New to e-cigs worried about silica fiberglass.

[Arghas]

Hi all,

I received my e-cig kit yesterday, and I haven't smoked in a day and a half; to date, this is the longest i've ever lasted w/o smoking in my entire life. I'm quite proud of this accomplishment and so I tried to research more about e-cig mods, regarding cartomizer, and etc, and I stumbled upon steeljan's youtube channel discussing e-cig and fiberglass/silica wick.

This got me pretty worried (and although it is an urban myth that analogs contain fiberglass), I'm quite alarmed that these e-cigs heat silica/fiberglass. Are there any alternatives to non-fiberglass/silica wicks, probably a steel? Please let me know what you guys think and stuff. Thank you all in advance.

Arghas

 

[Arghas]

shameless bump

 

[VTAK8K]

I worry about this a bit too, especially since you can tell the wick gets shorter sometimes in an eGo atomizer. I don't know what else you could wick the fluid to the coil with though.

 

[justinjj1280]

I have thought about this in the past, too. I guess the philosophy is that you're not *burning* the polyfill, so it shouldn't be getting into your mouth/throat/lungs. (unless you're puffing an empty carto, in which case you'll notice right away and refill). I wouldn't instinctively think that it would be much different than the smoke from an analog having to pass through the filter material, and no one argues that that part of the cig is harmful. Another thing to think about is, in all the attacks the FDA has made on ecigs, they've never mentioned that part. So, if they're not even concerned....

Hope to hear from more experienced users on this.

 

[Arghas]

I've found that the genesis tank mod by stubadan uses no silica/fiberglass in the wick, I'm still trying to look for others that don't have this, and I'm probably just going to switch to those, I know that the FDA did not attack them, but I dunno, just for piece of mind i guess.

 

[Boodle]

You could direct drip with a de-wicked atomizer and be rid of the worry. Lots of vendors sell them. BTW: if it's not one thing, it will be another. The bite vaping is taking out of Big Tobacco gets bigger every day. They will do and say anything to scare you into reaching for your cigarettes again. They are among us.

 

[Tersur]

Slb cartomizers use a paper type filler if you want to avoid pollyfill. Or an atomizer useing a teabag mod for thr e cartridge

 

[juicejunky]

I ordered silica rope to make wicks when I first had problems with ego-t tanks. I too worried when I saw how fragile the fibers were as little pieces broke loose. You could see tiny hair like specs on the side of the atty with a loupe. The design of that was a loose floppy wick hanging down that got moved around when you cleaned the atty.

Now I dewick 306s or buy dewicked attys to eliminate as much as possible. There is still the wick going through the coil but it tied up and stays together with juice, gunk*, and the coil wire. Some wicks seem to use longer strands too.

I think as long as the wick is wet, the silica fibers don't go airborne into the vapor. Our tongues and mouths would be picking it up and we would have itching, burning similar to when you get fiberglass all over your hands. The tip of my tongue gets hit first with the vapor stream and I have never had the feeling there were fiberglass silica fibers embedded in it.

The silica used in wicks doesn't really burn at coil temperatures, it just scorches from juice remnants stuck to it. It is rated to much higher temperatures that the hot atty coil.

You could always design a type of filter mouthpiece if you are truly worried about it.

 

[dormouse]

I think most stuffing-type cartomizers have cotton around the coil so if anything singes it is cotton.. Then around the cotton is the polyfill or whatever the rest of the carto stuffing is. I mainly use cartomizers.

BTW I dislike SLB cartos - worst reusability of any cartos I have used. Loose wad of stuffing and an inner seal. I prefer structured cartos with a central air channel. I can get 7-10 days use out of a good carto.

Atomizers do have wicks of silica rope or some may be encased fiberglass? Not sure. They generally do not burn. They get burnt charred eliquid on them.

 

[minigoat]

Is silica close enough to fiberglass and thus has similar characteristics? I thought they were two different things, I could be wrong.

silica vs fiberglass wick: Silica VS Fiberglass - YouTube

And if you wanted material to rebuild your wick go here.
Order the silica rope, make certain; DO NOT order the fiberglass rope

 

[linkin171]

I dewicked my first 306 the other day. It was really simple just gently pull the wick out with tweezers. I was never really concerned about the silica/fiberglass even when I first started using a standard 510 with cartridges. Just keep it wet.

 

[mynameisrob]

If you like dripping, than I think what Boodle and Juicejunky said is the way to go. You can use a dewicked atty and then you wouldnt have anything to worry about. You can buy dewicked and debridged attys or you can just dewick/debridge the attys you currently have yourself. Its not hard to do.

Heres how to debridge/dewick and atomizer:

Using a tweezer carefully push the mesh off of the bridge and push it to the side as much as you can. Then CAREFULLY grab ahold of the wick and very slowly start pulling it out. Make sure your careful because if your not you could break the coil and then have a dead atty. Sometimes the wick will all come out together and sometimes it will come apart and you have to take it out oiece by piece. Get as much of it out as you can. If theres alittle left you can get it after you take the bridge off.
After you got the wick out, carefully start removing pieces of the bridge mesh that you pushed to the side. It will normally come out in pieces so just be patient and try to get it all. Sometimes a piece of mesh is stuck. To get that out grab it tight with the tweezer and twist it. That will normally then break the piece of mesh off and then you can remove it.
After youve gotten all the mesh out that was over the bridge you should see a bare metal bridge thats going over the atty coil.
This part you need to be careful too. The bridge is straddling the coil so if your too rough removing it you can break the coil.
Pinch the middle of the bridge hard with the tweezer. Make sure you have a good grip on it, and CAREFULLY start slowly wiggling it back and forth. As your wiggling, gently start pulling it up toward you. DOnt rush and it should come out with no problem.
Now that it is debridged you should see the open coil. Carefully remove any little bits of the wick that you did not get the first time and there also might be a few small pieces of the mesh that are sticking out that you can remove too.
Once your done, the inside of the atty should be flat and nothing should be sticking out. There will be the mesh around the outside that was connected to the mesh that went over the bridge that you removed already and in the middle there should be a small little reservoir with the coil in the middle of it. (The coil should be completely exposed)

Now you have a dewicked and debridged atty that has no wick in it so you have nothing to worry about.
Youll be able to drip directly onto the coil and never have to worry about inhaling the silica fibers or singeing a wick because the wick is no longer there.

Hope that helps, sorry if its kinda confusing, it was kinda hard to explain how to do it in writing. Its really not hard to do though or confusing and can be done in a minute or two.

 

[dormouse]

Warnings

1 - Do not dewick your atomizer unless you have spare atomizers. You can break an atty during dewicking.

2 - Do not dewick your atomizer if you use cartridges. Cartridges need the wick to get juice from the stuffing to the coil

 

[mynameisrob]

Thanks for adding that Dormouse.

I put that this is for dripping in the beginning But should have have stressed that this is ONLY for dripping. Do NOT do this if you want to use carts with it also. Debridging and dewicking an atty means the atty can ONLY be used for dripping and nothing else.

Also It is possible to break one if your not careful like I said. Ive never broken one, even with the first ones I ever debridged/dewicked, but that does NOT mean it doesnt happen. Even being careful, there is a chance that the coil could break.

Dormouse is absolutely right. If you do not have extra attys that you could use if you happened to break the one your trying to dewick/debridge then do NOT try to do this.

 

[juicejunky]

Thanks for adding that Dormouse.

I put that this is for dripping in the beginning But should have have stressed that this is ONLY for dripping. Do NOT do this if you want to use carts with it also. Debridging and dewicking an atty means the atty can ONLY be used for dripping and nothing else.

Also It is possible to break one if your not careful like I said. Ive never broken one, even with the first ones I ever debridged/dewicked, but that does NOT mean it doesnt happen. Even being careful, there is a chance that the coil could break.

Dormouse is absolutely right. If you do not have extra attys that you could use if you happened to break the one your trying to dewick/debridge then do NOT try to do this.

First off for clarification, dripping includes some tanks and bottom feeders that don't rely on wicks to get eliquid to the atty. You are not exclusively limited to just straight drips from the eliquid bottle with a dewicked atty.

I have broken a few attys in my day dewicking, so Dormouse's warning is a good one. With QC problems in the manufacturing of attys that wick can be twisted around the bridge, caught between wires, etc. I've seen just about every possibility of where the wick can be shoved in the manufacturing process. Most come right out, but sometimes you run into a weird one.


If you are going to debridge, the wick usually just comes out with the bridge and mesh. Just rock slowly with pliers and wiggle it all out in one go. With 306s I usually wait until the atty needs a good cleaning to bother debridging (higher likelihood of breaking the atty). I always take out the top wick before vaping any atty if it has one since it serves no purpose with my REO bottom feeders.

Not an expert on this, but did do some reading when I bought silica rope. Silica wick/rope is a form of fiberglass with a much higher content of silica than regular fiberglass. Silica has a high threshold for heat. Silica is in cosmetics, some foods, cement, etc. The dust is nasty and irritating to the lungs and can lead to silicosis, bronchitis, or cancer according to Wikipedia. I just don't think when a wick is wet, there is any silica going airborne.

When I was messing with silica rope, my hand skin would get itchy from getting embedded in the skin just like playing with fiberglass. If you dewick, be careful with the wick remnants.

 

[Optimo]

Better than smoking the 4000 chemicals that was in the cigarettes you used to smoke eh? You can take a torch lighter to the wicks in any atomizer/carto and burn it for a hour and it won't catch fire. So really nothing to worry about.

 

[Optimo]

Btw...dewicking really only reduces the vapor and makes you drip more often. Keep your atomizer clean and there is no need to dewick.

 

[Arghas]

Thank you all for your responses. Its cleared up some of the issues I've had, I'm not too convinced that the liquid may stop the silica/fiberglass, but here's what wikipedia states about silica:

Silicon dioxide - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"inhaling finely divided crystalline silica dust in very small quantities (OSHA allows 0.1 mg/m³) over time can lead to silicosis, bronchitis, or cancer, as the dust becomes lodged in the lungs and continuously irritates them, reducing lung capacities. (In the body crystalline silica particles do not dissolve over clinically relevant periods of time.) "

It's weird that the FDA never attacked these though.

 

[southernIL]

You would have to inhale much more silica then you could possably manage with a small wick in a ecig. Just think about the insulation in your home it puts more silica fibers in the air you breath than you might think. Silica would be the least of my worries!

 

[alanselo]

This thread might give you some ideas and help out on your concerns.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/atomizer-mods/183131-atomizer-wicks-period.html

Good luck.