Do you stress test your wicking?

[Kazuko]

Hi everyone,

I got my first RTA yesterday, so I'm right at the beginning of the learning curve for how to wick it right. I have a bit of experience with RDAs, but they're obviously much more forgiving.

So, I built it last night for the first time, got it vaping at a kinda low wattage (29-32W, for a .19 coil), tried chain vaping it and it was really fine, until this mid-day, when I had my first dry-ish hit on it. Until then I was really hyped that I got it right the first time, it was obviously too good to be true ><
So anyway, I rewicked it a bit differently, and it'll probably fail on me during the afternoon. I put more cotton, and I vape very very high VG juice (5/95), so I'm kinda expecting it, but hoping it'll last a fair amount of time.

Now, I figured that tonight I should try some wickings, and really stress test it at high wattages to see if it works well, but it may just be stupid if I don't end up using it at high wattage, revealing wicking issues that I wouldn't ever have. But also, it should fail much quicker, should it fail at all, thus allowing me to try something better, instead of finding out when I'm out (at work, for instance).

Is it something you guys did or would recommend? Or is it just plain stupid and prone to make every damn wick (including ones that would succeed at usual wattage) fail on me?

 

[score69]

I personally have no need to 'stress test' my wicking to see how hard I can push it. Why?

If it performs well for me the way I vape, I could care less if it will work at wattages higher than what I use. I also see no need to just chain vape it 15 pulls in a row to see if I can force a dry hit. I never do this in real life.

As long as it keeps up with the way I use it, that's all that matters to me. There are so many variables (especially with RTAs) that can affect wicking, leaking, etc, I prefer not to care about factors that don't affect my vape style. If I can wick an RTA so that it doesn't leak, and vapes well for me, I'm not going to mess with it any further.

 

[Kazuko]

The point in stress testing it is to see much faster if the wicking will hold up. If it does then I've just burnt a lot of juice and gunked up the coil, but then I know the wicking was done right and I'll just have to do the same. If it doesn't and I'm still at home in my building mood, I can try something else.

I don't wanna find out my wicking doesn't actually wick right when I just got to work, and spend painful "smoke breaks" trying to get my nicotine shot avoiding dry hits. I don't like to carry more than one mod when I go to work, so I'm kinda paranoid that the one I pick will fail on me, if it can't keep up with a bit of chain vaping, my breaks won't be super fun...

 

[Letitia]

When I first started playing with rtas they didn't go to work with me, I took my tried and true tanks. After I figured out what wicks worked then they were used out & about.

 

[Myk]

No.
If you got a dry hit as your wick got used and swelled and your solution was more cotton you will probably get a dry hit earlier. Dry hit means you need more feed, less wick to choke it off.
Instant dry hits could mean more cotton is needed, not enough in contact with the coil.
Of course there are other counter intuitive things that control feed like wick too deep in the feed holes on Zeus/Themis decks chokes off the feed when you might think it would draw more in but those are more specific to the atty.
Since you're talking RDA it's mostly how much wick is in the coils and how fast liquid can get into the wick that's inside the coils.

What I do is try to build when I have time to make sure it's a good wicking before I have to go somewhere for an extended period of time. It's another good reason to have many set ups and don't rebuild them all on the same day.

 

[Kazuko]

The first wick was really thin because I've heard/read a lot about wicking my particular RTA (Geekvape Ammit 22), lots of people suggested to be really light on cotton for higher VG juices. When I took it out though, it looked really way too thin for my coil, based on what I have experienced on my RDAs, so the dry hit I got was no real surprise.
I tried more cotton this time because I know it will work fine with the coil, I'm not so sure about the juice flow however, so yeah, I don't have much hopes for this build...

I kinda rushed it, coming to work with this setup. The truth is I got into RDAs mostly to practice building before getting to RTAs, and I don't feel secure walking around with my squonk kit, I'm using the Pulse 24 on it, and I tend to oversquonk it and geek a minor leaks every now and then.

I could just stick the DR SQ on the Pulse BF, as I virtually can't oversquonk it, but as a compulsive buyer, I wanna use and abuse everything new I get
I'll see how it holds up for the rest of the day, depending on the success of the wick, I'll see if I wanna stay ballsy and carry the RTA out tomorrow, or if I'll play it safe with the DR SQ... Time will tell!

Anyway, thanks for your feedback, I wasn't sure stress testing it would be a good idea, and I'm glad I asked you guys before getting to it!

 

[Myk]

The first wick was really thin because I've heard/read a lot about wicking my particular RTA (Geekvape Ammit 22), lots of people suggested to be really light on cotton for higher VG juices. When I took it out though, it looked really way too thin for my coil, based on what I have experienced on my RDAs, so the dry hit I got was no real surprise.
I tried more cotton this time because I know it will work fine with the coil, I'm not so sure about the juice flow however, so yeah, I don't have much hopes for this build...

I kinda rushed it, coming to work with this setup. The truth is I got into RDAs mostly to practice building before getting to RTAs, and I don't feel secure walking around with my squonk kit, I'm using the Pulse 24 on it, and I tend to oversquonk it and geek a minor leaks every now and then.

I could just stick the DR SQ on the Pulse BF, as I virtually can't oversquonk it, but as a compulsive buyer, I wanna use and abuse everything new I get
I'll see how it holds up for the rest of the day, depending on the success of the wick, I'll see if I wanna stay ballsy and carry the RTA out tomorrow, or if I'll play it safe with the DR SQ... Time will tell!

Anyway, thanks for your feedback, I wasn't sure stress testing it would be a good idea, and I'm glad I asked you guys before getting to it!

A solution is to carry 2 for a backup.

I've had some of my light wicks seem like they collapsed away from the coil after a lot of use. But I do TC on everything so didn't notice it giving a burnt hit.

 

[mimöschen]

No matter how thick your juice is, the cotton is allowed to be quite tight in the coil. Not overly so of course.
What obstructs the juiceflow more, is too much cotton in the juice intakes. Thin out the end of your wicks a bit more and you're good to go.
But don't overdo it, else you might end up with flooding your deck or even leaking through the airflow holes.

 

[puffon]

wicking my particular RTA (Geekvape Ammit 22)

Try not putting all the wicking through the juice deck holes.
Sometimes that's a choke point.

 

[Kazuko]

Try not putting all the wicking through the juice deck holes.
Sometimes that's a choke point.

Yeah I read it's a bad idea on this RTA, I really just let the wick ends lay on the deck.

I just rewicked it, usual tightness I'd put in an RDA, but I cut the tails quite short, fluffed them out quite a bit, gently settle it on the deck, and then I kinda pushed it from the bottom of the juice channel using the angle tweezers (the ones from the Coil Master kit).
I tried to be as chirurgical as possible, making sure there was no airflow obstruction, no pressure applied on the wick that'd make it choke the juice, but that it still covered the whole deck, slightly pushed away from the bottom of the hole.
I primed it, filled it, now I'm letting it drink some juice, and we'll see how it goes!

 

[sonicbomb]

Too much juice flowing you may get leaking, too little and may get dry hits. It's a balancing act that is unique to each device and particulars of your individual technique.
If the wicking is too tight within the coil and also if the tails are too long this may cause too little juice flow. If the wicking is to loose and the tails are too short then you may get spitting and leaking.
The juice viscosity is obviously also a factor.

Experimentation and engineering finesse is part and parcel of getting a good vape.
Stress testing? If it works for, just do it. If it's a good technique then report back with your findings and add value to the hive mind.

 

[Kazuko]

The wicking worked like a charm yesterday evening, got even a bit more flavor (but I also recentered the coil a bit, I had it a little off-centered to set it closer to the side airflow, but decided to try full centered above the bottom airflow).
Then, this morning, it leaked twice... I think the tail length was right, but I may have thinned them out too much, or maybe it was just the poke through the juice hole, dunno.
I guess stress testing wouldn't identify leaking problem though, so it may not be a golden idea. I'll just do like the rest of y'all, and go through the painful trail & error phase.