This is reposted wall-o-text from the new members forum, which was the only place I could post, but it really belongs here, I think? Adding to the info below, I've tried also w/ short ekowool and silica wicks just dipping into the tank, and w/ the ekowool and silica, I'm making sure to not choke the wicks; until they really gunk to the coils, they can be easily slid up and down in the coil. And not that I can imagine it mattering, but the primary genny in use is a richman rba, with the silica post drilled out and converted into a second wick hole, currently using it as a double coil / double wick setup. I've edited the text below since I'm pretty sure the flat kanthal I have is 5mm, not 6mm as I originally wrote. And the mod is a roller, fwiw. Anyway, I hope I'm not violating forum law by reposting it here? Maybe I should be PM'ing a moderator to move the original thread (one post, buried deep) here instead? If so, sorry. Anyway, help!
Original text follows.
I started thinking a bit ago that my taste buds would just end up getting overloaded by what I was vaping, and thus I'd stop tasting the flavour as strongly, and sometimes at all; I'd solve the issue by switching to a different juice, almost always in a different setup.
I'd come back to the original setup, and find it still having no taste... So I experimented; I started out on SS mesh (okay but never great), tried ceramic (seemed to affect the flavours negatively, yes I boiled & torched...), then tried silica (okay), then ekowool (great!). But eventually, no matter the setup, I'd end up in the same place; no taste after a few tanks.
So the answer was the wick getting progressively gunked. I made a build where I had extra ekowool sitting in the tank, so after a few tankfulls I could tug the wick up through the coil and snip off the gunked end; this -kind- of works. But, here's the thing: my current all-day liquid seems to be absolute murder on wicks. I have other flavours from the same vendor which don't do this - including several dark fluids - and all are the same mix, 80% VG / 20%PG. The other flavours (and all that I've tried from other vendors) don't do this, or if they do, it's too gradual a process for me to notice, given that I rebuild frequently; but this flavour (if curious, it's 2 parts coffee caramel + 2 extra shots of flavour, 1 part salted caramel + 5 extra shots of flavour, 1 part maple pecan + 5 extra shots of flavour, all from Mt. Baker Vapor) is delicious, I want to keep vaping it, and having to retrim the wick after every tank (and also having to keep extra wick in the tank) is odious. Any solutions?
I end up having to confine this stuff to my genny-style rba's, to ease changing the wick / trimming. In an Oddy / Ithaka / K705, it'd be a complete rebuild, which would be really annoying.
Any ideas? A rig where the hard ceramic could be tugged up through the coils and scraped clean? Not practical, since the coil has to be in physical contact, so fairly tight. SS seems to gunk up faster with this stuff than ekowool or standard silica.
Anyway, at the end of my rope with this. If it's relevant, I'm vaping between .6 and 1.2 ohms, depending on setup, on a 3.7 mech. Coils range from 32 to 29 guage kanthal, with some .5mm flat thrown in. So lots of variation there, but all ends up doing the same thing. I haven't tried going higher res, but haven't seen anything compelling which would indicate that making a difference? Any input appreciated.
Original text follows.
I started thinking a bit ago that my taste buds would just end up getting overloaded by what I was vaping, and thus I'd stop tasting the flavour as strongly, and sometimes at all; I'd solve the issue by switching to a different juice, almost always in a different setup.
I'd come back to the original setup, and find it still having no taste... So I experimented; I started out on SS mesh (okay but never great), tried ceramic (seemed to affect the flavours negatively, yes I boiled & torched...), then tried silica (okay), then ekowool (great!). But eventually, no matter the setup, I'd end up in the same place; no taste after a few tanks.
So the answer was the wick getting progressively gunked. I made a build where I had extra ekowool sitting in the tank, so after a few tankfulls I could tug the wick up through the coil and snip off the gunked end; this -kind- of works. But, here's the thing: my current all-day liquid seems to be absolute murder on wicks. I have other flavours from the same vendor which don't do this - including several dark fluids - and all are the same mix, 80% VG / 20%PG. The other flavours (and all that I've tried from other vendors) don't do this, or if they do, it's too gradual a process for me to notice, given that I rebuild frequently; but this flavour (if curious, it's 2 parts coffee caramel + 2 extra shots of flavour, 1 part salted caramel + 5 extra shots of flavour, 1 part maple pecan + 5 extra shots of flavour, all from Mt. Baker Vapor) is delicious, I want to keep vaping it, and having to retrim the wick after every tank (and also having to keep extra wick in the tank) is odious. Any solutions?
I end up having to confine this stuff to my genny-style rba's, to ease changing the wick / trimming. In an Oddy / Ithaka / K705, it'd be a complete rebuild, which would be really annoying.
Any ideas? A rig where the hard ceramic could be tugged up through the coils and scraped clean? Not practical, since the coil has to be in physical contact, so fairly tight. SS seems to gunk up faster with this stuff than ekowool or standard silica.
Anyway, at the end of my rope with this. If it's relevant, I'm vaping between .6 and 1.2 ohms, depending on setup, on a 3.7 mech. Coils range from 32 to 29 guage kanthal, with some .5mm flat thrown in. So lots of variation there, but all ends up doing the same thing. I haven't tried going higher res, but haven't seen anything compelling which would indicate that making a difference? Any input appreciated.
