Lacking plumes aga t+

[Cwinnes]

So just got mine yesterday and have built a wick using 400 ss mesh about 3" solid fits nicely. Oxidized before rolling then after 3 times. Burned pg on it 3 times quenching in between. Wrapped 30g directly on the wick 4/5 wrap and got rid of my hot spots. Coil is 1.6 ohm at 3.6v. Also drilled the air hole to 3/64th.

It's vaping decent on my second tank. Flavor is good and so is TH. The vapor is so so with my carto tank putting out way more vapor.

Do I need more wraps or something different? Any suggestions would help.

Ignore the typos sent from my Galaxy

 

[KillTheNoise]

I had this problem, along with little to no flavor, on my first couple wick attempts.

Then a guy named Thrasher came along and recommended an un-oxidized wick setup. Since then, it's been heaven.

1. Wash mesh before hand, hot water and a little dish soap, then rinsed thoroughly and let it dry.
2. Cut your strip of mesh so the grain is going vertically, I use 500 but 400 should do just fine.
3. Run your strip through a flame (I use a bic lighter) enough to make it more rigid. You're not oxidizing, just another cleaning method really.
4. Start rolling with a paperclip, once you have it started remove the paperclip and roll tight enough to keep it together. I've had better success with a tiny pin-hole sized channel in the middle. Some use solid but I like it solid-ish.
5. Wrap your coil using the Petar K method. Use a 5/32 (maybe 7/32, mine doesn't say on it) drill bit, it fits nicely in the wick hole, and space the wraps out evenly.
6. Insert the drill bit and secure your coil to the AGA. Give it a few brief fires on a lower voltage to ensure they are glowing nicely.
7. Back to the wick...make sure it slides into the coil pretty freely, you want it to just "set" in there. If it is difficult at all to put in or take out adjust accordingly so it feels like it may slide out.
8. Use the lighter to blacken the area where the coils are, this helps with shorts. You are NOT oxidizing it, just blackening the area.
9. Once assembly is all together, fire your coil again. Adjust your hotspots GENTLY, if you use too much force you will most likely get a short. In that case, kill power to the AGA, slide your coil around a bit and give the coil a couple pokes and turn the power back on...the short should be solved. If not, slide it around again and adjust coils (it gets annoying when you can't get it, but don't give up).
10. When you get your hot spots resolved, fill your tank up around 5/8 full (don't over fill tank with a new wick, it prevents wicking from fully working from my experiences).
11. Tilt your mod around 90* and watch the wick, you're watching for juice about to drip out of the top of the wick assembly. Then burn some juice. I start at a lower voltage then work it up as I go...this helps with seasoning it, lessens break-in time I believe.
12. VAPE!


I'm not the most experienced in the RBA field, but I know what is working for me, and that's how I do it. Big thanks to Thrasher for the help, couldn't have done it without him.

The main thing on these is go slowly, be careful, and don't get angry at it. I love the un-oxidized method, won't go back to torching wicks again! Good luck bud!

 

[Cwinnes]

I will give it a shot. Thanks

Ignore the typos sent from my Galaxy

 

[donnah]

I had this problem, along with little to no flavor, on my first couple wick attempts.

Then a guy named Thrasher came along and recommended an un-oxidized wick setup. Since then, it's been heaven.

1. Wash mesh before hand, hot water and a little dish soap, then rinsed thoroughly and let it dry.
2. Cut your strip of mesh so the grain is going vertically, I use 500 but 400 should do just fine.
3. Run your strip through a flame (I use a bic lighter) enough to make it more rigid. You're not oxidizing, just another cleaning method really.
4. Start rolling with a paperclip, once you have it started remove the paperclip and roll tight enough to keep it together. I've had better success with a tiny pin-hole sized channel in the middle. Some use solid but I like it solid-ish.
5. Wrap your coil using the Petar K method. Use a 5/32 (maybe 7/32, mine doesn't say on it) drill bit, it fits nicely in the wick hole, and space the wraps out evenly.
6. Insert the drill bit and secure your coil to the AGA. Give it a few brief fires on a lower voltage to ensure they are glowing nicely.
7. Back to the wick...make sure it slides into the coil pretty freely, you want it to just "set" in there. If it is difficult at all to put in or take out adjust accordingly so it feels like it may slide out.
8. Use the lighter to blacken the area where the coils are, this helps with shorts. You are NOT oxidizing it, just blackening the area.
9. Once assembly is all together, fire your coil again. Adjust your hotspots GENTLY, if you use too much force you will most likely get a short. In that case, kill power to the AGA, slide your coil around a bit and give the coil a couple pokes and turn the power back on...the short should be solved. If not, slide it around again and adjust coils (it gets annoying when you can't get it, but don't give up).
10. When you get your hot spots resolved, fill your tank up around 5/8 full (don't over fill tank with a new wick, it prevents wicking from fully working from my experiences).
11. Tilt your mod around 90* and watch the wick, you're watching for juice about to drip out of the top of the wick assembly. Then burn some juice. I start at a lower voltage then work it up as I go...this helps with seasoning it, lessens break-in time I believe.
12. VAPE!


I'm not the most experienced in the RBA field, but I know what is working for me, and that's how I do it. Big thanks to Thrasher for the help, couldn't have done it without him.

The main thing on these is go slowly, be careful, and don't get angry at it. I love the un-oxidized method, won't go back to torching wicks again! Good luck bud!

Ive been having inconsistent results in my setups. So I started over fresh. I followed these instructions exactly and am having great results so far. In the past this great performance has only lasted a few hours before I have to start messing with the coil again. I couldn't seem to get the coil glowing evenly again so I've been recoiling most every day.I'm hoping that maybe my wick wasn't right somehow. We'll see how this one does.

Thanks for posting this!

 

[KillTheNoise]

Ive been having inconsistent results in my setups. So I started over fresh. I followed these instructions exactly and am having great results so far. In the past this great performance has only lasted a few hours before I have to start messing with the coil again. I couldn't seem to get the coil glowing evenly again so I've been recoiling most every day.I'm hoping that maybe my wick wasn't right somehow. We'll see how this one does.

Thanks for posting this!

That's awesome! Glad this is working so far, it feels great to help someone succeed, you've made my day!

 

[StaircaseWit]

8. Use the lighter to blacken the area where the coils are, this helps with shorts. You are NOT oxidizing it, just blackening the area.
!

Very nice method, and pretty much exactly what I'm doing now, but you ARE oxidizing your wick when it turns black. That's exactly what's happening, even though it doesn't require a torch and quenching. If it were fully un-oxidized, it would always short.

Otherwise great advice and this method works very well. A 3/32" drill bit fits loosely in an un-modified AGA-T2/+; the next common fractional size 7/64" does not fit at all. 5/32" is way too big. Just to keep people from buying the wrong drill bits.

 

[KillTheNoise]

Very nice method, and pretty much exactly what I'm doing now, but you ARE oxidizing your wick when it turns black. That's exactly what's happening, even though it doesn't require a torch and quenching. If it were fully un-oxidized, it would always short.

Otherwise great advice and this method works very well. A 3/32" drill bit fits loosely in an un-modified AGA-T2/+; the next common fractional size 7/64" does not fit at all. 5/32" is way too big. Just to keep people from buying the wrong drill bits.

I think the common conception of 'oxidizing' a wick is torching the .... out of it with a blow torch. You are correct though, and ty for bringing it up!

Also, thanks for the drill bit size, I forgot which size it was, but 3/32 sounds correct!

 

[Cwinnes]

My top coil goes hot after about 8 secs at 3.5 volts. Is that because it's not wicking fast enough?

Ignore the typos sent from my Galaxy

 

[Thrasher]

8 sec is a long time...
few tips, make sure the spacing of the coils is good, poking while you pulse the fire button and glow them will help and make sure the wick is not touching the bottom of the tank.
anytime i get a top coil glowing now i can fix it by adjusting the coils - sometimes closer sometimes one or two further apart. sometime moving the whole column up or down and even pulling back on the wick away from the post.

 

[Cwinnes]

What I mean is the coils aren't glowing because they are saturated with liquid. After about 8 secs the top coil starts to glow. There is plenty of vapor coming off the wick when this is happening

Ignore the typos sent from my Galaxy

 

[StaircaseWit]

What I mean is the coils aren't glowing because they are saturated with liquid. After about 8 secs the top coil starts to glow. There is plenty of vapor coming off the wick when this is happening

Ignore the typos sent from my Galaxy

Thrasher is right, though; if you're getting the top coil glowing it's a hotspot and you need to adjust your coils. If it wasn't, all the coils would glow. It's a common issue, and you're going to taste it if you take a long drag. If wicking is slow enough with your current setup, you can adjust the coils while the tank has juice just by keeping it upright. If it's wicking well, you'll have to drain the juice to get it running correctly before refilling. I don't consider it "running well" unless I can run a 15 second cutoff burn on the Provari at 3.7V with a 2ohm coil. It's just going to get worse until you fix it.

 

[budynbuick]

I don't put yellow flame on on my wicks. I just put it over the blue flame on stove. My wick is not black as that will ruin flavor. My wick is blue/silver when rolled, not black. My last wick I didn't even juice burn. Something not mentioned was getting 'all' of the tension out of the wire. you must put tension(weight) on wire when annealing else it will release remaining tension when wrapped leaving gaps between wick/coil. This will cause serious hot spots. The wire will be straight(not curvy) when annealed properly.

 

[donnah]

That's awesome! Glad this is working so far, it feels great to help someone succeed, you've made my day!

Maybe I'll make your day again, I'm on day 2 without having to adjust the coils because of poor performance!