What is the best high end RBA?

[_sidekick_]

I have two kinds of cotton right now. The first is sterile CVS cotton - no boiling needed. It does impart a very mild cottony taste right as the juice vapes away. Not much though. The second is an organic cotton grown with no pesticides. It does not impart any flavor (even without boiling) and is made for skin care, but it is not as absorbent as other cotton. It also leaves an odd feeling in my throat - again, only on the last hit when the juice is about gone. Both work reasonably well in a RDA (I have a Trident) and are much better than other wick materials, but I am really ready to expand my vaping experience and venture into the world of gennies.

Try boiling them. I boil my organic cvs cotton balls, because before I tried that they had a slight cotton taste and left a bad feeling in my throat. Despite being organic they are bleached with hydrogen peroxide, so there is most likely still some left over from the process. My bag had a faint peroxide smell.

 

[folkphys]

So from what I understand, ceramic is superior to silica and SS mesh and after a couple days break in period, wicks as well or better.

There are questions about the long term safety of using silica. Something about the way it degrades during use - particles getting into your lungs, etc. Hopefully someone with a better knowledge base than I can weigh in.

With SS mesh, although you may not be aware of it, there is a slight metallic taste added to your juice flavor. Also not sure about the safety of use over time.

With ceramic, from what I'm reading, there is zero taste and no danger of deterioration particles. It is confusing though because I've Googled ceramic wick and found different types. The kind I want is an actual hard piece of ceramic, though porous - not a fabric. Still, even the ceramic "fabric" may be better than silica. You can Google ceramic wicks or watch Rip Tripper's YouTube on them - he links to a couple of sources... still not the kind I am looking for, but he seems to be very excited about them.

I absolutely love my ceramic wicks. In my experience, they provide a much cleaner flavor than SS mesh, SS rope or silica, and best of all they don't cook my juice when I chain vape. I haven't tried a ceramic fabric wick yet (e.g. the XC-116), that's next on the list. Right now, I'm using the FC-2000 porous ceramic wicks (little rigid sticks). They are quite expensive however and, owing to my heavy clodding hands, I seem to always break two out of three just trying to get them placed right and wrapped all snug. Notwithstanding, I still prefer them in my genesis atomizers and I'm learning to be more careful.

 

[entropy1049]

With SS mesh, although you may not be aware of it, there is a slight metallic taste added to your juice flavor.

Tried 'em all. Silica, cotton, ceramic, wire rope, bamboo fiber, et al. I vastly prefer mesh. Mesh to me imparts less flavor than does any other wicking material I've tried. If you're getting metallic tastes from your mesh, it is becoming too hot, whether from bad wicking (your fault, not the mesh), a hot spot (again, operator error), simply pounding too much current through the coil (see previous), etc. There is no taste imparted to your vape inherent to the use of ss mesh (unless you're doing it wrong).

BTW: Your hard ceramic is most likely alumina or silicon oxide. If among your concerns are particulates you may inhale, though ceramics are thermally very resistant to degradation, they are very susceptible to degradation from abrasion. Every time your coil heats and cools it expands and contracts. And subsequently abrades the surface of the ceramic.

Again, there is no perfect, textbook wicking material. Only a choice of materials based on personal preference.

Like I said, pretty subjective

 

[Vwls]

I absolutely love my ceramic wicks. In my experience, they provide a much cleaner flavor than SS mesh, SS rope or silica, and best of all they don't cook my juice when I chain vape. I haven't tried a ceramic fabric wick yet (e.g. the XC-116), that's next on the list. Right now, I'm using the FC-2000 porous ceramic wicks (little rigid sticks). They are quite expensive however and, owing to my heavy clodding hands, I seem to always break two out of three just trying to get them placed right and wrapped all snug. Notwithstanding, I still prefer them in my genesis atomizers and I'm learning to be more careful.

Yes I've heard they are easy to break.

May I ask where you get your FC-2000's?

 

[folkphys]

Tried 'em all. Silica, cotton, ceramic, wire rope, bamboo fiber, et al. I vastly prefer mesh. Mesh to me imparts less flavor than does any other wicking material I've tried. If you're getting metallic tastes from your mesh, it is becoming too hot, whether from bad wicking (your fault, not the mesh), a hot spot (again, operator error), simply pounding too much current through the coil (see previous), etc. There is no taste imparted to your vape inherent to the use of ss mesh (unless you're doing it wrong).

BTW: Your hard ceramic is most likely alumina or silicon oxide. If among your concerns are particulates you may inhale, though ceramics are thermally very resistant to degradation, they are very susceptible to degradation from abrasion. Every time your coil heats and cools it expands and contracts. And subsequently abrades the surface of the ceramic.

Again, there is no perfect, textbook wicking material. Only a choice of materials based on personal preference.

Like I said, pretty subjective

And the SS mesh is full Chromium, so I guess we're all screwed (wink). You know what they say about opinions, and my opinion is that I apparently really like the flavor of alumina and silica oxides.

 

[entropy1049]

Sure. But love the alumina and silica oxides because you prefer them according to your taste. Not because of the chromium in the stainless steel mesh. Since you're unlikely to abrade the stainless steal and get a big lungful of chromium dust, and the vaporization point of the chromium is like 2700 C, unless you run your atties kind of hot ( ), you probably will never inhale chromium particulates.

 

[BIGJ541]

Hands Down (HITS HARDER THAN ANY DRIPPER I HAVE TRIED) Prometheus by grand Vapor for genny tanks Russian 91% Or Ithaka for bottom wick. Drippers Nimbus, Helios, Trident v2 and the Patriot. This is Just my opinion.

 

[Jazzi Mike]

You can use the ceramic in an Ithaka. You should look into that too!

 

[folkphys]

Sure. But love the alumina and silica oxides because you prefer them according to your taste. Not because of the chromium in the stainless steel mesh. Since you're unlikely to abrade the stainless steal and get a big lungful of chromium dust, and the vaporization point of the chromium is like 2700 C, unless you run your atties kind of hot ( ), you probably will never inhale chromium particulates.

Does not the repeated torching and rolling of a piece of SS mesh not present significant opportunities for abrasion? Does not the bending, curing, sliding and altogether fiddling around with a piece of SS mesh present ample opportunities for abrasion? And does not the coiling of a metal wire tightening it, heating it, then poking it, wiggling it and sliding it along the outer surface of a piece of SS mesh supply copious opportunities for abrasion? Is it not then also possible that if any of this rubbing twisting bending squeezing scraping or burning were to dislodge some bit of chromium dust from our piece of SS mesh, could that dust not get carried out into our faces on slurry or cloud of juice?

I'm just asking.

Another thing comes to mind:

Would not the more useful bit of intrinsic chromium data be its Heat of Vaporization? Where we are concerned with aggregate quantities of supplied thermal energy and not some time-frozen summed-over temperature mark (of kinetic energy) that may not be achieved anywhere we can "see" on our wicks, but perhaps might occur on a much smaller scale at the hottest part of the coil and the closest part of the wick. Though I doubt this possibility would occur with enough frequency to push a whole bunch of nasty chromium bits to their boiling point -which as long as we don't conflate anything we might call "vaporization point"- and out into our lungs.

But let's not have this argument, I think we're all a bit out of our respective elements and right now I'm more worried about blowing my face off on account of sub-ohmage and coil shortings than the likely minuscule quantities of toxic chemicals I may or may not be inhaling/ingesting.

 

[jrs99]

I love ceramic wicks but they're just so damned fragile. I've never broken one when wrapping a coil but once installed, if I just look at it funny it breaks. I use ceramic in the Zatty which now, never leaves the house and I use SS mesh in the Zenesis.
I've been getting my wicks @ ElectronicStix.

 

[Vwls]

Thanks jrs99. I'm not sure what you mean.. are you saying it breaks once installed just by the slight jostling of picking up the mod and vaping?

 

[jrs99]

No, it's not quite that bad. It seems like any kind of sharp jolt maybe. I do know any time it's fallen over I've had to replace a broken wick. The last one I swear I was as careful as I could be and still broke one. I've had my Zatty a little over a month and have probably went thru 6-7 wicks. The last one, I replaced a wick at work early in the day, went to set it down in the kitchen later and if fell over. Damned wick didn't last 6 hours.
Problem is, I love them. I have a real aversion to metallic taste so I really like the purer taste of ceramic. I just wish they were sturdier.

 

[Vwls]

Right - I'm not into metallic taste either so really looking forward to ceramics... I'll be careful but I wish they would come up with a sturdier version.

 

[cghildreth]

Hands Down (HITS HARDER THAN ANY DRIPPER I HAVE TRIED) Prometheus by grand Vapor for genny tanks Russian 91% Or Ithaka for bottom wick. Drippers Nimbus, Helios, Trident v2 and the Patriot. This is Just my opinion.

Lolz. Nimbus. You realize that the nimbus is a china atty, right? it's got an absolutely identical build to the igo w - rumor has it that youde actually is the manufacturer of the nimbus. Slightly different top cap is the only difference. Don't get me wrong - I really like my nimbus. I just have to laugh when people say it hits harder than other far cheaper atties. Unless your posts and atty are built out of something super conductive like copper (which is an awful idea btw), virtually all drippers can be built for the same results as any other dripper. The only question is single dual quad or octa coil. I tend to favor dual coils, so the nimbus/igo-w is my go to dripper.

That said, I haven't tried the Prometheus yet. I'll check it out. I do really love my kayfuns and Russians. Fantastic vape without any fuss.

 

[BIGJ541]

So far the best RBA for me has been the Prometheus b grandvapor. iam looking forward to tring some other wicks on it but I have been just using ss mesh on a dual coil .05 ohm set up

 

[gokusnimbus]

Vicious Ant Cyclone AFC dripper is probably the best dripper out there in terms of build quality and functionality. the best part is the adjustable air flow. twist the drip tip and it rotates the top portion to adjust airflow. these arent your normal circle shaped air holes. they are (2) 4.5mm x 1.33mm oblong pill shaped slits that can adjust from really tight draw (equivalent to a 1mm circle) to wide open draw (+3mm). you can really fine tune your airflow to your build. the secret feature not played up by VA is that you can twist to close the air holes, effectively "locking" your atty from drips/leaks.

not only does the AFC adjust for dual coils, for single coil you can close off one of the air holes or twist to the extra single 1/32" hole for the tightest draw. the afc twists easy without much effort but its not like it freely spins. it always holds its position. i can adjust my airflow on-the-fly with one hand without having to take apart my dripper to adjust.

this dripper is. just. freaking. amazing.

 

[DDN79]

Vicious Ant Cyclone AFC dripper is probably the best dripper out there in terms of build quality and functionality. the best part is the adjustable air flow. twist the drip tip and it rotates the top portion to adjust airflow. these arent your normal circle shaped air holes. they are (2) 4.5mm x 1.33mm oblong pill shaped slits that can adjust from really tight draw (equivalent to a 1mm circle) to wide open draw (+3mm). you can really fine tune your airflow to your build. the secret feature not played up by VA is that you can twist to close the air holes, effectively "locking" your atty from drips/leaks.

not only does the AFC adjust for dual coils, for single coil you can close off one of the air holes or twist to the extra single 1/32" hole for the tightest draw. the afc twists easy without much effort but its not like it freely spins. it always holds its position. i can adjust my airflow on-the-fly with one hand without having to take apart my dripper to adjust.

this dripper is. just. freaking. amazing.

I second that! The flavor it produces is just amazing! My only gripe is that you have to be pretty good rebuilder since you have very little room for error.

 

[folkphys]

Any updates on the OP's attempts with the DID and a ceramic wick?

 

[Vwls]

I received my DID yesterday - I bought it used here in the Classies, and it arrived with the glass tank broken. Very upset - the seller says he wrapped it in bubble wrap but it arrived with no bubble wrap, and cracked.

I went ahead and set it up with the plastic tank last night. Don't have the ceramic wicks yet, so I'll report back on that. Can I use ceramic wicks with the plastic tank?

I built it last night with a micro coil and cotton - an auto-dripping set up kind of. Did not think much of the vape. My Trident dripper is much better.

 

[folkphys]

I received my DID yesterday - I bought it used here in the Classies, and it arrived with the glass tank broken. Very upset - the seller says he wrapped it in bubble wrap but it arrived with no bubble wrap, and cracked.

I went ahead and set it up with the plastic tank last night. Don't have the ceramic wicks yet, so I'll report back on that. Can I use ceramic wicks with the plastic tank?

I built it last night with a micro coil and cotton - an auto-dripping set up kind of. Did not think much of the vape. My Trident dripper is much better.

Genesis-style atomizers really do benefit from a dipstick/straw type wick, methinks. I use ceramics inside the plastic tank of my RSST with no problems and many satisfying clouds. That is, untill yesterday when my RSST gave up the ghost and crapped out its once-upon-a-time-threaded bottom insulator. But that was not the ceramic's fault.

If you end up needing to shorten the ceramic wick, as I have, be careful. I use little wire cutters and brace the wick firmly near the cut spot. Also, since they're basically just fused sand, when you cut them there will be some dust which you might not want to ingest/inhale, so it seems like a good idea to swish around your freshly trimmed wick in a bowl of water before you vape it. Also, I have found it safer to prewrap my coils on a similiar sized (slightly smaller) screwdriver or drill bit then slide them down onto the already in-place wick. The wick hole in your DID will act like a fulcrum on the ceramic when you yank the coils around it. I also wrap a thin sleeve of SS mesh just at the top and I like ribbon wire the best because it gives you more surface contact and less torque-ing on the wick when you tighten down the positive and negative leads. Blah blah blah......