Why is my cotton turning black/ brown?

[Remington Russell]

Hi ECF! I've had my valkyrie hybrid for a couple of months now and it works great but after my last two builds my cotton quickly turns from white to blackish brown. The flavor of the juice doesn't change but it just looks horrible. I'm running 28 gauage dual coil at .7 ohms with a max vg juice at .3 nic and 100 pure organic cotton. I've also tried a pg/vg blend juice and same effect any input would be great! Thanks.

 

[Vaslovik]

Ummmm, maybe cuz it's got burnt juice in it? Just guessing.

 

[cthulhufan]

That's interesting. Usually, for me, the higher VG content stuff will gunk my wick an coil faster.

Have you experimented with various Ohm loads? I'd be curious to see if you see the same behaviour with, say, a 1.2 Ohm coil.

I guess the question is what has changed in your last two builds? I don't really sub Ohm since my coils are usually 0.8 to 1.0 but I *can* tell a difference in high VG juice and wick life vs higher PG juice when going down that low.

 

[SaintDynamicz]

Whenever my cotton turns black and brown, it's typically because my wicks get dry and burn...

 

[AlwaysNaHaze]

usualy the sweeter the juice , fruit or custard it will turn faster.

 

[eyerhere]

Burnt juice and residue build up over time. Also if you have ever gotten a dry hit that is burning or scorching cotton. Not a big deal just change your cotton.

 

[David1975]

After you heat the coil, cotton and juice a few times you've probably noticed the coil gets gunked up.... turns brownish-black. What your seeing here is that color bleed throughout the cotton. The only time you have to worry is if the flavor changed because of it. One thing I've notice on my builds that speeds this up, if I don't have the cotton wet enough, it burns a bit, not enough to give a dry hit, but accelerates this bleeding and shortens the life of the cotton.

 

[Remington Russell]

Just changed my cotton maybe 2 hours ago. There is no burnt taste so I'm not burning the cotton. Maybe a different ohm load will help.

 

[Steamix]

Cotton may be good wicking material, but doesn't hold up to heat very well. Not even anywhere near the common silica wick.
Add to to that the unavoidable pyrolisis/caramelisation of the liquid and you will have to rewick a lot more often to maintain the flavour and keep your atty from looking like the septic tank of an ant farm ...