Ceramic Wick Finally Performing Well.

[mikewill45]

I've read and seen videos of others who have had great success with a ceramic wick within a few days of building it. The was not my experience. I have the fc-2000 with the grooves in it. I did an electric hot wrap, though I must confess my hot wrapping needs some practice but it seemed to come out pretty good. At least it was tighter than the previous cold wraps I had tried. The vapor at first was anemic and stayed that way for several days. I was about to give up and go back to cott0n which does give me good results. I stayed with the ceramic though and after about eight days and several tanks full on my AGA-T2 I am finally getting some really good vapor and flavor. Hopefully as I get better with the hot wraps it won't take so long to get it up to speed. If I have to go a week each time I suspect I'll move back to cotton which is great from the first hit.

Another thing I noticed I have to do with the ceramic I didn't have to do with the cotton is to tip my tank every couple draws to keep the wick wet to prevent the hot spots near the bottom of the wick. That may be an indication it's not wrapped tight enough. Don't know.

Oh, BTW, I used nichrome 32 with a 4/5 wrap. It reads 2.7 ohms and I set my vv at 5.7. Can't go much higher and wouldn't want to as the hot spots then become a problem.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

 

[Cheechako]

How did you set up cotton on your AGA-T?

 

[vapdivrr]

it does seem that all the issues you are having is because of loose coils. i have been doing the ceramic fc-wicks for some time and find that a magnifying glass is a good tool. after every wrap i do whether it is an electric wrap or hot wrap you still need to pay attention to the top & bottom coils. because of slight expansion & contraction it takes them time to become stable where they do not move anymore. after a good wrap you may think you have a good tight coil with the naked eye but looking at it with a magnifying glass sometimes you will see small gaps. these gaps will inhibit wicking,taste, vapor, and create so called hot spots. i would reccomend kanthal 32 at the thinnest, and believe that 30g would even be better for stability. with ceramic wicks you must get a tight coil, no if ands or buts, if you dont it can take forever for those voids to fill in. in time it does come much more easy. with a good technic you can get instant results. so give some 30g a try for one and also do an electric wrap, this is done by attaching a 3 inch peice of wire, one end to your neg post, the other to the postitive post on your mod. hit the fire button to glow wire for at least 10 to 15 seconds, then let cool, repeat this about 10x's. afetr the last time disconnect the pos lead, install wick, and hand wrap wire. good luck

 

[vapdivrr]

How did you set up cotton on your AGA-T?

he is most likely refering to cotton strands around a ceramic wick. cheese cloth works real well. if you undo the cheese cloth you wind up with individual strands of cotton, take a strand approximatly 4 inches and wrap around the coiled part of the wick before you wrap the wire. this will fill in the voids between the wire & wick if you are unable to wrap a tight coil without the cotton. this will result in a ceramic wick that requires no break in period.

 

[varivapr]

Make sure you educate yourself on the safety concerns of ceramic wicks. I dont think anyone knows for sure whether they are safe to use or not and there is data that shows that some of the fragments may be small enough to become respirable. I am just anti ceramic wick for that reason and do not see the need or benefit that you cant get with another mean

 

[grainey1968]

it does seem that all the issues you are having is because of loose coils. i have been doing the ceramic fc-wicks for some time and find that a magnifying glass is a good tool. after every wrap i do whether it is an electric wrap or hot wrap you still need to pay attention to the top & bottom coils. because of slight expansion & contraction it takes them time to become stable where they do not move anymore. after a good wrap you may think you have a good tight coil with the naked eye but looking at it with a magnifying glass sometimes you will see small gaps. these gaps will inhibit wicking,taste, vapor, and create so called hot spots. i would reccomend kanthal 32 at the thinnest, and believe that 30g would even be better for stability. with ceramic wicks you must get a tight coil, no if ands or buts, if you dont it can take forever for those voids to fill in. in time it does come much more easy. with a good technic you can get instant results. so give some 30g a try for one and also do an electric wrap, this is done by attaching a 3 inch peice of wire, one end to your neg post, the other to the postitive post on your mod. hit the fire button to glow wire for at least 10 to 15 seconds, then let cool, repeat this about 10x's. afetr the last time disconnect the pos lead, install wick, and hand wrap wire. good luck

Couldn't agree more. My best setup is still with 30g kanthal hot wrapped. Took me a lot of practice and 1 broken FC wick to get it right. Take your time when wrapping your coil (slow, steady and even pressure) and the result is definitely worth it. The smoothness of the vape is fantastic compared to SS mesh IMHO.

 

[mikewill45]

How did you set up cotton on your AGA-T?

I just wrap the wire around the cotton like I would do using my Phoenix. The only different is that I leave about 1.25 inch of wick on each side of the wire. I remove one of the screws form the AGA for one hole and use the hole meant for SS mesh or ceramic as the other. I take the AGA apart and pull the cotton through the holes, put it back together, fill it and vape away. It is a little bit of a pain but it vapes well from the first draw. I will say though that the more my ceramic breaks in the more I like it. If I can just get the wrap down as someone suggested in this thread I believe I'll have it made.

 

[mikewill45]

it does seem that all the issues you are having is because of loose coils. i have been doing the ceramic fc-wicks for some time and find that a magnifying glass is a good tool. after every wrap i do whether it is an electric wrap or hot wrap you still need to pay attention to the top & bottom coils. because of slight expansion & contraction it takes them time to become stable where they do not move anymore. after a good wrap you may think you have a good tight coil with the naked eye but looking at it with a magnifying glass sometimes you will see small gaps. these gaps will inhibit wicking,taste, vapor, and create so called hot spots. i would reccomend kanthal 32 at the thinnest, and believe that 30g would even be better for stability. with ceramic wicks you must get a tight coil, no if ands or buts, if you dont it can take forever for those voids to fill in. in time it does come much more easy. with a good technic you can get instant results. so give some 30g a try for one and also do an electric wrap, this is done by attaching a 3 inch peice of wire, one end to your neg post, the other to the postitive post on your mod. hit the fire button to glow wire for at least 10 to 15 seconds, then let cool, repeat this about 10x's. afetr the last time disconnect the pos lead, install wick, and hand wrap wire. good luck

Thanks for your advice. The tightness of the wrap was my guess why I'm having problems and your post has gone a ways in confirming that. I'll give your method a try the next time I have to wrap one and also may get some of that 30g you recommend as my ohms are higher than I prefer with the 32g.

 

[mikewill45]

Make sure you educate yourself on the safety concerns of ceramic wicks. I dont think anyone knows for sure whether they are safe to use or not and there is data that shows that some of the fragments may be small enough to become respirable. I am just anti ceramic wick for that reason and do not see the need or benefit that you cant get with another mean

Thanks for your concern however, it seems that you can find someone that has a problem with any wicking that we are attempting to use. I quit using silica because of the concerns over it. I switched to SS but then read about some possible problems with it so I switched to ceramic. All along I have used cotton at times and as of yet haven't read any health concerns about it as long as its organic which I have troubles finding. What's a vaper to do?

 

[cdmcfud]

cotton burns that means tar. same as cigs. in estimation.

 

[mikewill45]

cotton burns that means tar. same as cigs. in estimation.

That seems unlikely since candles with pure cotton wicks have been around for a long time and are considered safe to burn. Also, a candle will go through a wick faster than you will using it in an ecig as in an ecig the same piece of cotton can be used for a couple of weeks where a candle will burn through it much quicker if being used daily.

 

[cdmcfud]

carbon monoxide is a bi product of burning materials such as wood, cotton, anything organic. and that produces tar.

I hope your not inhaling candles like you would e-cig.

 

[vapdivrr]

Make sure you educate yourself on the safety concerns of ceramic wicks. I dont think anyone knows for sure whether they are safe to use or not and there is data that shows that some of the fragments may be small enough to become respirable. I am just anti ceramic wick for that reason and do not see the need or benefit that you cant get with another mean

as for the fish wicks or any of the stones that they sell, that are not specifically intended for vaping I am unsure of these possible concerns, but the ceramic wicks, like the fc-2000 for example are designed solely for vaping and are as safe as anything out there. they are 100 percent aluminia oxide. I have been vaping these for quite a while and have found zero residue in the tank, so I know for sure there is no break down in the actual wick, unlike when I was vaping ss, which from time to time would leave some black specs as a residue in the tank. also these wicks are fired to over 2000 degrees in the manufacturing process. these wicks are as safe as it gets in this thing we call vaping. its funny how we all have smoked cigarettes for many many years, some drink alcohol, eat processed and chemically sprayed foods, coffee's, soda's, etc, lets face it everything we probably do or eat is not really healthy. who knows, the e- liquids we vape are probably not that healthy, the heated up kanthal wire's that we wrap our wicks with have possible issues as well. to be worried about a specific wick imo, is like having safety concerns about the materials in a specific sky diving helmet.

 

[Cheechako]

as for the fish wicks or any of the stones that they sell, that are not specifically intended for vaping I am unsure of these possible concerns, but the ceramic wicks, like the fc-2000 for example are designed solely for vaping and are as safe as anything out there. they are 100 percent aluminia oxide. I have been vaping these for quite a while and have found zero residue in the tank, so I know for sure there is no break down in the actual wick, unlike when I was vaping ss, which from time to time would leave some black specs as a residue in the tank. also these wicks are fired to over 2000 degrees in the manufacturing process. these wicks are as safe as it gets in this thing we call vaping. its funny how we all have smoked cigarettes for many many years, some drink alcohol, eat processed and chemically sprayed foods, coffee's, soda's, etc, lets face it everything we probably do or eat is not really healthy. who knows, the e- liquids we vape are probably not that healthy, the heated up kanthal wire's that we wrap our wicks with have possible issues as well. to be worried about a specific wick imo, is like having safety concerns about the materials in a specific sky diving helmet.

I tend to agree with your statement, funny how health concious we have gotten after smoking for years...hard to imagine much of anything being as harmful as those coffin nails we used to light up!

 

[vapdivrr]

I tend to agree with your statement, funny how health concious we have gotten after smoking for years...hard to imagine much of anything being as harmful as those coffin nails we used to light up!

very true. don't get me wrong we still shouldn't just vape anything under the sun thinking that nothing is wrong with it but a ceramic wick specifically made for vaping is not on the top of the list.

 

[mikewill45]

very true. don't get me wrong we still shouldn't just vape anything under the sun thinking that nothing is wrong with it but a ceramic wick specifically made for vaping is not on the top of the list.

But then again a cigarette is specifically made for smoking. No, I'm not getting down on your ceramic as obviously from this post I use one also and am beginning to really like it. But the fact that it was made for vaping doesn't necessarily make it the healthest alternative.

 

[vapdivrr]

But then again a cigarette is specifically made for smoking. No, I'm not getting down on your ceramic as obviously from this post I use one also and am beginning to really like it. But the fact that it was made for vaping doesn't necessarily make it the healthest alternative.

I like that, "then again a cigarette is specifically made for smoking" very true. after this post I thought maybe the concerns were with the ceramic cloth wicks and not with the porous ceramic wicks, I know sometimes with people are mentioning ceramic wicks they don't specify what ones they are. I vape the porous ceramic wicks and not the Nextel types, which I don't know much about. I do however feel that a ceramic wick manufactured for vaping is better then just buying a stone at a pet store, and I know for sure of the make up of fc-wicks, and can assure you that they are as safe or safer then any other wicking material on the market today.

 

[mikewill45]

I like that, "then again a cigarette is specifically made for smoking" very true. after this post I thought maybe the concerns were with the ceramic cloth wicks and not with the porous ceramic wicks, I know sometimes with people are mentioning ceramic wicks they don't specify what ones they are. I vape the porous ceramic wicks and not the Nextel types, which I don't know much about. I do however feel that a ceramic wick manufactured for vaping is better then just buying a stone at a pet store, and I know for sure of the make up of fc-wicks, and can assure you that they are as safe or safer then any other wicking material on the market today.

Thanks for your response and I hope you are right about the fc-2000. I believe you use the RSST. Can you tell me what length ceramic is needed for that? I purchased the 1.75 length and they don't fit in my AGA-T2. I've been wanting to get another RBA and would like one the 1.75 will fit in.

 

[vapdivrr]

Thanks for your response and I hope you are right about the fc-2000. I believe you use the RSST. Can you tell me what length ceramic is needed for that? I purchased the 1.75 length and they don't fit in my AGA-T2. I've been wanting to get another RBA and would like one the 1.75 will fit in.

the only genny I believe that will fit the 1.75 size is the ac-9. I do own an rsst, aga, and ac-9 and did, out of all those the ac-9 is the only one that accomadates that size. but they are so easily trimmed, if you only have that size just take either a nail clippers or wire cutters or wire strippers and clip it down some. also even if the wick is a little short in the device it doesn't matter that much. although I have an ac-9 I still use an 1.5 wick. sometimes I cannot get the 1.75 size so I use the 1.5 size. the rsst actually uses a slightly smaller size then 1.5, I think it is possible to fit the 1.5 size but I clip it slightly. out of all my gennys the rsst seems to be the shallowest in depth and if you do use and not trim the wick you have to be careful when taking off the top cap, but like I said its not a problem trimming these wicks slightly. good luck.

 

[dyzfnctional]

So hot wrap can only be done by a torch? Any other way? I tried cold wraps but results aren't good and ready to give up