Making cotton wicks for the eroll

[rj134]

Hi there,

thought I'd make and share a little video showing my method of making cotton wicks for the type A atty. Figured this method out with a bit of trial and error after I got disappointed with the inconsistency my previous "manual" way of going about it gave me.

Hope it helps!

 

[Dominique Hoogduin]

Nice vid. Gonna try that sometime :} is there really that big a flavor change ? and how long do these last ?

 

[rj134]

Flavor's real clean with cotton. To me it tastes way better than silica. SS comes close but can be a bit metallic sometimes.

A wick performs best between one to six days. Highly dependant on what type of juice you're using.

 

[Dominique Hoogduin]

Flavor's real clean with cotton. To me it tastes way better than silica. SS comes close but can be a bit metallic sometimes.

A wick performs best between one to six days. Highly dependant on what type of juice you're using.

nice ill give it a go next atty maintenance.

 

[rico942]

Thank you rj134, great vid ...

I gotta try this, had three attys go sour on me this weekend. Once you get that first "burnt" taste, game over ...

Went as far as taking off the spike end, then tossed them in alcohol. But the silica wicks looked toasted ...

Will try replacing with cotton, now that I have a good tutorial ...

 

[Dominique Hoogduin]

Thank you rj134, great vid ...

I gotta try this, had three attys go sour on me this weekend. Once you get that first "burnt" taste, game over ...

Went as far as taking off the spike end, then tossed them in alcohol. But the silica wicks looked toasted ...

Will try replacing with cotton, now that I have a good tutorial ...

u can clean the wick with a lighter.. burn it off till its white again (in the blue part of the flame.. blow when the wick lights up). then dry burn the coil till its a nice shade of grey.

Something like this:
Nettoyage atomiseur Joyetech / Cleaning Joyetech atomiser - YouTube

 

[rj134]

Thank you rj134, great vid ...

I gotta try this, had three attys go sour on me this weekend. Once you get that first "burnt" taste, game over ...

Went as far as taking off the spike end, then tossed them in alcohol. But the silica wicks looked toasted ...

Will try replacing with cotton, now that I have a good tutorial ...

Here's how I keep my atties in shape and they all still perform flawlessly. Might do a video on it, too. Try it out.

1. Remove the wick.
   Yeah you can clean it with some alcohol or burn it clean but you get better results just making a new wick. Given how easy and cheap this is (especially when using cotton) I don't see a reason to try to salvage the old one.
2. Dryburn the coil.
   Don't go overboard here. Fire the coil 5 or 6 times until you see it glow nice and red from the inside out again.
   Do not fire it for longer than 6 seconds and then pause for at least 10 to allow it to cool down a bit! If you overheat you risk either popping the coil and / or burning part the insulator which'll give you a really bad plastic taste and its gonna be permanent i.e. game over.
3. Rinse the atty under hot water.
   Should be really hot. I run it so hot that I have to use pliers to hold the atty.
   This will remove dirt and ash from the coil and help cleaning up the insides of the heating chamber.
   
   Note to self: Try actually throwing the atty in boiling water for even hotter cleaning magic.
   
4. Toss it in alcohol.
   Use Vodka in a little shot glass. If you can, swirl the atty around in the glass from time to time to help the alcohol penetrate everything nicely.
   Usually I do this before leaving for work, so the atty remains submerged in Vodka for 8 hours minimum.
   This step helps clean out the wick on the inside of the coil a bit. It will also disinfect and clean out the ceramic around the coil i.e. heating chamber.
5. Rinse again.
   Run the atty under hot water once again. This'll remove whatever dirt got dissolved from the alcohol.
6. Lastly, just blow excess water out of the atty from both sides.
   When I'm in a hurry I use a blow dryer to get to dry fast. Just don't run it too hot.
   Otherwise, I just let it sit until it's dry. Takes but a few hours max.

Using this cleaning process before re-wicking the atty makes it perform like new, pretty much. I'm still using the first few I bought along with the eRoll and I don't think I will be buying a new one anytime soon.

 

[rico942]

I had another atty go sour this morning, on the way to work. Burnt taste, gets worse each draw ...

Thinking that this last batch of 5 was from a different vendor, not Joytech or Ovale brand. I saved a couple of bucks, but not worth it ...

Still, I think some can be salvaged by rewicking, just have to force myself to sit down and do it. I have good close up vision, but a little shaky these days, age and too much coffee ...

Left about 6 attys soaking in alcohol this morning, after pulling off the spike ends. I could clearly see the discoloration on the coil end of the wick ...

 

[rj134]

I had another atty go sour this morning, on the way to work. Burnt taste, gets worse each draw ...

What kind of juice are you vaping?

 

[rico942]

What kind of juice are you vaping?

Usually Halo SubZero or VaporGod Arctic Wolf, both relatively thin juices, haven't ever clogged the wicks ...

I always prime a new atty with about 15 to 20 drops of juice, and never had one go burnt when new, usually a couple of tanks later ...

I really think I got a batch of 5 bogus attys ...

I did notice on one that went dark recently that the wick was clearly blackened and very much frayed out at the coil end. Others I had opened before had the wick still wrapped tight at both ends, and just a little brown ...

Maybe the wick is more likely to burn if spread out over the coil at assembly ?

By the way, these are all LR attys, not sure if that makes them more likely to burn ...

Just ordered 5 more Ovale attys from a reliable vendor, but I really need to salvage some of the 20-odd units that I have put aside with burnt wicks ...

 

[rj134]

Ah, LR.

This is pretty normal for LR attys. The coil just runs so hot that it burns the wick sooner rather than later. It also burns many flavors and hence you get that gunk build up way faster, so you get that burnt taste way sooner.

I never bought LR again after trying two. Same reason. The first one went black in less than two days, second one lasted some 6 days and then just popped. They were both authentic Joyetech.
Tried dryburning the first one but ended up trashing it because the coil got hot enough to cook some of the silicone insulator, which gave it a horrible plastic taste. So if you do try dryburning these, make sure to not fire them too long and allow them to cool down properly.

Cotton wick is not really a choice on these, obviously. It'll burn even faster.
You might want to try using SS mesh instead.
The vape isn't as good as cotton IMO but for LR the durability of it probably makes it the #1 choice.

 

[rico942]

This makes sense to me, so maybe I need to order some of the standard atomizers. Now that you menton it, the ones that came with the original starter kit were 2.2 ohm, and lasted a long time. Its the LR attys that I ordered later that have been troublesome ...

There is a little difference in performance, but not enough to warrant the risk. It sucks when an atty goes burnt away from home, its done for the day, the taste is horrible and just gets worse ...

I'll take durability over a short burst of high performance ...

 

[rico942]

Well, its a cold rainy day here in SoCal, so I finally got down to re-wicking some attys with cotton ...

Not at all difficult if you follow the steps in the video. I had some cotton balls, probably from a medicine bottle, nothing special. Seemed clean, no odor, so I used it as is, no washing or rinsing ...

Dry burned a couple of coils first, to give them time to cool while I prepared the wicks. Only took a few minutes to get two new cotton wicks rolled, installed and trimmed. Was a little worried that they were too loose, but maybe that's better than compressed ...

This was for the Ovale Elips, which uses the same atomizer, and I used two of the oldest ones I had, the standard 2.2 ohm resistance attys that came with the starter kit. They burnt a long time ago, and were sitting in a box for months ...

I'm amazed at how much better the cotton wicks work ! The factory wicks, with the steel mesh jacket and tight silica strands, really restrict juice flow compared to a loose cotton wick. Much cleaner taste now, better vapor and throat hit, but I'm going through the tank faster. That's a good trade-off, I'll take it ...

Muchas gracias to rj134 for the great video and technique ...

 

[chefkeith]

I'm a total convert as of today!!! I messed around with cotton twine about a year ago, but it was never as successful as this. And the video is amazing - it should be pinned!

I can now use all my HHV juices that would never wick before, and they taste awesome! I'm no longer paranoid about inhaling microfibers of silica (yes, I realize it's still in the coil), and since thicker juices wick better leakage is less of an issue.

Can't thank you enough, RJ!

 

[chefkeith]

Bonus: it just occurred to me that my eRoll uses a lot less power now that juices flow evenly. It doesn't get as hot and I've noticed battery life has "increased." Also, as noted above, it burns through juice more quickly, so I may need to lower my nic - a bit light headed as I type this.

 

[rico942]

A follow up, the cotton wicks are working really well in my eRolls, much better taste and juice flow ...

But in the Ovale Elips, with a 360 mAh battery, they burn out quickly, usually within an hour or two. This has been a problem even with the stock silica wicks, but they do last much longer, sometimes for weeks with a "good one" ...

This was with 100% PG menthol juice, very thin. Maybe I did chain vape a bit too much, and the cotton I used was just stuff from a medicine bottle, nothing special ...

I'll continue to make cotton wicks for the eRoll, they are awesome. But I ordered some 2mm pre-made and oxidized stainless steel wicks, and silica wicks for the Elips, VaporKings has them cheap. If I like the steel better, maybe I'll order a sheet of 350 mesh and roll my own wicks. But they're only 39 cents each, already rolled and oxidized ...

Haven't tried cotton in the eCab yet, its a 320 mAh battery, and might burn out as it did in the Elips. The eCab is on "time out", always seemed too "airy" for my taste, even with one inlet blocked ...

And as chefkieth noted, the eRoll does stay cooler with a cotton wick, and the battery holds up longer ...

 

[patkin]

Is that this:

C-Tratech rebuildable eGo-T Type A tank atomizer

If not, I can't find it. I'm not even sure what this is but Type A rebuildable sounds interesting.

 

[rico942]

Testing stainless steel wicks today ...

The 2mm pre-rolled wicks from VaporKings are a bit too thick for the atomizer spike, had to unroll and trim it 3 times to get the right diameter for a snug fit. Made sure the inside end was touching the coil, trimmed the outer end and primed it ...

There is definitely a difference in taste and juice flow. Not bad, just different ...

In the Elips, with a 360 mAh battery fully charged, I tried my best to get it to burn, chain vaped until I was dizzy. The stainless steel wick held up, no burnt taste at all ...

This was with a 400 mesh wick, I got some 350 mesh wicks, will try one tomorrow ...

I'm thinking the stainless steel is probably best for endurance, but I sure liked the clean taste and juice flow from the cotton wicks, they just burnt too fast (in the Elips, but still OK in the eRoll)...

I also got some pre-twisted silica wicks from VaporKings too, maybe that's the compromise for durability and taste ...

 

[jav74]

Edit.......

 

[jav74]

Hi there,

thought I'd make and share a little video showing my method of making cotton wicks for the type A atty. Figured this method out with a bit of trial and error after I got disappointed with the inconsistency my previous "manual" way of going about it gave me.

Hope it helps!

When I try to make cotton weak this came out of atyy.may i put back this into the needle and then put cotton or without it