Size wick for protank, Evod, MT3

[JasonK94Z]

I'm so confused after reading all day. What size wick can I use to rebuild coils for my protank, Evod, and t3/mt3. I've seen all sizes being used, but I'm looking for one size fits all. Ekowool 3mm?

I need to get started on this ASAP. I know to order 32 ga kanthal wire. I'm using a smoktech winder


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[Mad Scientist]

The stock head is 2mm silica wick with 1mm "flavor wicks" on top of that. You can also use .8mm silica for the flavor wicks. I actually took measurements of a stock head and found 6 wraps of 30 AWG (metric equivalent actually) with the coil's inside diameter being 1.55mm and the wicks as noted. I started a thread about it somewhere around here.

You can get good silica wick here:
Silica Wick

Resistance wire here:
Variable Speed Drives, Phase Converters items in TEMCo Industrial Power Systems store on eBay!

 

[jmkiang]

I ditched the flavor wicks and rebuilt all my Kanger ProTank coils with double wrapped 2mm silica with 4 wraps of 32awg. Measuring at 1.8ohms, it works so much better than the 1.8/2.2 stock coils I got with the tank.

No leaks with this setup either.

 

[dfwraptor]

i used 3mm silica with a few small wicks i pulled apart and put on top of the coil works great. 32awg 4 wrap

 

[alvapo]

I used 3mm silica and 30 awg with 5 wraps. It came in at 1.2 ohms and vapes a little too warm. Just sharing.

 

[cliffy15]

I use 3mm silica wick in all my PT2 and EVOD. I've tried it without any flavor wicks with absolutely no problem, but when I trim the wick, I compulsively take one of the strands of of the 3mm wick as a top wick ... which really does nothing.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I also started testing with 3mm over the past couple days. The short term objective was just to make recoiling a bit faster without losing any performance. Compared to 2mm with 1mm flavor wicks on top, I can't tell the difference of just a single 3mm wick. Works at least as well.

I'm starting to wonder if Kangertech came up with the flavor wick idea because they had a cheap supply of 1mm and 2mm wick on hand.

Can anyone tell the difference? I'm wondering if I'm missing something but I can't tell.

 

[Hoofhearted62]

i use 32 ga kanthol, 2.5 mm silica doubled over, 4-5 wraps on everything, t3/protank/protank2. works fine for all of them

 

[Mad Scientist]

I've done a bit more trial and error experimenting and have come up with some conclusions.

3mm wick does indeed fit perfectly and performs as least as well if not better than 2mm with 1mm "flavor wicks" on top.

I think Kangertech went with the 2mm wick for the coil because anything bigger results in either a coil with too high a resistance or too few wraps to work with a standard ego battery. The "flavor wicks" allow more juice to touch that smaller coil for decent performance even with a standard ego battery. If using a VV battery or VW mod, there's no real reason to stick with the original set up instead of a single 3mm wick with coil.

Coils that are the right size for the wick work better. Too tight chokes the wicking but unfortunately too lose doesn't make good thermal coupling. I used fatter coils for a while to make builds easier, but after trying slightly tighter coils for a while, I have to conclude too loose is as bad as too tight. Also, thicker wire couples better, but the vape is too rich for me using 24mg/ ml juice (which I have a good bit of). Nic overload too quickly.

The favored build (of the week lol) is 32 AWG Kanthal wrapped on a number 47 drill bit, 6 wraps which results in 2.4 to 2.5 ohms. The 3mm wick will just fit and that seems like the tightest coil to wick using 3mm without a lot of hassle. Vapes very nice at around 7 watts.

With lower nic juice, same build as above except using 30AWG Kanthal with 8 or 9 wraps. Very nice, rich and flavorful vape at 11 or 12 watts.

 

[supermarket]

I'm using 32g kanthal, and 2mm silica wick. I tried the 2mm WITHOUT any flavor wick...and it didn't perform well. I do like doubling the 2mm silica wick, or using 2mm + a few strands for a flavor wick.

Sounds like I'll get 3mm silica next purchase to play around with.

 

[Scotte98]

I orderd some 3mm silica and 1 ft of 32 gauge kanthal. Know now to order wire from temco next time.

 

[rawr]

1.6mm round rod for coil, 2mm silica+3 little parts on top, 32 awg kanthal, 5 wraps and i get around 2 ohms. Vapes great!

 

[Mad Scientist]

A new twist on an old theme: use nichrome-60 instead of kanthal. Nichrome has a lower resistance per length than kanthal. At 32 AWG I can get 9 wraps on a 2mm wick using nichrome resulting in 2 ohms. Only 6 wraps using kanthal for about the same resistance. Nichrome in this application makes for a better vape.

 

[Aviz]

Wont the flavor wick also allow further distance between the ejuice and the air hole? (following the same logic - the intent was to accommodate for lower voltage).

BTW thanks for the measurements - I was going nuts tying to figure the right wick size.

I've done a bit more trial and error experimenting and have come up with some conclusions.

3mm wick does indeed fit perfectly and performs as least as well if not better than 2mm with 1mm "flavor wicks" on top.

I think Kangertech went with the 2mm wick for the coil because anything bigger results in either a coil with too high a resistance or too few wraps to work with a standard ego battery. The "flavor wicks" allow more juice to touch that smaller coil for decent performance even with a standard ego battery. If using a VV battery or VW mod, there's no real reason to stick with the original set up instead of a single 3mm wick with coil.

Coils that are the right size for the wick work better. Too tight chokes the wicking but unfortunately too lose doesn't make good thermal coupling. I used fatter coils for a while to make builds easier, but after trying slightly tighter coils for a while, I have to conclude too loose is as bad as too tight. Also, thicker wire couples better, but the vape is too rich for me using 24mg/ ml juice (which I have a good bit of). Nic overload too quickly.

The favored build (of the week lol) is 32 AWG Kanthal wrapped on a number 47 drill bit, 6 wraps which results in 2.4 to 2.5 ohms. The 3mm wick will just fit and that seems like the tightest coil to wick using 3mm without a lot of hassle. Vapes very nice at around 7 watts.

With lower nic juice, same build as above except using 30AWG Kanthal with 8 or 9 wraps. Very nice, rich and flavorful vape at 11 or 12 watts.

 

[Storm52]

Still new at all this, but I've ordered 2mm wick and 32ga Kanthal to start rebuilding my EVODs as I'm going through a coil every 3 days. Let me ask this as I've read where people are wrapping the coil around drill bits or rods. Can you easily insert the wick into the coil after it is made? From all of the videos I've watched, the wraps have always been around the wick, with a needle being used as a "base". What is easier and provides better uniformity? Sorry in advance for the noob question.

 

[Alter]

Its kinda difficult to insert the silica into the already made coil, believe me I've tried. One solution is to use cotton but I got tired of swaping the cotton all the time. I have all kinds of ekowool around so I cut a 2 inch piece and unbraided it into singular strands and using a bead threader I inserted several strands folded over and it works just dandy. I now have the convience of being able to swap the ekowool when necessary and being able to dryburn the head to get extended use out of it. I didn't boil or torch my ekowool but silica is different than ekowool and you might get a taste is you don't torch the silica. The problem is when you torch ekowool or silica it becomes crispy and much harder to work with.

 

[KillaKat]

I use 32g kanthal wire wrapped 5 times around a toothpick (I find the toothpick to be easiest to use, also helps with placement in the coil head itself). This gives ~2.0 ohms, which I find works great with both evods and my mini protank. I use unravelled boiled cheesecloth as my wick, ~25 strands doubled over, threaded using a piece of kanthal wire. No need for flavor wicks, and virtually no leakage. I've been doing it this way since I started rebuilding my coils in early fall last year. I prefer cotton over anything else for wick material.


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[Cait Sith]

I have 28g on hand. Will that work ok for these coils?

 

[classwife]

Moved to Clearomizers from E-cigarette Maintenance

 

[DavidOck]

I have 28g on hand. Will that work ok for these coils?

I find 28 to be too big for these small heads. The number of turns to get a useable resistance takes up too much space. 30 and 32 work fine.