Tanking Up

Subohm Tank Overview

Since the last entry in this blog the market has exploded with a plethora of high quality inexpensive sub-ohm tanks! It's no longer necessary to worry about fiddling with a drip tank to enjoy the best vaping experience.  Here are a few of the most highly rated sub-ohm tank offerings.  The airflow on all these tanks is exceptional and all offer the ability to adjust the airflow to your liking.  If you're not a big fan of huge airflow and prefer a 'mouth to lung' type vaping experience you may want to default to the Aspire Triton tank which comes with both a high output and low output coil right out of the box, or just pick up an Aspire Nautilus tank, which is still one of the most highly rated mouth-to-lung vaping experiences available.  All the tanks listed are 22mm in diameter and will mate perfectly with most all the batteries (mods) available at this time.  You will need to be aware of the specifications on your battery/mod and whether or not it will support the subohm coil in the tank of your choosing.  All these tanks feature coils that use organic cotton as a wicking material.  This list is not an exhaustive representation of all the great tanks out there but is representative of the top selling and easily available tanks on the market.  You may wish to add your favorite in the comments.

Aspire Triton

The latest offering from Aspire is the Triton tank.  In addition to a slightly larger juice capacity than their Atlantis II tank, the Triton offers a convenient top fill juice option as well as coming standard with both low (1.8 ohm) and high power (.5 ohm) output coils.  The Triton, unlike the previous Aspire subohm tanks allows for the use of custom drip tips. You'll pay somewhere north of forty dollars for this tank at a brick and mortar store but like all the tanks reviewed here, a good bit of money can be saved buying them online. You have the option of buying a rebuildable coil section with the Triton but it does not come packaged with the tank itself.  The normal lifespan of a subohm coil is between two and four weeks and is dependent on the type of juice used, the frequency of vaping and the power at which the coil is used.  Juice capacity of 3.5 ml.  Included coils .4 and 1.8 ohm.

Innokin iSub

The Innokin iSub is by far the least expensive offering in the subtank category but that said, it's still an excellent performer.  The iSub is available with either a polycarbonate or glass tank. If you chose the polycarbonate option you'll have a choice of colors to choose from.  The drip tip on the iSub is fixed and there is no option for customization.  In the past, there has been some concern over the durability of polycarbonate when using some of the more acidic e-juices but this problem seems to have been solved. I have seen no reports of issues with the polycarbonate iSub tank. You'll pay around twenty dollars for a polycarbonate iSub tank at the retail level.  There is no option for rebuilding your own coils with the iSub but their replacement coils are some of the least expensive on the market.  Juice capacity of 4.5 ml.  Included coil .5 ohm.

Kanger Mini

This is the third iteration of the Kanger subtank mini and a great option for those entering the subohm market.  Of the three listed here it is the only one that comes standard with a rebuildable coil option.  There have been some issue with leaking on the previous versions of this tank but I've seen no reports of that crop up with the latest version.  Juice capacity of 4.5 ml  Included coils .5 and 1.2 ohm.

Enjoy.

Refilling the New Blu E-Cig Tanks

The widespread availability of electronic cigarettes being sold at nearly every convenience store makes them the most likely route to electronic smoking for most people. 

Blu - The Best Mass Marketed Ciga-like System

I settled on the Blu brand early on because they are about the only e-cigarette brand that offer nicotine juice cartridges (cartomizers)  in flavors other than standard tobacco.  The Blu starter kit also includes a convenient carrying case/portable recharging system that resembles a pack of cigarettes.  Given the diminutive battery capacity of these cigarette-sized electronic smoking devices, portable recharging is something you really can't do without. 

The Original Blu  

The original style replacement cartomizers are nowhere near as good as the new 'tank' system but it was possible to stretch the life (and save money!!) of those early cartomizers by refilling them yourself in a fashion not totally dissimilar from that of refilling a Zippo lighter.  I would purchase Mystic branded e-juices available at Walgreens nationwide to match the flavor of the original Blu branded cartomizers.  Cherry and Java were my two favored flavors at the time.  It was never the intention of the Blu corporation for users to refill the cartomizers as they were designed to be used, discarded and then replaced with new ones.  That's all well and good if you don't care about saving money, but the 'cheap bastard' side of me quickly became aware of the ability to refill the original cartomizers thru YouTube videos like this one that show the ease of refilling the first generation cartomizers.

The New BluPlus "Tank" System

As fate would have it, a week after I bought the original Blu starter kit they launched the new and improved BluPlus kits featuring a higher capacity battery, as well as a much better cartomizer.  The updated BluPlus "tank"system offered a superior vaping experience to the original but also a much more expensive one.  By designing cartomizers with sealed tanks that held liquid ejuice instead of the original cartomizer's reliance on saturated cotton storage (ala Zippo) there was no longer any easy way to refill and reuse the cartomizers when the original juice supply was exhausted.  To top it off, each Blu tank refill costs five bucks and are meant as a substitute for a single five dollar pack of cigarettes, negating any monetary savings in switching to the Blu system as an alternative to traditional smoking.  I was unable to find a how-to video on hacking and refilling the new tank system, which led me to invent one myself.

If you're a Blu tank smoker and wish to extend the life of your tanks and save money in the process here's the how-to video to make that happen.  You are not limited to replacing the depleted juice tank with the same flavor as the original. This adds the benefit of being able to use the Blu tank system with flavors not available in the regular Blu retail selection.  It's also a lot cheaper to buy e-juice by the bottle and refill yourself.  Since the atomizer coil is not replaceable there will ultimately be a limit to how many times you can refill and reuse the same tank but I've refilled mine a couple times so far with no problem.

Enjoy.