What would cause my coils to burn black in less than a day?

[PurpleDragon]

So Ive been vaping with an Aspire Cleito, and the coil cartridges last me about a week. I decided to get the Cleito RTA attachment instead of the cartridges.

I checked the new RTA (which comes with coils pre-made and installed) first on an ohm meter, then put in the wick, put it together, filled w fresh juice. Less than a day later it tasted burnt so I looked in and the coils were pitch black! What could I have done wrong?

4ohm kanthal clapton coils. 45W. Cotton came with RTA

 

[Continuity]

0.4 Ohms, I guess you meant?

What kind of juice are you using? High amounts of sweeteners or and/or dark juices can cause this to happen.

Also, the quality of the wicking material that comes with a lot of tanks and accessories is not the best - try rebuilding it with some known quality wick like Muji cotton or similar.

Also, make sure you're priming your wicks by dripping juice on them before use, and always start off at low power and work your way up over the course of a tank or so (25-40W for example).

 

[PurpleDragon]

0.4 Ohms, I guess you meant?

What kind of juice are you using? High amounts of sweeteners or and/or dark juices can cause this to happen.

Also, the quality of the wicking material that comes with a lot of tanks and accessories is not the best - try rebuilding it with some known quality wick like Nuji cotton or similar.

Also, make sure you're priming your wicks by dripping juice on them before use, and always start off at low power and work your way up over the course of a tank or so (25-40W for example).

would it make a difference how much wicking i used? i followed a utube video for my same rta exactly, but it seemed a little skimpy. my juice is a clear sweet raspberry.

 

[Continuity]

How much wicking *is* important - too little = leaking, 'hot legs' from coil not making full contact, too much = dry hits, muted flavour.

I would try perfecting your wicking technique using known good wicking material.

 

[daviedog]

Burn in & massage a new coil before wicking..

 

[steam heat]

+1 on burning it in......

 

[Forkeh]

Yeah sounds like you're burning your juice. Either turn down the wattage, or get yourself some higher resistance coils. You got too much power going on. Also those Claptons have a lot of surface area. They're going to collect more gunk than your standard round wire coils at the same resistance and wattage. This is going to be especially problematic in an RTA where your coils and wick are basically marinating in your juice (you'd probably have less of an issue with an RDA with the same sort of coil set up).

Your vape happy place is a bit trail and error, and is subject to change when you switch to a radically different topper. But all is not lost! You don't have to toss that coil. Just pull the cotton out, rinse and dry burn the coil clean, and rewick it. Then start playing with lower wattages and see what happens.

 

[MacTechVpr]

What is an ohmeter? Good luck.

 

[sofarsogood]

So Ive been vaping with an Aspire Cleito, and the coil cartridges last me about a week. I decided to get the Cleito RTA attachment instead of the cartridges.

I checked the new RTA (which comes with coils pre-made and installed) first on an ohm meter, then put in the wick, put it together, filled w fresh juice. Less than a day later it tasted burnt so I looked in and the coils were pitch black! What could I have done wrong?

4ohm kanthal clapton coils. 45W. Cotton came with RTA

One of the reasons I like DIY is I can make liquid with a very low percent of flavoring, which still tastes fine. A benefit of that is gunk accumulates slower. When I was using premix I was dryburning coils and rewicking every 48 hours. Now I rewick twice a week and rebuild every 2-3 weeks.

 

[MacTechVpr]

One of the reasons I like DIY is I can make liquid with a very low percent of flavoring, which still tastes fine. A benefit of that is gunk accumulates slower. When I was using premix I was dryburning coils and rewicking every 48 hours. Now I rewick twice a week and rebuild every 2-3 weeks.

Agree with ya. Have some dark rich tabs I have to rewick every other no matter how solid the build. Still like to know what res looks like. Can def foul the vape if it's goin' North. Don't trust mystery wire. The early Kanger OCC's were frighteningly hot. Included prewounds not much better. Have improved but it's still a hit or miss proposition getting to that avg 5 day mark I think for all the makers. Rebuild and DIY…that's the ticket. Good luck.

 

[Elvensilvan]

would it make a difference how much wicking i used? i followed a utube video for my same rta exactly, but it seemed a little skimpy. my juice is a clear sweet raspberry.

Yep! Wicking is very important.

When putting the wick through the coil, do a "pull test" ... if the wick passes through easily, you have too little wick. If you pull and the entire atomizer/mod gets pulled, you have too much wick.

 

[Maiar]

Flavoring. Muffin man by OHW turns my coil into just a solid black clump of black goo in about a day lol.

 

[Bunnykiller]

the juice causes the darkening

 

[Bonskibon]

Have the same problem with a couple of my juices I use. Have to dry burn and re-wick every couple of days. A bit of a pain, but better than going through stock coils and not willing to give up my gunky juice.

 

[mcclintock]

If only black after a full day, that's just typical. Thick gunk, gray wick means too much flavoring or running too hard. I find coils sometimes go through an awkward stage after which they get better again, even with prebuilts, and with them there's more need to stick with them long enough to see that.

 

[ibndevilish]

All the black gunk on your coils is from all the sweetener some of these juice company's put in the juice. I personally stopped buying pre made anything. I do my own coils and they last longer, make my own juice as it helps my coils last longer as I don't add all that sweetener that is put into juice made buy e liquid manufactures. Also check how little or how much cotton you have in your coil like others have posted. Too little and it will burn and to much will also cause the burn. You have to have a balance.

 

[Carl2]

I have a Kanger Top tank mini and have been using the temp mode (380 F) with nickel wire (.2 ohms) atomizer, I'm using clear tobacco flavor, the atomizer lasted just about a month. I just began using the RBA deck to make nickel coils but the RBA deck leaks, since the atomizers work I think I'm doing something wrong with the RBA.

 

[Continuity]

I have a Kanger Top tank mini and have been using the temp mode (380 F) with nickel wire (.2 ohms) atomizer, I'm using clear tobacco flavor, the atomizer lasted just about a month. I just began using the RBA deck to make nickel coils but the RBA deck leaks, since the atomizers work I think I'm doing something wrong with the RBA.

It sounds like you are dong the wicking a bit wrong - Subtank RBAs are very leak-proof when wicked correctly.

Is it the RBA V2 with the round holes drilled into the metal cylinder, or the other type with no holes?

I ask because the V2 RBAs need wicking with fluffed-out cotton covering the holes - not scrunched up, but just fanned so that it covered the holes evenly.

 

[PurpleDragon]

i had a hard time getting my coils clean- soaked in hot water w vinegar then scrubbed w SS brush (my tip for cleaning inside of coil, i had some 2mm SS cable, cut a 3in piece and frayed one end and twist it through a few times) then heat up. but i had to repeat this 3 times for them to get really clean. way too time consuming to do every day.

anyway i re-wicked a little heavier and did some testing. tried vaping plain VG. tasteless odorless fine. then tried with 70vg/30pg/.3nic and there was some aftertaste but not bad. then added a small amount of coffee w no sweetener. seems to be working much better but now i am getting a lot of spitting and popping does that mean my build is wrong, or air bubbles in the juice, or what could that be? also what sweetener does anyone recommend that doesn't put a lot of gunk on your coils?

 

[daviedog]

Ethol Maltose,, when steaming a fluid dry, expect particulate residue..