I've been fine tuning the tester I received from SBD. The portion that press fits in to the top of the ARO coil is a tad longer then the ARO piece on mine. I'll get a grinder to it this weekend to get it to the same spec, then try it with a straight drop in coil from the stash of ARO heads I have. Basically, with this portion long, it chokes the wick. And due to the draw being very loose, no real suction pulls more juice into that choked wick. Lose-lose situation.
So last night, I pulled apart the flavor wick and laid just enough strands on top in order to loosely fill the void when the top tube is pressed in. Once I did that, it was able to wick marginally well. It wouldn't keep up with chain vaping even with a loose fill of silica.
Now I've been a cotton guy ever since getting my first Kayfun Lite about half a year ago, and cotton wicks much better than silica in general. Not to mention, just about any coil _you_ make will likely be better than anything that comes out of China. So I built a micro coil, 30 gauge, 8 or 9 wraps around a 1/16" bit. That was situated in the ARO cup very easily. I threaded a proper amount of cotton (cotton ball) thru the coil, then cinched it all up. After a few pulls (still an airy draw), it started to flood. This is a testament to how well cotton wicks. Broke it all apart and laid a fluff of cotton on top of the coil as a flavor wick, essentially trying to increase the amount of cotton trapped by the top tube part. I vaped on this for a number of hours yesterday evening and thru the night and this morning with no dry hits, and no flooding. Oh, and the flavor was ridiculously good! Far far better than any carto with this juice.
Now on to the draw. This is my one and only complaint at this time. I spoke with SBD over PM regarding this, and agree that if there was a restriction, it would have to be prior to the coil so that it would increase suction of juice. I honestly feel this should be there if you're trying to make this a simple drop in an ARO head stock and go. The silica just doesn't keep up with low suction.
What I would propose is making the threaded bottom piece a bit longer. The draw could essentially be adjustable in a sense. If you thread that part very tightly to the ARO head, that would be maximum airyness®. If you unthread it about a half turn or so, this would tighten the draw up a bit. There's play in the silicone washer where this piece mates up to the ARO head flange, so the seal would still be present.
Any thoughts?
