carbon (?) buildup?

[Texaslimo]

Lisa complained of her Ithaca clone (Magoo) not tasting as good as it normally does.. so I went to go have a look see.. After draining the tank and taking the top and tank sections off, I wiped everything down and proceeded to attempt a dry burn to clean up the coils. I noticed that the only part that would glow was the lower half. A closer inspection revealed that there was a rather thick black carbon type buildup on the coils. This could be described as something you might see on your grill after use.. I scraped it off, but that did not improve the taste after reassembly. Time for new coils.

Specs:
dual 1.7Ω coils (total resistance of .9Ω) on XC-116 wicking @ one three inch piece per coil. NR-R-NR wire was premanufactured ready wire. It had been approximately one week since cleaning. 50/50 grape @~3-4ml per day.

Questions:
1. What caused the buildup and is that normal for this type of build?
2. What would be a normal cleaning cycle for this device?
3. I was thinking of using 2mm ekowool on the next build. Would that be too large of a diameter for the device?
4. If I attempt to use the automatic feeding holes by lining them up with the wicks during assembly, it floods like crazy. If I turn that option off and use only the mouthpiece for juice control then all is well. Any suggestions as to what is going wrong with the build?

Thanks ahead of time..

Rich

 

[pdib]

carbon buildup. My wife used to get that. It seems to be mostly caused by gentle little puffs vs longer more sincere ones. The coils are going to heat up and cool down the same; regardless of how much air one draws across them. Firing the button a bit longer and drawing more air generates more steam, circulating the system, if you will. She's basically cooking the sweet grape stuff onto the coils by firing them without much vaporization happening. Not to say that a sweet, grapey colored liquid isn't partly the culprit as well.

 

[StarsAndBars]

Gonna say not so much carbon as flavoring residue that wasn't vaporized. Dark juices are notorious for this. The flavoring, or even coloring will cake over the coils, then when the coils heat up again, the gunk burns. Are the heads replaceable on the ithica? (sp?), if so, I'd say clean it under hot water and then give the coils a good dry burn. If that doesn't help, just replace the head.

 

[Texaslimo]

boy am I gonna be in trouble when I explain to her that she needs more suction...

 

[Stosh]

boy am I gonna be in trouble when I explain to her that she needs more suction...

Ummm, she may need to get a bit hotter also....
A quick dry burn between fill-ups would keep the build up in check, burn it off before it gets too bad...

 

[pdib]

Some folks don't seem to mind changing their vape style, others . . . . not so much. If every now and then she took a longer draw and just blew it out instead of inhaling, that would help. (that's if my guess is accurate) Or you could just cut to the inevitable and resign yourself to frequent maintenance for sweety.