wicking materials for vivi nova

[donnah]

I admit it.. I like using the silica. But with all the "silica shards" warnings, I've steered away from it. I bought some cotton (candle wick) and it's alright. It's very easy to burn though, even at low voltages. After a couple days, I start getting a burnt taste and I take it apart and sure enough, the wick and coil is black. The kind I'm using is the square braided cotton #1/0 and it seems to be a bit thick and dense. So, I started looking around my house. What does most every home have in it's medicine cabinet? Cotton balls! So I took a cotton ball, tore a piece off of it and rolled it around to make a kind of a thin rope (like you would roll play dough). I coiled my wire around it and here it is.

Not a good picture (can't seem to get my camera to focus up close) It looks kinda funny and I figured it wouldn't work. I put some juice on it and checked the ohms.. it read 2.5 (which is good because that means it not only works, but it's not a low resistance and will eat up batt life)

I filled the tank with juice and started off low. It's works really well! The cotton "ball" seems to wick the juice much better than the braided cotton rope..which was what I was after to begin with. How long it will last I don't know. Here's a picture of it with juice in the tank..


The cotton poofs all up inside the tank and it looks as funny inside the tank as it did outside. I'm going to use this awhile and see how it works. with it metering at 2.5.. I'm vaping at 4.2. It's giving big clouds of vapor (70%PG 30%VG mix) and good throat hit and tastes nice and clean. I'm thrilled to find something that works (so far) that can be bought practically anywhere without having to order it from the internet and wait for it!

 

[donnah]

Just an update. After a few hours of non stop vaping.. this cotton ball wick has FAR exceeded my hopes and expectations! (which were low to begin with since I doubted it would even work) I'm amazed at how it's wicking! It seems to have a fuller, denser (as opposed to airy) draw that I really love. Not one dry hit or even a hint of a burnt taste. And as the juice level goes down, I'm not feeling the need to flip and spin it to keep it wicking. And even though it's wicking so well, there is no flooding either. So far it's been.. well, perfect.

 

[BJ43]

Been using cotton ball wicks for a long time.
Good link for many cotton wicks.
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/modding-forum/284030-wick-materials-safe-vs-dangerous.html

 

[Ignorant]

i don´t have cotton balls at home, but i have gauze pads in first aid kit

Here´s some posts about my experiences with it.
http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...ivi-nova-rebuild-tutorial-35.html#post7326117

 

[donnah]

I thought about gauze, but I work at a hospital and I saw that the sterile gauze has stuff added to it. At least the stuff that we use as a dressing for wounds does.

 

[BJ43]

I thought about gauze, but I work at a hospital and I saw that the sterile gauze has stuff added to it. At least the stuff that we use as a dressing for wounds does.

Cheesecloth works great. That is what is on my pic with a cotton ball mini over wick.

 

[bsidb]

Ive tried everything mentioned above and every time i taste the cotton, tight coil, loose coil, pre wound on nail coil, not that its burnt but nasty taste, is there a period of nastyness im not getting through till it works? could it be my wire? nichrome 60 , 34 gage. i got 1 out of about 30 to work ok,cotton rolled, one ss to work 80% tasteless, iv ordered nichrome 30 just to see if its the wire , nothing consistant, fine for a few, set it down and its like a differnt unit when i try it again, vivi nova

 

[donnah]

Cheesecloth works great. That is what is on my pic with a cotton ball mini over wick.

Did your cheesecloth come from walmart? Is it a tight weave? I know that cheesecloth comes in different weaves. I'll get some next time I go. I love these cotton ball wicks! No more tipping and swirling!

 

[Butters78]

I still haven't gotten away from the silica Donna lol.. Still scared.

I have to try this

 

[Butters78]

Oh I was gonna say too Donna, check out the dud thread.. Not bad to try a genisis style for 25 bucks!

 

[Endor]

Ive tried everything mentioned above and every time i taste the cotton, tight coil, loose coil, pre wound on nail coil, not that its burnt but nasty taste, is there a period of nastyness im not getting through till it works? could it be my wire? nichrome 60 , 34 gage. i got 1 out of about 30 to work ok,cotton rolled, one ss to work 80% tasteless, iv ordered nichrome 30 just to see if its the wire , nothing consistant, fine for a few, set it down and its like a differnt unit when i try it again, vivi nova

I'm in the same situation with my Vivi Nova. With cheesecloth, I can taste the cotton big time, and the hits are very "dry" (not dry as in 'dry hit', but just tastes very dry). I'm using just normal cheesecloth, with a pretty loose weave.

I don't think it's your wire, as I'm using Kanthal (I have both 32 and 33 awg Kathnal A-1). A tight coil, which was wrapped using the "needle next to the wick, wrap, and remove neelde" method seemed to work better than a much looser coil wrapped on a screw (which had a much stronger cotton taste and ended up dry-hitting). I vaped an entire tank of the tight-coil cheesecloth setup, and it didn't seem to really get any better.

I think I'll give the stretched cotton ball a try.... I finally caved in and went back to silica just to get a decent vape.

 

[Startle]

Thanks for the great pics Donnah!

I use strands of 100% cotton yarn and also bamboo thread.

The cotton is clean and tasteless and the bamboo has a slight woody taste and gives a bit of TH which is a nice switcher upper.

I've tried just about everything - cotton balls, gauze (100% cotton kind), cheesecloth, ect and my overall favorite has been the cotton yarn.

I've had the best success with Lily brand Sugar n Cream - 2 bucks for a near lifetime supply at Michaels.

I also boil anything I'm using for a wick for 20 minutes in distilled water before using.

Also I'll mention that my preference is to screw wrap the coil then needle the thread through it a strand or 2 at a time. This keeps it from being too tight and burning when chain vaping - comes out just right every time.

Vape On!

 

[Nurzrachit]

Never again on the silica, cotton cheesecloth from walmart sewing dept. Lifetime supply for 3.99$. Beats the living shiznit out of silica in taste and performance. Just my 2 cents.

 

[spraintz]

HAHA, cotton ball wick!!!! that's hilarious.


Since going to SS mesh and genesis I haven't really bothered with a cotton wick. I came across this thread and figured why not give it a shot. Just rolled a quick cotton ball wick for my Phoenix. DAMN!!, that thing wicks like mad and tastes awesome!! and actually far easier to work with than that damn silica.

Sorry, I'm still laughing...

 

[Startle]

HAHA, cotton ball wick!!!! that's hilarious.


Since going to SS mesh and genesis I haven't really bothered with a cotton wick. I came across this thread and figured why not give it a shot. Just rolled a quick cotton ball wick for my Phoenix. DAMN!!, that thing wicks like mad and tastes awesome!! and actually far easier to work with than that damn silica.

Sorry, I'm still laughing...

LOL - yep that cotton sure is Wick-ed!

Your post gave me a great laugh as I envisioned you looking at the new assembly while exhaling and saying DAMN!!!

Vape On!

 

[spraintz]

Haha, you would be right. I was like...Ma Effer....look at that!!......vape.....

 

[GiMp LEg DoNKey]

Ive tried everything mentioned above and every time i taste the cotton, tight coil, loose coil, pre wound on nail coil, not that its burnt but nasty taste, is there a period of nastyness im not getting through till it works? could it be my wire? nichrome 60 , 34 gage. i got 1 out of about 30 to work ok,cotton rolled, one ss to work 80% tasteless, iv ordered nichrome 30 just to see if its the wire , nothing consistant, fine for a few, set it down and its like a differnt unit when i try it again, vivi nova

Cotton does seem to take about a day or so to really shine. Usually I build a new wick and coil and just deal with it for the rest of the day and when I wake up the next morn....it tastes great. I use cotton yarn btw. This is the latest one I did and works great.

 

[Endor]

Ok Gimp, you inspired me to break out my pre-boiled Peaches and Cream #4 yarn. I had made a pretty darn good 2.4ohm coil from 32g Kanthal made on a 2mm screw for a SS/cotton hybrid wick as discussed over in the Vivi Rebuild Tutorial thread, but had too many fits getting the tiny SS wick through it so decided to repurpose it.

Used a homemade needle threader (a spare piece of Kanthal twisted into a loop) to pull a long piece of the yarn through the coil (doubled up), then cut the loop to get 2 full yarn wicks.

Hopefully it's not too much yarn.... and hope it's not all cottony-tasting!

 

[GiMp LEg DoNKey]

Lol...I use the same yarn. Mine is two strands as well and 3 days in, it's good to go

 

[scalewiz]

I too use startle's method. 4 ply white cotton yarn. Wind 32 ga kanthal coil around a 3mm screw. Double the yarn, which gives me 8 strands of cotton. Wet the end and roll it a little, then thread it through the coil. I rebuild my Kanger T2s using this technique. Right now I am vaping a 3.1 ohm coil on cotton yard, at 6.1 volts! That gives me 12 watts! I've got at least 10 ml of juice through this coil, and it is still white. Wicks so well, that I would probably have to TRY to burn it up. And with that much power, I can only describe the hit as "it'll take your breath away".