Coils cake up?

[Bennylava]

Does every coil cake up with black gunk? I am vaping cocoanut creme pie in my Kayfun Lite Clone from tobeco. You only get to vape 1 tank and the coil is covered in black junk that does not easily come off. You pretty much have to destroy the cotton wick in order to clean the coil. Its a bit of a pain in the .... I was hoping to get at least 8 tanks before I had to worry about the coil. Is this going to be about the norm for any atty?

With the protanks, you never see anything, but its going to stop working right until its cleaned. After about a tank and a half. Is vaping really this high maintenance?

 

[zero7starz]

I blame the juice. I have some juices that are real bad coil gunkers. Ran into that problem last night where my main tank needs a new coil because it is all kinds of gunked up.


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[Thrasher]

cocoanut cream pie

is it also a high vg?

the sweeter the juice and flavor additives the more sugar/junk to bake onto the coil, same with darker thicker juices and NET's


this is where a silica wick has an advantage, a quick dry burn and keep going. my juice is pretty light and clear and i get 4-5 tanks in the KF before a cleaning is needed

 

[patkin]

I haven't experienced that with clear, light in color, 50% or less VG juices. If a juice does gunk my coils, I quit vaping it. No juice is worth cleaning/dry burning often to me.

 

[UncleChuck]

Quickly gunking coils usually means your wick is drying out towards the end of your puff. The wick can dry out enough to start charring juice without giving off that terrible burning flavor. Make sure the cotton isn't too tight in the coil, or else you'll choke your wick, which causes it to dry out and char.

A good way to test for good wicking is to fire the juiced up coil while blowing on it for a bit longer than you normally vape. If you take 5 second drags, fire and blow for 6-7 seconds. At the end of that time the wick should still be saturated at the coil, if it's not, you should use less cotton to improve your wicking.

 

[Enoch777]

I vape 100% VG NETs. Known coil gunkers, but I don't have an issue with coils gunking up anymore. I also don't use clearomizers anymore. RDAs all the way!

The convenience of portable tanks was shattered when I realized how much effort it took to maintain, let's not even mention issues of flooding, burnt hits, and general malfeasance. I'd rather carry my juice in a bottle with me and drip a few drops when I notice the flavor getting light, usually followed by a dry hit which is your warning sign to drip.

Even vaping a sticky hot cinnamon juice like 5 months ago I noticed my coils were heavily gunked up in the Protank after only hours. Vaping the same juice in my RDA and the issue is relatively non-existant.

I change my cotton wicks once every 24-48 hours, usually accompanied by a dry burn if I feel the need. Takes a whole 3 minutes of my day and is yet another reason to love RDAs.

Vape well, vape often

 

[Traver]

I haven't experienced that with clear, light in color, 50% or less VG juices. If a juice does gunk my coils, I quit vaping it. No juice is worth cleaning/dry burning often to me.

Same here.

 

[Dzaw]

I was wondering the same thing... I've been vaping this kretek mix I make in my aga t2 and the wick turns this ganky orange color after about a half tank, and the coil gets caked with a black nastiness around the end of 1 tank. Too much wick? I have a single coil set up with a u wick, two ends of cotton going down into the juice, I thought that would be quite sufficient wicking, since it has cotton pulling from both ends, but this really hunks up fast.

Weird thing is that I usually consider this juice to be relatively clean - I typically get a couple of weeks out of a protank head with this sale liquid.

 

[patkin]

Voltage is also a factor in gunking.

 

[CloudZ]

The worst I've had this happen to me was with 65/35 Salted Caramel from MBV. In my RSST (eko sleeve cable), after about a half a tank my coil would be totally gunked with thick, black, chunky nastiness. On an identical setup with 65/35 Moo Juice, everything stays perfectly clean and clear for several tanks. So it was definitely just the juice. I could see putting up with this on a silica RDA build if I really liked the juice since it can be rinsed and dry burned easily, but I generally only use cotton in drippers. Now I won't buy coil clogging juice more than once.

 

[Myrany]

My personal experience with my own DIY juices. The more sweetener I use the worse they gunk up coils. Juices with no sweetener hardly gunk the coils at all.

 

[f1vefour]

My personal experience with my own DIY juices. The more sweetener I use the worse they gunk up coils. Juices with no sweetener hardly gunk the coils at all.

Exactly, add a high VG base into the mix and this exacerbates the issue.

 

[Myk]

I DIY and use as much VG as possible. Before that I was 100% PG free liquids. Some gunk up some don't.
Gunking seems to be more a factor of flavoring additives than VG. Some of mine do great, others not so great.
I only have one that uses more sweetener (2% vs my normal 1%) and although it's in a RDA vs the others' RBA's plus it's a dark flavor (Caramel Cappuccino) I don't really see it gunking like my Strawberry Peach (which has seen time in a similar RDA) does.

 

[Wow1420]

It's the juice.

With some light, clear liquids I can run 30ml through the atty with no maintenance at all.

With some sweet bakery flavors I'm lucky to get through one tankful before the coil gunks up.
Those get banished to occasional dripping in an RDA that's easy to dryburn or re-coil.

 

[f1vefour]

I DIY and use as much VG as possible. Before that I was 100% PG free liquids. Some gunk up some don't.
Gunking seems to be more a factor of flavoring additives than VG. Some of mine do great, others not so great.
I only have one that uses more sweetener (2% vs my normal 1%) and although it's in a RDA vs the others' RBA's plus it's a dark flavor (Caramel Cappuccino) I don't really see it gunking like my Strawberry Peach (which has seen time in a similar RDA) does.

I think it's the thickness of the VG more than the chemical makeup. Like it vaporizes slower than PG so the sweeteners and flavor stick to the coil and wick.

 

[crxess]

If your wick is working well and you can increase power while maintaining good Flavor, your coils will last longer.
Short burst or low heat cause Caramelizing to rapidly form on coils. The better the coil is allowed to work the more efficient it becomes.

I Vape Apple Pie and Chocolate Chip Cookie in KF type tanks and can get several tank fulls before swapping the cotton and dry burning. Both are Dark/Sweet Vapes.

 

[BulletStopper]

Mt Baker Vapor rates their juices on this factor. The higher the number the quicker the fluid darkens because of carmelization. As stated the higher the sweet the faster this occurs.

I use fruit flavors and usually get about 4-5 days before having to rewick my Kayfun. I've found cutting the wick on one side, by the coil, makes it easier to pull the cotton from the coil. A few dry burns and it is ready to rewick.

 

[Myk]

I think it's the thickness of the VG more than the chemical makeup. Like it vaporizes slower than PG so the sweeteners and flavor stick to the coil and wick.

You just reminded me of when I first started DIY and did flavorless all VG. Those coils would've went forever.
I'll have to try that again in one of my gennies and see how long it can go.

 

[MacTechVpr]

Does every coil cake up with black gunk? I am vaping cocoanut creme pie in my Kayfun Lite Clone from tobeco. You only get to vape 1 tank and the coil is covered in black junk that does not easily come off. You pretty much have to destroy the cotton wick in order to clean the coil. Its a bit of a pain in the .... I was hoping to get at least 8 tanks before I had to worry about the coil. Is this going to be about the norm for any atty?

With the protanks, you never see anything, but its going to stop working right until its cleaned. After about a tank and a half. Is vaping really this high maintenance?

Pretty much, yeah. You don't clean or dry burn cotton…you replace it. Because it scorches when exposed at all dry to any coil current. For me as I'm flavor sensitive that's not much more than a day or so for anything more than limited use. That would be what you call high maintenance, fer sure, with dense or darker liquids particularly tobacco. Consider an alternative like ceramic or eko and take a day or two to practice building a coil that's electrically sound. Freehand winds will not get you the performance stability and purity you're expecting. Why they're used or suggested at all is beyond me when there are so many vets here who know better. Cotton is not the utopian panacea that's inferred by the mantra of "go cotton" constantly here either. I use it extensively. It has its rewarding purposes.

For the basics on build stabilization, localization, termination and winding I contribute on…

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tips-tricks/463771-protank-cotton-rebuild-way-i-do.html
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/clearomizers/486794-protank-microcoil-discussion.html

You might take a look there to discover some answers to your questions. I have 300+ builds under my belt researching user build methods and wicking media. I haven't had time to build diamond coils that flood Protanks or set-up my Kay. But when I do, I have the answers for it. Try it, you'll see the methods on a hundred you tubes…you'll find the explanations there.

Good luck.

 

[f1vefour]

I've had the same cotton wick in an EVOD with tobacco juice for a week, it's clean as a whistle. I think changing it daily it's a bit excessive (using the same juice) unless your overheating it somehow.