vivi nova modders

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bilboda

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The new heads use nr wire for the leads. I took one off and was surprised to see it but I was on my 2.8 ohm and wanted lower. I saved the coil for something sometime. I haven't had a stock atty fail yet. I replace them only for the fun of it and the cotton. I use nr wire too and find them wanting to go straight down. I solved that by bringing both to the same side of the cup. 1 can short, it's negative anyway ,the other crosses over to the same side as the negative and on the inside of the grommet and no issues. I'd like a ceramic cup toom I wouldn't have o worry about my coil being too wide and shorting out that way. Maybe some kind of liner for the cup, I guess electrical tape wouldn't hold up too well.
I bought some more, lol
 

L7D4N

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The new heads use nr wire for the leads. I took one off and was surprised to see it but I was on my 2.8 ohm and wanted lower. I saved the coil for something sometime. I haven't had a stock atty fail yet. I replace them only for the fun of it and the cotton. I use nr wire too and find them wanting to go straight down. I solved that by bringing both to the same side of the cup. 1 can short, it's negative anyway ,the other crosses over to the same side as the negative and on the inside of the grommet and no issues. I'd like a ceramic cup toom I wouldn't have o worry about my coil being too wide and shorting out that way. Maybe some kind of liner for the cup, I guess electrical tape wouldn't hold up too well.
I bought some more, lol

Did you purchase a V2, or a V2.5? I received 2 of the V2's yesterday from LiteCig and they do not have NR wire on the leads, but have a liner that surrounds the coil/wick inside the cup to prevent it from shorting. I suppose the changes in the V2.5 revision correct the hot leg issues.

They also claim the tube to be polypropylene, which would be resistant to essential oils. Both of my tubes cracked in the same day from Cinnamon Red Hots - TPA, so I'm not sure what type of plastic Vision is putting on these things, but the metal tanks are working for me without issue.
 

Bourbonman

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First off, I have had zero problems with the Vivi v2. Mine worked just fine right out of the box for me. No leaks, good vapor, fits and looks great on my Provari. $12 well spent. This is now my take to work vape, since carto tanks seem to flood in the high heat in the facility I work in. I'm talking 100+ degrees some days.

But I have a mini-scuba Genesis mod coming from a co-op, so I thought I'd practice with ss mesh wick. I did the torch/quench vg/quench cycles and wrapped it with a 4 turn, 3 ohm coil with 34g Kanthal, and it works even better, more vapor and flavor.
vivi mesh wick.jpg
I'm going to pick up a couple more of these, and a metal tank or two. I'm also going to give cotton a try.

I would like to be able to order a hand full of replacement rubber seals.
They are the same rubber seals used in regular cartomizers to insulate the center pin. Just rip apart an old carto that's ready for the trash. I think you could even use the center pin from a carto as a replacement, if you ground it down or cut it with a Dremel and cut-off wheel. Looks like it might have a bigger hole for more airflow. I'll try it when I do my cotton wick.

With those spare parts so easily obtained, this little thing should last a long time.


Cheers! :toast:
 

bilboda

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Did you purchase a V2, or a V2.5? I received 2 of the V2's yesterday from LiteCig and they do not have NR wire on the leads, but have a liner that surrounds the coil/wick inside the cup to prevent it from shorting. I suppose the changes in the V2.5 revision correct the hot leg issues.

They also claim the tube to be polypropylene, which would be resistant to essential oils. Both of my tubes cracked in the same day from Cinnamon Red Hots - TPA, so I'm not sure what type of plastic Vision is putting on these things, but the metal tanks are working for me without issue.

It's a version 2 from Health Cabin from a couple of weeks ago at a time when they were touted as the newest version. I finally got around to the 2.8 ohm and it's the first time I noticed the nr wire. The other 2 had left scorch marks on the rubber so they must not have been nr. I guess I got a mixed batch.
I have version 2.5 from Gotvapes waiting on the shelf and I can't tell what kind of wire they use. I've heard nr but we'll see at some point. 4 very long wicks.
The liner I'm looking for would be on the edges, where a long coil would meet the cup. Maybe a fatter wick, meaning more wire per coil will work to keep them shorter, I'l slit the rubber cap and just put one on top of the other for an experiment....ah, da possibillidies...
 

keenanmcfar

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I've had mine for a couple of weeks now and have managed to do some fiddling. bought it knowing that it would be junk fresh out of the box(it defintely was) but figured what the heck, 15 bucks for a rebuildable.... worst case scenario, i keep it as a back up when there is nothing else thats useable.
no doubt i have experienced the burnt rubber taste everybody has been talking about but oddly enough i noticed that after re wick/coil it wasnt there any more although i still have nichrome touching the grommet. didnt even double it up.
so the flavor is ok now, still a little muted but decent. finding myself liking this more and more.
as for the wicking, still have to work that one out. using hemp/cotton blend yarn right now fed thru a precoil (on a nail) 32 awg nichrome wire and it produces aweome vapor but it takes a little sucking and blowing to get it there

@ bourbonman: how well does the ss wick, compared to cotton? been thinking of trying it out but i dont know where to get the stuff offfline at a brick and mortar.

i think these things can definitely be made into something that is much more enjoyable than a dct but maybe not as good as a genny. (close though, possibly) for that to happen, imho, a few things need to be done. i plan on doing these and posting results, possibly a vid if enough pple are interested.
1: new coils/ wick. the stock ones are garbage
2: i like the hole drilling idea and it makes ss wick seem much more plausable. havent tried ss out before but it really seems like the rght way to go for flavour and lifespan. i will try this as well as a rolled gauze wickand hopefully one of them works!
3:if i end up using the gauze, i found with cotton it works waaaaay better to prewrap the coil on a nail just slightly bigger than wick and slide thru. no choking that way.
4: no res wire seems like a hassle to go thru so doubling is what im going to do for the grommet
5: i havent been able to figure anything out for shorting issue so far so if anybody thinks of something let me know! just using caution for now.
 

deezdrama

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First off, I have had zero problems with the Vivi v2. Mine worked just fine right out of the box for me. No leaks, good vapor, fits and looks great on my Provari. $12 well spent. This is now my take to work vape, since carto tanks seem to flood in the high heat in the facility I work in. I'm talking 100+ degrees some days.

But I have a mini-scuba Genesis mod coming from a co-op, so I thought I'd practice with ss mesh wick. I did the torch/quench vg/quench cycles and wrapped it with a 4 turn, 3 ohm coil with 34g Kanthal, and it works even better, more vapor and flavor.
View attachment 110454
I'm going to pick up a couple more of these, and a metal tank or two. I'm also going to give cotton a try.


They are the same rubber seals used in regular cartomizers to insulate the center pin. Just rip apart an old carto that's ready for the trash. I think you could even use the center pin from a carto as a replacement, if you ground it down or cut it with a Dremel and cut-off wheel. Looks like it might have a bigger hole for more airflow. I'll try it when I do my cotton wick.

With those spare parts so easily obtained, this little thing should last a long time.


Cheers! :toast:

I been thinking of trying this too, just never got around to it... is it still working out great for you?

I too am waiting on a scubagen3 mini from the co-op and have some mesh i ordered to play with, on one of my heads i used a dremel with a cutoff wheel an grinded the channels wider so i could use a large cotton wick- i was impatient and used a peice of t-shirt- lol, tasted of detergent, i soaked it in vodka and rinsed it well and it tasted great with bobas and blew clouds out but when i switched to my juices of choice (nitelitevapor juices) the taste was really off so just rewicked it with silica again :( should of tried with the mesh- did it take alot of work to keep it from shorting out?
Does it gurgle or leak at all with the mesh?

I may try rolling some silica inside the mesh
 

Bourbonman

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It was a PITA to get get the mesh wick in the slots and keep the coil from shorting, but it does still wick even with the crimps and the fact I had to really jam it into the slots. No leaks or gurgles. Gotta be careful that the lengthwise rolled end/edge doesn't catch on the slot top, that can mess up the wick and the coil. Also, the ends of the wick will catch in the threads of the tank piece if you take the tank off with the wick in place. I will try rolling a mesh wick using the the curved wick tutorial from Scubabatdan, and hopefully eliminate the crimps.

I ground the slot bigger on a different head and put a fat cotton wick in, seems to work very well, an occasional "off" tasting vape, but works much better than the stock wick/coil. I used cotton string I bought at Target, washed it out, unraveled the 4 strands and re-wound it with six strands. I held it tight with two vice-grips on two boxes so I could wind the coil around it. There's another thing I learned along the way, heating the kanthal with a lighter to take the springy-ness (is that a word?) out makes it a lot easier to work with.

I'm going to grind out another head and try another ss mesh wick. The fact that the first one worked as well as it did, and that I had never made a wick nor a coil when I did it, makes me believe I can do it better now. Hopefully it won't be as big of a pain as the first one was, but again, I know a lot more now than I did then.

I'll post updates here as I go, and try to add to our collective knowledge.
 

keenanmcfar

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Did some more tinkering today and found that stretched qtip cotton is amazing wick. No more wicking issues at all with pull through method. Unless the stainless steel turns out to be way better tasting this search is at an end for myself.

Also tried doubling up the legs. Seems to be a slight improvement but the taste is still off. I think the main thing i will focus on now is simply eliminating the need for that ridiculous rubber grommet. I have a few ideas and will post pics when it works. :D
 

Gummy Bear

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for what it's worth:
I have been using the #4 cotton yarn for a while now, it has 4 strands. For the past week no matter which head I use it flooded. So I removed 2 of the strands and it seems to really kick the menthol. I add a 1/2 tsp. of menthol per 30 ml of Gourmet Vapors Nuport. that gets it up to something like an Altoids.
 

Bourbonman

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for what it's worth:
....and it seems to really kick the menthol. I add a 1/2 tsp. of menthol per 30 ml of Gourmet Vapors Nuport. that gets it up to something like an Altoids.

OMG, just the thought almost made me hurl :) LOL not in any way meaning to say anything bad about your preference, please don't take it that way. We all have our own tastes, that's what makes us..., well, us.

I just wasn't much of a menthol fan, Camel guy for nearly 30 years. However, sometimes when I had a really bad cold, I'd buy a pack of Salems. You must be one hardcore menthol sunnuvagun :)

Cheers! :toast:
 

Bourbonman

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I made another mesh wick last night. Well, I modified a wick I made previously but could never keep from shorting out on the coil. Using an idea I shamelessly stole while browsing random forums, I took a braided ceramic sleeve out of an old carto's guts and cut it down to fit inside the Vivi head. The sleeve is to keep the wick from shorting out the coil. I think I read about it in one of Scubabatdan's posts. I slid the trimmed sleeve onto the wick, centered it, wrapped as much 34awg kanthol as I could on it, and jammed it into the slots. ( I was drinking at the time, which usually leads to an interesting combo of creativity, force, and cursing..."Get the f#$% in there, you piece of @&*%, I know this'un'll work!") I ended up with a 3.6ohm coil, and at 5.8 volts is producing huge clouds of smooth, clean-tasting, warm vapor. I have gone through half a tank with zero bad draws, zero off flavor hits. I can chain vape until the top cap of the Vivi gets very warm.

I hope I can duplicate this :) I'll double up the legs and lower the resistance a bit, or try it with some 32awg. With the sleeve trick, one shouldn't have to oxidize the mesh wick at all, just boil it and torch it to get it clean. This should make it more flexible, too.
 

L7D4N

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Actually, the V2 heads I received from LiteCig had that exact braided sleeve surrounding the coil/wick assembly to prevent shorts, or better the wicking, I'm not sure what their idea was on it.

It was too much of a PITA to get back in there once I built a cotton wick, but I would surmise this would solve most shorting issues for others if it could be done.
 

Bourbonman

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Actually, the V2 heads I received from LiteCig had that exact braided sleeve surrounding the coil/wick assembly to prevent shorts, or better the wicking, I'm not sure what their idea was on it.

It was too much of a PITA to get back in there once I built a cotton wick, but I would surmise this would solve most shorting issues for others if it could be done.

If your V2 heads are the same as mine, that sleeving is down inside the head to keep the legs from shorting (I didn't put mine back in, either..serious PITA). I'm talking about a much smaller diameter sleeve to slide onto the wick itself, with the coil wound on the sleeve instead of directly onto the wick, to prevent contact between the coil and the ss mesh wick.


nova sleeve.jpg

Yep, I put the tank on upside down. Ooops :toast:
 
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