Rebuilding Nova head, first attempt

[skoot]

I rebuilt a Nova head for the first time today using this exact procedure, except:

I used 32ga Kanthal A-1 for the coil
I used Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton yarn, Bone color (no dyes, natural color)
Removed the metal disc inside the silicon sleeve

And WOW. The flavor is on par with my ibtank and smok 2.4 carto. Throat hit is reduced but it's very subtle. The cotton definitely mellows the flavor compared to stock silica. There's less harshness by a LOT. Right now I'm using some random bottle of 18mg Blubacco, no idea on pg/vg ratio, but I usually use 100% vg. I just didn't want to blow a tankfull of it in case this didn't work out. I'll see how it works with 100% vg once I blow through this tank.

I did 6 loops in the coil and came up with 2.0 ohms. Running it at 4v, on the high end and it's great. No cotton burning.

I want to see how the cotton holds up. I think I can drop to 4 wraps and really get down there. My fear is that the cotton, which is very, very fine, will gunk up with 100% vg. We shall see.

 

[bebeste]

Hey Skoot,
I just yesterday re-wicked my VVN heads with Peaches and Creme 100% cotton, cost a whole $1.79 from Wally World. It wicks much better than silica, IMO. I even made one with 2 wicks, wrapped with 32ga Kanthal. it's at 2.1 ohms, and producing clouds of great tasting vapor at 3.3v on my Provari. I never realized until now how nasty silica wicks taste. No more sore throat, either.
I don't know how long these wicks will last, but I have enough wick and wire to last me a long time. When it gets gunked up I just rebuild, don't mess with cleaning them. I normally use 70-30 pg-vg juice and have never had wicking issues with silica or cotton.

 

[Bobee]

Did either of you double wrap the legs?

 

[skoot]

???? Don't know what you mean.

 

[Butters78]

Are you getting any leaking taking the metal disk out? I never considered doing that.

Congrats on the successful build btw!

 

[Bobee]

Heard that doubling up on the wire on the legs lessens the heat generated on the legs so as to not burn the rubber grommet.

 

[skoot]

No leaking or burning around the gasket. But halfway through the tank I have noticed a burning taste. The cotton underneath the coils is dark and probably needs replacing. I think I wrapped the coils too tight.

 

[supertrunker]

You can double the legs of the coil up - but i find it clumsy and hard to refit, and some people will wrap a little silver wire round them to avoid it heating up. I personally do neither and have never had a problem with the grommet burning, so i consider it an unnecessary precaution.

T

 

[Bobee]

I've just most recently starting rebuilding as well and have only had limited success and becoming very annoyed. I loved the Nova so much at first but it's becoming an annoyance. Very unsure what I'm doing wrong. It's completely possible I'm trying to vape the cotton too high? What % liquid do ya'll usually vape/V/W? I most recently got an RDA and I vape a 65/55PG/VG mix at 4 volts and it blows absolute clouds, along with pretty amazing flavor. I'm not looking for the same flavor of course, but I was blown away by the novas at first :/

 

[Butters78]

You can double the legs of the coil up - but i find it clumsy and hard to refit, and some people will wrap a little silver wire round them to avoid it heating up. I personally do neither and have never had a problem with the grommet burning, so i consider it an unnecessary precaution.

T

Same here. No burning at all. Maybe if you vape at really high wattage it may be an issue.

 

[Regzzz]

I noticed when I rebuild with cotton, that the cotton wick, after a period of about 24 hrs, has really expanded. So here was my take on the cotton vivi nova rebuild: I would put less cotton material in the wick, almost too little to vape right after the rebuilt without having gurgling problems. But I would let it sit there, filled up for at least 24 hrs. then after that it would work great! the problem I was having was that if I would put enough cotton material so to start vaping a few minutes after the initial fill, after about half the tank, it would choke with the expansion of the cotton and then I would get dry hits and burning. And we all know that cotton burning is really yuky! hehe

Well, that's my experience with the cotton stuff.