Atomisers, clearomisers, rebuildable tanks and drippers

[Purplefowler]

Atomisers, clearomisers, cartomisers, rebuildable tanks and drippers
Once youʼve sorted out the power end of your vaping equipment, you then need something to hold the eliquid and heat it up to make the lovely vapour! All of these come under the class “atomiser”. Once again, there are many options and it is a case of trial and error to find what suits you. The battery in your device gives power to a coil which heats up and turns the eliquid into vapour. There are several classes of atomiser which can all do this, so here is a rough guide to the most common ones.

1) Cartomiser This is the most basic form of atomiser and is low maintenance and easy to use. It consists of single or dual coils and a filler to hold the juice. You just fill it up and vape until it needs topping up. You cannot change the coil can only be used a number of times before it has to be thrown out. Some cartomisers (cartos) have holes punched into the side so they can be used in larger tanks with larger capacity. These used to be the vaping standard but are now not that commonly used as technology has moved on. An example of a carto is the Boge cartomiser.

2) Clearomiser Next step up is the clearomiser (clearo). These tend to be see through (hence the name- genius!) and have a larger capacity that the carto. They usually have silica wicks to suck the juice up and deliver it to the coil. Again, they are easy to use as you just fill it up, wait a few minutes to let the juice soak into the wicks and off you go. Some are a whole unit so are disposable, but there are also ones with replaceable heads so when the coil is past its best you just stick a new coil in and you are good to go. If you are feeling really brave you can even rebuild the coil yourself too! The Kanger protank is a good example of a clearo

3) Rebuildable Tanks Next in our quest for the perfect vape comes the rebuildable tank atomiser (RTA). Now we are back in advanced user gear terratory and as ever please vape safe and learn what your device can handle before you do anything silly! An RTA is a larger capacity chamber and a base to build your own coil and wick. There are two main types, silica and genesis. The silica uses a length of rope like wick (silica, cotton, voodoo wool are all suitable wicking materials) with a coil wrapped round, and the genesis (gennie) has a wick made of rolled sheet stainless steel that has been oxidised and posted through the coil- I did warnyou it gets more complicated!). These produce great flavour and great clouds and, because you build it yourself, can be fully customized to suit your style. They are more suited to use with mods. The Kayfun is a great example of a silica RBA and the Cobra is a well regarded genesis atomiser

4) Dripper Finally we get to the dripper. These have no tank or juice holding area other than in the base so you have to keep them topped up with juice by erm dripping. Again there are two types-the disposable dripper which is similar to a carto but with no filler or wadding and the rebuildable dripper (RDA) which is similar to the the rebuildable tank atomiser but with no tank. The RDA is probably the most customizable of all the atomisers as many can be set up to have single, dual or quad coils. Wick material commonly is silica or cotton but stainless steel can be used. The use of RDAs has spawned a whole new subspecies of vaper-the cloud chaser! These crazy dudes and dudettes build super low ohm coils, drill out the airholes in the atomiser and use vg heavy juice to make the most vapour possible. It is an impressive sight but must not be attempted if you donʼt have an understanding of battery safety and ohms law. The 306 is a dripping atomiser and the atomic is an example of a rebuiladable dripping atomiser.

 

[vaporsizer]

Rebuildable dripping atomizers. RDA's. BASICS.

A dripping atomizer is not just a dripping atomizer !

Basic talk. The Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer (RDA) is unlike other tank types of atomizer in that it is more designed to take a small dose of liquid to be consumed & then it needs a re-dose after a few satisfying goes whereas the tank types hold a few millilitres of liquid & can keep you going for hours on end.
The type in question looks like this....

Single coil type of RDA.

O.K that is just one basic example but the fundamentals are the same for most other rda's too.

You'll see there is no liquid holding capacity apart from either what the wicks can hold or what the top cap can keep in.

A good learning device. Because of its simplicity it serves well as an atomizer to show how all atomizers work & could be seen as the template for all others to be built on..... & this is why !....
All of the basic features of an atomizer are here & also they are big enough to see & to handle.

There is a 'Base' section which has a threaded connector, the part which will screw down onto the battery device or mod. It has two vertical posts standing up on its top. The post in the centre is the positive post & will connect directly to the positive terminal of the battery. It is inserted through a drilled hole & is also isolated from the rest of the atomizer because it has an insulating sleeve around it, like a tube.
The other post is the negative post & is connected to the body of the base. That means the whole base is the negative terminal in the circuit. That's why it only activates when you press the button on the battery device, just like switching a torch on & off.

This one is basically the same but it has an extra post. A 'Tri-Post' RDA. Centre positive & 2x negative posts

And this is what it normally looks like underneath.

It won't just work like that ! No no no ! We have to dress it with some heating elements & like all other atomizers we will use wire coils & those, we have to manufacture with our own fair hands. (See the 'How-To' on coil building)


Right then.... Assuming we already have our coils prepared we just follow a simple procedure....
You can see the posts & so you can see that in the posts there are holes drilled (One in each post) That's where the wire is going. You can also see there is a screw inserted into the top of each post. That's for tightening down onto the wire legs.

A single coil will have two legs & a coiled section between them like this...

A normally wrapped, spaced coil.
A micro coil (Squeezed together)

Those two legs are to go into the holes in the posts. One goes into the positive post hole & the other goes into the negative post hole.
Once they're in there the screws are tightened down to clamp the wire in place. You then have a completed circuit & the coil will heat when you press the button on the battery device.
In the case of using two coils (Dual coil) the centre/positive post will accept two legs while each coil has a separate negative post.

With the wick inserted, some liquid in there & the top cap of the device popped on it's ready to go.

The top cap has an air flow hole in its side, or two in the case of a tri-post rda. The coil inside should line up with the height of the air hole.

With drip tip inserted, when a draw is taken through it, the air rushes into the air hole & hits the heated coil, stoking it & vapourizing the liquid on the wicks.

Some RDA's are designed for standard sensible types of vaping & have a tighter draw. They can offer a direct & full flavoured experience if the coils & wick are placed correctly.
Other RDA's are designed for more extreme purposes such as 'Cloud chasing' or in other words, producing big vapour clouds at low or zero nicotine levels with low resistance coils (Not for the novice) There are even liquids developed to produce more vapour.

There are so many to choose from in between those two extremes & some simple research is recommended before spending your hard earned money.

Again, i know this goes beyond wiki simplicities But as a second stage maybe it could help. I can't help it, it's my methodical streak.

 

[Purplefowler]

vaporsizer, that is fantastic. you have a very clear way of putting your guides together and agree that this is a great level 2 guide for drippers

 

[OccultScientist]

This is perfect!

 

[MrTeaTime]

10/10 dude

Sent From My Galaxy S4

 

[Gonloopy]

Excellent!!