. There are tons of You Tube videos showing this
4.it could be your power. - now that coil you are using - which I assume is the pre built col it came with, is a .5ohm coil it should max out in the 20 watt range, maybe 25 watts.By that I mean anything higher and its gonna taste HOT and possibly burnt

SO here is my suggestion
DO NOT THROW OUT YOUR JUICE
watch a couple youtube videos on wicking that thing
re wick you coil
and try again
but start low say at 6 watts. and ove rthe course of teh day build up the watts.
you may hate it at 6 watts and want to move it up immediately

thast is fine. just dont try starting right at 25 watts
start at 6 or whatever
take a few puffs
if all is working but theres just little vapor and flavor
go up a watt
try again
keep repeating this till you feel like your getting something out of it vapor and flavor wise
leve it there for a while, say 10-20 puffs, then take it up a notch and keep doing this
until you go up a notch and feel - its too mcuh or too hot or whatever. then go back down a notch.

EXPERIMENT find what makes you happy. What works for me dont work for you. and vice versa


NOw when you buy more juice
if your happy with your subtank
i would recommend asking them for something that is about 70 VG/30 PG thats the average mix that most people like in subtanks.

 

[UncleRJ]

I have found that when I install a new coil, I normally get a lot of Popping and Crackling sounds while it breaks in.

 

[tedsmith]

Matt - much obliged to you for taking the time to write all that. I appreciate the tutorlidge a lot. This is all quite new to me, so thanks.

 

[Mattp169]

@tedsmith no problem thats why we are here to help eac other out and figure this stuff out.

 

[STUSTUFF]

I am a common "I GOTTA TRY ONE OF THOSE!"
"So, I have about 12 different tanks, since I came into my first vape shop, I was lucky to be there right when sub ohm, and the new Kangertech Subtank had just come out. I am on permanent Disability, so $$$ . I still like my Kanger stuff the best. 2 things, can I boil clean my coils with just water?, and can I rebuild the coil? with new high quality cotton, and burn the mess off of the wire coil? any help is appreciated, like the vape brotherhood is all about THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Stu/STUSTUFF

 

[KillaB3E]

@STUSTUFF, I've had the original subtank since it was released back in January or so. Since then I have added the ST Mini and the ST Plus to my collection.

Regarding your question about rebuilding / rewicking coils, Yes, you can do both. There are several videos on YouTube that can help you with both. I started off rewicking my coils, carefully pulling the cotton out and then rewicking with Organic Cotton. I did this for months and have a stash of old coils. The process works fine, depending on how you go about it, but it's time consuming.

My advice, learn how to build your own coils. I shied away from building for about 9 months because I thought it was "too hard." Boy was I wrong, I have been building my own coils for the last 2-3 weeks and it's not hard at all. Sure, it takes some trial and error, but it is SO MUCH cheaper and easier than rebuilding / rewicking the coils.

Just my two cents.

Take care,