SS316L coil life vs Kanthal

[VinnySem]

Hey gang,
Within the past year, I switched from kanthal/power mode to SS316L/temp control vaping. I enjoy the experience a lot more I have to say, I find I get better & more consistent flavor with temp control.

However, I find that I can get barely a week out of a build before I have to change the coil and cotton. With kanthal I could crank the power up a bit, get the coil nice & hot, and dunk it hot into cold water and all the blackened crust would come off and the coil would be good for a while, just had to replace the cotton. But with stainless, I find the coils don't clean up that well with the same "heat & dunk" method.

Anyone have tips on extending coil life or coil cleaning for stainless?

Thanks!

 

[Synphul]

Can't give a good comparison to kanthal as I haven't really used it. Ss316L is primarily all I use but I get more than a week out of my coils. Whether they're simple round coils, twisted, fused clapton, spaced or contact coils. I get around 4-6 weeks out mine and that's all I do. Pulse fire to lightly glow them, rinse in hot water, wash in hot soapy water when I'm doing a more thorough cleaning. Cotton I change somewhat frequently, every few days.

Not sure why your coils aren't cleaning up. Maybe it's really sweet juice that gunks up badly? I just double checked when I got the wire delivered I used in the coil I'm currently using, it arrived to me August 3rd. I waited a few days to actually make the build, even if you want to factor in additional days it was literally 2mo ago or 9 weeks if counting the weeks. I've been using this coil almost exclusively since then, maybe 7 or 8 of those weeks. It's ss316 cores with a ni80 wrap.

Maybe it's the wire you're using? Not all wire is the greatest though I haven't tried all the various brands out and about. I've had good luck with both coil society's and youde (ud) wire, cs's is likely better quality but even the cheap UD stuff didn't crap out in a week.

 

[skt239]

Where do you get your wire / coils?

 

[Jriley]

Well here is the thing, kanthal (imo) does not GAF about heat (within reason of course) where as when your dry firing SS to work out hot spots etc I do not like to get SS glowing red... I pulse SS alot the really high heat seems to break down SS (especially on fuse/wrap wire) remember though this is my experience and IMO

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

 

[Giraut]

I don't use SS316L wire, but I use SS316L mesh for temp control. I find the time between cleanups to be identical between SS, Kanthal and Ni80 mesh "coils", and cleaning using the heat-and-dunk method seems to work equally well.