wick's lifespan

[colebtl]

Hi Everyone

I'm new here so please be kind if i made any mistake or break any rule.


I've been vaping for two years since the age of Nautilus/Egrip.
And also i do long drags and chain vape ALOT. rarely drag less than two seconds.
Been vaping on sub ohm tanks mostly but did quite some builds as well.
All of them with regular shape wires, in both contact and space style, and all of them were in RTAs/RDTAs tho.
Never really into drippers as i like to drive and vape for like 2 to 3 hours non stop.
But all of my builds never last long...
Coils were ok but wicks just didn't last, no matter how i tried they never last more than 4 days.
They just started taste disgusting, or getting dry hits, or both.
With contact coils they even last only 1 or 2 days in the same RTA/RDTA.
Only the one i putted in Ijoy Tornado once last 4 days, but that happened just once.
Then the wick broke in half on one side before it taste funky.
In comparison some sub ohm coils do last longer.
My current favorite: Joyetech Ultimo ceramic coils last more than two weeks, even three weeks is possible.
Atlantis .3 coil last a week ish.(no matter if they were in Atlantis or Melo2 or Ijust2 or Kinta)
Delta 2 coil last a week ish also.
Subtank .5 horizontal coils did last a bit shorter... sometimes 3 days sometimes 5 days, just about the same as my builds.
So did Cleito, Cubis, Eleaf coils.


So my questions are: Do all of these situations normal with my vaping habit?
Is there anything i can do to make the wick last more than a week without changing my habit?
Such as using clapton or fused clapton coils, using rayon or silica instead of cotton and so forth.
I do alot of business trips, most of my trips are just about a week.
And i really hate to cut cottons and put them through coils while being really drunk in a dark hotel room.
So lasting a week is my goal, don't really need to last forever tho.
Any advise is welcome. Thanks.

 

[PuffOn]

It's most likely the juice. Sweetener in the juice will shorten the wick life.
I always have one set up running unflavored, and can go weeks before rewicking.
The flavored setups could be just a few days.
You could try Rayon for more life, or just rewick before you get drunk...

 

[colebtl]

It's most likely the juice. Sweetener in the juice will shorten the wick life.
I always have one set up running unflavored, and can go weeks before rewicking.
The flavored setups could be just a few days.
You could try Rayon for more life, or just rewick before you get drunk...

Yeah all of my juices are really sweet and menthol Malaysian juices.
I guess that's the main reason...
But will claptons make any difference?

 

[Mattp169]

probably not
if you have any RDTAs (genny style) I have read of people using stailes steel mesh wick which may help you
but I have 1 juice that has sweeteners and its trashed in a wekk or so easy compared to my other juices which can go 2-3 weeks on a wick on a really good day
And that same juice would go through premade coils 2-4 times faster then other flavors

 

[colebtl]

Here's the condition of coils after 3 days@20ml ish of juice in The Troll i just bought.
They are 26 gauge 316L wire, 7.5 wraps(as the wire goes backward, which count as half i guess?), 3mm id, spaced by it's own boing back.
Running 70watts with no problem the first day, and at the third day it just dry hits even at 50 watts and vapor just dramatically dimmed down.
If sweetener is the one to blame here, i guess i'll stick with vertical prebuilds for a while....

BTW, is there any legit vertical RTAs out there now?
Truely designed for vertical coil, wrapped with cotton with air channel through the middle of the coil those sort of thing.
I know alot of RTAs can be built that way but is there anything that's specifically designed for that?

 

[MWorthington]

I can practically guarantee it's sweetener causing your problem. I vape menthol at 7 - 10% in my diy juice and factory coils last me 3 - 4 weeks. If I add any kind of candy flavoring it kills my coils quicker, sometimes by a couple of weeks depending on the age of the coil and the percentage of the flavor.

 

[Mattp169]

yeah looks like your juice is gunking it up.

 

[colebtl]

Thanks guys.
I guess all i can do is either switching to unsweetened juice or stick with prebuilds.
Really thank you all for solving my long period question.

 

[ttatlanta]

Thanks guys.
I guess all i can do is either switching to unsweetened juice or stick with prebuilds.

Some sweeteners gunk up the wicks, while others don't. Some non-sweet flavorings gunk up the wicks faster than any sweeteners (except maybe the actual sugar).

"Stick to prebuilds" is a strange logic. Just get a 3lb box of 100% rayon for $10-15 at Sally's and re-wick whenever you feel like it.

Or here's a better idea: switch to DIY juices!

 

[colebtl]

Some sweeteners gunk up the wicks, while others don't. Some non-sweet flavorings gunk up the wicks faster than any sweeteners (except maybe the actual sugar).

"Stick to prebuilds" is a strange logic. Just get a 3lb box of 100% rayon for $10-15 at Sally's and re-wick whenever you feel like it.

Or here's a better idea: switch to DIY juices!

Well... the problem is that it's kinda hard find pure rayon here in Taiwan.
Though it's easy to find underwear labeled as rayon-made, but i'm not planning on vaping those haha.
I know prebuilds cost alot and there's like almost no variantation to play around with.
But they tend to be more stable than my shaky hands, which makes me easier to calculate when and where i might be needed to change them.
And with my experience, they last longer.... but maybe that's just my case.
But i'll give rayon a try as soon as found any and see if they can last a week.
If they do, then the circle is complete.

 

[MWorthington]

Regarding your question: is there an rta designed to use vertical coils? Here's the only example I can find right now -

http://vapingunderground.com/threads/anthony-vapes-smkon-kumo-k5-review

@SirRichardRear did a review of this tank and one of the options was a vertical coil deck. Check out the video and hear his thoughts on it. If you're not comfortable with building, it may not be for you though.

If you like your ijoy tank, I would recommend you try making your own juice if you can get the VG, PG, and nic juice there in Taiwan. If you can get it, and depending on how much you vape, all you need to make a liter of 50/50, 3mg juice is 500ml VG, 500ml PG, and a 60ml bottle of 100mg nic base of which you'll use about half. A 30ml bottle of FW menthol flavoring will cost a couple of bucks and will last you for months. I use it at 7-10%. Your needs may be different. Your coils will last longer, and your juice will be tons cheaper overall.

You can use the e-liquid calculator on eliquidrecipes.com to figure out exactly how much of everything to use.

If this might be an option for you, check out the DIY section of the forum. You can learn everything you need to know there. Just be prepared to spend a few hours reading as I and countless others here have done.

And whatever you decide to try, we'll help any way we can.

 

[SirRichardRear]

Regarding your question: is there an rta designed to use vertical coils? Here's the only example I can find right now -

http://vapingunderground.com/threads/anthony-vapes-smkon-kumo-k5-review

@SirRichardRear did a review of this tank and one of the options was a vertical coil deck. Check out the video and hear his thoughts on it. If you're not comfortable with building, it may not be for you though.

If you like your ijoy tank, I would recommend you try making your own juice if you can get the VG, PG, and nic juice there in Taiwan. If you can get it, and depending on how much you vape, all you need to make a liter of 50/50, 3mg juice is 500ml VG, 500ml PG, and a 60ml bottle of 100mg nic base of which you'll use about half. A 30ml bottle of FW menthol flavoring will cost a couple of bucks and will last you for months. I use it at 7-10%. Your needs may be different. Your coils will last longer, and your juice will be tons cheaper overall.

You can use the e-liquid calculator on eliquidrecipes.com to figure out exactly how much of everything to use.

If this might be an option for you, check out the DIY section of the forum. You can learn everything you need to know there. Just be prepared to spend a few hours reading as I and countless others here have done.

And whatever you decide to try, we'll help any way we can.

I wouldn't recommend it for vertical coils. Too much of a pain to build and that deck vaporlocked like crazy. There is also the tesla captain which I reviewed but that one sucked. I'm working on a review for the terra octo rta but too soon to judge.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[colebtl]

Just an update after a few months.

After i ran out of all my pre build coils i decided to give RTAs another try.
This time i bought some pre made fused claptons(double 26 wrapped with 38) and see if they make any difference.
Same cotton, same Troll, same juice, and god i wish i tried this earlier.
All the problems i had were solved and wicks last more than a week now.
Seems like overheating was the problem i had instead of gunking, with the exact same juice wicks still gunk up badly after a week and flavor does dimmed down a bit, but the vape is still enjoyable and still produce HUGE vapor.
Not even a single dry hit happened within a whole week.
I guess clapton's self wicking and heat sink characteristics are the game changer here.
Now i can finally say bye-bye to all prebuilds and never look back.
Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

 

[MWorthington]

Good deal! Glad we could help.