I know this can vary a lot dependant on the liquid type but how often do you guys change your cotton in an RTA / RDA?
What are the tell tale signs the cotton needs changing and do you clean your tanks for every cotton change?
Cheers
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I tend to change almost every day in my rda. Probably unnecessary, but I change flavors often so I feel like my vape starts to taste like a combination of all my juices. Honeydew chocolate donut gummybears is not a good flavor. In my rta, I might change once or twice a month. I only clean the tank about once a month really.
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Thanks, I’ve been changing cotton and cleaning the tank every few days due to a strange taste I keep getting, not sure if it’s the liquid or the cotton…
What tank are you using? What wire? What wick (cotton I assume)? What is the taste like?
I think the key is taste, if it tastes bad, change it. Cotton is cheap, a perfect vape is priceless.
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That’s what I like most about being able to just change the wick… No need to keep buying prebuilt coils when funky flavors won’t go away.
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I boil my cleito coils and it actually does get a lot of if not most of the offending previous liquid taste out.
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I change my rta’s , especially the smaller chambered ones quite regularly, my kayfun v5 is every 3ish days or 30-50ml of juice. The wider ones like the griffin etc, about every 60-90ml.
I find the cotton tends to break down and collapse after a certain point, and a change is required.
After you use a certain rta/rda for a while you get to know when it’s due to be changed.
The other point is the juice you use, the sweeter it is the more often you need to clean your coils and replace the wick.
I think the telltale signs are when you notice your vape is just not quite right, lack of flavour/vapor, perhaps a slight burning taste, then you know it’s time for a clean and rewick.
And any funky taste, unless you can specify, could actually be your cotton breaking in period or just simply the brand of cotton you use.
Hope this helps. 
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For me, being a rayon guy, it’s usually not the fact that my wick needs changing…rayon is a workhorse when it comes to wicking material. It’s the fact I need to do a coil burn, due to coil gunk. I know I need to do maintenance when I see the coil resistance going up a bit or when my juice just starts tasting a bit off (burnt). 
My tobacco mixes usually have some NET thrown in there for some umph, so coil burns are almost a daily thing for me. 
It’s typical that I have a half dozen setups which get tuned up daily.
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My experience with rayon was exactly the opposite. It would get fouled and I’d be rewicking every day. The littlest bit of scorching and it was ruined.
Interesting. 
Where did you acquire your rayon?
It was this cellucotton from the beauty supply store. I confirmed it was the right thing, pure rayon, and it was fantastic when it was new, cleanest flavor I’ve ever experienced. One dryhit, and it was done, the wicks would slowly turn black. It would get even worse overnight, so I’d just change it every morning.
Do you remember the product code number on the box?
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No, but thats what I compared to determine it was the correct thing. The box went out with the trash months ago.
I rewick daily and dry burn the coils each time to get the gunk off. Most I push it is 2 days, after that, things start tasting off.
Once per two weeks, I take apart my tank (all 15 pieces, remove orings, etc) and rinse each piece under tap water to remove most of the juice residue. Then I boil some water and put it in a bowl and put all the pieces of my tank in the water for a few minutes. Use a spoon to get the pieces out without burning myself and drop them in a second bowl with freshly boiled water and let sit another few mins. Then remove everything, dry thoroughly using paper towel and compressed air to get in the hard to reach places, then reassemble, install new coil and wick. The whole process takes about 15 minutes. I haven’t noticed any ill effects from placing parts in freshly boiled water. Some say it will mess up the orings and whatnot but I’ve never noticed any issues. I’ve also heard compressed air can leave “bad stuff” residue so use at your own risk I guess.
Specs:
- Kayfun Mini V3
- 40/60 or 30/70 PG to VG ratio
- I also vape strictly tobacco flavors
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It’s too bad you had that experience. My guess is that the product in the box was not what was supposed to be in the box. It can happen, I guess. 
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@JMak642 I agree with @Kinnikinnick. You may be surprised to find out many of us use rayon. I find it superior and have little problems with scorching and I use Ti coils and DNA200 mods. Don’t be put off by our bewilderment …we’re not getting it. His question was a scientific one. Rayon is just cellulose from trees, so it should be pretty much as close to cotton as it gets, if not chemically the same.
I previously thought Rayon was some kind of polyester or synthetic fiber. His point was only that they make different kinds of the stuff for beauty shop supply. Since the package is gone it may be impossible for you to find the part number, but this has actually already been a discussion on ELR …and the one thing we all know is there are different types.
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Personally I Change cotton weekly or every other week. Normally two weeks. I try to mix week one, and build week 2. And I rotate back and forth.
My workhorse the aromamizer supreme weekly since that’s more my daily 10 hour work tank.
My rda’s every two weeks unless I vaped custard. If I vaped custard everday or my other fav cocoa FA it would be swapped ever 60mls.
I use the Pima supreme cotton from eciggity. It does require a break in period of 8mls. But after that it holds really really well. Just like a lot of other folks have said…my ss316L coils need a cleaning before the cotton is dead.
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I guess I’m the scumbag of the bunch… I don’t change my wicks for weeks and weeks, and I’m constantly vaping on them.
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100% agreed. Also, I usually change my wire when I change my cotton, so yeah. Gotta be fresh!
Regarding the tank, I only clean it if the next flavor I’m using will clash with the one that was just used.
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I normally have 2 tanks running all the time (and a Theorem with “something” in it) one tank (a 22mm Griffin) only uses fruits, the other tank (25mm Griffin) only uses “creams” (Bust A Nut, Moon Butter, and the like). I very rarely will clean a tank, if I’m going to be vaping a different juice in one of the tanks, I’ll just fill the tank about a third of the way with the new flavor then vape that almost dry, then add the new flavor to the tank.
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