Cotton wick on an iClear 16!

[poptart141]

Just thought I would share my little experiment. I was noticing that with the standard included silica wick on the 2.0 ohm iClear 16 head, I couldn't really run it beyond maybe 4.2 volts before it would quickly burn up. So, I thought I'd grab some organic cotton and replace the wicks.

After disassembling the iClear 16, I cut the silica wicks short on one side so it would be easier to remove them. I then carefully worked them out of the coils.

The coils had quite a bit of gunk on them, so I popped them on my iTaste VV V3, set it to 3.7 volts, and lit up the coils to clean some of it off.

Then I took a couple of fairly thin strands of organic cotton and inserted them into the coils. Cut the wicks to size, put everything back together, and filled it up with some Niquid butterscotch e-liquid.

I can now say that it performs and wicks MUCH better, and the cotton brings out more of the butter flavor from the butterscotch. So, if you're feeling a bit let down with the performance on your iClear 16, I recommend giving this a shot!

 

[GemCutter]

After months of lurking, this is the thread that finally got me to join ECF, so I could tell you how awesome it is. Of course I had to post in the newbie forum five times but here I am, haven't tried the cotton yet but you inspired me to take my 16 all apart and clean it good and it's working like new again. When the wicks are too far gone I am def gonna try this. Awesome stuff man!

 

[OldSeer]

Innovations as already shown with the cotton wicks... can be so much fun to share...

I took the IClear 16... and cut the Wicks to half there original length...
Then (lightly)... using string from a Tea Bag...
I wrapped and tied (the left over hanging Wicks)
against the AIR shaft... so they're not all spread out inside of the tank...

Now the Tank HOLDS more E-Liquid...
With the same usual tilting....
The speed of fluids WOW!!! DUAL COILS... get E-Liquid to them much, much QUICKER...

The FLAVOR is improved so much betttttttter.... and the Vapors are outstanding....

Coils last as usual... and pretty easy upkeep.

 

[GemCutter]

So another week and my 16 was producing some really funky flavors, time to go for it, the top wick was fairly difficult to remove even cut in half, but I got it out of there. With no wicks it was really easy to dry burn it to glowing and get ALL the gunk off, some more finicking and got the cotton replacement wicks in.


I wish I re-read the thread so I could try the tying up of the wicks. Although some pics would be nice, not quite sure I have a good grasp on what you mean Seer, but I think I get it, tying the wicks up above the 1.6ml line.

My wicks got all twisted fitting them in so there are some air pockets but I am going to try and straighten them.



RESULT: HOLY CRAP! The flavor is really much much better and I can take a long vape and not get any burnt, dry, or weird flavors. The bag of organic cotton I bought should last through a genuine FDA Apocalypse. I thought this batch of Apple Pie was lacking but it is much nicer.

The best part was feeling of pride I got from improving this inexpensive little tank, wets my whistle for rebuidables. Overall awesome and really quite fun, Thanks Poptart!

 

[poptart141]

Thanks for the replies!

OldSeer, that's a pretty clever trick. Since the time of posting this thread, I have largely moved on from the iClear due to the high difficulty of being able to replace the coils manually, as opposed to buying tons of new coil heads. But I do still have them and may decide to give your trick a shot at some point.

GemCutter, I'm glad this helped you out! Organic cotton can be iffy -- some retailers (Walgreens, in my case) advertise them as organic, but they are still artificially whitened with hydrogen peroxide. It gives the wicks a really weird taste for the first few drags, but eventually it goes away.

Anyway though, have you tried the Kanger Mini Protank 2, or the Kanger TS3 clearomizer? They use the same coil heads and are bottom coil tanks. The awesome thing about this is that you can completely rebuild the wick AND the coil in those heads, so you technically don't need to buy a bunch of extra heads. Ever. They're about the same price as the iClear 16, at around the $5-$6 range.

 

[Eranda13]

OMG I was just thinking about this on the way home from work tonight!! We have a snow day coming up and I'm totally going to try it. What have I got to lose??

 

[Auxx]

I just re-wicked my CE4 with cotton... Oh my! Now that's a totally different beast! I'm loving it!

 

[defdock]

wish i would have seen this before i tossed my old iclear heads... bring back life to a GOOD classic.

between these and T2's - they are the best top coil clearos i ever used

 

[billybc96]

Surprisingly, I'm still rather fond of the iClear 16, though I haven't really been using them all that long. The T2 was my previous favorite top coil clearomizer, but a BSC glassomizer like the EVOD nearly beats that hands down these days.

I like the iClear better than an EVOD (as good as those are). I think it delivers pretty good performance, even when compared to a Nautilus Mini tank, or to what a beginner like me can do with a Kayfun type RBT.

My issue with most any kind of topper is getting good wicking and flavor from the high VG juices I pretty much have to use. Diluting with some distilled water helps, but I'd like to try this organic cotton trick on one of my iClear 16s.

Assuming you used cotton balls for your wick supply, about how much (across) of the width of a pealed off length of cotton ball did you use? For my 2mm inner diameter 1.6 ohm micro coils on the Kayfun, I use about 1/4th or 1/5th the width. The iClear's coils look to have a smaller inner diameter though, so would I use less than about 1/4th?

I'm actually not doing that well with wicking my own coils for the Kayfun. Building the coils themselves is fairly easy, when I have the time, but I tend to get dry hits with my high VG juices. That's one reason I tried out using the iClear 16s in the meantime. They are working out well enough, so I'm not even sure if I should try improving on them. Still, if I can get them to work even better, what the heck, eh?

 

[RPackerII]

I have a bunch of iClear 16's and this may just be the way I keep them rather than pitch them. What is the cost on organic cotton compared to replacement parts ($3 at our local vape shop)?