wicking materials for vivi nova

[donnah]

I bought some cheesecloth at walmart tonight. I guess I need to boil it before I use it. The cotton ball wick has been working so well though. I doubled my legs on one of my wicks and it upped my resistance and seems to be working better than the ones that I haven't doubled the legs. I'll try the cheese cloth but I can't imagine that it will surpass the cotton ball. The thing I love most about the cotton ball is that I now no longer have to constantly tip and swirl my device to keep it wet and wicking.

Eric, I thought long and hard about the genesis rebuildable, even so far as to think about trying to get a ZAP. But after watching pbusardo's review.. I think I'll pass. I don't want something that will leak out it's contents if it gets tipped over. That completely leaves out throwing it in my purse. I'm not interested in having something "nice and expensive" just to "have it". I learned that with the VV reo. My stuff has to work and fit my vaping style. I've heard such wonderful reviews on the penelope but I don't know if the penelope can be used with anything other than the silica wick. Has anyone heard of different wicking materials to use on the penelope?

 

[Endor]

Yes Quigsworth1 has a YouTube video on using cheesecloth on a Penelope.

Link here: GG Penelope with a Cheese Cloth Wick - YouTube

 

[Endor]

An update on my previous post... the 8-strand wick (two pieces of 4-strand cotton yarn) is working quite well. I'm running it in a Vivi Nova Mini tank, which means that the wicks take up practically the entire tank, but hey... so far I'm through about 3ml on it and it's going strong. I'm glad that it doesn't have a strong cotton flavor like my previous attempts; if I draw to hard, I do get a touch of the cotton flavor (but on silica, the taste was muted when doing this anyway), but with a very light/easy draw, the flavor is very rich.

 

[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

I boiled the thin cotton rope i wanted to use and the nasty flavour is gone and it is vaping like it should (problem fixxed

 

[scalewiz]

That's an important tip. ALWAYS boil-clean your natural fiber wick material. Most fabrics are treated in some way during their manufacture to give them color, bleach to remove color, fabric softeners, spot resistance, etc. What I do is take 10 to 20 feet of yarn. I place it in a large pot with at least a gallon of water, and bring it to a fast boil. Let it boil for 30 minutes, then rinse it with cool water, and hang it up to dry thoroughly. Don't store it damp or it will mold and mildew. Only then is it really usable. Helps get rid of all the nasty taste and chemicals you don't want to inhale.

 

[bsidb]

right on !!!

 

[donnah]

Yes Quigsworth1 has a YouTube video on using cheesecloth on a Penelope.

Link here: GG Penelope with a Cheese Cloth Wick - YouTube

Thanks for posting this! It answered my question on whether or not the penelope can be wicked with anything other than silica. Now if I could only get one LOL

 

[donnah]

An update: I'm still using the cotton ball wick that I started using 9-25 and it's still going strong and tasting great! I've since rolled another one and am using it in another vivi tank and it's doing great as well. I did buy some cheesecloth at walmart but haven't tried it yet.. I also ordered some bamboo yarn from walmart but it's not here yet. I've been very happy with the way the cotton ball wick absorbs the juice and wicks it. I can't imagine the cheesecloth or yarn will be an improvement but when these, I'm using now need changing, I'll play around with the cheesecloth and yarn.

I'm on the "notify me" list for a penelope but I just don't know if I want to spend $122 on it when the VN is giving a perfect vape.

The vn is on sale at madvapes for $11.99 and with the code "lovetovape" you get an extra 10% off. Great deal!

 

[kalifornia]

donnah, did you bother boiling the cotton ball and do you use a needle when wrapping? Im using braided cotton wick and It vapes but doesn't taste like the juice should.

 

[jeffjr464]

i wrapped my first fibrewick coil yesterday, got it perfect on the first try, huge clouds!!!!! the organic cotton wick not so much...won't even make vapor, tearing it down and trying again

 

[Endor]

donnah,

I've had bad luck with cheesecloth so far, but I must be doing something wrong. My results were a very strong cotton-flavored vapor, even after breaking it in with darn near 2ml of juice (I couldn't take the cotton-mouth anymore).

My Peaches and Cream #4 cotton wick (picture posted earlier in this thread) is still going strong, with good flavor, strong vapor, and a very good TH.

Last night, I made my first wick with Aunt Lydia's #10 bamboo crochet thread. I used 8 pieces, with a 5/4 coil 32g Kanthal wrapped around a 2mm machine screw (2.5ohms). It does wick very well (I can chain vape it), but imparts a very slight taste to the juice at first that seems to diminish as the coil/wick breaks in.

jeffjr464, make sure the head isn't flooded. Testing out my bamboo wick last night, I had the same problem with very little vapor. I found that the coil was sitting in a pool of juice from when I primed the coil to test it (too big of a drop I guess!). I put it back together and blew hard through the mouthpiece towards the threaded end to blow out all that juice. After that, plumage!

 

[donnah]

donnah, did you bother boiling the cotton ball and do you use a needle when wrapping? Im using braided cotton wick and It vapes but doesn't taste like the juice should.

No.. I didn't boil the cotton ball. I just tore a small chunk off of it and rolled it into a tube shape and used a really (really) long sewing needle beside it to wrap my coil around, once I get the coil the way I want it (or close to the way I want it), I slide the needle out. I've only coiled 2 so far.. but those 2 have been vaping so great and for over a week now.. I hate to take them out and put a fresh one in. (I never wake a sleeping baby and I never take out a coil that is working good!)

I have bought some cheesecloth and some of the Aunt Lydia's bamboo thread but I haven't gotten around to boiling them yet. My cotton ball wicks are working so well I haven't had the opportunity to play with anything else. I just got a new vivi nova (from the madvapes deal) so now I'll have a third one to give me more opportunity to test out other wicking materials. I didn't like the braided cotton wicks.. they seemed too dense to wick right and I was constantly having to twirl and turn my provari upside down to keep it wicking. With the cotton ball wick, it seems to do better chain vaping!

It seems that some people are more sensitive to tasting different filler/wicking materials than others. I went a long time not knowing what people were talking about when they said they could taste filler. Then it dawned on me that that was the stale flavor I was tasting that I blamed the juice. The taste (to me) of the cotton ball wick is clean and pure. Just what I was after when I switched from boge cartos to the vivi nova

I've been wanting a penelope but I'm having such a great experience with the VN that I don't know if I want to spend that much money on something. I don't want to have to mess with trying to attach non-resistance wire to the resistance wire and I definately don't want to try to oxidize mesh. (Now that I said that, I'll be oxidizing mesh next week ) I'm also hearing that it's hard to get penelope parts. I was interested in trying to get a zap next sale day (provape) but then I heard that they have to be kept upright or the juice will leak out. Ummm.. don't think I'll get one LOL

 

[donnah]

donnah,

I've had bad luck with cheesecloth so far, but I must be doing something wrong. My results were a very strong cotton-flavored vapor, even after breaking it in with darn near 2ml of juice (I couldn't take the cotton-mouth anymore).

My Peaches and Cream #4 cotton wick (picture posted earlier in this thread) is still going strong, with good flavor, strong vapor, and a very good TH.

Last night, I made my first wick with Aunt Lydia's #10 bamboo crochet thread. I used 8 pieces, with a 5/4 coil 32g Kanthal wrapped around a 2mm machine screw (2.5ohms). It does wick very well (I can chain vape it), but imparts a very slight taste to the juice at first that seems to diminish as the coil/wick breaks in.

jeffjr464, make sure the head isn't flooded. Testing out my bamboo wick last night, I had the same problem with very little vapor. I found that the coil was sitting in a pool of juice from when I primed the coil to test it (too big of a drop I guess!). I put it back together and blew hard through the mouthpiece towards the threaded end to blow out all that juice. After that, plumage!

Did you boil your cheesecloth and bamboo yarn first? I can smell a distinct smell coming off of the bamboo yarn.

 

[BJ43]

I just lucked into a great coil wrap for a vivi nova with aunt Lydia's 10 and 28g. Figure if I could make an oval shaped coil, long up and down with flat sides I could get more 28g in that small space. I took two round wooden toothpicks side by side and wrapped 6 wraps of 28g tight on the toothpicks and pressing the sides so they would be flat. The oval is about 4mm by 2.5mm. I then took a thread of Lydia's and threaded thru the coil. I took each end of the thread and wrapped it 4 times around each led to keep them wet. After wrapping the legs I passed the threads back thru the coils. I proceeded to thread 6 more strand of #10 thru the coil. The thread around the legs seems to isolate the legs from the sides because it checked out a 1.8 ohms which is great for 28g in that small a space. Breaking it in at 3V and wow it is awesome.

 

[donnah]

I just lucked into a great coil wrap for a vivi nova with aunt Lydia's 10 and 28g. Figure if I could make an oval shaped coil, long up and down with flat sides I could get more 28g in that small space. I took two round wooden toothpicks side by side and wrapped 6 wraps of 28g tight on the toothpicks and pressing the sides so they would be flat. The oval is about 4mm by 2.5mm. I then took a thread of Lydia's and threaded thru the coil. I took each end of the thread and wrapped it 4 times around each led to keep them wet. After wrapping the legs I passed the threads back thru the coils. I proceeded to thread 6 more strand of #10 thru the coil. The thread around the legs seems to isolate the legs from the sides because it checked out a 1.8 ohms which is great for 28g in that small a space. Breaking it in at 3V and wow it is awesome.

so you wrapped your wick (yarn) around your legs that go down into the middle of the device?

 

[BJ43]

so you wrapped your wick (yarn) around your legs that go down into the middle of the device?

yes 4 wraps on each leg with one thread and then back up thru the coil.

 

[Endor]

Did you boil your cheesecloth and bamboo yarn first? I can smell a distinct smell coming off of the bamboo yarn.

I did not boil the cheesecloth, and perhaps this is my problem. Research indicated that it doesn't need boiling, but I plan on trying this next.

I did boil the bamboo, however. Total of about 30 minutes, with 3 "overfill the pan" water changes. Certainly something happens here, because before the first water change (after 10 minutes or so of rolling boil) definitely had a fair amount of foam on top, which diminished after subsequent water changes/reboiling.

I still find that the bamboo yarn (it's really more like thread) gives a bit of a woody off-flavor, which I'm not sure I like much. It seems that the Peaches and Cream #4 yarn is the best so far, although I'm still getting some occasional dry hits (I think it's coil tightness).

 

[donnah]

I finally got around to boiling my cheesecloth and trying it. It's working great. No cotton taste (that I can taste anyway) and it's wicking great. I like it as much, if not better than the cotton ball. I've recoiled a head using the bamboo but haven't used it yet. I used 4 strands when I probably need to use more. Anyway, I really like the cheesecloth

 

[Endor]

I finally got around to boiling my cheesecloth and trying it. It's working great. No cotton taste (that I can taste anyway) and it's wicking great. I like it as much, if not better than the cotton ball. I've recoiled a head using the bamboo but haven't used it yet. I used 4 strands when I probably need to use more. Anyway, I really like the cheesecloth

I haven't worked myself back to the cheesecloth yet, but did recoil with the Aunt Lydia's #10 again since I had a fair amount pre-boiled and ready to go.

Before, my experience with woody flavor was using 8 strands; like you, I figured more is probably better. This time, I took BJ43's advice in another thread, and only used 4 strands in a 5/4 coil with 32g Kanthal (2.2ohms) wrapped on a 2mm fine-thread screw.... it is working beautifully! No woody flavor that I can detect, good vapor, and it seems to wick very well.

So, before you add more, give the 4 strand atty a try.

 

[317Vapers]

Forgive my noobness but when you say wrapping around a 2mm machine screw is that mean your following the threading on the screw and laying the wire in the groves then unscrewing the coil off the screw leaving you a nice uniform tight coil? And your able to thread the bamboo/other wicking through the whole in the coil??

Sorry I'm new to rebuilding and picking up supplies as we speak