low maintenance vaping, wick changing

[plewm]

i've been thinking lately about wick changing and vaping in general.

does it bother other people that a) you have to change your wicks often, and b) your vape is gradually degrading with each puff until your wick is done?

i change my wick after every few ml of liquid. it's a pita but it has to be done. like brushing your teeth. and just like brushing your teeth, your mouth is dirtiest just before you brush. i'm not sure what i'm going on about but.... what is a way to make vaping as hassle free as possible?

i use bottom fed mods and RBAs. i remember before RBAs became mainstream that you could just blow your atty clean. i wish this was the case with RBAs.

 

[OfTheBrave]

Honestly I think the length of time your getting out of your wick depends on a couple factors:

What wattage and resistance? I'm finding a lot of people running their rig too hot. At a certain point your fighting the limitations of airflow and surface area where the juice is being heated. Try dropping a 5-10 watts from where you normally start.

What kind of juice? Sweetened juices in my experience will cause build up on the coil and shorten its life.

Was it wicked properly to start? Using too much will restrict the juice from flowing into the coil and using too little will leave a space between your wick and coil which will get red hot and burn your wick.

I typically use rayon but when you wick with cotton just remember that it does expand when wet.

 

[OfTheBrave]

oh, and on my rda's its not uncommon for me to get a full two weeks before rewicking, and trust me, I vape a lot; I can drain 15-20ml on my days off.

 

[JC Okie]

I use Ready-X-Wick from RBA Supplies LLC and it will last me for months. Really. I vape a lot of unflavored, and that does help keep it clean, but even with flavored juices, instead of changing the wick out, I just clean it by dry burning it. Worth a try if you haven't already. There are several threads (do an ECF search) about it.

 

[crxess]

I re-wick once a month or so needed or not

 

[Rule62]

I use bottom feed atomizers too. Re wicking isn't something I consider a major chore, because I can do it pretty quickly. I use mostly either KGD cotton, or Cotton Bacon.
I DIY all my juice, and have a lot of recipes. Over time, I have eliminated lots of them from my usual rotation, because of their tendency to gunk coils quickly. No matter how great some of them taste, it's just not worth it to me, if I can't get through a few ml of juice, before funking up the coil. I used to make a Peanut butter Cup juice, and it was awesome. But it would crud up a coil in 4 or 5ml. It just wasn't worth it, to me.
Lately, I've been vaping more and more unflavored, or very lightly flavored juice.

 

[supertrunker]

I use Ready-X-Wick from RBA Supplies LLC and it will last me for months. Really. I vape a lot of unflavored, and that does help keep it clean, but even with flavored juices, instead of changing the wick out, I just clean it by dry burning it. Worth a try if you haven't already. There are several threads (do an ECF search) about it.

This ^^^.

Forget about re-wicking, just dry burn once a week - or if you use the thicker stuff, blowtorch and reuse it.

T

 

[donnah]

I usually dry burn and rewick every couple of days. I also have a peanut butter flavor mix that is awesome and pretty much my adv...it's worth it to me to spend a couple minutes every other day.
I use kgd cotton.

 

[edyle]

i've been thinking lately about wick changing and vaping in general.

does it bother other people that a) you have to change your wicks often, and b) your vape is gradually degrading with each puff until your wick is done?

i change my wick after every few ml of liquid. it's a pita but it has to be done. like brushing your teeth. and just like brushing your teeth, your mouth is dirtiest just before you brush. i'm not sure what i'm going on about but.... what is a way to make vaping as hassle free as possible?

i use bottom fed mods and RBAs. i remember before RBAs became mainstream that you could just blow your atty clean. i wish this was the case with RBAs.

With cotton you have to change out the cotton.
Silica wick can dryburn a few times before you need to change it.
steel mesh runs a long time.

I probably go through 50ml before I need to change my cotton wick.

 

[Cacique]

I've been using rayon and I can go for days easily and I don't taste any degradation of the flavor myself.

 

[Rule62]

I've been using rayon and I can go for days easily and I don't taste any degradation of the flavor myself.

I use rayon occasionally. It works well, as does cotton. I find that as long as the wick is kept saturated, whether it's cotton or rayon, it will last a long time. For me, with some juices, particularly those with lots of caramel, chocolate, peanut butter, and other 'dark' flavors, the degradation of the flavor comes from gunk build up on the coils, not because of the wick. Naturally, to clean and dry burn the coil, you have to remove the wick, unless you're using silica, Ready X Wick, etc., where you can dry burn with the wick in place.

 

[Mike 586]

For the least amount of maintenance, flavorless juice with synthetic wicks would be the way to go IMHO.

 

[Alien Traveler]

For the least amount of maintenance, flavorless juice with synthetic wicks would be the way to go IMHO.

Last time I rewicked my two tanks was about 2 months ago. So, about 1 month from each wick. Slightly flavored juice, cotton wicks, 5 ml/day. I would quit vaping if I have to rewick every other day. I vape for pleasure and for nicotine, not for hobby.

 

[AndriaD]

i've been thinking lately about wick changing and vaping in general.

does it bother other people that a) you have to change your wicks often, and b) your vape is gradually degrading with each puff until your wick is done?

i change my wick after every few ml of liquid. it's a pita but it has to be done. like brushing your teeth. and just like brushing your teeth, your mouth is dirtiest just before you brush. i'm not sure what i'm going on about but.... what is a way to make vaping as hassle free as possible?

i use bottom fed mods and RBAs. i remember before RBAs became mainstream that you could just blow your atty clean. i wish this was the case with RBAs.

Good lord... my juice is the mother of all gunkers, and I don't change my wicks but about every 2 DAYS, not 2 ml! I think every few ml is drastically overdoing it. It doesn't even get GOOD until you've vaped a few ml on it!

I use RDAs myself just because it makes the whole process so much easier, and considering how bad my juice gunks, I don't waste nearly as much with an RDA as I did with tanks -- if it gets really brown looking, I dump it, and I'm a lot more inclined to do that when it's a few drops in the bottom of the well, than 2-3 ml in a tank.

It's no different than cigarettes -- you had to empty ashtrays, and buy more cigarettes regularly, and more lighters too. {Moderated}

Andria

 

[Ryedan]

does it bother other people that a) you have to change your wicks often, and b) your vape is gradually degrading with each puff until your wick is done?

I vape RDA's with open airflow over all of the dual or triple coils, thick wire, 0.2-0.3 ohms, 40-50 watts. With gunky juice I dry burn about every 10-15 ml, with clean but not un-flavored juice about every 40-50 ml. That's using rayon or KGD cotton.

The vape doesn't change because the wick degrades, it's the coil gunking up. I have rinsed and put the same wick back in just to prove the point to myself.

I don't notice vape degradation for the majority of the time it takes until I feel the need to dry burn.

i change my wick after every few ml of liquid.

IMO you're doing something wrong. Give us more info about your setup and maybe we can help you troubleshoot the issue.

 

[K_Tech]

IMO you're doing something wrong. Give us more info about your setup and maybe we can help you troubleshoot the issue.

Agreed. Even with my worst offenders in the gunking category, I can still get through at least 10 ml of e-liquid before I have to pull and re-wick with both cotton and rayon on a higher-powered setup.

When I'm toodle puffing along at lower power, I can usually get through closer to 25-30 ml with lighter e-liquids.

 

[gpjoe]

IMO you're doing something wrong. Give us more info about your setup and maybe we can help you troubleshoot the issue.

Maybe that "something wrong" is a preference for a very clean looking wick? A very fastidious person might be changing the wick more often than needed - based on the look of the wick rather than actual need.

I know that with one of my favorite juices (Cuttwood Boss Reserve) my wick looks nasty very quickly (within a few mils). I just keep vaping it until the vapor or flavor degrades, which can be many mils and many days - but when I look at the wick it's rather disgusting.

 

[rhm3769]

I rewick about once a week and mostly because I just feel the need to tank my tank apart and clean it and put in new coils and fresh cotton.... I could easily go a month without having to rewick, but I'd be either cleaning gunked coils or putting in new ones around 2 weeks....

 

[WattWick]

Invest the time it takes to swap out 20-30 fiber wicks - on figuring how to use mesh wicks.

The trade-off is a steep learning curve for a veery low maintenance vape.

*mileage may vary with liquid gunkability.

 

[roxynoodle]

I'm a chronic rewicker. I also like gunky juice. And really, its the coil that's gunked up, not the wick.

My easiest tanks maintenence wise are the fluff tanks (Prometey and Spheroid). We are talking 2 minutes to clean up and rewick. They are great for messy liquids and lazy rewickers