Wicking frustration. Help me not hate cotton, please.

[kickflipsnnollies]

Apparently I really, really suck at wicking with organic cotton or something. I've been trying everything from almost falling out of my coil to so tight I have to cut and twist it to get it out of the coil. Still can't get it right.

Basically my problem is with taking longer than a 1-2 second hit. It just goes completely flavorless and harsh once it fully heats up. I think it's something to do with me rolling/shaping the wick. Pics for reference:

 

[kickflipsnnollies]

My juice is 90% VG, which is all I have, and I'm using my Magma (if you couldn't tell). Forgot to mention that.

 

[MrPlink]

Get your coil closer to the air hole (and thus closer to your juice)

Like most things, wicking is a balancing act between too much and too little.

If you want to err on the side of caution then it is probably better to use less than more.

You want to avoid anything that will result in twisting or heavy compression of your wicking material, especially if you are using high VG liquid.

Also, what is the resistance of your coil?
The magma tends to be a lot more sensitive to low resistance builds compared to other modern drippers because of how it wicks and it's relatively restricted airflow.

 

[kickflipsnnollies]

That one was right around 1.1 ohm, but I just threw a parallel on it at around 0.6 ohm. The parallel seems to do much better. I'm not a cloud chaser but I like tobacco flavors and it takes heat to make them taste right. I'm also not a fan of big, long draws. I try to keep it to 1-2 second draws, but I always do a couple long ones to test my wick and make sure it's right.

As for getting it closer, I use my 1.4 mm screwdriver as a feeler gauge to check distance. Is that not close enough? It seems that if I go much closer, the air won't have time to spread out to reach the entire coil, it'll just concentrate on the middle. That'd be bad, right?

When I put my wick in, I usually tear off about 1/3 of the width of a ball and start from there. I gently roll it just enough to get it round, compressing it the minimal amount that I can to get it to stay and twisting up about 1/4 to 1/2" at the end to pull through. I'm an expert at rolling things we can't talk about here, so I think I should be able to adjust that pretty precisely by feel if needed.

I then start to pull it through my coil. If I get any bunching, I back it out and pull a tiny bit off. I basically keep doing this until it just goes through with some resistance. It won't distort the coil but if I used a tiny bit more it would.

Is it possible to look at pics and judge by how much is coming out of the ends of the coil? I've been trying to take note of just how even the wick is at the end of the coil. Kinda hard to describe, but it's kind of like a bowtie effect. I shoot for having almost no bowtie effect once I'm juiced down and take a couple hits. It can be hard to see this in pics though, because different angles and lenses will distort it.

I wish I had a video camera. That seems like it would make things easier. Describing this is a bit hard.

 

[JD1]

Get your coil closer to the air hole (and thus closer to your juice)....................

I'm guessing that MrPlink nailed it here. Try about 1.5 to 2mm from the air hole, making sure you coil is fairly well centered over the top. For single coil builds, make sure the unused hole isn't leaking any air. If the sleeve doesn't completely close it off, plug it with a toothpick or something.

1.1 ohms on a mech would be right down my alley but with 3 second draws. If you like shorter, I'd say go lower as you noted on your duel build.

Your wick looks ok in the pictures. It should slide in with some light resistance. Cotton swells so if there is enough for light resistance then it should make good contact. Your wick should have shoulders but small ones. Feminine shoulders not he-man shoulders, ok? .

Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[kickflipsnnollies]

I've been using it with both sides open on the medium holes. I think they're about 2mm? The single hole mode is just way too tight for what I like. Feels like I'm sucking through a coffee stirrer.

As soon as I can get to a drill press I can use, I plan on drilling out one of the tiny holes on the dual coil setup to max. This way I can have the 2.5 mm (they're not 3mm like advertised) hole open in front of my coil and a tiny one open on the other side to allow just a bit more air in. I plan on doing a couple other things to it as well (opening the big holes to actually match the holes on the deck and filing the AFC ring flush), but I figure that'll be the modification that'll make the most difference.

My coil is almost exactly 1.4 mm off the deck. Like I said, I use a screwdriver as a feeler gauge so it's consistent every time. Should work, right?

 

[kickflipsnnollies]

Another thought - is there some kind of equation I could plug in to figure out the theoretical perfect balance of airflow, juice viscosity and heat? Or are we working on some published principle named after someone that I could look up? I haven't seen anything, but I figure asking can't help. If there are too many variables to plug in and the data just isn't there, I'll keep playing.

 

[iamthevoice]

If your coil is consistently 1.4 mm off the deck, maybe you need to play with at variable a little?

 

[kickflipsnnollies]

I have played with it. Right about 1.4mm seems to be best. I did just lower it and used my tweezers as a gauge this time. Not both arms of the tweezers as that would be more than 1.4mm, but just one arm worth of clearance. Maybe increased the flavor a tiny bit, but it's pretty tiny. Could be placebo.

Maybe I just don't like cotton? I'm gonna get some Rayon and KGD when I get the chance.

Is it a good or bad sign if vapor is shooting out of my air hole? I've been thinking it's a sign that I've got it lined up correctly but I could be wrong. The parallel I have in right now doesn't shoot vapor through the air hole, just straight up and back into the atty (toward the well) and a tiny bit forward (away from the well) when I test fire it without the cap.

 

[Ryuukon]

The first rule of cotton is "less is more". Ideally you want very little resistance when feeding your wick into your coil. As JD1 said, cotton expands when it's wet, so if your wick is too thick, it'll get even more compressed by the coil and effectively cut off the juice flow to the coil.

And when you're making your wick, don't roll it, don't twist it, just kind of pat it between your fingertips to get it into shape, but keep the cotton fibers going lengthwise through the wick. You want the fibers to be straight through the wick, parallel to the rest of the fibers. That's what makes it wick. If you look at it and the strands are twisted, then it's not going to wick very well.

To put it more simply in regards to "rolling things we can't talk about here" ( ), go through the motions of shaping your wick like "the other thing", but skipping the rolling at the end. Leaving it fluffy will help with wicking too since it leaves more space between the fibers for the juice to move.

 

[MattyTny]

And when you're making your wick, don't roll it, don't twist it, just kind of pat it between your fingertips to get it into shape, but keep the cotton fibers going lengthwise through the wick. You want the fibers to be straight through the wick, parallel to the rest of the fibers. That's what makes it wick. If you look at it and the strands are twisted, then it's not going to wick very well.

I agree with this. You don't want to mess with the long fibers or the juice won't flow through the wick. The shaping is more of a molding than a rolling or twisting. Peel away stray fibers and inspect it to make sure it's all going in on direction.

You mentioned trying KGD or Rayon. KDG is great because the precut pad has all the fibers lining up from the start, all you have to do is cut to length and lightly mold. Rayon is similar in that all the fibers are in line from the get go.

If you're still getting harsh hits pull out your wick and wash it off and if it is still white than it's an issue with the air not hitting the coil efficiently. It also may be the liquid you're using. I had some liquids that just gave me a harsh hit no matter what I used it in. A lot of juice flavors are extracted with alcohol, what I had to do was leave the tops off the bottle for a while to let some of the alcohol evaporate and the harsh hit was gone.

Going to try ramie. This stuff feels like silk and the long fibers look like they will wick awesome. I bought a bag online that will last me a lifetimex2.

 

[readeuler]

I almost lowered my nic level because one day every hit I took was super harsh. Washed my RDA, rebuilt, same problem.

It turned out I had my coil too close to the airhole! In addition, raising my coil so it's mostly higher than the airhole helped keep things cool and smooth.

My point is that coil placement relative to the airhole became a huge issue, when I'd been getting it right before. I would play with that, definitely. Lowering tends to be harsh; the more air that flows towards your coil, the better.

 

[vapdivrr]

I have to disagree with the "less is more" with cotton. now you definitely don't want to jam it so tight that when you rewick, you have to cut it to get it out but to little is not good at higher power. I personally think your cotton amounts could be more. imo as you pull the cotton thru, you do want a fair amount of resistance, but not so much your moving the coils a lot. and if your actually using regular cotton, I have always had better results slightly forming and slightly twisting. its funny how we all have different results with things but at least for me, the less is better thing has never worked.

 

[Ryuukon]

I have to disagree with the "less is more" with cotton. now you definitely don't want to jam it so tight that when you rewick, you have to cut it to get it out but to little is not good at higher power. I personally think your cotton amounts could be more. imo as you pull the cotton thru, you do want a fair amount of resistance, but not so much your moving the coils a lot. and if your actually using regular cotton, I have always had better results slightly forming and slightly twisting. its funny how we all have different results with things but at least for me, the less is better thing has never worked.

Well the device you're using can also be a factor.

In my kayfuns I use a slightly thicker wick, but it's a different story in the Squape or Expromizer. The Squape needs as little cotton as possible to avoid flooding, and the Expromizer needs thin wicks but tons of cotton on the deck to avoid flooding and spitting.

In my Patriot I need thicker wicks, but also use substantially bigger coils compared to say my Helios.

"Less is more" isn't a rule for everything, but when in doubt, it's best to start with less and build up to more.

 

[roxynoodle]

I found that coil close to the airhole increased throat hit, and was definitely harsher. You need to experiment on that.

Definitely close off the unused airhole. Put a wider bore tip on instead.

I'm using rayon and it sucks every bit of liquid out of the wells before I get a dry hit.

 

[iowajosh]

I don't think there is enough cotton there to take a long hit from. I stuff loose cotton down in the well and it works ok. You kinda want to make the liquid move sideways more and not uphill and it will work a little better. If your coil is too hot, it will act the same way. Ok for a second and then heat and flavor change.

 

[Tinker Ray]

how big is your coil? I started using cotton in a small ID coils, and have evolved to bigger coils over time, Things started working right when I got up to 2.4 mm, and I currently build on a 2,8 mm (7/64 in.) form. I don't have problems with dry, burned hits any more. The larger wick holds more juice and so seems less likely to burn during the hit.

 

[elenamylove]

Through Trial and Error I have learned this - Prepare the organic cotton

1. Gently unroll the cotton ball
2. Lay it down and flatten straight (not too rough)
3. Cut the ends to make even - Then cut in 3 usable squares or whatever 3 equal parts would be.
4. Then cut 3 strips out of one of the squares
5. Gently shape and form one of the 3 strips (you can pinch and pull apart one of the strips in half if it looks like too much cotton) - Done

This is what works for me and it works wonderfully. I use to just rip a little off the cotton ball and got terrible results.

Let me know if this helps!

 

[jaxgator]

Wicking frustration. Help me not hate cotton, please.

Ok.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ck-better-flow-flavor-saturation-nic-hit.html

 

[elenamylove]

Ok.

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ck-better-flow-flavor-saturation-nic-hit.html

Soon I will feel the Rayon Nic-Hits!!!