Cotton in your RDA

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eda123

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Hey folks,

Curious what your take is on how you wick your rda with cotton. Ive seen various folks say the following:

  • Use very little wick
  • Cover the whole deck with wick
  • Dont put wick under the coils
  • Definitely put wick under the coils

Im relatively new to RDAs so wanted to see what folks were doing and why when it comes to these...
 

snow blind

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I've had setups that involved all of those you listed. I experimented with a simple IGO-L with 1Ω 1/16" "micro coil" and using non-boiled, sterile cotton roll gauze i didn't see too much of a difference to tell you the truth. As long as i didn't completely cover the coil i didn't have problems. That said there are a few things to take into account. Do you want to drip more/less often... how deep is your well or deck... how thick is your juice... etc. I personally would do as i did and make a simple coil then experiment with different cotton setups with the same juice. Preferably one you're familiar with. Drip enough juice so you don't burn the cotton take a few vapes then pull er out, rinse under water and dry burn the coil... repeat.

That all said i my personal preference for an RDA while concentrating on flavor (no cloud chaser here) is...

Start with a long piece of cotton (you can always trim, you can't add more) make sure the overall piece is not too thick as you want it to have room to expand inside the coil... roll one end pull through and trim the mashed down "tip"... use that ~1/2" end left and bring around under the coil... it should fit under easy and shouldn't be packed and it should stretch under that coil and make contact with the other side of the wick making a little loop. Take that other end of the wick and cut enough to allow for one light and airy trail around the deck to the other side of the posts.

I posted this earlier today but this is my go to cotton RDA setup... hard to see all i described but it there lol. Again, the entire length of the wick is very light and airy and that helps absorption and wicking of the juice. This is all just what i like to do.

WP_20140130_002.jpg
 

Rule62

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Just my opinion. I don't use any more cotton than is needed to go through the coils, and touch the deck. I think that any more cotton than that, and it becomes a repository for cooked juice that hasn't yet been vaporized. When it's that cooked juice's turn to be vaporized, the flavor will be deteriorated.
 

cthulhufan

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My cotton goes into the coil fluffy and uncompressed ...with very little resistance when pulling through. And just enough length on each end to reach down to the deck. I also have my coil pretty high off the deck so that i can fill with more juice. Works great.

Yep. Same here. I tried using copious amounts of cotton, tucking it under the coil and spreading all over the deck, etc... Nope. The method you describe above yields superior results. YMMV.
 

Rule62

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eda, I think if you ask a 100 vapers you would get an 101 answers. It depends on your RDA, build, liquid, and what mood you are in. I'd recommend trying different ways till you find what suits you, cause your the one doing the vaping.

Very true. There's more than one way to skin a cat. All my dripper builds are dual coil, so just with letting the wick touch the deck on each coil, there's still plenty of cotton in there.
 

Miata GT

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eda, I think if you ask a 100 vapers you would get an 101 answers. It depends on your RDA, build, liquid, and what mood you are in. I'd recommend trying different ways till you find what suits you, cause your the one doing the vaping.

I third this! ;)

One of my RDAs is set up with cotton all over the deck and under the coils, this allows for longer vaping between redripping. On the other hand I have an RDA with the smallest amount of wick that I use as a taster, only 2-3 puffs. The others are somewhere on between.
 

Revelene

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I personally just put wick through the coil, coming out one side of the coil down to the well. Just enough wick so that it is a good fit but not snug (I can still move the dry wick with little pulling force through the coil without moving the coil). If I put any more wick the coil gets too wet and doesn't perform well (it's basically flooded). I like to find that sweet spot where there is just enough wick and liquid to have no hot spots. Many people try to make their drippers hold more liquid... but... it's called a dripper for a reason lol all this, though, is just my opinion.
 

Silense

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A good rule of thumb IMO is just make sure the cotton thru your coil is at least not tightly packed. Very lil resistance when pulling thru. Other than that I stuff the crap out of my patriot, then again it does have a huge juice well and I don't like dripping every 2-3 pulls. I prefer having enough cotton to drop 7-10 drops and be set for a good while. I stuff cotton under my coils but not over and never have burnt juice or "stale" hits. I usaully run dual coils measuring about .5 final ohms.

Like many have said, you'll get 100's of different answers.
 
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