Cotton wick longevity

[spawnsharks]

So, I have recently started re-wicking my ProTank Mini with cotton. It seems that I have to swap out heads every two tanks or so. On a mini, at that. I start gettnig a burnt taste, and since it's so easy to re-wick them, I just keep a half dozen or more on hand, and re-wick as a project.


Is this normal?

I have tried thinner wick, thicker wick, tight twist, loose twist.. I think I have it down.. Sort of a thicker wick with a medium density twist.... No leaking, no need for a flavor wick (although the burning happens either way with or without the flavor wick)

 

[JayEatsAirplane]

Are you rebuilding the coil every time or just replacing the wick?

 

[spawnsharks]

just replacing the wick... I do a dry burn. Each one has only been rewicked twice thus far.

 

[spawnsharks]

I guess I should add that I am using them on an eGo twist... at 7.5-8w (2.2 ohms @4.1V)

 

[Grammie]

Are you using VV? Setting that to high maybe?

I'd try it at a lower wattage. On the itaste with pro mini, I'm running 1.8 coil at 3.4v and it tastes great, lots of flavor. I'd try it at 6w and go up from there.

I just changed the wick on one of the mini's last night that's been going strong for 1 week (5-7 tank fulls). The flavor hadn't diminished but I wanted to see how the cotton was holding up. So while I had it apart I just replaced the cotton. Dry burned the coil until it was glowing really nice again and replaced the cotton. Juiced it up before putting it back together, then put it right back in the tank.

 

[DRock]

Bare in mind i have never used a protank, but if you chain vape a cotton wick and it gets a bit dry and burns, the burnt taste is there to stay until you re-wick. I use cotton on an RDA and if i go too long without dripping i have to rewick or the taste is never the same. Im not sure how well a protank wicks though so this may not be the issue. I also am vaping on a .7ohm microcoil on a mech with 3.7v batteries, so its a pretty hot coil.

 

[JayEatsAirplane]

just replacing the wick... I do a dry burn. Each one has only been rewicked twice thus far.

Gotcha. Well, with cotton, once you burn it it's burnt and needs to be replaced. You won't get a clean taste after that.
If you've found the right amount to use as a wick, then keep it. Just make sure you don't let your liquid get too low so that they're not fully saturated causing them to burn. They should last you a little while longer. If not, no biggie. Cotton is cheap and it's much easier to re-wick than it is to re-coil every time.

May I ask what kind of cotton you're using?

 

[JayEatsAirplane]

Bare in mind i have never used a protank, but if you chain vape a cotton wick and it gets a bit dry and burns, the burnt taste is there to stay until you re-wick. I use cotton on an RDA and if i go too long without dripping i have to rewick or the taste is never the same. Im not sure how well a protank wicks though so this may not be the issue.

This too!

 

[spawnsharks]

Yep. Once it's black, it won't go back. Meaning burnt, of course. I guess it must be liquid levels, I will watch them closer...

Great advice up here.

 

[Grammie]

You can always draw without pushing the power button, that will help keep the wick wet. If you pull too many times you'll get the wick to wet and hear some gurgling.

 

[JayEatsAirplane]

Yep. Once it's black, it won't go back. Meaning burnt, of course. I guess it must be liquid levels, I will watch them closer...

Great advice up here.

Good luck!

 

[Alter]

I'm lucky to get a few days out of my protank microcoil with cotton wick, so bout 15mls. I did the microcoil (9 wraps 30 guage) and its awesome but it a serious juice hog and I was going through over double the juice I was with regular coils. I went back to wrapping regular 5 wrap 32 kanthal coils with cotton wicking and I'm getting 5-6 days, 25+ mls before the coil starts to loose performance from gunking up. I don't go as far as burning the wick before I change out the cotton.
This morning it was -3 celsius here and I got my first dry hit from my juice being too cold to flow properly and now I know what burn't cotton tastes like and YUK, I almost barfed, I haven't had a dry hit in months since I used a CE4 with my starter kit. Going to have to take better care of my PV outside so that doesn't happen a 2nd time.

 

[Myrany]

I change the cotton in my microcoil on my RM 2 every few days. I end up doing this not because the cotton is bad but because I need to dry burn the coil clean of juice gunk. Very simple to yank out the cotton ->dry burn-> insert new cotton and vape on.