DID Question
What if any thing does the size of the center hole in the SS mesh wick make? humm!! let me rephrase that
Does the size of hole in the center of the wick mater? if so why?
I'm new to RBAs but have been wracking my brains and burning out my search engine trying to "figure it all out" because well...type A personality I guess
The most popular opinion I found was
-juice on the bottom (DID, genisis etc) you want to use as much mesh material as possible with a smallish but decent sized hole in the center. More mesh = more capillary action = faster wicking, more juice delivery to the coil, etc. For this reason 400 is best, higher density of holes and hence more capillary action
-juice on the top (GTank, etc) you want as much mesh material as possible with minimum hole, if any, so as to prevent flooding
well, none of that worked for me on the top coils (DID, Zen) or bottom coils (Gtank). I do use high VG (but I thin it, often to the point where you'd likely think it was PG), and when I'm not vaping, I'm not vaping, when I am vaping, I'm chain vaping. I have zero tolerance for any dry hits, and with the above wisdom I had to vape my geny units at 3-4 o clock for them to keep up with me, which I likewise just don't want to deal with or think about
I believe it fails to take into account a few other variables, and I honestly don't know what they are, but I will guess a bit
-capillary action brings the juice up to the coil, but so does the heat and pressure (volcanic action if you will, not my term) through the open hole of the wick
-tanks need to breathe
-juice doesn't like to squeeze through a really tight space
-thicker juice does better with a bit more breathing room within the wick, I found this to be true even with silica (my frayed wicks used to work better than plump, new wicks)
-immediate juice recovery/capacity right in the area of the coil is just as important, if not more important, than the velocity with which a droplet can travel from the base of the tank all the way up to the coil. A larger hole mesh with more open space in the center channel may actually allow a fatter glob of juice to hang out in the area of the heating action. This could be total BS. lol.
Anyway, I was crying to mwa and he had me set my wicks up with 2-3 full turns of mesh maximum, with a giant open center hole, and bang; chain vaping at 5-6 O clock, or anywhere really, explosive flavor and zero dry hits. This even worked on my bottom coil (Gtank).
I also really love the double wick set up, though I haven't decided yet if it actually makes things better, I'm still playing with it. Theoretically, like he said earlier, it should, because you're getting capillary action within the wicks, at the wick-wick interface, and volcanic action up the center hole, with more breathing room then a single denser wick.
I also think a large wick hole is key. I even pulled the PTFE insulator out of my other unit to get a 3mm hole, closer to, but not quite as big as the 3.5mm DID hole
Anyway that's what's working for me. I will continue to play with it. Now that I have 270 going in the DID mwa style I'll probably make a super dense wick with minimal center hole for comparison.
I also don't believe the idea that lower mesh # = increased throat hit and decreased favor, not the case for me at all.
Bottom line is, what is at first glance theoretically sound doesn't always translate into real world results. When something works, DON'T TOUCH IT. The most important things all else aside, are making sure you have no shorts, and vaping the hell out of your DID so the wick breaks in properly, everything else will fall into place
EDIT: Another thing I've been thinking about related to the 2 wrap working so well for some people. SS can suck up a load of heat, so if you're heating area is spread out over a large space, you have X watts going through more mesh, and the mesh is rob more of your heat.
If you have X watts going through a smaller area of mesh (e.g. 2 wrap), the generated heat is able to outpace the ability of the SS to steal your thunder, and you get better vapor and flavor. Also, maybe the surrounding juice (above and below the coil) are able to more rapidly fill in that tiny space of coil-wick area and wicking improves...
