A look at various wicking materials for rebuildable atomizers

[Magaro]

Debris so far:

 

[Magaro]

Next 4 results:

Cotton Bacon 2.0
Wick #1: 0.045 gm
e-liquid: 1.636 gm
Wick #2: 0.044 gm
e-liquid: 1.720 gm

Muji Cotton Pads (boiled)
Wick #1: 0.034 gm
e-liquid: 1.657 gm
Wick #2: 0.032 gm
E-liquid: 1.695 gm

Muji Cotton Pads
Wick #1: 0.034 gm
E-liquid: 1.460 gm
Wick #2: 0.038 gm
E-liquid: 1.459 gm

Elfwick Hemp
Wick #1: 0.044 gm
E-liquid: 1.062 gm
Wick #2: 0.046 gm
E-liquid: 1.172 gm

 

[Robert Cromwell]

So boiled Muji pads hold more juice than unboiled ones?

 

[Magaro]

So boiled Muji pads hold more juice than unboiled ones?

I suspect it may have a lot to do with how carefully you handle them when drying them. But, yeah, they did for me in this test.

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Has anyone ever tried cigarette filter material for wicking?

 

[Magaro]

And here's the final five for now:

Vapers Choice Cotton
Wick #1: 0.059 gm
E-liquid: 1.452 gm
Wick #2: 0.059 gm
E-liquid: 1.430 gm

Native Wicks Cotton
Wick #1: 0.067 gm
E-liquid: 1.301 gm
Wick #2: 0.070 gm
E-liquid: 1.503 gm

ReadyXWick
Wick #1: 0.220 gm
E-liquid: 0.190 gm
Wick #2: 0.219 gm
E-liquid: 0.198 gm

Graham Cotton Cellucotton
Wick #1: 0.045 gm
E-liquid: 1.897 gm
Wick #2: 0.045 gm
E-liquid: 1.725 gm

Avid Organic Pima Cotton
Wick #1: 0.081 gm
E-liquid: 2.376 gm
Wick #2: 0.080 gm
E-liquid: 2.347 gm

Oops - forgot to do the Graham Rayon Cellucotton. I'll do that before I clean up & add it here.

Graham Rayon Cellucotton
Wick #1: 0.036 gm
E-liquid: 1.382 gm
Wick #2: 0.038 gm
E-liquid: 1.408 gm

OK, that's it for now. Tedious little exercise, but also pretty interesting working with all of these materials over a fairly short period of time. I'll try to clean up my notes and post some observations and impressions later today. The numbers don't tell the whole story, to be sure.

 

[Rossum]

Correct me I'm wrong here but would the most interesting number here be the ratio of dry wick weight to saturated wick weight? Some of your dry wicks were quite a bit heavier than others.

 

[Magaro]

Correct me I'm wrong here but would the most interesting number here be the ratio of dry wick weight to saturated wick weight? Some of your dry wicks were quite a bit heavier than others.

I thought about this. I even started calculating that value. But in the end I decided against it, for myself anyway. I spent quite a bit of time with each material forming wicks that I would use if wicking an RDA. All of the wicks I tested snugly filled the coil and were 1.15-1.25 inches long. What I was looking for in this test was the total amount of liquid which would be captured and held in a built wick. So I simply subtracted the wick weight from the wick+liquid weight to get the value I reported. I have a lot of bottom and side airhole attys, and for me this is largely a measure of how heavily I can drip before I have free liquid trying to leak all over my mod and hand. Anyway, it's easy enough to compute for anyone interested.

 

[Magaro]

A couple of bar graphs for you visual learners:

All of the data:

Here I've removed the ReadyXWick (unfair comparison) and the Avid Pima (I'll share my thoughts on this later) and zoomed the y-axis to better show the differences between the other wicks.

 

[Magaro]

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the "e-liquid retention" winner of this study: long staple organic Pima cotton.

 

[JimScotty0]

The Pima looks awesome, but how does it vape?

 

[Mikedin]

That Drago doesn't look "Premium at all", it looks like dryer lint...

I've tried about a dozen different wick materials, From six different types of Cotton to Seacell fiber(Seaweed) to Degummed hemp to 100% Rayon, and I'll be honest that the Rayon from Graham(Part number 44060) beats out everything I've ever tried in every category, ease of use, price, flavor, longevity and performance. For me, this Rayon has it all, and you can get 500ft which is a near lifetime supply for under $15.

This is the Rayon I'm referencing, I'd love to see it in your comparisons against some of the better known "vape specific" materials.

Graham Part number 44060.

love this stuff i just picked up this exact box today in fact and am vaping on it right now on my ipv3 and mutation wicks perfect and is cheeappppp!

i believe i paid about 12 dollars for this box! it earned its spot on my main shelf lol

 

[Magaro]

The Pima looks awesome, but how does it vape?

I really like it. It's a joy to work with, it tastes great, it wicks well. And, obviously, it holds a ton of e-liquid.

Right now, I'm playing with it as an absorbent bed for a ReadyXWick build in a 28.5 mm Alliance RDA. It swells into an almost gelatinous mass, efficiently feeding the RXW and making the RDA almost tilt-leakproof with a huge juice load. This probably won't be my everyday build, but it's working surprisingly well.

At the end of the day, all of these wicking materials have utility. They're tools in the toolbox. This one just seems to be especially versatile.

 

[JimScotty0]

I really like it. It's a joy to work with, it tastes great, it wicks well. And, obviously, it holds a ton of e-liquid.

Right now, I'm playing with it as an absorbent bed for a ReadyXWick build in a 28.5 mm Alliance RDA. It swells into an almost gelatinous mass, efficiently feeding the RXW and making the RDA almost tilt-leakproof with a huge juice load. This probably won't be my everyday build, but it's working surprisingly well.

At the end of the day, all of these wicking materials have utility. They're tools in the toolbox. This one just seems to be especially versatile.

Magaro, I usually use 25PG/75VG. How do you think that would work with this wicking material? I have read that it works better with higher PG and not well with higher VG. Also what is the PG/VG ratio you are using here?

I really appreciate all the great work you are doing here. We need an update since the last one I can remember being by PB several months or even more back and does not seem to be as comprehensive as what you are doing here.

 

[TX Foilhead]

The beauty of the RxW is that it lasts so long and you can clean it. Use it for a week, it gets better the more you use it. I clean mine twice a week and have found it helps if I take the wick out so the inside of the coil can get clean along with the wick that's there. It last me 3 or 4 weeks like that. I change it because it gets frayed enough that it's hard to put back in the coil not because it isn't working just fine.

 

[Magaro]

Magaro, I usually use 25PG/75VG. How do you think that would work with this wicking material? I have read that it works better with higher PG and not well with higher VG. Also what is the PG/VG ratio you are using here?

I really appreciate all the great work you are doing here. We need an update since the last one I can remember being by PB several months or even more back and does not seem to be as comprehensive as what you are doing here.

Are you asking about the RXW or the Pima cotton?

I vaped this setup with 70/30 VG/PG and it did pretty well. The RXW seemed to run out of gas a little, but c'mon: this was a 0.22 ohm build sitting on a dual parallel 26650 box. And all it did was run dry - no burned wick. That is its biggest selling point, IMO. I think I'm gonna lay up a stash of this stuff in case I ever turn into a Tootle Puffer.

I've vaped the Pima cotton from 50/50 to 80/20 VG/PG on several different setups. Works very well.

 

[Robert Cromwell]

What you need for getting the rediwick stuff thru the coil is a tapered Chinese finger puzzle thing to grab onto one then of the wick with and pull it thru.

 

[TX Foilhead]

I'm not sure what you're running the RxW in, if you can run more wick and less cotton I bet you wouldn't have a wicking issue.

This is how I run 2mm in my Chalice III. It gets the wick down to the floor and gives me some protection from over sail king and filling up the air hole. The bend is a little tighter than I would like but it does it's job.

 

[52anddone]

After I read the first page, I just had to post. Ya'll got me laughing so hard I thought I was gonna have another Heart Attach. I was wicking my Lemo 2 while reading this thread, NOW ya'll got me looking for Turds in MY dryer lint. You guys are a hoot. Thanks for the brief respit (spelling ??).

 

[JimScotty0]

@Magaro since you evaluated the Pima cotton a while back I have been using it and loving the way it tastes and holds high VG eJuice. It takes a while to get used to and break in with a build, but once it saturates I am really enjoying it.

Now I must ask, which one or ones do you personally use after all this testing?