Protank 3 insufficient vapor

[Asymetric]

Hello,

First of all, let me introduce myself - I've been into vaping for a short time (~2 months), and I really like tinkering and playing with my atomizers. Until now I have had a Kanger Protank 3 Mini, which was (and still is) pretty good with a cheap Ego-T 1300mAh battery. Recently I bought a Protank 3 with Tesla Sidewinder 1 2000mAh 3,7V battery.
Just out of the box, I swapped the provided coil with a new one, with lower resistance (~1.3ohm). After a few hits it was flooded, gurgling and annoying me. It took me around 2 hours of rebuilding and watching videos (which were of no use), wasting 3 metres of wire, 2 metres of wick and some cotton, until I figured out how to fix this - by adding a wick under coils as well, preferably cotton. No flavor wicks needed. Finally it started working normally, but ever since I cant get it to work as good as my Mini Protank. It is OK but far from perfect.
I tried nearly everything - higher resistance, lower resistance, flavor wicks, using tape to tighten airflow, using cotton for coils and silica for the bottom wick/mid layer, using silica for coils and cotton for the other wicks, using pure cotton and pure silica. The best I could achieve is with 2mm silica, with 1 cotton wick underneath, 6 wraps top/6 wraps bottom 32 AWG Kanthal or the same resistance Nichrome. The resistance is fairly low (~1,1ohm), power output big and still the vapor sucks. Further lowering of resistance would most likely cause the vapor to be too hot (even now it is really warm), and I noticed that below 7 wraps the performance doesn't really improve, only vapor temperature increases.
The vapor is, say 20% less dense than my Mini vapor, which is 7wraps top/8wraps bottom (~1,3ohm). I totally don't get it how is this possible. Is it because of the bottom "anti-gurgle" wick? I wasted like 3 hours with experimenting and still without results. Flavor is pretty good, maybe even better in Protank, but the vapor production...Does anyone have a clue what could I do ? The only thing which comes to my mind is to get a wire with less resistance (say 30 or 28 AWG), and use more wraps to increase the surface of evaporation, but I don't know...
Unless I find a way to improve it, the tank is going to end in my "box of god-forgotten stuff"
Please, replies like "get yourself an AeroTank or a dripper if you want more vapor" are useless to me, I just want my Protank to work like the Mini.

Thanks in advance for answers,
Asy

P.S My e-juice is an equal mix of 65/35 and 50/40/10 PG/VG/Water.

 

[smacksy]

I never got the Protank to work like the Mini..really could barely get it to vape at all.. Sad but true..it's why I threw the Protank in the garbage more than 4 yrs ago when I was a newbie, like yourself... Good luck!

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[ej1024]

Vape On

 

[Huckleberried]

I'm one of the rare people that has never had any trouble whatsoever from a Protank or the mini. I've always used 30 or 32g kanthal to build them, cotton for re-wicking, until I met rayon, and I vape at low watts with builds anywhere from 1.2 up to 2.5 ohms. Granted, these don't give me the vapor production that I can get from the other tanks I have, but I get a pretty good amount from them. I'm more for flavor than clouds, but I've always been happy with them. The only fiddling I ever did to them was to drill out the holes in the base of the Protank, not the mini, for a tad more air flow. This was before the AFC were available. I've had one of the full size one for over 2 years and still use it.

 

[Lost]

the vapor sucks

Here's part of your problem:

My e-juice is an equal mix of 65/35 and 50/40/10 PG/VG/Water.

 

[wally]

The aero actually has a new base for it and works much better for what it is these were made several years ago and are not sub tanks. The pro tanks bases and mini protank bases can be drilled out for better performance but not close to a sub ohm. The 32 at five spaced wraps will deliver the most performance at 1.2 to 1.3 ohm. The coils are what they had a few years ago and were the best at the time. They can only deliver so much because of the size of the coils they are limited. Actually for the size and design if built right they are very good with no leakage, shorts, and not bad vape. The good thing about them you save a lot of money in juice compared to the sub ohm coils.

 

[smacksy]

The aero actually has a new base for it and works much better for what it is these were made several years ago and are not sub tanks. The pro tanks bases and mini protank bases can be drilled out for better performance but not close to a sub ohm. The 32 at five spaced wraps will deliver the most performance at 1.2 to 1.3 ohm. The coils are what they had a few years ago and were the best at the time. They can only deliver so much because of the size of the coils they are limited. Actually for the size and design if built right they are very good with no leakage, shorts, and not bad vape. The good thing about them you save a lot of money in juice compared to the sub ohm coils.

I sub ohm and save alot of money for juice not buying 4 cartons of Marlboro a month anymore...lololo

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[Heabob]

Get the Kanger Air Flow Controller (base), and get some Kanger PT2 single coil heads.
They'll work in the PT3 but should be rebuilt as most of the stock ones are pretty crappy IMO.
The single coils heads are much easier to rebuild.
My Anyvape Davides, (now 2 years old), use the same Kanger PT2 atomizer heads.
I'm using: 30 a1 Kanthal, 1.5mm, 7-8 wraps, contact(micro)coil, and KJD cotton.
Usually 1.7-1.9 ohms.
Main thing is getting the ends of the wick nice and fluffy to fill the channels.
No flavor wicks needed either, and I've never had any leaking or gurgles.
Not for high watts, but I can chain vape 70/30VG at 7-8watts, well, until the tank gets too hot anyway.
Clouds are mediocre but the flavor is pretty good, (great for work).

 

[Nancy_Bout]

I never had any problem get the newer coils and it should be fine.
I left protanks went to nautilus from nautilus to subohm and now those tanks to me is like sucking through a straw (used to full blown open airflow)
When I first started vaping to quit smoking protanks and tighter draw w mouth to lung Vape was what I needed.
I find the protank 3 to be awesome... I think your coils are faulty


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[Asymetric]

Hi, thank you all for your answers.
I decided to get myself an RBA because trying to rebuild the protank properly is driving me nutz...Would you be so kindand help me with choosing a suitable one?
I've done some research and I am thinking about this setup - Eleaf Lemo 2 RTA with 100W Eleaf iStick TC mod. I don't know if TC mods are really that good for a newbie like me, maybe it would be better to stick to the VW ones as they cost the same (lol TC is even cheaper). If they are, would you recommend Ti or Ni200 wire?
Oh, and an important question - is gearbest.com a reliable vendor (do they really sell genuine stuff?) So far, I've only bought some wires and chargers there and never had a problem. But this is something different...
Thanks,
Asy

 

[wally]

ecig.com would be better I do believe gearbest has had a lot of problems lately. They have the eleaf 100 w Tc for 34.00