Anyone tried Silca Rope for wicking?
eg.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vaping-Outlaws-Clearomizer-Rebuildable-Clearomizers/dp/B07NS88489
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Oooh now we are stepping back to 2014. It is only really good for very low wattage MTL .
Silica wick was pretty good back then but once it gets a bit gunky it just stops wicking at all. When it is new it is very transparent (no cotton taste at all). I use rayon now and find it much better than cotton and much longer lasting than silica.
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Iāve been vaping a whole 7 weeks, 6 of which was with pods.
I just got my first mod and was looking around at supplies and saw these. I hadnāt heard of them before, so I asked. 
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Ya, no problem @anon79121637 what atomiser did you get ?
Will make it a bit easier to determine if silica is something you can use.
You are building already?
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A HellVape Vertex.
Iāve done one build. Seems okay. But boy does it eat e-juice.
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@Timwis would be the man to give you the yay/ney on silica in the vertex I think you may have issues damming up the wicking holes with silica but since i donāt have one I cant say for sure.
Read Timās review here if you havenāt already
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It was instrumental in my purchase
Thanks Tim
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Woah, and I thought I was fast getting an RDA after a few months! One thing I will say about wicking (as a relatively new builder myself), is that no matter what you use, you will get it wrong more than you get it right at first. Sometimes it will seem like the coil cannot keep up with the wick, and you will get spitting - this usually means too much juice is building up, and on the reverse there is burnt tastes and simply setting the cotton alight (it happens) - obviously not enough. You can also find if you stuff too much it does not wick at all and you burn right through the cotton after a few hits, it really is a hard balance to find.
Finding that balance took me a while, but I think Iāve got it now. āYou want it tight, but not too much, just enoughā - wait, what did I just read? Seems stupid now, but I get it. Hard to explain but once you know you know.
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The Vertex is one of the most friendly RTAās for a first time builder but itās relative to the fact pretty much all rebuildables are trial and error until you get the knack!
The problem with listening to advice is what is tight to one person the next wouldnāt consider it the same and like wise what is short in regard cutting your cotton length varies depending on point of view and what they are comparing short to.
Also looking at photos and even watching videos of builds only goes so far as they are magnified and donāt really give an accurate picture of exactly how much cotton is being used and how dense itās packed into the wicking channels so as I told @anon79121637 privately and @yodaofborg eluded to it is just a case of tinkering but like learning to ride a bike it just suddenly clicks into place! (some are lucky and from the off they find wicking a doddle while some can struggle for a long time). Also most RTAās in regard cotton length, tightness through the coil style of wicking etc will just slightly change RTA to RTA but again once how to wick and that feel for it falls into place you can basically just look at the design and automatically know how it should be done, just experience but as stated you could of bought many RTAās that are not suitable for newer builders so at least you bought one that you should get spot on sooner rather than later!
As explained when someone describes how an RTA should be wicked itās based on the other person having the same understanding of tightness through the coil etc but here is the best I can do explaining how I would wick the Vertex!
You want the cotton going through the coil so there is some definite friction but not enough so it is trying to pull the coil out of position as you move it through the coil, just a definite bite!
Then cut your cotton ends leaving enough to fill the wicking channels, you then want to fluff those ends up before placing in the channels. The channels do need filling with cotton (else you will get flooding that will also lead to leaking out the airflow) but not densely packed as this will suffocate the flow of e-juice which will cause dry hits!
Only when it was used in clearomisers back in the day when the coil would be about 2.0ohm or higher and giving out 5 to 6w max. never tried in a modern RTA so wouldnāt like to comment!
Note the slight smile peeps, he was being sarcastic as he seems to be blaming me for not hitting the ground running when not actually buying what I advised!
Modern MTL RTAās have improved immensely where it comes to both flavour and smoothness of draw but the downside is almost all are very thirsty compared to older tanks from 5 or so years ago and compared to what you were using! When I recommended products I did so based on what you said you were looking for and as you were using 20mg nic salts this was another shout for the Bishop as itās a true MTL rather than Vertex which is more versatile but didnāt really fit what you were saying you wanted, with the Bishop the juice flow from the tank to the wicking is micro managed, itās a superb design and very economic with juice. I know you were not keen on anything other than top fill but the Bishop also getās wicked completely differently to other RTAās which means you really canāt get it wrong and both that micro managed juice flow to the deck and angled funnel airflow means Zero leaking, even better than a top to bottom airflow design in this regard.
But then you did message me telling me how much better the Vertex was in design in just about every regard (not bad for someone who has only been vaping for 7 weeks) so surprised we are having this thread which after the previous rant you had messaged me when first receiving the Vertex I am reluctant to give you any advice as you have a tendency of throwing it back into my face!
The real benefits of the Vertex is itās versatility between MTL and RDL draws but I advised based not on a general review perspective but more tailored to what I felt would be the best option for you! On that basis I recommended firstly two options and later a third but the Vertex was not one of them. You donāt have to take someoneās advice when asked for it but if you donāt then you have a nerve sending a rant blaming me!
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No Sarcasm. No blame. No not hitting the ground running.
the āslight smileā is because thatās what the forum translates ā:ā and ā)ā to, despite that every other place Iāve been that translate to just āsmileā.
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Once again. I didnāt and donāt blame you.
My (private) rant ā for which I apologised prefusely ā was born of frustration at something entirely separate (as explained).
At least I now know what put your nose out of joint, Just a shame you felt the need to bring this out in public, rather than informing me in private.
As now, youāe effectively wrecked my chance of getting any further advise in the place ā which is pretty mean given I was, once again, genuinely thanking you above ā but who here is going to help the newbie that offended the local ātreasureā timwis.
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Ok lads take a breath
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Donāt worry @anon79121637 Iāve got PLENTY of bad advice to give. Weāll keep your plate full.
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Keep it coming SD 
ā¦
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Ive used GenDoh Cotton pads, Organic cotton balls, Silica, Braided somesuchnonsense, and mostly use Rayon these days. Wicks faster, burns less/not at all, and allows me to change flavors much more often and realize the change much faster. Use it in tanks and in RDA/RDTAās. Ive not been able to get it in mesh decks, though My Titan Dual Series Mesh will see that sometime soon. Best advise above was pull till you get good resistance but not enough to jerk your coil out of place, though I still err on the side of too tight rather than too loose.
Problem with text chat is its so easy to interpret a personās intention wrong. Welcome to the forum! If I havent pissed you off yet, give it time. it will happen. lol
This place Rawks! Great people with lots of opinions. Take what you need and leave the rest? meh-life is too short!
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:rye smile:
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I suspect you are a DTL vaper?
Iām very new to vaping; very, very new to building, and currently strictly MTL (and probably always will be), and the only wicking material Iāve used is the piece ā 60mm x 50mm by ~2mm flat pad) that was included with my RTA.
The problem with that is it has no structure ā very short fibres ā so if you twist one end and poke it through, when you pull, the twisted part tends to separate at the junction between the twisted and untwisted parts, rather than pulling through. Unless you cut your strip very narrow, in which case it is very loose in the coil.
My first attempt at wicking seemed to work okay, but it consumed juice at a prodigious rate. Which is probably perfect for DTL@0.03%, but no so much for RTL@2%!
I was also completed surprised by the rate at which the juice was being consumed and only noticed I was out when I got the awful dry hit.
Having read that the taste can persist even long after a refill, I decided to ditch wick and try again.
This time I cut a wider strip and wrapped it tight in a piece of aluminium foil in order to get it into the coil. This worked and the second attempt produces far less spluttering and uses the juice (a little) more sparingly.
I was looking around for something that might be easier to use when I came across the silica wick which appears to have some structure to it, and I thought sounded good. ā¦ but perhaps not.
Iāll look around for some rayon.
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Thanks.
Crazy price difference between US and https://www.amazon.co.uk/Graham-Cellucotton-Beauty-Fibers-44130/dp/B00RONH4NW/
Even with shipping its cheaper to import it.
With luck,my wifeāll know somewhere local we can buy it.
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Yup! Iām DTLā¦ A few tricks that Iāve found over the years to get the rayon through my coils would be to take a strip of 38 or 40 gauge wire and loop it in half so that I can pass the loop through the coil and then I slide my rayon through the loop and gently pull back through the coil. When I start encountering tension Iāll twist the rayon clockwise or counterclockwise whichever. You can even wet your wicking material with e liquid to decrease the resistance. Once I get my rayon through I can slide it back and forth and feel that there is a good amount of resistance. It can even clean the inside of the coil that weāre not spotless after I dry burned and rinsed the coil to clean it each time I rewick. When I take the wire out of the doubled over piece of rayon I use my scissors to cut just below where itās bent and I use my tweezers to go ahead and fluff the rayon while holding the opposite end so it doesnāt pull through. I can then trim excess and thin my rayon. Works pretty well for me!
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