Let's talk hardware

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jefsview

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Can someone tell me why I'm boiling my ekowool? And how long It should boil? I'd just like to know. The B/M I go to gave me about 3ft of to try out. Which is why I have it.

Boil it? I normally just torch mine. It burns off any impurities, plus stiffens it to keep it from fraying, while making it more manageable.
 

Bunnykiller

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Can someone tell me why I'm boiling my ekowool? And how long It should boil? I'd just like to know. The B/M I go to gave me about 3ft of to try out. Which is why I have it.

since i havent used ekowool my info may be useless... but most flame the eko to remove impurities, boiling it may reduce it to a mass of fuzzy string ( becomes unwoven)
as far as boiling, cotton seems to be the one for its advantages... gets rid of the bollweevil pee ;)
 

DavidOH

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since i havent used ekowool my info may be useless... but most flame the eko to remove impurities, boiling it may reduce it to a mass of fuzzy string ( becomes unwoven)
as far as boiling, cotton seems to be the one for its advantages... gets rid of the bollweevil pee ;)

I put a twist around the ends to keep it from coming apart. Was just wondering.
 

LeoRex

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Torching or dry burning silica would probably be enough to get rid of any impurities to be honest... There isn't much that won't get burned off by the time the silica is glowing and there's no smoke or wisps of anything coming off the coil/wick.

If only there was a silica wick material that could be worked like cotton fibers... that would make like so much easier... I'm hesitant to fill my cotton micro KFC with Legend... NETs can foul a cotton wick fairly quickly (and dry burning is obviously not an option). I got Cinful Apple, which is super clean, in there now, but my current supply is dwindling quickly.
 

Dusty_D

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Torching or dry burning silica would probably be enough to get rid of any impurities to be honest... There isn't much that won't get burned off by the time the silica is glowing and there's no smoke or wisps of anything coming off the coil/wick.

If only there was a silica wick material that could be worked like cotton fibers... that would make like so much easier... I'm hesitant to fill my cotton micro KFC with Legend... NETs can foul a cotton wick fairly quickly (and dry burning is obviously not an option). I got Cinful Apple, which is super clean, in there now, but my current supply is dwindling quickly.

I've never been a fan of dry burning. It takes just as long to dry burn silica in a micro, as it does to swap out the cotton wick.. if not longer. I've always detected an aftertaste once dry burned.
 

LeoRex

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I've never been a fan of dry burning. It takes just as long to dry burn silica in a micro, as it does to swap out the cotton wick.. if not longer. I've always detected an aftertaste once dry burned.

I'd agree with the speed on my RDAs... those are really easy to swap out, even if there is a bit of juice left over. :) My first attempt at swapping out a wick in my KFC was a little bit messy... lots more bits in there to deal with. I am going to swap out the wick tonight and get it cleaned and switched from CA over to Legend... once that NET is in there, I suspect I'll be swapping out cotton MUCH more often and I'll get the hang of it. :)

About the KFC... what's with all the crazy builds? I've used the most basic wick on both the silica and cotton builds... just a strand that goes through the coil and lays across the bottom (no folding back over or figure 8's or anything). Haven't had dry hits, wicks well... tastes great.

To me, long wicks are kind of counterproductive.... you only vape the juice that is in the coil portion of the wick, and the longer the wick, the longer it has to work its way to the coil.... if you have one of those long wick builds, the juice kind of waves at that coil as it works its way up and around and back.
 

Dusty_D

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I'd agree with the speed on my RDAs... those are really easy to swap out, even if there is a bit of juice left over. :) My first attempt at swapping out a wick in my KFC was a little bit messy... lots more bits in there to deal with. I am going to swap out the wick tonight and get it cleaned and switched from CA over to Legend... once that NET is in there, I suspect I'll be swapping out cotton MUCH more often and I'll get the hang of it. :)

About the KFC... what's with all the crazy builds? I've used the most basic wick on both the silica and cotton builds... just a strand that goes through the coil and lays across the bottom (no folding back over or figure 8's or anything). Haven't had dry hits, wicks well... tastes great.

To me, long wicks are kind of counterproductive.... you only vape the juice that is in the coil portion of the wick, and the longer the wick, the longer it has to work its way to the coil.... if you have one of those long wick builds, the juice kind of waves at that coil as it works its way up and around and back.

Simple is all you need..

This is my most common build:

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i-bnBdKBw-M.jpg


I tuck the yarn down into the chamber, lock and load. Done!
 

Bronze

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I'd agree with the speed on my RDAs... those are really easy to swap out, even if there is a bit of juice left over. :) My first attempt at swapping out a wick in my KFC was a little bit messy... lots more bits in there to deal with. I am going to swap out the wick tonight and get it cleaned and switched from CA over to Legend... once that NET is in there, I suspect I'll be swapping out cotton MUCH more often and I'll get the hang of it. :)

About the KFC... what's with all the crazy builds? I've used the most basic wick on both the silica and cotton builds... just a strand that goes through the coil and lays across the bottom (no folding back over or figure 8's or anything). Haven't had dry hits, wicks well... tastes great.

To me, long wicks are kind of counterproductive.... you only vape the juice that is in the coil portion of the wick, and the longer the wick, the longer it has to work its way to the coil.... if you have one of those long wick builds, the juice kind of waves at that coil as it works its way up and around and back.

Agree with Dust...simple is all that is needed. Here's my setup. Very simple. I use silica in my KFL. As you can see, it is as wide as the KFL itself and no more. This wick is a month and a half old, frazzled, unpretty, and well-used and still performed perfectly. No foul taste, no dry hits...perfect. I use cotton ball in my small RDAs because it is simple to change out the wick and because of its small capacity I don't have to wait long once I get a wonky taste. But, I do burn the cotton wicks easier on the small RBAs. Even damp, the cotton will burn. I've burned them in half on my small RBA's. Got to keep them saturated and that isn't always easy to detect on the little RBAs.

 

dreamreaper

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Do you guys think if using higher VG juice that you would need a "little" more wick, or is that a wrong line of thinking?

I havent been using much more than you guys, I drape it down to the deck and then back up to the coil on each side. Havent had any dry hits doing this, but on my first build I tried it just like Bronze has his but I found the wick was having trouble keeping up. This could well have been user error as it was the first build I done on it or the ekowool I used instead of cotton or silica, but those dry hits tasted so bad, I am afraid to try it again. :D
 

Bronze

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Do you guys think if using higher VG juice that you would need a "little" more wick, or is that a wrong line of thinking?

I havent been using much more than you guys, I drape it down to the deck and then back up to the coil on each side. Havent had any dry hits doing this, but on my first build I tried it just like Bronze has his but I found the wick was having trouble keeping up. This could well have been user error as it was the first build I done on it or the ekowool I used instead of cotton or silica, but those dry hits tasted so bad, I am afraid to try it again. :D

Dreamer, you raise a good point. And I need to qualify my opinions stating I am using 70/30. After all this time thinking people get carried away with all their fancy, new-fangled ways of building an RBA, I have come to realize that 100% VG is a different situation due to the viscosity differences. I haven't vaped 100% VG for a long time so I can't speak to the wickability of it in my setup. But I would not be surprised if someone (like you) told me it didn't work as well for your juice. The only way to know for sure is give it another go. The biggest mistake people make is cramming the coil with their wick thus choking it off. I use a 2 mm inside diameter microcoil and fill it with 4 strands of 1mm silica (two strands pulled through with a fishtape yielding 4 strands).
 

dreamreaper

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I am going to have to experiment again, now I am thinking maybe I didnt have enough wick when I tried it the way you done it. I just had 1 2mm strand of ekowool.

I am currently using 2mm inside diameter coil, with 2 strands of 1mm silica draped down to the deck and then folded back up even with the coil on both sides. Sounds like we might have about the same amount of total wick, just in a different configuration?

**edit**
I also use 20/80 pg/vg
 
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