"Airlock". The true cause of wicking issues and dry hits.

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evan le'garde

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So i'm not familiar with every single atomizer on the market. They're all different in their design. One potential problem i do believe to be universal in all these devices though is an "Airlock".

Regardless of how much cotton wool has been crammed into the wells of an rta, or whether you primed your drop in coil enough, an airlock will prevent the e liquid from getting to the wick everytime. Time and time again you either re-wick or swap out the drop in coil. Then you think "there is definitely something wrong with the atomizer".

How many times have you built a new coil, or simply re-fiiled on an existing wick, and then found all you get is dry hits and you can't figure out why ?. Maybe you eventually decide "this atomizer is no good".

The simple solution is to add more e liquid than you think you should when "priming" the coil/wick. It's not a process which takes just a minute or two. The whole idea is to let the e liquid soak right through the cotton wool, through the channels until it starts to seep out the other end of those channels, where ever that might be !. To go from a tank to a coil/wick the e liquid has to travel through the channels.

If cotton wool soaked in e liquid is at one end of the channels then that is what is causing the "airlock".

Simply put "it's "trapping" the air in the channels and causing an airlock".

You get rid of all the air in the channels by "bleeding" the system. This should be the most important part of "priming". Allowing the e liquid you've added as a primer to expel all the air from the system. Without doing this you are running the risk of successive dry hits and confusion.

So you add e liquid as a primer, let it soak into the cotton wool then add a few drops more. Then, wait a few minutes to see how far the e liquid has got. Wait for it to come out the other end because that what you should be looking for. Once you see it coming out the other end of the channels you know the system has been fully bled. And then you can reassemble your device and fill the tank.

 

Blitzdonlife

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Interesting thought, but I think pressure in a closed hydraulic system works differently with trapped air vs. how the wick in an RTA functions. Saturation of the wick is definitely important for good function of atomization though. Getting wick density in the tails, and their placement right seems to affect wicking alot for me. In some atomizers, airlock can for sure be a problem, but that is usually an issue of juice transport to the wick itself.
 

vapdivrr

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Perhaps drop in coils tanks are different, but at least the mtl rtas I have been vaping for years, dont have this issue. I have probably vaped 25 different rtas over the years and have wicked a thousand times and the only reason I ever have gotten a dry hit was indeed a true wicking issue, more specifically not enough cotton.

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