Wick materials. Safe vs dangerous.

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damthisisfun

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Been a while since I posted or tried anything new - was at Hobby Lobby and was getting some para cord - no no - not for wicking - lol - son is into the whole paracord survival bracelet making thing - so anyways happened to come across some 100% hemp - $4.99 for over 300 feet. Bought it (was 50% off - for $2.50). Boiled it - first time - talk about some nasty yellow/brown colored water - drained boiled twice - made me a wick for CE2 (just simple laying it across the coil like I do with cotton) - not bad.
 

JazzyTech

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I've been using # 1/0 cotton braid wick in all my Vivi Novas, Minis, Stardusts, RBAs (all AGAs) and it has performed well. Where it absolutely shocked me is when I put it in my Ody chinese knockoff (Terminator). I can't figure out if it's the build of the unit or the insane abilities of the braid in a ceramic channel, but my provari stops at the 16 second safety shutoff before I get any flavor wane. I can't believe how amazing it wicks in this unit. Most people recommend 2 turns for good vaping. I only need 1/2 to 3/4 of one turn. I've also noticed this Terminator is very good on fluid. I'm consuming half as much fluid as my AGAs with twice the flavor; I have to reduce my nic amounts in my fluid now from all the headaches lol. If a chinese knockoff is this good, how good is the Ody? I seriously want the Ithaka! looks awesome! oops I'm wandering off the thread. Seriously guys, if you have an Ody, try that diameter wick (about 2mm dia.) I'd love to hear your thoughts? Also: I'm not using any NR wire; just 32awg Kanthal A-1 buried under the cotton. I've added a short piece of wick "on top" of the long wick and wrapped both in wire). No hotspots, just a perfect vape.

This is the wick I use:
http://www.amazon.com/Cotton-Square...=8-1&keywords=cotton+square+braid+candle+wick
 
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chet

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Thanks for the info JT. I'm looking forward to try that one.
I've been using cotton wicks on my vivi novas and A7 for few weeks now, and it's been satisfactory although I think it can still be improved. Still exprerimenting with different ways. Having double wicks didn't really help so I'll go back to single wick setup.
Still bit worried though. Is cotton wick really safe?
 

Nadine

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Also: I'm not using any NR wire; just 32awg Kanthal A-1 buried under the cotton. I've added a short piece of wick "on top" of the long wick and wrapped both in wire). No hotspots, just a perfect vape.

Hello JT, I'm having a hard time picturing that set up. You say that the kanthal is buried under the wick but then say that the wicks are wrapped in wire. Do you have a pic of that?

I have a coil that still works but has no wick. It would be great to be able to just lay a wick on top of it since it is too fat to thread back through.
:)
 

Charlie369

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The hemp is boiled and drying right now, can't wait to try this hippy thread out !


I havn't read all of this thread, but I really want to know how you get on with the hemp, looking at hemp twine on ebay and it seems to look quite ropey, like the fibres are big and it wont wick so well so will be nice to hear about it in practise.

I'm using cotton string (boiled in citric acid for 5-10mins) atm (still tastes funky tho, although I might have put too much flavour in this mix of juice) as I have run out of wick and didn't have anything else, then I came across this thread and don't think I will be using glass / Si fibre again, I'd much rather have lungs full of cotton fibers or brick dust / saw dust than Silica.

I think there are a few hidden dangers with vaping, I don't like the idea of using SS or NiCrome wires as heating elements as they all contain nasty heavy metals that I don't want in my lungs in any amounts, I think I will experiment with Silver wire and hemp next pay day, should your hemp test be any good!
 

Cyrus Vap

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OK so ran two threads of the hemp into my standard coil (9ish wraps around a 14 gauge needle, 30 awg kanthal a-1) in my A7. I was worried it was going to be a bit tight and lead to 'hissing' and dry hits as I normally use 4-5 strands of aunt lydia's with this coil, but no issues thus far at all.

Anyway, I squonked it to death and starting vaping it. First handful of hits I was picking up something like cotton yarn or gauze, but not quite. It quickly vanished. All I'm getting now is flavor, and a crap ton of it. If I let the atty get really dry I pick up a touch of something earthy for sure, but its not cotton and its not bamboo, its something of its own. (Perhaps obvious to all but IMO the way to see what your wick 'tastes' like or contributes of its own, just take a few hits right before things are bone dry, here silica, stainless, bamboo, whatever will show its face.)

Anyway this stuff is rocking so far, if it lasts as long as bamboo I will be stocking up on this, as I think the flavor may be a bit more neutral, not sure yet I have to try different juices with it.

Tomorrow I'll throw it in a CE2 to see how it handles 'pure wicking' as opposed to the bathing in wick/juice BF atty scenario.
 

Winemiller1

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Thanks for the info JT. I'm looking forward to try that one.
I've been using cotton wicks on my vivi novas and A7 for few weeks now, and it's been satisfactory although I think it can still be improved. Still exprerimenting with different ways. Having double wicks didn't really help so I'll go back to single wick setup.
Still bit worried though. Is cotton wick really safe?

I'm kind of wondering if cotton is safe also.... ? Any comments on this - It sounds like the normal wicks are unsafe - I'm new to all of this and just bought some Kanger tanks.... based on this threat should I pull out the wicks and put in cotton to save my lungs?
 

Charlie369

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I'm kind of wondering if cotton is safe also.... ? Any comments on this - It sounds like the normal wicks are unsafe - I'm new to all of this and just bought some Kanger tanks.... based on this threat should I pull out the wicks and put in cotton to save my lungs?

If you can get hold of untreated or atleast un-dyed / un-bleached cotton then i'd say its safe, obviously there is a lung condition you can get from inhaling cotton fibres but that what people working in massive factories all day for years get, In my opinion as a wick is wet and the cotton fibres are light and absorbent, you would probably inhale more cotton fibres getting your washing out of the dryer then you would with a whole week of vaping with cotton wicks,

Silica for me is a different story as it is chemically inert and fused sillica glass is used in lab beakers and such because it is inert, also i imagine when your atty cracks and pops it will likely liberate sillica fibres,

As i understand it the sillica strands do not absorb the liquid themselves it is the capillary action of a group of them together so essentially you have lots of strands, but cotton wil absorb the liquid into each individual strand so I would imagine it would be alot harder to get any liberated fibres in your vape. Cotton can burn though I haven't experienced that yet but I'm sure I will, Can't be as bad as inhaling silica strands or burning tobacco leaves and bleached paper though.
 

Heavyrocker

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This thread is not about SS mesh. I don't like it, it has it's own problems, so don't post anything about it, please.

Let's talk about wick materials for attys.

Not long ago I found that silica thread gives a needle-like fragments when vaping. Some people made their own independant studyes and found the same problem. The size of needles vary from rather big to small enough to penetrate lungs alveolus and stay there. Big fragments can make an irritating and injuring effect to throat, adam's apple,
vocal ligaments, stomach when swallowed. Small can stay in lungs forever or for too long time irritating alveolus, even to clogging it up. Simpthoms are scratching or pain at throat and/or adam's apple, regular voice dissapearing at the morning.
Here is some fotos:
new wickView attachment 89082
used wickView attachment 89083
:vapor: vapour condensateView attachment 89081

I found that silica wick may be successfully replaced by a 100% cotton or bamboo yarn. Results are amazing.
Just one thing - you must boil yarn for some time (about 10-30 min) before use to wash away any yarn impregnation.

Yarn wick has a better liquid transfer rate, gives more fine-disperced vapour which transfers more nic to lungs , better taste transfer, less coil clogging.

Yes, if you dried out your wick it will burn, so the only thing it to keep it wet enough.

We made a croud test of organical wicks at various types of attys. Lifetime of a cotton wick varies from 2 days to more than 14, depends on use conditions. But in common is not less than silica wick testers reported.

Amazing info,thanx.
 

JazzyTech

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Hello JT, I'm having a hard time picturing that set up. You say that the kanthal is buried under the wick but then say that the wicks are wrapped in wire. Do you have a pic of that?

I have a coil that still works but has no wick. It would be great to be able to just lay a wick on top of it since it is too fat to thread back through.
:)

This thread got busy while I was away :)

@ chet: See Charlie's remark about cotton: #4054. Bottom line: Most think it's safe, but we won't really know until more research is done. The odds are in our favor though :)

@ Nadine: Here you can see the coil wire inside the ceramic channel with the wick raised up to take the picture:

IMG_5876sml.jpg


@ CirusVap: My hemp twine got here yesterday. I'll boil and give it a spin today :)
 
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