Cotton wick lovers, tell me your secrets

[trishdadish]

I have been vaping about 8 months. I've been rebuilding my mini viva nova for about 1 month. I'm using glassfibre wicks (1mm) but it just doesn't seem to give me enough juice. I've been curious about using cotton, but I know there are certain things one must do to go this route, I just have very little idea. Anybody want to give some advice on ......
1.type of cotton, yarn, ball, etc
2.bkeached, or unbleached? if its white is it safe?
3.preparation methods?
4. tricks of the trade?
5. why it works best over other materials you have tried?
6. what to avoid at all costs?

 

[dnrtn2342]

I have been vaping about 8 months. I've been rebuilding my mini viva nova for about 1 month. I'm using glassfibre wicks (1mm) but it just doesn't seem to give me enough juice. I've been curious about using cotton, but I know there are certain things one must do to go this route, I just have very little idea. Anybody want to give some advice on ......
1.type of cotton, yarn, ball, etc
2.bkeached, or unbleached? if its white is it safe?
3.preparation methods?
4. tricks of the trade?
5. why it works best over other materials you have tried?
6. what to avoid at all costs?

1. I used a ball of yarn from Walmart think peaches n cream brand white.
3. Cut off good chunk boiled in water for 30 mins. Let dry on paper towel.
4. No dry burning at all whatsoever that's only downfall to cotton. Wick has to be wet it will burn quickly.5. It is up there with flavor as ss mesh, its cheaper and quicker to get wick done.
6. Like I said earlier no dry burning

 

[dohmyr]

I switched from silica to cotton about a month ago. Mainly because it was easy to source and cheap when I was shopping for bulk wick/wire. I used unbleached 100% cotton yarn...can't remember the brand off the top of my head. It was something I found recommended here on the forums. I ordered mine from Amazon, but I've seen it at Wallyworld and a couple of the local craft stores.

Mine looks pretty white until you hold it next to another white fabric. Then I can see how off-white the coloring is.

I usually cut off a couple feet and boil it for about 20 minutes and stick that length in my rebuild kit. I don't know if the boiling is required, but it's easy and certainly can't hurt anything. Then I just cut of a couple inches when needed for a build.

A couple things I've noticed compared to my silica experience. It definitely tastes cleaner to me. I've always been sensitive to the taste of fillers and wicks used in cartos and clearos. I don't get any "off" flavor at all from the cotton wicks. They don't last as long as the silica wicks did, and can get scorched if vaped dry. So, I find myself replacing wicks more frequently that the silica ones, but the cost is insignificant.

It's really easy to work with and flexible enough to accommodate pretty much any wick build you want to try. You can use it as-is off the skein, or untwist it for thinner wick, or double it up for a thicker one. You really don't want to dry-burn it to test coils, though.

Personally, I've been wrapping the coil around a hobby screwdriver and mounting and testing the coil without a wick first. Then, when happy with the coil setup, I thread a few pieces of wet yarn through the coils...as much as I can squeeze in without deforming the coils. When it dries, I fluff it up and good-to-go.

 

[trishdadish]

thanks guys seems plenty simple. ...

I did read somewhere that you have to let them soak in juice for an hour or more, otherwise they're too dry..has that been your experience?
Also, could you just use some plain pg and soak the coil/wick to test it? I could see me mangling my coil if I tried threading it through.?

 

[Norman Clature]

thanks guys seems plenty simple. ...

I did read somewhere that you have to let them soak in juice for an hour or more, otherwise they're too dry..has that been your experience?
Also, could you just use some plain pg and soak the coil/wick to test it? I could see me mangling my coil if I tried threading it through.?

I don't soak my wicks for an hour or even close to that. And certain types of 100% cotton will "prime" quicker than others. Cotton gauze soaks the juice up quickly for instance.

I say jump right in. I mostly use a 2-toothpick (or sometimes a screw) method to wrap some coil on, thread it through the RBA's poles and then thread the cotton wick in. Sometimes though I go ahead and put some cotton thread on the toothpick and wrap the kanthal around it and do a build like that before threading the RBA.

The advantage of the first method is that is if you get your coils placed correctly on your RBA you can dry burn the coil alone and then shape it how you want and check the resistance before threading the wick in and then just either dry burn or gently remove old wicks while keeping the same coil build.

Currently I'm using some organic cotton yarn from knitpicks.com, but I like just about every type of 100% cotton there is. They all have advantages/disadvantages but it's very easy to work with. I do boil the cotton; no matter what type of cotton it is. I figure it can't hurt anything.

Here's a useful write-up about the different types of wick from "Tomcatt":

MyWikkaSite: Cotton Wick Wiki

Thanks,

Norman