Hello all....newbie here....SMOK Mag Kit “no atomizer” issues

[Will George]

Hi all!

So I literally just bought the SMOK mag kit yesterday and have been unable to vape yet because of issues. I have looked up a few on the web and YouTube but not hitting my issues and definitely not giving me fixes/solutions. Let me start from the beginning (bear with me).

I was told when I received it (brand new) that I would need to prime the cotton to avoid damging the coil. So I went to YouTube and watched a very good video on it. I made a mistake, however, by lubing up the wrong side of the coil. When I first twisted the tank apart, it naturally came loose at the bottom side of where the coil goes into the mod right above the airflow. Staring at me (and what I didn’t see in the video.....gee, should have stopped there) was the metal bracket (similar to the .... end of a spark plug) and then a black rubber seal. Come to find out later, that metal .... end is what I believe contacts the threads on the bottom of the atomizer which in turn makes a connection to the mod. I took both of these pieces out of the coil and then saw the cotton part that I thought the guy was showing in the YouTube video. So I lubed that area like he instructed, reapplied the seal and then twisted/pushed that metal cap behind the seal, and then twisted it back into the housing at the .... end of the tank. So in essence, I lubed/primed the opposite side of the coil that I was supposed to.

Continued filling the liquid in the top side of the tank like another video had instructed and then cranked it up. In the first few hours, I kept coming up with “Atomizer short” messages. Never when fully seated to the mod will the display register the atomizer. I saw in another video that sometimes there is a sliver of space required to read right so I would finaggle with it a bit and sometimes I would get the atomizer new/old display with the change of ohms but then after that screen, either atomizer short or no atomizer. And when I saw the aromizer short when pulling the trigger, I would get small hints of vapor coming from the airflow and tip, but when taking a drag.....nothin. Now today, I cannot get anything but no atomizer displays. Occasionally I will get a ohm too low message with the amount of ohms displayed. Then back to no atomizer.

Last thing.....yesterday I was able at one point to get a very short amount of puffs (4 to be exact) and the drags were heavy cotton and not e-liquid. Not sure what conditions made it work for just a few drags but it has not repeated itself since.

Okay, really the last thing.....I read somewhere on this forum where a commenter mentioned that when you hit the fire button with the tank off, the pin shoud rise up. Mine does not move whatsoever. Should it go up and down?

The machine has never been dropped or mishandled since receiving yesterday.


What should I be looking at doing at this stage?
Did I damage or otherwise disable the coil when tampering with the back end of it? Is it correctable or is the only option replacing the coil)?
And what about the fire pin?
If I have to change the coil, is there any way to save the e-liquid inside? I just filled it up after taking the tank apart again.

Please help me! Thanks in advance!

 

[Edward Denison]

Yup you oops'd a bit by taking the .... end of the atomizer off. there are two wires on each coil in the atomizer, one goes above one below the black o-ring holding them, put them back if you can that's why the mod is spazzing. on the side of the atomizer head/coil are ports that you see cotton through that's where you prime it one drop each port. The juice you want to save, just unscrew the tank over a shallow cup and suck back in the juice bottle.
Hope that helps you out.

 

[Edward Denison]

double post

 

[Will George]

View attachment 746737 Yup you oops'd a bit by taking the .... end off the atomizer off. there are two wires on each coil in the atomizer, one goes above one below the black o-ring holding them, put them back if you can that's why the mod is spazzing. on the side of the atomizer head/coil are ports that you see cotton through that's where you prime it one drop each port. The juice you want to save, just unscrew the tank over a shallow cup and suck back in the juice bottle.
Hope that helps you out.

Thanks a lot Ed! I will look into it. In the meantime, I just swapped the coil for the spare in the box and properly prined it this time and it worked like a champ. The factory installed coil on the SMOK Mag Kit is a Q4. I see the 2 coils that come up under the rubber boot. One of the coils looks blackened a tad.....maybe burnt? Still worth it to test your theory and save the coil? Or toss and move on?

The T10 like in your picture is the spare that I am using now, by the way. From your experience, any differences between the two? Is either better than the other? I am mild vaper. Not into doing trick shows with smoke and all that. Heck, I don’t even use any nicotine e-liquids. Just a fidgety “keep me busy, calm my nerves” thing mostly for the golf course. ️

 

[uthinkofsomething]

Ok. Well.
The problem was the coilhead 1000 percent...
When you took it apart and put it back together it likely damaged the coil or disturbed it in a negative way at least, it either was pushed against a part of the housing or was just deformed enough that it caused a short in the atomizer.... Electricity going where it should not. Changing the coil fixed this because, of course lol, the new one was fine.
I am frankly saddened that who ever sold you that stuff did not make sure you knew the bare bones basics before you left. That's irresponsible. Even online web stores have all kind of warnings about knowledge...

 

[Zaryk]

Pressing the fire button on a mod does not move the 510 pin that makes contact with the tank. That pin on your mod is spring loaded, it will go down with the pressure of the tank being threaded on, and spring back up as the tank is removed.

 

[Will George]

Ok. Well.
The problem was the coilhead 1000 percent...
When you took it apart and put it back together it likely damaged the coil or disturbed it in a negative way at least, it either was pushed against a part of the housing or was just deformed enough that it caused a short in the atomizer.... Electricity going where it should not. Changing the coil fixed this because, of course lol, the new one was fine.
I am frankly saddened that who ever sold you that stuff did not make sure you knew the bare bones basics before you left. That's irresponsible. Even online web stores have all kind of warnings about knowledge...

Well, he tried. I mean he didn't give me any help but he asked me if I vaped before. I said no. He said to get with a friend I have that vapes before doing anything on my own. That was it. LOL

 

[Will George]

Pressing the fire button on a mod does not move the 510 pin that makes contact with the tank. That pin on your mod is spring loaded, it will go down with the pressure of the tank being threaded on, and spring back up as the tank is removed.

Oh ok. Well that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

 

[stols001]

Sounds like you have resolved many of your problems and that's great. Make sure when priming to also start low (or even not pressing the fire button) while inhaling, the inhalation (sucking capillary action, mainly) is what will really wick juice up into your coil. Then increase power slowly while inhaling (even if no visible vapor it's fine) until you reach a satisfying vape. A well primed coil is a happy coil. I've done the "let it sit" method or the "squirt eliquid in a few areas" but mainly, I've found that drawing at low power is the best way to prime a coil and a well primed coil is a happy coil that will last longer.

No, you should NOT see your tank rise and fall with use. The spring is held down by the action of screwing in the tank as others have noted.

Well sounds like you had an unfortunate vape shop experience, I would be mad as a new vaper to be told "ask a a friend," the salesperson should have worked with you. ECF is better than most vape shops so glad you made it here.

As far as a vape that is less powerful and more MTL you could certainly get that sort of tank and use it on your current mod, should you choose to do so,, you'd be upping the nicotine as there is less vapor per puff, I vastly prefer MTL and I started out with a sub0hm setup.

Good MTL tanks that won't break the bank to try:
Innoken zenith (great design, heavy duty construction good coil life, good flavor)
The Nautilus 2 (tried and true but does have some issues). it was my quitting tank although full disclosure I don't vape it any more but do have tanks I vape the COIL in ,including a Kabuki (probably the best MTL tank for those coils but pricy) and the Ijoy elf (comes with proprietary coils but will accept the N2 tank and fixes many of its "issues." Good flavor.
The Tron-S, the ego mega V2 (you can't get the V1 easily anymore, and several other tanks that accept the "magic" coil, the 1.0 Joytech CLR coil, great flavor can be rewicked and even recoiled fairly easily). There is a thread on this coil and it lists all the tanks that take this coil.

Best of luck and welcome

Anna

 

[uthinkofsomething]

Well, he tried. I mean he didn't give me any help but he asked me if I vaped before. I said no. He said to get with a friend I have that vapes before doing anything on my own. That was it. LOL

Unfortunately vaping is not quite as simple as smoking... I don't want to make it sound like you need a degree to vape . At the beginning the hardest thing to learn is what to expect from vaping, what you want from it, and how to vape in a way that will satisfy you.

 

[Edward Denison]

Thanks a lot Ed! I will look into it. In the meantime, I just swapped the coil for the spare in the box and properly prined it this time and it worked like a champ. The factory installed coil on the SMOK Mag Kit is a Q4. I see the 2 coils that come up under the rubber boot. One of the coils looks blackened a tad.....maybe burnt? Still worth it to test your theory and save the coil? Or toss and move on?

The T10 like in your picture is the spare that I am using now, by the way. From your experience, any differences between the two? Is either better than the other? I am mild vaper. Not into doing trick shows with smoke and all that. Heck, I don’t even use any nicotine e-liquids. Just a fidgety “keep me busy, calm my nerves” thing mostly for the golf course. ️

If it's blackened the cotton is burnt and it'll taste burnt I'd pitch it. And that t10 is a cloud monster that will eat juice in a hurry that's why the tank is so big. It makes decent flavor but there are other tanks/drippers as mentioned that won't be so over the top and suck up juice. But hey its fun to fog a room.

 

[BrotherBob]

Oh ok. Well that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

Welcome and glad you joined.