Why does ekowool taste funny?

[Phone Guy]

Never thought it did until I started using cotton yarn...I rebuilt one of my devices tonight and tried some 2mm ekowool, primed, filled and.vaped. instant yucky synthetic taste I can't describe. Gave it a few minutes and a few primer puffs.... vape again and I could still taste it.

Scrapped the juice, took it apart replaced the ekowool with cotton yarn, primed, filled and vaped. Taste great (again).

So am I used to cotton?
Does ekowool taste funny?
Has cotton spoiled me?
Did I build it wrong with the ekowool?
Is there prep to ekowool besides torching it for a minute or so?


Sent using my typewriter

 

[folkphys]

Boiling the ekowool before using it might help. But yes, you are spoiled by the flavor of cotton. Or really the flavorlessness of cotton. After turning to cotton, I now only use ekowool as wick hats on gennies, but I try to keep an open mind....

 

[Thrasher]

I didnt like ekowool, even after torching it it had that dry hit silica taste. took me a few different tries to find tasteless silica as they arent all made the same.

have to remember that many of these products are for industrial uses, and not every vendor will get the purest or cleanest version of something, and in some cases some of it isnt very clean or high quality. I have, in the past gotten cheap silica that can only be describes as cat a** flavor lol

 

[Phone Guy]

I didnt like ekowool, even after torching it it had that dry hit silica taste. took me a few different tries to find tasteless silica as they arent all made the same.

have to remember that many of these products are for industrial uses, and not every vendor will get the purest or cleanest version of something, and in some cases some of it isnt very clean or high quality. I have, in the past gotten cheap silica that can only be describes as cat a** flavor lol

LMAO. Yep, thats probably the best way to describe it.

 

[Phone Guy]

Boiling the ekowool before using it might help. But yes, you are spoiled by the flavor of cotton. Or really the flavorlessness of cotton. After turning to cotton, I now only use ekowool as wick hats on gennies, but I try to keep an open mind....

I'll try boiling or soaking in vodka....

 

[gotch23]

Yeh... Silica has a weird taste if not treated to get rid
of the size/sizing (not sure about the english word, manufacturing residue).

Boiling works... torching as well.

To get rid of any bytaste (for my taste anyway) i have to boil twice in deminarilized water,
followed by a good torching. You really see... and taste the difference.

I mostly use cotton though nowadays in combination with microcoils for easier rewicking.

 

[Endor]

I'm vaping a normal coil over 2mm Ekowool in my Kayfun now. I didn't torch it or anything, just coiled it up. It seems to taste clean to me, no off-taste that I can discern.

When I went to build another coil with the same wick, I decided to torch it first. However, I noticed it got oddly "dusty" after I wrapped the coil. I didn't like that, so ended up tossing it and going with microcoil/cotton, but was curious if anybody else has experienced this after torching Ekowool?

 

[JmanEspresso]

I havent tried Ekowool(frankly I dont have plans too either, but Im open to new things), but I can say that, while I am pretty much a Silica only guy, I have bought silica from a couple places, in varying sizes. ALLL the places I purchased, were well known vape vendors.

Only one has the silica that I will use. No boiling, no torching.. just cut a piece, wrap a coil, dry burn if I remember, soak and vape.

So if you want to like Ekowool, you're interested in what you can do with it, I suggest trying "samples" from a couple different places, as well boiling it/torching it. Find what works for you.

OR, stick with cotton.

 

[Phone Guy]

I always torch it, for cleaning and because after torching it cuts great without fraying.

I've got 1, 2 and 3 mm sizes now, all hollow. All from the same vendor (a vape vendor - lightning vapes). I'm wondering about something on a side note....

What if I threaded some cotton yarn through the ekowool? Would that change anything? Make it hold more juice? Taste better? Anything?

Sent using my typewriter

 

[SleeperAwake]

I have the same question. Has anyone used cotton inside of the ekowool? Or what else normally goes into the ekowool in an rda or rba build?

 

[doots]

good ole cotton is the best imho

 

[WattWick]

Just to clarify. Ekowool is not a product category. It's a brand name. If you want the real deal, buy it straight from Ekowool themselves, or one of their certified distributors.

Have to admit there is a certain flavor for half a tank or so. Maybe I should start boiling it or give it a couple of PG --> water --> PG rinses... I'm more of a mesh kind of guy, tho.

@JmanEspresso: If you read this, I would love to know where you get the "better" silica from. I could use a little re-stock and would like to see if it's better than what I got. Which is just generic silica from cant-remember-where.

 

[Technonut]

I have the same question. Has anyone used cotton inside of the ekowool? Or what else normally goes into the ekowool in an rda or rba build?

I've seen this around, but haven't tried it:


Ekowool 1 5mm Silica Wick with A Cotton Core | eBay

 

[VaPreis]

For me, ekowool imparts a little bit of taste to the vapor initially, but it usually goes away well before I'm through a tank.

I find cotton to be the same, in that it imparts some taste to the vapor, but goes away much more quickly than ekowool.

And no....I don't boil cotton and I never will, so maybe that's the difference.

 

[bender817]

For me, ekowool imparts a little bit of taste to the vapor initially, but it usually goes away well before I'm through a tank.

I find cotton to be the same, in that it imparts some taste to the vapor, but goes away much more quickly than ekowool.

And no....I don't boil cotton and I never will, so maybe that's the difference.

I don't boil cotton if its organic, but I boil cheesecloth that only says 100% cotton on it. I torch silica multiple times and dry fire it several times before I juice it up and vape it. I had a silica sub ohm build not long ago that had no silica taste.


This is right before I took it apart. It was supposed to be like "The Soaker" build by Mike @ vapehappy. I really liked it but I went back to cotton on the next one. I just had an extra foot of silica and I was bored.

 

[JuicerJ]

Yes I have used ekowool with cotton inside and it's pretty nice. It used to be a vendor on eBay that sold it but I think he took a break but it worked great. You can actually do some yourself just takes some patience