Wick frustrations

[sbmqcy]

I swear, I'm not a cotton apostate, but I'm curious about other wicking materials. Maybe it's the cotton I'm using (organic balls......<cue Mama for a joke>....from Walgreens beauty aisle), but I've had a really hit or miss experience with cotton wicks. I vape all to vhigh vg juices, and there are times when I'm forced to squonk every vape, and still sometimes burn a wick. Other times, my wick does great all the way through a bottle.

I'm not running very long coils, where I'd think the center might get dried out. I've tried just enough cotton to feel the coil as I pull through, just enough to get some resistance, and having to pull kinda hard to get through. Nothing seems to work consistently.

I've heard of this other cotton, koh gen do, or something like that. Don't know anything about that. What's ecowool like for high vg juices? Maybe I'll go back to trying a ss wick. Anyone have some good alternatives to cotton, or know about koh gen do, or have tips for thicker juices?


Sent from my mobile

 

[JC Okie]

I swear, I'm not a cotton apostate, but I'm curious about other wicking materials. Maybe it's the cotton I'm using (organic balls......<cue Mama for a joke>....from Walgreens beauty aisle), but I've had a really hit or miss experience with cotton wicks. I vape all to vhigh vg juices, and there are times when I'm forced to squonk every vape, and still sometimes burn a wick. Other times, my wick does great all the way through a bottle.

I'm not running very long coils, where I'd think the center might get dried out. I've tried just enough cotton to feel the coil as I pull through, just enough to get some resistance, and having to pull kinda hard to get through. Nothing seems to work consistently.

I've heard of this other cotton, koh gen do, or something like that. Don't know anything about that. What's ecowool like for high vg juices? Maybe I'll go back to trying a ss wick. Anyone have some good alternatives to cotton, or know about koh gen do, or have tips for thicker juices?


Sent from my mobile

I have some of the Koh Gen Do and I like it. I don't know if it will help with your having to squonk too often, but I like it. It comes in little rectangular pads instead of balls, so it's easier to just clip off a strip and roll it up. It makes very uniform wicks. I would be very glad to send you a little to try out if you'd like. I also use 100% cotton thread sometimes....and bamboo thread sometimes. You're welcome to some of that to try, too. Just PM me your address and I'll send you some samples of different wicking materials I have.

The ecowool is very much like silica to me. Some like it, some don't. Maybe someone else will chime in with some knowledge about it. I've used it, but wasn't that impressed. I'm totally a cotton person.

I do have to squonk quite often, I guess, but I don't mind. I sorta have my rhythm and just don't really pay attention at all anymore.

Let me know.

Jan

 

[MamaTried]

i'm in the same boat. trying everything else because i damage the coil half the time i need to re-wick. i just want to be able to dry-burn and that's it. trying xc-132/116 and ekowool, tho the vote aint in yet.

 

[TastyKakes]

Have you tried the peaches & creme cotton yarn? The cotton rolls and balls have better absorption (I believe), but the yarn has the convenience of getting just the right amount every time.
No picking off a little piece, rolling it in your fingers, realizing you have too much, pulling off another little piece, etc and so forth.
The p&c yarn had 4 strands, so it's customizable to an extent. Then once you find out how much is right for you, the results are very easy to duplicate.
Worth a shot, IMO.

 

[pdib]

JUTE.











IT'S TUFF STUFF

 

[pdib]

BAMBOO.











from my yard. . . . .. . no good, burns

 

[pdib]

A SCREW.











might be good for you . . . .

 

[Filthy-Beast]

I'm the opposite I've tried both organic cotton and the koh gen do pads. If your going to use cotton I like the koh gen do much better. But I just don't like cotton as much as I like silica and I prefer ekowool which is really silica woven to ha have a hollow center. ekowool is measure by it's ID not it's OD, so 1mm Ekowool is much thicker than 1mm regular silica. I can wick a 1/16" or .055" ID coil with 1mm Ekowool.

I found that I also would burn the cotton too frequently and it required daily changes. Last week I went 7 days on the same ekowool wick and only changed them because I got the bug to re-coil.

This is the DarkZero jig with the .055" dowel

From the top down:
3mm ekowool
2mm ekowool
1mm ekowool
1mm silica wick

 

[zmauls]

I also vape 100/0 or 90/10 VG/PG, and have had no problems with, you guessed it, and I poop you not, organic cotton from Walgreen's.

I rarely get burnt hits and it wicks superbly. For what it's worth, here's my 2¢, presumably worth 2¢.

Personally, I don't have any tug whatsoever. You know how when you unroll the ball you have about a 3/4" strip? I spread that apart nice and good until it looks webbed. Then I spread it some more. Then some more. The amount of cotton you should be using could be dropped on a newborn baby's open eye without disturbing him.

When it wicks, it will expand and fill the coil.

As far Ekowool, I like the stuff in everything except my RM2, simply because there is so little room to work with. It becomes rather cumbersome and frequently gets caught in the threads when I am screwing on the cap.

Here's my current set-up:

 

[swamijivan]

I'm the opposite I've tried both organic cotton and the koh gen do pads. If your going to use cotton I like the koh gen do much better. But I just don't like cotton as much as I like silica and I prefer ekowool which is really silica woven to ha have a hollow center. ekowool is measure by it's ID not it's OD, so 1mm Ekowool is much thicker than 1mm regular silica. I can wick a 1/16" or .055" ID coil with 1mm Ekowool.

I found that I also would burn the cotton too frequently and it required daily changes. Last week I went 7 days on the same ekowool wick and only changed them because I got the bug to re-coil.

This is the DarkZero jig with the .055" dowel

From the top down:
3mm ekowool
2mm ekowool
1mm ekowool
1mm silica wick

Same experience for me.. I like cotton but changing too often the wick is a pain Actually I find 2 mm ekowool a long lasting wick, until one have to dry burn ( 10 days +/- ) As I wrap the coil directly around the wick, I change the whole thing 2/3 times a month because I can't remove the wick without damaging the coil itself.
8 wraps of 0.30mm Kanthal A1 thight around a 2mm ekowool @1.00 homs

REO mini 2.0/ REO Grand with Chalice II

 

[yaypudding]

your cotton wick should have little to no resistance threading the coil. My cotton wicks when freshly installed and dry are very easy to pull out. I have pulled out wicks when the little frayed hairs at the ends of the wick, catches a rough spot on my finger.

 

[malkuth]

i'm in the same boat. trying everything else because i damage the coil half the time i need to re-wick. i just want to be able to dry-burn and that's it. trying xc-132/116 and ekowool, tho the vote aint in yet.

I too am in the same boat. I have been experimenting with the XC-132/116 for the last couple months, after having been disappointed in cotton. Here are the results of my testing.....

Coil setup - RM2 single stock air hole, 28g Kanthal, approximately 1.4 ohms. (9 wraps over 5/64th mandrell on DZ jig). Reo Grand. Battery swap at ~3.6 volts.

I am using NETs. Notoriously bad on coils/wicks. What I find is that I get about 3 vapes at full flavor. At this point I can squonk and get a couple more vapes at full flavor. However, what I have discovered is that the coil begins to gunk up quickly vaping in this fashion. What I have found that works (for me) is to continue to vape without squonking. I can get about 5 more vapes with ever decreasing vapor production and flavor. I then continue for about 4 more vapes that clean up the coil. Note that these last 4 vapes are not pleasant. They are harsh with burning throat hit. However, they result in the coil being cleaned off, so when I do squonk, I get full flavor again (as in a new wick). Occasionally I will pull the tip off, and observe the coil. I then "dry burn" the coil until I can see all of the coil glowing red. Once I allow the coil to cool and squonk all is good. End result, I get a majority of acceptable vapes. The coil and wick will last me at least a week, and have gone up to almost 2 weeks on a coil/wick combo.

This procedure will NOT work with cotton. At 6-8 of my vapes, the cotton will be hopelessly burnt, and have to be replaced. That means that I have to squonk more often which results in gunking the coil. After a day of this, I have to replace the cotton. The coils are generally gunked up enough that they get destroyed by attempting to remove the cotton. I have not yet successfully removed the wick from the coil using my method, so simply replace both the coil and wick at the same time. The nice thing is that the XC will take a lot more heat on the coil without burning, which means I do not have to replace everything every day.

 

[txgtr]

Most of the time I use 100% VG but instead of threading the cotton wick through the coil, I make a small bed of cotton for the coil to sit in. I much prefer this method as it seems to work better for me and rewicking is a snap.

 

[Big Hitter]

I'm ekowool all the way now days. The stuff is amazing IMHO. Cotton only had one good thing going for it as far as I was concerned and it was not flavor.

 

[rudy4653]

i'm in the same boat. trying everything else because i damage the coil half the time i need to re-wick. i just want to be able to dry-burn and that's it. trying xc-132/116 and ekowool, tho the vote aint in yet.

I have converted as well.
While I loved the cotton - flavor, wicking, etc. it seemed I always had a burnt wick at the wrong time! Had to rewick frequently. Always had to pay attention to squonking frequency, wet wick etc. Changing wicks somertimes a couple of times a day, carrying extra cotton inside my reo just in case.
I am now using xc132. It's been great.I like it better than xc116 as it's nice and thin for microcoils. Excellent wicking and tuff like the REO. I build a coil with the XC and forget it about it! Dry burn at the end of the day and ready to go the next day! Been using the same coil & wick for 3 weeks with no problems. No need to worry about destroying the wick as the XC withstands any amount of heat that the microcoil can generate. When the hits start tasting dry I squonk, mindless!!

 

[pdib]

I liked the xc-132 as well. It was my wick of choice before getting into REO . . .. well, before that and shaving off a few more tenths of an Ohm on my builds. Now I need the cotton, because although the xc wicks very well, the cotton actually holds more juice at the coil. Basically, the xc doesn't sponge up enough juice to last through one good pull at .5Ω and below for me. The cotton does (as well as this hemp I've been trying).

 

[MamaTried]

I too am in the same boat. I have been experimenting with the XC-132/116 for the last couple months, after having been disappointed in cotton. Here are the results of my testing.....

Coil setup - RM2 single stock air hole, 28g Kanthal, approximately 1.4 ohms. (9 wraps over 5/64th mandrell on DZ jig). Reo Grand. Battery swap at ~3.6 volts.

I am using NETs. Notoriously bad on coils/wicks. What I find is that I get about 3 vapes at full flavor. At this point I can squonk and get a couple more vapes at full flavor. However, what I have discovered is that the coil begins to gunk up quickly vaping in this fashion. What I have found that works (for me) is to continue to vape without squonking. I can get about 5 more vapes with ever decreasing vapor production and flavor. I then continue for about 4 more vapes that clean up the coil. Note that these last 4 vapes are not pleasant. They are harsh with burning throat hit. However, they result in the coil being cleaned off, so when I do squonk, I get full flavor again (as in a new wick). Occasionally I will pull the tip off, and observe the coil. I then "dry burn" the coil until I can see all of the coil glowing red. Once I allow the coil to cool and squonk all is good. End result, I get a majority of acceptable vapes. The coil and wick will last me at least a week, and have gone up to almost 2 weeks on a coil/wick combo.

This procedure will NOT work with cotton. At 6-8 of my vapes, the cotton will be hopelessly burnt, and have to be replaced. That means that I have to squonk more often which results in gunking the coil. After a day of this, I have to replace the cotton. The coils are generally gunked up enough that they get destroyed by attempting to remove the cotton. I have not yet successfully removed the wick from the coil using my method, so simply replace both the coil and wick at the same time. The nice thing is that the XC will take a lot more heat on the coil without burning, which means I do not have to replace everything every day.

wow. so, essentially, you dry-burn after 8 hits? what is the deciding factor when you change coil/wick? it no longer cleans up, the coil died, or... ?

 

[malkuth]

wow. so, essentially, you dry-burn after 8 hits? what is the deciding factor when you change coil/wick? it no longer cleans up, the coil died, or... ?

The wick breaks, or at least no longer wicks.

 

[rudy4653]

I liked the xc-132 as well. It was my wick of choice before getting into REO . . .. well, before that and shaving off a few more tenths of an Ohm on my builds. Now I need the cotton, because although the xc wicks very well, the cotton actually holds more juice at the coil. Basically, the xc doesn't sponge up enough juice to last through one good pull at .5Ω and below for me. The cotton does (as well as this hemp I've been trying).

I agree that the cotton soaks up more juice than the xc but I found that the xc sponges up enough using thicker VG content which I am at using a 50/50 pg/vg mix.. When I had high PG it was noticable as the xc did not hold the juice nearly as well as cotton and had to squonk more often. I vape at 1.1 - 1.3 ohms so I don't have the issues that vaping at .5 would have.

 

[Matthee]

The wick breaks, or at least no longer wicks.

The HHV NETs does not give me that problem, but recently got some NETs from another company, which very quickly gunked up my coil - could not even move the silica wick from the micro coil. Wonder if filtering those NETs through cotton will help?