First time building an RDA, muted flavour on Mongrel.

[Courier5ive]

Day 3, the struggle continues.
Removed my wick and lowered the coil to be more in line with the airflow, rewicked and the flavour improved slightly but I keep having to drip every 2-3 puffs (about 2 - 3 second puffs) or I get dry hits. So I figured I must not have enough cotton in, looked like I had a good bit of loose cotton stuck in the coil so I changed that too for one of the staple coilology ones (0.34 resistance).
Rewicked and made sure to fluff out the cotton first and remove the membranes this time. Changed juice for one with more flavour.
Dropped the wattage to between 45-55. Flavour was a little worse than before, with the same issue of having to drip every 2 or 3 puffs, and now it's producing smoke after I've let go of the fire button. Squonking it doesn't seem to make a difference, so maybe my wicks aren't long enough? Thinking I need to clean out the deck and start over again.
Determined to get it right and thank you guys for the support, but it is starting to drive me crazy.

 

[JohnnyAce]

A bit of coil "after sizzle" is usually down to not enough cotton in the coil. I hate it & a bit more cotton through the coil solves it

For the 2-3 hit problem, I've no idea, too short cotton tails? Too long? Too thin? Too thick? Could be anything dude

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Thinking I need to clean out the deck and start over again.
Determined to get it right and thank you guys for the support, but it is starting to drive me crazy.

As the post above states that after sizzle is definitely a sign you haven’t got enough cotton going through the coil.

I would definitely clean the lot out, dry burn the coil and rewick. Try thinning out the cotton and then rolling into a tube and as you run it though the coil you should feel resistance it’s so snug. There are loads of wicking videos on YouTube but it really is trial and error and practise.

Keep trying, and remember learning and trial and error is part of the fun. When you get it right you’ll be glad you kept at it. Plus, if it really starts to piss you off stick the stock coil tank on and come back to it another day!

 

[andipandi]

More cotton through the coil, you need to feel some resistance when you pull the cotton through, but not super tight, less in the wells. Once the juiced cotton has swelled, pull the tails out and cut just long enough to touch the bottom of the juice wells. It looks like more of a paint and vape rda, so you would be juicing up more often, you cant just dump juice down the middle.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

You might have seen this but if not have a look:

 

[Puffed Daddy]

I agree with @andi52 re paint the coil rather than dumping it through the drip tip.

I'm not familiar with this tank, but it looks similar to the Kelpie? Which once you get it right, is awesome flavour wise.
I'd try a coil with more wraps, more surface area, yours has 4 wraps, the one in the illustration is 6 or 7. Maybe try a flat wire?
If your cotton is in the juice wells, and you are sure it's wicked correctly, you should get a good vaping experience.
Make sure your coil isn't set too low either.
The Kelpie has the grooves at either side of the tank, like yours, and people tend to line up the coil diameter with it,! Wrong, lift the coil a bit, and it's cracking.

Trial & error, I guess it's frustrating, but you will get there.

 

[LordOdin]

Doesn't look enough cotton to me in your last pic but that might be me, i would use more.

 

[Courier5ive]

Tried building my hellbeast and destiny rta yesterday after failing with the mongrel. Flavour was pretty good on the hellbeast and the destiny had a little flavour but not much.
Cleaned the mongrel, changed the insert to the restricted one instead of the honeycomb and rewicked today twice, once with a little more cotton and the next with quite a bit more as suggested above. First time was OK, definitely some more flavour but still not great at 45-50W. Second time barely any flavour at the same wattage, but did notice when removing the first cotton some light brown residue around the bit touching the coil. Also added an extra wrap to my coil and that may have been what helped the flavour on my first wicking.
Tried the destiny again with less cotton (following Mike vapes's build) and the same result, possibly less flavour (first time using vaping with vic). Rewicked the hellbeast as the juice I used before wasn't to my taste and got pretty good flavour again but now it's spitting red hot juice in my mouth so not ideal.
Have watched the build video suggested above before but will watch again when I rebuild tonight. I didn't expect the mongrel to be this tricky with it being advertised by vaping insider to be "a great kit to learn to build on" but it might just be me.
Still determined to get it right, hopefully will be back someday soon to report that I've finally cracked it. Considering going to my local vape shop and asking them to do a build in it with me but I don't know if that's something they do for someone who hasn't bought anything.

 

[Puffed Daddy]

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[andipandi]

Your vape tastes good in your tanks, lots of flavour? I was wondering if you are suffering from vapers tongue