400x400 mesh or 2mm SS cable, which do you prefer?

[odogg_mia]

Hello ECFers,
been a while but I've got a question... First off I want to thank everyone here I just passed the 2 year mark and I feel great.... Anyways I've got my kraken with 400 mesh and I've only ever used 400 mesh but a buddy gave me some 2mm SS cable and said it's better... What are your thoughts and or opinions? Thanks

 

[JohnnyBGoode]

I personally never been very successful with SS cable...
Tried two or three times and gave up.
Could be I had the wrong type of cable or something.
Wicking was awful, gave me plenty dry hits.

 

[imsoenthused]

Mesh, all the way. I find the cable requires too much time to get up to temp, doesn't wick very well, and continues to stay hot wasting liquid for too long. Some people love it though. So try it out and see? I mean, worst case scenario, you shrug and go back to your mesh.

 

[Traijan]

I just asked the guy that does the rebuilding at the local vape store about ss cable with a light layer of cotton wrapped around the exposed end (where the coil will wrap around the cable) compared to using mesh, and he had told me something like he doesn't like to use the ss cable as it doesn't wick nearly as well as mesh and the whole reason of using SS to begin with is to avoid any extra flavors like cotton wrapped around it might produce and seemed to suggest that it's harder to work with for the average person, though I'm not sure how that's possible as I would think that once you have cut the cable all you have to do is wrap some Kanthal around it to make the coil and insert it in the hole like you would mesh.

I'm bound to try it myself regardless what he said so that I'll have first hand knowledge about it, so for now I'll just tag along on this topic to see where it goes.

 

[Maurice Pudlo]

I use 3/32 7x7 with a bit of 325 mesh wrapped at the top where the coil is located in my GkmF-22.

Wicking is on par with a U wick, which means I can chain vape to my hearts content.

As for what is a best size for your genny, that depends on the wick hole size. On my set up there isn't much space left, so in my experience I'd say cable should be around 0.5mm smaller in diameter than the wick hole or thereabouts.

My rig is set up at 0.65 ohms and does fine as far as push to vape time, its as near to instant as it needs to be.

You'll likely see a reduction in throat hit vs. a pure mesh build at the same level of power, you are expending some energy heating the more dense wick. The trade is very clean flavor. Which is more what I'm looking for in any case.

For what its worth I like building with cable more than mesh, plus, a cable wick is going to last a very very very long time.

Maurice

 

[Busted knuckles]

I used to use mesh wrapped around the top of the cable in my gennies, found that to be the best. The cable wicks the juice up to the mesh and the mesh makes full contact with the coil. Bingo, excellent vape! And pretty tough to get a dry hit if it's st up well.
It's been while since I used this method, I've been on cotton for a long time now but I've been thinking about setting up another gennie with a metal wick. I kinda miss it, used to get awesome clouds and good flavor. But cotton wick in a micro coil is so easy, guess I'm lazy!

 

[WattWick]

Both make for excellent wicks, IMHO.

As mentioned above; wire rope acts more as a heat sink and seems somewhat less efficient in terms of vapor produced per Watt spent. Mesh has more... (I hate to say it as it's such an empty term)... pop. At least in this random guys' opinion. YMMV.

Where rope shines is wicking ability. You can plug every deck hole on a gennie - it still wicks well. With mesh you (may) have to leave a deck hole open or use a straw-ish wick to let air in. Makes it easier to make a pocket friendly wire rope setup.

While I prefer mesh, a couple of my gennie are set up with wire rope. Mainly because it works well enough for me not to bother doing anything about it. Partially because I just pick whichever I feel like using when I set something up. Also - for crazy narrow wick holes, wire rope works better for me with less noticeable ill effects of heat sinking. For crazy big wick holes, the heat sinking of wire rope is just too much. Anything in between - anything goes.