fc-2000 porous ceramic wick

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LuV2SkRaTcH

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Tankecigs ships their wicks in a small poly vial, not sure if others do too. I fill them with 50% PG and 50% VG which gives a tad of a head-start to break them in.

I think we've all broken 1 or 2 to get a little reality adjustment on how they need to be handled. In my book, a cost of the learning curve.


May not be be mutually exclusive based on capillary attraction, the definition of a wick itself.

Yeah I'm usually very gentle, I just didn't notice that the tail end hooked onto the screw head. Mine came 3 in each tiny container with a piece of paper in it to keep it snug. My initial thought was I'd have to vape this piece of paper and my ceramic wicks would magically appear in my tank... Lol j/k! But yeah the containers looked like it was either made for it, or for maybe a drill bit.

Either way, I'll hunt down some pg/vg to soak them in. I don't want to waste my delicious juice on it. But if you guys soak your wicks, do you still hot wick them? Or do you soak, then light it, hot wick, then soak again before installing them?

For my brand new wick that I had installed, I torched the wick, let it cool, hot wicked it then torched the rest of the wick and dropped some juice on the whole thing and let it sit like that for a few minutes (my butane torch has a locking feature to help, but it gets super hot). Then I threw it all in my ac9.

And! Does the hot wicking process take some life away from the kanthal? The quick drop in the resistance got me thinking about that.
 

gdeal

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Funny but the only wicks I ever broke were those in the ZAU or the ones I was trying to make for the ZAU. I have 2 DIDs with the original fc and the first EHW that I made the day after Elias came up with it, never touched them since... I forgot they were rebuildables, just ran them under water once. Looks to me that maybe the fc doesn't need engineering as much as the ZAU does...

From a marketing perspective this is a bit strange. Usually the bigger name, Zen, would have a stronger role in the relationship. FC-2000 doesnt need Zen. It seems that Zen needs FC-2000. Unless, there are a whole bunch of other ceramic wick makers coming on the market. Maybe that new german ceramic wick really is that good....
 

SteveW

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From a marketing perspective this is a bit strange. Usually the bigger name, Zen, would have a stronger role in the relationship. FC-2000 doesnt need Zen. It seems that Zen needs FC-2000. Unless, there are a whole bunch of other ceramic wick makers coming on the market. Maybe that new german ceramic wick really is that good....

If you watch that whole video Zen says a number of surprising things. He says if anyone wants detailed design specs for his buttons and threads they are welcome to them and he will provide them. He says the Chinese will imitate it anyway so he wants to encourage more home grown imitators to stimulate the local market. Nice way of looking at it I thought. All of his designs will be "open source" to anyone who wants them.
 

Hello World

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Yeah I'm usually very gentle, I just didn't notice that the tail end hooked onto the screw head.
My first and only broken wick came about that way. I should have removed the o-rings first to check the fit. Never dawned on me then, now I carefully check everything before installing the wick.

But if you guys soak your wicks, do you still hot wick them? Or do you soak, then light it, hot wick, then soak again before installing them?
A good idea to follow all the recommendations. I usually just hot rinse them for a while, but you can boil them too. Not sure if they recommend torching them as well. But you can get them all prepped, and leave soaked in PG/VG for a couple days or so before using them. I have had one soak for a month now, just haven't gotten around to installing it.

Does the hot wicking process take some life away from the kanthal? The quick drop in the resistance got me thinking about that.
Shouldn't to the best of my knowledge.
 
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DSmooch

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From a marketing perspective this is a bit strange. Usually the bigger name, Zen, would have a stronger role in the relationship. FC-2000 doesnt need Zen. It seems that Zen needs FC-2000. Unless, there are a whole bunch of other ceramic wick makers coming on the market. Maybe that new german ceramic wick really is that good....

yeah, listening to the highlights of the agreement, it doesn't sound like a very binding commitment for the fc guy...
What I like about this is that the respectable ZEN is giving it an official go; I don't know how you guys feel about it but it kinda feels good to me to have that kind of approval.
 

Elias

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I guess a bolt and stainless mesh wrapped around it doesnt wick either, well at least the bolt doesnt wick and to some degree the mesh doesnt either but the juice gets up there, really a technicality as to what the juice does to get up is irrelevant as far as I am concerned, the main thing is does it reach the coil so that it gets heated up and we can vape it, heck if a ceramic tube and a wire dropped in it worked then thats what I would use... how the technical term as to why is of no significance to us so long as it gets where it has to go....
 

gdeal

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yeah, listening to the highlights of the agreement, it doesn't sound like a very binding commitment for the fc guy...
What I like about this is that the respectable ZEN is giving it an official go; I don't know how you guys feel about it but it kinda feels good to me to have that kind of approval.

This is all good with me too. The more validation and more names in the game, the better end product we get. I just hope the chinese dont start flooding the market with mystery materials.
 

MikeE3

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Funny but the only wicks I ever broke were those in the ZAU or the ones I was trying to make for the ZAU. I have 2 DIDs with the original fc and the first EHW that I made the day after Elias came up with it, never touched them since... I forgot they were rebuildables, just ran them under water once. Looks to me that maybe the fc doesn't need engineering as much as the ZAU does...


Mate, 100% with you on that one. You have a knack for summing things up in a single sentence my friend, well done!

I'll add my 100% agreement too. The ZAP/ZAU/Zen caps are not ceramic friendly - be nice if they were tighter so a light bump didn't dislodge them, but then a tighter cap would make it even touchier to take off.
 

DSmooch

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Rauschert Ceramic Wick:

Rauschert seems to be a high-tech ceramic manufacturer

The english brown vs the american white eggs kinda dilemma...which one taste better?
I just vaped vertically on a goodol fc to check; besides feeling awkward, the "conduit" was a pretty dam good one :D
Also I'm romantically involved with fire fighter twist now !
 

SteveW

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pushing wouldnt work that well. any variation in the core would allow it to crack under pressure. i was thinking more of molding it around the pin during production.

Same problem I suspect. Different materials have different expansion coefficients. If the expansion of the steel core is not the same as the ceramic e.g., more rapid, it will simply shatter the wick from within. Very hard to match different materials.
 

LuV2SkRaTcH

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Same problem I suspect. Different materials have different expansion coefficients. If the expansion of the steel core is not the same as the ceramic e.g., more rapid, it will simply shatter the wick from within. Very hard to match different materials.

What if it bored out and the stainless steel was pressure fitted with ceramic rope?
 

vapdivrr

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I recently got my ceramic through a co-op, but based upon what I have seen and read, the ones I have compared to the original have a rougher texture and are much lighter than a similar sized fish wick (not sure vs originals). I think Vap mentioned the texture change earlier. The FC-2000 performs like it has more open space in the wick than the fishstick. Probly the number one reason why its working better. Not to confuse "wicking" with "working".....they both dont really wick that well... but they do delivery the juice!

I forgot to mention to you guys the other day when I spoke to mr. fc-2000, he did mention about zen adding ceramic wicks to all his gennys, also if you guys like the openness of the newer, more recent fc-wicks, there is even a newer design coming in the next couple weeks, these will even be better. he stated that he has been trying to perfect the right amount of open area for maximum performance, which he says this newer batch is the best so far. I haven't watched the new video yet, but from what you guys are saying about the ceramic not wicking contradicts my talk with da man. he told me that when testing these wicks for wicking, one of the tests is just to simply add a small cotton ball on the top of the wick and drop it into some juice. he said in the upcoming wicks, this time is by far the fastest, sounds like wicking to me. I believe the heat of the ceramic counter acts this capillary action of the ceramic, so initially the wick does wick, but unlike ss mesh wicks, the ceramic get hotter and stays hotter for longer, thus drying out the juice on the wick. I also believe that this is why the smaller 3/32 wicks perform better, they do not get as hot and the heat is dissipated quicker which ultimately might make them wick better. maybe a better term for the way a ceramic wick works is by absorption or maybe its adsorption, I think its the latter.
 
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vapdivrr

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Rauschert Ceramic Wick:



Rauschert seems to be a high-tech ceramic manufacturer


elias did this vertical wet burn a while back with the same results on our wicks. is this rauschert wick supposed to be different to fc- wicks? It might be a 4 Ω coil at 4v, and at very low wattages the coil doesn't glow
 
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