LincolnBlogs

*jedi wave* This IS the tank you’ve been looking for.

I like to go to new area brick and mortar vape stores because I think it is really important to support them so that I and others will continue to have such resources available. That being said, the other day I ventured into the new Delco Vapes shop in Philadelphia to check them out and see their wares.

While there I was looking for something to buy (again, support your local shops, people), I saw this interesting looking tank, which I initially thought might be a carto tank. Imagine my delight to find it was indeed a bottom coil tank (my preference), and a big one at that!

This is the new Smoktech PBC V1 tank, PBC for Pyrex Bottom Coil. The name really gives away the big secret about this tank. It’s pyrex (glass). The outside of the tank actually hides this by putting a protective plastic sleeve over top of the glass, so no more drop and break, or at least it’ll be slightly more difficult to do so.

This tank will hold a good 5ml of your favorite e-juice (some sites say 6) and uses a proprietary smoktech bottom coil, so your Protank coils just won’t fit the bill. Actually, some people say they “fit” but flood right away. Personally, I haven’t yet tried that and I am so enjoying having this thing full and working, that I doubt I will anytime soon. In fact, you’ll notice a lack of disassembled tank pictures here for that exact same reason 😀

In a word (or two) it works, and it works quite well. I have been running some 50/50 juice through this tank on it’s stock 1.9ohm head for almost a week and I am happy as pie. 3.8 to 4 volts, sitting on my Vamo and it’s just been “right”.

The reason I have it sitting on my Vamo is purely aesthetics. This is a BIG tank about the same diameter as a Vamo 22mm, so it looks slightly odd (imho) on mods with that 18 or 19mm sloped top cap. Speaking of looks, that protective plastic covering comes in a variety of colors as well like red, green, purple, smoke (black), etc., and at a very reasonable price of $10 to $15 depending on where you find it. Well worth it if you ask me, which you are if you are reading this 😉

There are 2 noticeable drawbacks with this tank. The first is that it is legitimately hard to unscrew the base to fill it up or change the coil. It has a very smooth end cap which tends to stick to that plastic cover pretty strongly, so *when* you buy one of these, make sure not to snug the base on too tight or you’ll be looking for vice grips to get it off again. The second issue is also a plus depending on your point of view. Again, it holds 5ml of juice. That’s a lot. Heck, that’s enough to actually get me through a work day. If you are one of those folks who delight in swapping flavors frequently, you are going to just have to buy more of these tanks to take with you.

Finally the last plus, much like the Protank 2 series, this tank will let you use your own drip tips. Yay!

Anyhow, this is a really nice tank and I am completely digging it. Products that are being released now are so much better than they were a year ago when I started it actually amazes me. You just can’t go wrong here and if you happen to go to Delco Vapes to pick one of these up locally, tell ’em Linc said hi!

A good friend of mine ran across this Juice and let me try a bit of it. The Line is called “The Standard” and the juice is
“Cell Block Four”.

This is one of those designer e-cig juices. A really interesting and different bottle, all glass, nice label and, unfortunately a hefty price tag to go with it. This particular bottle was purchased in a local vape shop for DANG close to $30 for a (they say 30 ml) bottle. Like I said, a little on the pricey side for me, but hey, it’s fancy right?

The first thing worth mentioning again here is that bottle. Nice but you need a syringe to get the stuff outa there, or maybe carry a separate dropper. Either way, you are going to have to carry something extra to get the juice out and safely into your atomizer.

The juice itself is supposed to be a creme brulee with a hint of citrus, and I tell you that I can smell the creme brulee for sure. I don’t really smell the citrus but there is a very heavy perfumey scent there. I was hoping that it wouldn’t taste like that. Unfortunately, it does.

The taste is just like it smells. Creme Brulee with this heavy perfumey thing going on. Whatever it is, it just hangs there in my palate and it’s difficult to get rid of. There is also a strange throat/mouth bite to this juice and I think it’s from the perfumey ingredient. I really gave this a college try but in my opinion it is just not vapable.

Now all that being said, this is a wildly popular juice, either by people with much more sophisticated tastes or just because it’s fancy looking maybe. In all seriousness, taste really is a subjective thing and if you are into *really* fragrant vapes, this may well be your bag and you should give it a try. I just didn’t like it.

Ahh, another juice review! As always, remember that juice tasting is, of course, a subjective thing and your mileage may vary…. But I’ll tell you what I think anyway 🙂

A friend of mine gave me a sample of the infamous Boba’s Bounty e-juice a couple weeks ago. This is the “real deal” Boba’s from Alien Visions E-juice. 100%VG only at 6mg nic. It’s a juice that is all the rage on the forums and sometimes is quite hard to obtain, so I had never tried it. Well, that and my last experience with one of those massively popular juices didn’t turn out so well (Pluid – icky). Anyhow, when I first smelled this I got a tobacco/rasiny smell. I like raisins, so I was excited to try it! What it actually tastes like to me is a mild tobacco with honey-graham crackers and prunes, YES, prunes. This may turn you off but IT IS DELICIOUS! Really! The problem then is, of course, the availability and the fact that is it ONLY VG. You see, I am not a dedicated dripper when I vape, in fact, I am hardly an occasional dripper, and 100% VG is difficult to tank. I have had **some** success with repetitive dinking with the amount of my protank head’s flavor wicks with this juice, but is has been limited and slightly frustrating. Knowing what *I* think it tastes like, I set out to find something similar that was slightly more tankable.

The first thing I ran into was a juice called Jango by Seduce Juice. Now for those of you who are Star Wars impaired, Jango, was Boba’s father (kind of). Boba is a clone of Jango that jango raised as his son. Anyhow, therefor, I figured that their e-juice, Jango, would be a clone(ish) of Bobas. Turns out that it is not, but it is kind of close and tasty at that 🙂 I picked up some 50/50 PG/VG Jango at 6mg nic for a try and to me it tastes like a mild tobacco base with a buttery graham cracker. It’s missing that whole raisin/plumb taste which I really enjoy in the Bobas, but it is certainly tankable and quite good in its own right. Different than Bobas but in the same family, so to speak.

Seduce Juice also sent me a sample of their Jezebel juice. Same ratio and nic level as the other juice. This is nice! Very nice! This is a fragrant juice which, to me, is melon(y). In fact, the only melon I could really pick out independently of others was a little watermelon, and that was only when I vaped it the very first time, and even then, it may have been only a faint scent. If I try hard, I can imagine tasting any melon you can think of in this, but it’s all blended together *really* well. This is very refreshing for me as I am recently used to a more heavy flavored vape. I guess you could say this was my lemon sorbet in between dinner courses. 🙂

I don’t think you could go wrong with any of these. Give them a try, and, until the next one, vape on!

The Terminator Tank RBA. Not this guy:, but this guy:

I have some buddies that work over at Liberty Vapor who occasionally throw me a piece of gear to check out, and one of their throwbacks is the Terminator Tank RBA. First off, what is an RBA? Well, it’s a (R)e(b)uildable (A)tomizer, or one that is designed so that you can change out your own wick and wire internals for prolonged continued use.

I have discovered a while ago that *I* am not very good at the whole RBA thing because my eyes and fingers have a hard time keeping up with the teeny tiny pieces, but this one just may be worth the effort for me. You see, one of my favorite ways to vape is with a carto-tank, which is just a big old tank of e-juice that feeds a cartomizer inside it through a hole to keep you vaping all day long. They generally have good taste and vape and, when done well, little maintenance for a long while. This particular RBA actually takes the place of the internal cartomizer and, from my testing, works pretty darn well!

This is really a 5 piece setup, but you may only get 2 of those pieces depending on where you buy it. The main two pieces are body pieces and they are the pipe or air stack, which screws down to the atomizer base to form a somewhat bulbus looking cartomizer. The extra pieces you are going to need to give this a run for your money are going to be a 510 to 510 (shorty) extension a tank of some sort and, of course, your favorite drip tip.

In order to get this thing into a tank and actually have it be able to screw into a battery you will need to put a shorty extension on the bottom. I know there are some tanks out there with sealed bases and pre tapped 510 bases that eliminate that need for a 510 extension, but all I have was a regular old tank with a hole in the bottom. That being said, try hard and look for one that at least has a fill hole. It sure makes things easier.

First things first though, in order for this contraption to work, you are going to need to build an acceptable coil. I am not going to go into all the details here, but suffice it to say that inside this RBA is a ceramic cup where you can build your wick and coil. Once assembled, you can adjust the flow of the e-juice to this RBA by means of loosening the pipe from the base while it is submerged in your tank full of e-juice.

I put it all together in a regular cheapie tank by first inserting the RBA with 510 extender in the base of the tank, then filling the tank 3/4 of the way full to allow some breathing room and then carefully pressing down the top cap of the tank in place. This is why I suggested a tank with a fill hole. Less messy. What I noticed though is by doing this process, I believe while I am pressing on the top of the tank, it is slightly priming the wick inside as that liquid really has nowhere else to go other than through the RDA at that point. You will notice that the top of the RDA does sick up above the top of the tank significantly, and that is so that you have a grasp point to be able to slightly unscrew the top from the base to allow for improved e-juice flow. I am running a 50/50 juice in mine and have it unscrewed maybe a millimeter and it’s been vaping like a champ for well over a week.

I have had zero issues with this, but I have heard complaints about flooding. There are a lot of places this can go wrong. It seems that of you aren’t careful, while adjusting your flow control you can actually unscrew the RDA from the 510 shorty extension, which would, of course cause a catastrophic leak. Also, you could simply unscrew your flow control too much causing the same issue. In order to avoid these pitfalls, I make sure the 510 shorty is screwed onto the base nice and tight and while adjusting the flow, I hold onto the *tank*, which puts pressure into the bottom of the RDA, keeping it securely in place. YMMV, but it has been working well for me so far and I haven’t leaked a drop.

With a little care you should be able to get this going and keep it that way and for less than $15 for an entire setup, including the tank, the price is difficult to beat. I give it a definitive thumbs up however, beware of it’s twiddly nature. You can find these at a lot of vendors like Madvapes, NHaler, GotVapes and many otheers.