@Beanporn, do not give up my friend.
I just charged (2) 18350 700Mah AW IMR batteries from W9 tech in my Nitecore charger. I wanted to show you how great the reward when you get your Hercules set right.
I am using the (2) stock batteries on a full charge with my hammer top head. I loaded about 1/4 of the shatter below. saturating the coil first like so many helpful people already mentioned was important, then I loaded another .2-.25
This is the result of letting it heat up for 5 seconds and taking a 5 second draw.
Here is a cooling down hit so you can see what I'm using.
The Hercules is no joke my friend. You get crazy clouds and it tastes ggggrrrreat!
You should send your Herc to G have him fix it and be done with it so you can enjoy the hell out of it. Imagine the clouds I'll get with it with the CORE!
I wanted to show you what the Herc was capable so you don't write it off.
I do not know what the issue with your Herc is, but I bet G does and can fix your issues.
Buy the way I've been writing this post for like a half an hour.......