rebuilding vivi wick... burnt taste

[lostprotocol]

I rebuilt my vivi nova coil wick as specified by every video. I've done it like 5 times now and I've given up. I get a very burnt nasty weird taste even though it is vaping perfect and not even crackling at all. Ive tried tighter wraps to looser wraps of the wire and cant really seem to get it to not burn the wick? I've tried fresh wicks fresh wire, old wicks old wire. Ive tried few wraps around, more wraps around, space in between the wraps and little space between.

I ALWAYS made sure no wire was touching nothing including the metal walls and made sure the wire didn't touch another wire in any point of the build.

Its vaping perfect I can even taste the e-juice but the burning is overwhelming from the first hit to 10 test hits later, just gets worse and worse the more I hit it. I am not inhaling this horrific vape.



Please use the picture as an example. I have tried many different methods to try and get it right and this one was one of the most successful. Thanks, I appreciate your helps!

 

[jayceebee]

Just wrote about this in another thread. For me it works fine for a few days, but then I got this taste too. I always fill it up min to the half and never use it with more then 3.7 V. I got the wick longer, it should touch the bottom of the tank...

 

[Iusedtoanalog]

Hi Lost. Sorry you are having a rough time. On only very few videos that I have seen, some folks fire-treat their coil material before they wrap the coil. The person(s) that do this say it is intended to make the flavor of the coil residue not pollute the wick. It stands to reason that there is manufacturing recidue on most anything that is metallic and spun/stretched/extruded or cut. The folks that demonstrate this heat each section to red hot an inch or so at a time, two or thee times along the length of the coil. Everyone says the residue on the coil does taset bad and transfers to the wicking material if you do not burn it off ahaead of time.

If you have done this step , then I have no other advise. If you have not done this step, give it a try and let us know the results. We all would like to know how you find a way to remedy your issue. Good luck. Happy Vaping.

 

[IMWylde]

Sounds like your burning wick. to check this pull on opposite ends of the wick and see how easily it separates. If you are in fact burning then do two things. wrap the coil around something other then the wick and then thread the wick through the coil. Also either use slightly thinner wick or open the slot up just a smidge with a screw driver. This will keep from choking off the juice flow in the wick.

Make sure your getting good wicking.

Screw the thing down on the battery and with a few drops of juice fire it up. How do the coils look to you? Are they bright ... cherry red?

It's like a car. It needs Fire Fuel Air,

Break it down.

 

[Robino1]

My first thought was the wrap was too tight and the juice was not able to saturate the wick under the coil. I am thinking IMWylde is correct. From the picture, it looks as though the wick is actually pinched in the coil. If you look at a fresh wick out of the package, the coil is not pinching the wick. I am curious as to how this is resolved for you. I have been planning to rebuild my heads too in the future. I have the wire, I just need to get the wicking material.

 

[damthisisfun]

My 2 cents - although I have not rebuilt a vivi yet (still sitting in the box) - I rebuilt a CE5 - think the atty head is very similar to the VIVI - and the process is the same. I was getting nasty hits - i dont know if that is what a dry hit is - it was like a hit off a dry atty....yuck. Well what I found was I had used too much cotton yarn for wicking - too much aint always good. I cant see what you are using for the wick - but I suspect it may be too thick.....

 

[michliu]

You may be using too much wick. After experiencing the burnt, dry hits you describe with my first few rebuilt coils, I wrap my coils around a drill bit and use only enough cheesecloth so I can easily thread it through the coil, much less than I originally thought was needed. The cotton expands when the juice saturates it and fully fills the coil. I also lay a wick over the coil for extra saturation just in case and notch the silicon cap to prevent any pinching.

 

[cedric212]

Looks like a cotton batten or cotton ball wick. If that's the case, you're using too much cotton so when you put the silicon cap on it cuts the flow of eliquid to your coil. I use cotton ball and only takes a pinch to make a wick (~2mm), then I take the old one out of the coil and slip the new one in. Also, check the rubber grommets for burn marks, you might want to consider double up and twist the legs.

 

[lostprotocol]

Thanks everyone. I do believe the coil may be pinching as it is not completely loose but I did make sure it was a little bit loose. The wick was pulled out of one of my least favorite wicking attys so lets just say its stock wick. The wire is from a vivi nova head that had broken when I tried to clean it by scraping burnt stuff off the coil. I will try one of these days but my shipment of heads comes in tomorrow or after, so I might not even want to try as I wasted hours and patience to get it right haha. Sorry, I will try again some time though.

 

[lostprotocol]

the rubber insulator is burning !! any way around this?

 

[DrillRX]

I rebuilt my vivi nova coil wick as specified by every video. I've done it like 5 times now and I've given up. I get a very burnt nasty weird taste even though it is vaping perfect and not even crackling at all. Ive tried tighter wraps to looser wraps of the wire and cant really seem to get it to not burn the wick? I've tried fresh wicks fresh wire, old wicks old wire. Ive tried few wraps around, more wraps around, space in between the wraps and little space between.

I ALWAYS made sure no wire was touching nothing including the metal walls and made sure the wire didn't touch another wire in any point of the build.

Its vaping perfect I can even taste the e-juice but the burning is overwhelming from the first hit to 10 test hits later, just gets worse and worse the more I hit it. I am not inhaling this horrific vape.

View attachment 146544View attachment 146545

Please use the picture as an example. I have tried many different methods to try and get it right and this one was one of the most successful. Thanks, I appreciate your helps!

Maybe it's a dumb question, but why are you rebuilding vivi nova heads? They are cheap and easy enough to replace the whole thing. They are about a buck a piece the last ones I bought.

 

[Oktyabr]

the rubber insulator is burning !! any way around this?

HUH?

First of all working with new products will make a HUGE difference. 34 gauge kanthal A1 is under 10 cents a foot and if you shop around you can find 2mm silica wick for under 50 cents a foot so you can rebuild those heads all day long for around 12 cents each. Watch more of the videos, especially PBusardo's on vivi head rebuilding. Be VERY cautious about pulling the wire tight, making sure the wires aren't crossed inside the head tube, and on snipping off the wire as short as possible to also prevent shorts. And have a DMM, etc. handy to check resistance.

A little practice and even my wife can rebuild a dozen heads for what a new one costs and build one in under 10 minutes too.

 

[Oktyabr]

Maybe it's a dumb question, but why are you rebuilding vivi nova heads? They are cheap and easy enough to replace the whole thing. They are about a buck a piece the last ones I bought.

I rebuild them not just because it's cheaper but because the factory ones are of a poorer quality than what I can make from scratch. They are often as much as +/- 0.2-0.3 ohms off of what they are stamped at, use very thin nichrome wire and who knows what sort of wick. My rebuilt ones last longer, are more consistent (especially with a DMM or ohm meter to measure them), and vape better as well.

 

[DrillRX]

I rebuild them not just because it's cheaper but because the factory ones are of a poorer quality than what I can make from scratch. They are often as much as +/- 0.2-0.3 ohms off of what they are stamped at, use very thin nichrome wire and who knows what sort of wick. My rebuilt ones last longer, are more consistent (especially with a DMM or ohm meter to measure them), and vape better as well.

Fair enough. But for those who have trouble with rebuilding coils seems like it would be more cost effective than wasting materials on all the trial and error coils and materials associated with. Just a thought. Save you some headaches too.

 

[Oktyabr]

Fair enough. But for those who have trouble with rebuilding coils seems like it would be more cost effective than wasting materials on all the trial and error coils and materials associated with. Just a thought. Save you some headaches too.

I never said it was for everyone

I like it though as part of the hobby aspect... reminds me of when I was a kid watching my dad tie his own flies. There is also something about the experimentation and getting the most out of something even a cheap as a replaceable head, especially when the factory ones leave so much room (relatively) for improvement. And then there is the cheap ol' bastage in me too of course

 

[Oktyabr]

For anyone really interested in what it takes to rebuild something like this (it works on even the cheap stardust clearos too!) start watching this video from about 13 minutes or so...

A PBusardo Tutorial - Vivi Nova Cleaning & Rebuilding - YouTube

 

[Myrany]

Oktyabr from what I am seeing it looks like the heads for the Kanger Protank are going to be about as simple as the Vivi to rebuild. I just ordered my protank but I plan on giving a rebuild a shot when the time comes.

 

[Oktyabr]

Oktyabr from what I am seeing it looks like the heads for the Kanger Protank are going to be about as simple as the Vivi to rebuild. I just ordered my protank but I plan on giving a rebuild a shot when the time comes.

Yes, it certainly should be. I haven't tried one myself but basically anything you can get the head off of to replace it... you could rebuild it too.

 

[Oktyabr]

It's worth pointing out that even if you become a master at rebuilding these heads that sooner or later you will want to replace them anyway. The rubber insulator, o-rings, etc. eventually become worn from being messed with for so long. I've got a couple I've rebuilt six or seven times each now and they still look like they have quite a bit of life left in them but yeah, when their time is up I'll finally have to break out one of the "new" replacements. It's one of the reasons I don't mind buying vivi's or those head replacement packs that have the mixed range of resistance in them... usually 1.8, 2.4, and 2.8 ohm. I grab one, rebuild it to 2.0 ohms and use it until it's shot. Still, if you can build a factory head to beyond the quality that the factory did, and do it a dozen times before the soft parts are shot, isn't that worth the effort? It is to me.