Reo / RM2 Questions

[Trox.Shawn]

Recently I purchased a Reo Grande and RM2, which I absolutely love, but I have a couple of question to get a better grasp of the set up.

1.) Recently I've noticed that my juice in the Reo bottle becomes extremely dark by the time I get to ~40%. Once this happens the flavor tends to morph into something quite undesirable, however, I hate to toss away that much liquid so I force myself into using it. How can I stop this from happening? I understand some darkening will occur, but my juice is going from light brown/tan to deep brown/black.

2.) What difference does having a smaller inner diameter vs a larger make when building coils. I have been going between nano (paperclip) coils to a 1/16 drill bit and 5/64 bit. I've noticed some slight differences mainly in the amount of wick utilized, albeit little else.

3.) When using organic (boiled) cotton how do you determine the specific amount to get that 'baby bear' just right fit? What are the consequences of have too little cotton or too much?


Thank you, kindly
-Troxs

 

[oldbroad]

Hi Trox...someone more knowledgable and more literate at an explanation will come along shortly, but I just want you to know that you're not being ignored!
The only thing i can think of with the darkening juice is to ask what flavor of juice you're using. I've been vaping on Reos for a couple of years and never had that happen.Perhaps it's a bad batch of juice. Try cleaning out the bottle very well and ,if it's a metal Reo, flush the tube well, then try a different juice.

As for the cotton in the coil, it should have just a little wiggle room to accomodate the swelling from the juice.

P.S. I've found that the CVS sterile cotton works much better than the cotton balls and I happen to have a boatload of it if you want some( two lifetimes worth actually), as I'm now a convert to READYxWICK ceramic
wicks.

 

[Filthy-Beast]

Recently I purchased a Reo Grande and RM2, which I absolutely love, but I have a couple of question to get a better grasp of the set up.

1.) Recently I've noticed that my juice in the Reo bottle becomes extremely dark by the time I get to ~40%. Once this happens the flavor tends to morph into something quite undesirable, however, I hate to toss away that much liquid so I force myself into using it. How can I stop this from happening? I understand some darkening will occur, but my juice is going from light brown/tan to deep brown/black.

2.) What difference does having a smaller inner diameter vs a larger make when building coils. I have been going between nano (paperclip) coils to a 1/16 drill bit and 5/64 bit. I've noticed some slight differences mainly in the amount of wick utilized, albeit little else.

3.) When using organic (boiled) cotton how do you determine the specific amount to get that 'baby bear' just right fit? What are the consequences of have too little cotton or too much?


Thank you, kindly
-Troxs

1) Make sure you are NOT cooking the juice. I have a tendency to squonk right after hitting. Juice hits the hot coil and cooks a bit then the excess cooked juice goes back into the bottle. So my clear juice starts to turn amber. When I wait and cool the coil by draw on it without firing I don't get the color change.

2) biggest difference will be in ohms per wrap, or the the number of wraps to hit set ohm coil. You are also changing the surface area of the coil and could possibly change how it wicks. It's balancing act to get ohms, heat up time, surface area and wicking to a point you like.

3. not a cotton guy I use ceramic wicks.

 

[Hiwatt Bob]

i concur with filthy beast. i notice the same thing with large tank clearomizers--either the juice gets cooked or small bits of char get dissolved back into the liquid.

 

[marsos52]

congrats on you going us here at Reosville.

some juices just naturally darken with age. I don't know how long it takes you to vape thru 6 ml's of juice, I blow thru 6 ml's daily.
so my juice doesn't have a chance, haha.

there are many reasons why your juice is doing this, the RM2 kind of recycles juice back to the bottle. its possible if you over squonk and you burn the juice then it get feed back to the bottle that could be why. although I doubt that.

another thought is if you have not cleaned the grande it may have junk built up in the 510 connection or the feed tube. and that is a factor to think of too.

I'm sure others here have more ideas on this problem.

about you coils, I have more solid info on this for you. everyone needs to try many different coil sizes coils by diameter and wraps and wire guage and different ohms. if the coils are made well the smoke cloud should still be white and thick. so feel sub ohm coils make more vape clouds, I don't think that way. ex. I have vaped dual coils at .3 ohms and up to single coils at 1.2 ohms and found I got great clouds with any ohms. but the hit and the warmth does change.

generally the wider diameter of the coil, the less wraps needed for the ohms you want. smaller diameter needs more wraps to get the same ohms. less wraps make for less fussing with the coils to get them firing well. more wraps for me give a smoother hit and take a second or two longer to heat up. so trying a few setups helps you to find your perfect vape.

I use cotton yarn for my wicks, the general rule is to have the wick fit snug to the coils, not loose not tight. they should be easy to remove when re-wicking is needed. I twist my cotton strands so they are tight and smaller than the coils to wick thru the coils easy. then I untwist
them so they fill up the diameter. my smaller diameter coils 2.5mm about I use two strands of yarn with 3mm diameter coils I use 4 strands of yarn. larger coils for one ohm is 5 wraps and the smaller I need six wraps. that's using 28g wire.

its all about trying everything till you find what works best for you.

I know I have not given you exact answers, and that is because there aren't any. I only hope what I have told you will be a guide you can use to help find what you like best.

learning to make coils is easy but can get frustrating until you get it. after I get a ohm checker, it changed my game. made ohming coils much better than using a VV mod or a multi meter.

 

[Trox.Shawn]

Thanks for the quick replies...

I just went through and cleaned everything really good, and I'm thinking the "cooking" may be my issue with the darkening juice. I tend to squonk every other hit or so, sometimes after each hit. I typically squonk take a hit set it aside for a few minutes and then squonk, take another hit. So, I could very well be over juicing. I will attempt to not do that this time around.

As for the coils I think I may just need more tinkering time. Thus far I've made mainly 32 gauge coils and 26, but I have some 28 on the way. I find I like when my coils are ~0.9 to ~1.0 range, but with the 1/16 inner diameter I find it takes a while to heat all those coils on 26 gauge wire. I'm hoping the 28 gauge will free up some coils to heat up quick.

Mainly the juice is my major concern as it begins to taste funky and I hate tossing away two or three milliliters of costly juice.

 

[DoogieTony]

I've had juice that turns dark and looses flavor regardless of the atomizer, my best guess is that the flavorings degrade from heat. Like others have said, let the coil cool before squonking and try to vape it close to dry.

I think you'll like the 28ga. It has a nice balance between surface area and heat up time.

As for the amount cotton, you want to have enough to make even contact with the inside of the coil but not so much that you get a lot of resistance when pulling the wick through. It's a bit of a balancing act but you'll get the hang of it soon enough.

 

[super_X_drifter]

Awesome questions

First, less wick length is best because it minimizes juice precooking in the atty before you actually vape it. Yes, it will mean squonking more but with a fresher more robust vape.

So I typically leave about 1/8" hanging out of each side of my coil.

Wick density / thickness is harder to explain. Here I'll try:

I always thought break in hits with cotton wicks was normal. Until I tried high end cotton and put just the right amount of cotton into my coil. No taste whatsoever. Zero even first hit. The cotton is Koh gen do Japanese organic.

But I digress to thickness / density. If you have cotton that requires twisting (CVS sterile rolled for instance) to make a wick, twist it till it's somewhat dense, but not thicker than your coil. Twist a thin point on one end to thread it thru the coil. You should feel hardly any resistance when pulling it thru but it should make complete contact with the coil inside. If it frays, or forms a shoulder, pull it out and remove some and try again.

With Koh gen do, you cut off a little strip, just loosely twist it to compact it just a hair then twist your little point on one side. Thread it thru and again, hardly any resistance but good contact. Same about shoulders and fraying.

Now trim it no more than 1/8" on each side of the coil, drip on it and vape that thing like you stole it

As far as coil diameter, a bunch of us believe that a micro coil (1/16" inside diameter with touching or as close as possible wraps) heat up quicker and vaporize better because of heat transfer.

I haven't run an old school coil since I started using micro coils around a year ago but many people run all different sizes, configurations and resistances of coils and swear by them.

I prefer a micro because the balance between ease of build, ease of wicking, vape performance and vape consistency are easy to duplicate and tune to my exact vape preferences.

Nanos are too small to wick thru consistently and standards are too large to position in the exact sweet spot for air flow / TH adjustments

 

[Ian444]

What they all said ^^ also it might be worth soaking your RM2 overnight in a glass of water just to make sure there's no residues in there, or just rinse it under the tap thoroughly when you next refill your bottle.

 

[malkuth]

Thanks for the quick replies...

I just went through and cleaned everything really good, and I'm thinking the "cooking" may be my issue with the darkening juice. I tend to squonk every other hit or so, sometimes after each hit. I typically squonk take a hit set it aside for a few minutes and then squonk, take another hit. So, I could very well be over juicing. I will attempt to not do that this time around.

^-- THIS. When juice hits a hot coil, it immediately cooks. This boiled off juice then flakes off of the coil, resulting in flakes of gunk. Then when you squonk again, the fresh juice will dissolve the flakes. This causes your darkening juice.

As for the coils I think I may just need more tinkering time. Thus far I've made mainly 32 gauge coils and 26, but I have some 28 on the way. I find I like when my coils are ~0.9 to ~1.0 range, but with the 1/16 inner diameter I find it takes a while to heat all those coils on 26 gauge wire. I'm hoping the 28 gauge will free up some coils to heat up quick.

Mainly the juice is my major concern as it begins to taste funky and I hate tossing away two or three milliliters of costly juice.

I have had to really watch my squonking so that I only squonk on a cold coil. Remember that once you take your finger off the fire button, the coil will continue to heat for a period of time (based on a lot of factors). Think of making pan sauce on an electric stove. You pour liquid into a hot skillet to dissolve the residue at the bottom of the skillet, and when you turn your burner off, the skillet continues to cook.