Why is my cotton always snapping in the middle after about a day of usage?

[EquivalentExchange]

I've been having this ongoing issue where my cotton ALWAYS snaps down the middle after about a day of usage. It never lasts more than a day, and I've been going through cotton like crazy. I'm currently running a 200w Sigelie Fuchai at about 75-80w, on a Velocity Clone RDA, with about 22 gauge wire with I believe 11 wraps. I use Cotton Bacon V2, and have been vaping on 1 Hit Wonder: Muffin Man and FRYD Oreo as they are all I have at the moment but I got a decent order of new flavors from Mech Sauce coming Monday that aren't heavy with Cinnamon. I'm not sure what Im doing wrong at this point. I've checked for hot spots and found none. I always keep my cotton heavily saturated as to not let the coil burn through dry cotton. I also always make sure to apply juice directly on my wraps, so that it seeps into the cotton thats being held there. I've googled a lot of different things, and have found nothing that works at this point. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thank you in advance!!

 

[Jimi D]

How much cotton are you putting in the coil ? If it's light, the cotton will simply burn away.

 

[Zamazam]

More Cotton. It should have a bit of resistance when you move it back and forth in the coil, but not to the point of having to tug hard to move it.

 

[EquivalentExchange]

How long should it last if I use more cotton? Is changing it once a day normal? I've had to change it twice today so far and I really don't want to waste more cotton than i have to. I feel like I've been told not to use a lot of cotton as it will "choke it out"?

 

[Moueix]

How long should it last if I use more cotton? Is changing it once a day normal? I've had to change it twice today so far and I really don't want to waste more cotton than i have to. I feel like I've been told not to use a lot of cotton as it will "choke it out"?

I had this same problem when I first started using claptons. They have WAY more mass than the 30 or 32ga. I had previously been using. It required a whole new way of vaping. I found that if I kept inhaling for 4 or 5 seconds after letting go of the power, it really cut down on it. 22ga is EXTREMELY heavy wire. It's going to stay hot LONG after you get off that button, and burn your wick away.

 

[OpoRoot]

sometimes it does happen to me but usually after a week or so,for little experience that i have it always turned out to be not enough cotton in my case, hope that helps some, i`m sure one of the more experienced masters will shed light on the subject...

 

[Zamazam]

I use mine till it begins to taste funky, depending on the juice, between 3 and 4 days per wicking. You need to find the happy medium for tightness with the cotton. it needs to be snug, but not tight if you understand the concept. You are burning through your wicks because you don't have enough in the coils.

 

[BlowinSmoke]

Ive got attys with a single piece of cotton lasting for like 2-3 weeks, but i build allot so usually changing wicks daily.

all depends on how much u vape and what kinds of juice u vape, just change wicks if they start to gunk up.

Ps: Did u tried the scottish roll wicking techniqe already ?

 

[mgalyan]

+1 for thicker wicks. It should tug on the coil a little, but not bend the coil legs. Look up Scottish Roll on YouTube.

 

[EquivalentExchange]

I had this same problem when I first started using claptons. They have WAY more mass than the 30 or 32ga. I had previously been using. It required a whole new way of vaping. I found that if I kept inhaling for 4 or 5 seconds after letting go of the power, it really cut down on it. 22ga is EXTREMELY heavy wire. It's going to stay hot LONG after you get off that button, and burn your wick away.

Are there any benifits to using 22g wire? I was told it would give me more clouds. All I'm using is Muffin Man and Fryd Oreo and I'm never able to make it 2 days without changing cotton. I'll even have to do it sometimes twice a day. Which is frustrating considering its Cotton Bacon and I feel like
I'm wasting it. Especially when most people get at least 4 days out of it.

 

[mgalyan]

If you are using cotton bacon, and changing your wicks daily, you're probably approaching the cost of smoking. 22 gauge wire is just thicker wire with a lower resistance. Lower resistance coils heat up faster because the electricity doesn't have to "fight" as hard to travel through the coil.

Simple single wire coils are going to perform similarly to each other, regardless of the gauge of wire. The only things you can experiment with on standard coils is the wire material, inner diameter of the coil, the gauge of the wire, and the number of wraps.

Moving to more advanced coils (e.g., Clapton, Fused Clapton, Twisted, etc.) will yield more immediate and dramatic effects of vapor production and flavor.

Do you have a camera capable of focusing closely enough to show us your build?

Here's how I built my Goliath yesterday:

(Dual 5-wrap Tiger coils with a final impedance of 0.16 ohm, wicked with generic organic Japanese cotton pads, @ 71 watts on the Cuboid.)

 

[BigKrash]

Scottish Roll is not going to help him if he isn't putting enough cotton to begin with. Do as others have suggested, then learn to make the Scottish Rolls because they are a little time consuming. Totally worth it in the end though because you can get 20+ hits before juicing up the cotton again.

 

[inspects]

Scottish Roll is not going to help him if he isn't putting enough cotton to begin with. Do as others have suggested, then learn to make the Scottish Rolls because they are a little time consuming. Totally worth it in the end though because you can get 20+ hits before juicing up the cotton again.

I watched another review do the same thing a few days ago, it's true, this method does help considerably.

 

[LoneAscendant]

Some flavors may be harsher than others, but in my case it was the sweetener that was splitting the wicking. I would use powdered sucralose in everything and it was burning up my cotton in the middle. The Tennessee Whiskey without sweetener I tried didn't burn up the wick with 22 gauge wire in my RDA at all. Blue Raspberry Slush would burn through the cotton in less than 5ml and now without sweetener I'm up to 10ml with no end in sight. I heard that Stevia will also disintegrate cotton. Sadly, sweet juices seem to be to blame for the snapping disintegrating wicks.

Clarification: I would use a LOT of pure sucralose powder in my mixes. Like 1/12 tsp per 22ml juice. I decreased the sucralose way down and it's still sweet enough by far. I got my sucralose powder at bulksupplements if anyone is wondering. I find that I can still use sweetener but I gotta tone it down.

 

[Carambrda]

Some flavors may be harsher than others, but in my case it was the sweetener that was splitting the wicking. I would use powdered sucralose in everything and it was burning up my cotton in the middle. The Tennessee Whiskey I tried didn't burn up with 22 gauge wire in my RDA. Blue Raspberry Slush would burn through the cotton in less than 5ml and now I'm up to 10 with no end in sight. I heard that Stevia will also disintegrate cotton. Sadly, sweet juices seem to be to blame.

I realize this is an old thread, but IME there are several things you might want to try to consider when facing with this particular problem.

The most common solution appears to be to use more cotton on the inside of the coils (optionally also thinning out the tails of the wicks to give it that necessary breathing space around the outside of the coils), but the downside of that is, often times, you'll find that packing too much cotton too tightly inside the coils is what tends to mute the flavor. If that's also your problem, then IMO the first thing that you can try is to choose coils with a bigger inner diameter and/or a shorter coil length. Or if that's not going to work, then choose coils that, despite their inner diameter and their length remain pretty much unchanged, contain a smaller total volume of metal (i.e. contain less cubic millimeters of metal) by increasing the combined length of the wire strands (possibly by increasing the number of wire strands) whilst at the same time also greatly reducing the thickness of the wire used, specifically in those areas where it'll help to improve the wicking characteristics of the actual coil itself (e.g., by greatly increasing the number of tiny cavities and crevasses, and also by going for an alien type outer wrap, as that also tends to wick juice into the coil faster when compared to using just a simple clapton style outer wrap, for fusing the core wires together) and also where it'll help to more uniformly distribute the heat that's coming from the metal surface of the coil.

At least for me, slow ramp up (and slow cool down) of the coils in cohort with using fairly low wattages is generally only worsening the problem instead of helping to fix it. This is IMO because slow-heating of clunky, densely packed metal structures through which not enough juice can keep flowing everywhere fast enough is what causes the metal to start to burn its way through the cotton, as the juice must keep flowing fast enough from the cotton into the coil during the evaporation process to help to cool the cotton. So choosing a metal type that heats up faster (e.g. choosing Nichrome 80 instead of choosing Kanthal A1) usually helps also in addition to all this. The slower the evaporation, the faster the coil gunks up. The more it has gunked up, the slower the evaporation will be. Especially with sucralose added in the mix, it's a snowball getting turned into an avalanche, really fast.

 

[MyMagicMist]

Might seem way too obvious but you need to keep your wick wet, saturated. It is rather straight forward & simple, not sure how to simplify it further or even if it should be.

 

[roiikkata]

I'd also add in since this shows up on the top of Google search results;

Make sure your coils are also not too long to wick properly between hits/puffs. Too many wraps can cause this "cotton phenomenon". A good balance between coil length and diameter is also important. Also, the actual process of the coil heating up from the middle on longer wraps can push out the juice physically and burn out the cotton left behind, easily.

Been vaping for a few years now too and started getting this recently after using 3mm diameter 8+ wraps on a TFV8, Baby Beast, Drop RDA, you name it .. Using spaced coils helps but the production isn't nearly as smooth as non-spaced, sometimes since the vape side splatter between wraps is less "uniform" on spaced coils. More room for error.

We've all seen alot of these suggestions so I figured I'd put in mine since it's more unique as far as I can see. For all to see

 

[roiikkata]

Might seem way too obvious but you need to keep your wick wet, saturated. It is rather straight forward & simple, not sure how to simplify it further or even if it should be.

Nice quote by the way. About not turning to a side too quickly. We were blessed with minds

 

[MyMagicMist]

This might help as well, bit different way.

 

[Carambrda]

I'd also add in since this shows up on the top of Google search results;

Make sure your coils are also not too long to wick properly between hits/puffs. Too many wraps can cause this "cotton phenomenon". A good balance between coil length and diameter is also important. Also, the actual process of the coil heating up from the middle on longer wraps can push out the juice physically and burn out the cotton left behind, easily.

Been vaping for a few years now too and started getting this recently after using 3mm diameter 8+ wraps on a TFV8, Baby Beast, Drop RDA, you name it .. Using spaced coils helps but the production isn't nearly as smooth as non-spaced, sometimes since the vape side splatter between wraps is less "uniform" on spaced coils. More room for error.

We've all seen alot of these suggestions so I figured I'd put in mine since it's more unique as far as I can see. For all to see

I used to think the same thing about coil length and about the ratio between diameter and it. That is, until I found out that a lot also depends on airflow characteristics (also including both the strength and the duration of your draw) in cohort with coil positioning, power settings, and how well the wicked up coil build keeps wicking juice into the coils during the evaporation process, i.e. think of it like a wicking system that consists of BOTH the cotton wicks AND the coils... coils having more numerous tiny cavities and crevasses where juice sits and can flow between the various (thin) wire stands that are interlinked changes the way heat is trasferred away from the cotton and into the evaporating juice instead.

 

[VapingReaper27]

thats what ive been wondeiing for awhile too! maybe wicking improperly or something but i do gotta state that i have a blotto rta and was trying out some cotto bacon and this kept happening to me it was frustrating extremely so! i couldnt figure it out i'd wick and use 6ml in the tank and once gone i would check the cotton every time it was black crusted and looked and tasted burnt! i thought it was the juice but didnt change it i tried my native wick cotton and bam!! the issue was solved! ive had the same cotton in for 6 tank fulls now! idk why i figure it must be the cotton? i thought that was some pretty good shit in my rdas!

 

[roiikkata]

It seems like it could be a few things that cause this problem from the research I've done.. It seems to revolve around it needing to wick properly. Based on what I posted and have discovered, I've also fixed it with more PG, especially in the tanks since they tend to have less wicking capability, obviously, since they need to maintain somewhat of a "vacuum balance" in the tank to keep from leaking and such ..

Ya, cotton will do it too. There's always been this Japanese Cotton vs Cotton Bacon thing. It's just a matter of if you want more plant based cotton or fine streamlined cotton the way I see it .. I like Japanese cotton since it seems like it holds snug to the juice well walls better for harder pulls than Cotton Bacon does. Or, one could take the "pack more cotton, use more PG" route with the Cotton Bacon. I have Cotton Bacon Gold I got from the local vape shop for like 5 dollars.

It just seems like it revolves around wicking .. and trust me, I have my doubts about that, too.

My doubts were proven wrong when I actually recently discovered that PG is ALSO a pretty good VG "carrier". Meaning ya, you can say that PG dillutes the cloud, BUT .. it also helps the VG to wick. Here-in lies the "perfect VG-PG mix if you understand me on that ..

 

[roiikkata]

I used to think the same thing about coil length and about the ratio between diameter and it. That is, until I found out that a lot also depends on airflow characteristics (also including both the strength and the duration of your draw) in cohort with coil positioning, power settings, and how well the wicked up coil build keeps wicking juice into the coils during the evaporation process, i.e. think of it like a wicking system that consists of BOTH the cotton wicks AND the coils... coils having more numerous tiny cavities and crevasses where juice sits and can flow between the various (thin) wire stands that are interlinked changes the way heat is trasferred away from the cotton and into the evaporating juice instead.

View attachment 140414 View attachment 140415 View attachment 140416

EXACTLY. Well said. I actually didn't notice that before but ever so slightly that multi-wire coils also wick juice as well. I see what you're saying though too about the balance between the two, on top of that.

My fault, I just didn't see the reply.

It seems like since it starts heating/glowing from the middle one could balance out, even further, it reaching either end of each/the coil(s) with the air flow, hence my original interest in the longer coils, actually. Almost like a form of balance in itself, in itself .. aside from wattage, pull length, pulsing, etc. ..
Actually, my previous general post right above this one links right up to this idea since one might actually have to use a lower VG higher PG ratio to let it wick all the way through between hits since VG tends to be so syrupy ..

I chain vape all day by the way .. It helps pass the time and one ponder .. respect.

 

[MyMagicMist]

I think ultimately cotton compresses on itself after a good bit of use. There's too many subjective factors to accurately point out one as a culprit, and "good bit of use" is also subjective. Rayon for wick will do this as well but not to the extent cotton does. Contrarily rayon expands instead of contracting when it gets wet. Then, you got ceramic laced wick like Ready X. It stays the same and lets you dry burn it back out to a very pretty clean white.

Even met with someone who forgoes textiles for wick. They use specially cut, and processed quartz pieces as wick. They seemed rather enthused in using it. As I looked into doing it, realized there was a good bit of cost to getting the quartz one needs. Will not say that way is no good nor say it is good. I do not know for myself. Know I do not feel like affording the quartz though.

A person might try some steel cabling with something like Eckowool, or silicone textile over it as wick. I think a lot who use Genesis style RDTAs use steal cable without any covering. Think you need to mind a gap between your coil and the cabling so as to avoid shorts. It can be done I'm sure. Rather not have to be so "on the spot" to continually ensure I'm minding my wick to coil gap as I vape.

What I do is use Muji cotton, it's dirt cheap organic cotton from Japan. I also use some rayon at times. Keep thinking I might try combining the two, make up some form of hybrid textile wick. I've also used sterile but not bleached cotton gauze as wick. That surprisingly did better than I thought it might. I'm sure there is probably some wise grand vaper sage who knows the answer to this quandary. Not sure I would care to know the answer though. That's all part of vaping for me, having the freedom of choice.

This isn't saying I do not accept advice or consider the opinions of others. I do both of these to quite some extent. Then, I also go on and do my own thing, or at least as much of "my own thing" as it can be. There's likely at least 1,000 others maybe more, maybe less doing it all the same way I do. Do I care? Not in any grand sense, no. We each find what works for ourselves. If we happen to be similar in what suits ourselves, so it is and there's nothing negative in that.

Innovation and originality? At some point they stopped designing cigars. I think vaping has kind of reached that quite a while back. There is only so many ways innovation, or originality can occur. That too is not a negative thing, merely a thing. They still sell cigars even after having only discovered one standard design for them. They'll still sell vape gear, juice too. Please do not misunderstand me to be saying we should not innovate, or try being original. Not saying that. I'm saying that it seems like, to borrow a television troupe, vaping has "jumped the shark". It happens with everything.

Apologies if this seemed a long ramble which offered no solutions. I was kind of hard pressed to see any real problem. Your wick gets crummy on you, you change it out, simple as that. Don't mean that in any nasty, mean or negative way. As Freud said, "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar". Face value is face value, sorry if you get what you see.

 

[MyMagicMist]

Meaning ya, you can say that PG dillutes the cloud, BUT .. it also helps the VG to wick. Here-in lies the "perfect VG-PG mix if you understand me on that ..

Eh, respectfully disagree, cowboy.

I use max VG, and have long enough now to see no great difference wick wise between it and say 50/50 mix of PG/VG. The flavorings I use if any at times, do have PG in them. I would say I use roughly 90-95% VG juice and probably roughly 80% of the time. Although I may get tired of flavors. That's a me thing though, I lack a sense of smell ergo limited sense of taste. I can get by using only the subtle sweetness of VG.

I still don't think a PG/VG ratio hm, has as much effect as you might think. I will not say it has no effect, that would be 1. hypocritical for me to say and 2. stupid. Not either of those nor do I think you'd think that, merely writing as thinking aloud, clarifying as I write/think. I do not journal as much as it gets suggest I should. *grin*

Not sure exactly what causes this "cotton sagging" issue. It might be the weight of juice simply pulls the wick ends down over the opposing ends of the coil. Gee, don't you want your wick dipping into the juice well to get juice? D'oh. And that's why I'm trying to figure out why it seems to be a "problem". I am probably missing an episode of Fox News which explains it. Sorry, not meaning to sound cynical or seem sarcastic, dismissive.

(My mistake, "cotton snapping". Still not seeing it as a "problem". It is in as much you need to replace a wick. That is part and parcel of vaping though. You'll need to replace wicks, coils, batteries, mods, RDAs, RDTAs ... . Stuff wears out, it happens.)

Put me in the woods, get me lost. I'll be fine.

 

[roiikkata]

Eh, respectfully disagree, cowboy.

I use max VG, and have long enough now to see no great difference wick wise between it and say 50/50 mix of PG/VG. The flavorings I use if any at times, do have PG in them. I would say I use roughly 90-95% VG juice and probably roughly 80% of the time. Although I may get tired of flavors. That's a me thing though, I lack a sense of smell ergo limited sense of taste. I can get by using only the subtle sweetness of VG.

I still don't think a PG/VG ratio hm, has as much effect as you might think. I will not say it has no effect, that would be 1. hypocritical for me to say and 2. stupid. Not either of those nor do I think you'd think that, merely writing as thinking aloud, clarifying as I write/think. I do not journal as much as it gets suggest I should. *grin*

Not sure exactly what causes this "cotton sagging" issue. It might be the weight of juice simply pulls the wick ends down over the opposing ends of the coil. Gee, don't you want your wick dipping into the juice well to get juice? D'oh. And that's why I'm trying to figure out why it seems to be a "problem". I am probably missing an episode of Fox News which explains it. Sorry, not meaning to sound cynical or seem sarcastic, dismissive.

(My mistake, "cotton snapping". Still not seeing it as a "problem". It is in as much you need to replace a wick. That is part and parcel of vaping though. You'll need to replace wicks, coils, batteries, mods, RDAs, RDTAs ... . Stuff wears out, it happens.)

Put me in the woods, get me lost. I'll be fine.

Very true. I thought the ratio might not have that much of an effect until I got some 99.9% PG and have been getting no dry hits for 2 days now, chain vaping constantly on it, when with my regular mix, about 90VG/10PG would probably be causing the peek insulator to bubble at this point if I was vaping on it still as I am this PG mix. Like you said though, each person has their own set up, so different things work for each one. As well, maybe some solutions not so simple or on the surface as others. Agreed.

Just bringing up the ratio thing because I've seen it over and over again where higher PG ratios work fine then throw an 80/20 mix into it and it's dry hit central .. .. usually in tanks only. I believe the more expensive and or well designed tanks can handle that higher VG, though, yes. I currently live in a historic district of the US where everything going on out in the world catches on late so there's alot of people running around with those cheaper vape "pens" .. ..

The cotton I meant pulls up in the juice wells sometimes from pulling so hard on the smaller tanks, just because where you tuck the cotton is on the edge of the tanks' vacuum. It throws off the vacuum if you pull hard enough, ya. EDIT: I have a couple Smok Baby Beasts and a Big Baby which all have restricted air flow via the RTA decks I have in them with any coils 2.5mm and up .. :EDIT I tend to get every ounce of vaping I can out of what I buy so I'm usually tweaking away at them until the end of their lifespan.

I actually prefer VG over PG but I recently found adding a little PG in carries the VG quite well through the cotton if you get just the right mix and know what juice you're working with ..

I usually get 3mg nic juice then cut it in half with VG.
Recently (within the past 2 days since I got this 99.9%PG), on my Smok Cloud Beast, say, I've been filling my dripper bottles I use for mixing; a third of the way with the 3mg nic juices, another 3rd with 99% VG then the rest with that PG .. and have been 2 whole days without any burnt cotton in the middle. THAT's on the tanks. In my dripper, the Drop RDA, 80VG works great. I'd say more VG lasts longer since it makes more clouds, in my experience. Yet, I haven't tested any RDA fixes .. yet .. ..

 

[MyMagicMist]

Very true. I thought the ratio might not have that much of an effect until I got some 99.9% PG and have been getting no dry hits for 2 days now, chain vaping constantly on it, when with my regular mix, about 90VG/10PG would probably be causing the peek insulator to bubble at this point if I was vaping on it still as I am this PG mix.
...
THAT's on the tanks. In my dripper, the Drop RDA, 80VG works great. I'd say more VG lasts longer since it makes more clouds, in my experience. Yet, I haven't tested any RDA fixes .. yet .. ..

Ah yes, for tanks I could possibly agree that a higher PG ratio might be needed. I used to use the 50/50 ratio in evod style tanks. It did well for those as far as I recall. Not sure I'd try more PG with an RDA. Then again, never can tell about me.

Recently, vaped 6 mg nicotine juice which is a lot lower than my 18 mg. Did that for a day to taste a flavor a friend sent as a sample. It too was different PG/VG ration with more PG. Then, I diluted it down with some unflavored 18 mg VG juice.

I usually dilute down flavors like that at any given. For me it is just economical, making a flavor las as long as I can. Though I can say I very likely could have used that at the same PG/VG ratio it was originally mixed at. Hope I did not seem to be overly argumentative. As long as a person enjoys what they're doing, it's all lovely.

 

[Grandpa]

Don't need any PG at all. I don't use the stuff; it makes my throat itch. I use 10% DISTILLED water in my DIY - DO NOT use tap water or drinking water, no matter what the bottler says about how pure their water is. The distilled water thins the max VG down just a titch and it wicks just fine for me. I keep gallons of the stuff on hand for my CPAP machine.

Also, I use shoestring wicks. I get 2 coils per shoestring, and they are easy to use. On a tight coil I might thin them out a little by gently stretching them a little bit before stuffing the coils. Right now I'm using Firebolt cotton wicks. Cheap and works very nicely.

 

[MyMagicMist]

Also, I use shoestring wicks. I get 2 coils per shoestring, and they are easy to use. On a tight coil I might thin them out a little by gently stretching them a little bit before stuffing the coils. Right now I'm using Firebolt cotton wicks. Cheap and works very nicely.

Heaven Gifts & Vapor DNA have those for ~$8.00 per 20 pc bag. If I divide $8.00 by 40, which is accounting for you getting two coils/wicks per piece, I figure $0.20 per piece.

What I have and use is a 180 piece bag of Muji cotton pads. Each piece gives me a rough 9 wicks. 180 * 9 = 1620 That's 9 wicks per piece, giving 1620 wicks. The 9 is an average though. I might get 6, maybe 12 per piece. I got those cotton pads from FastTech for $7.06. $7.06 / 1620 = 0.0043 cents per wick. Learning to use Scottish Roll technique helps out quite a bit as well.

If you think $0.20 per wick is cheap, well I reckon you can think that. I respect that but think I'll do something costing less than a penny a wick. Not had any issues with the cotton I use being visibly dirty. Not had any laboratory testing done to it, it's claimed to be organic. Will say "so far so good", in that I've not gotten sick what I can trace back to the cotton. Been using it over a year now.

And I do sincerely respect anyone thinking, believing what they choose. Me saying I'll do, think or believe otherwise is not meant to read/sound as "smart" or disparaging. It is merely me asserting my view the same as anyone else might. We can ultimately agree to disagree and the world doesn't end, ain't that kind of neat to consider? I'm not here for challenging anyone really, here to help if I can, here for some jokes, here for friends. Also still looking for those free cookies. *chuckles*

Being my wick material costs so little likely accounts to why I do not see wick burning up, or becoming otherwise unusable as a problem. Won't apologize for that view. We each can make our own choices. Not going to hold a gun to anyone's head and say they need to do it only my way. Still, what I do, I've found works out well for me. Can only see that as being reasonable. I'm sure someone might like eating sardines and peanut butter, which I might not. They could think that was reasonable, eating that. It is all subjective & relative, even this statement.

 

[Grandpa]

Heaven Gifts & Vapor DNA have those for ~$8.00 per 20 pc bag. If I divide $8.00 by 40, which is accounting for you getting two coils/wicks per piece, I figure $0.20 per piece.

What I have and use is a 180 piece bag of Muji cotton pads. Each piece gives me a rough 9 wicks. 180 * 9 = 1620 That's 9 wicks per piece, giving 1620 wicks. The 9 is an average though. I might get 6, maybe 12 per piece. I got those cotton pads from FastTech for $7.06. $7.06 / 1620 = 0.0043 cents per wick. Learning to use Scottish Roll technique helps out quite a bit as well.

If you think $0.20 per wick is cheap, well I reckon you can think that. I respect that but think I'll do something costing less than a penny a wick. Not had any issues with the cotton I use being visibly dirty. Not had any laboratory testing done to it, it's claimed to be organic. Will say "so far so good", in that I've not gotten sick what I can trace back to the cotton. Been using it over a year now.

And I do sincerely respect anyone thinking, believing what they choose. Me saying I'll do, think or believe otherwise is not meant to read/sound as "smart" or disparaging. It is merely me asserting my view the same as anyone else might. We can ultimately agree to disagree and the world doesn't end, ain't that kind of neat to consider? I'm not here for challenging anyone really, here to help if I can, here for some jokes, here for friends. Also still looking for those free cookies. *chuckles*

Being my wick material costs so little likely accounts to why I do not see wick burning up, or becoming otherwise unusable as a problem. Won't apologize for that view. We each can make our own choices. Not going to hold a gun to anyone's head and say they need to do it only my way. Still, what I do, I've found works out well for me. Can only see that as being reasonable. I'm sure someone might like eating sardines and peanut butter, which I might not. They could think that was reasonable, eating that. It is all subjective & relative, even this statement.

I paid $2.63 per package from FastTech last November and I bought 5. They are going for $2.99 right now. I think they might have been on sale a year ago. Not going to do the math because I have not had to resort to pinching pennies at that micro level. I like this cotton and it is easy to use so I am happy. Not trying to bust your balls but the cotton I use is a minor cost compared to other vaping supplies.

Do you make your own liquid? I do and it costs me less than 2 bucks per 120 mls. and that includes brand new glass if I choose to use new glass. Of coarse I re-use my glass bottles over and over. So It comes out pretty cost effective and I get the exact liquid that I like.

 

[MyMagicMist]

Not trying to bust your balls but the cotton I use is a minor cost compared to other vaping supplies.
Do you make your own liquid? I do and it costs me less than 2 bucks per 120 mls.

No, I know you're not "ball busting" and I agree a person should use what they desire. I pinch pennies, and try to follow the mantra of waste naught want not for realizing we're poorer than poor money wise. We've tried with us both working away from home too thinking we'd get ahead. *smh* Shit, come out less than we did if only one worked. At any given I'll answer the rest of your post here.

I do make up a little DIY juice using an unflavored max VG 18 mg nicotine base I buy premixed. What I normally do is get from the 1 liter jug over into a 240/250 ml plastic bottle. From that then I mix up little 10 ml "squonk" bottles of flavored juice if I decide upon using any flavoring.

Think I get about (23) 10 ml bottles out of (1) 240 ml. Get about 4 240/250 ml plastic bottles from 1 L jug. I pay, or did pay roughly $50 for a 1 L jug.

23 * 4 = 92 so 9,200 ml == $50.00 / 9,200 ml = $0.0054 per ml

I might have about $20 invested in my flavorings, which can last so long as they're diluted in the recipes. Might say I use roughly $0.02 of flavoring for a 10 ml bottle.

I paid roughly $0.85 per 10 ml plastic bottle. That's $8.50 for 10 bottles. I can wash out, rinse, dry and reuse though up until I can no longer. That's probably about 6 months.

I'm possibly looking at around eh, less than $0.05 per ml of juice that I mix, if I mix & less than $0.02 per ml if I use unflavored.

Not quite gone all out and dove into doing DIY yet, seems like I come just a wee late to that party now. I like knowing my rough costs though as I take a little pride in how much less than cigarettes per year I spend. Know I'd likely be spending around $2,000 yearly, or more for cigarettes. Doubt I spend more than $70 - $100 yearly vaping. Though I reckon that'll likely be changing up soon too with all the bullshit they're trying to get through the works.

Not sure I'd afford what is being said the cost of 1 L unflavored nicotine mixed "base" juice will be. Not sure I can trust myself to dilute out 100 mg to my desired 18 mg juice to go buy up bulk of 100 mg juice while still able, either. And I don't want that risk associated if I'm not sure about myself like that. I probably could be fine, then again there's that gnawing doubt I have about doing math. I understand the basic formula I believe, just rather not base it on "I believe" and possibly foul up.

Rather let someone allegedly a little more certified than I am handle doing the "heavy lifting".

 

[Grandpa]

DIY is simple and very cheap but I have a well equipped lab setup. A digital scale that measures to hundredths of grams and a retort and plenty of borosilicate lab glass. I got all my stuff cheap used. I store my nic and VG in a dorm fridge my daughter dug out of a dumpster after classes at the end of the spring semester let out at one of our local colleges. A free juice calculator on my laptop too. There is so much good info on mixing out there that it's a no brainer. My biggest cost here is 100 mg nic from Carolina Xtract and VG from Amazon. I have 2 liters of 100 mg nic on order right now. I also bought a bunch of 30 ml and 120 ml glass bottles wholesale a couple of years ago.

I have a little more invested in my coil building gear. A lot of wire (mainly from Lightning Vapes and Temco), about ten 25' rolls of Lightning Vapes prebuilt clapton wire, an Avidartisan Daedalus Pro, a coil jig, a very small machine vice, tweezers, cutters, pliers, etc. I haven't kept track of what I've spent on coil gear but it's worth it because I enjoy doing all this stuff.

 

[MyMagicMist]

There is so much good info on mixing out there that it's a no brainer.

I comprehend that as well, and there are also calculators to aid in doing the math. Not really gotten into DIY ejuice though. Have trouble becoming gung ho about much of anything really. I need a new hypothalamus truth be told, mine never has functioned correctly. *chuckles*

 

[516_vaper_li]

I've been having this ongoing issue where my cotton ALWAYS snaps down the middle after about a day of usage. It never lasts more than a day, and I've been going through cotton like crazy. I'm currently running a 200w Sigelie Fuchai at about 75-80w, on a Velocity Clone RDA, with about 22 gauge wire with I believe 11 wraps. I use Cotton Bacon V2, and have been vaping on 1 Hit Wonder: Muffin Man and FRYD Oreo as they are all I have at the moment but I got a decent order of new flavors from Mech Sauce coming Monday that aren't heavy with Cinnamon. I'm not sure what Im doing wrong at this point. I've checked for hot spots and found none. I always keep my cotton heavily saturated as to not let the coil burn through dry cotton. I also always make sure to apply juice directly on my wraps, so that it seeps into the cotton thats being held there. I've googled a lot of different things, and have found nothing that works at this point. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thank you in advance!!

If you are using 3mm coils try using the pre-made cotton threads