So I've started rebuilding my bcc's using organic cotton as the wicking material. My question is: what voltage/wattage should I use with a cotton rebuild? I've heard before that you should use lower settings when vaping with cotton.
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You can vape it at any voltage/wattage (my experience). And is actually the only wick fast enough (on my kayfun) for my vaping style (2 consecutive short drags and a long one) and power (15-17 watts)... no dry hits, plenty of vapor and flavor.
Couple tips I picked up:
- Don't put too much cotton and cram it in there, believe me, it'll not wick properly (probably choked). Less cotton and loose for heavy/thick juice and a little more for light/thin juices.
- Don't pinch the cotton too much when you wet it, its actually best to build it dry then put juice later when you've finished assembling your unit. I don't know why but it probably packs the cotton too much that the juice don't flow in them (choked... again).
- Let the juice saturate the cotton for a couple of minutes after filling... a couple of seconds for drip
- Don't let the cotton run dry (for obvious reasons) ^^
Couple tips I picked up:
- Don't put too much cotton and cram it in there, believe me, it'll not wick properly (probably choked). Less cotton and loose for heavy/thick juice and a little more for light/thin juices.
- Don't pinch the cotton too much when you wet it, its actually best to build it dry then put juice later when you've finished assembling your unit. I don't know why but it probably packs the cotton too much that the juice don't flow in them (choked... again).
- Let the juice saturate the cotton for a couple of minutes after filling... a couple of seconds for drip
- Don't let the cotton run dry (for obvious reasons) ^^
I agree with Jake as to the fact that volts/watts don't seem to matter (qualifier coming) as long as 1> The cotton is wet and 2> you aren't burning your juice. Juice only tastes good heated to a point, and the cotton will sustain the sweet spot well, even chain vaping, regardless of where that sweet spot is.
As to the amount of cotton, I read from many who agree with Jake about not using too much cotton, but what happened to me is my heads kept leaking. I use near-100% VG and a fluffy cotton wick was just letting that heavy juice seep past it right down the air hole on to the pin.
I finally figured that out and started really twisting and compressing the cotton (I use organic cotton balls too) into a long, skinny, (1mm or so) wick, then doubled that on to itself and twisted together again before threading through the coil. Finally, no leaking, gurgling or flooding. So for me, I need to compress the cotton A LOT and make a very dense wick. But YMMV.
With cotton the one constant seems to be that you have to use trial and error to see what works.
As to the amount of cotton, I read from many who agree with Jake about not using too much cotton, but what happened to me is my heads kept leaking. I use near-100% VG and a fluffy cotton wick was just letting that heavy juice seep past it right down the air hole on to the pin.
I finally figured that out and started really twisting and compressing the cotton (I use organic cotton balls too) into a long, skinny, (1mm or so) wick, then doubled that on to itself and twisted together again before threading through the coil. Finally, no leaking, gurgling or flooding. So for me, I need to compress the cotton A LOT and make a very dense wick. But YMMV.
With cotton the one constant seems to be that you have to use trial and error to see what works.
As has been stated, it's not relevant. You atty resistance determines best voltage/wattage. If you've recoiled with larger gauge wire, then you're probably well under 2.0Ω... if your not doing your own coils, the what ever has been successful for you in the past, although you may find yourself going up or down a bit vs. silica.
If it's a typical BCC, like an EVOD or PT, then just make sure the cotton is well primed before filling your reservoir and closing everything up... and hitting the button. Get it wrong, and it's the lovely taste of burning gym socks.
You may... I say may, find that, due to the high absorption and expansion rate of cotton, that you will have better success with your air tube seal on upside down.
Ahh alright, I was just kind of hesitant to vape it at a higher voltage but I tried it and the performance is fine and no burnt taste. LOL in my first cotton rebuild I used wayyy to much cotton and it was horrible. I re-wicked my T3S and used a little less and now its performing flawlessly, I'm loving cotton thus far.
I use cotton balls to rebuild my dripper, but changed to the Peaches & Cream cotton yarn for the BCC's. I find it easier to get a consistent amount of cotton in each build using this. I use microcoils around 1.5-1.7 ohms, and use one strand of yarn in the coil. Each strand of yarn has four fibers running in it. For the flavor wick, I use 2 fibers on top of the coil. This has been working great for me, and no leaking.
As others, said before, give the cotton some time to fully soak up the juice. And for the record, if I am going to get a dry hit, I would rather have one from cotton than silica. I can't take the silica taste, myself.
As others, said before, give the cotton some time to fully soak up the juice. And for the record, if I am going to get a dry hit, I would rather have one from cotton than silica. I can't take the silica taste, myself.
Guys, yesterday I built my first 3 coils using 30 gauge, 8 wraps on a 1/16" drill bit, nice tight coils with resistance at 1.8 to 2.1Ω. Just enough cotton to pull through before moving the coil. They're firing fine, good vapor production, no dry or burnt hits, but the flavor is not coming through, and sometimes the flavor as just plain bad. All my cotton has been boiled and rinsed twice.
This morning I replaced the cotton in one of them with 2 twisted strands of the legendary "Peaches & Cream" cotton yarn from Walmart. It's a slightly looser fit, and the results may be a bit better, but still not getting the flavor I'm accustomed to with a good stock silica wick/coil.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
This morning I replaced the cotton in one of them with 2 twisted strands of the legendary "Peaches & Cream" cotton yarn from Walmart. It's a slightly looser fit, and the results may be a bit better, but still not getting the flavor I'm accustomed to with a good stock silica wick/coil.
Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
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Yeah I can't stand the taste of a dry hit with silica, ocassionaly with my Evod I will forget where my juice level is and take a drag and I get that horrible silica taste, burns my nostrils and tastes just disgusting
are you sure you were using organic cotton on the first couple of builds? That's odd because you should be getting amazing flavor with cotton, hopefully someone will come along and help out a bit more with this.
One of the major benefits of vaping is supposed to be that we're not inhaling smoke from burning tobacco. Well, you know, cotton burns, and while it may not be actually flaming inside that red hot coil, even if it's well saturated with juice, some of those fibers have got to be at least slowly burning, and we're inhaling it. Got to wonder if that's a good idea?
Did you build a standard coil, or a micro-coil? [For newbies who might not know the diff: A standard coil has a small space between each wrap but no wraps should be touching. A mico-coil has no space between wraps, and every wrap must be touching but not overlapping.]
The word is, micro-coils are supposed to deliver more vapor and flavor similar to a sub-ohm coil. In my limited experience of building both standard and micro-coils, I find the micro-coils do produce great vapor but have very muted flavor. I don't know why that would be, but it's been my experience with every m-coil I have built, including the ones I use in my dripper. I get much more flavor out of a standard coil.
So just wondered if you happened to build a micro-coil, and if so, I'd suggest trying a rebuild with a standard coil and see if you can tell a diff in flavor.
Personally I don't believe cotton does burn when juice-saturated... but even if someone lit a cotton shirt on fire and I inhaled the smoke, that's nothing compared to tobacco with all its chemicals. Plus the wick I use is organic cotton (no chems or additives) and cotton cannot physically burn when wet. Not in an e-cig unless you zapped it with so much power the juice would be flaming too.
I just don't see this as any kind of issue.Less clear (imo) is silica. When I take the silica wicks out of the new heads to rewick with cotton, the silica wick does not come out in one strand. (It does when wet, but not when new and dry.) It comes out in fully hairs like bits of goose down. And people often DO get dry hits with silica as it doesn't wick as well as cotton. So I can see an argument being made for the possibility of inhaling silica motes over time with enough vaping and dry hits here and there... and even if it doesn't make it to your lungs to do any real damage, I know for me it irritates my throat even when it's wet and "working correctly"... which makes me wonder if it's always releasing fiber. Cotton is made of long interwoven fibers that don't come apart like that.
All to say, I'll stick with cotton.
Ahhh, we believe what we want to believe...
I agree that silica is not immune from suspicion either, but some of your premises re cotton ("even if someone lit a cotton shirt on fire and I inhaled the smoke, that's nothing compared to tobacco with all its chemicals") are a tad far fetched.
Now, can someone tell me how to make a cotton coil/wick that doesn't taste like socks?
I agree that silica is not immune from suspicion either, but some of your premises re cotton ("even if someone lit a cotton shirt on fire and I inhaled the smoke, that's nothing compared to tobacco with all its chemicals") are a tad far fetched.
Now, can someone tell me how to make a cotton coil/wick that doesn't taste like socks?
1.Clean "sterilized" or boiled (with some, boiled no matter what) cotton.
2. Keep it wet. Dry = burning gym socks from hell.
Simple huh. ;-)
I guess you'd describe what I built as micros. They might not be touching, but they are very close together. How do you do a "standard" coil with cotton? And can you remove/replace the wick?
I built nice tight coils (close together, if not touching), 8 wraps of 30gauge with resistance at 1.8 to 2.1Ω. Just enough cotton to pull through before moving the coil. Saturated with juice before replacing the air tube. They're firing fine, good vapor production, no dry or burnt hits, but the flavor is not coming through, and sometimes the flavor as just plain bad. All my cotton has been boiled and rinsed twice.
This morning I replaced the cotton in one of them with 2 twisted strands of the legendary "Peaches & Cream" cotton yarn from Walmart. It's a slightly looser fit, and the results may be a bit better, but still not getting the flavor I'm accustomed to with a good stock silica wick/coil.
Well, with silica people have often wondered if we inhale some of the silica fibers but who knows? If the cotton is completely saturated then it shouldn't be burning period. Regardless, vaping is still imo a much better idea than smoking, even with the few concerns I look at them as being quite minor in the grand scheme of things.
For my Protank II I use 32 Gauge Kanthal and a 5/4 wrap which normally comes out to about 1.7/1.8 ohms. This is wrapped on a 1/16" inch allen key and I tug on the wire to ensure it's as tight as possible around said key while wrapping. The cotton wick is ran through after the rebuild is complete and is 100% removable without damaging the coils.
I tried P&C cotton yarn and now it just sits in my stash. I moved back to cotton balls. I unroll the cotton ball, divide it in half and then divide the two halves in half to give me 4 quarters. I press on each of the quarters to even them out and remove stray pieces of cotton and lumps and then I twist from one enough to the other. I now have 4x 6-8" pieces of cotton wick ready to go.
Cotton doesn't really have a taste so to speak, but letting it set in your juice for 5-10 minutes is generally a good idea.
I tried P&C cotton yarn and now it just sits in my stash. I moved back to cotton balls. I unroll the cotton ball, divide it in half and then divide the two halves in half to give me 4 quarters. I press on each of the quarters to even them out and remove stray pieces of cotton and lumps and then I twist from one enough to the other. I now have 4x 6-8" pieces of cotton wick ready to go.
Cotton doesn't really have a taste so to speak, but letting it set in your juice for 5-10 minutes is generally a good idea.
My builds are almost exactly the same. I use CVS organic cotton and dont boil. Other than the boiling part my only suggestion would be to try a slightly smaller cotton wick. Mine dont get tight enough to ever pull the coil and I dont roll the cotton as tight as possible when I roll them. So dont over squeeze the cotton and make it so it just fits perfect, not thick where it is hard to pull through at all. Best of luck! oh one other thing, I try to avoid the flavor wich on top of the coil cause i think that does mute the flavor a bit.
I start with lower volts but after about 10 vapes move it up to the same volts as the silica.
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