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3 of my 4 have 100% VG juice from RAWR in them, and they work great. 2 of them are stock heads with trimmed & fluffed wicks. The other is SS Mesh. The last one has 70/30 juice from madvapes in it, and I honestly don't notice a wicking difference between them. I've been using them like that for
a month or so.
i've recently dipped into the DIY world of juice, all of mine are 100% vg. my vivi nova had problems with wicking before i switched to DIY, a friend suggested i trim the wicks. well i did, and its worked flawlessly ever since (except when the tank is empty) mines running about 3.5v on the 1.8 ohm head
Why does trimming the wicks help? It seems like less surface area for the wicks to absorb juice would be counterproductive, but I'm sure you know more about it because I haven't even touched the unit yet. I should be getting my first Vivi Nova Mini in the mail this morning, so I could use all the advice I can get considering my past difficulties with 100% VG juice.
Has anyone successfully notched or trimmed the silicone caps for better wicking? I have a feeling I'm going to need to resort to that or start rebuilding my wicks to make these work with VG, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The way wicking works is that the liquid available spreads out evenly over the wick material.
After you reach some critical point, the wick doesn't pull more liquid onto the wick well, and what happens is that the liquid at the coil gets vaporized, and what's in the wick evens out along the whole wick. Eventually, you get to a point where there's not enough liquid on the wick to get a good vape from the liquid on the wick near the coil.
With a short wick, the critical point where there's not enough liquid to feed the coil is a lot lower (in terms of amount of juice). And the only downside is that you have to tilt & turn it to make sure the wick can actually reach the liquid in the tank.
Also, there's the idea that the wick might hold on to some parts of the liquid more than others, potentially leading to decreased flavor or other weird effects.
I went back and tried a long wick for a change a few days ago…………never again. Short wicks work better. Fluffing them works better too, though that might be because I use 100% VG juice.
Still, if you're trimming & fluffing (unraveling) your wicks and having problems……something weird is going on, because it works for me with the stock wicks.
Ah, that makes sense. That could easily explain some of my problems with a couple old Stardusts I tried in the past.
How much do you trim your wicks? I'm hoping not more than halfway as that would lead to a LOT of tilting and turning. Also, I've read that some people who have unraveled their wicks noticed they fall apart completely soon after and need replacing. Have you had this problem, or is there some fluffing sweet spot that will still keep the wicks together?
Haven't had a problem with them falling apart. But apparently the coils in VN heads have gotten looser since the ones I bought……probably just throwing QC out the window now that they're selling.
And I trim them 'till they just touch the side of the tank. I don't mind turning it horizontally and turning it over once……that's literally all that's needed to saturate the wick. And I can get 2-3 draws easily before I have to do it. But, I use VG juice anyway, and it looks cool sliding around the tank.
I wonder if it's a QC issue, or if they're listening to their customers. Aside from being cheaper to rebuild DIY wicks and coils, I've read that some people prefer to wrap their own coils more loosely for better wicking. Shipping units with looser coils may be Vision's way of coaxing us back into buying more stock heads as well as giving VG-only vapers a better shot at avoiding dry hits.
I have no older models to compare to, but I think the silicone caps may have been shortened for newer models as well. I've seen countless suggestions about trimming or notching the caps for better wicking, but after checking out the unit I just received in the mail, I noticed the cap barely touches the wicks as it is, and I don't see how that could limit any absorption to the coils.
So far so good, but I'm only ~1ml into the first fill, so I can't honestly judge the VN just yet. If it starts getting dry any time soon, I'll try trimming my wicks like yours and see if that helps.
Also, now that I can measure them……apparently all my 1.8 ohm heads actually read like 2.2 to 2.3 ohms. They're remarkably consistent, just not what they said they were.
So, there's definitely some kind of QC issue going on. Long term, I think the VN is a great device……but it's starting to look like rebuilding is more necessary than I originally thought if you want something consistent.
So, there's definitely some kind of QC issue going on. Long term, I think the VN is a great device……but it's starting to look like rebuilding is more necessary than I originally thought if you want something consistent.
UPDATE:
The 2.4 ohm head that came with my Mini ViVi Nova worked great for the first day - almost no wicking issues until it got low, but even then all I had to do was tilt and twist. No big deal. My VG kind of gunked it up after that, so I took apart the head and put it back together as best I could, followed by a couple pulsing dry burns.
Bad idea. The dry burns sealed my wick's fate for good, and putting the head back together was a pain dealing with pre-coiled wire and not nearly enough length to feed it back through assembly properly after coiling around the wick. I will only use new wick and kanthal wire to rebuild my heads from now on. I've read some good info on rebuilding and have the supplies in the mail, so I should be able to post another update when they arrive, hopefully with good news for other VG-only users on this forum.
Also, after ruining my first 2.4 ohm head and swapping it out with the spare 1.8 ohm heads that I ordered with the ViVi, I noticed that all of my spares were made for Stardust rebuildables, NOT ViVi Novas. While many claim the heads are interchangeable, the head for the VN was much more loosely coiled, had a better wick, and was easier to draw from. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two are
Stardust head:
ViVi Nova head:
Maybe some have had luck with Stardust heads on there VNs, but mine won't give me more than a single drag per 30 minutes without burning the wick. It's DIY or die for me now (or just go back to carto tanks), so I'll try to update when I've had time and received the supplies to rewick and recoil my own heads. Until then, I hope this helps anyone thinking about vaping 100% VG in a ViVi Nova.
The 2.4 ohm head that came with my Mini ViVi Nova worked great for the first day - almost no wicking issues until it got low, but even then all I had to do was tilt and twist. No big deal. My VG kind of gunked it up after that, so I took apart the head and put it back together as best I could, followed by a couple pulsing dry burns.
Bad idea. The dry burns sealed my wick's fate for good, and putting the head back together was a pain dealing with pre-coiled wire and not nearly enough length to feed it back through assembly properly after coiling around the wick. I will only use new wick and kanthal wire to rebuild my heads from now on. I've read some good info on rebuilding and have the supplies in the mail, so I should be able to post another update when they arrive, hopefully with good news for other VG-only users on this forum.
Also, after ruining my first 2.4 ohm head and swapping it out with the spare 1.8 ohm heads that I ordered with the ViVi, I noticed that all of my spares were made for Stardust rebuildables, NOT ViVi Novas. While many claim the heads are interchangeable, the head for the VN was much more loosely coiled, had a better wick, and was easier to draw from. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two are
Stardust head:
ViVi Nova head:
Maybe some have had luck with Stardust heads on there VNs, but mine won't give me more than a single drag per 30 minutes without burning the wick. It's DIY or die for me now (or just go back to carto tanks), so I'll try to update when I've had time and received the supplies to rewick and recoil my own heads. Until then, I hope this helps anyone thinking about vaping 100% VG in a ViVi Nova.
Funny, mines been going for a month now, on straight VG, dry burned after every tank. I have no problems...not sure why anyone would even consider taking a head apart besides to rebuild it to begin with.
And if your VN came with replacement stardust attys, you need to talk to whoever you bought it from, sounds like you got ripped off with a knock off
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I thought I could clean the wick a little better and try loosening the coil by taking it apart, but I know better now than to try reassembling a head with the same used materials.
Well, if its any help, my vivi came from hoosier e-cigs, and mine isn't a knock off. Just last night I ordered extra attys for just in case. They're selling them for $2.39 each.
One other note, I did have some dry hit problems when I first got it, taking a fellow ecig users advice I chopped the wicks by about half. No more dry hits with any kind of juice.
One other note, I did have some dry hit problems when I first got it, taking a fellow ecig users advice I chopped the wicks by about half. No more dry hits with any kind of juice.
Yeah…don't take apart a head unless you're going to throw away all the materials and rebuild it.
I managed to pop a coil while dry burning for the first time (new Provari was set to 5.2V and I was dry-burning like I remembered to set it to 3.7……oops). So that head only gave me a month of solid performance instead of the 2 months I was hoping for.
Oh well……I have another head to re-coil/wick with Kanthal and SS earlier than I expected. I need to get around to that.
I managed to pop a coil while dry burning for the first time (new Provari was set to 5.2V and I was dry-burning like I remembered to set it to 3.7……oops). So that head only gave me a month of solid performance instead of the 2 months I was hoping for.
Oh well……I have another head to re-coil/wick with Kanthal and SS earlier than I expected. I need to get around to that.
Well, I finally got the supplies and took the time to rewick/recoil my heads, and now my VN really sucks. I've read as much as possible on the subject and watched video tutorials to make sure I was wrapping my coils loosely enough, but I think the problem comes down to the juice for me. My juices are just too hard to wick properly, and thinning them would defeat the purpose of switching to these tanks.
I tried this whole DIY project with the ViVi Nova to get back some of the flavor my Smoktech cartos were robbing from me, but no matter how many heads I rebuild - even with trimmed wicks, varied wick thicknesses, and different numbers of coil wraps - I get even less flavor and half the vapor my cartos gave me. If I had the money and patience to try SS mesh (I've been using bamboo thread), I might give it another go, but I've wasted too many dollars and a whole lot of juice to be worse off than where I started.
To the OP: mostapha and dingo can obviously make it work with 100% VG, so take my own experience with a grain of salt.
I tried this whole DIY project with the ViVi Nova to get back some of the flavor my Smoktech cartos were robbing from me, but no matter how many heads I rebuild - even with trimmed wicks, varied wick thicknesses, and different numbers of coil wraps - I get even less flavor and half the vapor my cartos gave me. If I had the money and patience to try SS mesh (I've been using bamboo thread), I might give it another go, but I've wasted too many dollars and a whole lot of juice to be worse off than where I started.
To the OP: mostapha and dingo can obviously make it work with 100% VG, so take my own experience with a grain of salt.
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