Once you go cotton...

[Coastal Cowboy]

I was told that when using cotton, you have to rebuild it everyday.

My cotton wick coils were always wound a bit looser than the wick and coil I was replacing. Cotton saturates really well and restricting the juice flow by wrapping too tightly constricts the best feature of the material. Don't crank down on the wrap and don't pull the coil too deeply into the atomizer, and it's pretty doggone good.

 

[txredxj]

im on day 3 with cotton in my kayfun. other than popping it is working great. i havent ran it dry due to fear of burning the wick. did a machine screw wrap of 32 gauge for 1.8ohms and run it at 11w.

 

[BlueMoods]

Just depends on the juice as to how long a wick lasts me. Dark juice, high VG, Sweet juice and I'll be rewicking a lot faster than I will on a light, high PG and/or not so sweet juice. My DIY light colored, minimally sweetened, 100% PG ones, I can go 5-7 days on one wick, dark sweet, VG heavy and, it might be 1.5 to 2 days.

I never run it dry, not going to burn a wick.

 

[MoparCharlie]

WalMart Peaches and cream yarn twice boiled and air dried is my cotton of choice.

$2 and you have all the wick material you will ever need...

My only caviat is to wet the wick prior to use and do NOT dryburn. Once you get a burnt taste with cotton the wick is ready to be changed. Me personally, I like to rebuild the coils so I change mine every couple of tanks, and everytime I change flavors.

 

[murphyramone]

".......everything else tastes rotten." (i have not used cotton for wicks but its the first thing to come to mind when i read the title.)

 

[jamesd1628]

I haven't used anything else since using cotton pulled from a cotton ball (untreated, organic). A wick usually lasts about 2-3 days. Rewicking takes about 3 mintues: remove old wick; dry burn the gunk off; insert new wick. Other than that, there is no fiddling involved. I rarely get a dry hit in any of my attys (drippers, Prometey, Spheroids). A bag of cotton balls will probably last 5+ years. I used SS wicks for a year and half, but haven't touched one in a few months now. Cotton is king in my book.

 

[Statistic]

Right there with ya, SpinDr.

Best flavor I've experienced yet, super incredibly easy to rewick (easier, and faster, than dry burning silica or Nextel, imo), and it's so cheap it might as well be free.

 

[PuffnStuff]

when I went from the tube cartos to my first kangar tank I could instantly taste the silica, could taste it again on my first rebuild-able. I do not like the taste of silica (some of my friends don't notice). I went straight to bamboo and have no plans of going back anytime soon.

I only chose bamboo over cotton because of the higher saturation rate of bamboo according to a number of people that have tested bamboo vs cotton vs hemp. Most of these tests are done (and this may sound silly) as research for people looking to switch off of disposable diapers. I'm sure for a full rebuild-able the difference may be negligible and I may try this in mine in the future, yet for the my kangar protank I wanted that tiny little wick as saturated as I could get it.

cheers

 

[Leithan]

I am big cotton fan, I use organic sterile face pads. The cotton just wicks so much better then anything else, I have noticed I can run cotton wicks a couple tenths of a volt higher then silica before I start burning juice. It's most likely do to the cotton holding so much juice and keeping the coil cool. I use it in everything, Kayfun, Term C, Diver, Killer, protank....you get the picture, I have yet to use a device that cotton didn't wick awesome in. I don't go to any great lengths cleaning my cotton before I use it.......I just buy the kind that says sterile on the bag and assume I'm good.

 

[Smokachino]

I use the #1/0 Square Braided Cotton Wicks exclusively now in my ProTank and Evod heads. For me, they seem to be the perfect thickness to fit in the head, and they solid enough to easily wrap my 32 Gauge A-1 Kanthal Wire around. It is thick enough that I don't need to add any flavor wicks, and they don't flood. I actually just ordered these on Monday to resupply: Square Braided 100 Cotton Wick 6 0 4 0 2 0 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 | eBay

I tried the Peaches and Cream cotton yarn, and it was just too flimsy for me to get a good wrap around. Also, they kept on flooding after a few vapes even with some flavor wicks inside. I would have to let it cool down before hitting it again, which is not easy for a chain vaper.

I would say my square braided wicks last me about a week before I change them. I usually have them in about 4 tanks that I rotate during the day, so if I was just using one clearo/tank then I would probably change them more often. I also have about 5 or so as backups, that I will rotate in if I switch a juice. I also am big on keeping them clean. I will probably soak them in vodka or warm water once a day on the weekend, and maybe once every two days during the week.

Thanks for the link! I've been using cheesecloth, but have been considering trying something else. I mostly have T3 heads, but also have some ProTank heads, so I'm wondering if the 1/0 size braid would work for both? Seems like the ProTank coils are a little smaller, but I could be wrong.

 

[Crash Moses]

when I went from the tube cartos to my first kangar tank I could instantly taste the silica, could taste it again on my first rebuild-able. I do not like the taste of silica (some of my friends don't notice). I went straight to bamboo and have no plans of going back anytime soon.

I only chose bamboo over cotton because of the higher saturation rate of bamboo according to a number of people that have tested bamboo vs cotton vs hemp. Most of these tests are done (and this may sound silly) as research for people looking to switch off of disposable diapers. I'm sure for a full rebuild-able the difference may be negligible and I may try this in mine in the future, yet for the my kangar protank I wanted that tiny little wick as saturated as I could get it.

cheers

I smoked disposable diapers for years. They were harder to quit than cigarettes.

 

[AttyPops]

I've yet to be able to taste the difference between cotton and silica (or even silica and SS) most likely due to the abuse of my poor taste buds over the last quarter century (I still need extra flavor shots in my juice to get good flavor).

That said, what I like about cotton is that it is so easy to re-wick (especially micro-coils...I've yet to make a decent micro-coil with silica...it just doesn't play nice). A cotton wick will last me three or four days (very dependent on juice...some folks re-wick every day...RMMV) and it takes just a minute or two to throw in a new one. This means the awesome coil I perfected doesn't get tossed in the trash as soon as the wick goes bad (although silica IS very easy to keep clean and will last quite awhile...a month or so on most of my builds).

For best results, less cotton is more. A little goes a long way. If I use too much cotton I can definitely taste the difference. If you have been nonplussed by cotton try using a little less. Makes a big difference.

And now for the obligatory gratuitous self-promotion.

My first micro-coil. 10ish wraps of 30awg Kanthal (using a 16 gauge needle) for 1.5 ohms on my Reomizer...absolute heaven.

I did this....it burnt in the center
THAT is when you can tell the difference!
I suspect the "micro coil" was ...um...too long and narrow for the wick and the center just couldn't keep up with wicking.

Wick was not packed tightly inside coil. IDK what I did wrong. I can always taste cotton on all wicks I've tried it on. Micro coil or not. Sad. I've resigned myself to the fact that it's me, and that I suck at cotton wicks. But I think I shall try again after this silica wick is done.

Besides, cotton is so easy to find I want to get good with it.

 

[Crash Moses]

I did this....it burnt in the center
THAT is when you can tell the difference!
I suspect the "micro coil" was ...um...too long and narrow for the wick and the center just couldn't keep up with wicking.

Wick was not packed tightly inside coil. IDK what I did wrong. I can always taste cotton on all wicks I've tried it on. Micro coil or not. Sad. I've resigned myself to the fact that it's me, and that I suck at cotton wicks. But I think I shall try again after this silica wick is done.

Besides, cotton is so easy to find I want to get good with it.

The first time I tried cotton (a few months ago) I could taste it too and decided it wasn't for me. When I started experimenting with micro-coils I became very frustrated trying to get silica to fit inside the small bore without being too loose or too tight so I decided to give cotton another chance (especially after reading many of the posts in the micro-coil thread in the RBA forum).

I am convinced that my disappointment during my initial foray was due entirely to using too much cotton. It takes very little to make a decent wick. I'm still using the first cotton ball out of the bag I purchased in early June.

Here's a link to the aforementioned thread:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...271-micro-coils-increase-vapor-flavor-th.html

 

[Orobas]

different wicking materials have their pros and cons. Cotton tastes better but burns easily so you really have to keep track of how much juice you have in it if you're dripping. In my experiments I've tired cotton balls, cheesecloth, and borth worsted and "crochet" weight cotton yarn. they all have their applications. I generally use cotton for my vivi nova heads but stick with silica in the RBAs because it's more forgiving if you let yourself get a dry hit.

Still want to try hemp and bamboo yarn for ghit and siggles.

 

[scalewiz]

Hemp is good.....especially good to dry burn

 

[AttyPops]

Yeah I tried 2 different wicks in the same micro-coil. Less cotton the 2nd time. So little that I had to add some just to get the juice to vaporize. sigh. It's me. I suck at cotton. IDK what's up with that, but I guess I just haven't played with it enough.

I'm picky about that stuff. Hate cartos too...they all taste like filler. The CE-X's and Vivi-Nova's are OK for me. So are atomizers (dripped for 2 years). So clearos and RBA's are fine with silica.

 

[Crash Moses]

No worries, Pops. Everyone's taste buds are different. Mine are horrible which may explain why I can't taste the cotton.

Maybe you can perfect a way to get silica into a micro-coil. If so...let me know. Regardless of what's in 'em, micro-coils are the only thing I'm going to be building from now on (except on my gennie's...they don't lend themselves well to micro-coils).

 

[Myrany]

when I went from the tube cartos to my first kangar tank I could instantly taste the silica, could taste it again on my first rebuild-able. I do not like the taste of silica (some of my friends don't notice). I went straight to bamboo and have no plans of going back anytime soon.

I only chose bamboo over cotton because of the higher saturation rate of bamboo according to a number of people that have tested bamboo vs cotton vs hemp. Most of these tests are done (and this may sound silly) as research for people looking to switch off of disposable diapers. I'm sure for a full rebuild-able the difference may be negligible and I may try this in mine in the future, yet for the my kangar protank I wanted that tiny little wick as saturated as I could get it.

cheers

HAve you considered bamboo spinning sliver rather than already spun? It might be more analogous to those using cotton balls instead of yarn.
for an example Bamboo Top - Available in 4 and 8 ounce pkgs. | The Woolery

 

[ericsp]

Are there any Ecig Vendors that sell Cotton wick for this specific application?

 

[ericsp]

How does this place look for a source for cotton?

Organic Cotton Wick Material