Kayfun cotton taste?

[chiliphil1]

Ok, this may be redundant. If it is I apologize. I am using an eh pro kayfun clone and I am having some issues as of late. When I got it I was building my coils around a screwdriver about 9/64" and of course had tons of wick with that big of a coil, but at the recommendation of this forum I started using 5/64" to wrap, I am using 30g kanthal. I have been having an issue with it since I switched over and that is that I have a pretty bad cotton taste on a fresh wick and get quite a bit of "dry" hits, not completely dry but certainly not full flavor either. I also have to replace my wick every other day because it is charred so badly. I didn't have any of these problems with the big coils. I have definitely seen an increase of performance since I started making them smaller in terms of how hot the coil gets and how quickly it heats up but I think I was liking it better the other way.. I am using an MVP2 BTW running at 11W.

I made this post to ask for some tips, what can I do to make the experience better with the smaller coils? I know most if not all people use micro coils but my cotton just doesn't seem to handle it. So, how do you guys do it?

As an additional note, I am using as much wick material that I can fit through the coil but with such small coils it isn't a whole bunch.

 

[Dshobe]

Do you wet the wick before screwing the chimney on?

 

[MattyTny]

9/64 sounds pretty big, you can still use a large coil I.D. like a 1/8 or a 7/64 drill bit. Others will suggest a smaller internal diameter since you'll get more concentrated heat/vapor while staying in your resistance range, but there's a ton of information left out like what resistance you should run, what gauge kanthal you should use and how many wraps in your coil.

I build my KFL+ on my MVP2 and for horizontal coils I like using a 14 gauge syringe needle, which is 2.11mm. I use 28 gauge kanthal and I found 9-11 wraps to work well for the MVP2. You could go smaller in diameter down to a 1.5mm if you wanted. The reason why I suggest 28 gauge kanthal is because you'll get more wraps in to hit your target resistance instead of using thinner wire, less wraps, and having a lot of concentrated heat on one spot of the wick.

Now the next step is wicking. When you draw in the kayfun you change the pressure in the tank, pulling air through the chamber, forcing liquid to feed onto the deck and wick. You know you're wicking when you see an air bubble rise from the bottom to the top of the tank after a draw. So the best way to get the liquid from the deck to the coil is having a nice wick tail just touching the deck, not too puffy because it there will be more material for the liquid to travel though. You want to keep the juice channel clear too, no wick inside the juice channel. As always, slight resistance when wicking with cotton, not too much where it pulls your mod around, but not too loose where you can easily pull it though.

I have been trying vertical coils lately and I love it, but the horizontal works well too.

Check out this thread to help with your kayfun wicking
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/tutorials/503153-kayfun-3-1-microcoil-cotton-guide.html

Check out this to aid you in building a coil for your kayfun
Steam Engine | free vaping calculators

Also wanted to add, I like to stay around 1.5-2.0ohms on the MVP. The MVP works well in that range.

 

[kitten frenzy]

Possibly packing the coil too densely with wick.

 

[Smann245]

Thicker juice needs bigger coils to keep up with wicking. Not sure if that's going on here. Thin wire and small diameter coil is gonna mean more heat. Thicker wire, bigger coil, less power or a combination of these will help. If you happen to be using max vg like me, you're gonna have to go to a bigger coil. I had to move up to a 7/64" bit when I quit using pg in my juice.

 

[ElConquistador]

Just to add to the confusion, I've also had similar problems when I didn't use ENOUGH wick! My standard setup is a 1/3 ohm micro coil, 7 wraps of 30 gauge Kanthal around a 1/16" +/- mandrel, then wicking with organic cotton pad, split in half, and cut into a strip about 3/16" wide. I do the "bunny ears" with the wick, trimmed about 1/8" above the lower part of the chimney, then tucked down to the sides of the air channels and wetted down prior to reassembly/filling. My problems have all but disappeared. If I do get a touch of a dry hit, I plug the air hole and take a little puff or two (without firing) to pull juice up to the coil.

 

[roxynoodle]

My suggestion is to try a coil in between. I used 3/32" in mine.

 

[USMCotaku]

The symptoms toy are describing all point to using too much cotton on your coil. You should be able to pull the wick through the coil with only a slight drag. As cotton gets wet it will expand. Using too much means it can't expand and the juice has no way to move up the wick. Cotton is one of the trickiest to wick with as far as proper amount to use, too much and you get that bad linen flavor, too little and you get immediate hot spots and burnt flavor, not much tolerance in the just right zone. I haven't tried any yet, but I have read good things about rayon as a wicking choice. It doesn't expand like cotton, so it's hard to use too much. It supposedly wicks well with good flavor.
Sent with one hand, the other is busy vaping.

 

[CloudKick]

You can keep using cotton, you're just using too much. Make sure it glides when you pull it from either side. No pun intended

 

[duc916]

All these recent Kayfun threads have inspired me to wake mine from the dead and do a build on it.

I just finished this 28 ga. dual-coil, 8 wrap, 3/32", 0.75 Ω (1.5Ω a piece), KGD cotton, and it's putting out more vapor/flavor than I've ever gotten from it! ... and I've done A LOT of various build iterations on it trying to make it NOT suck. Somehow I managed to brainstorm this build and just do it and it came out freakin' awesome. I'd swear if it had more airflow, it would give my Orchids a run for their money. That's not something I ever thought I'd say about a Kayfun.

I'm kind of in juice conservation-mode until xmas season is over, so I'm probably gonna (try to) stick with this atty and bench the Orchids for the next few weeks. We'll see how it goes...

 

[USMCotaku]

I also did a new kayfun build today. I did the Clapton build. 32 gauge wrapped around a straight piece of 28 gauge. 6 wraps, 1.2 ohms.... My god this build rocks!

Sent with one hand, the other is busy vaping.

 

[jambi]

As an additional note, I am using as much wick material that I can fit through the coil but with such small coils it isn't a whole bunch.

I've traced back every issue I've had with the Kayfun to using too much wick, and it doesn't take much to be too much.

It's hard to describe 'how much wick' in words. It's more like a feel. I know I have the right amount when it pulls through the coil with a bit of resistance, but not so much that it bunches up, or that I feel compelled to put my finger on the coil to hold it in place while I tug the cotton through. If it bunches up or feels like it's creating a 'pinch point' at the coil, I start over with less cotton.

It also shouldn't be too loose. I get the cotton 'snug', completely touching all the space inside the coil, but still able to be nudged in either direction with a soft tug. If the cotton is highly compressed into the coil, it seems to restrict the flow of liquid. Also, contrary to what I've seen on a lot of YouTube tutorials where they tightly roll the cotton strip prior to inserting through coil, I prefer to only roll one end, so I can thread it through. The rest I leave 'fluffy.

Also, rather than install the chimney and stuff the wick down into it afterwards, I leave the chimney off, saturate the wick, and then carefully trim / position it so it's just lightly touching the deck surface (ala RipTrippers). It works ok the other way too, but it seems like, when I install the chimney first and then stuff the wick down, the cotton actually ends up restricting flow because it's sitting compressed IN those little juice channels and not allowing liquid to enter freely. I also taste the cotton a lot more/longer, when I jam so much of it down like that.

The cotton taste...the more cotton, the more you taste it. Saturate, assemble, fill, let it sit a few, hit it, be prepared to taste cotton for the first few hits as the wick breaks in, and I'm good to go.

Coil...I use 28 gauge wrapped on a 2.2 mm (slightly larger than 5/64) drill bit. 28 holds its shape better and is for me far more durable than 30. I got sick of ending up with perfect little 30 gauge 'springs' (boing) every time I tried to make a nice tight coil. Recommend that gauge as a far superior starting point for your wicks.

I hope all that makes sense.

 

[chiliphil1]

Thanks for all the replies guys.. After reading all of them it certainly seems to me that too much cotton is the issue. When I was building the bigger coils I never worried about how much I was using, just put in in till it moves back and forth and then cut, but since using smaller coils I have been trying to get "as much as I can" in there thinking it wouldn't be enough. I can definitely see that causing an issue and would make sense since I have only been using this approach since making smaller coils.

For the next one I think I may twist the 30g and then use the same smaller bit then wick just enough to touch the deck. Typically I put the lower part of the chimney on and then cut the wick at the top, I take it back off and wet the wick and press it to the sides of the block where the coil mounts and "fan tail" the coil making sure I don't cover the juice channels. I put the lower chimney back on and look down into it to again make sure the channels are clear, at this point I generally will take a needle and press the wick ends tight to the block, fire the coil, and wet with juice again, now I assemble and fill.

I have really had general good results with this kayfun and I haven't regretted it but I have certainly realized that it is a temperamental b*tch! When I bought it the wick was the killer, I could wrap a coil but it took a while to figure out wick, but I think I have always erred on the side of too much. I have definitely had to drain it and re wick on many occasions but I had figured it out until I changed over, but I think you guys are right in the fact that it's too much and it would make sense considering when a smaller coil is "pinching" the wick it won't absorb properly, I can also say that it makes sense too that this coil gets so hot so fast and being so thin it would just burn a single spot which is what seems to be happening.

Thanks again for all the help I will re try this wick, like I said above I think I will twist some wire, this 30 has been a headache since the begining, next time I shall buy 28!