cotton issues? back to silica for now...

[kachuge]

hey guys,

was just sitting here thinking........

I use a kangar mini protank II, and I switched to cotton because I heard it was a better taste.....
it was......and I've been a cotton guy for a bit...... experimenting and so on, finally perfected my process

but then, I was thinking...........

silica is pretty much glass, and doesn't burn except for really high temps,
so really, all we're getting in a silica vapor, is just e-liquid vapor, nothing from the silica

cotton on the other hand, doesn't taste the same........ and yes, it does taste better.......
don't you wonder why?
must be getting some minute particles of cotton in the vapor....... no other way to explain it....

so,
I think for now, i'm going back to silica

just as well I went through the cotton thing, I got used to changing my flavour wick daily, and dry burning my lower coil wick...
I think I will keep doing that but just replace my flavour wick with silica

i'm quite open to hearing any other reasoning...... I miss the taste of cotton already!

g

 

[doots]

Funny, to me silica has a bad taste.. But I don't think i am getting glass from it.

 

[edyle]

hey guys,
was just sitting here thinking........
I use a kangar mini protank II, and I switched to cotton because I heard it was a better taste.....
it was......and I've been a cotton guy for a bit...... experimenting and so on, finally perfected my process
but then, I was thinking...........
silica is pretty much glass, and doesn't burn except for really high temps,
so really, all we're getting in a silica vapor, is just e-liquid vapor, nothing from the silica
cotton on the other hand, doesn't taste the same........ and yes, it does taste better.......
don't you wonder why?
must be getting some minute particles of cotton in the vapor....... no other way to explain it....
so,
I think for now, i'm going back to silica
just as well I went through the cotton thing, I got used to changing my flavour wick daily, and dry burning my lower coil wick...
I think I will keep doing that but just replace my flavour wick with silica
i'm quite open to hearing any other reasoning...... I miss the taste of cotton already!
g

I hear you. Stands to reason that the silica ought to be better.
On the other hand, sometimes you gotta trust your sense of taste.
As long as it's the natural cotton and not some synthetic stuff, at least there's that - natural plant stuff; and so long as when you go to change it it isn't half disappeared and burnt then it means you aren't actually burning much if any of it.

So far, it seems to me the superior thing about cotton is it seems to wick alot faster

 

[Cloud Junky]

I am going to build a Tesla Coil out of coat hanger and use some silica wick from a Tiki Torch, get it all fired up to see if that does the trick, I don't taste a thing in silica so I figure I will go big and maybe I will get something.

No really, cotton harbors the flavor as it can contain more liquid at the heating point giving a cleaner taste as it traps in more liquid in the coil space. I notice a partial dry burn taste in silica from time to time and a full saturated taste in the cotton.

 

[kachuge]

don't get me wrong....... I prefer the taste of vaping with cotton..........

but it just doesn't make any sense.........

silica is pretty much fire proof, so it's not breaking down into the vape, so it's not possible to affect the taste....

the cotton has a very low fire or heat tolerance, might even be melting instead of burning.....
but whatever it is, the cotton does have a taste of it's own.....

why the different taste when vaping with cotton?

g

 

[GeorgeWachsmuth]

I am going to build a Tesla Coil out of coat hanger and use some silica wick from a Tiki Torch, get it all fired up to see if that does the trick, I don't taste a thing in silica so I figure I will go big and maybe I will get something.

No really, cotton harbors the flavor as it can contain more liquid at the heating point giving a cleaner taste as it traps in more liquid in the coil space. I notice a partial dry burn taste in silica from time to time and a full saturated taste in the cotton.

My small experience would agree with this.

 

[doots]

don't get me wrong....... I prefer the taste of vaping with cotton..........

but it just doesn't make any sense.........

silica is pretty much fire proof, so it's not breaking down into the vape, so it's not possible to affect the taste....

the cotton has a very low fire or heat tolerance, might even be melting instead of burning.....
but whatever it is, the cotton does have a taste of it's own.....

why the different taste when vaping with cotton?

g

I wont debate the taste issue because I don't seem to have a problem with cotton at all.. But if you really want to be safe, get some ceramic wicking from rbasupplies and try that out.. Probably the safest stuff around for now....

 

[kachuge]

hmmm, more liquid at the burn location makes sense.........

...being with cotton for a while, i'm really not liking the lack of flavour in the silica

been spoiled I guess...... right now, just looking for a reason to go back to cotton

thanks,

g

 

[doots]

I am much more concerned with what is in flavorings we use.. Although I am also concerned with the wicks also. Just not as much so as I am with the flavorings ppl are using.. They were not meant to be inhaled.. Time will tell..

 

[Bigd432]

I don't really understand your reasoning. Cotton provides better taste therefore it must be worse for you than silica? That just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[hazarada]

It might not be the cotton you're tasting but just a different kind of vapor. I've been experimenting with this idea a lot lately and have found that different wicking materials produce vapor with drastically different characteristics. Since i don't have any sciency gear for directly observing the vapor particles, i've been trying to measure the perceived volume, refraction and dissipation time of vapor produced from various wicks. What I've concluded so far is that the usable surface area(including whats inside the wick) tends to correlate with the amount of vapor while the irregularity of the wick's internal structure tends to make finer vapor (i think its because the inherit filtering properties of such setup). Both thick and thin vapor are produced in roughly the same perceived volume form the same amount of liquid but thinner vapor hangs around much longer but is less opaque then the thick variety.

From the wicks i've deemed safe for taste testing, there is a huge difference in the way flavors present in the different thicknesses of vapors. Larger particles seem to taste more straightforward and "pure" then smaller ones. Also there is a big difference in nicotine delivery, finer vapor is much more efficient and hits you faster and harder.

Anyways.. I'd love it if somebody with actual knowledge of this are a of science gave it a go, best i can come up with are subjective descriptions.

 

[Havensal]

Grab some dark colored paper. Cut one piece of cotton and one silica, over the paper. Roll them around and work them as you would putting into a coil. Look at the paper. You decide which you would like to inhale, glass or cotton? Cotton for me.


Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[AndriaD]

On the other hand, sometimes you gotta trust your sense of taste.

So far, it seems to me the superior thing about cotton is it seems to wick alot faster

My sense of taste tells me that if I don't take one or two priming hits before I press the button (with a cotton flavor wick), I get a dry hit and it tastes obnoxious.

With a silica flavor wick, I take a hit when I feel like it, no priming hits, and it tastes fine.

I do notice that when I have a cotton flavor wick, and I take those priming hits, the flavor is good, much clearer a taste, but it's a huge pain having to always remember those priming hits so I don't get a dry hit. It's also a pain having to change the stupid things so often so I don't get the burnt taste -- silica flavor wicks seem to stay just fine until the coil is so bad it needs dry-burning.

I have some silica wick on order, thought it would be here today but apparently FL's USPS is out taking in some rays instead of doing their jobs, so I hope it will be here tomorrow. I'll try replacing these flavor wicks with silica instead, and see if I actually do like it better.

Andria

 

[KODIAK (TM)]

After all those years of smoking my buds are shot I think. Can't tell the difference in Silica and cotton myself but since cotton is plentiful that's what I use.

 

[kachuge]

I don't really understand your reasoning. Cotton provides better taste therefore it must be worse for you than silica? That just doesn't make sense to me.

no no, what i'm saying is that silica doesn't provide any taste other than the eliquid,

and the taste we get from cotton ***might be*** due to the cotton breaking down......
if not, then why is it different?

somebody did come up with that there is more liquid at the coil area with cotton......
I like that one.... if nothing else comes up, that's enough to get me back to cotton

is all

g

 

[Completely Average]

no no, what i'm saying is that silica doesn't provide any taste other than the eliquid,

Well, you're wrong, and all of your assumptions are wrong.


Now to prove this I have a little experiment for you. Try a 1mm silica wick. See how good the flavor is. Then, try a 2mm silica wick and see if you can explain why you get even less flavor from the 2mm wick than you do the 1mm wick.

Then, take your 1mm wick and roll it around in your fingers for a few minutes. Roll it across the palm of your hand. Then explain why the wick produces even less flavor now.

Next, go get some Ekowool. It's also made from silica, but it's braided. Use it and explain why it tastes better than the unbraided silica wicks.

And finally, go get some stainless steel mesh and make a wick using that. Explain why it tastes so much better than silica. Obviously you aren't burning the steel.



Pretty hard to explain this all based on your assumptions, isn't it?



However, there is some consistency here if you pay attention.

Silica wicks have very little air space within the wick. Thicker silica has even smaller air pockets. Rolling the wick around in your hands fills the air spaces in the wick with oils from your hand. Braided wicks have more air pockets than unbraided, and steel mech has giant air pockets. Cotton will also have a lot of air space between fibers.

In otherwords, the more air space within the wick the better the flavor, regardless of the wick material used.

 

[Butters80]

I used to prefer silica but anymore I love my rolled cotton boiled in distilled water. It's much easier to work with as well.

 

[AndriaD]

Silica wicks have very little air space within the wick. Thicker silica has even smaller air pockets. Rolling the wick around in your hands fills the air spaces in the wick with oils from your hand. Braided wicks have more air pockets than unbraided, and steel mech has giant air pockets. Cotton will also have a lot of air space between fibers.

In otherwords, the more air space within the wick the better the flavor, regardless of the wick material used.

Well this is good news, since the silica I ordered is actually braided; it's actually 1.5mm, since that was the cheapest they had (lightning vapes). So this should work well?

Andria

 

[edyle]

Funny, to me silica has a bad taste.. But I don't think i am getting glass from it.

I find so too, but on the other hand I don't have fresh silica wick to try; all of my silica wicks are just the old wicks that I dryburnt, so I do have to wonder if any not so good taste I get is really due to leftover gunk.

With cotton, it's basically always fresh cotton.

 

[Rickb119]

Well this is good news, since the silica I ordered is actually braided; it's actually 1.5mm, since that was the cheapest they had (lightning vapes). So this should work well?

Andria

That's going to be regular silica wick. Ekowool looks more like a weave than a braid. And, it's much more expensive than regular silica.