Hey guys, I've been experimenting with the Smokin' Crow Hemp Wicked Clearomizer from Mountain Vapors, and while the big news is that without a doubt, I love hemp over silica (the dry hits are so extraordinarily tolerable compared to silica, and hemp really seems to recover the taste if it does burn a little), but the big, big problem is still this - even with hemp, I'm getting so many dry hits it's ridiculous, even my absolute thinnest juice is not performing anywhere near optimally (though it proves to wick better than the rest).
Now, with inspecting the coils that are re-built (I say this because the heads seem to be literally rebuilt - Smokin Crow seems manufacturer them with regular silica wicks, and the owner of Mountain Vapors seems to rebuild them), and I'm seeing a lot of issues that to me, appear to be the same issues with any other heads that are generally inspectable. For these heads (and virtually any other CE5 head), to me, the coils simply seem wrapped too tightly, combined with metal slots in the head that may not be big enough for juice to properly soak into the center of the wick, combined with this "heat guard" white material that I see no use for other than possibly making the vapor taste nasty (the coils are usually so far away from the metal that I don't see how the heat from them would really do anything other than making the tank a little warm...)
With doing some tests, such as dripping juice onto the wicks coming out of the head (using a dry head) and seeing how long it takes to flow into the center, it always seems to take forever with these types of heads, and even when it gets good and soaked, the moisture level of the wick underneath the coil always seems moist at best - it's never a gooped up, almost-dripping fluid fest that I see with a lot of rebuildables. While the slots in the metal head may pose an issue when the tank is assembled, I'm doing this test with the rubber cap off, and these particular heads having fully cut out slots when the rubber cap is off, so that isn't the issue initially. The next guess is that the white heat material, which seems to really present even "another" handicap for juice to flow to the center wick, may be slowing down juice flow.
However, the biggest thing I see is simply that the coils appear way too tight. These particular heads have like 7 individual strands concerning the wick, and yet those 7 strands (each bigger than diameter of "thread") are crowded into the coil and compressed all together to form a thickness of a piece of "yarn". How the juice really even wicks into this well is beyond me. Secondly, it looks as though the coil is tightly compressing these wicks - it looks as though the wicks themselves were used as a base to wrap the coil, rather than the coil being wrapped say with a crochet needle/coffee straw/toothpick/something and the wicks, allowing for the wicks to have room in the end to swell and absorb plenty of liquid to the point the liquid is sort of building up and soaking on the coils themselves.
Thirdly, a top coil design has no reason to make the slots, seals, and such "tight", as unless someone is storing the thing upside down (which I never do), then juice leaking into the head isn't really an issue, as these wicks can "swell" enough to take a ton of extra juice (especially if the juice is thick), and would, even with a gaping slot, catch enough liquid on our "twirls and swirls" to prevent any major leakage. This probably wouldn't be good for traveling and storing sideways or upside down, but for me, I simply want a working vape and I'd sacrifice anything just to have a system that really wicks in any sort of way.
Now, all this applies to normal heads as well, as I've done the same inspections and tests on those, yet I just can't even vape them because dry silica tastes so horrid to me - the hemp is really the only thing I can actually test so far without puking. Just, the dry hits are there, and these things just aren't wicking well. My recent experience with the iClear 30 was probably the worst wicking experience in any test I've done (Aspire, Protank II, ect ect all wicked slightly better) yet even on those devices, slightly dry wicks have given anything from off to horrid tastes. I can't really win with this and the only thing I can point it to is wicks that are dry to the point that, though generally moist, seem to dry up the second the battery is fired and singe from there.
I mean, if I were to rebuild a coil, it would only make sense to use something other than the wick itself to wrap the coil - something like a big plastic crochet needle and the wicks, so that the coil is quite loose and the wicks just sort of swell and sit in it; in devices that use wicks which have multiple strands, they're using so many strands that the wicks would fill up a coil that was virtually wrapped around a big drinking straw. Compressing all the strands down to the diameter of a piece of yarn, or smaller, just sort of bumfuzzles me as to how these things could possibly wick correctly, and the results don't show anything better. Sadly, the Smokin Crow heads (which, for anyone who doubts my methods, even the owner fessed up to issues with them once I bought it... ) were sort of my last resort in the non-rebuildable world, and from here on out, I guess my choices will be either take up rebuilding or quit vaping.
Has anyone here had any alike problems with wicking and CE5 type models or top feeders (or even bottom feeders)? I just seem to really see a lot of issues with factory-made coils, and my results aren't getting better. I am glad that many seem to get great results with such devices, but at the end of the day, something is just giving me a taste of constant dry silica or hemp, and it could merely be that my tongue is tremendously more sensitive to it than the tongues of others, but it's there, and I only seem to get a vape I enjoy when I vape a device where I can sit there and see that the wick is obviously soaked out the wazoo (for example, the first hit of a device that's been sitting there for days...) I just wish there was something I could do to solve this though, as no tricks seem to work, and rebuilding will be a major battle for me unless I happen to meet a kind stranger who could possibly build them for me and get me started.
I mean, when I look at folks' self-built heads, one type I see predominantly in the vaping world is the type where the coil is pre-wrapped around some sort of round thing (might as well be a pen for how big the coil wrap tends to look) and folks just seem to run a ton of cotton through it, and it just sits in there - half of the time not even filling up the coil. No spacing, none of that, just a coil "tube" of sorts. It's not the only style out there, but I sure doubt this style has any problems with wicking. And even with the general, normal rebuilt coils, like someone rebuiding a Protank head, they never seem that "tight" when it comes to a user who's wrapping because they really care about their own vape - it seems to be a goal in the rebuildable community to wrap things generally a little loose. This seems to give an absolute ton of vapor and wicking ability right off the bat, even for crazy ohm'd coils like 1.2 and such - the tank systems really have no reason that juice would simply be being delivered to the outer wicks any better.
At the end of the day, surely I'm not that wrong when it comes to assuming cotton isn't the only thing making rebuildables that much better. It would seem to require only simple manufacturing changes to get our simple little $10 devices to work and wick like a pro. But why isn't this done? Why am I having such extreme problems with wicking? I twirl, I prime, I drip, I pre-puff, I let it sit, I vape at 3.3V's, I do everything possible, and with my tests, I can't point to anything other than pre-built devices have coils that are simply wrapped way too tight.
Now, with inspecting the coils that are re-built (I say this because the heads seem to be literally rebuilt - Smokin Crow seems manufacturer them with regular silica wicks, and the owner of Mountain Vapors seems to rebuild them), and I'm seeing a lot of issues that to me, appear to be the same issues with any other heads that are generally inspectable. For these heads (and virtually any other CE5 head), to me, the coils simply seem wrapped too tightly, combined with metal slots in the head that may not be big enough for juice to properly soak into the center of the wick, combined with this "heat guard" white material that I see no use for other than possibly making the vapor taste nasty (the coils are usually so far away from the metal that I don't see how the heat from them would really do anything other than making the tank a little warm...)
With doing some tests, such as dripping juice onto the wicks coming out of the head (using a dry head) and seeing how long it takes to flow into the center, it always seems to take forever with these types of heads, and even when it gets good and soaked, the moisture level of the wick underneath the coil always seems moist at best - it's never a gooped up, almost-dripping fluid fest that I see with a lot of rebuildables. While the slots in the metal head may pose an issue when the tank is assembled, I'm doing this test with the rubber cap off, and these particular heads having fully cut out slots when the rubber cap is off, so that isn't the issue initially. The next guess is that the white heat material, which seems to really present even "another" handicap for juice to flow to the center wick, may be slowing down juice flow.
However, the biggest thing I see is simply that the coils appear way too tight. These particular heads have like 7 individual strands concerning the wick, and yet those 7 strands (each bigger than diameter of "thread") are crowded into the coil and compressed all together to form a thickness of a piece of "yarn". How the juice really even wicks into this well is beyond me. Secondly, it looks as though the coil is tightly compressing these wicks - it looks as though the wicks themselves were used as a base to wrap the coil, rather than the coil being wrapped say with a crochet needle/coffee straw/toothpick/something and the wicks, allowing for the wicks to have room in the end to swell and absorb plenty of liquid to the point the liquid is sort of building up and soaking on the coils themselves.
Thirdly, a top coil design has no reason to make the slots, seals, and such "tight", as unless someone is storing the thing upside down (which I never do), then juice leaking into the head isn't really an issue, as these wicks can "swell" enough to take a ton of extra juice (especially if the juice is thick), and would, even with a gaping slot, catch enough liquid on our "twirls and swirls" to prevent any major leakage. This probably wouldn't be good for traveling and storing sideways or upside down, but for me, I simply want a working vape and I'd sacrifice anything just to have a system that really wicks in any sort of way.
Now, all this applies to normal heads as well, as I've done the same inspections and tests on those, yet I just can't even vape them because dry silica tastes so horrid to me - the hemp is really the only thing I can actually test so far without puking. Just, the dry hits are there, and these things just aren't wicking well. My recent experience with the iClear 30 was probably the worst wicking experience in any test I've done (Aspire, Protank II, ect ect all wicked slightly better) yet even on those devices, slightly dry wicks have given anything from off to horrid tastes. I can't really win with this and the only thing I can point it to is wicks that are dry to the point that, though generally moist, seem to dry up the second the battery is fired and singe from there.
I mean, if I were to rebuild a coil, it would only make sense to use something other than the wick itself to wrap the coil - something like a big plastic crochet needle and the wicks, so that the coil is quite loose and the wicks just sort of swell and sit in it; in devices that use wicks which have multiple strands, they're using so many strands that the wicks would fill up a coil that was virtually wrapped around a big drinking straw. Compressing all the strands down to the diameter of a piece of yarn, or smaller, just sort of bumfuzzles me as to how these things could possibly wick correctly, and the results don't show anything better. Sadly, the Smokin Crow heads (which, for anyone who doubts my methods, even the owner fessed up to issues with them once I bought it... ) were sort of my last resort in the non-rebuildable world, and from here on out, I guess my choices will be either take up rebuilding or quit vaping.
Has anyone here had any alike problems with wicking and CE5 type models or top feeders (or even bottom feeders)? I just seem to really see a lot of issues with factory-made coils, and my results aren't getting better. I am glad that many seem to get great results with such devices, but at the end of the day, something is just giving me a taste of constant dry silica or hemp, and it could merely be that my tongue is tremendously more sensitive to it than the tongues of others, but it's there, and I only seem to get a vape I enjoy when I vape a device where I can sit there and see that the wick is obviously soaked out the wazoo (for example, the first hit of a device that's been sitting there for days...) I just wish there was something I could do to solve this though, as no tricks seem to work, and rebuilding will be a major battle for me unless I happen to meet a kind stranger who could possibly build them for me and get me started.
I mean, when I look at folks' self-built heads, one type I see predominantly in the vaping world is the type where the coil is pre-wrapped around some sort of round thing (might as well be a pen for how big the coil wrap tends to look) and folks just seem to run a ton of cotton through it, and it just sits in there - half of the time not even filling up the coil. No spacing, none of that, just a coil "tube" of sorts. It's not the only style out there, but I sure doubt this style has any problems with wicking. And even with the general, normal rebuilt coils, like someone rebuiding a Protank head, they never seem that "tight" when it comes to a user who's wrapping because they really care about their own vape - it seems to be a goal in the rebuildable community to wrap things generally a little loose. This seems to give an absolute ton of vapor and wicking ability right off the bat, even for crazy ohm'd coils like 1.2 and such - the tank systems really have no reason that juice would simply be being delivered to the outer wicks any better.
At the end of the day, surely I'm not that wrong when it comes to assuming cotton isn't the only thing making rebuildables that much better. It would seem to require only simple manufacturing changes to get our simple little $10 devices to work and wick like a pro. But why isn't this done? Why am I having such extreme problems with wicking? I twirl, I prime, I drip, I pre-puff, I let it sit, I vape at 3.3V's, I do everything possible, and with my tests, I can't point to anything other than pre-built devices have coils that are simply wrapped way too tight.
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