Cotton Bacon Prime is some of the cleanest tasting cotton for wicking you can find. It comes in easy to use strips and absorbs 33% better than Cotton Bacon V2.
Cotton has become the universal wicking material for vapes. Vapers have experimented with silica, mesh, hemp, and rayon, but then almost universally cotton was embraced and heralded as the best. Why? It’s inexpensive, easy to use, and it has a neutral taste. Even if you’re using a tank, most pre-made coil heads come standard with organic cotton wicks.
If you are going to use rebuildables like RTAs or RDAs, cotton is by far one of the most important vape supplies in your arsenal. This list compiles the best cotton available right now for vapes and everything you need to know about wicking your atomizers.
Wick ‘N’ Vape had a strong reputation for Cotton Bacon V2. Unlike regular cotton pads, it’s designed for wicking and is very resistant to heat. Now, they’ve introduced Cotton Bacon prime which boasts a 33% faster absorption rate versus the original. That means no more cotton taste, and virtually no break-in time.
Kendo Gold is a step up from your traditional Japanese cotton pads. It lasts much longer and doesn’t gunk up as easily. Each pack contains approximately one meter of unbleached, organic cotton. It’s easy to wick and has excellent absorption and heat resistance. Kendo Gold handles switching between flavors very well.
UD brings the prime cotton straight from Japan. These cotton pads are imported from Koh Gen Doh, one of the leading manufacturers of Japanese organic cotton. It comes in slim sheets and is easy to measure and cut. UD organic cotton is unbleached and untreated, which is ideal for the purest flavor.
Coil Master Pro is a trusted brand in the vape industry. Now they offer all-natural cotton, suitable for all your rebuildable atomizers. Each pack comes with three balls of fresh cotton, made without chemicals, colorants or bleach. It has a fine texture and is highly absorbent. Coil Master Pro cotton has a fresh taste.
Wotofo has made the wicking process of mesh coils easier for you. This cotton comes in 3 mm and 6 mm strips, perfect for wide ID coils. Each strip has a sheath on one end similar to the aglet on a shoelace. The cotton is made with long fibers and doesn’t pull apart easily. It wicks well and delivers optimal flavor.
Medusa Coils now offers agleted Japanese organic cotton. Each box of Unicorn Hair includes a dozen wicks that have been pre-rolled for a 3 mm inner diameter coil. These Unicorn Hair cotton wicks can be used individually for smaller ID coils in rebuildables or doubled up for larger ID coils like in a mesh RDA.
COTN Threads offers a convenient way to wick. Each pack includes 20 organic cotton wicks ready for a wrapped coil. They are agleted for convenient and quick wicking. If you re-wick often or are in a hurry, COTN Threads is the way to go. It’s made from pharmaceutical cotton comparable to Cotton Bacon.
Vape cotton is untreated cotton, often in organic varieties that provide absorbent wicking for vape coils.
There wasn’t always a market for “vape cotton.” Originally vapers had to use the best option they could find, which was typically organic (unbleached) cotton balls from corner pharmacies. But a lot of store-bought cotton isn’t advisable to use. Much of it is processed with bleach and dyes. Previously, vapers would boil and dry their cotton, but it’s so much easier to just buy a pack of cotton designed for wicking.
Eventually, Japanese organic cotton became the gold standard. Vapers figured out they could purchase these small pads of cotton, which were inexpensive and perfect for wicking. Originally marketed for skincare purposes, it wasn’t long before Japanese cotton was being marketed to vapers.
Today there are literally dozens of brands that sell cotton specifically for vaping. Companies have been getting more creative lately with products like Cotton Bacon which come in strips that make it easier to get that perfect wick.
Now the latest trend is agleted organic cotton wicks that we have been seeing coming from Wotofo, Geekvape and COTN Threads. They are pre-measured to fit in the most popular coil sizes, with typically a 3 mm inner diameter.
You might be thinking, is it really that serious? It’s just cotton. Right? Not all cotton is the same! If you’re using low wattage MTL devices, cotton pads might work just fine for you. But if you’re using low-resistance coils, you can benefit from a more heat-resistant wick like Cotton Bacon.
In an era of pre-built Claptons, many vapers are gravitating towards pre-built cotton wicks. It just makes the process easier by eliminating the guess work. Strips and pads are a bit more cost effective, so many vapers are still doing it the old school way.
Last but not least, there’s the flavor. Everybody has a slightly different sense of taste and may prefer one brand of cotton over another. Just like e-juice, it’s very subjective, so you should experiment with a few and see which one like best.