How can a vape heating coil use a metal wick?
How can a vape heating coil use a metal wick?
I know electricity will take the shortest/easiest path to ground, and that path for a wire wrapped around a bigger wire/cable should be shorting through the bigger wire.
Right?
Edit: Turns out I was right about electricity, but wrong about how the genesis style atomizers were wicked. I didn't know the cable was just to draw the liquid from the tank to the cotton. I thought the cable was a cotton replacement.
I used to vape on mesh and cable wick. Some people think you need cotton in between but you do not if you know how to set it up right.
The coil can be wrapped directly on the mesh or cable as long as you build up a layer of non-conductive carbon between them. Back when they were popular most would use a torch on the mesh or cable to get it scorched. Then you wrap coil gently in complete contact (no loose/floppy coils) with the wick.
The fun part is working out the hot spots by pulsing and actually poking the coil where it tries to short on the wick…it really is an art to get it right.
Once it’s set up correctly you have a nifty juice conduit straight to the coil - you actually have to tip the atomizer to let the juice flow. It can be an excellent vape but kind of a PITB to get right.
It depends, if the resistance of the larger cable is higher the power will still follow the path of least resistance through the smaller cable. And I haven't taken a vape apart to check how the coil works but it's more likely to be ceramic or quarts than something actually conducive.
It would be very hard to make the resistance of the larger cable higher than the smaller one because resistance is a function of the cross-section of the wire. Obviously also a function of the metals, maybe something like silver and Kanthal but it feels like a long shot.
I don't know what tech the OP is talking about but you don't need a wick if you can get e-juice flowing over the coil anyway. You can use a dripper like this so I'm guessing someone has developed a tank to feed the juice into the setup?
My assumptions on how a genesis style tank was wicked was wrong. I thought the cable replaced the cotton instead of just drawing the liquid up to the top so the cotton didn't have to go in the tank.
Can you link to the tech you're talking about?
I haven't been able to find any pictures of the coil wrapped around the cable, but here's a product picture of the cable.
Edit: I may have misunderstood the wicking method for the genesis style tanks. I didn't realize the cables didn't touch the coil, but just wick the liquid up to the surface so the cotton doesn't have to go all the way in the tank.
Oh, yeah. They're just conduits for the juice, they don't touch the power terminals. Used for drippers with tanks on the bottom so that you don't have to tip them up to soak the wicks. They still have cotton wicks in the heating coils.