Oh heck, I'm sorry. That wasn't very clear. I meant the first wrap of the coil. I use a kayfun with a single coil of 28g.
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Ok different story then. Yes a little PG will help, you can also thin with distilled water. That will help with the wicking.
Then, how dark/sweet is your juice? And lastly, how are you wrapping that coil?
There has to be a reason that you can only get one day off a coil in a KF. That isn't even close to the norm with that topper.
I do know that a lot of folks try to get way to fancy with what they build for a KF, that topper doesn't need anything wild & crazy for a build.
My build looks like this before I mount it.
I then dry burn & pinch the wraps into a micro style coil after it's mounted. Then just make sure that the coil heats from the center out before adding juice.
You also want to wrap with a wire/small paper clip as well as the wick. That way when you remove the wire the wraps will be loose around the wick.
The simple reason that I don't use cotton is because you have to mess with the coil every time you want to change out the wick.
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Just be aware that cutting it in half to cut the nic level will also cut some of the flavor.
I typically order any juices at twice my usual nic and with an extra "flavor shot" to get around that, then cut with an equal amount of zero nic in my preferred PG/VG ratio. While not cutting the cost in half, it's close
Might be shorted turns at the hot end of the coil, so examine closely. The whole thing should heat up. And that could also be part of your gunking issue. (Although of course some flavors just do it...) Since the whole coil isn't heating, there's likely to be a lot of unvaporized but burned juice on the rest of the coil and wick.
After building, but before wicking (I use cotton), and AFTER checking the resistance, I'll test fire any new coils. If they don't heat evenly, I'll correct that before putting the wick in. When I want / need to open up to clean, say for changing flavors, I'll take out the wick, clean and dry burn the coil, and pop new wick into it. One of my KFs has had the same 1.2 Ω coil in it for somewhere close to two months, now. (When taking out a used wick, snip it off flush - or close - to one side of the coil, and pull it gently out the other side.)
Wish I could figure this out. VG juice thinned with 13% DW and 5% saline. Peppermint or vanilla flavoring mixed at .5%. I test the coil to burn evenly when I install it so all is well then. Organic cotton wick.
Next time I recoil (later today) I'll burn the coil before I remove the wick and see if it is still glowing uniformly. But there is always such a thick layer of gunk on it. I've learned to wrap about a dozen coils to have on hand to save time. When they're pre-wrapped all I have to do is install and wick. But still….daily is a royal pain.
Next time I recoil (later today) I'll burn the coil before I remove the wick and see if it is still glowing uniformly. But there is always such a thick layer of gunk on it. I've learned to wrap about a dozen coils to have on hand to save time. When they're pre-wrapped all I have to do is install and wick. But still….daily is a royal pain.
Might be the saline. Salt is corrosive, and can attack the kanthal. Any particular reason you use it?
Most of my flavors run in the 80/20 or 70/30 PG/VG range. And while some say VG isn't responsible for gunking, that it's the flavors, I do find that even 50/50 will crud the coils faster for me. (A couple of my favorite commercial ones only come that way. I live with it But not a real test, since they are, after all, different flavors!)
Most of my flavors run in the 80/20 or 70/30 PG/VG range. And while some say VG isn't responsible for gunking, that it's the flavors, I do find that even 50/50 will crud the coils faster for me. (A couple of my favorite commercial ones only come that way. I live with it
But not a real test, since they are, after all, different flavors!)
Next time I mix I'll try without the saline. Worth a shot. Thanks for the suggestion.
tj99959 showed you a very good way to coil and wick a Kayfun. I've done it that way and as long as you don't clog the juice channels it's pretty much bullet proof.
Just wanted to add a couple of thoughts on dry burning coils. Here's a picture of my Trident RDA build with dual 27 gauge Kanthal coils in it that will soon be needing a dry burn:
I'm using cotton in it. This was after about a day of vaping a dark, sweet, 70% VG, 7% water juice. I would probably have gone another half day before cleaning it.
I take out the cotton. Hit the switch until a coil becomes dull red under the gunk and pulse it on and off to keep it that color for maybe 45 seconds. With two coils one typically glows before the other when they are dirty which is a complication you don't have with single coil builds. I deal with that by gently blowing on the hotter coil until the other one catches up. Of course, if you get the coil too hot it will melt, so patience is key with this process.
I then take a very small screwdriver and gently scrape some of the hard shell off the coils. I also take the screw driver or drill bit I wrapped the coils on and gently screw that into them. I feel I can get enough gunk off this way to make it worth doing this for me.
Then I continue dry burning until there is almost nothing left on the coils. The wire will never get a shine again, but you can see the metal when I stop dry burning. If it takes a while, I stop to let the Trident cool down as needed. Doing this more often makes it much easier to get clean.
Replace the cotton and it's good as new.
When I use silica I try not to take out the wick. I have very carefully dry burned the Kayfun with silica with my torch. Again you have to be careful not to overheat the wire or it will melt. This worked out very well for me but you have to be really careful not to get flame on the metal posts or you'll degrade the plastic insulator under the positive block and the whole device will get really hot. After a while I went to cotton in the Kayfun and now I use Rayon. That means I do it the same way as the Trident.
I typically get at least a month from a coil, even with almost daily dry burns. Eventually the Kanthal deteriorates to the point that it breaks during a dry burn and that's when I replace it. I believe the dry burn process is much harder on the Kanthal than vaping is, so I suspect the coils will last a lot longer if you vaped a less gunky juice than I do.
Salt is NaCl, sodium chloride. I would not vape that without knowing why I wanted to vape it and that it was safe to inhale.
It is the main ingredient in nose sprays. It is a very important component of all body fluids. You can't get much safer than that. However, like they say, it facilitates rust on coils, which causes them to burn out faster.
I hear ya 0mg Meniere. It may well be perfectly safe. I thought about people who live by oceans and the salt they probably inhale. OTOH, they are not vaping it or heating it up. AFAIK salt is not a common ingredient in juice.
I would really want to make sure it was safe. But that's me and it works for me. YMMV as always
You just have to use the sales properly....
First off, only purchase during a sale, 4th of July...then wait till at least Labor Day before another order.
Limit your order to one vendor to save shipping costs, and cut down on impulse buys.
Check around, a sale price that's higher than another vendor's regular price is no bargain.
Between sales check reviews of items on your list, you may save the total cost by not beta testing.
Avoid gimmick sales -- i.e. Buy .99 cent juice, limit 3 bottles and minimum $25 order to qualify.
If you do find a good sale, stock up on known, proven items you have bought in the past.
You just have to use the sales properly....
First off, only purchase during a sale, 4th of July...then wait till at least Labor Day before another order.
Limit your order to one vendor to save shipping costs, and cut down on impulse buys.
Check around, a sale price that's higher than another vendor's regular price is no bargain.
Between sales check reviews of items on your list, you may save the total cost by not beta testing.
Avoid gimmick sales -- i.e. Buy .99 cent juice, limit 3 bottles and minimum $25 order to qualify.
If you do find a good sale, stock up on known, proven items you have bought in the past.
Thanks for the tips. And since I have enough eliquid and DIY supplies that would last me through the summer till Labor Day I'm telling myself no I don't need to purchase anything just because there's a sales especially as I don't really have spare money right now.
Thank you. This thread really motivate me to really budget good and save instead of impulse buying.
Happy 4th to you all.
It's actually fairly common in the DIY world. Possibly with vendors too. It is a 0.9% solution with no preservatives or additives. It adds a "wetness" to the vapor. But I suppose it could shorten coil life.
As for salt, I'd have to sit back and do a few mixes in 0nic juice to really see a) what will dissolve in eliquid b) what concentration is noticable c) how long it vapes w/o bunking up the coils.
For the most part I would assume 9/10ths of one percent isn't an issue but its not a particularly clear measure.
0.9% salt in solution with water which is then mixed into the liquid, or 0.9% salt in the mix period.
Myself, I find little need to water down e-liquids in any of my devices, though I can understand if they don't wick well with very thick VG base juices.
Maurice
For the most part I would assume 9/10ths of one percent isn't an issue but its not a particularly clear measure.
0.9% salt in solution with water which is then mixed into the liquid, or 0.9% salt in the mix period.
Myself, I find little need to water down e-liquids in any of my devices, though I can understand if they don't wick well with very thick VG base juices.
Maurice
If you DIY, look for big sales 25% - 50% off and stock up. I'm currently using some of my March 2012 nic concentrate from my freezer. My very first purchase was the only one I paid normal price, found out I could actually do DIY, and stocked up on sales since....
Hi guys, uh, I'm at it again ! Yes another confession. .I saw this little kayfun lite that badly needed a new home with me, so I felt so bad, it being homeless and all I just had to give it a home. Here goes another 20 something dollars! And because I make my own e juice I needed to buy some flavors. So i did. My head is now hung in shame.other wise I did really good up to the point I bought the dna 30. Guess I won't be buying anything for the next couple of months. But really, if I compare it to what my smoking used to cost at 2 packs a day 6 dollars a pack then I'm not doing too bad. I'm not ahead by any means but I'm not really at a loss either. If I compare to smoking.
All teasing aside, if you are spending more than 5% of your income on vaping, then you are in trouble. I doubt that, given what I have seen of your past posts.
However, just watch those impulse purchases, OK?
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