OCC Rebuild Help

[kitten182]

Okay so I know how to rebuild the OCC head but is it possible for the cotton to alter the taste of the juice? I'm using the cotton that came with the Kangertech Subtank Plus. Is there a better cotton to use to make the flavor taste like its supposed to? It tastes better with the cotton that is already inside the OCC head for some reason.

 

[dcfluegel]

i generally use the pad style cotton in my tanks (like the cotton that comes with the kanger) and cotton bacon in my drippers... so far, have not really noticed any flavor differentiation between the two...

 

[DingerCPA]

I think the cotton that comes with the STM is organic Japanese cotton. I find that the first couple of draws off cotton has a funky taste, so I'll vape at a little lower power for a few hits. I've pulled out some cellucotton (rayon) here recently (it had been on a shelf for a number of months), and it's pretty clean tasting from the start.

 

[RandyF]

it may not be the cotton at all. Granted, you want to use organic, but you also need to be aware of how clean your fingers are. Any oils or anything else that may be on your hands will transfer to the cotton. I always wash my hands when rebuilding and try not to touch the cotton that is going to be my wick as much as possible, trying to only handle the ends that I will be cutting off.

I go one step further and dampen a paper towel with Everclear and clean my fingers before I wick, but that is just my OCD, it is not necessary.

 

[fattmatt805]

it may not be the cotton at all. Granted, you want to use organic, but you also need to be aware of how clean your fingers are. Any oils or anything else that may be on your hands will transfer to the cotton. I always wash my hands when rebuilding and try not to touch the cotton that is going to be my wick as much as possible, trying to only handle the ends that I will be cutting off.

I go one step further and dampen a paper towel with Everclear and clean my fingers before I wick, but that is just my OCD, it is not necessary.

i'm with you 100% i usually wear gloves when wicking.

 

[Wraith504]

organic japanese cotton like all cotton has an initial strange flavor at first but usually goes away after the first 5 min session. If the coil isnt primed well enough you will probably taste it even more. You could always switch to rayon which does seem to taste a bit cleaner IMO.

 

[kitten182]

Okay guys thank you for the advice I'll try them.

 

[IMFire3605]

Yes, cotton of any sort has an initial break in point. Boiling in distilled water and letting it dry 24hours helps. The oils and salts on your fingers can transfer, that can be rectified by wearing latex, nitrile, or vinyl gloves during wicking, that or rinsing your hands with everclear or vodka, or washing your hands with "Dawn" dish soap to remove those oils and salts. Having been rebuilding protank 1 heads and gradually moved up to Kayfuns and such, I've grown used to the break in period of new cotton wicking, much prefer that than nasty, charcoal gunky wicking and coils.

 

[jersey_emt]

I use plain organic cotton balls that are available from Walgreens, CVS, Target, etc. Some people like to boil them and let them dry but I don't -- I think that actually does more harm than good because it can easily be contaminated while it is drying. I empty the bag into a large Ziploc bag (the original bag is pretty thin and easily damaged), then seal that in another large Ziploc bag. I'll take about four or five cotton balls out of the internal bag and keep them in the outer Ziploc bag. When I run out, I'll take another four or five out of the internal bag. This way, the internal bag is kept sealed as much as possible.