Easy Triton Re-wick With Cotton and Silica

[Joe13]

This is an experiment. So far so good. I've vaped a 1/2 tank of a DIY juice that's very prone to burning, and I'm happy with the way it works. No burnt taste or gurgling yet.

The idea here was to use cotton for the main wick, yet use a piece of silica as a flavor wick (and to feed the cotton in the main wick).

Here's a used Triton coil disassembled, after a dry burn. I pulled a wisp of cotton off of an organic cotton ball, purchased from CVS. It was not boiled.



The cotton was formed into a point and passed through the coil. A little resistance was felt while pulling, but it wasn't very much. The amount of cotton is critical! Too much and not enough liquid will be drawn in. Too little, and you'll get juice leaking into the coil, resulting in gurgling.



Trimmed and fluffed.



Looking down the coil. Looks pretty to me. Let's put it back together.



Coil reassembled.



Threading silica through the coil can be difficult, even using the teflon tape trick. This avoids it. The coil was very easy to load into the tank - the silica feeder strands are nice and stiff. Pure flavor from using cotton in the main wick.

Not as much vapor as my Provari/AeroTank with rebuilt micro-coil, but every bit as good as a new Triton coil should be.

 

[Aviationrich]

Interesting. Why use boiled cotton, and why didn't you boil it?

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[Joe13]

I used organic cotton. I didn't boil it, because I've been using it in my AeroTanks, and it tastes fine to me right out of the bag.

 

[AmandaD]

What a good idea! I tried, and failed, the teflon trick....but cotton I can do!

I use cotton all the time in my RDAs, so I have a lifetime supply

 

[Saundhaus]

How do you get the original wick out? I've got an old coil that I tried to pull the wick, but it seams to tightly hooked into the coil.


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[AmandaD]

You can gently wiggle it - they do come out

 

[DaveOno]

twisting and it might come out. If you twist both ends, the diameter reduces. But if it's stuck with gunk to the coil, good luck. I have only like 33% success with removing the coil wick.

Thanks, Joe. I will try some cotton.

 

[GreenLeaf]

You can gently wiggle it - they do come out

Or let 'em dry. They'll yank easier.

 

[Joe13]

If you're having difficulty removing the old main wick, the only thing I can think of is that it's seriously gunked up. Any more than a slight tug will disturb the coil, possibly making rewicking hard or impossible, or you might even break the coil. The wire is thin and it's delicate. I'd recommend an overnight soak in alcohol before proceeding.

Update: I left the Triton laying down over night. No gurgling. Performs as well as it did last night. It's below 1/2 tank now, and I'm keeping it vertical. No burnt hits yet. Looks like the feeder wick is doing its job, feeding the cotton sufficiently.

 

[Hostil]

Great write up! Did this yesterday.... did not trim the bottom wick like you did, and made the flavor top wick out of cotton as well. Way to much cotton in the tank. I like your way much better. The question I have (will experiment once I get my silica wick) do you notice any difference in flavor or performance when using cotton over silica for the bottom wick?

 

[Joe13]

Great write up! Did this yesterday.... did not trim the bottom wick like you did, and made the flavor top wick out of cotton as well. Way to much cotton in the tank. I like your way much better. The question I have (will experiment once I get my silica wick) do you notice any difference in flavor or performance when using cotton over silica for the bottom wick?

Thanks! I read your write-up yesterday and I just wanted to join in the fun.

I think there's a slight but noticeable difference in flavor. Most of us "cotton people" swear it produces a "cleaner" flavor than silica. The two materials (cotton vs. silica) have very different properties. Cotton has excellent absorbtion qualities, and it really swells up when hit with e-liquid. Silica, not so much. But silica does do capillary action just fine.

Performance, imho, is indistinguishable from a new stock Triton coil.

Update: I'm vaped the tank holding this coil down below 0.8mL. Triton has been vertical 100% of the time since 1.2mL, with no tilting or swirling. All good. No gurgling or burnt hits. I was skeptical that a single wick could feed the main cotton coil, but it's been working fine.

I'm going to go out on a limb and declare this particular experiment a success. Very interested to hear other's experiences!

 

[Nanny22]

I DID IT! I rewicked 3 old coils that just had bad wicks but were fine otherwise - only took about 20 minutes! I used 2mm silica for both wicks, since I don't have cotton yet. Getting some cotton today, but the pics helped so much! The hardest part was getting the the teflon tape to hold the wick securely. That little problem will be eliminated when I get the cotton - but good to know I can do it and either use both cotton or a combination ~
Mr. Nanny is going to be so PROUD!
Thanks so much for the helpful tips!

 

[Saundhaus]

Serious question though. The coils are so cheap why bother re wicking them when a new one costs about a buck?


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[Joe13]

Because we can!

It's part curiosity, part stubbornness, part thrift, and part thrill in getting one over on "the man" (j/k Halo - I luv ya!).

 

[Nanny22]

I tried it because I am a juice junkie! Anything I save on equipment, I can use to BUY MORE JUICE!!! And now i can replace any wicks that hold the flavor of the juices so they don't cross flavor a new one when I try it. (I don't drip -- yet -- you can ask my doctor!) And I haven't gotten infected yet with "shiny-itis" so my Tritons and a few mini-tanks are all I am basically working with.

 

[Hostil]

Yup, cross flavoring is my main reason. No matter how well I thought I rinsed out the wicks sometimes I could still taste other flavors. Also I think its a good practice to take the bottom wicks out and dry burn the crap off your coil everyonce in awhile, so may as well change out the wicks while you're doing it...

 

[AngiBe]

Thanks Joe!!! Awesome write up. Quick question, why did you cut the cotton short? Just curious if there is any rhyme or reason you did this and if you tried it out with cotton tail (ok, couldn't resist that...it's almost Easter, give I've me a break ) longer?

Also, ever try it with cotton yarn wick like SnC? I have a vape party Sat and going to do a test with several tanks..can't wait.

EDIT- also a big thanks for taking time and posting pics too!!!! Very cool and helpful of you!!

 

[Joe13]

Thanks Joe!!! Awesome write up. Quick question, why did you cut the cotton short? Just curious if there is any rhyme or reason you did this and if you tried it out with cotton tail (ok, couldn't resist that...it's almost Easter, give I've me a break ) longer?

Also, ever try it with cotton yarn wick like SnC? I have a vape party Sat and going to do a test with several tanks..can't wait.

EDIT- also a big thanks for taking time and posting pics too!!!! Very cool and helpful of you!!

Force of habit. Been rebuilding Protank coils, and the consensus is that the wicks should be trim. I haven't tested leaving them long, so I can't say for sure, but I suspect there wouldn't be much of a diff, as long as the cotton tails have good contact with the feeder wick.

Never tried it with yarn. I'm pretty sure that would work fine tho.

It was fun doing this, and I'm very happy to share an experiment, and give a little back to Halo Nation.

Blush.

 

[AngiBe]

Well tried this out on Sat and I have mixed results. I used a longer tail cotton ball wick in the coil and used a cotton yarn flavor wick. At first, I wasn't getting much vapor or flavor and wondered if I had used too much cotton or if it was because I was using a 100% VG juice.

After several primer puffs, it did produce more vapor but the flavor was just off. I also tried the same set up except with a shorter cotton ball wick...same thing. I'm just not getting a good flavor out of this set up.

So I wanted to try a cotton yarn wick and this is where it all went down hill. I'm not familiar w/Teflon tape so I just used scotch tape to make the yarn end small so I could thread through...wrong! It would pull the coil with it so the coil would bend/move out of place and get damaged.

I'm going to buy Teflon tape next and some extra 2mm silica because I feel silica provides a better flavor so will use it at least for the flavor wick.

 

[Hostil]

Yeah... for some reason the cotton just gave me an off flavor as well. I got the 2mm silica and had no flavor issues. Just my opinion. One thing I did notice....once you take the wick out you can really see how gummed up the coil is. Pulled all my wicks and dry burned all the goop off my coils....much better now!