Cotton and tightness in the throat

[cassandraschild]

I've recently begun coiling on my own using microcoils, and I'm using both an Igo-L and an RSST. I've noticed that when I use cotton wicks or ekwool sleeves with cotton inside that when I vape my throat feels like its getting much tighter. It's uncomfortable but not serious. It doesn't happen immediately but tends to build over an hour, and I've always stopped vaping at that point. I've used a verity of different juices, and get the same effect.

I just used an ekwool sleeve that isn't filled with anything, and the feeling is going away. I never had this issue with my ego-c atomizers.

Anyone know what this is about?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Nate Rager]

Clean your cotton before you make wicks.. There very well may be chemicals on it. You should alway thoroughly clean and new vaping items before you vape. The benefit of vaping is we have control and knowledge of what we are inhaling.

 

[smacuser]

Is the hole lined up dead center with your coil?

 

[Sthur]

I would say boil your cotton for 15 min then let dry and re wick. Also like above line hole up with coil and drill it out to 1/16 at least.

 

[OldSeer]

I'm not about to discourage anyone that wants to boil their cotton first
before using it as a wick...

but... I always get a kick out of Phil Busardo on some of his YouTube Videos
where when rebuilding a coil... he says "I never soaked a cigarette first before I smoked it...
so I'm not about to soak or boil any of the cotton I use to make a wick."
Then he just PUFFS away!

 

[f1vefour]

I would think medical grade cotton wouldn't have any chemicals?

 

[mavric]

Boiling it isn't gonna hurt anything. I boil all my cotton just because it makes me feel better. Boiling 5-6 cotton balls at a time gives you a few a LOT of wick.

 

[smacuser]

I'm not about to discourage anyone that wants to boil their cotton first
before using it as a wick...

but... I always get a kick out of Phil Busardo on some of his YouTube Videos
where when rebuilding a coil... he says "I never soaked a cigarette first before I smoked it...
so I'm not about to soak or boil any of the cotton I use to make a wick."
Then he just PUFFS away!

I use organic cotton. Unlike a real cig, if there were chemicals, they'd be gone by the second vape.

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

I use organic cotton. Unlike a real cig, if there were chemicals, they'd be gone by the second vape.

Same here. I ran out of organic a few weeks back and bought a small bag from Walmart and didn't boil it either. It could be that you're simply getting a better throat hit than you're used to which is causing dryness. When my throat is extremely dried out, it feels like it's swollen and like there's something in it. After a glass or two of water, it goes away.

Micro Coils tend to generate quite a bit of heat couple that with the increased vapor production and chain-vaping, yep, you'll eventually get a dry throat or dry mouth one, if you don't stay hydrated.

 

[catalinaflyer]

I have to agree with Tactical on this one. I'm going to venture a guess your getting a whole lot more PG than your used to with the cotton and drying your throat.

One thing you could try besides boiling is some sterile medical grade cotton and see if that makes a difference.

FWIW, I use plain old Wal-Mart cotton balls (well realistically 3) right straight from the bag to do all my PT2 wicks as well as some others. I noticed the amount of juice used is a whole lot more per average day on my cotton wicked RSST than the one wicked with SS mesh.

 

[JeremyR]

Do you taste the cotton at all, your cotton could be too tight causing it to slowly burn. Most problems people have with cotton is related to getting the correct density.

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

When it comes to cotton thickness, go light. If the cotton fits tight, it's too tight and you're probably choking it. It should slide through and have room to expand. When you get it right, you get the best of both worlds: flavor and throat hit .

I've used a tight cotton wick before and mine never burn, but I don't get the same flavor because the juice doesn't stick around as much as it does with a loose wick. It shouldn't be falling out, but you should be able to pull it through with very little resistance. If it tugs at the coil, that's a clear sign you're using too much cotton.

 

[GoodNews!]

Vaping with unboiled cotton gives me asthma straight away, it's how dusty the vape is, a lot of particles are feeding off (though these particles, like silica, probably are way too big and/or small to actually 'stick' in the lungs) but it aggrivates my throat something silly.

I checked for any burn marks too, on mine, and it looked pristine the whole time I tried vaping it. I did taste the cotton a little, so it could have just been burning in a way i couldn't physically see (or taste much). I tried getting the cotton as thin as possible, but it was a protank head where I didn't even rebuild the coil (just fed the cotton through) so I didn't have of freedom to work with.

 

[cassandraschild]

I'll attempt boiling and see if it has any effect on this. Do those who boil unroll the cotton before you boil or do you just pop unrolled cotton balls into the water?

I've tried this with microcoils with resistances anywhere between 1.1-2.6 and have had this effect. I make my cotton wicks pretty small in diameter. They don't get "shoulders" and seem to be rewicking well. I can slide the wick in and out of the microcoils with no resistance. While they aren't burning per say, I have noticed that the area that is in the coil does tend to become darker by the end of an hour though. Would that indicate burning? It's not black or charred, but usually a few shades more brown than the rest of the cotton. When saturated with juice my wicks (depending on the juice) tend to turn either a tan or light brown.

 

[f1vefour]

The browning is perfectly normal.

 

[mavric]

Yeah, after a few days of vaping on a cotton wick it will start to get gunked up bad and need replacing. I have to replace mine at least twice a week.

 

[f1vefour]

If it's browning in a couple of hours this may be an indication your running a bit on the hot side, could you post an image?

 

[cassandraschild]

F1vefour: ill see if i can post a photo in a day or two. Just startedback to work for the week tonight and i commute 5 hours a day so ill have to see if i can make some time.

 

[JeremyR]

5 hrs a day! I really feel for you, 2 hrs a day is bad enough. Even more reason to have a reliable set-up