Need help: Fresh MTL RTA Build - Dry hit - Tastes like cotton

[Ludovicus]

I use a VooPoo Drag X with Cthulhu Artemis MTL RTA

I'm not sure if it's a dry hit but it tastes like cotton. I use coilogy MTL Clapton coil 28/40 2.5mm 0.92 Ohm Ni80 and 50/50 e-liquid. I tried to wick it and change coils (but the same coilogy clapton coil) over 10 times. More wick, less wick, it tastes the same. I get plenty of vapor but it tastes like cotton. When I open it up to see the build it's not burnt.

When I prefire my coil (without wick and e-juice) I noticed there is some smoke coming out of the coil and it smells like what I taste when I vape it. So I tried to prefire it and dip it in water until there is no smoke. Built it again and it's still the same.

I already used 6 out of 10 of my coils. No success.

 

[Mitz]

Welcome to the forum @Ludovicus

What cotton are you using? You should always gently fire your coil before putting cotton through it to burn off any residue. That's the smoke you see coming off it. No need to dip it in water afterwards. Just pulse the coil gently on low power.

Only use enough cotton so it fits nice and snug through the coil. Not too tight but not too lose. Just snug. And do not pack the juice wells full of cotton. Trim the cotton ends nicely and then fluff them up a bit and then just tuck them in to the wells. Cotton expands when saturated. If it's packed in too tight then it won't wick properly and you'll get the dry, cotton taste. Fluffing the ends up first allows a bit of space between the cotton fibers to help it wicking properly.

 

[ADDicT]

Fresh cotton does have a certain taste in my experience, but it goes away after a short time. Not sure if that time will be longer on an mtl tank, I use DTL only.

 

[Ludovicus]

Welcome to the forum @Ludovicus

What cotton are you using? You should always gently fire your coil before putting cotton to burn off any residue. No need to dip it in water afterwards. Just pulse the coil gently on low power.

Only use enough cotton so it fits nice and snug through the coil. Not tight but not lose. Just snug. And pack the juice wells full of cotton. Trim the cotton ends nicely and then fluff them up a bit and then just tuck them in to the wells. Cotton expands when saturated. If they're packed in tight it won't wick well. Fluffing the ends first allows a bit of space between the cotton fibers to help with wicking.

Thank you @Mitz

I use Cotton Bacon Prime. I did pulse the coil on low power. I tried different amount of cotton and it's still the same. I do think that it is not an issue with wicking because when I try to fire it with cotton and e-juice the smell and the vapor coming out of it smells like what I taste when I vape it together with the tank. This is my first time with RTAs. I'm suspecting that it's the coil but I'm not sure why it would not work with this build. I also tried to build it with a Zeus X clone that I have and it performs the same.

I'm not sure if it tastes like cotton or metal from the coil.

 

[Ludovicus]

Fresh cotton does have a certain taste in my experience, but it goes away after a short time. Not sure if that time will be longer on an mtl tank, I use DTL only.

Thanks @ADDicT

I thought of that too. I got this RTA yesterday, after attempting to build it 3 times, I gave up and slept, so I had it lying around 7 hours with my last build attempt. When I wake up, I tried to vape it and it's still the same

 

[Mitz]

Fresh cotton does have a certain taste in my experience, but it goes away after a short time. Not sure if that time will be longer on an mtl tank, I use DTL only.

Not if you're using a decent quality cotton. Cotton that needs to be broken in should've died with Bacon V2. I haven't tasted cotton in a mtl tank in well over 2 years. Plenty of quality cotton available these days. The only time you should taste cotton is if it's dry and lacking juice. Or if you're using crappy cotton still like Bacon V2.

 

[ADDicT]

Not if you're using a decent quality cotton. Cotton that needs to be broken in should've died with Bacon V2. I haven't tasted cotton in a mtl tank in over 2 years. Plenty of quality cotton available these days. The only time you should taste cotton is if it's dry and lacking juice. Or if you're using crappy cotton still like Bacon V2.

Cotton bacon, guilty as charged

 

[Ludovicus]

Not if you're using a decent quality cotton. Cotton that needs to be broken in should've died with Bacon V2. I haven't tasted cotton in a mtl tank in over 2 years. Plenty of quality cotton available these days. The only time you should taste cotton is if it's dry and lacking juice. Or if you're using crappy cotton still like Bacon V2.

I thought so too. So it might be the coils? There shouldn't be any smoke when you prefire it dry yeah? I noticed that the smoke is coming out from 1 post (or screw) of the deck.

 

[ADDicT]

I thought so too. So it might be the coils? There shouldn't be any smoke when you prefire it dry yeah? I noticed that the smoke is coming out from 1 post (or screw) of the deck.

As @Mitz mentioned above, the taste is probably the cotton bacon, it's a weird taste but it does go away after some time in my DTL stuff.

 

[Mitz]

Thank you @Mitz

I use Cotton Bacon Prime. I did pulse the coil on low power. I tried different amount of cotton and it's still the same. I do think that it is not an issue with wicking because when I try to fire it with cotton and e-juice the smell and the vapor coming out of it smells like what I taste when I vape it together with the tank. This is my first time with RTAs. I'm suspecting that it's the coil but I'm not sure why it would not work with this build. I also tried to build it with a Zeus X clone that I have and it performs the same.

I'm not sure if it tastes like cotton or metal from the coil.

If it's a new rta make sure you strip and clean it in warm soapy water. Some rtas can still have machine oil which tastes foul. I bought the Ares 2 which I had to put through an ultra sonic cleaner twice to get rid of the machine oil taste.

Some people love Prime. Personally, I've never liked Cotton Bacon period. The V2 always tasted foul for several tanks. Much better cotton available that's tastes of nothing but your juice.