Cotton or Silica Wick?

That is what I suspected. All of the videos I've watch for rebuilds of disposable atomizers do use silica.

- - - Updated - - -

While I'm generally trying to get better educated on all of this, there is one very important reason why I am asking all these questions. My living conditions do not include air conditioning. I rely one one or two fans to keep me comfortable. You can well imagine how difficult it would be to try and work with cotton with one or two fans blowing.

:storm:

 

Silica has it's place, and honestly lately I'm tempted to go back for a bit since I don't have all that much time to rewick every few days. Cotton has it's place, it's cheap and readily available. Rayon is an up and comer, and even SS mesh and rope are real hard to beat in a genesis atty. people are having good results with quartz, and there are really good ceramics that I'd like to try someday. Heck, some people even make wickless coils. You can ask all the questions you can come up with, but nothing will substitute experience. I know several people on here that have been using silica for years, why change.

Incidentally, my office has the air con blowing at me from the back, and a fan from the front. It still isn't an issue to make my wicks, but I do tend to lose the little ends I snip off. Really, if 5 wicks just blew away, that would be like 30 seconds of my life wasted. It really doesn't take much to make them.

 

i have a tendency to use wick in RBA where i cant see inside / dont have clear tank sections, and cotton everywhere else ....
for me it has always been that when i run low on juice the cotton getting burned out of the coil, just cause i couldnt see its running low, in that case i am better off with wick

 

I have an Aspire Nautilus with a 1.6 ohm coil that started to increase in resistance due to gunk built-up. I think it uses silica as a wick and dry burning it a few times got it nice and clean again with resistance back to 1.6 ohm. You can't do that with cotton I guess.

 

I remember you saying I should use 28 AWG Kanthal. If I decide to go with silica, what size should I be using to rebuild a Kayfun 3.1 or comparable?

 

Probably something around 2mm, but you make the coils differently. A normal silica coil will have you folding it over on itself once or twice, then using an opened up paper clip and wrapping the coil around it snugly but not overly tight. Tighten it down on the Kayfun, then slide out the paper clip. You'll make it look kind of like an "S" with the coil in the middle and the top and bottom loopy parts stuffed down over the juice channels. Look for the Kayfun guide from Svoemesto, the original manual shows how to wick with silica.

 

Earlier today I watched this video that explained exactly what you are talking about, accept he's building coils with a lot lower ohms than we have talked about.

A quick silica Kayfun build and the Air Control Drip Tip - YouTube

 

I wish I could bookmark users, you usually asks questions that clear up a lot of things for me. Have learned a lot by following your posts in here. I will try Silica Wick's here too. I'm not on the best of terms with the cotton so far.

 

ryanmacl has been very helpful in my making the decision to go with silica. And I very much appreciate his putting up with all my questions. I also can 't help but notice its what the manufacturer ships with their product.

 

I like silica, and use Ekowool, Ekowool with silica centre, and plain silica.
Silica is great, but cotton is trendy now. A dry hit on cotton is much more disgusting than a dry hit on silica. I find the flavour with silica just as good as with cotton. Mostly I use dripping atties, sometimes genesis - experimenting with ss wire rope & Ekowool sleeve.

 

I started out with silica, but is mostly cotton now. The simple reason is that is easier to do for me. The big difference for me was the going to Kayfun type equipment, silica or cotton is mostly academic to me, both is good.

 

The atomiser sure does make a difference. I'm in love with my new Hellfire dripper. Kayfuns are hard to beat tho, even now they set a standard.