Vaping Nirvana?

[Skauth]

Hi coilheads.

I've been into mechs and RDAs for some time; the vape is peerless and I find rebuilding for the most part a joy (mesh is a fickle beast though).

Truth is, though, I'm tired of dripping. I work a lot and I vape a lot and I can't really waste the time to drip enough to keep up with my habit and still be 100% productive. Buuuut RDAs have ruined me for standard tanks forever.. A cartotank (my device of choice in the old world) now tastes flavorless by comparison, not to mention I'm done with replaceable heating elements I have to buy premade. What a racket.

So there are RBAs. I have an Aga T and the T2, and honestly, I'm done with mesh. I can get it to work, though I hate the way it restricts coil styles, but ultimately I just think it tastes gross. I've thought that about every mesh setup I've ever tried. Great wicking, awful taste. Just my palate I guess. Also I found those RBAs pretty frustrating to work with, all in all.

And there are bottom feeders... But I just really don't want to learn to squonk, and I really don't like the box form factor. Plus, expensive.

So what's a vaper to do?

My local B&M started carrying the RSST. The guy at the shop modeled it for me, tried to tell me about the wonders of mesh, but while I was half listening to that I noticed how easy it looked to work with. On that alone, I decided to pick it up.

Then I realized when I got home that I had given all my mesh away after I retired the AGAs. So, silica or cotton.. Silica seemed like a poor idea, so I wrapped one of my favorite coils (10 wraps of 26awg kanthal A1 at 1/16", metering at 0.9ohms), turned it on its side, and after finding it remarkably easy to attach and orient (thanks Smoktech!), I twisted some cotton about 3/4 deep in the tank and about 1/4" above the coil.

Loaded it up with my latest favorite, Eastern Apple, 70vg30pg @6mg from my B&M, and waited. Drilled the airhole to 1/16" while I let the wick saturate. Cleaned and capped. Fresh batt in the K100. Took a few drags, and a few more, and...

Whoa. This is GORGEOUS. The clouds are all you could ever ask of a non drip system, and the flavor is absolutely immaculate. I should have tried this a long time ago.

So I've vaped it exclusively for a few days now, and I really think I'm verging on vaping Nirvana.

But I know that I'm a novice on this RSST deck. It's an old RBA and a lot of people have tried a lot of things before me. There are some things I don't love; I have to tilt pretty religiously for optimal wicking, and the deck floods easily enough that I have to keep my mech upright when not in use. The cotton doesn't last too long either, compared to in a dripper. But I feel like these things may be immutable.

So my question is for you RSST vets, what can I improve? Those of you using cotton and micros on it, does your setup look a lot like mine, or is there something that works even better for you?

Or is there a device that's even better for cotton and microcoils? I've learned enough to know that's the vape I want, but the less I have to drip, squonk or carefully tilt to get that vape, the better.

Thanks for reading!

 

[armyofskittles]

The kayfun is a cotton micro coil beast. No tipping required. Build your favorite micro coil (I prefer 28g 1.0-1.8 ) throw some juice in it and boom. Throw new cotton in there every tank or every other and you have one of the most cinsistantly satisfying vapes you will find. I suggest kayfun lite!

-Sent from outer space using DNA20 and Kayfun Lite

 

[Rule62]

The vacuum feed type devices are very popular right now. The Kayfuns and their various clones have a strong following. Personally, I prefer the Taifun GT. For mesh gennys, I just retired my last of 3 or 4 RSSTs last week, when I got my Kraken. If you're into mesh, it's awesome.

 

[Darrin McDougald]

I am still in love with my RSST (although I do drip an IGO-W [quad micro coils with cotton] or Smok Scar dual silica. I also still vape on my two Ithaka tanks with Silica but the Res+no-Res wire even with the welder I built is a bit of a pain to rebuild.

Anyway.... What I found really wicks well but does not leak too badly in my pocket when sitting is a mesh core inside a mesh "tube"

Basically, I take a 1.5inch x 0.25inch strip of SS Mesh and roll it TIGHTLY into a solid tube about the size of a sewing needle. I then take a 1.5inch x 1inch piece of SS Mesh and roll it into a standard wick but leave a hole in the center a bit bigger than the "core" made first from the small bit of ss mesh. Insert the core into the tube and wrap as per norm.

I've wrapped these from 0.7ohm to 2.2ohm for use on Mech or VV/VW mods (using 28 - 32 AWG Kanthal-A1) and they wick like a monster with never a dry hit (though I do still perform the genny-tilt out of habit between vapes). My Wick sits in the hole tightly and this seems to be enough of a "plug" in one deck hole (the fill hole unplugged being the other) that I can toss my setup in a front pocket and sit/drive/work with no leakage.

 

[Skauth]

The kayfun is a cotton micro coil beast. No tipping required. Build your favorite micro coil (I prefer 28g 1.0-1.8 ) throw some juice in it and boom. Throw new cotton in there every tank or every other and you have one of the most cinsistantly satisfying vapes you will find. I suggest kayfun lite!

-Sent from outer space using DNA20 and Kayfun Lite

Sounds great! Do you know if it wicks well enough to keep up with high wattage vaping (I. E. Subohm)?

 

[suspectK]

The kayfun is a cotton micro coil beast. No tipping required. Build your favorite micro coil (I prefer 28g 1.0-1.8 ) throw some juice in it and boom. Throw new cotton in there every tank or every other and you have one of the most cinsistantly satisfying vapes you will find. I suggest kayfun lite!

-Sent from outer space using DNA20 and Kayfun Lite

Sounds great! Do you know if it wicks well enough to keep up with high wattage vaping (I. E. Subohm)?

I'm having issues with running a 0.7ohm coil on a plus. I have to pull extremely hard to keep it wet. I didn't have issues with it until I dropped below 0.9-1ohm. I wonder if filing the wick wells to be larger would help?

 

[unloaded]

You sound like a prime candidate for a Reo with a Cyclone or RM2 on it. Learning to squonk is a non issue, it took me longer to get used to a 1/16" airhole, and that didn't take long. Price is a factor but not that big of one considering I had a lot of attys that cost more than a Reo. Form factor is a personal matter and I felt the same as you to begin with. Now I love the box shape, it fits better in my pockets and hands. It grew on me in short order. I vape them sub ohm micro coils with cotton or XC132 wicks depending on the juice. I no longer have a toolkit, spare parts, juice bottles....bag of goodies tethered to me at all times. I usually just carry two Reo's with full bottles and batteries with me and I'm good for the whole day. My vaping life is much better and much simpler. The only slight down side is changing flavors frequently, some flavors want to hang around and not play nice with others. To get around this I have seven Reo's now and most of them are dedicated to certain juices. Although that sounds like a huge investment, after the first one, they were all funded by selling off my other gear. GG, Provaris, Hybrids, mechs attys......all sold or traded in classy's and converted to more Reo's. You should really give one a try before writing them off. If its not for you I'm sure it wouldn't last long in classifieds. I still have a Poldiac with a short DID and a Nimbus but it mainly gathers dust. Sorry for the fanboy rant but I've been exactly where you're at. I'll give you one thing you might try while still messing with a genny, XC so XS sleeve around mesh wick, that was kinda my favorite of all the setups I tried.

 

[G Izlude]

I highly recommend the Russian or the Kayfun 3.1. If your budget is a little tighter, I would suggest the Russian 91% or the Kayfun Light Plus. Though I am not a fan of genesis, it's widely accepted that you can get a great vape from them, but learning to build on them is more challenging than a Kayfun or it's derivatives. Genesis types devices can be had for much less than a Kayfun or a Russian; so you can trade price for learning curve.

The best vape you'll ever experience (all inconveniences aside), is a dripper. I often drip when I'm vaping at home because there is less inconvenience involved.

Barring genesis type devices, cotton seems to provide the best medium for wick with the best, most unadulterated flavor, ease of use, availability and price.

If you use a device like a Russian or Kayfun, you'll benefit from learning how to make twisted wire coils, effectively allowing you to make larger coils without a resistance penalty. You can get more wick and thus more juice into your coil without sacrificing wattage as a result of making your coil larger around to accommodate a larger cross sectional area of wick without using fewer wraps. The cons to twisted wire coils are the longer warm up and cool down, and it's a little tricky to work with as it makes your wire more "springy."

 

[crazyarms]

Considering all I vape now is a reo its hard to not recommend one. It has simplified everything for me. The flavor and vapor of a dripping setup with the convenience of having 6ml bottle on board at all times. Its really quite amazing. I would seriously recommend it.

Other than the reo, I was experimenting with vacuum type devices and I was enjoying them quite a bit. They produce very nice flavors and vapor is great as well. My only gripe with them is how large they can get. I prefer to use 18650 all the time and with an 18650 and a taifun or a kayfun you're looking at a large setup to carry around. Yet again why i love the reo so much, its smaller than it looks!