Winning coil / cotton wick on the IGO-L = LUDICROUS vapor and flavor

[pesky_human]

I spent the morning taking my first shot at building coils for the AGA-T2 and the Igo-L. I got a coil built for the AGA and it worked pretty well for a bit, but I would like to experiment a bit with different wicking procedures before I can claim success on that front.

I made a coil on a silica wick for the Igo and was getting some uneven results, watched a couple of other videos, and thought I would give it a shot using a cheesecloth wick. I had pretty good luck rebuilding a Protank using a piece of cotton ball and thought that a cotton wick might work well based on my experience with the Protank and the various other testimonials that I read here on ECF.

Now, since I started vaping again (2 weeks today with zero analogs - WOOHOO!!!!), I have primarily been vaping a carto tank with great results. Once I got this Igo running today, I have to say that the flavor and amount of vapor on this atomizer are out of this world! I am tasting the juice in a whole new way and because it is a dripping setup, I am able to taste all of my juices, and they all taste brand new and a thousand times more complex than I ever realized before. Coil is reading 1.3 ohms and is great on the Provari at 3.4 volts, but is straight KILLING on my Precise Plus 18350. I am starting to see why a lot of people prefer the mech mods with the rebuildables. I have another 18500 Precise Plus back where I am staying for work that I can't wait to use as a host for this thing on a regular basis.


I am very impressed by this setup. The only thing that I am not feeling is the fact that my ming drip-tip fits really loosely in the atomizer. It almost wants to fall out. It fits great on all of my cartos, other atomizers, and everything else that I put it on. If the fit and finish of the top cap drip-tip connection on this piece were machined to a higher tolerance, it would basically be ideal.

In other news, I have been uploading photos onto forums for a decade and for some reason, it isn't happening right now. The files are attaches and they are not showing up. I am going to try to figure this out...

 

[pesky_human]

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[TheSystemHasFailed]

Cotton, with a low combustion point, has always scared me.
This is what I never get, and WOULD like to see discussed.
If all the liquid gets used up no prob. in a silica setup, then how does it rob flavor, if to transfer that flavor is the coil's job?

It's ALWAYS bugged me, but people never go that far.

 

[minimalsaint]

Are you referring to switching flavors with a cotton wick?

 

[grindle]

Cotton, with a low combustion point, has always scared me.
This is what I never get, and WOULD like to see discussed.
If all the liquid gets used up no prob. in a silica setup, then how does it rob flavor, if to transfer that flavor is the coil's job?

It's ALWAYS bugged me, but people never go that far.

Uneducated and willing to be corrected hunch:
Different wicks have different porosities, the lighter ingredients of a juice will wick faster than the heavier parts if the fibres are tighter together - the wick is acting as a kind of filter. Cotton ball/pad fibres are relatively loose so flavours can move more freely. A 2mm silica wick will stay around 2mm when soaked and when wrung of the juice in it, a 2mm strip of cotton can fluff up to 3mm and when wrung of juice it can be compressed to 1mm fairly easily.

Don't let your wick go dry and it won't combust. Even besides that, long before it combusts you'll taste it burning. Keep it wet.
Luckily cotton holds more juice and wicks faster than silica so a dry hit is less likely.

Silica kind of has a plasticky feeling for me, more a feel than a taste. Cotton make-up pads have that chlorine-y taste for the first few drags and then it starts tasting as good as SS in my eyes (but can't be pushed to the same wattages without burning unless constantly soaked.)

Don't force yourself onto cotton unless you prefer it though - silica always gave me more vapour than SS or cotton could manage, plus it's dry-burnable. Give and take.

 

[pesky_human]

Cotton, with a low combustion point, has always scared me.
This is what I never get, and WOULD like to see discussed.
If all the liquid gets used up no prob. in a silica setup, then how does it rob flavor, if to transfer that flavor is the coil's job?

It's ALWAYS bugged me, but people never go that far.

I had cotton on hand, which is why I tried that today. It really works quite well. It wicks great and you can tell well before it gets low that some more juice is needed - much less before you would get a dry hit and/or combust.

Have been vaping some 80/20 and some 60/40 juices today and the flavor & vapor is rather impressive. I would really like to try a stainless wick on the Igo-L, but haven't quite figured out how to make that work yet. It seems like it would be difficult to get the wick twisted around in a coil. Still so much to learn.

 

[EDO]

Cotton, with a low combustion point, has always scared me.
This is what I never get, and WOULD like to see discussed.
If all the liquid gets used up no prob. in a silica setup, then how does it rob flavor, if to transfer that flavor is the coil's job?

It's ALWAYS bugged me, but people never go that far.

Well if you set up silica just right it doesn't rob the flavor at all. It has an off taste in the beginning but after a half hour of vaping that goes away. Cotton has an initial off taste as well but it goes away far faster than it does with silica. Also cotton greatly expands so it conforms to the coil better than silica so it is easier to set it up. But like you said cotton scorches easier than silica and it get gunkier much faster than silica. So you have to swap it out far more often than the silica. I use silica myself but I can see people using cotton on RDAs, since it is very easy to swap out the cotton wick in a dripping atty. In any other type of atomizer it wouldn't make sense to me to use cotton.

 

[glycerol]

What about the thing I made - consirned about the loose silica flavour wicks in my protank, I left only the wick with the coil and put a fat cotton wick on top of it. Now I can dry burn it and also hope that the cotton on top will block possible silica particles going up to my lungs. Does this make sense to you? Taste is great btw, lots of vapor too.

 

[unloaded]

If you want to use SS mesh you need to cut it at 45 degrees before rolling your wick. Once you roll it you'll be able to bend it easily without kinking it. You'll waste a bit of mesh from the corners but its worth it. Also you need to oxidize it pretty good, it'll be touching the deck which is your negative part of the circuit. They call it a Slug wick, once you get it bent and wet you'll see why.

 

[sawtoothscream]

Cotton taste good but i find myself changing them once every two days or less. mine doesnt seem to wick bobas good either, the wick will look filled and ill get a dry hit, not the case with my other 100vg juice

 

[AndAllThingsWillEnd]

Cotton taste good but i find myself changing them once every two days or less. mine doesnt seem to wick bobas good either, the wick will look filled and ill get a dry hit, not the case with my other 100vg juice

I had the same problem with cotton, it doesn't like my 100%vg juice. I thinned it and it's working much better. For me 80%vg and lower works without issue.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[generic mutant]

If you want to use SS mesh you need to cut it at 45 degrees before rolling your wick. Once you roll it you'll be able to bend it easily without kinking it. You'll waste a bit of mesh from the corners but its worth it. Also you need to oxidize it pretty good, it'll be touching the deck which is your negative part of the circuit. They call it a Slug wick, once you get it bent and wet you'll see why.

I realise I'm late to the party, but for the record - I use a straight SS mesh wick in an Igo-L no problem. I just slant it diagonally, so the high end of the coil meets the outside (negative) post. It's at about the right angle for the other end of the wick to sit right at the edge of the cup.

 

[Nataani]

To me the greatest advantage of cotton over silica is the versatility in wicking.

The only way I have ever used silica with success is to wick it through the centre of the coil. With cotton however, you can do all sorts of other stuff, make beds to seat the coil in, wrap the cotton around the outside of the coil (ala dragon coil) and if you really want to, you can also wick through the coil.

My favorite wicking method now is to make a cotton bed. I wrap small diameter micro coils, seat them in the posts, and then bend them up. Place a small bed of cotton under the coils and then press them down into it (make sure one end of the coil is open).

 

[GrizzlyAdam]

I love my cotton builds. I just cant do silica its got a weird taste I always felt that way about it. Maybe its just me I dont know...

Personally thought I find my flavor of juices much better with cotton and in RBA's cotton is the way to go. I just roll some cotton ahead of time from cotton balls and slide them threw the coils when they need changing. You wont ever burn one when they get low on fluid you can tell the taste drops off and gets a weird taste far before you would ever burn up the cotton.

 

[Kemosabe]

What about the thing I made - consirned about the loose silica flavour wicks in my protank, I left only the wick with the coil and put a fat cotton wick on top of it. Now I can dry burn it and also hope that the cotton on top will block possible silica particles going up to my lungs. Does this make sense to you? Taste is great btw, lots of vapor too.

sounds plausible.

nice Hoffman avatar btw! famous bike ride for the win.