Users of cotton wicks - what's the preferred source?
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I've been using butcher's twine mainly because I stumbled onto a big roll we've had for years and forgot about. I'll be darned if I'm going to fork over $2 to buy some cotton when I've got 1000' of twine.
It's really been working well for me. Lasts about a week or so, then starts tasting a little off.
It's really been working well for me. Lasts about a week or so, then starts tasting a little off.
So.....do you just cut off a good chunk, boil water and let it stew for 15 minutes...then air dry? Does it fit into the stock coils or do you build your own? Wondering the thickness of this so when I start to build my coils (materials ordered last night), I'll have a better idea of where to go. Also....any need to use a flavor wick of sorts? As stated before, I generally use a 60/70 pg fluid. Appreciate the guidance!
Just noticed your follow-up..........so this is pretty thin requiring to double up. With a 4-wrap 32awg coil, what ohm range do you generally get ?
I did a 4 wrap of 32 on the cotton today in my RSST and got 1.8-2.2 on the Vamo depending on how I arranged the coils, but YMMV. I've been using the P&C cotton as flavor wick in my Protanks for a couple of weeks now and have yet to have a stock coil burn up. I just keep replacing the yarn every couple of days and it's been working great. I leave the stock coil in, remove the flavor wicks, and put a doubled strand of P&C in it's place, replace the top on the head and cut off the wick against the sides of the head. It stopped my old gurgling/flooding problem instantly, and I have yet to have a single mouth of juice since I started using the P&C. Tastes a lot better to me than silica as well
My vote goes for CVS cotton roll. I've boiled it and tried it without boiling and both seem the same great taste. They work great in the vivi novas and on my Igo-l's. I haven't tried them on a bottom coil yet but plan on trying them on my Evods soon.
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I've used cheesecloth, 6/0 100% cotton braided wick, and the Peaches and Creme yarn (and yes, I boiled them all). This is what I found for rebuilding the Kanger T3, T3S, and Evod:
Cheesecloth: best taste and fastest saturation, but separating the strands takes the longest. Works great, though, and I used this method:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/clearomizers/385799-how-i-re-wick-my-t3s-cheesecloth-pictues.html
Braided wick: hard to thread through existing coil, but works great if you wrap your coil around it. It swelled a lot, so no flavor wick needed.
P&C yarn: easy to thread through existing coil. I did need 2 strands (yarn is 4 strands thick) as a flavor wick.
YMMV, but I hope this helps.
Cheesecloth: best taste and fastest saturation, but separating the strands takes the longest. Works great, though, and I used this method:
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/clearomizers/385799-how-i-re-wick-my-t3s-cheesecloth-pictues.html
Braided wick: hard to thread through existing coil, but works great if you wrap your coil around it. It swelled a lot, so no flavor wick needed.
P&C yarn: easy to thread through existing coil. I did need 2 strands (yarn is 4 strands thick) as a flavor wick.
YMMV, but I hope this helps.
I have been using cotton balls from CVS for the wick and p&c (2 strands) for the flavor wick in my T3. No boil on any if it. I recoiled all of my T3's with 32 kanthal 4/5 wrap. 1.7 - 1.9 ohms. Roll the cotton slide it thru, 2 strands of p&c, done. Great taste, last two tanks, empty pull old wicks, toss, rinse coil, dry burn, rewick....good to go.
Peaches & Creme Ecru for me, others are dyed or bleached/blued. Boil it, even the sterile cotton, boil it. Depending on the sterilization methods, there's still concerns for inhalation. Make sure to dry the cotton well, or you'll run into other contaminates.
Yea, I always use the boiled sterile cotton I bought and probably need to boil more this weekend. I got caught out at work one day with a burnt wick and no backup and had to go get some cotton from CVS and didnt boil it. Was in a bind and just fed it through the coil I had already on the mod. But better safe than sorry. 
I re-wick my PT-II bottom coils. I actually like it a lot better than whatever they come with. I get much bigger clouds, but I go through juice faster.
I use like a 3 strand cotton string. Boil it. Let dry. It gets bigger once you boil it. I take one strand thread it on a large needle, fold it in two strands and pull it through the coil. I guess the flavor wick is the wick on top of the coil? I put a full piece 3 strands on top of the coil as a flavor wick (?) and then put the atomizer back together. Works pretty well. I get better air flow through the bottom coil with the cotton wick. IMO vapor also tastes cleaner.
I use like a 3 strand cotton string. Boil it. Let dry. It gets bigger once you boil it. I take one strand thread it on a large needle, fold it in two strands and pull it through the coil. I guess the flavor wick is the wick on top of the coil? I put a full piece 3 strands on top of the coil as a flavor wick (?) and then put the atomizer back together. Works pretty well. I get better air flow through the bottom coil with the cotton wick. IMO vapor also tastes cleaner.
Oh, yea. Cotton wicks really suck up alot of juice because they wick so well. Plan on going through juice alot faster, but that's why I like them too because they taste so delicious Luckily I DIY my juice so I don't care.
Luckily I DIY my juice so I don't care.
Ok.....follow-up on my original questions. I've now done 5 coils and all are working great. Using 30/32 ga Kanthal and depending on the wraps have had anywhere from 2.0 to 2.8 ohms which is what I was expecting. Also using cotton as described within this thread. Now my questions:
1) I see that the 30ga wire heats up slower. Any real advantage or benefit of using 30g over 32ga? I need a few more wraps to get the ohm range, but is heating up slower a plus??
2) Using cotton, I have the Peaches & Cream and another that the wife bought. I boil for 15-20 minutes and it has been working very nicely. One issue, after a tank has been sitting for an extended time....on the first few hits of the power button, I get some "popping and spitting" and have had fluid hit my tongue / roof of mouth. First time really startled me... Note, currently been using the full 4-strand yarn for inside the coil (tightening it down to thread it thru and then unwinding to leave it loose) as well as a couple single strands on top for flavor wicks.
Is this to much cotton which is wicking up to much fluid? Thinking an excess of fluid once heated by the coil is contributing to the popping and spitting. Any thoughts? On my next, I thought about reducing the amount of cotton inside the coil but wanted to get some thoughts first.
Thanks all.
1) I see that the 30ga wire heats up slower. Any real advantage or benefit of using 30g over 32ga? I need a few more wraps to get the ohm range, but is heating up slower a plus??
2) Using cotton, I have the Peaches & Cream and another that the wife bought. I boil for 15-20 minutes and it has been working very nicely. One issue, after a tank has been sitting for an extended time....on the first few hits of the power button, I get some "popping and spitting" and have had fluid hit my tongue / roof of mouth. First time really startled me... Note, currently been using the full 4-strand yarn for inside the coil (tightening it down to thread it thru and then unwinding to leave it loose) as well as a couple single strands on top for flavor wicks.
Is this to much cotton which is wicking up to much fluid? Thinking an excess of fluid once heated by the coil is contributing to the popping and spitting. Any thoughts? On my next, I thought about reducing the amount of cotton inside the coil but wanted to get some thoughts first.
Thanks all.
An important thing with cotton is more is not better. Using less cotton it is always better as the cotton swells significantly when wet. Too much cotton will definitely cause problems.
If you are not using 'microcoils' (all wraps touching) you should definitely give them a try ... microcoils and cotton are a perfect combination.
If you need to get up to speed with microcoils you can find everything you need to know on this short post.
Personally I find 9 wraps of 28 gauge kanthal which produces around a 1.4 ohm coil works perfect for me ... if you want a higher ohm coil then you will have to stick to 30 gauge wire as there simply won't be enough room for the wraps required to produce higher ohm coils using 28 gauge wire.
I use organic cotton balls boiled for 30 minutes, drained, and boiled again for 30 minutes, squeeze out water and drie with a fan.
You can wash enough cotton balls in one boil to last quite a long time so it's not that big of deal to boil it.
I often use butchers twine(boiled) for my EVOD/Vivi Nova/etc builds as I find it lasts longer than the cotton balls before it has to be changed.
Remember that cotton wicks need to be changed 'often' ... how often depends on your liquid (darker liquid needs to be changed much more often) and how much you vape of course but you'll know when it needs to be changed. Another nice thing about microcoils is, when it's time to change the wick because it is dirty or because you used too much cotton, you can simply remove the wick from the microcoil and insert a fresh cotton wick, without having to rebuild the coil.
Ditto. My EVOD's stopped leaking\gurgling when low after I started using these and they haven't had any adverse effects on my vaping.
Using 100% P&C yarn... but I got it at Michael's for like $2.40 for 200 feet. I cut it down to 20 foot sections and boiled it all in filtered water (zero water filter, which rocks by the way) for 30 min, dried them, then bagged them all separate. Keep one bag in my "vape box", and the rest is put away, if I need more, grab a bag out of the closet and replace
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