Yeah, definitely not newbie friendly, mesh is unusually finicky when it comes to wicking. I actually would like to see a mesh RDA/RTA that uses the ceramic block under the wick but instead of a spring it has a screw that let’s you lower it, load your wick, then lift it up to get your wick nice and tight against the mesh. This would especially be helpful when using Vandy Vape SS200 mesh which can be easily bent when loading your wick.
I am a mesh fan big time, when set up correctly the flavor just pops. I also like that it doesn’t require much power so great for single battery mods.
[Reply]
Ok, so the burnt taste stopped going away after my little burping trick. On inspection I found a small spot on the cotton where obviously the mesh was arcing. Since this was my first time shaping the mesh over the little rod tool, I suspect I cracked one of the little “cell” cuts on the edge of the mesh strip. The burnt area (cotton) was very tiny and right on the edge of the mesh. A fracture while wicking could also be to blame …a point from @mjag
Also I had tucked the mesh strip all the way down into the clamps, and on removal, the outer ends edges were heavily deformed/crimped …like they had bent into the clamp’s screw hole. On my current build I just lowered the strip to the solid outer edges of the mesh strip into the clamp heads …ended off with a tiny bit extra mesh exposed. Not a recommend, just what I did. I would think any stress on these very thin and brittle strips could be problematic (cracking?) either mounting or wicking as said above.
I dry burned at 10W to cook off any oil and did get a little smoke. Then I used the above wicking technique and trimmed diagonally. This made a total difference in vaping. I was able to regularly see larger bubbles rising up and never needed to “burp”. I saw this technique during a review but thanks @Lostmarbles for posting it up right here.
Conclusion: I was a little TOO eager upon getting my Zeus X Mesh tank. I was a bit careless when bending the strip over the rod tool and remember having it on a 65 degree-ish offset and then kinda sliding it to the automatic 90 degree perpendicular shape with my chubby lil digits …gotta wear those reading glasses and take much more care prepping the strip on the rod/tool. I can’t talk about other brands of Mesh RTAs, but the diagonal trimming of the wick almost seems mandatory for my Zeus X …which is working great. Now I need to find the Thread for more advanced Mesh strips and maybe some TC Mesh vaping [cough] now that I’m down to two remaining factory strips in my kit.
Thanks ALL and special thanks to @ownedbypandas for sharing your problem. You pushed me. This is how we do
in my kit.