KF Dry hit

[Vicshalls]

I have three KF clones that I love. I just got my third one from a local shop. Not even sure who makes it, but it is a nice build. I have been fine with the other two I have. Building the coil ok, the wick has been good. No issues. Then I get this third one. I build my coil like the rest. This time I put a little less wick in it. Then the dry burns start coming. Ok so I drain the juice and take it all apart and replace the wick with what I normally put in the the other two. Put it back together start to vape life is good then all of a sudden dry burns again. Ok so put it up cause it is getting late and dont want to break a window when I throw it out. Next day. Get home drain it again. Read that I could have the coil too far off the deck. Ok so take the coil off. Build a new one. Make sure it is not too far off the deck and not too close to it either. Put my normal wick back in life is good once again. Then boom more dry hits. Unscrew the top watch the bubbles come up. Screw the top back down and works again. Then guess what?......yep dry hit. Unscrew the top again. More bubbles. Wick is good again for a bit then dry hits again. The only thing I know for sure that I have done diffrently is fill it from the bottom. The other two I have filled from the top and have worked like a charm. I just dont get what I am doing wrong with this one. The wicks just are not keeping up. Any advice? I am booked up the next 3 weekends in a row to the point I cant get to a shop for any help. I have looked at the deck and it seems the chanels are deep enough. What else could be going on?

 

[mrdeltoid]

While the juice channels looks ok I would double check by sucking air straight from the chimney piece while covering the airhole and afc to make sure, then do the same thing with one of your working KF's to compare.

 

[xxtigerxeyesxx]

have you tried opening your airflow control a little more .I have noticed with mine i have to open it up for thicker juices. what is your mix ratios

 

[YuckMan]

Are you using a mech? My R91 had bad insulators and shorts everywhere, but the provari wouldn't even fire it. Replaced the insulators and all was good.

 

[Vicshalls]

I have the screw out in the air hole so I know that should not be my issue. I will try the blowing air thing and see what happens there.

 

[Vicshalls]

It is firing fine on the provari. There are no jumps on my build. I did make this last one a little higher than I like them, but the other one was where I like it.

 

[mrdeltoid]

If it turns out the new KF's juice channels are shallower than the two others I would play with the afc. Generally, by tightening up the draw more juice gets pulled into the chamber with less effort.

 

[xxtigerxeyesxx]

then maybe 1 of your o rings is bad and you are losing vacuum make sure your chimney is reaching the o ring in the topcap .

 

[mrdeltoid]

then maybe 1 of your o rings is bad and you are losing vacuum make sure your chimney is reaching the o ring in the topcap .

Wouldn't that result in flooding rather than dry hits?

 

[Vicshalls]

I did have the screw in there and man it felt like i was trying to suck a golf ball through a straw.

 

[xxtigerxeyesxx]

no if u lose vacuum you wont get juice you will get dry hits

 

[xxtigerxeyesxx]

the tank pulls you juice with vacuum . other option would be ur packing you wick to hard against the channel preventing juice flow

 

[mrdeltoid]

I'n my experience, breaking the vacuum leads to flooding and not dry hits. Try holding a filled KFL upright and without covering the airhole open the top cap, i guarantee it will leak out the airhole

 

[VapieDan]

This may be obvious but is your wick blocking the liquid channels? I scrunched some wick down just a tad too much and got intermittent dry hits.

 

[Vicshalls]

I'n my experience, breaking the vacuum leads to flooding and not dry hits. Try holding a filled KFL upright and without covering the airhole open the top cap, i guarantee it will leak out the airhole

when i do that then it wets the wick and i am good to go. I dont open it all the way just a little. it seems like there is too much vacuum.

 

[Vicshalls]

I will mess with the wick when i get home tonight and see if that helps things out. If i set it down for a bit then it runs fine til about the 10th hit then it is dry again. Burnt cotton so does not taste good. lol

 

[YuckMan]

What diameter coil? I like 2.5mm because I run 100% VG. I get some dry hits if I go with a 2mm coil.

 

[Vicshalls]

I am just using cotton yarn. So I am not really sure what the dia is on it. The first round I took one strand out of it and i figured that was too little so i kept it in there like i did on the others but still have the dry hits. if i was not at work i would break this down and see if the wick is just messed up. I will tear it down again tonight and replace the wick and maybe re do the coil since it is higher than i like and see what happens then. maybe i am just craming up the chanels.

 

[YuckMan]

You can add another strand of wick to the coil, and just cut the extra to the same length of the coil so it doesn't pack down into the liquid channels. If your coil is already pretty big, you may just be wrapping the wick too tight. I usually use some sort of mandrel like a screwdriver to wrap around. If I'm just going around a wick, I'll usually add something to my wick to ensure I don't wrap too tight. Like an unfolded paper clip or a syringe tip, then pull it out after the wrap and you won't choke your wick.

 

[folkphys]

Something clogging the drip tip hole? Open top => wick bubbles. Closed top => no bubbles. Sounds like there is too much pressure in the airflow system. Something clogging the air intake or bottom center pin? Try a different drip tip with a bigger bore and see what happens.