Vivi Nova Rebuild tutorial

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kalifornia

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i don't know how to link, but I've been reading the vmod xl bottom feeder from vapage.com thread. let me ask you, the atty on page one of this thread is different from the one i just got, mine has an additional flange right above the wick. anyway is there a drip tip that snugly fits onto your atty head? let me know if you can't find the thread. but the thread isn't about the nova per se.
 

Neya

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Rebuilt my first vivi nova with 34g nichrome 80 and cheesecloth.
I did 5 wraps and got 4.5ohms.
Tore it apart and unwrapped a coil for 4.0ohms.
hmmmmmm.
Was getting vapor and some shotty throat hit on and off. Wick was way too big - and had to crank the ego volts, and still felt unsatisfied usually. Tore it apart and started again.

Did 3 coils, with double backed legs (wow thats hard with such a tiny device/wire!) now at 2.8-3.0ohms yay.
So time to break this new wick in. Hopefully cotton cheesecloth works out for me, I wanted something foodsafe.
 

subdude

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First, I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. Through your help I was able to rebuild 4 vivi nova heads tonight and, man, what a difference. Used cotton candle wick for my standard, and cotton yarn for my 3 minis. 32g Kanthal on all. Wow! Flavor is increased at least double, vapor also increased, and I'm getting more TH from a juice that seemed to have none yesterday even though I'm using the same voltage and same devices. A mini nova on an ego twist will now be my portable PV. Vaping Heaven!
And just a note...when I pulled out the original wick on one of the heads, I found lots of small pieces of loose silica wick that had become dislodge. Hope I didn't inhale any:ohmy:
 

vdice

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First, I want to thank everyone who contributed to this thread. Through your help I was able to rebuild 4 vivi nova heads tonight and, man, what a difference. Used cotton candle wick for my standard, and cotton yarn for my 3 minis. 32g Kanthal on all. Wow! Flavor is increased at least double, vapor also increased, and I'm getting more TH from a juice that seemed to have none yesterday even though I'm using the same voltage and same devices. A mini nova on an ego twist will now be my portable PV. Vaping Heaven!
And just a note...when I pulled out the original wick on one of the heads, I found lots of small pieces of loose silica wick that had become dislodge. Hope I didn't inhale any:ohmy:

just curious, i use the same setup. how many wraps of 32 do u use? i am going back and forth between 4 and five,,,,,,,,,,,vince
 

subdude

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just curious, i use the same setup. how many wraps of 32 do u use? i am going back and forth between 4 and five,,,,,,,,,,,vince

Four wraps gets me around 2.0-2.2 ohms. In the minis, I'm using two pcs 4-ply cotton yarn and have to keep the coils kinda tight or else the wick absorbs too much juice. So far, so good. Square braided cotton wick for the standard Nova with 5 wraps @ 2.5 ohms. Have that one on my SB with a Kick.
The multi-meter I bought ten years ago (and used maybe five times) has seen it's share of use the last few months. I have a hunch a Provari is in my future.
 

mwa102464

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Rebuilt my first vivi nova with 34g nichrome 80 and cheesecloth.
I did 5 wraps and got 4.5ohms.
Tore it apart and unwrapped a coil for 4.0ohms.
hmmmmmm.

If 34Awg Kanthal is all you have and you want lower ohms braid 2 pieces together, and do about 5- 6 coils, it will be perfect
 

Neya

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If 34Awg Kanthal is all you have and you want lower ohms braid 2 pieces together, and do about 5- 6 coils, it will be perfect


Thank you thank you thank you!
I'll try this!

I did end up giving in and redoing the whole wick. It was TOO THICK (way too thick) no flavor at all. Great throat hit and amazing vapor though.

So i did a skinny one, cheesecloth rolled in my hand to be close to a stock vivi wick size. Trimmed it down. which allowed for 4 coils at about 3.6ohms
Flavor and throat hit are good if I crank the twist to 4.8volts(note, Ive never cranked it before but vapor is meh.. like really meh. Not sure if its the ohms, wick, coils... I ordered another nova though with more heads so I can practice more.

Knowing how well the vivi performed when stock tells me it comes down to practice.
 

BJ43

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I have now made over 50 cotton wick combinations on the vivi nova and with all, if I put a small batten cotton wick over the coil it improves 100%. I read so much about over wicking and I use a lot of wick and have never experienced over wicking or flooding. I think a lot of people do not give it enough time to break in. It takes a good half hour of vaping before any cotton wick produces satisfactory vapor. Voltage control is very critical with cotton wicks as each one is slightly different and finding the sweet spot is important.

IMG_1588.jpg
 

vdice

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Four wraps gets me around 2.0-2.2 ohms. In the minis, I'm using two pcs 4-ply cotton yarn and have to keep the coils kinda tight or else the wick absorbs too much juice. So far, so good. Square braided cotton wick for the standard Nova with 5 wraps @ 2.5 ohms. Have that one on my SB with a Kick.
The multi-meter I bought ten years ago (and used maybe five times) has seen it's share of use the last few months. I have a hunch a Provari is in my future.

ok, i am using 5 wraps on a 4 ply cotton yarn right now, on my mini. somehow, between yesterday and today, one side of the wick became unraveled. wow!!!. vapor production went way up again. (was already good) . was using it for about two days. maybe 6ml or so. i think i am going to try boiling it and unraveling it once it is built, to pre- brake it in..........later..............vince

sorry break it in
 
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iKN0WaGH0ST

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I have now made over 50 cotton wick combinations on the vivi nova and with all, if I put a small batten cotton wick over the coil it improves 100%. I read so much about over wicking and I use a lot of wick and have never experienced over wicking or flooding. I think a lot of people do not give it enough time to break in. It takes a good half hour of vaping before any cotton wick produces satisfactory vapor. Voltage control is very critical with cotton wicks as each one is slightly different and finding the sweet spot is important.

IMG_1588.jpg

So you just place the shorter wick on top of the coiled wick? Any pictures of it assembled?
 

nebulas

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I have now made over 50 cotton wick combinations on the vivi nova and with all, if I put a small batten cotton wick over the coil it improves 100%. I read so much about over wicking and I use a lot of wick and have never experienced over wicking or flooding. I think a lot of people do not give it enough time to break in. It takes a good half hour of vaping before any cotton wick produces satisfactory vapor. Voltage control is very critical with cotton wicks as each one is slightly different and finding the sweet spot is important.

Where do you get that cotton batten and what exactly is it? Would an unraveled cotton ball work?
 
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