Thoughts - The science of the Mini Protank 2 - Dry hits, no vapor, tight draw, airy draw, burnt taste and the randomness of it all

[JayQC]

I created a similar thread earlier this week after buying it.

My first thread was regarding no vapor draws but I won't bump it because I want to start fresh and consolidate what I find in this one instead with a better title.

I use it on an EVOD 650 with 2.2 coils.

I was wrenching around in the garage yesterday, and it started acting up on me and I experienced several other symptoms and problems while trying to figure out exactly how to make this thing work flawlessly without modding it or messing around with the hardware too much.

I don't consider removing flavor wicks to be a mod because it's just a matter of allowing your thicker juice to wick or just wick more depending on your technique and preference.

However, I'm a plug and play guy, I don't want to flip the rubber grommet upside down, it just bugs me but I did try it and it did work okay.

One thing about these tanks is that the chamber or area where the juice goes to wet the wicks is more restrictive than with stock EVODS and sometimes air bubbles can form and hang in there, especially if the coil is too tight in the airhole base, restricting the passage even more.

When I first got it, I loved the airy but super flavorful draw. I just draw delicately on it just like the stock EVOD clearo. I tested it out with the guy who sold it to me at the shop and it worked great so I topped it off and suddenly no vapor. We fiddled with it and it worked so I chalked it up to acute noobage of new hardware.

The following days, I did experience other occurences of filling the tank and then no vapor but no dry hits either, but nothing to offset the great vaping and the peace of mind of knowing I can vape what I want without the tank melting paranoia of my watermelon juice.

So far so good.

Yesterday night I'm in the garage, working on my car, figuring out how to hook up throttle linkage to carburetor with my EVOD/mini protank 2 in my back pocket, drip tip facing up.

I took a puff and nothing. Took it apart several times and nothing. Not the best moment to crap out on me honestly, and I knew my coil was rather old so I threw it away and put a new one in. Worked perfect.

10 minutes later more nothing. Now I'm seriously annoyed. I stop the music, take off the tank and listen to sizzling of coil. There is sizzling so it should work.

After more fiddling I get it to work some, but I'm tickled at the fact that I still haven't figured out why the thing is suddenly randomly working after a week of great vaping.

I would then start having irregular draws that have flavor at first and then no flavor towards the end and have a burnt taste upon inhalation, or taste nothing at first and then have a mouthful of flavor and more burnt taste upon inhalation, both symptoms of irregular wicking. I didn't know what a dry hit was before yesterday, my stock EVOD being just awesome, and now I can tell you that smoking wick effing sucks.

I decided to investigate this morning and found out that one of the biggest factor in how well it works is simply how tight or loose every part of the Mini Pro-tank is.

I have read the thread about slightly unscrewing the base to force juice to the wick but that would just end up flooding another "chamber" of the contraption.

The tank is made up of several parts that each interfere with wicking and airflow. I would screw everything on and airflow would be too tight, then take everything apart and put it back together and then airflow would be fine.

After meticulously testing air flow and wicking performance of every step of the assembly, I found out that the connection that makes or break this device for me is definitely the connection between the light silver base (with the kanger mini protank 2 logo) and the darker metal base (with the air holes) that connects to the battery, as well as the coil unit connection to said airhole base.

The mating of these two parts seems to be totally random in quality. You assemble it, it stinks, you take it apart and put it back together, it works.

So what I do when I get uneven performance or any of the symptoms described above :

- Take everything apart, clean everything and make sure all gaskets are CLEAN AND SEATED PROPERLY.

- Assemble the tank it self, making sure everything is lined up and tight, but not too tight. At this point in the assembly, all you have to worry about is get it tight enough so that the glass tube tank itself is sealed against both end gaskets.

- Screw the air hole base on the battery tight. Screw the coil on it. Not too tight at first and suck on the post of the coil unit to make sure airflow is effortless. If that test passes, keep screwing to tighten and keep testing air flow. Screw coil unit as tight as effortless airflow will allow.

- Screw the tank on the air hole base. When you feel ANY resistance, stop and test airflow through drip tip. This is the part that annoys me. This connection needs to be rather tight so the thing doesn't leak. Sometimes airflow will decrease significantly before proper tightness is achieved. Back it off, check gaskets and repeat. Sometimes I have to screw it quite tightly then back it off, test airflow and progressively screw it back tighter. I can do this 3-4 times before the thing is tight AND maintains good airflow and wicking. I've also had to back off my coil and screw it in again as described above at times.


IMO, a clever design somewhat impared by shoddy chinese manufacturing that you have to compensate for by extensive knowledge of all variables of the assembly.

I vape something like 35/65 PG/VG so it's not a thick liquid and I didn't have to remove any wicks or flip the coil post rubber grommet upside down, it's really the methodical approach to assembling the device that makes the biggest difference from my experience.

Whenever I experience problems I go back through these steps and usually it works for an extended period of time.

The mini protank 2s are great but you have to put an emphasis on maintenance and careful assembly to get the best out of them.

They can be frustrating.

 

[edyle]

Alot of the inconsistency with bottom coil clearos has to to with the replaceable coil head.

Sometimes the wicking is too tight for frequent vaping.
After a few days of use, the wicking becomes leaky and the coil tends to flood - keeping the tank upside down can solve that problem if you don't feel like changing coil or just to verify that flooding is what is happening.

One of the best things I ever did was rewick with cotton.

Stop throwing away your protank coils – ITCVapes

 

[t.d]

I fixed all of my kanger issues by using some 2mm readyXwick (ceramic) and ready wire. Its actually 1.65mm and slides PERFECTLY in a 16g needle coil. I literally used my PT2 for about a week when it came out and set it down untill yesterday. I tried rebuilding the heads with cotton a few times before and that worked for about a day untill I needed to swap wicks, and if I set it up improperly I had a whole new issue to deal with.

So far with the readyXwick I've been through about 20ml and only had vaccum issues once. Luckily my mech mod has adjustable airflow built in so I remedied that quickly. Im seriously considering buying a zapper so I can make some 30g-30g NR wire to make my PT2 a set and forget tank. Right now Im using 34g readywire at 2.2 ohms and it is seriously rocking, even with no kick installed on my mech mod!!!!

readyXwick 2mm was made for single coil kanger heads!!!

 

[Thundernoggin]

One of the best things I ever did was rewick with cotton.

^ This is the answer to most Protank problems. I've got over 20 of them in the house now and I do this every time.

 

[JayQC]

After a few days I also noticed that the coil head has a tendency to unscrew itself so whenever the quality of the vape goes down, check to see if your coil has come loose

 

[JayQC]

I have mainly solved my dry hits problems and burnt taste by :

- Screwing the airhole base tight on the battery.

- Screwing in the coil tight in the air hole base.

- Screwing the tank base on the air hole base so that the KangerTech Mini protank 2 emblem on the tank base is exactly between two airholes below. You can feel when the gasket starts to compress, just keep tightening and bring the emblem between the two next airholes. It might be able to go further, but don't overtighten. This might vary from one to another since the threading could be different as well. This goes in line with my original assumption that this particular connection between the two bases is the main factor in how well the MPT2 performs apart from heads and wicking problem.

- A weak battery will still give off lots of vapor, but a very muted taste.

At the moment with the fresh battery, my MPT2 doesn't make a lot of sizzling noise, in fact it's quiet as hell. The draw feels rather cloudy but gives awesome vapor and good taste after a couple of seconds. I'm currently using 2.2 coils, but I bought a box of 1.8 that I haven't used yet. I suspect they will work better and heat faster, which is good.

I have done no modification to my unit whatsoever (I didn't mess with wicking, rubber grommets or anything), it's hooked up to a straight stock EVOD battery.

I'm definitely zeroing in on the sweet spot for my Mini protank 2 and I want to find it because when this thing works, it vapes like nothing else for the price.

 

[JayQC]

This thing has been vaping like a fog machine all afternoon.

Knowing that my assembly is dialed in, all I need to do when a hint of bad taste comes in is simply blow and suck (sorry) 3 or 4 bursts of air through the drip tip to dislodge the bubbles that may have formed in the wick area, bubbles which will then float to the top and I'm good for at least a dozen perfect drags. Don't blow or suck too hard (again....sory) not to flood it. Looking down at the tank, you can see the bubbles popping out as you are doing it, it's easy to figure out when to stop.

Can't wait to try my luck with the 1.8 coils when this one is done for, just hoping I get as good performance as I get now.

The vaping technique is also primordial for these devices, and somewhat changes as the tank goes down.

They need to be dragged on very delicately for the most part, monitoring flavor and getting the right feel for it, and you get full flavor and a cloud like Cap Canaveral on a good day, which is a nice bonus.

 

[Mrs C]

Something else to keep an eye on with them, the airflow holes in the base. They can clog up very easily. Any time i have airflow or flavor issues the first thing I do is poke a straight pin through those 3 little holes. 9 out of 10 times that sorts it out and you don't have to disassemble the whole bottom end of the tank.

 

[Alter]

I had airflow issues with my protanks but never the mini's. My wife's provari is finicky with protank bases with some drawing good while others had tighter draw and some had no draw at all. I would swap bases around on her PV until I found one that would draw and used it. You can swap the PT large base with the mini's and visa versa. Now that I bought some of the kanger airflow adapters we have ZERO issues with the airflow in any of our protanks and mini's in her provari or any of my PV's.
FYI...I rebuilds all my own protank heads and haven't used a stock out of the box head for many many many months now.

 

[JayQC]

So I vaped through my tank of water melon yesterday night and this morning and switched to Pineapple, which is a tad bit thicker for whatever reason.

Vapor production : still great
Draw : A bit tighter, but it didn't feel like an airflow problem, it felt thick like sirupy, not constricted.
Flavor : Noticeable drop. Felt cloudy.
Throat hit : Noticeable drop.

Took out one of the wicks : Everything back to pretty much amazing status.

I'm now confident that whatever small issue might arise in the future, all I have to worry about is wicking performance and coil maintenance.

 

[Alter]

If you look at the large base of a protank you see that the air goes into those small holes, down the threads, past the rubber insulator and into the hole of the positive pin. A worn out or squished insulator and you have airflow issues with both protank and PT2. Lack of airflow means IMO your not cooling off the coil enough cause of lack of airflow passing by the coil and your burning the juice onto the coil thus the heads are crapping out super fast. If you take the PT head and look at it from the bottom and see a ring of insulator behind the positive pin then you have restricted airflow. A good head your not suppose to see any insulator behind the pin.
The mini base is open, so the air passes thru the holes and straight up the positive pin hole, no threads or insulator to pass by before going into the coil. That is why people are having more success with the PT mini's more than the full sized protanks.
The airflow adapter has the same open concept of the mini base and with drilling out the airholes bigger (1/16) you can vape low ohm coils and still have plenty of air pass by the coil and not get a burny taste.
Putting a full sized PT on a mini base may look kinda silly but it should work better since your alleviating the air passing down the threads. Also learning to DIY the PT heads or rebuilding them is the best vape asset you can learn since you can take that basic protank head rebuilding technique further with rebuilding other atomizers and drippers.

 

[TDC123]

My MPT 2 and 3 are now reliable work horses. I didn't read the whole thread so this may have been covered.

Here's how mine are set up.

Both have the airflow control valves. The valves as they come from the factory still restrict the draw a good bit when wide open. I drilled the existing ones out just a bit plus drilled new air holes in between the existing ones. It's not hard. I sat on the couch and did it in my lap holding the valve with one hand and drilling with my Milwaukee cordless drill. Now it's near perfect, at least for what the MPT's can do.

I rebuild all my heads with 2-2.2 ohm micro coils from 30 guage Kanthal. With a vv/vw device like my Innokin SVD you can get a really good vapor from them.

I rewick them with cotton balls. If I have any gurgling I add a flavor wick. I only get a gurgle with really thin juices and not very often. I've yet to have a flooding of my atomizer with this setup. Once you build the micro coil you can swap the wick itself out pretty easily.

I didn't turn the slicone chimney ring over but cut two inverted v slits on opposite sides of the it where the wick is on each side.

I don't have any trouble now. The MPT's can be very reliable IF you are willing to work with them.

Inefficient small factory coils in a tiny space combined with an inferior silica wick are your primary culprits. Try not to overthink it. Address those issues and your MPT will be a workhorse. There are tons of tutorials for building micro coils and wicking with cotton. Rarely do I need the flavor wick.

If you find you like building coils and toying with your MPT then build a vertical coil in there. If done correctly that setup really rocks but changing the wick out is not nearly as simple. There are threads on here devoted to doing so. Drop me a line if you would like a link.

I work on cars too. You probably have a multimeter, a torch, needle nose pliers, a 1/16th" drill bit and some tweezers. You don't need much more than that.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Miata GT]

Please don't take this the wrong way. I don't want to sound like a hater...but, I didn't and wouldn't put that much effort into a PT2. IMO they're crap. I have 12 T3Ss from my early days that I still use to test new juices in. I got the PT2 because, at the time, it was new and used the same attys as the T3Ss, which I had all rebuilt using Lily's Peaches and Cream yarn in place of the flavor wick. They work like a charm and I've never had to rebuild a coil on any of them (rinse, soak in vodka, dry burn, replace flavor wick).

As I said the T3Ss are great the PT2 was nothing but issues: dry hits then gurgling, poor airflow, on and on. The best thing about a PT2 is the drip tip, which I use on other devices.

Unless you're set on rebuilding your coils as I once was for this type of device (I'm mostly Kayfuns now) do yourself a favor and get an iClear x.1 or a Nautilus Aspire. It's not worth the crap to stick with a PT2.

 

[TDC123]

Please don't take this the wrong way. I don't want to sound like a hater...but, I didn't and wouldn't put that much effort into a PT2. IMO they're crap. I have 12 T3Ss from my early days that I still use to test new juices in. I got the PT2 because, at the time, it was new and used the same attys as the T3Ss, which I had all rebuilt using Lily's Peaches and Cream yarn in place of the flavor wick. They work like a charm and I've never had to rebuild a coil on any of them (rinse, soak in vodka, dry burn, replace flavor wick).


As I said the T3Ss are great the PT2 was nothing but issues: dry hits then gurgling, poor airflow, on and on. The best thing about a PT2 is the drip tip, which I use on other devices.

Unless you're set on rebuilding your coils as I once was for this type of device (I'm mostly Kayfuns now) do yourself a favor and get an iClear x.1 or a Nautilus Aspire. It's not worth the crap to stick with a PT2.

The OP has a Mini PT2. For some reason they seem to perform better than the full size version. I never had gurgling or flooding issues that led me to modify them. I just kept weaking until I got a better and better vapor. The difference between factory and my tweaked out version is substantial enouch to warrant the small investment of money and slightly greater investment of time. None of these cearomizers are perfect from the box in my experience. You're now seeing more and more threads about the Nautilus being a dud. Some love the iclears. Some love those Vivi Novas. I hate those novas with a passion.

The Kanger gives me a nice full vapor, a cool and fairly steady one now. I'm not a total fanboy though. I like the way they look and I personally took satisfaction in tweaking them to work better and better for me. YMMV.

However, my authentic Russian 91 is better than the Kanger. Flavor is better but also I can take a nice long, deep, lung filling blast of cool vapor with no escalating build up on the intital draw or let down toward the end. I like that. With a clearo and those tiny atomizers I don't know that it's possible to get away from that "arc" in the vaping experience. The Russian is my go to for out and about vaping now but I will still bring along one of my mini protanks with a different flavor for a switch during the day.

You are right though, the Kayfuns, Russians that whole family of RBAs is seemingly the best way to vape trouble free on the run with a large tank. If a person were going to drop the money on an aerotank from Kanger I think they would be better off with a well researched clone of the Kayfun.

 

[Colleen3429]

I think I finally have my Protank Mini 2 fixed. I took everything apart and cleaned,reassembled and rewicked with cotton. Also I was trying to vape 100% PG and I think it was just too thin. Filled it up at 80PG/20VG and now it is not leaking or gurgling at all. It was pouring juice before. I am happy!! Thanks for this post. It really helped.

 

[JayQC]

^^ No problem.

Haven't been updating the thread since my last post because it's been great every since.

To me, it still all comes down to how tight or loose the tank is screwed on the base, and whether or not I need an extra wick.

Poking the air holes with toothpicks does clean them off and give better airflow as well. They don't LOOK dirty, but you realize they were once you clean them up.