So how are others with vertical coils dealing with the wick? I've got vertical claptons in right now, wicked with the "one-wick-per-coil" layout, where each coil has its own wick, cut short at the top of the coil.
When I wicked it up the first time, the cut-short bit of wick on top of the coils started getting dark brown almost immediately. By the time I re-wicked today (2-3 days later) it was black. Like, tar black. Like the wick looked like a piece of wet black licorice. The bottom part of the wick (sitting in the juice well) was dark too, so I figured the whole wick was that black. But when I pulled it out, turns out only the wick on top was actually black, while the wick on the deck had just soaked up too-cooked juice that had dripped from the top, and the middle of the wick (covered by the actual coil) was still fairly white.
That seems to confirm what I'd been suspecting, which is that my wick was sucking up condensation from the chimney. I get crazy condensation in there, and it's all dark juice too because it just sits there getting cooked by the heat of the tank.
Are others running into this? How are you dealing with it? I wipe the condensation from the chimney everytime I refill, but it doesn't matter. I've cut my wicks much shorter on top this time, nearly flush with the coil. I had hoped that would keep it from collecting chimney condensation, but it's already visibly darker than the rest of the wick after the first 3ml.
Should I try doing the one-wick-across-two-coils technique instead? I can't see how that'd help if my problem is actually the chimney condensation though, since that'd just be even more cotton up top.
