What does burning rayon taste like?lol
Same as cotton.
I have reservations about rayon as to how it's processed, so I am reluctant to try it.
I also have my doubts about the way cow meat is processed but I still eat steaks and hamburgers (which I probably shouldn't)
all cotton products are degummed with who knows what kind of chemical process ( which is what I think I'm tasting in all the cotton until I boil it) and rayon apparently uses even nastier chemicals to degum than cotton.
If you knew how our food is processed you probably wouldn't touch (yet alone eat) half of it.
Have you guys ever thought about the weeks that cotton plants spend there outside, day and night with all kinds of bugs crawling over them, birds ...... on those white blobs that look like bird toilets and God knows that else?
You will say, hey but it's washed afterwards!
Yes it is... Just like rayon is cleaned from anything used in the manufacturing process.
If your concerns are hygienic, get some freak fibers. They are 100% rayon that has been sterilized.
Now, to answer as unbiased as possible to the OP:
It's a matter of choosing what properties are the most important to you
Silica / Ekowool: consistent and repeatable. Once you find your best technique, you will be able to repeat that build over and over again. Silica wicks will last you a long time and you can dry burn them up to 5 times until you loose capillary action capabilities (they tend to harden with each dry burn). I find the flavor a bit muted compared to other wick types.
Cotton: better taste, cheap and always available. I find it gunking very fast. Almost needs a daily rebuild. It's too messy for me but opinions will vary. I find it hard to repeat exactly the same setup unless you have experience.
Rayon: for me the best of two worlds (and also the worst lol). It lasts a long time (my current wick has 125ml through it) and the taste is as neutral as it gets. You will be surprised how well you can taste the different notes of your juice.
It's as cheap or cheaper as cotton in the USA (Sally Beauty) but hard to find in Europe. It requires a learning curve as it doesn't expand like cotton (actually it shrinks) and it will take some time to get used to. It's not as repeatable as silica and you will take a few days or weeks to replicate success on every build.
Btw, when you get a dry hit with rayon, the horrid taste comes from the coil. Rayon actually takes much more to actually burn than we think. Just rebuild after a dry hit and wash the old rayon under running water... It will most likely be snow white with no charring.
Regards
Tony
Sent from my keyboard through my phone or something like that.