Wick materials. Safe vs dangerous.

[MikeE3]

Well I started out trying to do bj's oval coil for the Vivi Nova but I couldn't get the 4 wraps around each leg to work for me. The yarn kept sliding up onto the the end coil wrap and not staying down on the leg. After a few trys - frustation set it, so I tried it on a Chinese knockoff atty.

Wrapped the oval coil around 2 toothpicks. I use 30g Kanthal. A 4/5 wrap yielded a 2Ω coil. No, I didn't wrap it 'in place'. I wrapped it on the toothpicks, took it off, then installed the coil. I just placed the toothpicks into the coil for the picture.

Yikes! You could use this coil as a mini space heater when da cold weather arrives.

It took about 10 strands of my bamboo yarn to fill the coil. I started w/ 8, soaked the wick so it would expand, but it was still too loose, still had too much 'air' space between the coil wraps and the yarn. Added 2 more strands and all the wraps were touching the wick. It's still a loose fit tough, with a few strands hanging down into the catch area at the bottom of the atty. I primed the wick and gave it a test fire. Yeah! It works.

Didn't take long to get a nic buzz. Only vaped it about 10-15 minutes and NLV's Bounty Hunter was already accumulating/carmelizing under the coil.

With the heavy Kanthal wire (I've only used 32 & 34 before this), it takes some power to heat up the coil. I found I had to press the power button, listen for the juice start to crackle then start my inhale. If anything, it really runs warm, so much so after just a few chain vapes the drip tip was getting uncomfortable on my lips. Not a setup for chain vaping. The flavor was really good though, I didn't even have to wait for the coil/wick to break in.

 

[BJ43]

The oval 28g has been working great on the vivi nova and the Lydia's has been on it a week and still wicking good. The draw started getting tight on it and two other vivas, so I drilled the center hole in the coil cap to 1.5mm, in fact I drilled 15 caps to 1.5mm. After reading a lot of threads and everyone talked about drilling the holes in the 510 battery connecter it didn't help. So when I checked a new one and found the center hole on the coil cap was only 1mm, that is the problem. After a few days, juice coagulates in that small hole and the draw gets tight.

 

[bluegrasslover]

Tried the oval a few times and just didn't like it. I get the vape I like with a smaller coil and 4 threads.

I replace the cotton twigtip on my chid with lyndia's today. Holy crap is that thing hitting! I pulled the lyndia's apart into tiny threads then wrapped until I had the mass I wanted. Just tore it up so I can use the twist of the ss and not have to tie it off in any way.

 

[BJ43]

28g 1.8 ohm oval coil on an A7 with 8 threads Lydia's #10. I pushed the threads up into the cap and after screwing the cap on I dripped and pushed the thread down to the bottom as a juice reserve. Great vaper and gives me about 15 min of chain vaping.

 

[roadrash]

2

Ya know BJ,If you drill out that center hole and solder in a CE-2 post and the cup is above the screws. You can get a lot more joose in it and get a easy CE-2 RBA. That is if you are so inclined to.:>)

I would if I could but I don't have one.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

It will be interesting to see where we are with wicks and heating elements a year from now.

 

[timb]

So, is the polyfil used in a lot of cartos safe? That's not silica, is it?

 

[TomCatt]

It will be interesting to see where we are with wicks and heating elements a year from now.

Ceramic Heating Element Heater Science Lab Vapor 200W | eBay ???

 

[TomCatt]

So, is the polyfil used in a lot of cartos safe? That's not silica, is it?

The polyfill in cartos is a plastic, usually polyester. Safe as long as you're not burning and inhaling the 'smoke'.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

Ceramic Heating Element Heater Science Lab Vapor 200W | eBay ???

If I had enough local vaping friends, put that in a Hookah and have a party.

Is 'ceramic' ever directly heated by electricity or indirectly by a heating element or plasma?

 

[BJ43]

So, is the polyfil used in a lot of cartos safe? That's not silica, is it?

Adding to what TomCatt said, here is a DC taken apart after about a week of vaping. The cotton diapers burnt thru and some poly melted, had others that the poly would melt into a hole. Needless to say I quit carts a long time ago.

 

[TomCatt]

If I had enough local vaping friends, put that in a Hookah and have a party.

Is 'ceramic' ever directly heated by electricity or indirectly by a heating element or plasma?

I think it's heated indirectly

 

[TomCatt]

Wikipedia:
"Molybdenum disilicide (MoSi2, molybdenum silicide), an intermetallic compound, a silicide of molybdenum, is a refractory ceramic with primary use in heating elements. It has moderate density, melting point 2030 °C, and is electrically conductive. At high temperatures it forms a passivation layer of silicon dioxide, protecting it from further oxidation. The application area includes glass industry, ceramic sintering, heat treatment furnaces and semiconductor diffusion furnaces."

Another one:
"Etched foil: elements are generally made from the same alloys as Resistance wire elements, but are produced with a subtractive photo-etching process that starts with a continuous sheet of metal foil and ends with a complex resistance pattern. These elements are commonly found in precision heating applications such as medical diagnostics and aerospace."

Sounds interesting but most likely very expensive.



MoSi2 is brittle at temps less than 1000 C

 

[Cool_Breeze]

...a little off topic.

I notice my cotton wicks beging to gunk up and/or burn at the positive end of the coil.

What might low voltage Alternating Current do for wicks and vaping? Is low power AC it even feasible at the scale or typical equipment for vaping?

 

[tmcase]

...a little off topic.

I notice my cotton wicks beging to gunk up and/or burn at the positive end of the coil.

What might low voltage Alternating Current do for wicks and vaping? Is low power AC it even feasible at the scale or typical equipment for vaping?

All I've been able to get out of my coils is low ohms which equates to low voltage, at least for me and my cotton wicks don't last more than a week before they burn it two.

 

[santo19586]

Adding to what TomCatt said, here is a DC taken apart after about a week of vaping. The cotton diapers burnt thru and some poly melted, had others that the poly would melt into a hole. Needless to say I quit carts a long time ago.

as big as this ecig buisness is , the carto makers should atleast find a beter material so this cant happen no matter what.. there is a potential for someone to get seriously sick from these cartos burning like that, and this sorta thing can put a damper on ecigs getting some good reviews from FDA

 

[timb]

Yeah, I saw that last time I pulled one apart. Ugh. I had assumed the poly in polyfill was polyester or something; just wanted to make sure.

Has anyone investigated using a small pump of some sort to drip juice directly onto the atomizer for each hit? I bet you could use a small ceramic bit and wrap the coil around that, then just have the juice to drip as it's heating up.

 

[damthisisfun]

OK - I have read through the entire post - great information. You all have spent a lot of time, energy and money doing all this research. I went ahead and ordered A-1 33 awg resistance heating wire and square braided 100% Cotton wick 1/0 from Ebay. Went to Michael’s and got Aunt Lydia’s 100% Bamboo 10 and DMC Traditions #10 100% cotton yarn. Cheese cloth from local grocery store and Peaches n Cream 100% 4 ply cotton thread. This weekend I am going to try and recoil and rewick my CE5.

I have a question - and I apologize if someone has already asked this and has been answered. I really did go through this entire post. I am not talking about SS as the intent of this post was not to talk about it and I really am not ready to try SS. I have only been vaping for 5 months and am not experienced enough to try that yet - all the oxidation and testing and stuff. My question is this:

The general consensus seems silica wicks may pose a danger due to the minute “needles”. I was wondering if anyone has done any testing on how soon a silica wick would pose this danger. That is - 2 days of use, 10mls, etc etc. I know it is probably dependent on the type of juice, the mod, how much etc. Just wondering cause it seems all the other materials (not SS) seem to need frequent rewicking anyways and cannot be dry burned. So essentially it seems if silica say is safe enough for say 5 days or 10mls or whatever - it would make sense to use it for that long and then rewick with silica again. This way you may get the best of both worlds - good wicking, dry burning etc.

I am looking for advice not trying to stay silica is better. I agree silica could be unsafe.

Has anyone tested to see how long before a silica wick starts to deteriorate. Thanks.

PS - am also posting this on the Wicks Materials summary just in case some of you are not following this post any more.

 

[roadrash]

I can't answer for all of us but I think most of us here use cotton/bamboo type wicks because it wicks and taste much better than silica. The health benefit is just a added bonus.
As far as not being able to dryburn cotton/bamboo it's a small consolation for this game changer.
For me I'm getting longer quality vape times with cotton than I ever did with silica. :>)

 

[damthisisfun]

Thanks Roadrash - I am going to attempt to coil and rewick this weekend - I hope I dont burn the house down - lol