Yup...welcome to the wonderful world of RDA's...I know it seems kinda overwhelming at first but when you get the basic's down it gets easier quickly in time. I must say you're brave...I never use the premade coils that come with attys....usually they have hotspots or short and even if they work right they always taste horrible....I salute your bravery good sir
One thing I cannot stress enough is to get an ohm's reader ASAP if you are going to build. I know the Istick tells you resistance but it's best to check it against a dedicated ohm's reader that reads at least 2 decimal places out to be safe....that should be the first thing on your shopping list if you're going to rebuild. Secondly...I know it seems kinda gimmickly but if the shop you go to has it get a bag of Cotton Bacon....I've used organic cotton balls, I have a huge box of Go Ken Do Japanese cotton as well and I still recommend that little 6 dollar bag of Cotton Bacon to every new builder. I bought three bags of it back in July and I am just getting into my second bag. It comes clean and ready to use, no boiling required, has a very clean taste, and the strips are super easy to put apart to size and trim into wicks.
Just because your flavor got slightly muted doesn't nessicarily mean your cotton is bad. It comes down to how much you've vaped, what kind of liquid you're vaping with, if you let your wick get too dry and sindged it a little....things happen. If it's still working than use it for the meantime...just be very careful putting that coil back it, if you don't have a good secure connection your Istick might read it as a short and it won't fire. Like others said above...youtube google rebuilding videos so you can see how other's do it....there's probably videos specific to your atty available by now. Many people know I can fill up a page giving you building recommendations but I'll keep it simple. You should start out with 26-28 gauge wire with an Istick....especially with a regulated mod like that...there is no need to build a super low resistance build as your device controls your wattage a higher resistance build is better and 26 and 28 gauge are good ones to start working with. Pay careful attention to the wicking in the videos...wicking is a finess art that is tricky and takes a few tries to get it right. When you pull your cotton threw the wick you want just enough so you have a slight resistance pulling it threw. If you're pulling your cotton threw and it's tugging at the coil trying to pull it with the wick you have too much. When you have a lot of wick like that it gets "choked" at the coil and it cannot wick properly and you'll end up with dry hits and burning the cotton inside the coil....By the same token, if you go to pull your cotton threw and it just slips right threw with no resistance at all you have too little and when you go to fire your coil it will cause the cotton to collapse inside your coil and since your wick is only touching the bottom part then you again will get bad wicking and burn your cotton out.
As was said before, try building a single coil first and then once you're comfortable with that then try building dual coils. I recommend starting wrapping coils around a 2.4 and a 3 or 3.2 mm drill bit both....either is good for 26 gauge. Start with a simple 7 wrap microcoil like in a video....this will give you a baseline to establish what is a good build for you and you can go from there...if you like the bigger or smaller drill bit, you want an extra wrap or take one back. It's a starting place to work from....cotton and Kanthal wire is cheap, wrap, wrap, and wrap again till you feel like you've got it good.
Never fire a dry cotton wick, it will instantly burn....and once you've saturated a cotton wick with e-liquid you'll never completely get the taste of that first liquid out. When you're just starting out vaping "vapor's tounge" more known as "vapor's fatigue" happens to all of us with in the first month or two of vaping and after a short period of time it will pass...it's where you can't taste your vape anymore. A good way to shorten or avoid this is to rotate flavors regularly as mentioned above...each time you wanna drip a different flavor...unless you like the taste of the two flavors blending you'll have to pull your wick out, pulse the coil to burn the juice remenants away and put a fresh wick in your build. Once you get the hand of wicking and it clicks, this will be no big deal at all.
Between youtube and all the beginner threads here on the forum there is a wealth of information to get you going...if you can't find the answer you seek ask sooner than later...we're all happy to help when we can and I would rather answer the same questions over and over and have things go right for you than not....
Everyone above has given you good advice...I just wanted to add my two cents and an extra nickel more...Best of luck to you and happy vaping!
