Coils cake up?

[GoodNews!]

I do think there's definately some truth to how the coils do need enough power not to gunk - my 3.5ohm Cisco atty was giving me brilliant flavors, and I don't believe it was going dry near the end of a puff because I could chain vape it for 8 puffs in a row (in like a 30 second span) and it wouldn't even begin to taste the slightest bit dry. However, the thing gunked up in 30 minutes, just that ashy type of taste that doesn't let flavors come through.

What confused me though is that I couldn't go above 4.1V's without the flavor lacking a little, so I'm not sure how any higher of power or lower ohm's could have yeilded a better result concerning flavor. Maybe a lower ohm would have allowed the coil to heat up quicker, but not exactly hotter, say if I had a 3.2ohm and set it at around 3.6V's, or a 3.0ohm at 3.3V's? I also used a couple %100VG juices (though they were clear) and tested a few NET's, so I'm sure that didn't help but... I expected more like at least a couple days if not more toward a week of use out of this atty. Cleaning it just ruined it.

 

[catalinaflyer]

My personal experience, the sweeter and/or darker the juice, the less life from the coils.

So here's a .90 ohm coil vaped on an unregulated mechanical mod with a Coffee/Salted Caramel 50/50 mix (very sweet) after only 1 day.

And here's a dual coil setup also run on an unregulated mechanical mod that's almost 2 months old. I've used a few juices on this one but primarily I use pure 100% VG just to make clouds with it.

 

[Asbestos4004]

My personal experience, the sweeter and/or darker the juice, the less life from the coils.

So here's a .90 ohm coil vaped on an unregulated mechanical mod with a Coffee/Salted Caramel 50/50 mix (very sweet) after only 1 day.

And here's a dual coil setup also run on an unregulated mechanical mod that's almost 2 months old. I've used a few juices on this one but primarily I use pure 100% VG just to make clouds with it.

Try lowering the power on the top one to say... i don't know....1.2 volts. If you have one, put in on a rusted out, broken spinner that shoots sparks. That should help. What you have now just screams drywall.

 

[catalinaflyer]

Try lowering the power on the top one to say... i don't know....1.2 volts. If you have one, put in on a rusted out, broken spinner that shoots sparks. That should help. What you have now just screams drywall.

Uh oh, I goofed up, I pulled the wick right after that picture, hit it with 6 volts, put a couple drops of water on it and watched as the gunk exploded away leaving behind a beautiful shiny silver micro-coil.

I'm on my PT2 tonight so I'll grab my malfunctioning Ego and turn it down as far as it will go and see if I can find that ever elusive "dry skin" vape.

 

[MacTechVpr]

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.

Five, congrats! True that. You see, I would come to the same conclusion without an explanation of the build…and suspect shorts. But I stopped singing grommets the first month in. And there's really only one way to do that and that's build with pretty good symmetry — no loose turns, wind pretty well matched to the media (no hot spots), good termination (no hot leg).

The downfall to all that is incorrect wick density. And cotton's diameter and density is utterly variable as a wick. It's easy to mismatch.

I try to keep it down to 30g and <9 turns on at most 1.75mm @ 8W with Johnson Creek, the big offender, even with clean wicking media. But understand that the KPT runs hotter than its clearo brethren. And it's gonna gunk faster on the edge of the green zone.

I've got two kicked mechs running 30g 9/8 @2Ω; one running Boba's, and the other another primary fav, both dense. One has run a month, the other two weeks. Same coil, same wick configuration. I chain them both daily, and hard. They get drying out and a wick purge (blow out) on top-offs. But they're not my primary devices. And it's not cotton.

I based my remarks on using cotton in a KPT daily over four months ago, using coils just a tad tighter than the average user on this forum uses but properly terminated (no squirrelly res. results, or build rejected). In that context, with somewhat too much density and my taste sensitivity…they did not work much more than a day without degradation, flavor not fresh. Also oversaturation is what I experienced at the time, without res. error. Not too much power; too much wick. But I haven't revisited those builds. I found it too difficult and complicated to match the right density, to the right coil for the variety of juices I was sampling and the frequency that I had to replace the cotton. On the other hand, cotton would not do what I do with the two above I believe regardless of density. For too many of us, cotton's taste changes too much over that time period. Particularly when sitting idle.

My early results for cotton I don't think are representative of what most would experience. In fact, many use fewer devices than I do and work each harder. And that's why I moved away from cotton as I've been looking for broader more flexible solutions in my informal study of the Kanger series and appropriate builds/wicks for it. The happy medium of performance, flavor and utility.

I don't believe cotton is the Holy Grail solution, unfortunately, the one-size-fits-all that will give us the great consistent taste for all juices under all conditions. I wish it were. That would make it simple. And I love simple answers to problems.

Thanks for your testimonial of success.

Good luck.

 

[Ryedan]

My personal experience, the sweeter and/or darker the juice, the less life from the coils.

So here's a .90 ohm coil vaped on an unregulated mechanical mod with a Coffee/Salted Caramel 50/50 mix (very sweet) after only 1 day.

And here's a dual coil setup also run on an unregulated mechanical mod that's almost 2 months old. I've used a few juices on this one but primarily I use pure 100% VG just to make clouds with it.

WOW, I'm surprised at the difference between these catalinaflyer. Thanks for the post

 

[Ryedan]

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.

This is interesting crxess. I've never noticed this, but then I was not looking for it either. Have you ever actually done a 'same coil/same juice/different power/same number of ml' gunk test?

 

[f1vefour]

@MacTechVpr

I certainly agree cotton isn't the best option for all situations, but for my vaping style and taste it works great. I still want to try ceramic but hemp will be my next wick material as I'm looking for machine quality repeatability and you certainly can't get that with cotton balls.

 

[MacTechVpr]

And here's a dual coil setup also run on an unregulated mechanical mod that's almost 2 months old. I've used a few juices on this one but primarily I use pure 100% VG just to make clouds with it.

That's impressive. Looks like 30? Can't make out the dripper. Would you share the wind spec with us please? Straight mech or pwr? And silica? Tell me, no.

personal experience, the sweeter and/or darker the juice, the less life from the coils...
So here's a .90 ohm coil vaped on an unregulated mechanical mod with a Coffee/Salted Caramel 50/50 mix (very sweet) after only 1 day.

Sad to say alas, VG tobacco is a labor of love. My experience exactly testing early on with silica, cotton, yarn, gauze, etc. etc. in KPT's, a multitude of clearo's and small drip's and only somewhat less with variations of Eko. Wanted to sample higher temp's but beat down by the gunk until I broke down, dumped the conventional helix and limited my eval's of resistance results to contact coils. I had been doing sampling to find easy build methods for newcomers. However, there is no getting around the mechanics and a modicum of electrical knowledge.

I love cotton, and it's quite an overstated and inescapably distinctive taste to me with any juice. I can never fully dismiss it as I can with silica or Ekowool. I use 100%VG and tobacco variants almost exclusively. Silica breaks down like a stand of bamboo in a monsoon. Never mind what it does to airflow with flavor wicks disintegrating in a mass produced atomizer. I guess I'll try hemp at some point but I found to my surprise that the 3M ceramic has some pretty exceptional qualities in it's smaller diameter. It's directional saturation and flow is extraordinary. And the most neutral taste I've found. Good quality Eko beats it for saturation overall and so ceramic loses in a dripper but I haven't been able to overload it at anything under 15W. And I've been seriously exploring that now five months across broad power/res ranges and build types. Still cotton the fav but not much more than a day for me unless diligently tended. At times if I just leave the device in rotation it seems I can detect the flavor changes within hours. At the other extreme, rebuild daily. This business is a serious challenge at times but a rewarding one it would seem from your 2nd pic.

In your first pic it does look like drywall, lol. I have noticed in my Immo's (I run 4, and you don't want to be lookin at 'em all the time) that increasing the amount of ceramic, a slightly longer snake along the interior of the tank wall, reduces soiling. Less needy for refills. So perhaps I am running a tad too dry on some devices. I'd hate to say it's too much power. We don't really want to say that, do we? So it's not so much then the density of juices but a mismatch of the wick and device in play, no? My Trident's live flavorfully happy on a full cotton cloud with very little fuss at all and blow clouds unrepentantly.

Gratuitous VHO promotion…

Good luck cat. Happy New Year.

 

[Vicshalls]

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.

I love your signature. I am such an einstein fan. That is awesome.

 

[Vaslovik]

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?

I get this also, with my genny, and I just draw the juice of out the tank with a syringe and dry burn the coil until the gunk (carbon) turns gray, and it comes off easily. If you are using a cotton wick you might want to replace it, burning off the coil when you take it out. I use SS mesh, so I can just burn off the coil without messing with the wick.

I've been told the darker and sweeter juices do this the most.