Almost gave up on wicking my Griffin 25 Plus

[TheSavior2]

Sorry for the wall of text, but I tried explaining everything so that all the info is initially provided and we can jump into directly solving this.

Hey guys, as you may know already, the Griffin is a tricky tank to wick. I have tried countless times to rewick it and I'd get dry hit after dry hit. The first time I wicked it it worked perfectly well (purely by luck since I can't reproduce it), but now I just cant seem to get it right. I have tried every suggestion out there.

The way I'm wicking it is by cutting a 6 mm strip off of a Muji cotton pad, removing the top and bottom thick cotton covers, rolling it gently so its cylindrical, then placing it inside the coil, then cutting the leads to about 1 cm in length, fluffing up the cotton, then gently placing the cotton above the juice holes so that it is sitting flush against it and not stuffed in, in a way the cotton finds its way a bit in the juice hole on its own,and then I prime the cotton. I get a few hits off, but as soon as the juice that the cotton was primed with is consumed, the dry hits commence, its as if the cotton simply doesnt rewick itself from the juice found in the tank. I also tried using cotton bacon instead, same issue still. I also made sure that the cotton isnt too thick or too thin, it pulls through with resistance, but not enough as to seem as if its stuffed in the coil and blocking the juice flow.

More info: I'm using a single 5 wrap 3 mm ID twisted parallel coil measuring at 0.18 ohms (basically 2x two 24g kanthal A1 wires twisted into one, then the two resulting twisted wires are wrapped in parallel into one coil). And obviously I'm using the ceramic piece provided in the box that blocks the airflow and juice flow to use the tank in single coil mode. Also I'm using the GeekVape Mech Pro parallel mech mod, with 2x LG HG2 20A 3000 mAh batteries. I tried using the tank on my Vaporesso Revenger set at 80, 60 and 40 watts to eliminate the possibility that the wick can't keep up with the high power output of a mech mod, but the issue was still there. But anyways when it was working fine the first time I wicked it, I was using the mech mod the whole time so I don't think that is the issue.

Also before anyone suggests using Rayon, its simply not available in my country since the vape market is still budding, and shipping it isnt an option since its extremely expensive and I'm not even sure if that would fix the issue.

I would appreciate any suggestions and insights that would help me finally enjoy the Griffin, as the first time I wicked it, it vaped like a dream, but I just can't get it to work again.

N.B: No the tank never leaked on me, even when it was working perfectly fine at first. You just gotta form the habit of closing off everything (juice flow and airflow) before refilling, then only opening the juice flow to let an air bubble escape, then finally opening the airflow and vaping on.

 

[Gramdogg]

Pretty much all else I can think of is combing the cotton with a toothpick or something, cut off as much of the top part of the fluffed cotton you can and don't use the top airfow.

 

[Gramdogg]

Try spaced coils too so its not all burning the center of the wick.

 

[TheSavior2]

Pretty much all else I can think of is combing the cotton with a toothpick or something, cut off as much of the top part of the fluffed cotton you can and don't use the top airfow.

I am definitely gonna try cutting the top part, never thought of that before but I have a good feeling about it, will report back. Also I'm using the other delrin drip tip provided in the package, so that eliminates the top airflow from the equation, sorry forgot to mention that.

 

[TheSavior2]

Try spaced coils too so its not all burning the center of the wick.

I've tried before a 4/5 wrap parallel spaced coil I made, same issue.

 

[vapdivrr]

Personally I think a 6mm piece, then removing the top and bottom parts of the wick is perhaps not quite enough through a 3mm coil. But then again I don't use muji , so not sure how it differs from my usual stuff

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[Gramdogg]

Just a slight tug is all you need, cotton expands when wet. I haven't used one but try as little cotton as you can and what seems like to much. The Lemo 2 I watched a ton of videos and everyone was using alot of cotton and complaining of dry hits but if you fluffed it out and cut away all of it you could but left just enough to lay on the hole it worked fine... gets to the coil faster then wetting a bunch thats not even really being used first then to the coil.

 

[dc99]

This may sound stupid but are you sure you have the juice flow opened? By the way, rayon was not for wicking originally. It is a hair care product. I order mine from sally beauty supply.

 

[Gramdogg]

I can't bring myself to try Rayon, heard to much nasty stuff about it on TV. Safe for us but deadly to those who make it.

 

[TheSavior2]

Okay I think I got it, will test it more extensively tomorrow (its 5 am here).

What I did was the following:

I prepared a wick using this method:



It's the original Scottish Roll video tutorial, most vape veterans already know it I guess. So I applied the technique to half a Muji cotton pad I had laying around since its a wick for one coil, so it was enough. I had to cut away a tiny strip of the cotton from one side after expanding it, in addition to the bunched up cotton resulting from the expansion (which is seen in the video) since the final roll was a bit too thick to fit in my coil, but that may be not necessary to do for others (incase someone sees this thread in the future), it depends on your coil inner diameter. Anyways, I inserted the cotton in the coil, cut the leads by lining up the scissor vertically at the edge of the base, fluffed up the cotton, then trimmed the top a bit as suggested by Gramdogg (thanks ALOT), then gently pushed the cotton inside the deck and tugged them in very lightly so they're sitting on top of the juice flow holes, and slightly inside it (emphasis on slightly).

So far I chain vaped 30 1.5-2 second puffs at 65 watts on my regulated mod and no dry hits in sight, at all. Gonna try it tomorrow on my mech mod after my batteries fully recharge and see if its still wicking correctly, but so far so good.

I will also update in the future if I am able to replicate this success and confirm that it wasnt just another fluke.




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[TheSavior2]

This may sound stupid but are you sure you have the juice flow opened? By the way, rayon was not for wicking originally. It is a hair care product. I order mine from sally beauty supply.

It's okay, sometimes you miss the stupidest things. Also I didn't know that you can get Rayon that way, I'll look more into it soon, thank you.


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[Gramdogg]

Okay I think I got it, will test it more extensively tomorrow (its 5 am here).

What I did was the following:

I prepared a wick using this method:



It's the original Scottish Roll video tutorial, most vape veterans already know it I guess. So I applied the technique to half a Muji cotton pad I had laying around since its a wick for one coil, so it was enough. I had to cut away a tiny strip of the cotton from one side after expanding it, in addition to the bunched up cotton resulting from the expansion (which is seen in the video) since the final roll was a bit too thick to fit in my coil, but that may be not necessary to do for others (incase someone sees this thread in the future), it depends on your coil inner diameter. Anyways, I inserted the cotton in the coil, cut the leads by lining up the scissor vertically at the edge of the base, fluffed up the cotton, then trimmed the top a bit as suggested by Gramdogg (thanks ALOT), then gently pushed the cotton inside the deck and tugged them in very lightly so they're sitting on top of the juice flow holes, and slightly inside it (emphasis on slightly).

So far I chain vaped 30 1.5-2 second puffs at 65 watts on my regulated mod and no dry hits in sight, at all. Gonna try it tomorrow on my mech mod after my batteries fully recharge and see if its still wicking correctly, but so far so good.

I will also update in the future if I am able to replicate this success and confirm that it wasnt just another fluke.




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Sweet! I figured that little bit of useless cotton can make a big difference in a few picky tanks like my Lemo 2.

 

[TheSavior2]

Personally I think a 6mm piece, then removing the top and bottom parts of the wick is perhaps not quite enough through a 3mm coil. But then again I don't use muji , so not sure how it differs from my usual stuff

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I suppose you're right, the scottish roll seemed to do the trick, in addition to trimming the top after fluffing as suggested above. Seems like you just needed the right amount of cotton at the very end of the leads to go into the juice hole, while the rest of the wick can remain at the same volume. I guess having too much cotton at the leads will just spread the juice through the ends of the wick and not continue up into the part in contact with the coil, no wonder why it looked like the ends were wet but the parts near the coil were dry.


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[TheSavior2]

Sweet! I figured that little bit of useless cotton can make a big difference in a few picky tanks like my Lemo 2.

The Griffin is my first RTA and my third tank (first being the Baby Beast and second being the VGOD TT Pro RDTA, both of which I ended up selling after a week of purchase), so you can see the steep learning curve I had to go through in order to learn how to wick the damn thing, especially with such a tricky RTA to learn on (building on it though is extremely easy, velocity deck ftw). But honestly its damn sure worth the trouble, cause the vapor and flavor is among the best.

Edit: I should also mention it never leaked on me, for the tons of people that say it leaks no matter what. You should form the habit of closing off the AFC and the Juice Flow whenever you refill, or whenever you're putting the vape in your pocket for a while, or any situation where its not uprigh for an extended amount of time. And moving the wicks a bit from above the airflow holes in the deck so they dont leak into the holes, and obviously not dripping into the holes when initially priming. May seem like alot to keep in mind but its mostly common sense.

I really hope this thread helps someone in the future.


Thank you everyone for the help! Really appreciate it!

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[Gramdogg]

The Griffin is my first RTA and my third tank (first being the Baby Beast and second being the VGOD TT Pro RDTA, both of which I ended up selling after a week of purchase), so you can see the steep learning curve I had to go through in order to learn how to wick the damn thing, especially with such a tricky RTA to learn on (building on it though is extremely easy, velocity deck ftw). But honestly its damn sure worth the trouble, cause the vapor and flavor is among the best.

Edit: I should also mention it never leaked on me, for the tons of people that say it leaks no matter what. You should form the habit of closing off the AFC and the Juice Flow whenever you refill, or whenever you're putting the vape in your pocket for a while, or any situation where its not uprigh for an extended amount of time. And moving the wicks a bit from above the airflow holes in the deck so they dont leak into the holes, and obviously not dripping into the holes when initially priming. May seem like alot to keep in mind but its mostly common sense.

I really hope this thread helps someone in the future.


Thank you everyone for the help! Really appreciate it!

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Yeah my UD EZ has a very small lip around the airflow too. Need to push the cotton away with a tiny pin. It leaked for ages anyways but I figured it out, after filling it turn it upside down and open everything up then turn it over and quickly suck on it a few times! How insane is that!? lol Still get a tiny bit once in awhile but it goes away alot faster now.

 

[TheSavior2]

Yeah my UD EZ has a very small lip around the airflow too. Need to push the cotton away with a tiny pin. It leaked for ages anyways but I figured it out, after filling it turn it upside down and open everything up then turn it over and quickly suck on it a few times! How insane is that!? lol Still get a tiny bit once in awhile but it goes away alot faster now.

I bought the UD Anzu RDA a couple of days ago, leaks like a mf if you overdrip by 0.0001 ml, or over the airflow holes.


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[Gramdogg]

I bought the UD Anzu RDA a couple of days ago, leaks like a mf if you overdrip by 0.0001 ml, or over the airflow holes.


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That came out the same day as the EZ or close to it lol.

 

[BrotherBob]

I bought the UD Anzu RDA a couple of days ago, leaks like a mf if you overdrip by 0.0001 ml, or over the airflow holes.

Welcome and glad you joined.
Anzu looks like a deep well RDA, I see your point with getting juice in the air holes. I use deep well RDA's (Magma, Origen V1 & V3 ). With the Magma, I build a single coil and plugged the air hole in the opposing chamber. Regarding the Origen's they are built for vertical coil placement, however, I build a single horizontal which is a little more difficult build than the Magmas.
The Origen's pose no leak problems when filling (unique design).
As to portability, I added a FT anti slip ring (wide rubber band) to slide over the air holes and a cork/plug for the drip tip -- no leakage.
A commonly held opinion in the vaping community (self-proclaimed "purists" swear by dripping as the best way to vape) is that RDAs as a class produce purer and more intense flavor than any other method of vaporizing.
Might like to read:
Drip Vaping: Your Guide to Dripping e-Juice | Vape-Resource.com
2015: The Art of the Drip - A Dripping Primer | Spinfuel VAPE
(7) Information Resources for Your First RBA | E-Cigarette Forum
What is an Atomizer? E-Cig Terminology Simplified
Rebuildable Tanks Explained: RBAs vs RDAs vs RTAs vs RDTAs
Rayon wick, better flow, flavor, saturation and Nic Hit!

 

[Gramdogg]

Yeah for single coil RDA's, RDTA's are the best of both worlds, a few RTA's are very close these days though. As for rayon wicking faster, PBustardo video he tests them all and KGD actually wicked faster then rayon in multiple tests, rayon had "cleaner" flavour after a few days but not better or more flavour. I'd try Koh Gen Do if you have wicking trouble again and don't already use it. Its like the difference between kanthol and Ni80 or SS316L, some say its amazing "cleaner" and others don't notice any difference at all.

 

[TheSavior2]

Okay so for a proper closure, I decided to change to a dual coil setup of 10 wrap 3mm ID Kanthal A1 measuring at 0.45 ohms, nothing fancy. So obviously I had to wick the coils and I tried the same process described in my previous post and its working again perfectly, I think I got it down. To whoever might read this in the future, make sure the cotton pulls through the coil with a good amount of resistance indicating its a tight fit but obviously not too much resistance that the coil is moving and you're putting alot of effort for the cotton to pass through and it just gets stuck and wont budge, you have to gauge how thick the wick should be with respect to your coil's inner diameter, just trust your instincts and use common sense. Cut the leads so that its about 1 cm long to from the end of the cotton to the edge of the coil. Fluff up the cotton, then trim a bit of the top fluffy part of the cotton when its shaped like this after fluffing :

)=( , this is a 2D view of how it should look like with the cotton at the edges and the coil in the middle.

Make sure not to cut too much though, use your instincts and you'll get it right. And finally proceed to gently tug the cotton into the deck, the cotton will lay itself flat against the juice holes on its own, I used a ceramic pincher to tug the cotton cause the tips are blunt enough not to push the cotton into the holes and stuff them in, but just lay the cotton flat against the juice holes. Then prime the wick and vape on. Thanks a bunch Gramdogg for the very helpful suggestion, I was at my wit's end and almost gave up on wicking the damn thing. Hope this helps someone in the future.


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