Let me just start this post by saying I am in no way a master of RBA or RDA devices, and if I get anything wrong in this post I would love to be told so I can fix it. I just want to provide the best and most simple information I can to any of you thinking about RBA devices (I am not going to cover anything but the most basic RDA stuff here) for the first time. This leans very heavily toward genesis atomizers, but the materials information can be used across any type of RBA

First off what is an RBA or RDA

RBA: ReBuildable Atomizer

For this post I will be going over genesis style atomizers only in this category.

Good beginner example: Smok RSST

RDA: Rebuildable Dripping Atomizer

A dripping atomizer where you use your own wick and coil.

Good beginner example: Igo-L

Ok RBA’s / Genesis style atomizers is the focus of this post, I’m sure people have told you over and over how amazing a genny is, how much better it tastes, how you will never use somthing else. I can tell you in my experience that is not true.

A genesis atomizer works using a wicking material (Stainless Steel mesh, Silica, ceramic, stainless steel cable) to wick juice from a tank up to a coil (kanthal usually) where it is vaporized then inhaled. Airflow is controlled by a hole in the top cap, when placed directly over the wick it produces a smoother vape with much more vapor, when moved to the side it produces a harsher vape with much less vapor. Some people (myself included) prefer to drill out the airhole on devices like the RSST for an even smoother vape. (I don’t know the size I used, its the smallest drillbit I have and it worked great)

Lets go over some of the wicking materials and my personal experience with them:

SS Mesh: The most common wicking material for RBA devices, it works and it works pretty well. It must be oxodized prior to the coil being wrapped or pulse burned by the coil (I can’t go into every detail so some stuff like pulse burning you will have to look up elsewhere) The main types used are 400 and 500 mesh, 400 is not as tight as 500 people use it for thicker liquids although I see no reason to not use 500 mesh for any juice as I have never had an issue.

I personally am not a fan, I do not find it to wick fast enough and I am not particularly fond of the taste, the next 2 materials I have had experience with I am a fan of.

Silica (Ekowool) : I am going to refer to this as ekowool from here on out, its a silica material that does not splinter like standard silica. Its a newer item in RBA devices, ekowool can be torched lightly and will stiffen enough to be dropped into an RBA device wickhole. I find it wo wick much faster SS mesh, it tastes better (to me), and it does not require pre oxidation. Torch it, drop it in, wrap coil (you can also fold the top over for more area then wrap coil)

Silica is also what is most commonly used in RDA devices

SS Cable: By far the fastest wicking material I have ever used, I have always used a topper of SS mesh or Ekowool wrapped around the cable, then I wrap my wire. It wicks fast, but it does not wick far.

Now onto the coil, I can only speak for Kanthal as it is all I have used. With kanthal the higher the guage the more resistence is delivered to the coil, it is important to know the space you have to build the coil and the ohms you want for that coil, so you can use the apprpriate kanthal.

This has gotten a bit long winded so I’m going to add some tips and tricks, as well as some warnings, then end. The wrapping of the coil and proper setup of coils is best left to a video (and there are thousands of them on youtube)

Do gennys taste better?

Yes, but its not night and day in my experience. Its subtle.

Are there downsides?

Yes, almost all of them leak. It is part of the design, leave them on the side or upside down and they can leak and you can have a juicy pocket.

Are they safe?

Yes, as long as you know what you are doing, and understand limitations. If you are using these on a regulated device starting out you are better off as you will need at least a 1.2 ohm coil for most devices to fire. If you are jumping to a mech and wanna make huge clouds let me direct you to this PSA because Lance can say this a whole lot better than I can:

http://www.reddit.com/r/electronic_cigarette/comments/1didx2/psa_cloud_chasing_is_dangerous/

Why would I want a Genesis atomizer?

Because you like to tinker

Because you want complete control over your personal vape experience

Because those subtle flavor differences matter to you

A few tips to end:

Watch some videos

Know what a hot leg or hotspot is

Do some research into different materials and find out what works best for you

Experiment with new builds and see what happens

Don’t get frustrated if the first few coils you make are not amazing, it takes some practice

Don’t be overwhelemed its not as hard as it looks (really it isnt)

Have fun, stay safe, and keep on vaping

Some additional tips by reddit user /u/sharpic

I’d just like to point out you shouldn’t be rebuilding without an ohmmeter. You want to see that your atomizer is in the ohm range you want it to be. You want it to give a steady, non-fluctuating reading. And you want to check that the resistance doesn’t drift too much over time or short out.

When measuring such small resistances as we deal with, you’ll want to touch the meter’s probes together to find any internal resistance in the meter, and subtract that from the reading you get.

Any cheap digital meter should be good enough for our uses. The top of the line are Fluke and Agilent/HP, which start over $100 USD used and are massive overkill for our purposes. 🙂

You can estimate the likely resistance of your coil from the length of your resistance wire using the numbers on this spreadsheet.

——————————————————————————–

Also, wrap your coil too loose around a non-metal wick and you can get hotspots. Wrap too tight and you can restrict juice flow. By resting a thick needle, paperclip, etc. against your wick when wrapping, you can get a tight coil which should still be loose enough for flow.

Others prefer to wrap around a rigid object (small screwdriver, machine screw, etc.) of the correct size, then feed the wick through.

——————————————————————————–

Before cutting ekowool, torch the point you’ll be cutting well. If you don’t, it tends to unravel.

——————————————————————————–

Other reasons you’d want an RBA:

Safety. Because you know what the wick and wire are made of, where they came from, and how they’ve been handled. You can select materials you believe are safe, and clean/treat them in ways you trust.

Frugality. Because rebuilding can be cheaper than replacing heads, cartos, or clearos.

——————————————————————————–

Advantages of rsst among gennies: isolated wick hole and polycarbonate bottomed tank, so metal wicks won’t short against the body.

Disadvantage: polycarbonate can crack