Why does 1 side of my dual coil cotton wick shrivel up and the other side still has juice?

[Phone Guy]

I've been experimenting with drippers (yes cloud chasing). I've got a helios clone and a numbus clone. The helios has 2 drilled holes (big, I dont remember the size), and the nimbus has 4 total 2 on each side, a little smaller but since there is 4 total, has tremendous airflow.

I've been building .3 to .5 ohm (total) dual coils, using 28ga or 26ga wire.... usually 3 to 5 wraps around 2mm bit.... Both coils light evenly, at the same time, they seem to glow properly. (and if it matters to anyone, I'm using a nemesis clone with sony vtc4 batteries)

The cotton on 1 side always seems to dry and shrivel up.... its insane, it looks like dehydrated... but the other side will stay somewhat juicy and fluffy (at lease compared to the previous side)

I'm having to rewick with the organic cotton balls before the battery drains or right as the battery drains because the shriveled up cotton really isnt holding juice anymore.... I've more cotton, less cotton.... getting the same results. Though I'm not sure if its always the same side. When I dry burn the coils, they both light up... so I know both sides are producing vapor....

Is this normal on sub ohm builds??? I'm using the same cotton for wicks in my kayfuns, taifuns, aquas, and never have a problem.

Thanks.

 

[SonHouse]

Nope, not normal on my builds. First thing I always make sure I try to do is leave room under the cotton so that any over drip can spread out and flow from side to side and wet both wicks equally. On a side air hole RDA that usually gets you some more vapor too since it allows air flow under the coil. On some of them, like my brass monkees, leaving space for that juice flow in the center is a challenge because of the center post. Especially on those, I make sure I have good contact on the cotton wicking on both sides so that the juice can flow from one to the other.

 

[State O' Flux]

Why does 1 side of my dual coil cotton wick shrivel up and the other side still has juice?

This is one of those questions where an answer could be found... but the return on investment in curiosity, time and cash to find it is - likely not going to be the elementally satisfying reward typically associated with discovering one of life's great mysteries.

But hey, Phone Guy... for fun, lets throw a bit of it at a wall, and see what sticks.

Coil functionality 'appearance' can be deceiving. You can't see exact temperature, you can't see temperature/time dwell curves. Buy a good quality infrared heat gun - or if you've a bit of spare cash, a thermal imaging system - to improve your, currently vague, view. The Fluke VT02 or 04 are relative bargains.

If wicking / juice retention capabilities were identical - and good luck with cotton ball, perfect wickage duplication there - then one coil has resistance not identical to the other.
If the negative stud 'side' for one coil consistently runs dry sooner than the other... with theoretically identical wick and coil... then the stud itself may have included resistivity.

If I were an odds maker... you might actually have a better chance of having two coils with identical resistance than you do two wicks with identical wicking / juice retention capabilities.
Once you've done your due diligence on the subjects of molecular attraction and sorptivity, and built your thin-layer chromatography lab... you might be able to produce two objectively identical wicks.

In other words - if you don't have the capability (or interest) to actually measure wick function (very highly unlikely) or resistance, accurately to 1/100th ohm (slightly less unlikely) or better, then quit being overly disturbed by those pesky little discrepancies of the vapist's life - and learn to "go with the flow"... at least until good ol' dumb luck steps in and allows both sides of your dripper to sing the same glorious note.

Yes... that was fun.

 

[Rule62]

^^^LOL...Yeah...that. Simply, the resistance on the shriveled up side is slightly lower, or the wicking ability isn't as efficient as the other side.
As grandpa said one day, when he was teaching me to hunt geese. I asked him: "Grandpa...when geese fly in a 'V', why is one side of the V longer than the other?"
Grandpa said: "Because there's more geese on one side."

 

[Phone Guy]

@state: LMAO. Yeah, I would have expected a reply like that from you! Before I reinvent the wheel here, I'll just rewick the f'ing thing every so often..... LOL.

@sonhouse: Thanks for the wicking dips..... I'm not an experienced dripper user like at all.... so I will absolutely try that, I didn't stuff much under the coil if any honestly. I basically just am use a piece thick enough to go thru the coil with a little resistance as I thread it thru, and cut it the width of the dripper..... after the wick is juiced, its a 2-3 hit deal, then rejuice....

 

[State O' Flux]

@state: LMAO. Yeah, I would have expected a reply like that from you!

Gotta' live up to expectations... ya' know. ;-)

 

[State O' Flux]

As grandpa said one day, when he was teaching me to hunt geese. I asked him: "Grandpa...when geese fly in a 'V', why is one side of the V longer than the other?"
Grandpa said: "Because there's more geese on one side."

Me and your gramps... we woulda' had a good time.

 

[SLIPPY_EEL]

Take all the guess work out! try some cotton pads(Koh Gen Do Cotton)... cut a strip from a pad then cut in half and bob's your uncle! two identical wick's.
No need to boil them either & have zero cotton taste, just pure heaven

 

[State O' Flux]

Take all the guess work out! try some cotton pads(Koh Gen Do Cotton)... cut a strip from a pad then cut in half and bob's your uncle! two identical wick's.
No need to boil them either & have zero cotton taste, just pure heaven

The Koh Gen Dos actually work even better when used with 3mm ID coils... where you cut them just wide enough to roll into a tight tube. The capillary action is very good, and the juice retention from the straw-like tube is brilliant.

 

[SLIPPY_EEL]

The Koh Gen Dos actually work even better when used with 3mm ID coils... where you cut them just wide enough to roll into a tight tube. The capillary action is very good, and the juice retention from the straw-like tube is brilliant.

yep!... or peel the pad in half like opening up a sandwich and then cut strip's for 1/16 coil's

 

[crxess]

Guess after that all entailed answer (post 3), a quick canned suggestion would not amount to much -

On a bright note, I loved the full coverage analytical approach.