Vuse using some sort of plastic wick material

[UncleChuck]

I'm not sure what I did to deserve such punishment, but I got a free Vuse and it's been sitting in a drawer until today when I got bored and decided to tear apart one of the carts. Aside from the chip inside the cartridge (!) which disables the cart after a certain number of vapes I noticed what appeared to be an ekowool type wick in there.

Being bored I figured I'd yank it out and see how well it worked, hoping some of the millions spent by RJ Reynolds developing the Vuse went into some great new wick material. I never was able to wrap a coil on it as it melted on me while trying to torch it clean:

The little short white piece is what it looked like before torching, very similar to braided silica but was much stiffer. The rest of the mess is the melted wick, which is now shiny hard and brittle like melted plastic. It didn't really burn so I didn't smell any plastic type fumes but it made me a bit worried about what type of wick this is. It's hard to see in the pics but the center area where the coil was is actually stained black, as if the coil had been degrading the wick before I even torched it. Considering the thing tasted like burnt rubber the whole time it got me wondering!

 

[LucentShadow]

Wow. That seems to be a huge step backward. Somehow, I'm not surprised, though. Go figure.

Still, I can't imagine why they would shun the well-known silica for whatever that crap is. Even if they have misgivings about silica, as many do, at least it's pretty heat stable. If that stuff melts, then it would seem that the microchip may also function as protection from overheating the wick by running the liquid dry.

Speaking for myself, I never could stand the old cartos because they made the liquid taste like polyester, more so with more time. That certainly makes me wonder what chemicals were leached into the liquid. Bah.

 

[Signmaker]

I seriously doubt RJ Reynolds would do anything to expose it's customers to harmful chemical inhalants.

 

[jimbill]

No more of R J Reynolds for me i just tested one of my vuse wicks also and when i put it under a lighter it turned in to melted peace of plastic

 

[Whitewolf2014]

Somehow i'm not surprised. We hear and see the news all the time how they found something dangerous in our ecigs, do we actually think they would test with the good quality mods and current attys. Now we know why they found something evil in our precious ecigs when they use cig-alikes for the test. I've heard plenty of arguments about how they either got a defective unit or that they fired the device to long and didn't give it enough time to properly cool down because of using a cigarette puffing machine for the test. But look at what we find when someone opens one up and puts a flame to the wicking material. It turns into solid plastic. I am so glad when I wanted to try vaping for the first time I didn't just choose some overpriced cig-alike made by the same company's I was trying to get away from. Then people wonder why some of use refuse to give big tobacco another red cent.

No thanks, I'll stick to my EhPro Kayfun for now. At least I will know what the coil and wick is made of.

 

[GinnyTx]

shame on me once..as far as any Reynolds product.

Uncle Chuck was your nickname as a kid (the same as mine) "Disassemble"

 

[beckdg]

I'm not sure what I did to deserve such punishment, but I got a free Vuse and it's been sitting in a drawer until today when I got bored and decided to tear apart one of the carts. Aside from the chip inside the cartridge (!) which disables the cart after a certain number of vapes I noticed what appeared to be an ekowool type wick in there.

Being bored I figured I'd yank it out and see how well it worked, hoping some of the millions spent by RJ Reynolds developing the Vuse went into some great new wick material. I never was able to wrap a coil on it as it melted on me while trying to torch it clean:

The little short white piece is what it looked like before torching, very similar to braided silica but was much stiffer. The rest of the mess is the melted wick, which is now shiny hard and brittle like melted plastic. It didn't really burn so I didn't smell any plastic type fumes but it made me a bit worried about what type of wick this is. It's hard to see in the pics but the center area where the coil was is actually stained black, as if the coil had been degrading the wick before I even torched it. Considering the thing tasted like burnt rubber the whole time it got me wondering!

And there are seemingly intelligent people who want BT vested in this market for their pull in gooberment.

We'll get it, alright. And this is just the beginning of what is to come of it.

Sent from my device.

 

[Nibs91]

Oh man.....I actually love my Vuse with menthol (now sitting in a drawer as a back up). Ahh well...$6 for 2 cartridges is way overboard for me.

 

[bluecat]

The chip probably controls the temperature so that the wick would not melt. When you torched it, it may have went over that temp and melted. Similar to putting you hand in hot tap water and it being fine. Then putting it into boiling water.

 

[stevegmu]

Was the factory coil wrapped around the wick, or did it wick into a reservoir?

 

[readeuler]

Uh oh... you disassembled a "closed-system" e-cigarette? Expect to hear from RJR's lawyers soon, that's probably highly illegal

 

[skoony]

to keep cost down and product life up they probably use the least amount of power
to get the amount of vape desired. whats in the juice?
i'm guessing distilled water added to enhance vapor production
at lower heat levels.
regards
mike

 

[HBcorpse]

Let's get someone to crack open a Mark10 from Marlboro...do a similar test...

 

[Oberon75]

I seriously doubt RJ Reynolds would do anything to expose it's customers to harmful chemical inhalants.

Just a theory here but RJ Reynolds is one of the biggest lobbyists against the vaping industry. They are the ones who want tough regulations that only a giant corporation can afford. Perhaps by selling an product that will test positive for toxins, they can demonize the industry a little more.

 

[HBcorpse]

That's exactly what's happening.
They want their products to suck for three reasons.

1. They'll suck, and therefore people will have to spend more money to keep them going.
2. They'll suck, and people will hate them, and go back to cigarettes.
3. They'll suck, and the only research being done on eCigs will be on these ones, and make the rest of our stuff look bad.

 

[Train2]

To those thinking the chip is going to regulate temperature: really? Seems pretty unlikely to me - the OP nailed it: the chip is there to make sure you can't re-use the thing. The whole industry as Big Tobacco envisions it would probably be modeled on inkjet printing: give away the hardware at whatever you can get for it, make the products incompatible/proprietary, and sell the disposable (liquid) at incredibly profitable levels.

(3000% markup on materials anyone?)

 

[stevegmu]

Has anyone who has used one ever gotten a dry hit?

 

[readeuler]

Am I the only one who doesn't think it's some big conspiracy that Vuse and other tobacco cigalikes kind of suck?

The cigarette business:

1) Pack millions of paper tubes full of tobacco
2) Comply with regulations and pay huge sums of taxes

Nothing space-age about this, folks. Maybe they're just not good at designing and manufacturing consumer electronics in a sector that's evolving extremely rapidly? Granted, a plastic wick is something you'd think they'd avoid, but...

 

[stevegmu]

Am I the only one who doesn't think it's some big conspiracy that Vuse and other tobacco cigalikes kind of suck?

The cigarette business:

1) Pack millions of paper tubes full of tobacco
2) Comply with regulations and pay huge sums of taxes

Nothing space-age about this, folks. Maybe they're just not good at designing and manufacturing consumer electronics in a sector that's evolving extremely rapidly? Granted, a plastic wick is something you'd think they'd avoid, but...

Polyfill is a plastic...

They aren't going to sell mechs, RTAs and APVs at gas stations. Their niche is disposable and closed system cigalikes. To think a successful company would spend $millions on a product they know is bad and meant to fail would be absurd....

 

[beckdg]

Polyfill is a plastic...

They aren't going to sell mechs, RTAs and APVs at gas stations. Their niche is disposable and closed system cigalikes. To think a successful company would spend $millions on a product they know is bad and meant to fail would be absurd....

Yet to think such a large industry couldn't stoop to such lunacy in the interest of salvaging their first, most profitable interest would be several times more absurd.

Ergo... nobody's jumping the fence to stand on the other side of this dilemma. The sense that one side makes to the other makes no never mind. Only the cents BT looks to keep or gain and what they're willing to do with and/or for it.

And let's be real. They have the resources to outright buy any innovation they want in the vaping world... and market it nearly anywhere they please.

Sent from my device.