RDA Dry hits with a wet wick?

[bwh79]

What could have caused this? I'm vaping on a Magma (clone) with a single-coil, 2-strand twisted, 5/4-wrap around a 1.6mm rod (14g needle) (reads about .5-.6 ohms). I got a dry hit and thought "whoops, time to redrip." Took off the cap, and the wick was still wet. Not saturated, mind, but certainly damp. When I've gotten dry hits before and checked, the wick was bone-dry, but this time there was quite obviously at least some juice in there still. I dripped a few drops and hit it again...got a good hit or two, then dry-hit city, again. I opened her up and pulled out the wick (which got my fingers all juicy, by the way -- this was not a dry wick!), dry-burned and adjusted the coil since I had it exposed, then rewicked and put it all back together. Seems to be working fine, now, but I'm just wondering what could have caused this to happen? The coil and wick were only a couple days old, by the way, and the part of the wick that was inside the coil was just ever-so-slightly discolored, I didn't see any signs of scorching or charring on the wick at all.

 

[Fantazmagoricl]

I'm by far an expert as I have only been wrapping and wicking my own coils a few month but from my experience it sounds like a wicking problem. The wick was probably to tight in the coil and not feeding the juice quick enough, was you chain vaping?

 

[Ablonz]

The only time I have ever gotten a dry hit with a saturated coil is when the connection on the coil was a little loose on the post. Make sure yours are snug. Even though you set mods down gently over time they may tend to loosen up a little bit. Hope this helps.

 

[MattyTny]

It could be a hot spot or a loose connection, you may have worked it out when you adjusted the coils. Airflow can effect vape quality too. If the coil isn't getting enough air, it could be getting hot to the point where you feel too much heat when you vape, not a dry hit, but hot sensation.

Edit: To add the airflow thing, sometimes too much airflow can work against you. I notice if I open up one of my RTA's air and don't take advantage of the extra air I can pull though, it makes the vape noticeably hotter. Turning the airflow down to my kind of speed solves the issue.

 

[93gc40]

Wet wick on the deck does NOT equal wet wick IN the coil. If the coil boils off the juice in the coil faster than the wick can supply juice to the coil. You get a dry hit from a wet wick. In theory it is possible to get a dry hit from a fully submerged coil.......

 

[Robert Cromwell]

Wick either too loose or too tight in the coil.

 

[AndriaD]

I've mainly had problems along this line when my wick was too loose, but there's a different taste with that kind of dry hit -- a dry wick will give you the burnt-cotton taste; a dry coil (not enough wick to keep the coil wet enough) tastes like burnt metal. So yeah, the wick can be completely saturated, but if it's not enough wick to contact the coil fully, then the coil itself gets dry, and you taste that burnt-metal ickiness.

Andria

 

[edyle]

I do not know the answer, but I know with some of the bigger diameter coils, (like 4mm) the wick can tend to sink down inside the coil and not have contact with the top of the coil, then you can get some burning; but if your coil is 1.4mm, that's not very big.

 

[bwh79]

Thanks, I bet it was a hot leg, then. It was definitely a "hot metal" sort of taste, but the wick was not at all loose inside the coil.

 

[DaveP]

If I experience dry hits with a wet wick, the first thing I look for is wick fit inside the coil. If the wick is too tight it will get choked and not be able to accept the juice that's trying to enter the coil area. A wick that is to thin and doesn't fill the entire area inside the coil will give you dry hits because part of the coil is in free air. When you hit the fire button the part that isn't touching the wick can glow red or get hotter and burn a little juice.

When you install the wick and push the ends down into the coil deck, look at the coil to make sure the wick hasn't been pushed down so much that it's not full contacting the inside of the coil. When you build a coil wet it with juice before you put it all back together, fire it and look at the coil. Sometimes, a leg will glow red on the part leading to the deck screws. If that happens it will just about guarantee a bad vape.

Before you put it all back together it's good to test fire and make sure it's working correctly with no glowing parts. The ends of the wick should be touching the deck and not blocking the feed slots. If the tank can't fully feed juice to the wick, the wick will be under-saturated.