Black sludge? Help please!

[Baums]

Ok so in summary, I have a Russian 91, I use microcoil and cotton wick. I purchase my flavors from Flavor West. I have used about 10-12 different flavors with great success.

Problem: The red white and blue flavor, which I very much enjoy, is gunking up my coil in less than 24 hours. I lose the draw, the normally clear color is brown, and I know at that point. Take it apart and the cotton is basically ALL black. The coil has so much gunk on it that when I dry burn it catches on fire momentarily.

What gives here? This is the only flavor I am getting this with. Am I doing something that would be contributing to this? Are some juices more prone to this? Thanks for your help.

 

[Stacy1]

Couple of questions. What is the red white and blue flavor? Is it a tobacco, a desert? If its a diy flavor, what percentage are you mixing at and what wattage are you vaping it at?

 

[Baums]

Red white and blue is strawberry, star fruit and blueberry mix. I mix it at 15% and vape at around 7-7.5 W

 

[Cullin Kin]

That's quite a bit of flavoring. Yes, some flavorings are more prone to gunking up the coils, however, I wouldn't expect it to occur with a fruit Vape like that. Usually it's with more dessert and tobacco flavors, especially NET's. It's more than likely just the flavoring. The Russian compounds the problem too, it's kind of like I used to Vape this juice that if I dripped it before the wicks were to the point of dry burning, it would gunk that much faster. Because the Russian never allows the wicks to go dry (hopefully) it compounds the gunking process. I've never used that flavor though so hopefully someone else who has used it will come through.

 

[Boletus]

What PG/VG ratio are you using, and have you tried thinning it with Distilled Water?

 

[Baums]

What PG/VG ratio are you using, and have you tried thinning it with Distilled Water?

I am using it at 65/35 pg/vg

 

[nyiddle]

Ok so in summary, I have a Russian 91, I use microcoil and cotton wick. I purchase my flavors from Flavor West. I have used about 10-12 different flavors with great success.

Problem: The red white and blue flavor, which I very much enjoy, is gunking up my coil in less than 24 hours. I lose the draw, the normally clear color is brown, and I know at that point. Take it apart and the cotton is basically ALL black. The coil has so much gunk on it that when I dry burn it catches on fire momentarily.

What gives here? This is the only flavor I am getting this with. Am I doing something that would be contributing to this? Are some juices more prone to this? Thanks for your help.

I've read that the sweeter the juice, the more gunk ends up building up on your coils/wicks. Also, when you say you're dry-burning, I hope/assume you're just talking about the coils. You can't dry-burn cotton wicks.

How sweet is this juice? Sweeter than most? Any common juice you can compare it to (Nicoticket, MtBakerVapor, a popular company)?

Most fruit vapes in my experience leave little to no gunk on the coils/cotton. But I have experienced some exceptions to this. Also the Russian certainly compounds the problem. I've noticed in tanks, when juice simply sits on the coils all the time, they get gunkier much quicker. On an RDA where you're likely to vape till cotton is dry before putting your mod back in your pocket, the gunk takes a bit longer to build up. At least.. In my experience.

 

[Baums]

I've read that the sweeter the juice, the more gunk ends up building up on your coils/wicks. Also, when you say you're dry-burning, I hope/assume you're just talking about the coils. You can't dry-burn cotton wicks.

How sweet is this juice? Sweeter than most? Any common juice you can compare it to (Nicoticket, MtBakerVapor, a popular company)?

Most fruit vapes in my experience leave little to no gunk on the coils/cotton. But I have experienced some exceptions to this. Also the Russian certainly compounds the problem. I've noticed in tanks, when juice simply sits on the coils all the time, they get gunkier much quicker. On an RDA where you're likely to vape till cotton is dry before putting your mod back in your pocket, the gunk takes a bit longer to build up. At least.. In my experience.

Yes I am talking about a dry burn with the cotton out.

It is fairly sweet. MBV I believe gets their flavors from FW so I guess I would compare it to the fruits from there?

 

[Baums]

This is literally what my wick looks like after about 24 hours.

 

[dannyv45]

The sweeter the juice the faster it will gunk up coils. Try thinning the mix or using less flavoring. I have a few of those types of mixes and find myself having to rewick more often. But if it only last 24 hours then your likely over flavoring. Lowering voltage can also help. I also use kayfun's

 

[Aheadatime]

Sometimes there's not much you can do about it. You can always lower the flavor %, but if that ruins the flavor for you, then you just sort of have to deal with it. Some flavorings are just absolute terror on coils. RDA's are easier to take apart and rewick than kayfuns imo, so perhaps you should only drip when you feel like vaping that particular flavor.

Alternatively, you could try to find each of these flavorings on their own. Find a good strawberry, starfruit, and blueberry that vape clean and make your own red, white, and blue. I've heard good things about Cap Sweet Strawberry, TFA Strawberry Ripe, FW Blueberry, FA Bilberry, and Inawera Blueberry. Never heard anything about starfruit though.

 

[Stacy1]

I've never had a fruit vape gunk a coil that bad that fast. Maybe try making some small 5ml samples of each of those flavors on their own if you have them, and see if you can anrrow it down to which flavoring it is. There is a chance you just got a bad batch. I've got vanilla custard/ tobacco mixes with more flavoring than that, and it is a coil gunker, but your pic looks pretty bad. I think something is off. My fruits usually burn pretty clean. Especially at that low wattage

 

[Mr.Mann]

This is literally what my wick looks like after about 24 hours. View attachment 391873

Wow. Just wow. Whatever the problem is, if you have only experienced that level of madness with that flavor I would just stop using it and find an alternative -- or at least until you can figure out what is wrong. There is no way in hell that is something you should vape. Even with the gunkiest NETs I have vaped, I have never seen something like that, and in less than 24 hrs? No bueno!

 

[JD1]

I'm guessing that at least one of those flavors has a natural sweetener (fructose) in it. TFA's caramel (original) has some sort of sweetener that will gunk the coils really fast. Also, I tried to use some McCormick vanilla in a mix once and it gunked the coils really quick. It had some kind of natural sweetener in it. Made my coils look like the one in the picture.

 

[Alien Traveler]

I agree that you may have too much sugars in a juice, they easily caramelize and gunk coils. However usually gunk is not spread evenly throughout the wicks, it is concentrated in/around coil. So, may be in addiction to sugars you have some strong coloring in a juice which stains coils. I'd throw away such a juice.

 

[Baums]

I'm guessing that at least one of those flavors has a natural sweetener (fructose) in it. TFA's caramel (original) has some sort of sweetener that will gunk the coils really fast. Also, I tried to use some McCormick vanilla in a mix once and it gunked the coils really quick. It had some kind of natural sweetener in it. Made my coils look like the one in the picture.

This is what I am thinking. It is pretty darn sweet and I have actually wondered this exact thing before it even gave me problems.

I agree that you may have too much sugars in a juice, they easily caramelize and gunk coils. However usually gunk is not spread evenly throughout the wicks, it is concentrated in/around coil. So, may be in addiction to sugars you have some strong coloring in a juice which stains coils. I'd throw away such a juice.

That is the weird thing. This juice, at least when looking at it, is pretty darn clear. Well that is until it gets discolored in the process of the sludge takeover.