x-post, /r/diytobaccoejuice
So , bring everyone up to speed, NET's (naturally extracted tobaccos) are ejuice made with actual tobacco leaf - flavor that is unmatched by anything artificial on the market. Unfortunately these juices tend to gunk coils.
My experiment here regards using sub micron filtration of the concentrate in an attempt to lessen this effect, my hypothesis being that starches (amylose and amylopectin) from the leaf are the main culprits in the gunking.
Below is the name of the juice followed by how many ml I was able to vape before gunking / burnt taste , then the coil used and finally where applicable the level of filtration.
blacknote sample pack (mix of tobacco varieties) - 57ml , tfq4 coil, unknown filtration size
blend 11 (a blend I made) - 46ml , tfq4 coil (used @ 4% concentration) , 2 micron filtration
blacknote cav only (sonata) - 53 ml , tf-clp2 coil , unknown filtration
mcc 2025 - 48ml , tf-clp2 coil, 2 micron filter
mac 20225 (0.03 ohm) - 58ml , tf-clp2 oil, 0.03 micron filtration
kanger protanks 15ml
I also did not notice any major flavor difference at sub micron filtration, YMMV - word per others on ECF is that flavor was diminished at even 0.5 micron filtration (perhaps different leaf would have different effect in this regard)
So , I was happy to see that the sub micron filtration did seem to have noticeable effect on coil longevity however, we can see from the above (comparison with older style coils - kanger protank in this instance) that the lions share of improvement comes not from better filtration but simply from better coil technology (presumably simply more surface area)
However, if you are vaping 15ml a day and don't want to be tied down to an RDA and dripping all the time or switching out wicking material an extra 5 or 10ml per coil before changing really does add up over time (buying bulk these smok coils are 4-5 dollars a piece)
The reason I used Smok tfv4 coils is that they simply happend to be in stock at a local b&m when I upgraded from my atlantis - I suspect similar results would follow from other newer setups.
I'd like to replicate the experiment to see if 0.015 micron and even just 0.5 micron has the same effect and perhaps what if any flavor difference I would see with other leaf varieties but for now i'll be moving on to some other projects.
I can tell by your subreddit that you understand the style page about as well as I do haha.
You doing anything July 7 between 9 and 11 PM EST?
Yeh I have a few pics for the header that might fit better but we only had 5 subscribers for most of the subs life so it kind of fell by the wayside.
think I can swing that , you have my private email?
Nice info. Just curious, are you doing straight cold maceration, or using ethanol? I need to go back to my extracts. I was trying them at 15-20% because that's what everyone was saying at that time, including the lady at MVJ. I had decent success, I just moved on. I've got a container full of nicely aged extracts I need to go back to. (edit: I had good success with using 11 micron paper to filter first, then moving down to 1.5-2 microns for final filter. I cringe when I see people just using coffee filters...) edit 2: I just looked at your methodology post, so nevermind on that question.
So for the mc 2025 in this instance it was cold maceration but the blend 11 was cold and heated. I only use PGA for cigars and its a chore so I havent done it in awhile.
I always used to mix @ 8 to 12% but revisiting old extracts im finding 4% is ine in most cases - my tastes have changed perhaps.
Coffee filters by themselves are probably 20+ micron so yeh , not ideal but good for proof of concept.
These results are not bad considering NET. As someone who only builds his coils now I definitely clean mine more often than every 48ml. Honestly I expected worse from natural extractions. Thanks for doing this, I'm going to finally try some now that I see it's not as bad as I thought.