Forgive me, KGD, I have strayed.

[Rule62]

About a year ago, when KGD Japanese cotton, and Rayon, both were fairly new on the scene, for wicking materials, I bought both. I bought a box of KGD, containing 60 pads; and around the same time, bought a huge box of CeluCotton rayon from Sally's. At the time, on ECF, as well as other forums, there were fairly heated discussions as to which was a better wicking material. Because of the ease of use, I quickly fell into the KGD camp, and remained there. I even took my huge box of rayon to a local vape meet, put it on a table, and told people to snip off a piece, and give it a try. I brought the rest of the box home, shoved it into a shelf in a closet, and forgot about it. But nobody was getting their hands on my precious KGD.
Yesterday, I was looking around for something else, and ran across my box of CeluCotton. For whatever reason, boredom I guess, I got the box down, and decided to rewick one of my Atomics with the rayon. Now, I had remembered reading that the trick with rayon is to use much more of it than you would cotton. The motto among rayon users was: "cotton users generally use too much. Rayon users use too little." So, with that in mind, I carefully and gently created a piece thick enough to where I could barely pull it through my 2mm coil, without distorting the coil. The piece was probably the size of a pencil.
After squonking it up, I took a hit, and WHOAHH...this stuff is good! The flavor is crisp. Vapor is great. With big, long drags (as big and long as my old lungs could muster), not even a hint of drying out my wick.
My conclusion: Rayon works every bit as well as KGD, vapor and flavor wise. The downside: Rayon takes a little more fussing around to get the amount right. KGD is much easier to work with. No doubt about it. Can I say that one has an edge over the other? No. But for a confirmed KGD user, I'm glad I took another look at rayon.

 

[ElConquistador]

I have so much forgotten wicking material around here, I always resisted the urge to buy the rayon after I started using Japanese pads. In 75 years, when I'm down to a 50 year supply, maybe I'll buy that 200 year box of rayon.

 

[JC Okie]

I have so much forgotten wicking material around here, I always resisted the urge to buy the rayon after I started using Japanese pads. In 75 years, when I'm down to a 50 year supply, maybe I'll buy that 200 year box of rayon.

Well, in 75 years when you get ready to try some rayon....don't buy that 200 year box. Just PM me and I'll give you some of MY 200 year supply of rayon. I'll still have a 125 year supply left by then. (And if you want to try it sooner than that, holler. I'll send you some NOW!)

 

[JeremyR]

You have committed a sin. Lol

Thanks for sharing your experience, and giving it another chance.

Of course, some would argue the other way around - with out lots of experience with cotton. Some can just never get cotton density right... (Took me months Initially) With rayon shove as much as you can get through and your pretty close. I think the difficulty for most is primarily from using cotton for long periods.

Those old wicking habits of allowing for swelling and wick burning if too snug... - would need to be broken to accept the massive density rayon takes to work the way its intended, and provide the claims that so many of us have made for it. Or unlearned which is a mental process in itself.

To confirm you have enough density check the wick a few times through the first day to make sure there is no gap in the coil. Even push down on the edge to make sure it stays in contact.

The biggest visable difference will be the longevity of the coil without gunk development.. If its vaping good, run it a week or 4 and see how much gunk you have compared to kgd. Then load up kgd and see if you notice a difference in flavor, vapor production, resilence, and nic absorption.

Gunk is over heating juice, overheating juice is where the harmful byproducts are produced from the juice. Rayon produces very little to no gunk at the coil over very long periods of time, even at high wattage.

Safer than cotton??

?

 

[Rule62]

I have no idea if rayon is safer. With Reos, I don't have any issue with dry hits, whichever I use.
One thing is certain: both are better than cotton balls or rolled cotton, which I have no plans of revisiting.
I rewicked one of my Nuppins with rayon this morning. It was a bit of a pain stuffing all that rayon down into that little well. But it is a nice vape.

 

[Robinowitz]

What a fun thread Rule 62 (fun name)! Just the other day I spotted my rope of Cello and thought that it might be getting lonely also. I didn't do anything about it then but perhaps I'll give it another whirl (out of the site of the KGD of course). Was also very helpful mentions of using more not less. Hmmmm....wonder if that was the problem before? Was a step up from cotton pads for me but not IT (which lead to my wandering to KGD). Might just give it another whirl.

 

[Rule62]

What a fun thread Rule 62 (fun name)! Just the other day I spotted my rope of Cello and thought that it might be getting lonely also. I didn't do anything about it then but perhaps I'll give it another whirl (out of the site of the KGD of course). Was also very helpful mentions of using more not less. Hmmmm....wonder if that was the problem before? Was a step up from cotton pads for me but not IT (which lead to my wandering to KGD). Might just give it another whirl.

Yeah, if you re visit the rayon, don't let your KGD see you. Do it in a separate room. Otherwise, the Earth could spin off it's axis, or something.
To be fair, with my brief encounter with rayon before, I wasn't a Reonaut yet. My experimentation was with conventional drippers and tube mods.
I'm not suggesting that rayon is better than KGD. Only that it's worth a look, as a viable alternative; especially with the squonking and draining capabilities of the Reo.

 

[JC Okie]

Personally, I love rayon and it's what I use these days. I have used every cotton in the world ever mentioned on ECF (I started with cotton cheesecloth....anybody remember the earliest days of cotton?) I just really, really like the rayon. And if anyone AT ALL wants to try some before you buy a whole bunch, just let me know. I'll stick some in an envelope and mail it out tomorrow. Please. Really. I have 500 FEET of this stuff, and I can get about 6 wicks out of one INCH. And, they last me weeks and weeks. The "200 year supply" is not that unrealistic.....

 

[Spydro]

Started doing KGD a little earlier, but the CC about the same time as you R62 as the latest/greatest supposedly. I was still doing mesh and OCB when KGD hit my door. I wanted the CC to work because it wicks much faster than KGD, a big plus with the gear I was using then (GP Herons & SNP's/Sofia's). But my VLLH's burned the rayon in half in no time, so I gave up on it. I have better things to do than constantly rewick, so KGD got me by just fine until I finally tried RxW in my Reo atty's early last fall. " Finally" because all I needed was yet another lifetime supply of another hyped wicking product gathering dust around here. I soon found I prefer the RxW, but I still use KGD a lot as well.

 

[Rule62]

Personally, I love rayon and it's what I use these days. I have used every cotton in the world ever mentioned on ECF (I started with cotton cheesecloth....anybody remember the earliest days of cotton?) I just really, really like the rayon. And if anyone AT ALL wants to try some before you buy a whole bunch, just let me know. I'll stick some in an envelope and mail it out tomorrow. Please. Really. I have 500 FEET of this stuff, and I can get about 6 wicks out of one INCH. And, they last me weeks and weeks. The "200 year supply" is not that unrealistic.....

Yep, I certainly remember the cheesecloth, gauze, people unrolling q tips, the heated arguments about boiling or not boiling cotton balls (which still come up occasionally). Ms Rule still uses one of my old Taifun GTs, which I maintain in good working order for her, and I still wick it with Peaches 'n Cream cotton yarn.

 

[ElConquistador]

Ha ha, you just reminded me I have a whole ball of Peaches 'n Cream yarn around here somewhere...I need to revise my estimated supply in years up another 50 years or so.

 

[Rule62]

Ha ha, you just reminded me I have a whole ball of Peaches 'n Cream yarn around here somewhere...I need to revise my estimated supply in years up another 50 years or so.

The Peaches 'n Cream works great in a Taifun. Wind a 2.4mm coil, double a piece of yarn, pull it through, and trim it off. Not even a hint of a leak. It didn't fare so well in drippers, but it sure works in a Taifun.

 

[Swamper]

I jumped off the KGD band wagon to, found something every bit as good,(for my liking) sqonking way less and right about when my japanese KGD needed changing my new wick is still breaking in and popping with flavor. My wife hasn't noticed I switched (sneaked) wicks so we're good. My KGD will always have a place though, bathroom medicine cabinet lol.

 

[JeremyR]

I have no idea if rayon is safer. With Reos, I don't have any issue with dry hits, whichever I use.
One thing is certain: both are better than cotton balls or rolled cotton, which I have no plans of revisiting.
I rewicked one of my Nuppins with rayon this morning. It was a bit of a pain stuffing all that rayon down into that little well. But it is a nice vape.

Its not just dry hits, its gunk. Do you get gunk formation after a short time with kgd?

Thinning the tails down makes it work even better, and easier to get down in wells and such. I thin the tails up to 80% even on drippers.. Paper thin in most cases. It actually increases the wicking speed considerably in most all cases. Go an 1/8 to 1/4 inch out from coil and chop the density of the tails down to thin tails.

Again, opposite of cotton. You don't want a lot of material in the wells. You want the largest part of the wick to be in the coil.. The heart of the system. The tails are viens.

Thinning the tails can be just as important as the density in the coil. Another wicking thing people would have to unlearn to get the full potential out of it. Its a rather unique wick.

Less gunk, less potentially harmful byproducts of overheating juice.

Oh wanted to add, not everyone wants to relearn how to wick. That's fine. Its a mental challenge, people don't like change, and thier currently happy with kdg. Whatever your happy with is cool.

 

[Rat2chat2]

I agree with everything you just said and most of what the others have said. I am tempted to try the rxw again but the bottom line is. . . as I get older, the slothlike tendencies in me wins every time. The KGD style cotton is the easiest for me to wick and I have been pleased with the quality of my vape. Of course, I think the reo is responsible for the majority of my vaping bliss. No, I don't "think". The reo "is" everything in life this crazy girl needs.

 

[K31Scout]

I love my Rayon in the big blue box for my Reo. It does not swell up like cotton and tastes good right away. It's easier to wick for me vs cotton. Never a dry hit and I take a Big Long lung inhale which would kill me if it ran dry. lol I have enough for the rest of my life unless I start using curlers in my hair or whatever this stuff is really for. (I'm a dude, so that's not gonna happen.)

 

[olefolks]

Well, never tried Rayon. Went to Sally's, saw the box, left. I still have 57 pads of KGD. I thought it made a difference in taste compared to cotton balls. Now, thanks to Jan, I mix my own juice which is totally unflavored. Every once in a while I'll throw in a few drops of Creme Brûlée just for a change. I use nothing but RWX for various reasons but mostly cause it lasts and lasts and lasts. Just saying!!

 

[Mogar]

A box of 500 feet of Sally's Rayon will last about 36,000 wicks give or take a few, that makes each wick cost around 0.0004 cents per wick. My wife gets her hair done once a month (or 6 weeks etc) and she just asks for a foot or two and that has me going on Rayon for three months or so...

 

[ed101z]

I have all three: Rayon, KGD, and RxW 3mm. Have tested all of them in the same coil. Long story short... Rayon gives a better taste, more flavor, and stronger TH. You do have to use more Rayon than you think though. It seems to SHRINK when it's saturated with juice, and you'll get BIG POPS IF the Rayon is not properly filling the coil. But once you get it down, Rayon is a good wicking material because it acts more like a bridge rather than a sponge (KGD).

 

[karmakatie]

I have a HUGE box of CC and I still have a ton of KGD so for now as long as the KGD holds out that will be the one for me, just to easy to rewick!!