Build: Rebuilding Kanger Subtank OCC coils
The thing that I loved about the original protanks, is that I could rebuild the coils easily. They were expensive to keep buying, but after purchasing a few packets of them, I had a fairly large stock of used coil heads at my disposal. So I learnt to recoil and rewick them in order to re-use them. And all was good.
Fast forward to 2015 and the arrival of the Kanger Subtank. Again, the premade coils are expensive, why? I don’t know, I guess that is where they make their money. But if you’re a tight arse like me, you probably cant really justify the cost either.
So lately I’ve tried rebuilding those too. In the beginning I thought it would be easy, fairly similar to the old coils, horizontal, with cotton through the middle, what a doddle this would be!
Nup. Dry hit city. Time after time after time again. No matter what I did, I would get a dry hit every 5 pulls.
I tried to bunch the cotton, nope leakage. I tried to not bunch the cotton, and got dry hits, how? I really dont know, I can only guess its the pressure in this tank that leaves only the smallest success rate.
Since then, I have finally nailed it. A rebuilt Subtank coil that does not dry hit, and does not leak through the base and air holes.
Here is how I did it.
Disassembly:
- This first part is optional, as the top of the coil head is a real pain in the arse to press back on. Using two 11mm spanners, I twisted and twisted until it seperated.
- Dissasemble the OCC coil head by removing the positive pin, and seal.
- Pull the coil and wick out. (Notice how thick that wick is? I really dont know how that do that without getting dry hits, it must be a special cotton, or a cotton that has a high heat resistance.)
- Give it a clean with a tissue or something to get the old burnt crud out of there. (Do not skip this as leaving the gunk in there will give you a nasty taste even with new coil and wick.
Coiling:
- Wrap your coil, I used around 5 wraps of 26 gauge kanthal, with the longer legs it comes out to anywhere between 0.8 ohm and 1 ohm.
- Put whatever you’ve wrapped your coil around in the OCC head wick holes, also through the coil and out the other side to hold the coil in place.
- Fold one coil leg over the base.
- Put the rubber seal in over the second coil leg.
- Fold the second coil leg over the rubber seal.
- Now push your positive pin in, and snip off the excess coil legs, (try to do this as close as possible, as there if left too long, its really hard to screw the rebuilt head onto the base.
- Make sure you prod the coil a little to get it spaced right in the middle of the casing.
Wicking:
- Grab yourself some Rayon, normal cotton wont do as it does not wick fast enough for higher wattage.
Roll it up between you fingers to get a point. - Thread it through the wick holes, through the coil, and out the other side.
- Pull the Rayon back and forth through the coil to ensure that there is not too much in there that will choke the wick.
- With some snippers, cut the Rayon as close to the casing as you can. (I didnt do that here in the picture, but I’ll upload a new image when I have one)
- Fluff the ends a little to make sure the wick holes have no small gaps.
- Press the top part back on if you’ve taken it off. Yes, it’s difficult but you can do it! You’re done!
