Dry burning

[Spazmelda]

I've been stuck on Carto tanks for a while, but I've recently been playing with the kanger protank. It's very nice to be able to dry burn the coils on a protank to clean them up. My question is this, how many times can you dry burn and how do you know when the coil is just done and can't be dry burned any more? Can you keep going till it breaks, or does performance start to fall off before that happens?

thanks!

 

[Glen Snyder]

Got one I've been cleaning every 2 or 3 days for 6 weeks now. The thing I always get rid of is the old flavor wick at each clean & burn and replace it with two pieces of 1mm silica. Others are using cotton for flavor and/or coil wick with good success.

 

[Spazmelda]

Thanks Glen. Yes, I've been replacing the flavor wick every time I dry burn. It gets gunky, and it's so cheap and easy to replace. I have been dry burning every couple of days too, so I just wondered what the limit is and how do you know when the coil is just done. 6 weeks is a good long time!

 

[DavidOck]

As long as it still gets hot....

I, too, find the flavor wick to be worth tossing at cleaning time, and use 100% cotton yarn. One strand of it works well for me, and that ball of yarn's going to last me into the next century. Hmm, that gets me to 156, so this vaping vs. smoking sure does have some great benefits!

 

[Spazmelda]

I've seen people recommend the peaches and cream yarn. I've got some of that that I used for knitting, but it's yellow. Maybe I'll get some white and try. I've got some undyed wool, but I'm afraid it would taste like I was vaping a sheep.

I've been using 1mm silica for the flavor wick. At about 1 cm each time even 4 feet should last a while.

 

[DavidOck]

You might start a new trend with that sheep juice....

Yes, that's the stuff, peaches and cream, white. Don't know if I'd want to vape the yellow dye, either!

IME the cotton wicks faster than silica, so makes a fine flavor wick for me. When I do rewind coils, I prefer silica so I can dry burn.

 

[Glen Snyder]

As long as the cleaned coil fires red evenly on demand you're good to go. Adjust spacing as needed. Even if the coil wick deteriorates you can carefully pull the old wick out and thread a new one. An easy way is to loop your silica and a piece of wire, thread the two ends of the wire through the coil and pull the wick in place then trim the ends. I've popped a couple coils while pulsing and a couple more have shorted on me. Otherwise it's like I said earlier, if you're getting rid of all the gunk and that coil is firing quick and even it's going to perform well. At least that's my experience.

 

[Spazmelda]

You might start a new trend with that sheep juice....

Yes, that's the stuff, peaches and cream, white. Don't know if I'd want to vape the yellow dye, either!

IME the cotton wicks faster than silica, so makes a fine flavor wick for me. When I do rewind coils, I prefer silica so I can dry burn.

I don't think that will be a trend I'll join. I'm just imagining the smell of burning hair, paired with the smell of sheep. Uck.

I need to try the cotton flavor wick. I plan on even trying the cotton coil wick eventually, but I do like the convenience of a dry burn. I've read that some people pull the cotton out, dry burn and then thread new cotton into the coils. So, obviously it can be done. I'd have to try it to see how difficult is is. Eta: I see glen just posted a tip on how to do that.

 

[Glen Snyder]

This is as good as I could get with my webcam on how to use the wire to thread the silica wic. The guys using cotton wick seem to be fasioning their wick then wetting it a bit with juice to thread it by hand. Hope this helps.

 

[Spazmelda]

I think understand the concept. It's similar to those little needle threaders that sewers use.

 

[Glen Snyder]

I think understand the concept. It's similar to those little needle threaders that sewers use.

View attachment 233917

Yep, even better if you have one of those

 

[Zipp]

I think understand the concept. It's similar to those little needle threaders that sewers use.

View attachment 233917

Brilliant! I may need to pick one of those up this weekend.

I just wanted to add that when dry burning, it's like cranking up the heat on an electric stove when the element gets dirty. You'll stop it from smoking and putting out a nasty smell/taste, but it leaves ash behind. Don't forget to rinse it clean after you're done dry burning!

 

[Spazmelda]

Brilliant! I may need to pick one of those up this weekend.

I just wanted to add that when dry burning, it's like cranking up the heat on an electric stove when the element gets dirty. You'll stop it from smoking and putting out a nasty smell/taste, but it leaves ash behind. Don't forget to rinse it clean after you're done dry burning!

Yes, I've been putting them in an extra juice bottle and shaking with water. I rinse it like that a few times and then dry it off as much as I can. Seems to do a good job. I was boiling them after dry burning, but I think just vigorously rinsing them does a good enough job.

The needle threaders are crazy cheap. You can get a whole pack for a few dollars. I don't know that they'd be any better than just using some extra wire you have laying around though.

 

[DavidOck]

You can also use the floss threaders, like those used by folk who have bridge work. They're as easily available as sewing needle threaders, just as cheap, have a bigger eye and a longer shank for threading.

Also, a twist of teflon "plumber's" tape around the end of the wick will make it nice and pointy, and comes off very easily, since it doesn't have any adhesive.

 

[Alter]

I got a few cool DIY supplies from a sports shop that handled fly fishing DIY, nifty itty bitty forcepts and the yarn threader pictured earlier but a more heaveir duty one. As long as your out them go to a vet and get some syringes and needles I find them very usefull in many cases to empty old protanks, evods and refill with new juice.
If your stuck and in a pinch, you can use a Qtip cotton, just remove the old wick, leave the coil intact, twist and insert into the coil when its still on the base. That was my very first attempt at recoiling a protank and it was the best vape I've ever had since it was my first attempt at rebuilding. Once you get the hang of rebuilding coils, you'll never use the stock heads again. The real trick is how to properly dryburn and not have it smell burn't and once that happens your wick is prolly toast, you never get that burn't taste out no matter how much you burn, boil, soak and scrape. I don't soak the heads, I just rinse off in hottest water, dab as much water out with paper towel as I can and march forward with dryburning and it so far has done me good.

 

[HDVaper]

This is as good as I could get with my webcam on how to use the wire to thread the silica wic. The guys using cotton wick seem to be fasioning their wick then wetting it a bit with juice to thread it by hand. Hope this helps.

View attachment 233916

Doesn't this method pull 2 wicks through the coil doing this? Can you pull the thickness of the doubled wick through the coil without ruining the coil? I'm kinda thick, maybe I'm missing something here. Can you help?

 

[DavidOck]

Yes, it does. You might be able to pull one strand back out, but easier to just use wick that's half the size you really want. Once installed, you may want to snip the loop and, of course, trim both ends to fit.

 

[HDVaper]

Yes, it does. You might be able to pull one strand back out, but easier to just use wick that's half the size you really want. Once installed, you may want to snip the loop and, of course, trim both ends to fit.

Oh I get it now...thanks!!

 

[iceman68]

Doesn't this method pull 2 wicks through the coil doing this? Can you pull the thickness of the doubled wick through the coil without ruining the coil? I'm kinda thick, maybe I'm missing something here. Can you help?

Good question, I was wondering the same thing.

Yes, it does. You might be able to pull one strand back out, but easier to just use wick that's half the size you really want. Once installed, you may want to snip the loop and, of course, trim both ends to fit.

Good answer. I have no idea about wick sizes but for instance, if my Kanger T2 coil wick is 2mm then I would get 1mm wick and use this method? By snipping the loop it essentially creates 2 wicks but of the same size as the original single wick. And then I guess I would just replace the flavor wick with a new one of the same size.

I'm just trying to figure this out. I've done a little dry burning, rinsing, and reassembly but would like to start replacing wicks and eventually work my way up to rebuilding coils.

Thanks for all the good tips in this thread.

 

[DavidOck]

Yes, that's a workable method. It's not the only method. You can put a tight warp of teflon tape on the wick to make a point, and thread it through. Use the final diameter wick if you do it that way.

I find one strand of the (in)famous Peaches N Cream 100% cotton yarn works well for the T3, Pro and Evod flavor wick. I think the factory is actually 2 strands of 1mm silica, but not positive on that.

Other than replacing the flavor wicks on the Kanger BCCs, you probably won't have to rewick until / unless you recoil. I find on top coil units the wick will start to shred out over time, no matter how careful I am cleaning.