Rebuildable Tanks FAQ

•  Are mesh RTAs any good? RTAs come in two main types - wire and mesh.  I've tested five different Mesh RTAs with Dimitri and found that with wire RTAs I can far more easily produce vapor at the correct concentration and temperature for vape efficiency. Mesh RTAs do appear have a few minor advantages but overall I do not recommend them for Dimitri. For more details/pics, please see the Tank Buyers Guide/Glossary

• I can't decide whether to go for a Direct To lung or Mouth To Lung Tank, please help! In short, if you're not sure then go for DTL.

In general terms.....

• 1. If you're new to vaping rebuilldables, I'd say try a Direct To Lung tank

  2. MTL will generally be more fussy over vaping Wattages/toke rates and general vaping technique

  3. MTL tanks have smaller build decks and take finer wires, which can them more tricky to set up properly

  4. MTL tanks tend to stress the wick harder in normal use, which makes correct wicking more critical and even if perfect they seem to deteriorate faster and provide a lesser experience as more juice is vaporised through them

  5. MTL tanks tend to use the smaller bore 510 driptips (rather than 810 of DTL) which can be wobbly and become easily detatched

  6. MTL tanks can have an advantage over DTL with vape efficiency, often resulting in lower juice consumption

  7. MTL tanks can usually provide sufficient punch (for most) when used correctly, but generally have limited single-toke punch so will generally need mulitple tokes to achieve intense trips. On the other hand, DTL tanks (when set up appropriately) can effortlessly produce colossal single toke blastoff if required, and with generally less fiinnicky setup and operation.

  8. If you feel capable of handling the small deck and want to try both  (or at least a restricted direct to lung and a mouth to lung) then go for the Arbiter Solo.  But IMO, tanks like the Destiny will be preferable for anyone just wanting to explore the full range of Dimitri experiences in the most approachable RTA package.

• What will I need? Unfortunately, quite a few items. See these pages for Vape Kit, Tools, and Djuice Kit

• If non-rebuildable tanks are simpler, why not just use one of these?  They're an option for some, simpler to set up but generally much less foolproof in use, with many crucial dos and don'ts to get the best performance and avoid burning the coils, which can have extremely unpleasant consequences.  Once set up properly, rebuildables tend to be far more foolproof, capable of much greater potency with far less risk of scorching wicks, and the consequences of any scorching generally far less serious.

• What's the simplest way of winding a good coil that works well for dimitri?  I suggest starting off with 6 turns of a 1-1,1mm wide clapton for example (26x2)+36 fused clapton or a similar arrangement to achieve a similar inner diameter surface area of 60-80mm² and experimenting from this. Wind a coil to physically fit your build deck, making sure it's neat with no adjacent windings touching. Use Wire Buddy to help you decide.  Give the coil a read heat burn to make sure it glows evenly from inside to out, (strumming or red-heat bending/separating if it doesn't) and then you're ready to wick it.  

• How often will I need to change the coil and wick? If you're happy with the electrical integrity of your coil (i.e. no inter-wrap electrical contact etc), and it physically appears OK then IMO there's no need to replace it.  However, I recommend replacing the wick every 4-5ml of juice, depending on how hard you're driving it, juice quality, etc.. Removal of an old wick without mangling the coil can be tricky so I normally replace the coil as a matter of course when I change the wick.  But if you want to keep your coil then be careful removing the wick, and perform the red heat checks described above before re-wicking. 

• Don't I need to know "Ohms Law"?  Absolutely not, this was crucial in the bad old days of "mech mods" (little more than a battery and on/off switch) but not since the advent of "regulated mods" - i.e. ones that can be set by Wattage. In the bad old days of mech mods, the only way of setting power (Wattage) was by using coils of exact known resistance.  Thankfully, nowadays we set the power directly on the mod, which calculates & applies the correct Voltage to achieve that Wattage, irrespective of coil resistance. Very basic devices like cart batteries, APX Volt, etc only have adjustable Voltage (not Wattage), but these use atomisers which have standard or known resistances, so the power is predictable. Mech mods might be quaint, but have serious disadvantages for Dimitri - I suggest avoiding them at all costs.

• But I heard that lower resistance coils need or can handle more power For non-rebuildable coils of the same material/design type/manufacturer, there can be a rough correlation between resistance and power handling capability. However, for rebuildable coils this does not apply as there here are so many other factors which affect coil resistance including the metal it's made from, the thickness gauge and the length of the wire used to make the coil. For rebuildables, don't overthink the resistance - just use a recommended wire, wind a nice accurate coil to fit your deck with the approx inner surface area as described, and you'll be fine.

• I have a tank with a dual coil deck, should I install two coils or just one? As explained in the tank buyer's glossary, using one coil is generally adequate for Dimitri when using Direct To Lung "sub ohm".  A coil needs a certain minimum Wattage to produce vapour at the right temperature/concentration, so for most people it's generally preferable to have the Wattage dissipated by one coil rather than split across two. Sure, two may work but to drive two DTL coils at their efficient working Wattage, the likelihood for most is that far more vapour would be than could be comfortably handled. One coil will work generally more more efficiently for most, reducing juice consumption as well as minimising juice soaked up by wicks. Of course, if installing a single coil in a dual coil deck make sure that there's sufficient cotton in the juice wells (which will be designed for two wicks, not one), as any juice escaping through gaps in the juice wells will cause gurgling and leaking.

• Is there ever a situation where two coils might be preferable?  Yes, two coils can provide exceptional high potency when their extra Wattage headroom is utlised.  So if you're insensitive to dmt effects then you'll find that a dual-coil setup will give a large Wattage headroom (without overdriving the coils) and massive punch when using its higher Wattage capability.  Also, some tanks (e.g. the Merlin Mini RTA) are restricted Direct To Lung tanks with a small two coil deck, which I've had impressive results from a two coil setup, albeit with fineer MTL wires used - e.g. single cored (28)+40.  As always, experiement around and see what works for you.

• What d-juice mix do you recommend? For Direct To Lung tanks 1:4 between 60PG/40VG or 70PG/30VG can usually obtain good results for me, and weaker mixes of 1:5 or 1:6 may be used by some. The actual djuice strength isn't too critical because vapour potency is easily tuned by adjusting the set Wattage and toke rates/duration. If you need further detail about Djuice see this section  For Mouth To Lung tanks I tend to use a little stronger, say 1:2 or 1:3, which seems to work better with the more restricted airflow, smaller coils and lower Wattages.

• How do RTAs compare with emesh? Many seem to find RTAs generally much smoother to vape, can be toked many times without reloading and are far better suited to a wider range of vapour potencies. If desired, a well setup RTA can deliver a single-toke punch which is IME comparable to an powerful emesh toke (by taking a slow and long toke with ample wattage). Never underestimate the power of a well-setup RTA. The downside is that they can be less vape-efficient than emesh

• How do RTAs compare to cart vaping? Direct to lung RTAs tend to be more juice-thirsty, have a much more abundant airflow, capable of a much wider range of vapour potencies, and tend to produce a much smoother vapour at higher potencies. But carts only require very simple & cheaper devices to drive them (e.g. the Yocan Uni Pro), are more convenient, portable and easier to set up with much less additional kit required

• Tell me more about how RTAs handle waxy/yellow product? If djuice is made from waxy (which will likely be yellow or or even orange) Dimitri and not filtered, the cotton wick gradually become clogged up, resulting in a smokey weak odorous vapour. However, RTAs seem a more tolerant to clogging than vape cartridges (carts). Basically, after a refill or two yellow contaminants appear to concentrate in the vertical parts of the wick, eventually starving the coil of fresh ejuice. I'd suggest replacing the wick well before this starts to occur. See our section on Djuice filtering.

• Can I use temperature control? Kind of, in theory but I no longer recommend it. If your RTA is properly coiled/wicked and you're using one of the often-quoted blends of dimitri/PG/VG then temperature control will be accurately provided by the boiling point of your ejuice (which will be around 180°C). For me, the ONLY advantage of using temperature control is protection against dry hits, but experience has repeatedly demonstrated that even with the best possible kit, TC is nowhere near reliable enough to depend on for this.  One problem is that the TCR is unpredicatable, especially when non-plain (e.g. fused clapton) coil wire is used, which adds yet another issue to an already finnicky principle.  I've totally abandoned the use of it.

• Are there any disadvantages to temperature control Yes, for any hope of success, you'll need a mod with credible TC performance - but experience shows that few are capable. And even assuming it can be set up perfectly, it still can't be relied upon because external factors can easily screw it up. Also TC tends to be hard RTAs because you'll be repeatedly tightening the terminal screws to their limit in an attempt to get perfect connections. Also, if you're not using temp control, you have a much wider variety of vaping wires available, as you won't be restricted to using SS316L stainless steel. 

• How spice-efficient is the RTA method? As mentioned, it's generally not great. There appears to be several reasons for this. Firstly, the wick retains a resident amount of "dead" ejuice that it will only give up in very shallow, weak tokes. So when the wick is replaced, we must accept the loss. Also RTAs can easily be set up to produce cooler vapour, which may be smoother for some, but also much less vape efficient. Sure we can turn up the Wattage and/or slow down the toke - which warms up the vapour and greatly improves vape efficiency but perhaps with the trade off of reduced controllability/predictability

• To minimise loss, is there a technique for wringing the most out of a nearly-dry wick? Kinda, but It's not easy and I don't recommend it. If the wick is in good condition then you can refill the tank with more d-juice although personally I replace wicks after about 4ml. But if you don't have replacement dimitri juice, then in Temperature Controlled mode you can just take very slow long tokes. However, this isn't really practical in power mode and if the wick is either burned or badly contaminated it's easier just to toss it and start over.  If you want to rescue the juice from a clean wick then you can try compressing it in a syringe and retaining the juice that's squeezed out, but for me it's not worth it.