Cooking liquid?

[Kavik79]

Hello,
I recently purchased a sigelei Variable Voltage kit that came with a 1.6ml rebuildable clearomizer. I don't know the brand, but it's the one seen in this kit here: Sigelei Zmax - Complete Kit

I'm finding that I have to dry burn this on a daily basis to keep the coil clean, and that before I can even get through a ml of the liquid it's been turned from a very light honey color to a dark brown in the tank, right around the same time the coil is getting clogged and I'm getting less vapor out of it

The liquid is the same homemade mix I've been using for a couple years now, pg/vg mix with menthol and vanilla
The coil is 2.4Ohm
RMS & Mean is set to RMS

With a clean coil it's great for me around 7 watts, but this seems to 'cook' the liquid in the tank faster
Still get a decent hit down to around 5.5 watts, but then the coil seems to clog up more often

I'm not sure if this should go in this section or in the Variable Voltage device section....but I'm trying here first because I'm mainly wondering if others have issues with liquid in tanks/clearomizers getting dark and burnt like this, regardless of the unit they're attached to? And is a daily cleaning common with these things?

thanks in advance

 

[Kavik79]

Bump.
Nobody else has noticed this happen to their juice?

Here's a pic of what I'm talking about:

Left is when freshly filled.
Right is after using .8ml, topping off with fresh liquid, then using another .8ml
Kept it set low at 5 watts, resistance stayed consistently between 2.4 and 2.5 Ohms

 

[Mdemon]

After the dry burn do you rinse/spray out with water to get rid of any ash that is left back?

 

[Kavik79]

I rinse as best I can, yes.
I didn't the first time and it was immediately noticeable, not the same as this that darkens over time
I supposed I could use a syringe to flush inside the tube a little better,

I'm going to switch to a new coil right now and pay attention this time, to see if the issue is still present before the first dry burn

 

[Kavik79]

well, it's darkened some with the new unit, but no where near as much as with a coil that had previously been dry burned

I also picked out a couple that had been tossed in the home office waste basket and pulled them apart. What I found is they were all half burned through the wicks, and all that was left of the wick inside the coil itself was a charred mess that crumbled if you looked at it wrong

So maybe it's not the rinsing that's the problem, but the burnt wicks? everything I read/watched about how to dry burn to clean these said the wicks couldn't be burned....

 

[Mdemon]

Indeed my friend those wicks are s'posed to be silica which should NOT burn...in fact that's how I clean the wicks when I dry burn. Dry silica wick can be a bit crumbly, but burnt? Not s'posed to happen.
I use a lighter & burn the wicks till they're clean & white like new. Uncleaned wicks, just like leftover ash in the coil, can cause juice to darken fast.

Are you sure they're burnt? If they just look black/nasty that may just be crud from old juice.

 

[Kavik79]

They definitely seem burnt. In a couple cases they actually broke into 2 pieces. Both pieces look nice and clean up until the broken ends....at the very end, just about the last millimeter fades very quickly from clean to a dark brownish-black, then to an ashy grey at the broken tips. Anything left stuck inside the coil is all ashy.
The rest of the wick is nice and soft and flexible, nothing I would call crumbly

But I take a lighter to the other end of the wick and all it does is tighten up a little, the very tips sort of glow, then it looks fine. I woder if it has anything to do with how tight these coils seem to be compressing the wick in the middle

I was looking at just buying the wick and wire and start wrapping my own....at <15 cents a piece I wouldn't even bother with more than one cleaning. But now I'm reading things about these silica wicks that have me wondering about switching to cotton


So many decisions for fiddling with these damn things LOL

 

[t8kiteasy]

well, it's darkened some with the new unit, but no where near as much as with a coil that had previously been dry burned

I also picked out a couple that had been tossed in the home office waste basket and pulled them apart. What I found is they were all half burned through the wicks, and all that was left of the wick inside the coil itself was a charred mess that crumbled if you looked at it wrong



So maybe it's not the rinsing that's the problem, but the burnt wicks? everything I read/watched about how to dry burn to clean these said the wicks couldn't be burned....[/QUOTE

My Vivi Nova wick was the same way,after i cleaned it,i looked down at the coil and the top piece of silica was burnt thru completely,and just fell off the coil onto the sink.I grabbed ahold of the rest of the wick and it just pulled apart in my hand.I am not sure if the other spare heads would be the same way i stopped using the vivi because i was tired of it leaking.I would like to put a fresh replacement head in it and see if it burns thru.I do not feel like wasting any juice on it though.

 

[Kavik79]

yeah, all of mine eventually end up burning through and pulling apart after a couple cleanings, regardless of what 'they' say about this stuff

I'm starting to look into the whole homespun coils and cotton/bamboo wicks. I pulled apart a new head and replaced the wick in the stock coil with braided bamboo thread, just waiting to get through this last bit of juice before trying it out. I know it's a whole other set of issues to worry about, but even if I burn the occasional wick, it'll still be cheaper then having these gunk up and fall apart every few days