Vapor production with hollow vs. solid wicks

[UncleChuck]

I always roll a hollow wick, and while holding the button with the cap off you get the usual vapor coming off the coil and outside of the wick. But there is also a large amount of vapor that comes shooting out of the center of the wick at a much higher velocity compared to the other vapor.

Wouldn't this mean hollow wicks produce more vapor, since not only do you have the surface area on the outside of the wick vaporizing the juice, but you also have the center of the wick creating a jet of vapor? I've always noticed this effect but it seems more pronounced now that I'm using ribbon wire, I'm thinking the additional surface area of the wire in contact with the wick allows better heat transfer to the wick, which increases how hot the center of the wick gets.

I really have no desire to roll a solid wick and do detailed comparisons or anything, I'm just curious what everyone's thoughts are on this. Makes sense to me, but it's possible there is something I'm not considering.

 

[pdib]

Well, there's no hard and fast rule with this stuff; but I had found that when you get to a sufficiently low resistance, solid is required. Above, IDK, 1Ω (.8?) its a matter of preference. With SLR, you need more juice available, or it'll steam it dry.

 

[UncleChuck]

That would make sense and match my experiences. I usually run my coils at .8ohm, and If I chain vape more than 2-3 times in a row (inhale, then exhale through nose while inhaling again) I'll dry my wick up pretty good if I'm not tipping properly (as in 4-3 oclock area) I remember with solid wicks I didn't have this issue and could get pretty good vertical (or close to) wicking, but I felt the hollow wicks gave better performance.

So would you agree with the idea that hollow wicks vaporize a bit more juice than solids, with the caveat that too much power and it will dry up faster than a solid wick? Which would make sense, more juice vaped means drying the wick faster.

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

Hollow allows more juice to get to the coil IF you are tilting. If not tilting, solid wicks better.

I hate hollow wicks because it spits juice: if you think about it, having juice in the center channel of a long metal tube and then have a coil heat it up, thats like how you shoot a cannon. The reason why you find that hollow wicks produces more vapor, however, could be that solid has more mass thus sinks more heat from coil and so it takes longer for juice to be vaporized.

 

[pdib]

I kinda think of hollow wicks as high performance machines. Dial it in just right, ask the right things of it (and not the wrong ones), treat it right (tilt etc.) and it's a killer setup.

I once designed a wick that had the best of both worlds. Ran it @ .6Ω.

 

[dhomes]

Hollow allows more juice to get to the coil IF you are tilting. If not tilting, solid wicks better.

I hate hollow wicks because it spits juice: if you think about it, having juice in the center channel of a long metal tube and then have a coil heat it up, thats like how you shoot a cannon. The reason why you find that hollow wicks produces more vapor, however, could be that solid has more mass thus sinks more heat from coil and so it takes longer for juice to be vaporized.

I do semi-hollow, roll on a syringe needle leave it there while wrapping my coils on the device, this way I can keep the wick perfectly vertical and find it easier to not put any tension on the legs, which give me 0 hotspots

then with a tweezer just close the very top 1 mm and spitting juice begone!