At My Wicks End!

[Caterpiller]

Well it's 3am here in KL and I need to get some sleep.

Just finished my last build for the night.

8wraps, 28g, 3mm ID, 1.74 ohms.

Have to say it seems to taste a little better, only a slight hint of cotton, but I don't know, I'm tired - I'll try it again tomorrow.

Let me know if you see anything I'm doing wrong.

All you advice has been greatly appreciated.

Good night

 

[VaPreis]

The cotton density is way to thin, and the tails are to short.

 

[Wolfenstark]

The cotton density is way to thin, and the tails are to short.

I agree with this.
Always liked mine snug in the coil.
I use the KGD and I think my juice tastes like its meant to taste, ( most of it I make myself).

 

[RipCigs]

I think i understand the taste you are referring to, and i've had it myself for about a week. I recoiled and rewicked probably 10 times with different coils and different wicks. I know cotton sometimes gives a taste for a couple hours, but after vaping that dreadful mist that tasted like a mix of chalk and cotton i was at my wits end.
I wish i could tell you for sure how i resolved this. I'm almost certain it was due to my nic base not steeping long enough, or at least, i'm almost certain it was that batch of my liquid. Never had that happen to me again since that week. Even mixed more liquid with that same base 2 weeks later, tasted wonderful. Coil position also had a large impact, but as i do not own a Kayfun i couldn't help you there.
So have you tried with more liquids, and do you DIY your liquids?

 

[miro011]

well for once , Kayfun 4 sucks , you shouldve just bought a Kayfun 3.1 clone from FastTech for less than 15$ . Many people have this false assumption that cotton needs to be perfectly setup but thats not true , my Kayfun performs great regardless of my cotton is covering the juice channels or not , as long as it touches the deck it works . Just make sure the cotton is not too loose and not too tight , you want some resistance but not the point where you have to apply straight or twist the cotton so it can slide through the coil . THAT IS WRONG . And if that doesnt work for you , then it is the pressure in your tank , make sure all your o-rings are there and if they are , that means you have a kayfun 4 just like mine that tastes bad .

Its very simple , if your cotton is touching the deck and all of your o-rings are in place , and you get bad taste , it means you have a tank that doesnt work properly . Many people think they can fix it but not really . If your getting bad taste and ur sure everything is setup properly , the best thing to do is to either return it or toss it in the garbage .

 

[MattyTny]

Practice.

I use Kohgendo and rayon. Both have a slight wick tastes that go away after a few fires. It's all about the procedure and you'll get better at it.

I suggest you get a simple RDA. That way you can easily try wicking without the hassle of taking apart a tank. It's a great way to learn. Put in a simple single coil and try wicks from there.

Different resistances firing at different wattages needs different types of wicking too, then throw in the deck you're building on. It gets complex quickly. You'll nail it soon

One more thing, airflow and how it hits the coil is a big factor.

 

[AndriaD]

I use KGD all the time and there definitely is a break in period, usually after I have been vaping on it a half hour or so it's all good. The upside is the break in doesn't take that long if you stick with it, and really gets barely noticeable after sometime rebuilding with it.

Having said that I have only bought the boxes which the pads come in loose and the box is wrapped in plastic. Looking at yours it looks like they are smaller packs where the plastic is actually touching the cotton and that makes me wonder if the packaging isn't giving you a stranger than normal taste off the KGD.

I've sent KGD to several people and had nothing but great replies about it once they've tried it.

I found that the shiseido has a shorter break-in than the KGD; the KGD's seems roughly the same as that from a cotton-ball wick, maybe 20-30 mins. I just turn the wattage down slightly, 1 or .5 watt, and with the shiseido, there's really little break-in time at all -- great if you're in a hurry and gotta get out the door!

In fact I *just* re-wicked with shiseido, turned it down to 9.5 instead of my customary 10 or 10.2, and it's vaping great, none of that annoying sputtering I get when I use a cotton-ball wick, or even the blunted flavor -- the flavor is there, just somewhat less due to the lower wattage, and I can turn it back to 10w in 5 or 10 mins. Me likee.

Andria

 

[AndriaD]

The cotton density is way to thin, and the tails are to short.

And the cotton all splayed out like that, looks like a proper invitation to gunking, or hot legs, or just general sputtering mayhem. My wicks stay nice and neat resting on the little ledge above the juice channels.

You want the cotton to slide easily, BUT, if, after you prime it with juice, there is obviously room in the coil, then it's not enough, and will taste like hot metal. If it doesn't slide pretty easily thru the coil without bunching, then it's too much. Sometimes when I first try to insert the wick, it does bunch, so I slide it on thru and pull off a little, the part that bunched, then tidy it up again and try again.

An art form -- but you get used to it pretty quickly.

Andria

 

[Rule62]

ANTC, I've tried using minimal cotton, but do worry about not having enough actually in the inner coil diameter (if that makes sense).

I tried a minimal build earlier and noticed that once saturated the cotton only filled the bottom half of the coil, leaving a gap to the top of the coil.

This build kind of sizzled and still tasted bad.

What I'm trying to do now is put enough cotton in to fill the coil, but then cutting down the tails (that go to the juice holes) to a bare minimum.

As much as people like to say 'use a minimal amount of KGD', there is a lower limit, and you can get carried away with the 'less is more' approach. If there is a void at the top of your coil after you've pulled the KGD through, or after you've saturated it with juice, you've used too little. It will snap, crackle, and pop, and give a somewhat burnt taste. The cotton has to contact the inside of the coil, all the way around, after being saturated; but you don't want big 'shoulders' in the wick, at either end where the wick exits the coil either. It takes a little practice to get it right. But once you do, you'll be able to repeat the process every time with KGD.

 

[Caterpiller]

Thank you all for your tips, even if they are:

Use less cotton.
Use more cotton.
Feather the tails and just touching the deck.
Longer thicker tails.

Lol.

I think the RDA advice sounds good. I could practice more regular wicking, and I get to buy another shiny thing!

What's the best simple, single coil, RDA with a similar deck to the Kayfun v4?

I'm using Five Pawns - Castle Long 12mg btw. I'm wonder if this is not the easiest juice to wick?

 

[MattyTny]

Thank you all for your tips, even if they are:

Use less cotton.
Use more cotton.
Feather the tails and just touching the deck.
Longer thicker tails.

Lol.

I think the RDA advice sounds good. I could practice more regular wicking, and I get to buy another shiny thing!

What's the best simple, single coil, RDA with a similar deck to the Kayfun v4?

I'm using Five Pawns - Castle Long 12mg btw. I'm wonder if this is not the easiest juice to wick?

There is too many RDAs to list as the best simple RDA. The deck similar to the KF4 might be out of the question, but there are atomizers with airflow from the bottom, but being simple, just look at one with side airflow. Doesn't have to be single coil only, most have single air options and have dual or more capability. Check out various sites, reviews and the RDA forum for opinions. I'm not too up on my RDA game either, most coming out now have very unique features though.

Also want to mention that different liquids can taste different in different atomizers.

 

[roxynoodle]

Cotton is too loose in the coil.

As for the tails, the k4 is a little picky, so I don't think they're too short necessarily. I keep my tails just touching the deck as well, but my wicks are a lot fluffier.

 

[AndriaD]

Thank you all for your tips, even if they are:

Use less cotton.
Use more cotton.
Feather the tails and just touching the deck.
Longer thicker tails.

Lol.

I think the RDA advice sounds good. I could practice more regular wicking, and I get to buy another shiny thing!

What's the best simple, single coil, RDA with a similar deck to the Kayfun v4?

I'm using Five Pawns - Castle Long 12mg btw. I'm wonder if this is not the easiest juice to wick?

My kayfun lite plus is by far my favorite vape -- but the very next best vape, for an RDA, is the magma -- it also has the airflow from the bottom, just under the coil, and the top cap's interior is dome-shaped -- terrific flavor. It's very easy to build on, too; it has a deep well, but if you fill it more than half full, it WILL leak. Put one of the kayfun's spare 15mm o-rings under the Magma's airflow control ring, and it will stay the way you set it even when you screw/unscrew the top cap.

Andria

ETA: as for the tails -- they should just rest on the little ledge above the juice channels. If they're too thick, and have "fat shoulders," they'll gunk more. The wick should JUST fill the coil, and not one bit more.

 

[Caterpiller]

By Jove, I think I've got it.

I take it back. The KGD cotton is great!

I've finally managed to build a great vape on the Kv4!)

Ended up with 8wraps, 28g, 3mm ID, 1.74 ohms.

Full of flavour and a dense warm vape!

I used a bit more cotton than previously, really quite a lot in the coil, and have a fair amount in the tails, which I trimmed about 2mm longer than the deck, and went back to fixing the chimney then poking the tails down.

The big difference I think was care and attention.

I made six coils, then installed the best of them. When I put the cotton in I made sure the air hole was not impeded.

Seems to be working great.

Yes I got a faint cotton taste for the first 15 - 20 pulls. But after that it went away. I've just got through a tank and a half of the Kv4 on this build and it's going strong.

If anything the flavour and vapour seem to be improving with time.

Thanks all who put up with my whining over the last 3 weeks and in multiple threads.

I think I've got it now!

P.S. I'm still going to but a Magma RDA for extended wicking practice as Andria suggested.

 

[Thespis]

Just throwing this out there...
I have a Lemo (similar to a KF) and a Magma. IMO, the wicking is not even remotely similar between the two.

 

[Caterpiller]

Got ya The Spis, I'm fairly new. What's the major difference?

 

[Thespis]

The tails on the Magma wick are much longer and wick juice from wells, not channels.

 

[Papillon61]

I'm a cotton fan too - whether it is KGD, muji, balls.Once I got a Kayfun4 wicked with OC I practically retired the Nautilus - it just didn't taste right any more. It will do at a pinch but compared to cotton it's like instant coffee compared to bean-to-cup brewed.

 

[bones1274]

+1 on the CVS organic cotton balls. Been using them for about a year and a half now. Absolutely no cotton flavor whatsoever.

 

[Alter]

I wick my kayfuns a bit differently than most do but it works for me and I have no leaking nor dryhits. I watched many youtubes and came up with my own wicking method. I can run 20+mls through my kayfun before I notice my rayon beginning to poop out.
This isn't a kayfun4 but just a regular kayfun:
I also kinda overstuff the coil with the rayon, then trim some of the bulk on the top and angle the sides so it fits against the deck and some hangover on the bottom deck. I juice my wicking first and press against the back before putting on the chimney.

Once I put the chimney on I fluff the wicking and make sure its all straight and nothing caught in the threads. With tweezers I find the juice channels and squeeze the wick to make a V then refluff the sides.

This is what I end up with and have no hassles at all using this method.

Wicking the kayfun is definitely a learning curve not to have it flood or dryhit but once you got it, it works great