Another wicking problem thread. Help

[Sweeris]

Hi all, It's been awhile since I posted here but I've been having some problems with wicking lately.

It's been a hit and miss (mostly misses) when I try to rewick my RTA/RDTA. I am getting partial dry hits with muted flavor. Tried different amount of cotton in the coils from very tight(almost moved the coils) to almost no resistance when pulling the wick through the coil.

I used 3mm 24awg 9 wraps spaced coil 316L 0.6 ohm in a Avocado 24 bottom airflow. 50/50 pg/vg 3mg nic between 45-65 watts.

I tried different wicking techniques (pancake and scottish) with other tanks before trying the avocado, I get same result.

I am thinking of changing different brands of cotton. At the moment I am just using Japanese organic cotton dont know what brand. I will try the organic cotton included in the coil master diy kit v3.

I'm probably missing something obvious as I have read lots of info and watched countless youtube videos. I still havnt been able to wick properly. I dry burn my coil before every rewick and clean hands when rewickng.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Izan]

Lower your Watts.

 

[wheelie]

Not sure about your troubles but I have found when coils get used up their is nothing can be done to wick them. Change out coil and BOOM, back in business. I have had coils go bad after as few as 3 dryburns and have some go on for months. Ohms do not change when wire no longer heats the same way. This has been my experience. CHEERS!

 

[OldIronCheeks]

Lower your wattage and make sure you have enough room for your wick to expand.

If you're wick is too tight - as you have described with your wicks "almost mov[ing] the coils" - the juice will take longer to wick up to the center of the coil as well as the expanded cotton could cause slight changes in coil alignment, leading to a hot spot. Just leave makes sure the wick is snug and has little play, but not too tight or too loose and fine-tune your wattage.

Good luck and let us know what worked out for you!

 

[Sweeris]

Thanks for all the advice.

I tried lowering the power to between 20-35watts. There was still a very small amount of partial dry hit but if I go lower than 20watts there's hardly any vapour and no taste. I found the best vape I got was at 27watts and closed the air holes by half but it still wasnt the flavor I was after. I noticed the cotton was wicking very slowly.

I was looking for warm flavorful vape. I dont care much about how much cloud I get. I decided to rebuild. Built a dual spaced coil 24g 3mm 7 wraps 316L 0.16ohm on avocado 24 bottom air flow. I vape at between 45 and 60W and get a nice warm vape. The flavor is just ok. I'm still after more flavor. I get some very small pops but I think I might have put in too little cotton this time around. I put in a 4mm strip of cotton with the compacted sides peeled off. There's some resistance when pulling cotton through the coil.

I am still experimenting with airflow control. I havnt quite grasp that concept yet.

Is there a guideline on how much power I should be using. I read a few posts about power but all I got was trial and error on what works best.

 

[OldIronCheeks]

Thanks for all the advice.

I tried lowering the power to between 20-35watts. There was still a very small amount of partial dry hit but if I go lower than 20watts there's hardly any vapour and no taste. I found the best vape I got was at 27watts and closed the air holes by half but it still wasnt the flavor I was after. I noticed the cotton was wicking very slowly.

I was looking for warm flavorful vape. I dont care much about how much cloud I get. I decided to rebuild. Built a dual spaced coil 24g 3mm 7 wraps 316L 0.16ohm on avocado 24 bottom air flow. I vape at between 45 and 60W and get a nice warm vape. The flavor is just ok. I'm still after more flavor. I get some very small pops but I think I might have put in too little cotton this time around. I put in a 4mm strip of cotton with the compacted sides peeled off. There's some resistance when pulling cotton through the coil.

I am still experimenting with airflow control. I havnt quite grasp that concept yet.

Is there a guideline on how much power I should be using. I read a few posts about power but all I got was trial and error on what works best.

Yes, trial and error is what works. In my opinion, the guideline I follow is finding what works best for you whilst maintaining safety when vaping. That's just me.

 

[Darth Omerta]

50W sounds about right for heat flux on a .6 ohm build(single coil) for SS 316L. Im going to guess that the wick is too tight and potentially a "dead" coil. If your sweet spot was at 45-65W and then all of a sudden it stops working on the same build then its likely due to wicking or dead coil.

Your wick should slide through the coils giving some resistance when pulled but not enough to move the coils out of place. Ive never been a big fan of spaced coils but thats just me.

Hope you get it figured out!

 

[Sweeris]

Update. I might have figured out what works for me.

After a number of trail and errors building and rewicking. I have found what works. I built spaced 6 wraps 3mm 26ga KA1 dual parallel in the troll rta 0.2ohm 60-70w. Using scotish roll wicking. Worked out great. Rewicked it a couple of times and still working great. I had to try and measure how much cotton im using so I get wicking as consistant as possible.

As a side note this build drinks juice. I get good warm flavour and vapour. First time I got this build wicking properly I saw my juice disappear in under 10 minutes.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Njsm]

For future builds on any tank. Always make sure your coils arnt too big/long for the airflow slots/holes. This causes the wicks to heat unevenly and the wire usually ends up burning the wick on the outside of the coil and not in the center of the coil. This sounds like it was your issue.

I used to try n cram the biggest baddest coils i could make in to everything i bought when i first started building. Usually with a poor result.

Happy vaping!