Building for 3 years, still don't understand how to wick!?

[FrostyDream]

Wicking for me has always been about luck. I just keep trying until it tastes right. That sounds crazy, but here is the thing. I've tried everything I can think of. To avoid redundant advice, I'll list everything below. Any way, the first time I did a build it was dual 30g micro coils. I got a piece of organic cotton from cotton balls that was just big enough that it touched the entire inside of the coil, and small enough that it pulled out with literally no resistance. It worked perfectly the first time. Being new to dripping I burned it in a day. When I tried to rebuild again, it tastes like metal but eventually got it right. Ever since then I either get a metallic taste, or a dry cotton (not burnt) taste. I see people put super tight wick in their coils but if I try this, no matter HOW thoroughly I saturate it, the middle stays dry. I've had the best luck from using the least amount possible while still making contact with the entire inside of the coil. Now I can't even get my RDA to taste as good as my herakles prebuilt coils.

Things I've tried
-... cotton and organic cotton balls
-Super tight, super loose, everything in between
-Boiling cotton before using
-thoroughly cleaning hands and devices, boiling, dish soap, alcohol etc.
-Always ensure coils glow evenly and from inside to out
-24g and 22g kanthal macros, 28g and 30g micros, twisted 28g
-Pulsing to suck juice into wick
-Building with gloves
-Ensure coils are close to posts to avoid hot legs

I just want to get to the bottom of it so all of my builds taste right. I just don't understand!

 

[seek2]

What are you building with? Try SS. Kanthal has a funky flavor to me.

I never boiled cotton. Even though I still have flavor issues after years of building, but not due to the wick.

What kind of coils are you buiilding? For me, a skinny long coil tastes like ..... A 6 wrap around 3mm is perfect. Probably since its a more even vape. Once you start getting past 8 or 9 wraps, flavor goes down. The coil itself heats up not even, and you can taste the layers of different vape. lol.

Also, what are you vaping in? Tanks take more skilled wicking. Drippers you can just juice up.

Also, it could be mental. If you bring to a shop and let them wick it, does it taste better? Post a build.

 

[sofarsogood]

Wicking for me has always been about luck. I just keep trying until it tastes right. That sounds crazy, but here is the thing. I've tried everything I can think of. To avoid redundant advice, I'll list everything below. Any way, the first time I did a build it was dual 30g micro coils. I got a piece of organic cotton from cotton balls that was just big enough that it touched the entire inside of the coil, and small enough that it pulled out with literally no resistance. It worked perfectly the first time. Being new to dripping I burned it in a day. When I tried to rebuild again, it tastes like metal but eventually got it right. Ever since then I either get a metallic taste, or a dry cotton (not burnt) taste. I see people put super tight wick in their coils but if I try this, no matter HOW thoroughly I saturate it, the middle stays dry. I've had the best luck from using the least amount possible while still making contact with the entire inside of the coil. Now I can't even get my RDA to taste as good as my herakles prebuilt coils.

Things I've tried
-... cotton and organic cotton balls
-Super tight, super loose, everything in between
-Boiling cotton before using
-thoroughly cleaning hands and devices, boiling, dish soap, alcohol etc.
-Always ensure coils glow evenly and from inside to out
-24g and 22g kanthal macros, 28g and 30g micros, twisted 28g
-Pulsing to suck juice into wick
-Building with gloves
-Ensure coils are close to posts to avoid hot legs

I just want to get to the bottom of it so all of my builds taste right. I just don't understand!

Reducing the variables helped me. Human taste is sensitive. May be you are reacting negatively to every change because it's a change. I use one atomizer exclusively (SV rda clone) with the same wire, same resistance and wick it the same way. I get used to that and don't want any change. Taste and vaper quality seem to be best if I rewick every few days and rebuild every 2 weeks.

When I started with temp control I was sure watts control tasted better. After 6 weeks of using temp control exclusively it tasted better than watts control so I use temp control exclusively which makes the rda a lot more practical.

Most of us smoked one brand of cigarettes, one taste experience. We got used to that and avoided switching because the new taste wouldn't be as good as what we were used to.

Consider the possibility that it's all in your head.

 

[Maestro]

What kind of coils are you buiilding? For me, a skinny long coil tastes like ..... A 6 wrap around 3mm is perfect. Probably since its a more even vape. Once you start getting past 8 or 9 wraps, flavor goes down. The coil itself heats up not even, and you can taste the layers of different vape. lol.

Agreed. 6 or 7 wraps is ideal and you should adjust the gauge of the wire or the diameter of the coil, not the number of wraps. If the coil is too long, the center won't get enough juice to stay cool.

 

[ej1024]

KANTHAL GIVES ME METALLIC TASTE
THE ist herakles sob used NICHROME coils .6 ohm coils the .2ohms coils not sure...
Not sure what kind of RDA u dripping,but try
5/6 wraps on 2.5 ID 24g NICHROME or
316l SS 26g 10 wraps tight 3.0 ID
and use cotton bacon v2
YT has tons of wicking videos and it's free
GL[emoji1360]


VAPE ON[emoji36]

 

[Hitmetwice]

Switching to Rayon made Me a more successful wicker(is that a word?)

Unlike cotton it does not expand when juiced up, it contracts.

So stuffing as much into the coil as possible is key. No guessing about it, cram it in there and your golden.
Thinning the tails evenly for even wicking still requires some work however. Overall though it made the process much simpler.
Better too, had to cut my nic in half as I was getting nic sick.
YMMV. Cheers.

 

[cheech226]

what device are you using to fire the coil? if the cotton is burning maybe you're running too hot. try a tc mod or a vw device for more control. using a tc mod and rta's i've never had any wicking issues.

 

[FrostyDream]

I'm using a velocity right now, and to try and perfect my building I'm doing singles even though the air flow isn't meant for it. Maybe I need to do less wraps, I'm doing like 10 with 24g and since they are micro coils, that's a lot of area trapped in the coil with no air hitting it. Does that make sense?

The reason I don't do less wraps with the velocity is because I will have to bend the legs to fit and when I have long legs/leads it can mess with the flavor but I will try less wraps!

 

[FrostyDream]

what device are you using to fire the coil? if the cotton is burning maybe you're running too hot. try a tc mod or a vw device for more control. using a tc mod and rta's i've never had any wicking issues.

It doesn't matter what wattage. It's not a burn but either a metallic taste or a cotton taste. I'm using a smok m80, not the nicest mod but it works great in wattage mode.

 

[FrostyDream]

KANTHAL GIVES ME METALLIC TASTE
THE ist herakles sob used NICHROME coils .6 ohm coils the .2ohms coils not sure...
Not sure what kind of RDA u dripping,but try
5/6 wraps on 2.5 ID 24g NICHROME or
316l SS 26g 10 wraps tight 3.0 ID
and use cotton bacon v2
YT has tons of wicking videos and it's free
GL[emoji1360]


VAPE ON[emoji36]

If I wick like grimm green it doesn't soak juice into the middle. He makes his wick super tight which I don't understand. If I wick like him I could dump the build in a bucket of juice but the middle would still be dry. Starting to think everyone just has a bad sense of taste lol

 

[ej1024]

If I wick like grimm green it doesn't soak juice into the middle. He makes his wick super tight which I don't understand. If I wick like him I could dump the build in a bucket of juice but the middle would still be dry. Starting to think everyone just has a bad sense of taste lol

Try cotton bacon v2


VAPE ON[emoji36]

 

[FrostyDream]

I did one with 7 wraps instead of 10. I think it's an improvement. The problem now is, since there's so much space between the posts on the velocity I have to kink the legs which I'm really bad at. Not only is the leg kind of sloppy but it made my coil a little curved. I think it's making the flavor less powerful, but not bad like it was before. Will keep vaping to break it in.

I ordered a goblin mini, I think I can build that easier since the terminals are closer and won't require the bending of legs. I could get a 6 or 7 wrap on there with 24g looking flawless I bet. We'll see how that turns out.

There's a very good chance I had too many wraps causing the wick to choke too much. If I can confirm this, then thank you to those who suggested that. Also, ej1024 when I need more cotton I'll check out that cotton bacon v2. Ty.

 

[FrostyDream]

What in the world... I don't know if my mod is broken or if the coil somehow touched the cap wall, but all of a sudden it started burning. Most burnt hit I've ever had. Had to use mouth wash.

 

[FrostyDream]

Okay sorry for all the replies but maybe I should just use clearomizers forever. I really don't get it. I wick slightly tight and it tastes muted and like cotton. I wick a little looser and it tastes like metal and socks. lol I've gone through 2 bottles of expensive juice just trying to figure it out.

 

[Skeintastic]

My recommendations.
1. Larger diameters 2.5mm and above help.

2.. clean and dry. My preference is to build. Pulse and check. Then run my Atty with wire in a ultrasonic bath with a little dish soap. This improves flavor drastically. 6 minutes is enough. Rinse your atty then dry. Pulse again to verify no hot spots. Then let cool.

3. I love native wicks. To me it's economical as you can cut an inch and get two coils worth. But that's my preference.

Use enough cotton to be the inner diameter of your coil. A little more is fine for a snug fit but the inner diameter is most often enough.

4. Use a sharp tweezer and comb and fluff your ends. This expands the cotton, helps with the wicking of juice, and provides an easier to deal with tail to tuck.

5. Cut just enough to touch the bottom of your RDA. A little longer is fine but the more wick the less lliquid going to the cotton inside of your coil.

However, it reads to me like you are having g connection issues. Make sure your leads have a solid connection and there are no shorts.

Good luck

 

[Taowulf]

In my experience, the tighter the wick, if it is simply shoved through the coil, the worse it wicks. Same for too little. The only wick I want a tight fit on is a Scottish roll. And with those, I want them pretty much as tight with the coil as possible.

 

[SLIPPY_EEL]

I suppose a trick to stuffing lots of cotton in a coil is to make sure its all nice and fluffy before you even pull it through the coil. It's like if you were to compress a load of cotton and then pull it through its gonna stay compressed as it has nowhere to go and will give you dry hits followed by burnt, cotton doesn't open back up easily once compressed. When i was using cotton balls way back i would unravel the ball into a long piece and then pull strands off the side and build a little pile up of nicely puffed cotton. It's much easier nowadays what with ... pads, just peel the two outer skins of a pad and rip a piece from the side of it to fit your coil, twist the end to pull it through, no need to compress or roll the entire wick! its okay to have it snug but you still need to be able to pull the cotton back and forth through the coil without to much force and snagging.
Only trial and error will tell you how much to rip off a pad for a given coil size, at first even if you have to pull that wick back out of the coil and get a new piece it's not gonna hurt the bank, you might be able to save that piece to add to another for a future re-wick anyway.

I also think that the velocity has a deep well compared to most and your juice has a long trip from the bottom of the wick tails to your coil, this is fine on bigger 2.5id hose pipes.

I don't know what power your running at but i presume that if your using micro coils then you must be around 20w? i think 24g is way to thick for that sort of power, by the time you've finished with your pull the wire hasn't even got upto working temp, you might well get upto working temp from taking multiple pulls but then you'll take your last pull where the wick feels dry and the coil's still hot and will take to long to cool from lack of juice etcetc then next thing you know your wicks only lasted maybe half a day

 

[Taowulf]

I also cut cotton off of the pads to keep the width consistent, tearing them seems so inaccurate to me.

 

[nocigsnomore]

Try Fiber Freaks precut.

 

[Fozzy71]

Rayon FTW

I'm using a velocity right now, and to try and perfect my building I'm doing singles even though the air flow isn't meant for it. Maybe I need to do less wraps, I'm doing like 10 with 24g and since they are micro coils, that's a lot of area trapped in the coil with no air hitting it. Does that make sense?

The reason I don't do less wraps with the velocity is because I will have to bend the legs to fit and when I have long legs/leads it can mess with the flavor but I will try less wraps!

Try dual coils, fewer wraps, and space your coils. Twisting with higher gauge wire (2 x 26 or 3 x 28) may be helpful as well as they will hold their shape better when spaced.