Zeus X, help needed please

Ok so Im an experienced vaper and have been vaping for about 5 years now. Ive built tons of coils on RDAs and RTAs alike. Never have I had such an issue as I do now. I recently purchased a Geek Vape Zeus X RTA and since day 1, Im having dry hitting issues with it. Ive tried every trick I know for wicking this thing to no avail. Every build from standard 8 wrap, 26g coils to fused claptons. Thinned and trimmed wick to flat out wick and go. All lead me to the same place… dry, soul killing hits. If anyone has a solution for this, I am all about giving it a go. Im at my wits end here. Thanks guys

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Hi Henry, is the resistance staying stable? If your coils are too far apart, they may be possibly touching that loose chimney piece and causing uneven firing. Which may be burning your cotton as well. Just a thought.

Also, see if the bottom of your wicks are getting caught by the threads when you put the tank together. If so, that might be cutting off your juice flow.

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I don’t have that RTA so I looked at a few videos. There are a couple of things that come to mind after viewing and they’re in line with what @MisterSinner mentioned. The inner chamber section reduces your build space and the coils may be touching the sides or the top near the slope of the chamber and causing an issue. The other thought is that the leads poke out of the bottom of the deck. Any chance they could be touching something and causing the coil to short and heat up more than necessary? Is there a loose piece of wire somewhere in the deck?
I would also look at the wicks after a dry hit and see if they are still saturated. If they’re not then I would think it’s a wicking issue. If they are fully wet, then it’s a possible coil touching the chamber issue. Any burn marks on the inner chamber?
I’m just guessing but worth a look.

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Hi Henry4,
Do you mind posting some pics of your current build. That could give us some ideas.

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I have the atty and don’t suffer from the problem you are having. Here is my build:

26/36 SS Clapton with a 3mm ID and a resistance of .5Ω using 6 wraps.
Cut the coil leads to 5mm.
Using a standard cotton pad, I cut off a 12mm strip.
I remove the skins but to not comb the cotton at all.
Cut the cotton just short of touching the bottom of the juice slots.
I vape the atty primarily VW at 40 Watts.

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Im positive the coils are not touching the inner chamber. Ive put several different builds into this thing. I may be putting too much cotton into it. I am still tinkering with the tank but this is very frustrating. My current build is 26g SS 8 wraps at .3 ohms. They are tiny coils in comparison to what Ive built in it before. I will take and post some pics ASAP but I do not believe the coils are the issue.

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So update… I decided to re-wick one last time before I have to head to work. I thinned the cotton and used the “dam” technique so the cotton is just touching the juice channels. This seems to be working as Ive chain vaped the tank and havent gotten a dry hit yet. I have my fingers crossed. Same build, 26g SS 8 wraps at .3 ohms Im running in TC mode at 500 degrees and all seems well.

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I must have lost touch with wicking techniques, probably because I’ve been primarily building mesh for so long but…what is this “dam” technique you speak of?

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Basically the ends of the cotton should sit right on top of the juice entry port but not stick through. This helps reduces errors caused by cotton expanding in the port and cutting off juice flow.

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So now that it works as its supposed to, how do you like it? I’ve heard mixed reviews and wouldn’t mind another opinion.

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I just got one. I build two nice SS tidal wave 27 AWGx2 0.4x0.1 6 wraps with a 3 mm ID and 5 mm legs into it and I love it. I pushed the coil a bit towards the outside to be closer to the airflow.
I didn’t do the dam wicking, just thinned it slightly out and put them just a little bit into the juice Channels.
Running it at 500 F in TC and I really enjoy it. Wicks great and brings the flavor out really nice.

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Well, I can say, now that I have it working properly that I love the tank. Like all tanks getting the wicking trick down is the toughest part but this one really likes less cotton by leaps and bounds. The flavor (I rebuilt it this morning using clapton coils 26g and 32g SS, 6 wraps at .25 ohms) is great especially at lower temps which I find odd. Im currently running at 350 degrees in TC mode.

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Gotcha and thanx. I’ve done that with my other RTA’s, just didn’t know the technique had a name.

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I purchased a Zeus X recently and I am using Clapton Coils with a 3 mm ID but you have to get them positioned correctly. This gives you more room for the cotton. The wicking is the tricky part for sure. I eyeballed the diameter of the cotton to about twice the OD of the coil. Needs to be tight, but not too tight, As others have said, the cotton needs to hang into the juice well and not be packed in any way. I brush out the ends of the cotton to thin them a tad and them trim that off also. Seems to help.
Sounds like you are on your way. So far I love the top air flow and no leaks as well as the tank capacity. And the flavor is wonderful also.

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Hi regarding dry hits, what I’ve done a few times is undo the tank,pluck out the wet cotton from the juice wells,trim a couple of mms from each end and push back in,you’ll find the cotton has expanded massively, this does seem to work

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I still have this tank and like others with the wicking I hang the cotton into the well just a little bit. I use a toothpick on the end of the cotton to encourage it to go just a tiny bit into the juice well but not forced or touching the bottom then a few drops of juice at the bottom to expand the cotton a little bit. then sok coton as per normal, really helps :wink:

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