Rewicking without rebuilding?

[spaceballsrules]

Anyone out there replace the wick on their EVOD/Protank/T3S heads without rebuilding the coil? I don't feel like going to the trouble of rebuilding coils for a head that cost $2, but if I can rewick it quickly, then that would be worth the effort for me personally. Any advice?

 

[State O' Flux]

I don't fool around with clearos much anymore, but back when I did, I played with all sorts of wick and coil "alternatives".

You should be able to pull the wicks, roll up a skinny little piece of damp cotton, do a dry burn... and slide 'er on though. Toss another on top for a flavor wick... and good to go. Remember that cotton swells when saturated, and you might have to "adjust" the coil spacing a bit.

Option... if you have 1mm silica, you should be able to thread a folded piece (or two) through with a needle or a looped over piece of coil wire fairly easily as well.

I've even fooled around with multiple strands of white cotton thread... wasn't bad actually. Necessity is the mother of... well, you know. ;-)

 

[WarHawk-AVG]

I don't fool around with clearos much anymore, but back when I did, I played with all sorts of wick and coil "alternatives".

You should be able to pull the wicks, roll up a skinny little piece of damp cotton, do a dry burn... and slide 'er on though. Toss another on top for a flavor wick... and good to go. Remember that cotton swells when saturated, and you might have to "adjust" the coil spacing a bit.

Option... if you have 1mm silica, you should be able to thread a folded piece (or two) through with a needle or a looped over piece of coil wire fairly easily as well.

I've even fooled around with multiple strands of white cotton thread... wasn't bad actually. Necessity is the mother of... well, you know. ;-)

What he said ^ (bonus points if you say it with his voice)

Me I buy a a 5 or 10 pack of cheap replaceable heads, a bunch of pre-built coil/wicks...when the heads get gunky and I don't have time to wash em out or whatever, I replace em, throw em in the "tackle box o' vaping" then one day when I am bored, I have a coil rebuild day and replenish the stock of available spares

Not like it breaks the bank
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1411/10004596/1464502

 

[State O' Flux]

WH... I am your father. How was that... James Earl Jonesy enough?

 

[WarHawk-AVG]

WH... I am your father. How was that... James Earl Jonesy enough?

Oh man...I at least it wasn't "whose your daddy?"

 

[cocacola31173]

I have been looking to learn to rebuild the Protank heads. The videos I have watched seem very easy and the amount of wick and wire I have gotten cost me like 7 bucks and I should easily have enough to rebuild like 50 heads if not more. I figure I will just build like 5 at a time cause with the bought ones I can make five last me a few weeks with cleaning and maintnence.

 

[DavidOck]

Removing the old wick might distort the coil...

I find that the wick itself usually does fine for quite a while, with periodic dry burning to de-gunk both it and the coil itself. Use small needle nose pliers to wiggle the air tube off. (I put the head back on a base for a better grip.) Remove and, usually, toss the flavor wicks, then dry burn. Rinse again.

I just use a strand of cotton yarn as replacement for the flavor wicks. You can use the same for the main wick, but of course can no longer dry burn. (Well, you can, and that will remove the cotton wick for you!)

But if you can get the wick out without deforming the coil, you can also use a floss threader, like those used for dental bridge work. They are extremely thin plastic needles with huge eyes, easy to thread in the new wick. 1 mm silica, or half a strand of cotton yarn, should work fine.

Or try wrapping the end of whatever wick material you want with teflon plumber's tape. It wraps tight, and comes off easily.

 

[spaceballsrules]

If I use 1mm silica for the flavor wicks, how many should I put in? Also, how many loops of 1mm silica would be good for the coil?

 

[xpackaday]

I don't think it's worth it. I now am getting OEM heads for 1.30, which last about 1.5 to 2 weeks. just re-wicking would be tricky because you have to have it right or they leak. Also, when I took apart a head after it started develop a not so good flavors, I found the coil had a big build up of hard gunk, which was the issue.

I have started keeping my old heads. I just just ran them through a cleaning process about 20 of them. I soak them in white vinegar for a day, then boil them in water for an hour. about 1/3 seem to come out OK. Not sure that's work the effort when I get the head so cheap??

 

[JamezC]

As some of the others have stated, you can just take the remaining wick out and thread in whichever type of wick you prefer or would like to try. Whenever I get a new clearo sometimes I won't like the performance so I just thread in some cotton, the pre-installed coil will be kinda small but if you use cotton just use a little smaller piece to allow threading.

 

[DavidOck]

I don't think it's worth it. I now am getting OEM heads for 1.30, which last about 1.5 to 2 weeks. just re-wicking would be tricky because you have to have it right or they leak. Also, when I took apart a head after it started develop a not so good flavors, I found the coil had a big build up of hard gunk, which was the issue.

I have started keeping my old heads. I just just ran them through a cleaning process about 20 of them. I soak them in white vinegar for a day, then boil them in water for an hour. about 1/3 seem to come out OK. Not sure that's work the effort when I get the head so cheap??

The gunk on the coil is what the dry burn gets rid of. I replace the flavor wicks when I need to DB with a strand of cotton yarn. Other organic strands can also be used. A quick, cheap and easy way to extend their life.

As far as recoiling? Sure, a personal preference. Not worth the time for some, and worth it for others. They are pretty cheap.

 

[xpackaday]

How often do you do a dry burn?

 

[DavidOck]

Depends on the juice.

Darker and thicker juices might benefit from it after one or two fills. Thinner ones might go 3 or 4 or more. And different flavors may gunk the coils faster or slower. Other things, like power level, coil resistance and so on also have an effect.

In general, if you find you're having to have power on longer than normal to get a good result, the coil may be getting gunked up. So when the tank's empty, take it apart to clean and inspect the coil then. On most bottom coils, that means taking out the air tube and flavor wicks - which I generally find are not reuseable, and replace when I put it back together. If you can't see the tiny wraps of wire around the wick, time to dry burn. Or replace, if that's your choice.

A good dry burn will restore the coil and wick to almost new condition, greatly extending the life of the head.

 

[cocacola31173]

I don't think it's worth it. I now am getting OEM heads for 1.30, which last about 1.5 to 2 weeks. just re-wicking would be tricky because you have to have it right or they leak. Also, when I took apart a head after it started develop a not so good flavors, I found the coil had a big build up of hard gunk, which was the issue.

I have started keeping my old heads. I just just ran them through a cleaning process about 20 of them. I soak them in white vinegar for a day, then boil them in water for an hour. about 1/3 seem to come out OK. Not sure that's work the effort when I get the head so cheap??

For me its just a good thing to know. You never know what can happen and its nice to know you know what to do. Im in the process of learning to rebuild my protank heads and gonna learn how to do a RDA dripper. The cost of the wire and wick I bought I can probably do a hundred replacement heads and only spent like 7 bucks. Vs 120 bucks it would take to buy them. Plus it gives me something to do.

 

[DavidOck]

I agree, Coca. It's a "just in case" scenario for me as well. The "what if"... I'm on my last good coil, on a saturday night. Late. Place an order. Won't be shipped until sometime monday. USPS loses my package. Local store is out of stock of what I need....

If I have wire and wick, I'm ok.

 

[xpackaday]

I have the wick and wire, but have found it very hard to wrap the coils.

 

[DavidOck]

Unwind some of the wire and heat it to red - a butane lighter works fine. It gets the manufacturing oils off, and anneals the wire, making it easier to work with.

Some wrap on a 4/40 machine screw, and thread the wick in later. Some wind with the wick laid alongside a needle or straightened paper clip. In either case, don't trim the wick until after assembling into the head. Lots of threads and utubes on the process. (While you may not find one for your specific device, they all recoil in a similar manner. Just some minor details vary.)

The screw wind method keeps an even spacing on the wraps, and works well unless, of course, you're looking to make a "micro" coil. Other methods just take a little bit of practice.

 

[xpackaday]

I tried a small finishing nail, and several other things. Never tried the screw, great idea. Te problem I have is my dexterity to wrap the coils.

 

[DavidOck]

The screw might work well for you, then. The threads keep a tight, even spacing on the coil. Thread the wick before putting it all back in the head. I use 2mm silica with the end wrapped tightly with teflon plumbing tape. No "stickum", so it comes off easily. Or, you can use 1 mm and fold it, then use a bit of looped wire (or a floss threader as used with dental bridges - cheap, in any pharmacy) to pull it through the coil. Wiggle it through, don't try yanking

 

[Rickajho]

How often do you do a dry burn?

Not to be snarky - but as often as it's needed. Once your vape starts going harsh or what people call burned it's because your vape is part vapor, and part smoke from crud burning off the coil at the same time. At that point it needs a dry burn. IMO soaking in any and everything doesn't remove hardened on crud from the coil. Heating the coil dry until the gunk turns to ash is the only way to go.

How often? It depends on the liquid(s) of the day. As David said, very dark or very sweet flavors cause the most problems. It's not the PG or VG ratio of the liquids - it's the flavorings and sweeteners that create crud. Certain flavorings, no matter what the PG/VG ratio, can crud up a coil in a day or two - even in a matter of hours. OTOH I've run a 100 VG Cuban liquid in a ProTank for up to 9 days before it needed a cleaning.

Make sure your start your Kanger coils off low and slow. Always start a clean coil off at your lowest voltage and move it up as needed. If you start at too high a voltage you risk immediately burning crud onto the coil. Once you do that you are right back where you started from - you need to get the burned crud off all over again.