Why is silica even used?

[edyle]

So as we know silica wick is used for all standard coil heads/tanks that are on the market (Except some newer OCC coils that are being released) but this raised a question for me, why did we even used silica in the first place? As we all know silica is quite dangerous and I'm not 100% sure myself if it's even safe to vape, there's a lot of discussion regarding the safety of it. Why was it used in the first place and not just cotton?

EDIT: Seems this turned a little way unexpected. I am a little bit uneducated on silica but I'm simply aware that crystalline silica is known to be dangerous, I was unsure if the silica wick we use is amorphous or crystalline. While I agree there are pros and cons to silica but many people pointed out that silicosis takes years and years to develop, but regardless there is still a threat, now I'm not saying that it's harmless or harmful, but it's too early to tell currently.

1:

Why is silica even used?

Because it doesn't burn

2:

silica is quite dangerous

No; silica is not dangerous.
A lot of ordinary stone and sand is basically silica. Nothing particularly 'dangerous' about it.

3:

I'm simply aware that crystalline silica is known to be dangerous

That's not so much an issue of the wick material being made from silica; that's more about the wick material remaining intact, and not ending up in your vape to a significant extent.
That's is why there is interest in the ceramic wicks; a more solid wick; basically you want something that has the wicking ability of a sponge material, but the solidity of stone (and temperature resistance of stone); like some corals for example;

manufacturers producing so-called "OCC" coils doesn't do us any good; we are better off if they ship their products with silica wick- in fact the improvement would be if they used the braided silica instead of the cheap ropetwist version

 

[stevegmu]

I prefer Alpaca fiber for Kayfuns; ReadyxWick is second best...

 

[Ryedan]

Nope... and all these folks saying that cotton tastes like socks, I have no idea what they're talking about.

I don't know what socks taste like, or if people are tasting them when they are clean or have been worn for a few days and I'm not going to lick one to find out . OTOH, juice tastes different with different wick materials and different builds with the same wick material. IMO, SS is really clean (very little change to what I think the juice should taste like), silica mutes flavor, ordinary organic cotton and rayon change the flavor a bit and sometimes have a break-in period during which they impart a flavor that goes away after a while. The KGD I'm mostly using lately is for me the best overall performer because it never needs break-in time, it wicks better than ordinary organic cotton and I like the flavor of my juices from it.

Well actually I kinda do... when I first started trying cotton, and naturally used too much... it did kinda taste like I set my jeans on fire and then huffed 'em.

There is someone out there, don't remember his name now, who tried wetting cotton with a bit of juice and compressing it a bit before installing into the coil so he could get more of it in there. Got rave reviews from some people so I thought I would try it and see for myself. It works well for me using KGD. I now use more KGD in my coils than I ever did with other cotton, sometimes I stuff it in as tight as I do with rayon. I suspect this would not work well with regular organic cotton, but I haven't tried it.

Details, it's all about the details

 

[Visus]

Woot so we all like our wicks and thats that.

But ya if you haven't tried the right silica yep its bad.. took me almost three years to find the right silica and so happy when I did..

 

[AndriaD]

I don't know what socks taste like, or if people are tasting them when they are clean or have been worn for a few days and I'm not going to lick one to find out . OTOH, juice tastes different with different wick materials and different builds with the same wick material. IMO, SS is really clean (very little change to what I think the juice should taste like), silica mutes flavor, ordinary organic cotton and rayon change the flavor a bit and sometimes have a break-in period during which they impart a flavor that goes away after a while. The KGD I'm mostly using lately is for me the best overall performer because it never needs break-in time, it wicks better than ordinary organic cotton and I like the flavor of my juices from it.



There is someone out there, don't remember his name now, who tried wetting cotton with a bit of juice and compressing it a bit before installing into the coil so he could get more of it in there. Got rave reviews from some people so I thought I would try it and see for myself. It works well for me using KGD. I now use more KGD in my coils than I ever did with other cotton, sometimes I stuff it in as tight as I do with rayon. I suspect this would not work well with regular organic cotton, but I haven't tried it.

Details, it's all about the details

I agree, the KGD's is a very short break-in, compared to the wicks from organic cotton balls -- I actually prefer those for longevity of use, but they have that tedious spluttering phase to get thru, which to me is just kinda tasteless, not much flavor of the juice getting thru, when it's doing that awful spluttering. I actually find that Shiseido's break-in time may even be just a bit less than KGD's -- it seems to work better for me, in that regard, but also seems to "wear out" faster, can't ever get more than a single tank on a shiseido before I get that icky hot-metal taste.

For my RDAs, I've started using *only* the JOC, of whichever variety; since the RDAs I like all have deep wells, there needs to be good upward-vertical wicking ability, and the JOC has that in spades. Still sometimes twist up a wick from organic cotton balls, though, for my kayfuns, mainly because they're such a pain to drain just to get to the coil, so I like for the wick to last a bit longer -- 2 tanks' full at least.

Andria

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

But-but, AndriaD doesn't like the taste of rayon. [emoji38]

I'm still learning the ropes with rayon. It's much different than cotton. Been working well in my tc builds. Still prefer cotton bacon for certain things though.

 

[snork]

Woot so we all like our wicks and thats that.

But ya if you haven't tried the right silica yep its bad.. took me almost three years to find the right silica and so happy when I did..

What's your favorite silica?

 

[Visus]

What's your favorite silica?

1mm silica from Lightningvapes you can find excellent deals on ebay that come with kanthal as a bonus.
dbl or triple it up for bigger diameter coils.. I guarantee its the best gotdang silica on the planet.
But get any other sized silica from them and that guarantee fails the 1.5-3mm mutes flavor a lot.

I bought a cigar disposable the flavor was off the charts I tore it apart and found the wick was 1mm doubled and it was very well roped no splintering or particulate, it was supreme; I bought silica everywhere until i found that same silica at LV..

I get at least three months or longer if i want out of a build. I usually don't because love to wrap lol..

You can use dental floss or 34ga kanthal to dbl or triple etc. the 1mm silica wicking as a pull thru coil device works awesomely

Here's some pictures of how cool it is..

1mm LV and 2mm FT look at how well roped the 1mm is

Dirty wick

Dry Burn

Clean wick after dry burn

 

[Bunnykiller]

I use silica but its protected with a layer of Rayon

 

[snork]

1mm silica from Lightningvapes you can find excellent deals on ebay that come with kanthal as a bonus.
dbl or triple it up for bigger diameter coils.. I guarantee its the best gotdang silica on the planet.
But get any other sized silica from them and that guarantee fails the 1.5-3mm mutes flavor a lot.

Thanks. I have some various sizes from Lightning Vapes. Just had to make sure you might have the skinny on something I didn't know about.

 

[beckdg]

What the heck is an "unknown danger" anyway?

A solid foundation for political persuasion?

It's all I got.

Tapatyped

 

[skoony]

with two years of vaping behind me and, after long,thoughtful
and, careful consideration contemplating the type of wicking
material that is in my iclear16's i have come up with two questions.
1. do i know what material it is?
2. do i care?
the answer would be nope and a even bigger nope.

mike

 

[Alien Traveler]

1:

No; silica is not dangerous.
A lot of ordinary stone and sand is basically silica. Nothing particularly 'dangerous' about it.

O, please...
While you can eat sand, working with sandblasting equipment can lead to silicosis and cancer (just a reminder that lungs and stomach are different animals).

 

[tj99959]

Bottom line:
Vaping is not risk free, and never will be. It just has less risk than smoking.

50 years from now, we will know that some have died from long term vaping, it will just be less than what currently die from smoking.

 

[Robino1]

Bottom line:
Vaping is not risk free, and never will be. It just has less risk than smoking.

50 years from now, we will know that some have died from long term vaping, it will just be less than what currently die from smoking.

I think we are doing a fine job of lessening those risks...all without the help of the government.

As far as the 50 years from now. Not really. Unless never smokers get studied, we won't know for 100% certainty that any issues did not result from previous smoking or not.

Let's face it, life is a crap shoot. We are all going to die at some point. Yes we are trying to minimize the damage that we inflict on ourselves. But the bottom line still remains the same....We Will Eventually All Come To That Point.

 

[AndriaD]

I think we are doing a fine job of lessening those risks...all without the help of the government.

As far as the 50 years from now. Not really. Unless never smokers get studied, we won't know for 100% certainty that any issues did not result from previous smoking or not.

Let's face it, life is a crap shoot. We are all going to die at some point. Yes we are trying to minimize the damage that we inflict on ourselves. But the bottom line still remains the same....We Will Eventually All Come To That Point.

I think this is a very important point... although with vaping, we all *feel* a lot healthier... the cumulative damage from years, decades, of smoking, may not make itself known for many years -- so some ANTZ somewhere will surely holler "see?!? we told you vaping was dangerous!", it's still probably a case of the damage from smoking. Though hopefully since we've stopped inflicting that damage, it might take a great deal longer to show itself -- maybe even allowing us a natural lifespan, or at least much more of a lifespan than if we'd continued smoking.

Andria

 

[motordude]

I think the last 3 posts summed it ALL up.
Nuff said

 

[beckdg]

I think we are doing a fine job of lessening those risks...all without the help of the government.

As far as the 50 years from now. Not really. Unless never smokers get studied, we won't know for 100% certainty that any issues did not result from previous smoking or not.

Let's face it, life is a crap shoot. We are all going to die at some point. Yes we are trying to minimize the damage that we inflict on ourselves. But the bottom line still remains the same....We Will Eventually All Come To That Point.

zoiD...

Put down the keyboard and back out slowly and nobody gets hurt.

We don't want a hostage situation on our hands.

[emoji14]

Tapatyped

 

[Miata GT]

WOW
Been vaping for quite a while, it's nice to know that I'm still a new user.

There is a simple reason why I use silica wicks, they work.

My silica wicks last for months, instead of needing to be replaced every few days.

Well I didn't say ONLY now. I said better for...IMO.