What the hell is up with Kanger's "flavor wicks"?

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Train2

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Now that I've (JUST) started to DIY, I can see making a slightly thinner juice in the interest of wicking.
But up til now, I've found that with a Protank, removing HALF the flavor wicking provides the best of both worlds - I do NOT get ANY leaking or gurgling, and I do get enough juice flow to avoid dry hits.
I run from 1.8 to 2.4 ohm coils, from 7 to 9 watts, with juices anywhere from 30/70 to 70/30...

Oddly, as they're the same danged coils, I have NOT found the need to remove wicking for EVODs or MiniProTanks...weird.
 

jcco

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Since all I experience with PT's & Evods is flooding, I wonder if replacing the stock flavor wicks with a couple 1mm silica would fix the problem. Any ideas about that?

Even with 100% VG Boba's Bounty, i get flooding after a while. Did I just get a bunch of bad heads or what?
They work for awhile & don't leak/flood unless I clean them & reassemble. Is this normal or is it just me?

My only way to make it stop flooding is to replace the head completely. Is it something with reusing the stock wicks that cause the floods? I've tried cotton & that just makes it worse. I cant figure this out to save my life. I hate having to replace the heads so frequently, it get's expensive after awhile.
I wish I had the problem of lack of flow & removing the flavor wicks to make it go. It must just be my stuff that acts so weird or does anybody else experience this too?
 

xtwosm0kesx

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Since all I experience with PT's & Evods is flooding, I wonder if replacing the stock flavor wicks with a couple 1mm silica would fix the problem. Any ideas about that?

Even with 100% VG Boba's Bounty, i get flooding after a while. Did I just get a bunch of bad heads or what?
They work for awhile & don't leak/flood unless I clean them & reassemble. Is this normal or is it just me?

My only way to make it stop flooding is to replace the head completely. Is it something with reusing the stock wicks that cause the floods? I've tried cotton & that just makes it worse. I cant figure this out to save my life. I hate having to replace the heads so frequently, it get's expensive after awhile.
I wish I had the problem of lack of flow & removing the flavor wicks to make it go. It must just be my stuff that acts so weird or does anybody else experience this too?

I need to read more thoroughly before replying.

I'd try cotton again, have you tried full cotton main and flavor wicks.

Ive found that you can dial the heads in for basically any juice by learning the appropriate size flavor wicks for different mixes.
 

LucentShadow

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I've been using cotton or viscose bamboo thread to rebuild my eVod heads for some time now. I rebuild the coil with 1/16" i.d. micro coil, and just replace the wicks when necessary.

It's my opinion that there may be some risk of the cap touching the coil when it's snapped back in, if there is no top wick used, though I don't think that it would usually be a problem.

I've just re-wicked one, and instead of laying a top wick across, I cut a bit off of both ends of the top wick, and put them on either side of the coil, on top of the main wick tails. This leaves most of the coil uncovered, insulates the head cap from the coil, and provides adequate material to keep the side slots from being leaky.

So far, I like this better than a full top wick. Heating response seems quicker, vapor seems a bit better, and flavor is at least as good.

The only possible downside that I can see is the possibility of the chopped top wick shedding some of the fibers due to the middle being chopped out of it, though I have not noticed any such thing. I would not try that with silica for the top wick.
 

itsmedant

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I need to read more thoroughly before replying.

I'd try cotton again, have you tried full cotton main and flavor wicks.

Ive found that you can dial the heads in for basically any juice by learning the appropriate size flavor wicks for different mixes.

This is what I have been doing! Ill start with 2 1mm peices and if that works call it quits, if I get a bit of gurgling ill add another peice.

The thing about the silica wick is you can actually take it apart and use smaller strands, the one in have now is one peice of 2mm wick and maybe 1/3 of another peice of 2mm. I just used my fingernails to pull out a few pieces and it worked perfectly.


Another PT I have that is working fine is just one 2mm wick on it....each juice reacts differently based on how thick it is in my experience

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk HD
 

Coastal Cowboy

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Cotton is King.

Whether for flavor wicks or the coil wick. The trick is that you have to make sure the wick material is fully wetted with liquid, or you'll get a dry burn you won't forget.

The chief difference between cotton (and other natural material wicks) and silica is that the natural stuff will expand as it absorbs liquid. While this property of the material makes it excellent for building wicks, it can also lead to folks building wicks with the stuff like they did with silica, which expands very, very little. A tight wrap with silica is Ok. The same wrap with cotton might yield disappointing results.

I stopped building coils a while ago, but I still use cotton cheesecloth for flavor wicks. The stuff just can't be beat for transporting liquid to the heating element. Nor can it be beat for holding it there until you're ready to vaporize it. It does have a much shorter lifespan than silica, but then again, it's a natural material and it's not engineered for doing this sort of thing.

TL; DNR: Use your stock coils until leaking or burning issues arise. Toss and replace. Or, rebuild with cotton (or silica) and use cotton for your flavor wicking material. My experience: Six of one, a half dozen of the other.
 

itsmedant

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Can't go wrong with an AGA T2 and they're available for around 20 bucks or less.

Thank you so much for the recommendation on the AGA T2, got it on Friday. Took a few tries to figure out the ss mesh and coil but I got it working perfectly.....genesis is the only way to go for me now!!!! This thing is amazing. Flavor is so much more defined paired with awesome vapor production.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk HD
 

jesseseetai

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Now that I've (JUST) started to DIY, I can see making a slightly thinner juice in the interest of wicking.
But up til now, I've found that with a Protank, removing HALF the flavor wicking provides the best of both worlds - I do NOT get ANY leaking or gurgling, and I do get enough juice flow to avoid dry hits.
I run from 1.8 to 2.4 ohm coils, from 7 to 9 watts, with juices anywhere from 30/70 to 70/30...

Oddly, as they're the same danged coils, I have NOT found the need to remove wicking for EVODs or MiniProTanks...weird.

that's pretty odd indeed.... interesting stuff though
 

jcco

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Is it possible to remove the main wick with cotton without destroying the coil? I have so many brand new heads that flooded & I'd like to try cotton. Those wicks flooded instantly so the coil is like brand new. Not even dirty at all.

I tried w/some tweezers & cant get the main wick out. It's like it's stuck or something.

Has anyone tried this?
 

Coastal Cowboy

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Is it possible to remove the main wick with cotton without destroying the coil? I have so many brand new heads that flooded & I'd like to try cotton. Those wicks flooded instantly so the coil is like brand new. Not even dirty at all.

I tried w/some tweezers & cant get the main wick out. It's like it's stuck or something.

Has anyone tried this?

You're not gonna have much luck with that technique and believe me, I tried. Many times.

If you want to replace the coil wick (the one that the coil is wrapped around) with cotton, you'll have to rebuild it.

What you could do is try dry burning the silica coil wick with no flavor wicks on top. Keep pulsing (1-3 seconds, max; 3-5 second rests between pulses) until you don't see any more smoke, can't smell anything burning and the coil glows orange. Wash the coil again and top it with about 1-2mm of cotton rolled from a Q-top, sterile cotton ball or cheesecloth. Fill it, let the wicks prime and you're good to go (he says, fingers crossed).
 

supermarket

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I'm still fairly new to vaping.

I'm lucky in that I'm quite satisfied with the first mod and toppers I bought, (Tesla, Evod, Protank II), and use em all daily, so I don't feel like I've wasted any money on something that ended up in the drawer, unused.

Anyway, I've always felt like the Evod and Protank II worked well enough, but the flavors seemed a bit muted and if I turned up the wattage over 10 on a ~2.8 ohm head, I'd get the ol "burny taste", despite what I'd read about how variable wattage was supposed to work. I'd also have to wait a few sec between hits, even on lower wattage, to avoid that.

So, I finally decided to take an Evod head apart and take off the "extra" wicks that Kanger stacks on top of the wick that actually has the coil wrapped around it.

I put it back together, filled it up with some Nicoticket, (my favorite brand), juice, (Or3o, to start with), and took a vape. Man, what a difference! The flavor's better, I can dial the wattage up as much as I want, and chain vape away, with no "cool down", without it tasting burnt. I've got the Tesla set on 13 W right now, and am getting the best vaping experience I've had since I started. :vapor:

So.. what the hell is the point of Kanger's "flavor wicks"? They seem to degrade performance in every way. Just a design flaw.. or perhaps a misunderstanding as to how we {MODERATED} vape?

What do y'all think?




What do you mean you turned the wattage up to 10, on a 2.8ohm coil?

The ohms don't matter when you are using wattage.....because if you set the wattage to 10, the wattage is 10. It doesn't matter if you are using a 1.5ohm coil, or a 3ohm coil.....the wattage is still 10.
 

supermarket

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You're not gonna have much luck with that technique and believe me, I tried. Many times.

If you want to replace the coil wick (the one that the coil is wrapped around) with cotton, you'll have to rebuild it.

What you could do is try dry burning the silica coil wick with no flavor wicks on top. Keep pulsing (1-3 seconds, max; 3-5 second rests between pulses) until you don't see any more smoke, can't smell anything burning and the coil glows orange. Wash the coil again and top it with about 1-2mm of cotton rolled from a Q-top, sterile cotton ball or cheesecloth. Fill it, let the wicks prime and you're good to go (he says, fingers crossed).




Are you sure? There are at least a few people on here who specifically use THAT method....where they leave the kanthal wire coil in place, but just replace the cotton. I've seen at least 2 teqs on here that explain how to do it.

I imagine that it would be difficult, as you mentioned....but I think its definitely do-able, since several people on here do just that.

What do I know though, I use silica wick.
 

jcco

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Are you sure? There are at least a few people on here who specifically use THAT method....where they leave the kanthal wire coil in place, but just replace the cotton. I've seen at least 2 teqs on here that explain how to do it.

I imagine that it would be difficult, as you mentioned....but I think its definitely do-able, since several people on here do just that.

What do I know though, I use silica wick.

I too [so far] prefer silica. You get to dryburn with it. The last time I replaced the silica flavor wicks with cotton, it only flooded worse so I gave up for the moment.
When flavor, vapor production & throat hit takes a backseat to just finding something that will work. You know you've got some serious wicking issues.
 

Coastal Cowboy

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Are you sure? There are at least a few people on here who specifically use THAT method....where they leave the kanthal wire coil in place, but just replace the cotton. I've seen at least 2 teqs on here that explain how to do it.

I imagine that it would be difficult, as you mentioned....but I think its definitely do-able, since several people on here do just that.

What do I know though, I use silica wick.

I can only relate my experience when trying to rewick a Protank/Evod coil. For RBA's, there's probably more room to work with.

OP, if you're still getting flooding after supplementing the wicking material, keep on supplementing until it stops or the draw is too tight. If 1mm didn't work, try 1.5. If that doesn't work, try 2.0.
 

jcco

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:pop: man, this is one interesting thread...

It looks like I sorta hijacked this thread. There's another one called adding flavor wicks to stop flooding, or something like that.
Then this thread popped back up out of nowhere & I got the 2 confused. So now I'm posting to both.
Sorry about that.
Now that I've realized what I did, I'll go back to the thread I started with. Duh.

At least that's what I think is going on. Ha.
 

pufZeppelin

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It looks like I sorta hijacked this thread. There's another one called adding flavor wicks to stop flooding, or something like that.
Then this thread popped back up out of nowhere & I got the 2 confused. So now I'm posting to both.
Sorry about that.
Now that I've realized what I did, I'll go back to the thread I started with. Duh.

At least that's what I think is going on. Ha.

NO, I REALLY meant -- THIS IS ONE INTERSTING THREAD
all kinds of thoughts and ideas... :blink: - :ohmy:

you just keep right on posting ;)
 
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