Wicking problems

[malfuss]

So, decided to dip my toes into dripping and bought the Dark Horse clone by Tobeco. First attempt built a nice 1.2 ohm single coil and did a test run. Coil heated from the middle and extended to both sides. Perfect, loads of vapour and the taste was other wordly. Decided to change wicks so that I could try a different flavour and I now understand what dry hits and burnt taste are.

Since then I have tried numerous wicks (5-6), a new coil and another couples of wicks in the new coil. None of them have worked, very little vapour and a burnt taste. Using the flat Japanese organic cotton pads and 0.4mm (26AWG) kanthal. Single coil, 8-9 wraps around a 3mm diameter screwdriver. Using about 4mm width cotton, and peeling off the outside ala Martyn Parker.

Feeling a little despondent atm, any ideas?

 

[EmbraSewerRat]

Hmm, interesting.
Post a couple of pix of the builds that aren't working and someone might see what's wrong.

All I can advise is to scrub out the atty, check the post holes for crap, swab the 510 connection and make sure the battery on the power supply unit is working.

 

[malfuss]

I'll get a couple of pics up when I get home tonight. Will try a few more wicks afterwards.

 

[malfuss]

Ok, here goes.....



Originally, the coil was much more compact than this shows, it was all level and coils touching. This is after I had been playing with it to get it to work, and had tried spreading the coil apart.



Last night, the cotton was much fluffier and had actually touched the coil all the way round. Can you over saturate a wick?



Aaaargh!!!

 

[jsixtysix]

I would suggest getting more cotton in the coil, make it snug, but not quite so snug that you can't move it from side to side. Also maybe you could even out the gaps in that coil. Sometimes I use a pin and push it between each coil in turn. Alternatively you could try and squeeze it together with tweezers after heating it to close the gaps instead. Less cotton outside the coil, more cotton inside.

 

[malfuss]

Thanks jsixtysix. To be fair, that is after I butchered it to try and get some sort of vapour from it. It was a nice little coil before hand! It looked like the coils were touching, so I tried opening them out, but being frustrated, I wasn't exactly gentle with it!

Going to try re-wicking it soon, so will try reshaping it as well.

Should the coils be touching or with a slight gap? Would it be worth trying a pancake wick?

 

[jsixtysix]

Not tried a pancake wick myself. I prefer slightly spaced coils lately, seems to make more sense to me, seems to be tastier, and seems to wick better...

 

[EmbraSewerRat]

Nae idea what 'pancake wick' is, but by all means try it.

But, you want the wick in the coil to be filling the coil - your length of cotton should just pull thro' the coil - but not jammed in so tight it doesn't move.

Watch a couple of youtube videos and the pish I've just spouted should make sense. At the moment all your doing is burning the teensy amount of cotton in there.

 

[malfuss]

But, you want the wick in the coil to be filling the coil - your length of cotton should just pull thro' the coil - but not jammed in so tight it doesn't move.

Watch a couple of youtube videos and the pish I've just spouted should make sense. At the moment all your doing is burning the teensy amount of cotton in there.

That would make sense, but I thought I might strangle the cotton and stop it wicking that way. Will try upping it to 6mm thick and report back.

 

[scrumpox]

Not enough cotton wick in the coil seems spot on.
I would also get the wick down on the deck before it goes around the neg posts - this could be another strangle point.

You know, the outer skin of muji wicks pretty well too? I know it's cheap and we all love the fluffy fibres inside. Once it's juiced up the skin is much less crusty.