Inside the Drunker Tank

[adeline]

I was thinking about that last night, and I couldn't think of any way to do it that would be satisfactory. I think the best thing to do is just squeeze out as much juice as possible and replace the wick.

Well I combined two of my favorite things, the drunker and my ultra sonic cleaner. Just put the whole atty head and caddy in there with wicks still in. At first I saw a lot of gunk get knocked loose.. But the coil is still pretty icky. Unfortunately this means I have to let the cheese cloth soak all over again.. I'll let you know if it was worth the effort.

Kind of makes sense to buy a 2nd Drunker.. Jussayin.

 

[donnah]

All I can tell you is that mine has totally lived up to everything Donna, Adeline, and Mack has said about theirs. If I had to go to one device then I would choose the Drunker because it does it all.

It's really nice when I get something and it exceeds my expectations. It's usually the other way around! I like using different things but if I had to choose just one, my drunker would get the "best all around" award

 

[MiamiMom63]

Thanks for the great thread. I've never done rebuildables and was wondering what to get that is similar to the Vivi Novas I love. I will order one and check back on this thread as to how to build a coil. Great job on the pics!

 

[JD1]

JD I noticed I can't get a solid ohm's reading with my multimeter using the battery connections. So I always check the ohms at the grommets after installation of the coil and get accurate readings. I'm thinking it's because the connector base is stainless steel.

I think I'm going to wrap some non resistant legs on my next build because my favorite 33 awg kanthal is very high ohm's (1.46ohms per inch) and each leg alone is half an inch. So the legs alone take up one inch of wire and a 1.8ohm coil of my 33 AWG is 1.23 inches. I'm thinking the best way to splice the wires is after installing the coil in the cup. I'm excited to learn and build a mini wire welder from a camera flash.

Stainless steel would explain it. I hadn't thought about that. The good news is, you can pull the pin and grommet back out and inspect everything, then put them back, even after you've snapped your wire down to size.

 

[MiamiMom63]

I've been reading and studying forever on rebuildables. Could you please tell me if I order the drunker from COV, what wire and cotton can I get easiest for a beginner that doesn't require boiling and will give me about 2.5 to 3 ohms? And I'm not certain what is going on when you mention cheesecloth. Is that being used instead of cotton? Honestly, I think the rebuilding will be easier for me if I can just figure out what wick and wire to use. Thanks and sorry if I'm being stupid. Please be gentle with this old lady. Lol. I've been dying to learn.

 

[MiamiMom63]

COV has .16mm and .20mm nicochrome wire. Can I use one of those?

 

[adeline]

I've been reading and studying forever on rebuildables. Could you please tell me if I order the drunker from COV, what wire and cotton can I get easiest for a beginner that doesn't require boiling and will give me about 2.5 to 3 ohms? And I'm not certain what is going on when you mention cheesecloth. Is that being used instead of cotton? Honestly, I think the rebuilding will be easier for me if I can just figure out what wick and wire to use. Thanks and sorry if I'm being stupid. Please be gentle with this old lady. Lol. I've been dying to learn.

I think the most popular wire is kanthal, 32 gauge. I use 34, but I aim for higher ohm coils (2.5-3ohms). There is nichrome wire and kanthal wire, and I've used both. The main difference is how much of each metal is present in each. There's a good wire sticky at the top of the RBA forum.

I never boiled my cotton balls, but unless you can find cotton that was never bleached, boiling is recommended to wash away anything from the manufacturing process.

Cheesecloth is cotton .. I use that for a wick sometimes!

Popular cotton wicks:
cotton balls
cotton rounds (100% cotton pushed into a circle shape, usually sold as makeup remover pads or something)
cheesecloth
I've even seen folks pull the cotton off of their Qtips and use that! (might not require boiling either)
Cotton yarn

Whatever you get, make sure it's 100% cotton.

There's an entire cotton wick thread here: http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/rebuildable-atomizer-systems/355501-different-cottons-different-wicks.html?highlight=cotton

 

[adeline]

COV has .16mm and .20mm nicochrome wire. Can I use one of those?

Yeah either of those would be fine. the .20mm is 32 gauge, the .16 is 34 gauge.

If you pulled an inch of each to make your coil, the .20mm would give you a lower resistance (ohms) coil than the .16 ..assuming both coils used the same amount of wire. Does that make sense?

Hope that helps!

 

[MiamiMom63]

Thanks a lot! I will get 34 kanthal and it's good to know I can use the cotton balls I have. I can't wait to try this. I will check back later when I do. I have spent today breaking down a lot of nic into smaller bottles for my freezer and have Vapes a long time, but still have been sort of afraid to rebuild. Your pics made it seem clear and easy to understand.

 

[JD1]

.. But the coil is still pretty icky. ....

Drip two or three drops of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), then flush with water. The water will completely flush it, but even if it didn't, h2o2 turns to water with heat. Nothing beats it to freshen things up.

I'd like to post the methods I used to build mine, using some links to the 'different cottons' and some other threads. Would that be ok?

 

[Ansah]

Alcohol soak for a couple of days?

 

[adeline]

I've rebuilt my drunker with 500 mesh wicks. I always seem to burn my cotton. Reading here, it's probably because I don't let them soak long enough.
I hade the vcore mentioned earlier in this thread and it was a vape monster, but it leaked. The first one saw extensive use and ended up cracking at the bottom threads and leaking. The second one leaked from day one. I trashed them both.
Then I saw the drunker, wierd looking,no bottom threads and possibly the cure for my vcore.
And it is a cure...another vaping monster. With mesh wicks, feeding it into the holes is easy.
With silica or cotton, try wrapping the wick tips in saran wrap, make the tip skinny, thread and pull off the wrap on the other side.

I can't believe I missed this post!! Hopefully you come back to this thread, because I would LOVE to see how you have the mesh set up in this! Pictures please...!!

 

[adeline]

Drip two or three drops of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), then flush with water. The water will completely flush it, but even if it didn't, h2o2 turns to water with heat. Nothing beat it to freshen things up.

I'd like to post the methods I used to build mine, using some links to the 'different cottons' and some other threads. Would that be ok?

hehe, I'm not the posting police. Go for it!


Shame I already have the coil and wick soaking. I do use H2O2 to rinse off a coil after a dry burn, but I worry about letting it absorbed into an already wicked coil. Thoughts?

 

[adeline]

Alcohol soak for a couple of days?

Might work, I just don't want my tank out of commission for that long. I mean, I suppose I could dig out my VVNs and rebuild, but other than that, I'm tank-less!

 

[JD1]

I've been reading and studying forever on rebuildables. Could you please tell me if I order the drunker from COV, what wire and cotton can I get easiest for a beginner that doesn't require boiling and will give me about 2.5 to 3 ohms? And I'm not certain what is going on when you mention cheesecloth. Is that being used instead of cotton? Honestly, I think the rebuilding will be easier for me if I can just figure out what wick and wire to use. Thanks and sorry if I'm being stupid. Please be gentle with this old lady. Lol. I've been dying to learn.

You've came to the right place, and there's no such thing as a stupid question, so ask away lol.

In my opinion the drunker is a great choice for a beginner because the ceramic cup eliminates the possibility of the coil shorting against the metal slots as in the vivi, stardust, redux, etc.

 

[oplholik]

WTH. Still not delivered, maybey Monday? I think the PO dropped the ball on this one.

 

[MiamiMom63]

I ordered 2 drunkers and found the 34 gauge kanthal at Mountain Oak Vapors. not sure if my cotton calls are bleached but I'm assuming they are. I guess tomorrow I should boil them.

 

[MiamiMom63]

Since I have a Provari, I don't need to have a meter to check the coil, right?

 

[MiamiMom63]

I was actually looking at the drunker at our Vape meet last weekend. Bruce from COV was there with it. Ever since I've been looking online to get more info and see the reviews. Glad I found this thread

 

[adeline]

Since I have a Provari, I don't need to have a meter to check the coil, right?

Nah, not really. I have one, and use it anyway.. But it's just for peace of mind, and a first safety check. I recommend them, but likely you'll have to pick one up at yet another vendor. I have a $20 one and it's fine. Could have gone with the $10 one and been just as happy.

But just be sure you do TWO things before you test on your ProVari:
1) If you already have wick in your coil, put some juice on it so you don't totally burn up your wick while scrolling through the menu to AO
2) Turn the voltage WAYYYY down before scrolling through the menu to AO. Just in case!