Burning wick? or Coil?

[escapetovape]

Hi All,

having a bit of a problem trying to figure out what exactly the problem is and how to fix it, the process is a bit long winded because when I noticed it the first time I was trying to make sure I did all that I could to mitigate it. I'll try to be as objective as possible - but please I am very aware it could be my problem, or as the old joke goes:

"There's something wrong with this (insert device/object/program here)"

"Yea, the F***WIT using it"


So I've had two RDA's - Bonza and Drop, didn't get it with the Zeus SC RTA, I've used the exact same cotton from the exact same packaging (the same pack) on two different mods, the Wismec Predator (now retired, but run at around 80w +/- 5w) and the Pulse Squonk mechanical, and the exact same coils.

Cotton: Kendo Gold Organic
Coils: Cloud Revolutions Triple 27
Resistance: Hovered between 0.11 and 0.12 (tested on Coilmaster Build tab)
Battery: Alternated between Sony VTC5a 18650 and Efest 20700

Now my process for changeout of cotton is pretty much the same, varying between 5-7 day cycles depending on how the coils/cotton look (by the end I can tell because the cotton gets "dense" and it doesn't produce much in the way of clouds/flavour (it gets muted), and if I leave it any longer I start getting a burned taste.

Procedure:

1) Remove old cotton - cut off one side of the tails, pull through remainder with pliers
2) RDA on tab, test resistance and screw tension and coil leg position
3) Test fire and strum to confirm even burn (inside going outward)
4) Cut section of cotton, remove 1/3 and apply Scottish technique (remove clumps) - now for reference I always cut longer so I have some length to play with, see below
5) Gently manipulate into a length (with the intention of avoiding dense spots), turn one end into dense "spike" to thread through coil, pull through until "spike" dense spot is no longer there (the desired tension is that it moves through with slight resistance, but not enough to bunch up the tail end of the cotton I'm feeding through).
6) Measure out until tails are at the length equivalent to the base of the atomiser, trim tails, repeat steps 4-5 for second coil
7) Tuck in evenly relative to the coil position and juice well
8) Apply juice, let stand for approx 2mins, test burn, apply more juice, test burn, apply full juice and start vaping
9) ENJOY!!

Now after about day 2 on one end of one coil I'm getting black streaks in the cotton, at first I thought they were just juice that hadn't burnt but over time it has become apparent that it's burned cotton. now if you put those atomisers on your mod, and looked at it with the fire button facing you - it's always ALWAYS on the closest right-hand corner. And it hasn't mattered a damn if I change coils (to fresh ones), change leg position, strum it to hell until it's damn perfect, juice, batteries it always appears on that one side only.

Now it could be just something that happens (although on one particular corner of each atty over this many attempts just seems too coincidental to ignore). And if time wasn't an issue I'd probably change daily but again I think that there's something I've done wrong and doing so wouldn't help necessarily. So if anyone has any ideas or techniques I'm seriously all ears for this one.

 

[mimöschen]

Did you try spaced coils?

 

[Zaryk]

The black/brown streaks are a sign of uneven densities of the tails. If one side of the cotton has more material in it, that side will suck the juice from the cotton in the coil. Since you are using large high mass coils, they are notorius about continuing to cook and burn the juice after you let off the fire button because of residual heat. Your uneven wicking is pulling that burnt juice out to the side of the wicks that has more cotton in it.

 

[escapetovape]

The black/brown streaks are a sign of uneven densities of the tails. If one side of the cotton has more material in it, that side will suck the juice from the cotton in the coil. Since you are using large high mass coils, they are notorius about continuing to cook and burn the juice after you let off the fire button because of residual heat. Your uneven wicking is pulling that burnt juice out to the side of the wicks that has more cotton in it.

that would probably explain it, the cotton that I'm using has dense spots which is why I try to make them as uniform as possible with density and avoid spinning them (when threading them through the coils). When I first noticed it I knew I was getting some dense spots as id just pull off a piece and put it in.

 

[Zaryk]

that would probably explain it, the cotton that I'm using has dense spots which is why I try to make them as uniform as possible with density and avoid spinning them (when threading them through the coils). When I first noticed it I knew I was getting some dense spots as id just pull off a piece and put it in.

Just get them as even as you can.

Let off the fire button a second or so before you are done taking your draw ( big coils like those will continue to vaporize juice from residual heat) and that should stop the juice from burning. There can't be black streaks if there is no bunt juice to backflow.

 

[escapetovape]

Just get them as even as you can.

Let off the fire button a second or so before you are done taking your draw ( big coils like those will continue to vaporize juice from residual heat) and that should stop the juice from burning. There can't be black streaks if there is no bunt juice to backflow.

No problem I'll give that a shot - your comment about black streaks and burnt juice actually reminded me of something I forgot to mention that there are black streaks that clear up if I keep of vaping. By what you've said it sounds like burnt juice may be a factor. So thank you so much for that.