Become a Patron!

Wick break in

Does anyone know why a new wick seems to need some break in to really get wicking good and handle longer pulls on an rta? I’ve noticed that even with pretty thin tails in my wick ports i Have to watch not to take long pulls for the first little while. I know to start at lower watts and short pulls and slowly build up to let the wick break in, I’m just curious what’s happening to cause the effect.
 

Vape Fan

_evil twin_
Staff member
Senior Moderator
VU Donator
Platinum Contributor
Press Corps
Member For 5 Years
If wicked correctly, and juiced prior to filling tank, there shouldn't be the kind of break in your talking about.
What RTA is it? Sounds like too much wick in the coils and or the wick ports. Your using cotton?
 

5150sick

Under Ground Hustler
Staff member
VU Administrator
Senior Moderator
VU Donator
Diamond Contributor
Press Corps
Member For 5 Years
Mod Team Leader
What RTA are you using?
What ohms is your build?
How many watts do you vape at?
Is the airflow all the way open?
How big around are you making your coils?
Single or dual coil?


Once we know this info it will be easier to help troubleshoot your RTA
 

5150sick

Under Ground Hustler
Staff member
VU Administrator
Senior Moderator
VU Donator
Diamond Contributor
Press Corps
Member For 5 Years
Mod Team Leader
3mm is a great choice for a single coil.

Are you just using regular cotton?

With the pulls, how long is long?

Also with the wick breaking in, how long is a little while?
 

Vape Fan

_evil twin_
Staff member
Senior Moderator
VU Donator
Platinum Contributor
Press Corps
Member For 5 Years
Kylin Mini single coil, 3 mm coil ID, Kanthal fused Clapton (24/2x32) .28 ohm vaping at 58 watts, airflow 7/8 open.
I'm thinking you haven't had it long. A lot of wick in the ports to stop leaking? It's temperamental to wick. I'm sure you've looked at reviews on wicking it.
With kinda snug inside but not tight inside the coil, here's what I do:
Thin the tails quite a bit without pulling it out of the coil.
Trim so that it is jus tbarely short of touching the bottom of the ports.
Trim the sides a little so I don't have much to tuck into the wicking channel.
Juice the coil and wick.
Manicure the wick into the channels.
Once in the channels, I bridge the channel with flat side of tweezers for 2 reasons. It flattens the wick out of the way of threading the top on, because any little caught thread will move it...and I can gauge the thickness of the cotton in the channel. If it compresses cotton, it's too thick, if it's just juicy thats good.
In the pic it's barely touching bottom because it swells when wet and some of what we see is juice.. If it's very close but not touching after wet, still should be ok. Note how it's all inside the Y.
km.jpg


Hope that helps. Should get rid of dry/anemic hits, but if not enough cotton it will leak. Learning curve on this one.
 
3mm is a great choice for a single coil.

Are you just using regular cotton?

With the pulls, how long is long?

Also with the wick breaking in, how long is a little while?

I’m using cotton bacon prime, doing the Scottish roll, and it seems like 2 second pulls aren’t wise at first unless I have the wick tails really thin. I’d say the first 20 pulls for break in time, and the flavour gets better and the bubbles come out quicker after a pull.
 
I'm thinking you haven't had it long. A lot of wick in the ports to stop leaking? It's temperamental to wick. I'm sure you've looked at reviews on wicking it.
With kinda snug inside but not tight inside the coil, here's what I do:
Thin the tails quite a bit without pulling it out of the coil.
Trim so that it is jus tbarely short of touching the bottom of the ports.
Trim the sides a little so I don't have much to tuck into the wicking channel.
Juice the coil and wick.
Manicure the wick into the channels.
Once in the channels, I bridge the channel with flat side of tweezers for 2 reasons. It flattens the wick out of the way of threading the top on, because any little caught thread will move it...and I can gauge the thickness of the cotton in the channel. If it compresses cotton, it's too thick, if it's just juicy thats good.
In the pic it's barely touching bottom because it swells when wet and some of what we see is juice.. If it's very close but not touching after wet, still should be ok. Note how it's all inside the Y.
View attachment 139432


Hope that helps. Should get rid of dry/anemic hits, but if not enough cotton it will leak. Learning curve on this one.

You’re right, I haven’t had it that long, 6 weeks, my first rta and also a new vaper. I’ve done a lot of wicking and learning, I knew from reviews and tutorials it’s finicky to wick but gives great flavour when you get it right. I’m running quite a bit less wick in the channels than your picture shows. I’m heavily combing the tails and trimming them flush with the bottom of the grub screws. When juiced I can see the screws through the wicks. Cotton bacon prime doing a Scottish roll, snug in the coil. If it’s too tight I remove a bit of material and try again. I just ordered some Japanese puff pads to try out. Nothing too lose if I don’t like them, the girls in my house can always use them for cosmetics lol!
 
I am juicing up the wick thouroughly before assembly. Still learning the fine line between leaky and perfect. It seems like when I’m wicked a bit heavy is when The bubbling action doesn’t happen right off the start. It’s still surprising how much I can thin the tails of the wicks and not have the juice leaking out everywhere lol!
 

Vape Fan

_evil twin_
Staff member
Senior Moderator
VU Donator
Platinum Contributor
Press Corps
Member For 5 Years
For new vaper/first rebuildable/being Kylin Mini which isn't easy but flavor is great, way to stick to it.
There are some good looking single coil out there that are easier to get along with.
 

Ralph_K

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
If anyone still has a kylin mini and have wicking problems. I started using mine again and dropped down to using 2.5mm coils instead of 3mm and it's just the right amount of cotton. Wicks much better without messing around with cotton just cut to the right length and don't have to thin cotton out.
 

MyMagicMist

Diamond Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
What RTA are you using?
What ohms is your build?
How many watts do you vape at?
Is the airflow all the way open?
How big around are you making your coils?
Single or dual coil?


Once we know this info it will be easier to help troubleshoot your RTA
3mm is a great choice for a single coil.

Are you just using regular cotton?

With the pulls, how long is long?

Also with the wick breaking in, how long is a little while?

*Ahem* Sticky these damn it. "New Vapers Read These Before Asking Questions, Answer These"
 

MyMagicMist

Diamond Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
If anyone still has a kylin mini and have wicking problems. I started using mine again and dropped down to using 2.5mm coils instead of 3mm and it's just the right amount of cotton. Wicks much better without messing around with cotton just cut to the right length and don't have to thin cotton out.

Thank you for that. You didn't need to report back with a solution. Good you did though as it proves out you stuck to it, learned something for yourself. It lets others find help quicker as well.
 

Wb80

-DIY-demon-
VU Donator
Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
VU Patreon
I have almost no break in time with my kylin mini. Sounds like you have to much cotton.
 

Carambrda

Platinum Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
I have almost no break in time with my kylin mini. Sounds like you have to much cotton.
I have almost no break in time with any of my RBAs. Using just the right amount of cotton is paramount, I cannot agree more.

But when I juice it up I don't just dump the juice on everywhere, as instead I do it by always dripping right on top of each coil ONLY. I start by putting on enough juice for it to saturate ONLY the part of the wicks that is located inside the coils, not more, and, each time when I see that a drop of juice is about to run down from the bottom of a coil, I pulse the coils extremely very gently so no vapor comes out, but the drop gets sucked up into the coil before it can run down. The reason why I find this all important is that it causes any air pockets that might otherwise get stuck between the cotton fibers to migrate outward, all the way down toward the bottom of the build deck where these tiny microscopic air bubbles will finally escape from the wicks entirely.

The next step in the process is to pulse the coils, at the power level I normally use when I vape, only very briefly so a really small whiff of vapor comes out, not more. After that, I continue to drip more juice right on top of each coil. And pulse them again, a tiny little bit longer this time around, but not too long. The 'secret' is in the fact you can prime the wicks in this manner by gradually increasing the duration of the pulse with every subsequent step, and doing so by finding the right balance between giving the cotton enough heat for it to react to favorably and not boiling it simply to mush. Another part of this same secret is that, with Cotton Bacon V2 at least, before I insert the cotton into my coils I can keep rubbing it between my fingertips in one direction on all sides repeatedly for some minutes so that it slowly but surely grows in length, up to about half an inch or so longer than it was originally. You can feel the locations where the amount of cotton is still a little bit too much. That's how, by rubbing more frequently across those specific parts, you can get the amount to become just right, uniformly, eventually. Yeah, it does take a good deal of patience for sure. The best part of the old secret is, good things come to those who wait. ?
 
Last edited:

Bigrick

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
I hose mine down to start. I "paint the wicks" then I drip as needed. I love a fresh wick and break in has never been an issue. I have not gotten an unpleasant flavor from a coil which has not been burnt. Just my opinion and experience.
 

Carambrda

Platinum Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
I hose mine down to start. I "paint the wicks" then I drip as needed. I love a fresh wick and break in has never been an issue. I have not gotten an unpleasant flavor from a coil which has not been burnt. Just my opinion and experience.
I'm too lazy to "paint the wicks". The combined effort of patiently priming the wicks how I described in my previous post and finally not having to worry about repainting them over and over and over is the least effort by far, and, at least in part, it also explains why I don't need to rewick often... which saves more effort. This is not a subjective opinion. Just an easy observation based purely on what factually does happen in the real world, and, before anyone should ask, no, it wasn't me who first discovered that this is so. To the contrary, I was fairly late to vaping (January 2017) so I had to catch up by faster learning as opposed to merely copying complacent presumptuousness type behaviors from "more experienced" vapers who never really bothered to compare anything much in any way that could properly make sense. :giggle:
 

Bigrick

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
I'm too lazy to "paint the wicks". The combined effort of patiently priming the wicks how I described in my previous post and finally not having to worry about repainting them over and over and over is the least effort by far, and, at least in part, it also explains why I don't need to rewick often... which saves more effort. This is not a subjective opinion. Just an easy observation based purely on what factually does happen in the real world, and, before anyone should ask, no, it wasn't me who first discovered that this is so. To the contrary, I was fairly late to vaping (January 2017) so I had to catch up by faster learning as opposed to merely copying complacent presumptuousness type behaviors from "more experienced" vapers who never really bothered to compare anything much in any way that could properly make sense. :giggle:
No I just do that when I put in a fresh wick. After that it is drips through the top. Just pull it and go. If I leak out the af that is what tissues are for.
 

Carambrda

Platinum Contributor
ECF Refugee
Member For 5 Years
No I just do that when I put in a fresh wick. After that it is drips through the top. Just pull it and go. If I leak out the af that is what tissues are for.
If you merely dump the juice onto the tails of the fresh, dry, wicks when juicing it up, then you can actually see the numerous tiny air pockets that got trapped inside the tails of the wicks after that. They are white-ish in direct comparison to those areas where the only things that are present are just cotton fibers and juice, but some people don't pay any attention to those kinds of details, or they simply don't notice them. The higher you go up in wattage when you vape on a given coil or set of coils, the slower it gunks up, at least until you reach the final limit of what can actually be possible. At the same time also, differences that many think are too subtle for them to not fade into the distant landscape are magnified, i.e. their various impacts become more prominent, much to the point of either make it or break it. Kind of like how listening to music at reference levels brings out specifics that listening at background music listening levels obfuscates. Please don't me wrong, I'm not trying to point any fingers or anything. I actually envy those who can not taste the difference. Their life is so much easier in comparison. ?
 

VU Sponsors

Top