Problem with Lemo Drop

[nj4ck]

Hey,

so I just got my Lemo Drop in the mail today. Its my first rebuildable, I've been vaping on an Aspire Nautilus until now.
I only have a Vamo V5, so I couldn't use the 1.1 ohm coil that came with it, instead I built a 1.5 ohm coil with the wire it came with. I though it would be Kanthal, but it seems much stiffer and springier, and the amount of it I needed to get 1.5 ohms wasn't what I would have expected from Kanthal.
So now my problem is that I get very hot and airy hits with top flavor, but very little vapor at 15 watts. If I turn the watts down I get less heat, but also even less vapor. The coil also needs at least 3 full seconds to heat up, which is annoying.
I'm not sure if this is my Vamo simply not being up to the task or if it is the coil and the meterial its made from.
I'm a complete noob, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[State O' Flux]

Some elements in your description aren't adding up, nj4ck...

I don't own a Drop, but as I understand it, the wire it comes with is a 0.4mm / 26 gauge equivalent, of an unknown composition.
If it were built on a 2.5mm mandrel with a 7mm net leg length... a 26 gauge single coil at 1.5Ω would have a wrap count of 12+/-.
If you apply 15 watts to the above, the heat flux would be a cold 89 mW/mm2. Were this true, it would explain the lack of vapor and slow heat time... but not the "top flavor" or "very hot" draw temperature.

Lastly, 26 gauge would certainly not be my wire of choice for a 1.5Ω build... particularly with a 15 watt limit. The heat flux value is far to low... at that wattage/resistance. 28~30 gauge would be a far better choice, with HF values running from 178~356mW/mm2.

 

[msmith4512]

Yes. I used 28g or 30g for my Kayfun and Lemo 1.5 + builds. 30G heats really fast. I reserve 26G for my RDAs with 20+ watts on regulated mods.

 

[nj4ck]

Interesting, thanks for the reply. As previously mentioned, I am a complete newbie and have only very basic understanding of the physics behind this. At the moment I only have a Vamo V5, so the 15W/1.2Ω limit is set until I get a better mod, and I only have the 26 gauge wire that came with the drop... although some 28 gauge kanthal is currently in the mail.
My coil is wrapped around a 3mm screwdriver at somewhere around 12 wraps, so if I'm understanding this correctly, that explains why the coil is heating so slowly.
The term "hot" may have been a slightly inaccurate way of describing it. Its an extremely strong and unpleasant throat hit, which proceeds to get hot as the coil heats up. The flavor is much stronger than with my Nautilus, even with very little vapor production. Not complaining about that

At the moment I'm still not quite decided on which mod to get and it'll be a few days before the 28 gauge kanthal arrives. Is there a way I could make a more suitable coil using the stuff I already have?

 

[msmith4512]

You can go down to 8 wraps with 26G 3mm for 1.2 ohms. See http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp?r=1.2&awg=26&id=3

Fewer wraps means less wire and faster heating. 12 wrap coils work better when your running higher watts than 15, the extra powers heats them quickly. I run my 26g 12-14 wrap builds at 20-30 watts.

 

[nj4ck]

You can go down to 8 wraps with 26G 3mm for 1.2 ohms. See http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp?r=1.2&awg=26&id=3

Fewer wraps means less wire and faster heating. 12 wrap coils work better when your running higher watts than 15, the extra powers heats them quickly. I run my 26g 12-14 wrap builds at 20-30 watts.

The problem is that the wire I have isn't kanthal, its nichrome. If you do the calculation with nichrome, it goes up to 11 wraps, which is exactly what I'm using now. I guess I'll just have to wait for the kanthal I ordered.

 

[msmith4512]

That's interesting. Nichrome heats up faster than Kanthal because it has less resistance for a given thickness, e.g. 24g Nichrome heats faster than 24G Kanthal. But if you wrap to the same Ohms, there should be no difference in ramp time because it takes more Nichrome wraps to equal Kanthal. Nichrome doesn't last as long, can cost more, and some say is more difficult to wrap, so Kanthal has become more popular. So Kanthal alone probably won't help your ramp up issue. Going to thinner, higher gauge wire may.

Sounds like your flavor and vapor issues may be more related to coil positioning, air flow, and wicking. Check out some Youtube videos on Lemo builds. Riptrippers has a good one.

 

[dre]

I've found nichrome 80 to be superior to kanthal in taste especially

 

[nj4ck]

Interesting, I didn't know that. Since I am new to rebuildables, there's a good chance my coil isn't good. I have watched Riptrippers video, but was unable to replicate the exact coil he made because of the restrictions with the supplies I currently have. I understand that the positioning of the coil over the airhole is directly related to the throat hit, but I haven't quite figured out how to get the best results. Here, I'll just drop a few pictures of the coil I'm currently vaping on, maybe you guys can tell if I've made any obvious mistakes:

The throat hit has gotten a lot better since I messed around with the coil a little, and I actually quite like it now. The flavor is also at least 10x better than my Nautilus, its just that the amount of vapor isn't huge and the coil needs too long to heat.
Btw, this is the second coil I'm using. Its 12 or 13 wraps around a 4mm drill bit and it reads 1.4 ohms.

 

[nj4ck]

Just got my kanthal. Wrapped a 1.8 ohm coil with a 2mm ID and 11 wraps. Vapes perfectly on my Vamo. Good amounts of vapor, very good flavor and a pleasant throat hit. Heats up in milliseconds, too.

 

[msmith4512]

glad to hear the Kanthal and smaller diameter coil works well. Your nichrome build actually looked like it was done by a very experienced builder.

 

[nj4ck]

Thanks! Looks like I found my one big talent