Cotton Wick Vs. Silica Vs. Ekowool

Cotton Wick Vs. Silica Vs. Ekowool

What is the Best Wick for RDA’s and RBA’s

When it comes to rebuilding atomizer coils, you have your choice of the different kinds of wicks, and they all have their own pros and cons. Some people say the taste of the e juice is different with each wick. Wicks for RDA (Rebuildable Dripping Atomizers) or RBA (Rebuildable Atomizers) will be different for each kind of kanthal wire build. The main three kinds of wick you can choose from for rebuilding your atomizer coils are cotton wick, silica wick, and ekowool wick. Each of these wick have their place in the rebuildable atomizer world whether it be an RDA or RBA. We highly recommend using all types of Wick and Wire to understand which one you prefer in regards to ease of use, flavor, cloud production and length of life.

Pro’s and Con’s of Cotton Wick for RBA’s and RDA’s

Cotton Wick Pros

• Entirely Customizable
• Incredibly Cheap
• Incredible Flavor
• Odorless
• Excellent Absorption
• Replace Wick without Building new Coil (HUGE BENEFIT)
• Works great with high VG or 100% VG Blends

Cotton wicks are organic, cheap, easy to work with and conform to any build you can imagine,  a lot of people really like this about them. They are inexpensive, which is another benefit and can cost anywhere from $4-$8 at CVS. We recommend that you get unbleached organic cotton, because this helps prevent you from having to inhale chemical byproducts from the bleaching process. Organic unbleached cotton wicks makes your e juice not only taste better, but last longer and perform better. Cotton wicks are known for having a very pure taste, so you only get the flavor of your e juice, and not any overtones of the kind of wick you used. Cotton wick gives you the ability to replace your wick without doing an entirely new coil build. Having the ability to replace your wick easily will allow you switch flavors of e juice more often or have a fresh wick after each tank. Cotton wicks also work very well with high VG or 100% VG blends, the viscosity of VG blends is much thicker and the cotton soaks up the VG blends much easier than Silica Wick or Ekowool Wick. If you have an Allergy to PG blends, you may want to move away from the Silica and Ekowool and move towards the VG blends with a cotton wick.

Cotton Wick Cons

• Bad Taste (if not primed correctly)

Cotton wicks do a good job of wicking, but not quite as much as silica or Ekowool wicks. Cotton wicks need to stay constantly saturated, and if they are only picking up a little bit of e juice at the end of the wick they may have a hard time moving that e juice all the way through the wick to the atomizer coil. This can result in dry patches. Also, if you do accidentally vape dry with a cotton wick, you are likely to get a burned taste. The best solution is to use cotton wicks when always saturated with e juice. If your cotton wick is not always saturated with e juice you will get a nasty burnt taste and no one wants that!

Pro’s and Con’s of Silica Wick for RBA’s and RDA’s

Silica Wick Pros

• 3mm Option
• 2mm Option
• 1mm Option
• Best for Single Coil RBA Builds

Silica wicks are super easy to install and easy to use with if you are building single coil builds on RBA’s and RDA’s. Silica Wick tends to last much longer than cotton wicks with RBA and RDA builds. Silica is great if you are on a long drive or at an event where you cant change out wicks easily. Silica Wick comes in a variety of sizes with can give you different outcomes when it comes to Ohms, so you can determine the outcome of Ohms based upon the size mm option.

Silica Wick Cons

• Not Natural
• Hard to work with
• Bad for Dual Coil Builds
• Rebuild After Every use (or when wick is bad)

They are not natural, so if you care about that you would be better off with cotton wicks or Ekowool Wicks. They also are a bit more expensive than cotton wicks – many people even use unbleached cotton balls for their fibers when they are doing cotton wicks, and you can’t do that with silica. There is some concern about silica wicks disintegrating, but a high quality silica wick should not give you that problem. Some people say they can taste a silica wick and that it gives a certain flavor to their e juice. Silica wicks are incredibly difficult to work with if you are building dual coils on RDA’s.

Pro’s and Con’s of Ekowool Wick for RBA’s and RDA’s

Ekowool Wick Pros

• 3mm Option
• 2mm Option
• 1mm Option
• Odorless
• Tasteless
• Excellent Absorption
• Resistant to 1100°C

Ekowool Wick basically combines the best aspects of cotton and silica to give you a super high-performing wick! It is easy to install if you are building a single coil build. It’s even easier to clean – instead of building a new kanthal coil, just lightly fire the coil until the wick burns all the e juice off, and once it cools it will be  clean, and ready to use on your new flavor of e juice. Ekowool does a great job of wicking and you don’t have to worry about dry spots.

Ekowool Wick Cons

• Expensive (Compared to other Wicks)
• Hard to work with
• Bad for Dual Coil Builds
• Rebuild After Every (or when wick is bad)

The only con for Ekowool is that it’s still a synthetic fiber, and if you are a natural-fiber aficionado this is going to matter to you.