Not familiar with the zippo wicks and don't have one to hand. But this seems to be
a really great tip !
Plus you've done and tested it over some time. Excellent ingenuity. Thanks for sharing
ps: can you see if the material is actually still in the coil? Just a thought - perhaps it's long gone and not really needed after all (?)
Thank you for the compliment! I figured it was safe to throw that out there since I have been using it for a while, and I haven't had any ill effects from it. Hopefully it will help someone out in a jam, especially with these things becoming less and less available. I know these forums helped me out a lot. And I am definately keeping a sharp eye on some of the threads in here for a good bulk wire to use to replace coils, since I'd rather spend 30 bucks on a roll of wire that last a long, long time, than spend 20 or more on a new atomizer every few months.
I've always used zippos when I smoked cigarettes, and have obviously had to replace a few wicks over the years. When the little clump of stuff fell out of the coil, it immediately struck me as being similar to the wick. I honestly don't know what it is, but it kinda made sense to me that it would work. And since it was one of those 30 dollar for two, chinese "Health Cigarette"(The one that comes in the white box with the picture of the ocean), I figured I wouldn't lose any sleep if I messed it up.
I didn't even think about the fact that it might burn away, but I just checked and it is still there. Been there for over a month now, give or take a few days. But it is definately still there, and it doesn't appear to be horribly burnt, as the original material was. So it would seem to be holding up a lot better as well. The cigs were about 3 weeks old when the one atomizer failed(One of the wires leading to the coil was shorting out in the body of the atomizer), and the original wick was literally charred and disintegrating. As soon as I pulled the coil from the pot, it just fell out and broke into a bunch of pieces.
It did seem to make a huge difference in vapor production as well. It made enough of a difference that I pulled the working one apart and did the same thing to it. Granted, these cheap things aren't powerhouses, and I have no illusions that they ever will be. But they are very usable now. Not on the level of my EVO's, but close enough to put them in rotation with my others.
I will say that after replacing the coil wick I modified a few other things in the ecigs. I bored out the vent hole in the battery slightly to allow it to draw better, and chamfered it to reduce the whistling noise it made. I also adjusted the pressure switch, as you really had to suck hard to get the battery to switch on, even before I did anything to the vent hole. But on the whole, these 30 dollars junkers are much, much more usable now. And to be honest, it really wasn't much of a hassle to do. While all of these modifications contributed, I do believe the wick made the largest difference. Just hoping now that the batteries in all their cheap glory actually hold out, lol...