Prometheus dry hits --- What am I doing wrong?

[Roydub]

I have been reading and looking all over the place but can not figure how to fix the dry burnt hits I am getting with my Prometheus...

I have used 26, 28, and 32 gauge kanthal with anywhere between .50 and 1.2 OHM builds...

I have wicked the crap out of this thing tons of times... (Using organic cotton)

at most I can get 1-2 decent hits and then the nasty dry hits... There are times that I dont get a "complete" dry hit, just a really bad flavor..

The problem has to be with the wicking but for the life of me I cant get it right

I am using a skeleton key mech mod with a VTC 4 18650

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Oxytyramine]

I don't know anything about genesis style attys, I'm just passing through this section, but you say you're wicking the crap out of it, could you possibly be over wicking it? Too much wick wont flow well, at least in traditional RBAs.

 

[Roydub]

I may have not explained that part very well... When I said that I was "wicking the crap out of it" I meant that I was re-wicking a bunch of times trying different methods to get it right... Over wicking was my first guess but that doesn't seem to be it... I was also thinking that my coils could be heating up too quickly and the wicks cant keep up...

I picked up some ss mesh today so I am going to try that since genesis attys are really meant to use that...

Thanks for the response though..

 

[snow blind]

Find a blunt syringe that's thin enough to roll your SS mesh around... or a tiny drill bit to help you make a straw-wick. Those will wick like a mo'fo when sized properly. You want them to fit snug in the deck hole... but be able to pull in and out of the hole with very little effort.... basically .25 - 5mm smaller than the deck hole (depending on VG content) Torch your SS... make sure it's good and oxidized... roll her up... fit it in the holes. Use some 28 gauge and then do a quick 3/4 wrap on her... pulse and fix hot spots and you're good to go.

 

[TheOnyxEgg]

What snow blind said. Though I often do things in the opposite order.

I generally will find a drill bit that barely fits in the wick hole of the atty and will then wind my coil around it. With the coil still on the bit I will mount the coil on the atty. At this point, I will then roll my mesh around a blunt tip needle (as small as possible), then remove that needle and re-roll the wick around a needle the next gauge up to ensure everything is as round as possible. I then remove the bit from the coil and insert the wick in to the coil (may need to twist the wick as you insert so it doesn't get hung up or bend the coil) and let it "unroll" to fill the coil. Pulse, fix hot spots, juice it up, fix hot spots again, good to go!

 

[Roydub]

Ok so I want the ss mesh to be pretty much the same size as the wick hole (or a bit smaller to easiely fit in)? I thought it wasn't supposed to touch the walls of the wick hole?

 

[WattWick]

I make mine pretty snug. Not tight, tho. Everyone seem to do things a bit differently. This is what works for me.

I mainly do it with leakproofing in mind. I don't want liquids running up the outside of my wick. The only opening I want in my build deck is one too small for our (relatively) viscose liquids to escape. Any hole is big enough to relieve negative tank air pressure after a pull. If the hole is big enough to leak, plug it with a smaller hole. I.e a nozzle from an e-liquid bottle.

 

[Chelonian]

Very good advice here.
I have to ask - and I do apologize if this comes across wrong - but are you sure that you are getting dry hits, or are you getting a case of having a hot leg?
A hot leg will taste almost as crappy as a dry hit.
(In case you need to know - the legs of the coil should not glow when firing the mod)
You saying that sometimes you dont get a complete dry hit is what makes me suspect a hot leg.

Also, when you use SS, are you using 200,300,400, what?
I like the method snowblind said to build my coils. Usually a 3/32 drill bit is perfect to pass through the wick holes and build my coil
I roll my wick, the. I put it in the coil.
Then I dismount the coil and wick from the atty, and torch ONLY the part with the coil- NOT the part of the wick that will go in the tank.
For how to roll coils, check the favorite coil thread I think that WattWick's cinnacoil is the easiest good method.
Then I screw back in the coil, pulse, then fill and vape

A big guide for me with wicks is this:
A coil MUST saturate completely in less than 15 seconds or I roll another.
I prefer less than 10 seconds when put in a full tank. Thats why I always fill the tank before I put in the wick when I build a genny.


Redacted

 

[WattWick]

Hey those are Buzzkillas cinnabuzzwicks, not mine!

Credit where credit is due

 

[WattWick]

As for the wicl touching the walls. That may be a slight misinterpretation of old tales. Tales that went "Your wick should not touch the metal insides of your tank."

Which is partially decent advice, partially exaggerated. It is meant to avoid current jumping from your wick to your atty. Thing is, once your wick is properly set up, it's no longer electrified - like it is when you're sorting out hotspots.

Your wick should end up pretty vertical anyway, so you're likely not to touch the tank. There's also (in my experience) no benefit to long wicks, so you probably don't want it running all the way to the bottom of the tank anyway. Mines' usually about halfway down.

 

[Roydub]

Very good advice here.
I have to ask - and I do apologize if this comes across wrong - but are you sure that you are getting dry hits, or are you getting a case of having a hot leg?
A hot leg will taste almost as crappy as a dry hit.
(In case you need to know - the legs of the coil should not glow when firing the mod)
You saying that sometimes you dont get a complete dry hit is what makes me suspect a hot leg.

Also, when you use SS, are you using 200,300,400, what?
I like the method snowblind said to build my coils. Usually a 3/32 drill bit is perfect to pass through the wick holes and build my coil
I roll my wick, the. I put it in the coil.
Then I dismount the coil and wick from the atty, and torch ONLY the part with the coil- NOT the part of the wick that will go in the tank.
For how to roll coils, check the favorite coil thread I think that WattWick's cinnacoil is the easiest good method.
Then I screw back in the coil, pulse, then fill and vape

A big guide for me with wicks is this:
A coil MUST saturate completely in less than 15 seconds or I roll another.
I prefer less than 10 seconds when put in a full tank. Thats why I always fill the tank before I put in the wick when I build a genny.


Redacted

I am not sure about the hot leg issue... I was aware that was a bad thing but didnt know there was a name for it lol... I know a few of my coils have had that but I either fixed it or replaced them... But I will keep an eye out for them now, as I didnt think they were that big of an issue.

I am not sure what thread count ss mesh I currently have... after all of my failed attempts at using a cotton wick I went to a local B&M and got ss mesh there.. but they weren't packaged and no one there knew.. How do you determine the best thread count?

The method you refer to about rolling the wick is what ive been doing.. keep in mind I literally just put together my second attempt at a ss mesh wick and am almost certain I messed up the coil this time because I tried wrapping the coil directly around the wick (which is something I dont normally do, nor like).. So Ill keep reading about ss wicking until I get it right..

I have been torching the entire wick so Ill try your method next... Do you quench your wick? how long do you torch it?

How do you know how long your wick is taking to completely saturate?

Thank you all for your help... spent a good amount of money on this prometheus so this damn thing is going to work! lol

 

[WattWick]

Another little detail it's easy to miss and forget mentioning...

Check closely to see if your coil is in perfect contact with your wick all the way. If there's even a tiiny little gap between, you'll get harsh hits. You may get a semi-decent hit first thanks to the liquid pooled around the coil.

I'm not Chelonian, but I'll share how I do it anyway. As mentioned, we all seem to do it a bit differently. Most roads lead to Rome. Not all, tho.

I roll solid wicks, soak them in e-liquid and set them on fire. No torching, just letting the e-liquid burn off. If held vertically while burning, mostly the top half section will be affected. No quenching. Maybe repeat if it looks a bit ... not right. A golden sheen tells me it's done. Then it's mounted in the wick hole and coiled 'in site'. Holding the coil and rotating the mod while tucking down the 'innermost wrap' with my nail gives a nice even tension of the coil. Then the usual pulsing and maybe some prodding till it lights up evenly. Then! An important part (IMHO). Soak the wick and fire it up. Watch if any new hotspots form as it dries out. If so, sort them out and repeat. If not, it should be good until next dry burn.

The drillbit method never worked very well for me. Nothing wrong with it. I just prefer it the other way.

 

[Chelonian]

Cinnabuzzwick.
Dona and done.

Roydub

Now you have heard all of the major methods that, in my experience, actually work.
And by work, I mean that they can support chain vaping without dry hits, and do not require tilting to wick.
Now, you are discovering the one drawback to gennys - there is a learning curve.
Its not bad compared to most things in life - but it is harder than many things in vaping.
However
I would bet that all of us that use gennys as our main vape have had the same experience - an amazing vape from a genny sometime in our vaping. That got us hooked.
For when properly set up, an ss genny gives better taste than any other way to vape. There is nothing to get in the way of the taste.
And they can deliver a massive amount of vapor - more than any other tank style system.

To me, the 3 rules are:
1) fast wicking
2) no hotspots
3) no hotlegs
Get this, any way you can.




Redacted