After spending a few days with the Strata I am still enjoying it. Its biggest strength for me is how long you can go without dripping. Its not the best cloud machine or flavor machine (not yet at least) that I have but it provides a satisfying, warmer than average,
vape. I thought I would post a little more about building it as it might help some people out.
My first tip of the day is using a 510/ego multimeter to test your resistance. This will only work for a single coil. Turn the unit upside down and touch the ground post to the outside of the EGO connection and then tilt it to press the positive post to the center of the ego connection. Once you press firmly the numbers stop jumping around and it seems like an accurate measurement. I suppose you can do this for each individual coil and do the math for a dual coil setup but I haven't tried duals yet.
This is how I have been wicking my radial builds like the strait coil or the ophion coil. I am using an organic cotton pad called ninja wick which seems to be working better than cotton balls for me. For the ophion coil I have been peeling off the outer ply of the cotton pad because it is much fluffier underneath and the fluff fills in the curves of the coil better. For the strait coil, I leave it intact so the coil doesn't get buried in cotton. With the grain of the cotton going vertical, I cut a zig-zag into the bottom so that it can reach the bottom of the well but doesn't completely fill it up with cotton either. This wick is working great.
Now I am just trying to find the right guage for the heat and density I want. Twisted 30g seems too weak. Twisted 28g seems just about right, but the whole thing gets really hot if I chain
vape at all. I've also been having issues with hot spots forming after using it for a day. Tonight I plan on trying a non-twisted 26g wire as it might not have the hot spot issue.
The strait coil seems to work better - better flavor, thicker vapor but I was finding that it dry burns more easily. The wick will be saturated but I will get a burnt taste very suddenly and have to drip more often than with the ophion. It seems to be fine if there is liquid in the reservoir. I hope this helps someone!
![Vapor :vapor: :vapor:](/styles/ecf/xf1-smilies/vapor.gif)