Best cotton for single coil RTAs

[DaveP]

Never really enjoyed silica myself. wrapping wire around a wick instead of threading it thru is unknown to most, but that's the way it use to be. I much preferred a genny in those days. but when sup gave us the micro coil, I was all over it.

Silica is really fiberglass. Most of us changed to cotton many years ago because the fibers from silica are little shards of a glass material that can lodge in the lungs. That kind of ailment used to be common among heating and air conditioning contractors who didn't wear masks when installing insulation. My Dad was one of those HVAC contractors who suffered in later life from Emphysema related to installing fiberglass insulation (and smoking Camels). He also encountered Asbestos fibers in the navy in WWII where they had to stand on a scaffold and scrape paint containing asbestos off the side of his ship before repainting. He said it was a never ending job keeping a ship in good condition and they weren't given particulate protection masks back in the 1940's. His heart doctor told me my Dad had the worst set of Emphysema lungs he'd seen.

Silica wicks wetted with ejuice are probably not as bad as breathing the fibers from dry silica (like insulation), but why use silica when cotton is safer and better?

What is Silica and Why is it Dangerous?

Old thread about silica wicks.
The "dangers" of silica wicks

 

[CMD-Ky]

@tj99959

"The biggest and most common mistake is buying product after product searching for that perfect vape
instead of learning how to get that perfect vape from the products you already have."

Still the best advice on the ECF. I took the advice and started saving all that money I thought that I would save by taking up vaping.

 

[bombastinator]

Silica is really fiberglass. Most of us changed to cotton many years ago because the fibers from silica are little shards of a glass material that can lodge in the lungs. That kind of ailment used to be common among heating and air conditioning contractors who didn't wear masks when installing it. My Dad was one of those HVAC contractors who suffered in later life from Emphysema related to installing fiberglass insulation. He also encountered Asbestos fibers in the navy in WWII where they had to scrape paint containing asbestos off the side of his ship before repainting. He said it was a never ending job keeping a ship in good condition and they weren't given particulate protection masks back in the 1940's. His heart doctor told me my Dad had the worst set of Emphysema lungs he'd seen.

Silica wicks wetted with ejuice are probably not as bad as breathing the fibers from dry silica (like insulation), but why use silica when cotton is safer and better?

What is Silica and Why is it Dangerous?

Old thread about silica wicks.
The "dangers" of silica wicks

Yeah silica wicks disappeared years ago, but somehow they have come back again in pods.

 

[DaveP]

Yeah silica wicks disappeared years ago, but somehow they have come back again in pods.

That's a little sad unless there's some sort of safety mechanism like a screen that catches silica pops. A popping coil could break shards loose in the vape. That's something we don't worry about with Rayon.

We all used silica rope wick products early on back in the early days of vaping, then changed to Cotton and Rayon. One or two of my first rebuildables used silica rope, but that only lasted a short while.

 

[stols001]

I wish I had rayon balls.....

Oh wait...

Actually I like Sally's because the strands are just really easy to cut and separate and etc.

Anna

 

[DaveP]

Yeah silica wicks disappeared years ago, but somehow they have come back again in pods.

I still have a small 306 bridgeless dripper atomizer for tasting juices that uses silica rope for wicking. It was never a good indicator of what the juice would taste like in a standard RTA. It could easily be wicked with a Rayon wick. I'll have to try that.

 

[Vape1048]

One of these days Ill try rayon, but Ive gotten great results with various brands of cotton. Cotton Vacon prime is my go to because it works well and every ahop around me carries it. Heck I even have a back up package of it inmy locker at work. Have to say though, my favorite cotton has been the super soft japanese cottons. They form easily, wick as fast as I can vape, and have great flavor. For awhile I was getting cotton for free from itc vape via discount codes. Not sure if it is japanese, but it is very good cotton.

 

[DaveP]

FWIW, put your Sally's Rayon in a gallon ziplock as soon as you get it. I haven't had the problem, but some say rayon can absorb household odors (cooking, etc). The box doesn't have a plastic bag in it and the rayon is only used to wrap around a customer's neck to catch drips in a beauty shop, so they aren't critical about protecting it in the box on the shelf. A zip lock is a good way to keep it fresh and clean.

 

[DaveP]

One of these days Ill try rayon, but Ive gotten great results with various brands of cotton. Cotton Vacon prime is my go to because it works well and every ahop around me carries it. Heck I even have a back up package of it inmy locker at work. Have to say though, my favorite cotton has been the super soft japanese cottons. They form easily, wick as fast as I can vape, and have great flavor. For awhile I was getting cotton for free from itc vape via discount codes. Not sure if it is japanese, but it is very good cotton.

The problem with Cotton is that it absorbs gunk from the juice that caramelizes on the wick. When I started using rayon I was amazed at how clean the wick was when the coil was crusted over.

 

[mcduffy]

The boulder rock uses a silica wick.
Not a terrible juul-a-like.
If I could find 4mm ecowool, I'd give it a go...

I bought some 3mm braided silica that I can get a toothpick through from this seller a year ago, although shipping was free then. They have up to 6mm.
Silica Wick Rope for E-Cig Atomizer Repair Braided Stove Fire Wick 1000° | eBay

 

[tw33k]

I went from using sterile cotton balls to rayon. I've never used anything else (although early on I had a few CE4 clearos that used silica wicks...terrible) In 6 years I've gone through 2x 40' boxes of rayon and recently opened the 3lb box

 

[vapdivrr]

Silica is really fiberglass. Most of us changed to cotton many years ago because the fibers from silica are little shards of a glass material that can lodge in the lungs. That kind of ailment used to be common among heating and air conditioning contractors who didn't wear masks when installing it. My Dad was one of those HVAC contractors who suffered in later life from Emphysema related to installing fiberglass insulation (and smoking Camels). He also encountered Asbestos fibers in the navy in WWII where they had to stand on a scaffold and scrape paint containing asbestos off the side of his ship before repainting. He said it was a never ending job keeping a ship in good condition and they weren't given particulate protection masks back in the 1940's. His heart doctor told me my Dad had the worst set of Emphysema lungs he'd seen.

Silica wicks wetted with ejuice are probably not as bad as breathing the fibers from dry silica (like insulation), but why use silica when cotton is safer and better?

What is Silica and Why is it Dangerous?

Old thread about silica wicks.
The "dangers" of silica wicks

I hear you on that, it was definitely a concern alot had, including myself, but besides that, I just didnt care for it in other ways. I was doing gennys when the rtas came out and just didnt care for the flavor compared to SS mesh wicks. I did use silica for a while in a couple of GG's rta's because cotton just wasn't a thing yet and when the micro coil & cotton came about, I thought it was a huge improvement, not only comparing cotton to silica, but the entire process that micro coils gave and put it on par with a genesis atty imo. to me it was one of the biggest changes the vaping industry has ever seen.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[bombastinator]

That's a little sad unless there's some sort of safety mechanism like a screen that catches silica pops. A popping coil could break shards loose in the vape. That's something we don't worry about with Rayon.

We all used silica rope wick products early on back in the early days of vaping, then changed to Cotton and Rayon. One or two of my first rebuildables used silica rope, but that only lasted a short while.

My memory or the second reason for the switch to cellulose was the heat factor. Cellulose burns at a bit over 450f and therefore acts as something of a fuse to prevent extremely high temperature vaping which can cause the release of harmful chemicals. Silica doesn’t so it remains a danger.

I was mostly talking about silica wick as a time referent. Pin wrapping microcoils is that old.

 

[vapdivrr]

FWIW, put your Sally's Rayon in a gallon ziplock as soon as you get it. I haven't had the problem, but some say rayon can absorb household odors (cooking, etc). The box doesn't have a plastic bag in it and the rayon is only used to wrap around a customer's neck to catch drips in a beauty shop, so they aren't critical about protecting it in the box on the shelf. A zip lock is a good way to keep it fresh and clean.

My Sally's rayon box has a big plastic bag inside in which the rayon lies, I take some out then tie a knot in that plastic and is just kept in the garage...perhaps mine has the plastic because it's the 500ft box....but I agree, if the rayon is just in a box, it probably will absorb some stuff...

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[vapdivrr]

My memory or the second reason for the switch to cellulose was the heat factor. Cellulose burns at a bit over 450f and therefore acts as something of a fuse to prevent extremely high temperature vaping which can cause the release of harmful chemicals. Silica doesn’t so it remains a danger.

I was mostly talking about silica wick as a time referent. Pin wrapping microcoils is that old.

My memory of how cotton came about is much different. It was not because of the dangers of silica, but rather wattage & wick coverage.....when we used silica, one did 4 or 5 wraps of 32 & 30 gauge (coil ID averaged 2 mm, perhaps a little more) and this gave you lousy wick coverage and high resistance. With regulated mods at 15 watts, one had to use mechs for more power (specifically the reo). But with such thin wire, you couldnt really reduce resistance because you only had a few wraps on the wick in the first place. The answer was the micro coil and 28g wire, which could be made first around a mandrel and they were done at 1mm , perhaps a bit more. This gave you more wick coverage with lower resistance and more power. The problem was silica couldnt be threaded in such a small diameter, so the search began for a different wick and cotton became it. This all went down in the original reo thread and later the micro coil & cotton thread by member superxdrifter.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[bombastinator]

My memory of how cotton came about is much different. It was not because of the dangers of silica, but rather wattage & wick coverage.....when we used silica, one did 4 or 5 wraps of 32 & 30 gauge (coil ID averaged 2 mm, perhaps a little more) and this gave you lousy wick coverage and high resistance. With regulated mods at 15 watts, one had to use mechs for more power (specifically the reo). But with such thin wire, you couldnt really reduce resistance because you only had a few wraps on the wick in the first place. The answer was the micro coil and 28g wire, which could be made first around a mandrel and they were done at 1mm , perhaps a bit more. This gave you more wick coverage with lower resistance and more power. The problem was silica couldnt be threaded in such a small diameter, so the search began for a different wick and cotton became it. This all went down in the original reo thread and later the micro coil & cotton thread by member superxdrifter.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

Hmmm. Perhaps it’s a matter of which end of what pier one is standing on. I was still a carto person until right about the time the switch happened. I was buying silica wick to redo ce3s. I wasn’t anywhere near RDAs till they were all cotton

 

[DaveP]

My Sally's rayon box has a big plastic bag inside in which the rayon lies, I take some out then tie a knot in that plastic and is just kept in the garage...perhaps mine has the plastic because it's the 500ft box....but I agree, if the rayon is just in a box, it probably will absorb some stuff...

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

You are probably good for a decade or more, even if you give away some to friends! My 40ft box has lasted somewhere between 2 and 3 years and still has more than enough to see 2020 hit in January.

I get about 2 or 3 wicks from a piece of the coil about 2 1/2" long after splitting it lengthwise.

 

[Susaz]

What's the best cotton for the Vapeshell RBA for the Billet Box?

I tried several. As I said before, summer you should be wicking with more densely packed cotton. Take your pick. I love either Muji or Cotton Bacon. When the cold starts to set in use lighter eliquid and rayon. Wicks better.

 

[Susaz]

What diameter coil do you build for the Vapeshell?

My builds are quite small. 8 wrap 30ga kanthal on 2mm @ 1.83ohms running @ 7.0watts.
With that small a build in the Vapeshell, I needed the swelling/expanding of Cotton to fill the juice wells. Wasn't happy with Rayon and I too have a box of Rayon from Sally's.

Regardless, cotton or rayon, my preferred build is just a bit too small to be ideal for the Vapshell. Same can be said of the Crossbow. I gave up using the Vapeshell or Crossbow in the Billet Box.

Not only do I vape low power, I vape non-flavored 50/50 18mg. SOooo clogging and super wick speed are a non consideration. I prefer the taste of cotton over rayon. Rayon tastes chemically to me whereas cotton tastes organic. The only cotton I've tried is Muji and Cotton Bacon V2. I prefer the Cotton Bacon.

I use my small build and Cotton Bacon in a couple of Kayfun [lite] 2019's. Works flawlessly for the MTL/restricted DL tootle vaper that I am. I've tried a half dozen build decks in the Billet Box without consistent success and have given up completely on it ... for now. My Billet Boxes are relegated to running a Comfort Bridge with a 1.8ohm Nautilus coil only.

Cotton vs Rayon is not only a matter of taste, but vape style, builds, equipment and circumstance will dictate which is best for a given situation. Try both. Wicking is cheap.

My all around diameter for the Vapeshell is 3mm. Depends on taste. With that you'll rest assured you'll have enough cotton.

 

[stols001]

I am sticking to rayon. It was hard enough to learn ONE style of wicking. Also, I have NEVER wicked an atomizer with cotton where it didn't leak. Oh, that may have just been inexperience but I look at all my cotton and just think "Why bother."

Anna