Why do cotton based coils hate me?

[TheOdessa]

I can only get about a 1-2 day life span out of coils that are organic cotton based. After 1-2 days, they start seeping a dark colored liquid into my tank and ruining the juice. This has happened in my Atlantis tank running Melo coils vaping at 32 watts and my Herakles tank running 55 watts. Keep in mind I vape about 7-10ml a day. Juices are 70VG/30PG or 80VG/20PG all at 3mg nic.

On the flip side, if I vape old school Atlantis coils at 32 watts on the same juices, I get a full week before this happens.

Any ideas on how to make cotton coils last longer?! For this reason, I can't wait to get my Lemo 2 in. I'll be able to rewick daily and not worry about cost.

The way things are going, I am losing so much money on coils it's nuts. See picture to see whats happening.

Oh yeah, this is happening on all kinds of juices I vape. Mt Baker Vapor, Vista Vapors, 4 Pillars, The Milk Man. Some are budget juices - others are premium. No matter what juice I use, it happens.

The BIGGEST killer is Zeus Juice with 80%PG, 20%VG. This juice kills a coil in one tank full. I'm guessing the sweeteners in that juice do it.

It's frustrating because I LOVE my Herakles tank running at 55W but if I have to replace the coil every 1-2 days, that's SO expensive.

 

[Moonbogg]

Happens to me too on my kayfun. I rewick and dry burn every day, sometimes twice a day. The wick goes to hell and if it doesn't, the coil is gunked up and tastes like crap anyways. I'm mystified by people getting a zillion mils out of their builds. I get 3-5 mils and then its garbage, regardless of wicking material. Cotton, Rayon, don't matter.

 

[crxess]

It is not your Cotton based coils.
It is the difference in performance and filtering of the particular e-liquids you are using.

I experience this with my Cappuccino e-liquids but NOT with my RY4 Blends.

Cotton seems to be very good at Filtering and not holding filtered particles so you see the difference in back wash long before coil gunk comes into play. Rayon, even more so.

 

[CardinalWinds]

Happens to me too on my kayfun. I rewick and dry burn every day, sometimes twice a day. The wick goes to hell and if it doesn't, the coil is gunked up and tastes like crap anyways. I'm mystified by people getting a zillion mils out of their builds. I get 3-5 mils and then its garbage, regardless of wicking material. Cotton, Rayon, don't matter.

Well, other variables aside for a moment, the darker the juice or the higher the viscosity, the shorter the lifespan. I only vape light colored juices with 70/30 PG/VG, and I can get 4-6 weeks vaping unlavored, and about 3-4 weeks on my menthol. My mother vapes dark coffee juices and gets 4-7 days out of a coil. In addition, after she's vaped a tank what's left is black as night and I need to dump the last mil or so and rinse the tank.

 

[juicynoos]

Since I love to vape custards and the like I've had the same issue with cotton in particular. Since the discoloration seems to emanate from the gunking up of the coils I'd have to concur that it is due to sugary juices for the most part and probably high VG exacerbates the situation. I don't mind re-wicking often as I actually prefer the better flavor it imparts.IMO

As for tanks with pre built coils, I also tear those down and rebuild them too to save $$

I have found the opposite to be true when using rayon as unlike cotton, it doesn't seem to filter the gunk which leads me to conclude that I am recycling my own gunk when using Rayon, least that's been my experience with the stuff.

 

[juicynoos]

Well, other variables aside for a moment, the darker the juice or the higher the viscosity, the shorter the lifespan. I only vape light colored juices with 70/30 PG/VG, and I can get 4-6 weeks vaping unlavored, and about 3-4 weeks on my menthol. My mother vapes dark coffee juices and gets 4-7 days out of a coil. In addition, after she's vaped a tank what's left is black as night and I need to dump the last mil or so and rinse the tank.

That is the point here. It is perfectly illustrated by those who vape flavorless liquids and almost never re-wick more than once a month. But I like my juice so I face the consequences and just deal with it. lol

 

[roxynoodle]

Some liquids are definitely worse than others.

I also find rayon does better than cotton. Now hopefully I don't get called any names this time over my use of rayon

 

[EBates]

It's the juice not the cotton. I've been basically chain vaping my two ADV's for just short of a year in my KF 3.1 with cotton wick. Last week I cleaned one of my KF's and tried a Bombvapor juice Mystic Breeze (MB) using the same coil (dry burned and cleaned of course) installed a new cotton wick and filled it with the MB juice. After a couple of refills I saw wisps of crud wafting through the tank. Upon cleaning the tank the coil had an unusually crudded up coil. So I'm sold on the juice being the culprit. I'd never seen that with either of my tobacco flavored ADV's.

 

[juicynoos]

Some liquids are definitely worse than others.

I also find rayon does better than cotton. Now hopefully I don't get called any names this time over my use of rayon

You Rayonite Roxy

 

[roxynoodle]

You Rayonite Roxy

I'm a bad, bad person, encouraging the destruction of the planet.

 

[juicynoos]

Yeah well, welcome to the club

 

[roxynoodle]

I do use less rayon a day than the cigarette butts I threw out.

 

[Susaz]

I can only get about a 1-2 day life span out of coils that are organic cotton based. After 1-2 days, they start seeping a dark colored liquid into my tank and ruining the juice. This has happened in my Atlantis tank running Melo coils vaping at 32 watts and my Herakles tank running 55 watts. Keep in mind I vape about 7-10ml a day. Juices are 70VG/30PG or 80VG/20PG all at 3mg nic.

On the flip side, if I vape old school Atlantis coils at 32 watts on the same juices, I get a full week before this happens.

Any ideas on how to make cotton coils last longer?! For this reason, I can't wait to get my Lemo 2 in. I'll be able to rewick daily and not worry about cost.

The way things are going, I am losing so much money on coils it's nuts. See picture to see whats happening.

Oh yeah, this is happening on all kinds of juices I vape. Mt Baker Vapor, Vista Vapors, 4 Pillars, The Milk Man. Some are budget juices - others are premium. No matter what juice I use, it happens.

The BIGGEST killer is Zeus Juice with 80%PG, 20%VG. This juice kills a coil in one tank full. I'm guessing the sweeteners in that juice do it.

It's frustrating because I LOVE my Herakles tank running at 55W but if I have to replace the coil every 1-2 days, that's SO expensive. View attachment 423468

When you suck, liquid enters your coil and gets vaporized, but not all of it. A small amount gets back into the tank. By the time you reach the end of it, the bottom is dark colored and burnt tasting. To avoid this, I clean my heads into hot running water and dump them in alcohol for a few days. That eliminates all unburned eliquid out of them. Keep 3 heads in rotation for each clearo, and that will lenghten lifespan. I do it every 2 or 3 tanks, empty, clean, change heads, refill

 

[TheOdessa]

When you suck, liquid enters your coil and gets vaporized, but not all of it. A small amount gets back into the tank. By the time you reach the end of it, the bottom is dark colored and burnt tasting. To avoid this, I clean my heads into hot running water and dump them in alcohol for a few days. That eliminates all unburned eliquid out of them. Keep 3 heads in rotation for each clearo, and that will lenghten lifespan. I do it every 2 or 3 tanks, empty, clean, change heads, refill

I have vodka laying around. Will that work? Once I take out of the alcohol, what do I do to make it vapable again?

Sent from my KFTHWI using Tapatalk

 

[The Cloud Minder]

Why do cotton based coils hate me?
-

It's your nose. I asked the cotton coils and there is just something about your nose they don't like.

Don't feel bad though, they absolutely hate my pineal gland.

 

[AndriaD]

It is not your Cotton based coils.
It is the difference in performance and filtering of the particular e-liquids you are using.

I experience this with my Cappuccino e-liquids but NOT with my RY4 Blends.

Cotton seems to be very good at Filtering and not holding filtered particles so you see the difference in back wash long before coil gunk comes into play. Rayon, even more so.

Exactly what I have experienced -- it's the juice, not the wick. When I used "Virginia," very light and thin, a wick could last me a week. Now with my DIY that's very high in flavor, a wick lasts, at most, about 36-48 hrs, by which time I'm seeing a great deal of dark backwash. It doesn't taste bad though, so I try to vape it down as low as i can, so i don't waste too much, maybe .5ml.

I believe that WTA adds a lot to the gunking process, and I think I've heard that NET juices do too. One of my recipes, "Smocha," I recently switched from using TFA's Dbl Chocolate-Dark to their Dbl Chocolate-Clear, and it helps, though with the TA and Coffee Tobacco in that mix, it's still a gunker.

Andria