The Kangertech Sub Tank was sent to me by the kind team at Sparksecigs.co.uk for the purpose of this review, from their extensive range of quality vape gear.
The Sub Tank is described on the Sparks ecig website as :
"The Kanger Subtank is designed to revolutionise the clearomizer.
Boasting an impressive new sub-ohm style atomizer coil, Kanger have created a tank which can match the performance of an RDA" sparkecigs.co.uk
Presentation
The Sub Tank comes very well packaged, and hats off to Kanger for the presentation and packaging, really gives you the feeling that you are opening something a little bit special, the packaging feels more like you are opening a high end mobile phone rather than a tank.
The bright red sleeve on it, with SUB TANK written at the bottom in black, with a big cut out 'K' above it giving you a sneak glimpse of whats in side.
Once you slide off the sleeve, you get a very solid black box, displaying the full image of the Sub Tank on the from, with the Kanger Tech logo above, and the Sub Tank name below. The back of this inner box has the contents of the kit, a brief description about the tank, and the standard cautions and safety warnings.
The box then slides open to the right, and reveals the Sub Tank fully assembled sitting snuggly in a ridged foam cut out.
Once you remove the top thick foam top layer, you get to see the rest of the kit inside. you would think that these extra parts would just be in the bottom of the box, or in a bag, but oh no, in true kanger style, each component has its own individual cut out for it to sit in.
The box was defiantly designed to keep, and store all the components in, especially the way it slides open like a draw.
The Sub Tank was one of the first tanks to market that was designed for use with pre-built stock coils plus the ability to build and vape your own coils, and the kit includes every you will need for both
The Kit contains:
1 x Sub Ohm Tank
1 x RBA build deck, with chimey section. (pre-installed dual coil)
1 x RBA top cap
1 x Organic Cotton Coil Head: 0.5 Sub Ohm / Range 15 - 30 W
1 x Organic Cotton Coil Head: 1.2 Ohm / Range 12 - 25 W
2 x pre-made coils
2 x spare top cap screws
4 x sheets of Japanese Cotton wick
1 x Screw driver
1 x Beauty Ring (From 25mm to 22mm)
1 x Instruction manual
1 x sub tank drip tip.
Specs and Features
Model : Sub Tank
Manufacturer: Kanger Tech
Type : RBA / Sub Ohm Tank
Body Material : Stainless Steel
Tank Capacity : OCC 6ml, RBA 4.2ml
Air Flow Control : yes
Connection : 510 threaded,
Width : 25mm
Height : 55mm (without drip tip)
Price : £29.99
I think the easiest way to work through this review is to review the Sub Tank with stock coil heads first, then look at the RBA section afterwards, and look at its set up and builds.
The Sub Tank comes out of the box fully assembled, with one of the OCC already installed.
But can can be broken down into its component parts for cleaning and when you switch between the OCC heads and the RBA head.
Base Section.
The base section of the Sub Tank is quite weighty and hoses the air-flow control and the 510 connection.
The Sub Tank's 510 connection is quite usual, in the fact that it has a sprung loaded brass centre pin, which sticks out from the 510 connection.
To ensure that you get good connection with you battery. I have had no issue connecting it to any of my devices.
The side of the base section houses the air-flow control, which allows you to open or close the draw off depending on your vaping preference. It is made up of an outer ring that rotates around the the base section, with a nice solid twist, each of the three selection is held in place by a solid click. The ring three 2mm diameter holes machine into it, and 4 indents either side, which i think assist with the locking.
On twisting the ring you can cycle through the 3 different settings.
The air-flow ring sits just above a knarled section which allows great grip when attaching or detaching the base from the rest of the tank.
As you flip the base section over, you have the discintive red o-ring recessed into the top of the base, which your tank section tightens down onto.
The Sub Tank comes with a choice of two OCC (organic Cotton Coils)
Organic Cotton Coil Head: 0.5 Sub Ohm which has a state wattage range when vaping of between 15 - 30 W or the 1.2 Ohm which has a stated range of between 12 - 25W.
The Coils are wicked with Organic Japanese Cotton, which is meant to be more durable and have a purer taste.
The OCC then simple screw into the base section of the Sub Tank, There is an additional note in the box, which warns you to drip 2 or 3 drops of juice into the top of the OCC head before you install it into the tank, and ensure that once you have filled the tank, that you wait a good 30 seconds to allow the coils to prime, to avoid burning them.
Tank Section.
The Sub Tank has a removable Pyrex Glass Tube that fits snuggly over the tanks inner stainless steel skeleton.
which is held in place bye two fat bright red o-rings, which help give the sub tank is distinctive look.
The amount of juice the tank will hold depends on your set up, when using the OCC heads it will hold 6ml, whilst when using the RBA head it will only hold 4.2ml.
The of the internal tank stainless steel skeleton has a removable top section, with integrated chimney tube.
The one with the longer tube is the one that fits with the OCC heads. It has nice Kangertech detailing around the edge, and a standard 510 drip tip hole in the top.
and it held in place with two small screws, it only needs to be removed when switching out to the RBA head. But unfortunately does require the tank to be empty before you can remove the head, it would have been nice if the both heads used the same top and chimey, which I believe has been changed in the New Sub Tank Plus, using the new mini RBA.
Once in place and screwed in the sub tank drip tip completes the look.
Beauty Ring.
The Sub Tank is a 25ml Atomiser, which on a 22ml device leaves you with a 3ml over hang, so they have included in the kit the reducing beauty ring which tappers down from 25ml to 22ml. which seems to have a stainless steel 510 connection pin rather that brass, as is on the base section,
Strangely the Beauty ring seem to have a different finish to it, more chrome, than the brushed stainless steel of the sub tank.
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The RBA Section.
The Sub Tank converts into a Rebuildable Tank Atomizer, using the additional components supplied in the kit.
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The shorter top cap & chimney, the RBA head and the organic cotton sheet.
The shorter top cap is identical to the stock one, apart from the fact that the chimney pipe section is shorter.
The RBA head has three sections to it, the build deck, the RBA body and the top cap, which can easily be unscrewed to give plenty of room to build on.
The deck comes pre-installed with 0.5ohm dual coil build on it.
The build deck has two philips screws, one on the positive and on the negitive, with what I think is some kind of Peek insulator running underneath the positive section.
Before you start to build or fire up the RBA you need to ensure that the coils haven't moved, or been pressed down onto the positive section of the deck, allowing the negative tails of the coils to touch anything apart from the negative screw, using the screw driver supplied you can simply feed it through the coils and give them a little lift to raise them up from the deck, if not, as soon as you fire it, the coils will pop.
At the front and rear of the deck cut into the threading are the two juice channels which will feed the cotton with juice.
The RBA body section is threaded at both ends to allow it to tighten down onto the deck, and have the top cap screwed on, I did find the threading on this part to be a bit rough,and not as smooth as it could be.
The top cap has a coned design inside to aid with the flavour, and reduce the size of the chamber.
Sub Tank RBA Build
You simply unscrew the two screws in the top cap, remove the top cap and replace it with the shorter version, and replace the two holding screws.
You can then remove the the OCC head, and replace it with the RBA head,
Once attached, you can unscrew the RBA body and top cap, to expose the build deck, and attach it to your device, to test fire it, to ensure that the coils are glowing correctly, from the inside out.
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Once you are happy with the coils, (I had no issues with the pre-installed ones) you can then cut two 3 mm strips of the organic cotton, remember to cut it with the grain, if not it will just fall apart once you have cut it.
You can then simply twist the ends of the cotton between your thumb and fingers, and thread them through each of the coils, they should feed through with very little resistance, if the they feel too tight, dont force them, just trim the down.
Once you have threaded them through you can give them a bit of a fluff up, then raise both sets of the tails up, and feed them through the RBA body section so they are poking out of the top, you can then screw the body section into place.
Then carefully poke the tails down into the body section, trying not to compress the cotton to much, you want to keep it as fluffy as possible.
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You can then give all the cotton a good soaking with your choosen ejuice. ensuring to get it well primed.
Once it has all soaked in take a small screw driver and move the cotton slightly away from the juice holes at the bottom, to allow the juice to seep in, I find this works best, not blocking off the holes. and allow the juice room to feed up the cotton, you want the cotton to be as loose as possible, whilst still not blocking the juice channel holes.
Once you happy with your packing you can then screw on the top cap, and get you tank ready for filling.
Once the tank is full you can invert the base section and screw it all back together. then allow the juice to start feeding through to the coils, you should start to see little air bubbles start to come from the feeder holes.
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AESTHETICS & BUILD QUALITY
I love the look of the sub tank, and its retro styling, although i do find the 25mm size a bit strange, as there arnt many 25mm devices for it to sit flush on, but i can cope with a little over hang.
The device has been very well designed, and has all bases covered on what someone may want from a tank, and allows the user to work their way on their vaping journey at there own speed, without having to invest in another set up, without knowing if they will get on with it, due to what comes in the box, it allows you to just have ago, and try a build on the pre-made coils, then maybe have try you own build using the supplied coils. then move onto making your own coils. or just you the OCC heads, the choice is yours.
PERFORMANCE & REAL WORLD EXPERIENCE
I have was so impressed with how the Sub Tank performed, and the stock OCC coils that come in the box are some of the best pre-made coil heads i have tried.
It produces a nice warm vape, with some of the best true life flavour production I have had from a tank. With such a wide choice of air flow, this thing definitely produces some good quality clouds.
I do find that you do get a bit of spitting from the tank when you vape on it some times, and the vape can seem to get a bit hot towards the end of you draw.
I have had no leakage issue, and found the RBA section a realy pleasure to use, with great vapor production, and no real wicking issues, as long as you give the ejuice room to enter the RDA, when you are packing the cotton.
A well designed, very well thought out tank.
RECOMMENDATION
The Sub Tank was one of the first of its kind to come to market, and many have followed, and there is a wide choice of this style of tank in the market today, and at the end of the day it comes down to personal choice, on styling, flavour and vapor production. A part from its size, i cant really fault it, I find it vapes really well, gives you the flexibility of using the stock OCC heads or building you own.
So if you looking for a Tank that gives you that flexiblity of vaping style then I dont think you can go far wrong with the Kangertech Sub Tank, and at the price point of £29.99 with what is included in the box, is a great set up.
MVR RATING
Features & Spec: 10 / 10
Aesthetics : 8 / 10
Build Quality : 9 / 10
Ease of Build: 9 / 10
Performance : 8 / 10
Overall : 8.5/10
Supplied by : www.sparksecigs.co.uk
