RDA Massive throat hit, no vapor

[AndriaD]

I agree with both of those and it may provide a solution, but it still doesn't justify why the throat hit is occurring without the vapor. I appreciating the solution seeking but I would also like to understand why that is occurring and how it is possible. The vapor is carrying the nicotine, which is causing the TH. So how is TH happening at an elevated rate with very little vapor, whereas when vapor production increases TH decreases?

To me it sounds more like you're actually getting a dry hit, which is burning your throat, but naturally not producing much if any vapor.

I'd take the cotton out from under the coil; you want air around the coil, and the cotton IN the coil. And make double damn sure the wick is FULLY saturated.

Andria

 

[GoBlue88]

To me it sounds more like you're actually getting a dry hit, which is burning your throat, but naturally not producing much if any vapor.

I'd take the cotton out from under the coil; you want air around the coil, and the cotton IN the coil. And make double damn sure the wick is FULLY saturated.

Andria

Definitely not dry hit, I've taken those before and known what they taste like. Also, this occurs after initial rewetting when the cotton is wettest.

 

[Nick N]

I don't vape at work, so my Kbox sits in my vehicle waiting for 8.5 hours until I leave. Like you, those first few drags are harsh with little vapor. I always figured it was a combination of going all day without the nicotine and the rayon wick in my single coiled Baal RDA being fully soaked without use. Once those first 3 drags are done it does not seem to happen again for the rest of the evening while using it and redripping it somewhat regularly. The same thing happens first thing in the morning when I wake up.

Come to think of it, the first cigarette in the morning and having one after a long period of time used to seem harsh as well... If I remember right, haven't smoked since 2002.

 

[MattyTny]

If the coil is left very saturated and unused for some time you can have this issue.

What I think is happening is that your wick is over saturated and the liquid is cool, so when you take those first few draws you're may not vaporizing all the liquid since its cooled down, hence the low vapor production from a coil that is too wet. That liquid-vapor phase change is also taking a room temp coil to a hot one that's too wet to get up to speed on the first draw. That might be why it's smoother after.

What you can do is drip less, you'd be surprised how much liquid you need. Your wick doesn't need to be glistening wet. You should also use short wicks which nothing under the coil, it's just storing more liquid that you don't need.

 

[nkr501]

Take whatever you used to wrap the coils and shove it through them. Lift the coils up a little and re-wick to see if that helps.
When I first wet my coil, I'm still throwing clouds and I keep my deck and coil soaked. It needs to feed into the coil but the coil shouldn't sit in a puddle of juice.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[nkr501]

I forget that Tapatalk doesn't take me to the end of the thread right away...

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[GoBlue88]

Too funny, I was just about to update this thread because I've made a lot of progress. Here's my new coil. I lifted it significantly so there's no contact between the coil and any juice that has pooled in the bottom of the deck. I also burned the coil for a few seconds to get any juice off the top of the coil that was sitting there after I painted the wick, so that juice doesn't hiss and pop its way into my mouth. Massive improvement. I'll experiment with how low I can go while not heating any of the ejuice sitting on the deck. Thanks for the help folks

 

[GoBlue88]

Okay, if anyone's still paying attention I made a lot more progress. I was finding no matter how low I set my wattage and how little I wet the wick, I was still have a ton of ejuice build up on the underside side of the cap on top of my RDA. Obviously if it's ending up at that location, it's ending up in my mouthpiece and therefore my mouth. I could actually see it resting in my mouth piece too.

After doing some more research I've discovered the biggest contributor to my problem:ejuice condensation. Even wetting little and using low wattage I was taking sloooow drags, and this meant the vapor was hanging inside my RDA with tons of time to condense.. I just have to take deeper and stronger pulls so that vapor is coming directly off the wick/coil contact point and into my throat, and has no time to condense. Huge improvement.

See that large flat roof (due to not using a chuff cap)? All the underside of that was coated in condensed ejuice, which could be drawn into my mouth. Turns out, I was the problem after all

 

[mrmoodz]

What wattage are you vaping at and what coil resistance do you have?

If you are using the chuff cap you have to definitely take more powerful hits. The air you bring to the coil is what is keeping it cool and is what gives you vapor.

Glad to hear the 510 drip tip is working for you though!

 

[thetrucker]

Glad 2 see that you have figured out a solution to your problem.

There are a lot of things that affect the process.

You could try a single coil as compared to a dual.

You could try a smaller guage kanthal like 28 instead of 24 or 26.

You could also also try smaller diameter coils.

I was surprised as to how much flavor and vapor I got out of smaller coils.

You could also try less or more cotton.

Some juices will gunk up your coils faster.

Some juices will pop and snap more than others.

I find that when the wicks are really wet they don't make as much popping and snaping noise.

It is a lot of fun experimenting with all of this stuff.........enjoy------thetrucker

 

[GoBlue88]

1.6 ohms 2.4 inner diameter 28 gauge Kanthal a1. Roughly 8 wraps. I've been experimenting between 14-17 watts I like pretty cool vapes. Here's how it looks:

Probably going to experiment with some different wicking techniques, not cloud chasing just a tinkerer who likes throat hit and good flavor . Right now this is easy with the tails of my cotton between the posts held steady so I don't have to readjust them. I load all the juice into the back (where there is no cotton) and it diffuses to the coil. Hopefully the way I have it set up will allow more viscous ejuices to flow, I just picked up some charlie noble ranging from 65VG to 80VG. Right now I'm at 50.

 

[thetrucker]

Looking Good....

 

[GoBlue88]

Thanks trucker!

 

[sammango]

One thing that's fairly widespread with vaping is people inhaling straight as you push the button, where you should really "pre-heat" them for a few seconds if they've not been used for a while.

Did you lower the coil again? I'm surprised you're not getting some intense throat hit with it that far away from the air intake.

 

[GoBlue88]

Yeah I dropped that sucker as low as I could go so the ejuice just has to worry about traveling across the concentration gradient, not gravity. I'm getting decent throat hit but it is not super high wattage and not producing enormous clouds, which isn't a big deal for me. My new higher VG ejuice should produce some larger clouds.

 

[GoBlue88]

In case anyone is still interested I've got all my TH/no vapor problems solved.

I switched to the chuff cap, huge difference (much less area for juice to condense)

I'm vaping higher VG juice (which I'm liking more anyway), plus it has the added benefit of being more viscous and seems to splash less. I'll probably bump up my 50:50 current flavors with some VG I ordered online till they're at a point I still enjoy the flavor but it's viscous enough to not be splashing into my mouth.

Now this thing is really cooking, I can hose the whole coil and wick with as much juice as I want and just start vaping immediately, no burning juice off the coils first or anything like that.

I'm hope my trials are of support to someone facing the same issue who googles the topic at a later date. But I guess I got into RDA's to tinker and customize my vaping experience anyway.

Thanks folks.

 

[mrmoodz]

Sounds like you are getting a satisfying vape now. Glad to hear it.

 

[clodo]

When you put e-liquid on the dry cotton at first you're definitely going to want to give it a little time for it to soak all the way in. Generally you can probably only get 4 pulls before having to drip again so that throat hit may be more of a dry hit... also I don't know your setup but it may be too hot for the build.

 

[GoBlue88]

Definitely not dry hit, I know what those taste like. I average about 8-10 hits but I'm only running in the 15-19 wattage range, so YMMV