are you sure the bad cotton flavor isn't burning, when you change your cotton is there black where your coils are?
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eHuman, any pics of your micro coil setup? I haven't found the right setup either when I moved to 28ga. It has been pretty harsh so far. My first build with 30ga was pretty awesome though. I guess keep experimenting til you get your desired results.
Hmm... I liked this idea. Nice. Would like to know how it goes on day-2 and thereon. The only issue is with Taifun the SS wick becomes a 'direct feed' juice channel, while with Kayfuns it'd need to rely on that 'U' cotton loop that u threw in at its ends.
That EkoW topper by Pablo was just an additional 'help' to the SS, even without it the wick would work. But, here it's being indirectly fed. I'm as eager as others to see your pics, and to know it's performance sometime onwards. I think, as u said, it'd work... I'm enthusiastic about it... would want to try (what with that one meter of SS sheet lying around!)... Thus, pls update us further.
I get a degree of muted flavor from my KFL no matter how I build/coil/wick it.
But, I've never gotten a 'cottony' or burnt/nasty taste from cotton in it either (unboiled, sterile, 100%).
When it comes to cotton, less is more (unless you get a metallic taste, then more is more).
Only 'roll' enough to poke through the coil- leave the rest fluffy. Pull far enough through that you can trim off the rolled bit, leaving only the fluffy.
Cotton is absorbent enough that it only needs to be touching the deck - it doesn't need to run along it. Capillary action is stronger over shorter distances than longer as well.
Once cotton burns, its done - rewick the coil. Don't let your tank run dry.
I read in another thread someone observe that rolled cotton is more 'mellow' than cotton balls. I was skeptical - cotton is cotton (assuming 100% cotton). I'd only used rolled, so I tried a cotton ball. Turns out I was wrong - the cotton ball was noticeably 'sharper', and I liked it that way. But if you've been using cotton balls, maybe you'll like rolled better?
No it's not burning. Cotton is as white as it started when I change it out trying a different thickness, length etc. Just tastes like sucking on a cotton ball. No yummy goodness normally attributed to my strawberry red rots DIY juice.
I used 1/16" blunt needle (I forget the gauge but I mic;s the diameter) Doesn't leave much room for a wick. You do seem to be describing a smaller wick than I am using though.
I am using rolled cotton, my tails along the deck but not covering the juice channels so per your advice they can be shortened. Maybe I will try going thinner than is intuitive. Might be I am choking the coil even though it goes in easily?
I use shreds from a cotton ball. And leave it fluffy, as fluffy as possible... nothing rolled. Just make one of it's ends moist and 'pointy' to pass it thru the coil. Pull it slowly, very slowly, b'coz any slight pull could disintegrate it. I hope you understood how thin and fluffy our cotton wicks need to be. My builds are performing exceptionally on both my KFLs.
I use a 1.6mm allen key for a cotton micro - so if anything the resulting coil is slightly bigger (the diameter of the points would be wider than the diameter of the flats).
Yeah, I'd try shorter. And making sure the part in the coil is still fluffy, if you aren't already. Maybe try going thinner and thinner until you get a metallic/coil taste, then go back one "step" thicker. If those don't work for you though, then I dunno...
Yeah, I'd try shorter. And making sure the part in the coil is still fluffy, if you aren't already. Maybe try going thinner and thinner until you get a metallic/coil taste, then go back one "step" thicker. If those don't work for you though, then I dunno...
You're not alone. I've had wicking issues on and off (mostly on) since I got mine. Here lately, I just operate it like I would a bottom feeder... take dry pulls to get juice into the chamber and vape until it gets dry again. That cotton taste is the cotton being too dry. I've tried smaller wicks and larger wicks.. I've tried longer tails and shorter tails. I've tried it with tails barely touching the deck, I've tried tails going half way and then all the way across the deck. Maybe I'm not sucking hard enough when I vape it? But when I try to take large draws.. well, it's not comfortable. Last night I added some silica in the chamber to maybe help with the wicking and now this morning, it seems to be wicking better.
A couple weeks ago I had a wick that gave a fully saturated vape for 3 days..no wicking problems at all. I though I finally had this thing figured out. When I changed the wick I tried to make it exactly like the one that was in it but it didn't wick well either. Since then, I've resigned myself to "squonking". Sometimes it seems I'm obsessed with seeing air bubbles float up LOL. I had the same coil in it for a couple weeks and thought maybe I needed a new coil... so I changed the coil.. but still, it kept getting dry.
Even though I'm disappointed that I can't seem to get it to wick (consistently) on it's own, I'm still thrilled with the device and glad I bought it. I figure this will be the same as all the other stuff I've tried.. a month or two of "what am I doing wrong" and then all of a sudden it starts working and no more problems. I remember carto tanks.. a couple months of flooding, dry hits, tearing my hair out and then suddenly.. success. It was the same thing with mesh wicks and genys.
I've read where people talk about inadvertently covering the air hole.. I purposely cover the air hole to get juice up into the chamber. Not all the time, but occasionally when it starts to get dry. I've even thought about packing it up and sending it down to Florida to let Rule or vapedivr play with it to see if there is actually something wrong with mine.
My issue is obviously juice not getting up into the chamber on it's own but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to get it there without manually doing it. I'm not dumb at this sort of thing.. I've been rebuilding for a year now. I'll figure it out eventually and then I'll marvel at how I even had any problems but for now, I'm content squonking it LOL
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Yeah, I really am at a loss, Donnah. It sounds like you are doing all the same stuff that vaprdivrr, qorax, or I am doing. For me, it boils down to two things. The height of the coil above the air hole, and the amount of cotton used for the wick. I tried yarn a week or so ago, and found it not to be as good as cotton balls. Nothing else was different. I threaded the yarn through the same coil I previously had cotton ball cotton in. It lead me to believe that the reason the cotton yarn wasn't as good was because the yarn is twisted tighter than the fluffy cotton I usually use. I believe the same is true with ekowool and silica. Neither one wicks as well as cotton. They both work. Just not as well.
^Well said. I was left fumbling for words too reading Donnah's woes. She has done everything right and it should've worked - as it did on ours.
You mentioned coil height. What's a good distance, and what effects do you notice when it is too close, and when it it too far away?
I thought I had it down this morning vaping like a champ. Not full flavor but no cotton flavor. No apparent wicking issues, then all of a sudden full on burnt cotton. Just re-wicked and primed it and letting it ferment for a few minutes before I try it out.
I thought I had it down this morning vaping like a champ. Not full flavor but no cotton flavor. No apparent wicking issues, then all of a sudden full on burnt cotton. Just re-wicked and primed it and letting it ferment for a few minutes before I try it out.
I find that if the coil height is too much, the vapor production is less, and the throat hit is greater. The closer it is to the airhole, the vapor will be greater, and the throat hit will be less. But we're only talking fractions of a millimeter. If it's too low, it will whistle, which can be annoying. I keep mine just slightly lower than the tops of the screws.
I'm positioning the coils this way:
Aligned to the bottom of the screws, around an mm from the Air-Channel.
Aligned to the bottom of the screws, around an mm from the Air-Channel.
Thanks
I'm not frustrated or discouraged (OK..maybe I was at first) even with wicking problems, it's still great that I can take it out and not worry about leaking and keeping it upright. As long as I keep the chamber saturated, the flavor is great, just what I was looking for. I marvel at the posts I read where people slap a coil and wick in it and it works perfect with no dry hits. I've got a Russian 91% on preorder and I'm eager to see how it works (and wicks) in comparison to my current kfl. I'm sure that my wicking issue is just something that I'm consistently doing (wrong) It's a puzzle that I'm having fun solving.
What do you know photobucket did the trick.
On day two of SS mesh wick & cotton & first refill of tank. Vaping marvelously.
On day two of SS mesh wick & cotton & first refill of tank. Vaping marvelously.
Personally, I get the least-muted flavor from putting the coil as close to the air hole as I can without shorting. I also mount the coil under the legs - the times I tried coil over legs, I got less everything (less vapor, less flavor, less throat hit).
Here's a quick re wick I did this morning. The coil is not new. It has been in use for probably 6 weeks. I just dry burned it and brushed it off.
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