New to Vaping: Looking for Vivi Nova Wick Advice

[meli.]

Did you just slide out the existing wick into the existing coil? Or did you replace everything? I ask for two reasons: first the coil determines OHM. Also, I have been wanting to try just replacing the wick and leaving the coil alone, but I didnt think it was possible. Is it?

I don't think you can replace the original vivi coil, the coil is wrapped really tight, the chances of breaking the coil, and making them touch is far too great. Replacing the coil would seem the best way forward. But I wouldn't say don't mess about with it, try it and see, just make sure you have a fully working head to replace it with. Should it not work, you don't want to be left high and dry

I would avoid wire with aluminum and iron. This wire has a very small % of iron and may be ok.

The matter of Kanthal vs Nichrome, has long been debated on these forums, as well as health and safety concerns. I'm sure others would point you in the right direction regarding health concerns. We have both Chemists and a variety of Medical/ Health Professionals as members on ECF, if something were untoward we would all be notified rather fast. However this statement is not meant to negate your concern.

As far as affecting taste is concerned, Nichrome and Kanthal have been accused of this, more often caused because the wire has not been prepared (running a lighter over it) before setting the coil. Some say it is only there for the first few few puffs, others are more sensitive to the metallic taste and claim it never leaves, both Kanthal and Nichrome have been accused this.
I prefer to use Kanthal, but Nichrome 80 is commonly used and cheaper too. So long as you know the gauge you want 32 to 36awg are most common sizes used, easy enough to find both on eBay and Amazon, just google it.
If you are after Kanthal this can be found currently on ebay both from Germany and USA link is here:
200' roll of 32 gauge A1 Kanthal resistance wire for use in rebuildable atomizer | eBay

 

[sandybeach]

How do you thread the wicking through the coil?

 

[Taniger1]

Sandy, if you go back a few pages, there are a few video's from U-Tube showing how to do exactly what your asking. One does not actually thread the wick through coils, one builds the coil onto the wick!

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

Also rebuilt a clearo with cotton and a far superior vape and I'd be willing to pay extra for cotton wicked clearos.

 

[danzigism]

@Wyzen

I simply removed the existing wick and wiring. I kept the 2.8 Ohm head. Boiled my cotton wick for a good 5-10 minutes, then patted it dry with a paper towel. I tightly wrapped the wire around the middle of wick like shown in the Estarra's YouTube video and performed the proper routing.

Overall the process takes a lot of patience and it took me a couple tries to get everything perfect. I noticed that the first time I only wrapped the wire around 4 times. It caused the Ohms to be low. I wrapped it around about 6 times and carefully checked to make sure nothing was touching. I noticed even if the wire touches the head, it can easily cause Ohm shortages. Just takes a little tweaking. I'm happy with 2.3 Ohms for now, although I hear if it gets too low, sometimes it can quickly suck up battery power if used on high voltages.

Just as an experiment, I bought some more silica wick too. It is extremely difficult to get the wire perfectly wrapped around it without fraying the silica fibers. Just another reason to use cotton. However, I will say that the cotton does indeed burn much quicker.

If using cotton wicks with the Vivi Nova, I would HIGHLY recommend removing the head completely every day or two and dab it with a bit of juice right in the center. Screw it back in to the stem, and fill your tank. Swirl the liquid and get that wick nice and wet. I can easily see these needing to be changed weekly. But the taste is good for sure, and the wire can be wrapped MUCH easier around the thicker cotton wick, than the fragile silica wick.

 

[ckone180]

@Wyzen

I simply removed the existing wick and wiring. I kept the 2.8 Ohm head. Boiled my cotton wick for a good 5-10 minutes, then patted it dry with a paper towel. I tightly wrapped the wire around the middle of wick like shown in the Estarra's YouTube video and performed the proper routing.

Overall the process takes a lot of patience and it took me a couple tries to get everything perfect. I noticed that the first time I only wrapped the wire around 4 times. It caused the Ohms to be low. I wrapped it around about 6 times and carefully checked to make sure nothing was touching. I noticed even if the wire touches the head, it can easily cause Ohm shortages. Just takes a little tweaking. I'm happy with 2.3 Ohms for now, although I hear if it gets too low, sometimes it can quickly suck up battery power if used on high voltages.

Just as an experiment, I bought some more silica wick too. It is extremely difficult to get the wire perfectly wrapped around it without fraying the silica fibers. Just another reason to use cotton. However, I will say that the cotton does indeed burn much quicker.

If using cotton wicks with the Vivi Nova, I would HIGHLY recommend removing the head completely every day or two and dab it with a bit of juice right in the center. Screw it back in to the stem, and fill your tank. Swirl the liquid and get that wick nice and wet. I can easily see these needing to be changed weekly. But the taste is good for sure, and the wire can be wrapped MUCH easier around the thicker cotton wick, than the fragile silica wick.

I do not wrap the wire tightly, as the cotton expands tremendously. I use a metal pin and wrap the wire around the wick and pin. I usually get several days without any problem.

 

[pope77]

To clear things up; resistance (Ohm) depends on total length of resistance wire used.

 

[sandybeach]

It sounds way too hard. For $2 I can get the generic replacement heads at Discount Vapors. For $3 I can get the real heads from GotVapes and Discount Vapors and I am sure many other places.

My time is worth more than $3 an hour if it takes an hour to do it. More than $6 an hour if it takes half an hour.

 

[Vapoor eyes er]

I fully agree and that's why I only did it the one time.

It sounds way too hard. For $2 I can get the generic replacement heads at Discount Vapors. For $3 I can get the real heads from GotVapes and Discount Vapors and I am sure many other places.

My time is worth more than $3 an hour if it takes an hour to do it. More than $6 an hour if it takes half an hour.

 

[balexstephens]

Is short wick or long wick better?

 

[noflex]

Phoenix Rebuildable How To Wrap A Coil! - YouTube

This video shows my exact setup for rebuildables I use... By far a superior setup in flavor and vapor.

The rebuildables I use are the phoenix rebuildables $15 and the vivi tank rebuildables also $15

SS mesh and 32g kanthal is better than nichrome wire setups. The unbleached cotton+ss mesh is great as the setup gets easier, no more beding ss mesh to reach your +/- poles

 

[noflex]

Is short wick or long wick better?

Depends if you are using the wick in a rebuildable tank which you will need a longer wick or a drip rebuildable atty which wont use but a fraction of what you would use in a tank.

 

[balexstephens]

Using it in a vivi nova mini

 

[NancyR]

It sounds way too hard. For $2 I can get the generic replacement heads at Discount Vapors. For $3 I can get the real heads from GotVapes and Discount Vapors and I am sure many other places.

My time is worth more than $3 an hour if it takes an hour to do it. More than $6 an hour if it takes half an hour.

Sandy, I recoil mine, using cotton, and it takes me all of maybe 2 minutes per head. If that long.

 

[pope77]

I fully agree and that's why I only did it the one time.

That only makes sense if you are 'rewicking' in order to save money. My motivation is to reduce harm caused by silica or other unknown elements used by manufacturer. Lets face it, for that money, you'll get cheapest, nastiest crap available. If you do it yourself you are at least in partial control of what you are 'vaping'.

HTH

 

[danzigism]

pope77, that's exactly why I was asking about rewicking in the first place. After handling the silica wick, it's easy to see how fragile it is. Perhaps it's the scare of it possibly causing Silicosis that makes me want to use cotton instead. I'm no scientist or doctor so I don't really know the validity of that claim. If I could buy new heads with cotton wicks, I would surely purchase them all the time. However I guess it's simply not practical for manufacturers given how easily cotton burns.

I would like to see something engineered so that as the wick deteriorates, you could slowly pull it up and cut off the scorched parts much like you do with a zippo lighter. Would be hard to keep the coil in place. I'm curious to see how tanks and wicks evolve.

 

[Renzuli]

Welcome , but stainless wick is not likely to work on the Vivi's , But real easy to re-wick with cotton , or silica . Just don't dry burn the cotton . And never heard of your particular PV " Wraith " When you get a chance , tell us more about it , or even send a link . Or maybe a picture . The Vivi's are probably one of the easiest to start with for re-wicking / re-building .

 

[JUDGMENT AFFIRMED]

it sounds way too hard. For $2 i can get the generic replacement heads at discount vapors. For $3 i can get the real heads from gotvapes and discount vapors and i am sure many other places.

My time is worth more than $3 an hour if it takes an hour to do it. More than $6 an hour if it takes half an hour.

everything is hard until its easy.

 

[moretroubles]

@Danzigism Do you ever get any hits that start tasting burnt? Because I ordered the same wick too and I noticed some discoloration on it after vaping it for a good 5-10 minutes. It's only when I drip a couple of drops on the wire that it tastes good again. I'm thinking the rubber piece at the top of the wick is stopping it from wicking it completely. Have you noticed that?

 

[sandybeach]

Sandy, I recoil mine, using cotton, and it takes me all of maybe 2 minutes per head. If that long.

PMing you