Tiki wick as batting?

I saw four different part numbers for smoke unit batting on the Lionel web site. I think two of the parts were square pieces of material, and the other two looked more like a lantern wick.
Most folks seem to write about the lantern wick style.

are the square pieces used in many smoke units?

I still see the square stuff in smoke units, look into the smoke units in the VL-BB.

 

John, all the LC+ is coming through with it.  I have worked on some Cab Forwards and they have the bad stuff.  I just re did my own with the correct material.

My guess is the square pads are easy for assembly. 

I always thought the square pads were mainly for the piston type smoke units. Regarding current use, I kind of suspect that Lionel in China is using whatever they have in stock, since the smoke chambers are mostly the same size. That would also track with the experience I and others have had of ordering the wicks and getting pads instead. If you watch the Mike Reagan videos, it seems pretty clear that he thinks the wicks are better. He basically said the same thing to me once in an online conversation on the Forum. 

I use MTH and Lionel wicks. I also use pink insulation which seems to work very well--- pull apart, wad it up and stuff it in. Even when money is no object, it's still a big consideration!

The TMCC scale Cab Forward I just worked on came with the pad, and it even had a sleeve over the resistor.

 

Fascinating, given that Mike Reagan has posted a video telling us we should get rid of the sleeves on older smoke units. Perhaps the new sleeves are made of a more heat-resistant material? The reason for getting rid of the sleeves was that they scorch and harden with heat and stop doing their job of distributing fluid around the element. Or maybe the subcontractor building smoke units is "off on a frolic of his own," to borrow a phrase from Business Law 201. Maybe this is like 12-15 years ago when half the Lionel smoke units came through with the fan motors wired backwards. Or a couple of years ago when smoke fan motors were failing at a ridiculous rate. 

Well, this is the TMCC version, 6=39071 from 2005, so it was ten years ago...