I recommend REAL WOOL for filling cartridges

[KrispyKrink]

To me I'd be a little concerned with Wool, or any other natural organic material, due to the increased potential for microbial growth. Though, you could step up the cleaning routine to sterilize it.

[Kate51]

I don't know if I would use wool. I would think that the e-juice would absorb some lanolin, and I'm not sure if I want to vape that stuff. Lanolin is really sticky, so it would probably not be good for an atomiser either.

ETA: The more I think about this, the less of a good idea I think it is. I'm a hand spinner (I make yarn) so I handle a lot of wool. Commercially prepared wool, like the batting you are looking at, is not perfectly clean by any means. It contains a lot of dust and other small partials (dirt, ground up poo, etc.). When I spin in black pants, I end up covered with dust and crap. It also still contains chemicals from the cleaning process. Hand prepared wool (usually this is the organic stuff) usually contains more lanolin and sometimes a decent amount of the soap used to clean it. It also usually contains more "vegetable matter" which is leaves, sticks, dirt, poo, etc. I'm not sure how good this would be for the atomiser or the user.

I'm also a spinner and have washed carded and spun my way around a few sheep. The thing is, wool is not a fiber that is an allergen, although at times can be irritating! But once it's properly washed, all that should be left is pure fiber. You could say the same things about any fiber, dirty, buggy, poopy, etc., but yet we use all these fibers all the time. Silks (bug spit!), wools, cottons. Last time I checked lanolin in present in people too. Well, same thing.
I do recommend pre-soaks for a reasonable time, then thorough rinsing, but even polyfil can be contaminated by something!
Wool will not burn, it will char away. It will shrink. But it will always be absorbant, cleanable. Heat from the atomizer doesn't seem to bother it.

[Melinda09]

Whatever you do, don't buy for the guy on ebay selling the nibs. In order to get them you have to buy a pillow for $85. LOL I found out the hard way. He refused to sell it to me even though I offered to pay extra S/H.
Lynn

Yeah, the S&H was one thing that I looked at before I picked out the Holy Lamb Organics site to buy mine from. They only charged the actual shipping charges: 8 ounces wool nibs @ $1.00/ounce, plus shipping (no handling charge). The total ended up to be $8.96, and I paid through Paypal. It took a couple of weeks to get my order. It was shipped in a big-ol' box.

If you want them ... better get 'em before they catch on to their new market, and decide to add some minimums or handling charges, or buying a pillow in order to get extra nibs.

Also, I DO want to know what you - who have worked with wool in the past - think about what they said about how they clean their wool. Am I deluding myself into thinking that I'm not vaping sheep poo-poo?

I don't know as much about wool as I know about other fibers (I spent 26 years in the carpet selling industry). If anyone's interested, here's link to a post that I made to a "what's the best filler" thread, and talked about the down side (IMHO) of polyester and some other fibers, and a burn test that I did:

Wool vs. poly and a semi-scientific test

Sheryl

[Melinda09]

i'm assuming you can make it the density you want? my big problem with poly batting from the wal mart was that it was TOOOO dense , i felt like it sucked up the juice.. and gave nothing back

Here's the video that I was talking about earlier. I remembered seeing this a couple of months ago. It was posted by Terraphon, and it's a great, detailed video on how to re-stuff a cart. It's - basically - the same method that I use, except that the wool nibs are denser than polyester fiber fill to start with, so you need to kind of tease them apart before you fold/roll them back up to fit in your cart.

I fill mine a bit denser than Terraphon does, but I'm usually filling a pen-style, and it takes a LOT more juice than the EVO that the video shows. I typically use my mini for alternate flavors, and a pen-style for my day-to-day menthol (Unflavored 36mg. juice + Sun's menthol drop recipe + some PG + a dab of this 'n that other flavoring or juice, depending on my mood).

How to re-stuff EVO e-cigarette cartridges

[SLDS181]

I do recommend pre-soaks for a reasonable time, then thorough rinsing, but even polyfil can be contaminated by something!
Wool will not burn, it will char away. It will shrink. But it will always be absorbant, cleanable. Heat from the atomizer doesn't seem to bother it.

Kate, great info With your experience dealing with wool, can you outline the cleaning process in a bit more detail? Are you just soaking with tap water, distilled water, are you using a cheap strainer for rinsing, etc?

[Kate51]

If one was going to use wool for vaping, you may be more comfortable in giving it a "treatment" and cleaning by placing a good bit in a ziplock bag and using alcohol (grain alcohol (Vodka or Everclear is high-volume grain alcohol) and just soak the wool in for an hour or so, and then just rinsing very well with water. Then just roll it in a towel to hurry along the drying...thing is, wool is "hair", so you could use any dish soap or shampoo also for a quick wash, you don't have to worry about any special handling, although with the felt-type wool you would want to be careful not to pull it apart. When it dries it resumes it's proper loft. Then just cut it or for the loose wool, arrange in so it's fairly parallel until you get a wad the proper consistency for your cartridge. Pretty much just like working with fiber fluff.

[chad]

To me I'd be a little concerned with Wool, or any other natural organic material, due to the increased potential for microbial growth. Though, you could step up the cleaning routine to sterilize it.

I think "microbial" growth is a nonissue. E-Juice ingredients are not a nutritive environment for bacteria and the like. As a matter of fact, PG is anti-bacterial itself.

[yoshimi]

as another handspinnerI can't see that there would be any issue with lanolin or anything else from commercially prepared wool. If there was lanolin left in the fibre you would feel it pretty quickly, if you didn't notice it it would clog up your atty pretty quick and then you would know about it.

as for dust and things, most of thsi would drop out when you were preparing the filler if there was any in there, and in the quantity you use you wouldn't be vaping any more dust then you inhale walking down the street.

wool has been used as wicking for centuries (steam engine enthusiasts still like to use it to wick their oil ) I have more fleece then I like to think about here so I might give it another go...I wonder if different fibres work better then others, I might have to line uo some diferent fibre types to try lol

[holder]

Thanks for the info Melinda09! I was trying to find out if I could use lipton bags for my M201 cart, and found this. On a side-note. Nice to find somebody else from the Twin Cities here, and a penstyle user no less. I'm in Coon Rapids, but I grew up in West St. Paul. Let's start a vaper's club; I thought I was the only Minnesotan to know what these things are. Apologies to everyone for veering wildly off topic.

[Melinda09]

Thanks for the info Melinda09! I was trying to find out if I could use lipton bags for my M201 cart, and found this. On a side-note. Nice to find somebody else from the Twin Cities here, and a penstyle user no less. I'm in Coon Rapids, but I grew up in West St. Paul. Let's start a vaper's club; I thought I was the only Minnesotan to know what these things are. Apologies to everyone for veering wildly off topic.

I'm in Eagan, but have lived and worked in West St. Paul ... now there are (at least) two of us vaper-ers in the Twin Cities area. I'm interested in starting a club too. I'll PM you.