Hopeless at RBA/RTA Wicking

[Simply Red]

Got a TVF4 Mini as a prize (that's another story) and put the RBA section on it. Of course, it didn't come pre wicked, and that's ok, and it came with a preinstalled spaced Clapton coil. Wick thickness wise, I tried a lot of wick, a little bit of wick and, what I would call, the right amount of wick. I've cut the wick flush with the edge of the deck, a little overhang into the juice channels, all the way down to the bottom of the juice channels. When cut flush with the edge of the deck, I put the cap on the RBA and poked in there to "fluff" the ends of the cotton with a piece of 22AWG to evenly spread the cotton around and over the juice channels with all the different wick thicknesses. I'm either getting dry hits or eliquid running down the side of my device. I've tried 9 or 10 different ways to wick this damn thing and am considering putting the RBA section on the RR tracks, grabbing a bag of popcorn and waiting for the next train to come by. I did watch 3 or 4 YouTube vids on how others wick it. I think I'm destined to use factory coils in these tanks.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Just an informational note: I do have coiling and wicking experience, in case anyone was wondering.

See??

I just suck at "RTA's"

 

[africamonk]

Got a TVF4 Mini as a prize (that's another story) and put the RBA section on it. Of course, it didn't come pre wicked, and that's ok, and it came with a preinstalled spaced Clapton coil. Wick thickness wise, I tried a lot of wick, a little bit of wick and, what I would call, the right amount of wick. I've cut the wick flush with the edge of the deck, a little overhang into the juice channels, all the way down to the bottom of the juice channels. When cut flush with the edge of the deck, I put the cap on the RBA and poked in there to "fluff" the ends of the cotton with a piece of 22AWG to evenly spread the cotton around and over the juice channels with all the different wick thicknesses. I'm either getting dry hits or eliquid running down the side of my device. I've tried 9 or 10 different ways to wick this damn thing and am considering putting the RBA section on the RR tracks, grabbing a bag of popcorn and waiting for the next train to come by. I did watch 3 or 4 YouTube vids on how others wick it. I think I'm destined to use factory coils in these tanks.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Just an informational note: I do have coiling and wicking experience, in case anyone was wondering.

See??

I just suck at "RTA's"

ship it over to me, let me try that out ... might just be defective.

 

[Simply Red]

ship it over to me, let me try that out ... might just be defective.

 

[JERUS]

For the TFV4 it's a fickle mistress. But, here's what I've done:

1) Take a 6mm thick strip of cotton and take the backings off (I use koh gen do)
2) Pull it through the coil like normal
3) Put the cap back on the deck and press it in and do a tiny twist to tighten then take it off, this will leave marks on the cotton.
4) cut across those marks at about 1mm past on the outside (further away from coil) and right at the top of the mark on the inside (closer to the coil).
5) That little bit of extra tuck into the juice well and fluff the rest a little bit and put the cap on.
6) Prime it all up and enjoy.

Your wick does 2 things in an RTA, first like always it brings juice to the coil, but secondly unlike a dripper, it's also a preventative measure. You need it to create a sort of seal to keep the juice from draining right out the airflow. Tanks act as a sort of vacuum, far from a perfect vacuum but there is a bit of equalization of pressure inside (why top fill and open air flow can cause leaking if left open for too long, and orings are hugely important).

Anyways, that's what I do for my horizontal builds, I found the general cotton degradation over time forced me to rewick every other day with this, so again the TFV4 can be quite fickle. I ended up going to vertical coils where as long as I used it regularly and didn't let the cotton get oversaturated I was able to go a good week without rewicking. Only takes a couple minutes to rewick though and much of that is just taking everything out and putting it all away.

 

[yasaboss]

Are you soaking the cotton before positioning them? Are cutting flush and positioning them in that little cup lip

 

[Simply Red]

For the TFV4 it's a fickle mistress. But, here's what I've done:

1) Take a 6mm thick strip of cotton and take the backings off (I use koh gen do)
2) Pull it through the coil like normal
3) Put the cap back on the deck and press it in and do a tiny twist to tighten then take it off, this will leave marks on the cotton.
4) cut across those marks at about 1mm past on the outside (further away from coil) and right at the top of the mark on the inside (closer to the coil).
5) That little bit of extra tuck into the juice well and fluff the rest a little bit and put the cap on.
6) Prime it all up and enjoy.

Your wick does 2 things in an RTA, first like always it brings juice to the coil, but secondly unlike a dripper, it's also a preventative measure. You need it to create a sort of seal to keep the juice from draining right out the airflow. Tanks act as a sort of vacuum, far from a perfect vacuum but there is a bit of equalization of pressure inside (why top fill and open air flow can cause leaking if left open for too long, and orings are hugely important).

Anyways, that's what I do for my horizontal builds, I found the general cotton degradation over time forced me to rewick every other day with this, so again the TFV4 can be quite fickle. I ended up going to vertical coils where as long as I used it regularly and didn't let the cotton get oversaturated I was able to go a good week without rewicking. Only takes a couple minutes to rewick though and much of that is just taking everything out and putting it all away.

I didn't put it in my OP but, I did angle cut the tails. Maybe a little too much. Didn't peel the backings off either. Did the rest you described, though. I'll give it another shot before I grab my bat and turn it into a baseball.

Thank for the tips!

 

[Simply Red]

Are you soaking the coils before positioning them? Are cutting flush and positioning them in that little cup lip

I would t say "soak" but enough eliquid to make them more manageable. "Cutting flush and positioning them in that little cup lip"?? Yup. Tried that too.

 

[JERUS]

I didn't put it in my OP but, I did angle cut the tails. Maybe a little too much. Didn't peel the backings off either. Did the rest you described, though. I'll give it another shot before I grab my bat and turn it into a baseball.

Thank for the tips!

It's certainly a fine line, once you get the hang of it though it's not bad. IIRC (haven't used it in a while) with my dual coil RBA I'd vape at like 80-90w, I generally will vape a half dozen 2-4s pulls every 5-10s and I had no issues.

 

[JERUS]

I would t say "soak" but enough eliquid to make them more manageable. "Cutting flush and positioning them in that little cup lip"?? Yup. Tried that too.

I'd say don't put any juice on it before you wick, wick it try then prime once it's in. Wetting beforehand might have you end up having the fibers cling to eachother and leave you with some gaps. You can wet the end of the cotton a little to make it easier to get through the coil but you'll cut that off anyways. Compression of cotton is bad when it comes to RTAs.

 

[Simply Red]

It's certainly a fine line, once you get the hang of it though it's not bad. IIRC (haven't used it in a while) with my dual coil RBA I'd vape at like 80-90w, I generally will vape a half dozen 2-4s pulls every 5-10s and I had no issues.

I have the dual Clapton factory coil in it at the moment but, once this tank is empty, I'll try it again. Can't change the coil head with a full tank.

 

[Simply Red]

I'd say don't put any juice on it before you wick, wick it try then prime once it's in. Wetting beforehand might have you end up having the fibers cling to eachother and leave you with some gaps. You can wet the end of the cotton a little to make it easier to get through the coil but you'll cut that off anyways. Compression of cotton is bad when it comes to RTAs.

10-4. Great tips, y'all!

 

[MikeSully]

Good luck. I have 30+/- rebuildable tanks and I hate the TFV4 so much that I've used it maybe ten minutes in total in 4 months. Worst tank I own. I even bought two of the dual coil rba decks. Still crap. I hope you get something vape-able in there, I had high hopes and no luck with it.

 

[Simply Red]

Good luck. I have 30+/- rebuildable tanks and I hate the TFV4 so much that I've used it maybe ten minutes in total in 4 months. Worst tank I own. I even bought two of the dual coil rba decks. Still crap. I hope you get something vape-able in there, I had high hopes and no luck with it.

I'll give a go to the suggestions given. If that don't work? It could always be used as a sinker at the other end of my fishing line.