My RBA has turned south again. It’s quickly tumbling down my favorites list. The build and wicking isn’t stable. I tried a rebuild this morning and all is still the same… harsh vape with the taste of hotspots. I’m tabling this tank until I can see the proper technique for building and wicking. I’ve exhausted all ideas to making this thing work.
Mine is still going strong just now, so I’ll reserve judgment for now, but i will say I’m finding that this thing can handle a lot more than i can.
Started getting a bit chesty yesterday with the volume of vape this thing puts off. 
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I really don’t think it’s the wicking or build that’s causing my problems. I can’t get my deep water build below .13-.20. It should be around .05-.08, as in my other tanks. Somewhere in the rba is a bad connection IMO. I guess I’m just unlucky with Smok shit. I’ve been through 5 builds on this tank, but nothing will hold. My 4th build ran for a while, then my DNA started reading it as kanthal. I ripped it out and tried my LV Ti wire and it had hotspot taste also. I got about 8 hrs troubleshooting into this tank and I’m at my limit with it.
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Ain’t that the truth. [quote=“Pro_Vapes, post:63, topic:66645”]
I guess I’m just unlucky with Smok
[/quote]
Same here brother, i tried mine again today and my ohm’s are jumping about again. Had to dunp the juice and check everything and all is tight and in place but still the same.
I thought I would give smok the chance as the tank looked promising, but i think i should of stuck with what i said. "No more smok for me"
I think theres a fault with the rba, and that was one of the main factors that made me buy. No more time wasted on this shit. Too many GOOD tanks out there i could be using.
Any one whant to buy a … 
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damn it…I knew I should have waited till opened mine lmao
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Just got home a while ago and had my vape mail - one iJoy Tornado and the TFv8. I’m short on time today so I just left the installed coil in the SMOK tank and hitting it now. Killer! But you know me, I’ll never purchase another stock coil so I’ll be fiddling with the RBA section and post my impressions here. One thing I want to mention is the peek insulator on the positive pin seems altogether too small to me. Almost every photo I’ve seen of the overhead view has had the posts somewhat cockeyed, including yours above. I don’t know if this is allowing the positive post to slightly short to the deck, but it seems reasonable. Honestly I think the design is quite flawed here, and that the user will end up having to find that “perfect” balance between too loose and too tight and I’m thinking too much pressure may compress the insulator allowing for a short. Just a hunch. I’ll be testing resistance without a coil and applying varying degrees of tightness before building this thing. Sorry you and others are having issues.
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when i get home this evening. i am going to drop a Ti build into my RBA and take it for a spin…i will post my findings.
we need more opinions/feedback, so i will do my best to get it done, guys.
it should look pretty sweet atop the Panzer!
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So I put the TFV8 RBA on the ohm meter with no coil. I didn’t find anything so I went ahead and put a build in. I figured I’d use SS so if it acts wonky I’ll be able to vape it in power mode. Installed dual 24ga on 4mm, 6.5 wraps. Sure enough, ohms all over the place. Grubs were all tight and the positive pin was as well. I tried using various tightness of that pin to see if it would stabilize. It did at one point, only straying 0.02 ohms. Still, it never was solid. The closest I got to stability hovered around 32 ohm. But it was bouncing for most of my test between .84 and .25. Sucky!
Once I got that somewhat stable resistance I installed and put on the mod. Got 0.26 initially and then it settled on 0.24. I vaped in TC for a while. Worked fine really considering. Put in wattage and started at 80 watts. It did good. Very nice flavor but vapor wasn’t where I knew it could be. Cranked it up in 5 watt increments and got a really good vape at 105 watts. Took it up to 125 and I could tell it was outpacing my wicking. BTW I wicked it by cutting the bow tie tails at an angle and just stuffing the well with them. Seems to work good but I know it could be better. I can tell that the build would tolerate more wattage but that wick is the key. It will take some effort to figure that out.
As for the RBA itself, it has problems. I said I wouldn’t buy this until more reports came in. Dumbass me. I don’t recommend the tank with RBA just yet. I will try to find a solution for the ohms issue. Otherwise, the one stock coil I used was bombdiggity and I would recommend that to folks who don’t mind buying them.
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I would love to find a solution to stabilizing this RBA, because the brief time I had it working it was really banging. I have questioned Smok’s Quality Control before and this seems to be another example of their inability to do just that. Seems like a rush to market without proper testing.
I agree with you about the factory coils. They are amazing, but I do get “Metal Mouth” from using them. This wouldn’t be a problem for non-SS/Ti users.
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ok…my turn:
i pulled out my stock coil, grabbed the RBA and stripped it of the coils it came with. i went with 22g Ti, seeing as PV has been having trouble with that (i promise i’m not trying to out do anyone, just trying to figure some things out). i decided on a 3.5mm ID, and wrapped 6.5 times and proceeded to mount the coils. as i’m mounting, i noticed the posts wanted to lean inwards, towards each other. even though i continued with my build, that stands out to me BIG time. there is a structural integrity fault right there. i didnt go into it as i wanted to see if i could get this thing going, but i will HAVE to revisit that problem soon enough(or someone else can). i straightened up the coils and pulled out the Kendo Gold. i chose kendo cotton, because i’m guessing PV uses cotton still. i fitted my cotton wicks, just snug, not very, but just snug…and before trimming to fit, i frayed them quite well. now, before my TFV8 even arrived, i watched the review by DJLSB and used a technique he used to fill the wick/juice slots. he picked the wick up and set it directly into the slot, instead of just pushing the wick ends into the slots. if that makes sense. when the ends of the wicks were set into the slots, i pushed them the rest of the way in, but not so much that it went from coil to slot in a defined angle, but instead went in a more rounded loose little “arch” if you would. i primed em up, screwed on the coil barrel and finished it up.
i decided to get the actual CSV file and load the Panzer with that instead of just using a Ti profile. i set the profile to 200W and gave it a whirl. at 530 degrees, it was way too much…it got hot way too fast. so i reset the wattage to 160 and proceeded to vape away. every single hit, until the tank was dry, was smooth, dense, and full of flavor. never once skipped a beat. i chain vaped it, and it never even got remotely dry. it never got out of TC and i vaped it bone dry.
ok…so my initial thoughts to everyone having problems, is that those posts are very poorly mounted/set/seated/whatever you wanna call it. when i was mounting the coils and i first noticed it, i pushed and prodded and they definitely moved. i made sure of that. i can TOTALLY see that as being a problem with everyones ohms dancing all over the place. the connection is being compromised…of course it going to be unstable.
i have a coupla other tasks staring at me for this evening, so i wont be able to revisit that tonight, but i bet someone else beats me to it…lemme know what you find when you do.
thats what i got so far guys…
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Good catch. Before I left the apt I just wicked the stock coils in the rba to just test leaking that the boys were talking about. Don’t want to keep attempting either if there is such a fault with the posts and deck… First wick attempt, at angles, leaking in a matter of minutes. Well…I’ll keep at it and then mess with the rebuilds if i get the wicking right.
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I vaped a tank with the stock coils the RBA came with and a tank with the coils I put in it and never saw even the slightest hint of a leak. But, I may not have given it the chance to leak either…
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I was rushing it so partly my fault lol. How was the ramp up on the stock coils?
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I had it up on 125W, so I didn’t notice a delay…But I vape high wattage. Usually in the 4+ voltage.
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nice. let me know how it goes with if any leaking.
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Thanks for the report. I just want to say that since my last post here I moved the tank to my RX200 and have been vaping it steady in SS mode. Zero problems so for whatever reason it has stabilized. Fantastic vape with the RBA deck! Useless information I know but I just find it fascinating.
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i didnt get much response from my post, wasnt sure if it helped anyone or if anyone had similar findings or anything…
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[quote=“Whiterose0818, post:77, topic:66645, full:true”]
i didnt get much response from my post, wasnt sure if it helped anyone or if anyone had similar findings or anything…
[/quote]I decided to rebuild this thing. I didn’t notice before where you said “posts” were moving until I re-read it this morning. I was thinking the negative post would not move because it’s 1 solid piece with the rest of the deck base. WRONG! That thing is obviously press-fit into a socket (best I can tell) kinda like a tooth. And it’s a bit of a loose tooth too. CHEESY! I believe between that nonsense and the less than sufficient peek insulator this thing is a TC nightmare. Probably wouldn’t affect power mode at all but TC - nah. This is a horrible design!
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Is it true it only works at 100 plus watts? So tempted to purchase but sounds like they used friction press fittings for the post? Please advise if I should gamble on this purchase.
If you plan to use the RBA and won’t be buying replacement coils (like me) it may be best to wait, especially if you’re into temp control. I’m sure eventually the issue with the posts will be addressed either by SMOK or someone else with a fix. I’ll say this…their attys for this thing are insanity! Craziest vape I’ve ever had with any stock coils. Makes the ones for the TVF4 seem like starters.
PS- I had the all-over-the-place ohms with the RBA when I first built it. But oddly enough after installing on the RX200 I didn’t have issues. Worked a charm in TC mode. The stock coils do not appear to have any issue at all, just the RBA and if running Kanthal you probably won’t have a problem.
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