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Wire thickness?

CashNVape

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Member For 4 Years
The thicker the wire the more resistance and less wire is needed right?

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madjaggar

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The thicker the wire the more resistance and less wire is needed right?

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Think of it like this, the thicker the wire the lower the ohms. Your wrapping more to get your ohms high enough. So you can wrap say 3 wraps with 24 gauge to get .1 something ohms but could never get that low with 28 gauge.

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CashNVape

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
So I'm stocked up on 26g wire. I'm deciding if I need thicker or thinner gauge wire... I try to keep my builds below 0.5ohms.
With my 26g getting coils at that ohms are too short for some of my rda posts (too wide). So my next gauge of wire should be 28, maybe 30?

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madjaggar

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I use 26 almost always unless someone gives me something else. If you want to stay below .5 then you have the right wire. If anything you want to go to 24 or 22. I wrap my 26 gauge 7 times around a small screwdriver (not sure what size) and i get around .42

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I do dual coils to get that
 

madjaggar

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So if you did a dual 26 gauge with 5 wraps each you would get around .37

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robot zombie

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Oops ok thanks man
Easy mistake. It's sort of counterintuitive on the surface.

So I'm stocked up on 26g wire. I'm deciding if I need thicker or thinner gauge wire... I try to keep my builds below 0.5ohms.
With my 26g getting coils at that ohms are too short for some of my rda posts (too wide). So my next gauge of wire should be 28, maybe 30?
I don't know why people still conceptualize coils in ohms. Unless you're using a mech mod, it doesn't make sense to do that. Resistance and wattage aren't mutually exclusive on a regulated device. Mass is what you should be targeting. Alongside power, that's where all of your performance is. All the resistance does is dictate how much voltage your mod has to give to deliver what is essentially the same power. A watt is a watt. 1 watt to a .5 coil is the same as 1 watt to a .1. Same heat energy either way. The difference is in the mass, i.e., how much of a temperature increase you will see from that 1 watt of work done. And even then, both a .1 and a .5 can theoretically have the same mass.

So don't tweak the size to hit the resistance you want. It's a waste of time. Size the coil up to get the surface area and heating properties where you want and choose your wattage accordingly. It's meaningless to limit yourself to an arbitrary resistance. Not all .5 ohm builds are created equal, yanno?

For example... ...let's say you have a dual 24 and a dual 28, both at .5 ohms. The dual 24 has 6 times the mass, heats up slower, and requires a ton more power. So much power that it would fry the little dual 28. For a dual 28 that performs similarly to the 24 at the same wattage, you would need to build significantly above .5.

Point is, let your mod worry about resistance. The more important questions for you to address:
- What is the effective wattage window for your current build? Is the battery life acceptable? Can your mod provide that power without struggling?
- Within that window, is the temperature agreeable? Does it heat up and cool down quickly enough?
- Is the airflow/chamber space enough to keep the temperature linear (smooth up and down?)
- Does the wicking keep up?
- Is the coil able to produce enough flavor/vapor within its working power range?

When changing wrap-count, gauge/alloy, configuration, and diameter, these are the questions you should be trying to answer, not "Does it read 'x' resistance?" Quite often, the resistance you think you should be hitting is not the one that gets you what you want with what you have.
 
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CashNVape

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
My issue is small cool foot print in a big space. I think if getting a longer coil with same ohm reading in the same space will give me more vapor and flavor. Right now building 0.5 ohm coils in dual mode is giving me that lowdown reading BUT the space is not used in the rda. I've got down the wicking part quiet well never have issues with dry hits unless I'm hitting my rda with 90w and long lung hits to cloud my house lol the information above is helpful.

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robot zombie

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
My issue is small cool foot print in a big space. I think if getting a longer coil with same ohm reading in the same space will give me more vapor and flavor.
Well yes, you would get more flavor and vapor that way, but it's a tricky balance because you would be adding mass. A bigger coil may not get hot as easily, but there's more heat energy moving through it because you have to up the power to get the ramp-up back down. And because of the added mass, it doesn't dissipate as quickly. It builds up from hit to hit, giving you an increasingly warmer vape as you go along.

Another issue there is wicking. The juice has to travel further to get to the center of a longer coil. And as it moves across all of the surface area between either end and the middle, it's vaporizing and not cooling the center as much as the outside. You wind up with dry hits and wet, proper wicks on the outside. I call it "heat choking."

Thinner wire does work well for curtailing this. You can have a decent amount of surface area without the mass being as high. Because it is so thin, it's more power-efficient. It heats up quickly and cools down quickly, whereas a thicker, bulkier coil just kinda stays warm.

The first change I'd make to cool down a coil is diameter. It's the easiest to do and sometimes it's all you need. Maybe find the surface area you want and play with diameters.

Claptons are an option, too. I use 28/36 claptons in a shorty RDA to deal with the more direct heat and lack of space for the heat to expand into. In a shorty, it's a warm vape. But in a full-size, it would be cool, even running at 80w. And it still has a lot of surface area.

I know you said low footprint, but quads may be your ticket if you want a cooler vape without compromising flavor or vapor in a spacious RDA. It works for a few reasons. Think of them as two bigger coils split in half. Because they are broken up into four sections, they give up their heat twice as fast... ...opposite of a parallel coil. Additionally, they are getting a juice flow from four areas on either side, which also helps keep the temperature lower. The net mass is very high, but airflow has an easier time dealing with four smaller objects than two large ones.

I used to like doing quad 26's in my TM. 5 or 6 wraps @ 3mm IIRC. Should read around .2. It's a high-wattage build, but it runs much cooler and smoother than your typical high powered build. That may just be me, though. I like warm builds but that one was fairly cool to me.

If you want to go even cooler/low power, you can try quad 28's. Maybe somewhere in the ballpark of .3. Shot in the dark there, but I reckon it'll be pretty quick on the production and barely be warm at ~70w.
 
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CashNVape

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Well yes, you would get more flavor and vapor that way, but it's a tricky balance because you would be adding mass. A bigger coil may not get hot as easily, but there's more heat energy moving through it because you have to up the power to get the ramp-up back down. And because of the added mass, it doesn't dissipate as quickly. It builds up from hit to hit, giving you an increasingly warmer vape as you go along.

Another issue there is wicking. The juice has to travel further to get to the center of a longer coil. And as it moves across all of the surface area between either end and the middle, it's vaporizing and not cooling the center as much as the outside. You wind up with dry hits and wet, proper wicks on the outside. I call it "heat choking."

Thinner wire does work well for curtailing this. You can have a decent amount of surface area without the mass being as high. Because it is so thin, it's more power-efficient. It heats up quickly and cools down quickly, whereas a thicker, bulkier coil just kinda stays warm.

The first change I'd make to cool down a coil is diameter. It's the easiest to do and sometimes it's all you need. Maybe find the surface area you want and play with diameters.

Claptons are an option, too. I use 28/36 claptons in a shorty RDA to deal with the more direct heat and lack of space for the heat to expand into. In a shorty, it's a warm vape. But in a full-size, it would be cool, even running at 80w. And it still has a lot of surface area.

I know you said low footprint, but quads may be your ticket if you want a cooler vape without compromising flavor or vapor in a spacious RDA. It works for a few reasons. Think of them as two bigger coils split in half. Because they are broken up into four sections, they give up their heat twice as fast... ...opposite of a parallel coil. Additionally, they are getting a juice flow from four areas on either side, which also helps keep the temperature lower. The net mass is very high, but airflow has an easier time dealing with four smaller objects than two large ones.

I used to like doing quad 26's in my TM. 5 or 6 wraps @ 3mm IIRC. Should read around .2. It's a high-wattage build, but it runs much cooler and smoother than your typical high powered build. That may just be me, though. I like warm builds but that one was fairly cool to me.

If you want to go even cooler/low power, you can try quad 28's. Maybe somewhere in the ballpark of .3. Shot in the dark there, but I reckon it'll be pretty quick on the production and barely be warm at ~70w.
I have some PRE built Claptons and there 3mm in diameter, take a long while to heat up and cool down. I don't like that at all. Sure flavor, cloud is great but the operation sucks. I ordered a spool of 24, and 28 gauge 316l

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robot zombie

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
I have some PRE built Claptons and there 3mm in diameter, take a long while to heat up and cool down. I don't like that at all. Sure flavor, cloud is great but the operation sucks. I ordered a spool of 24, and 28 gauge 316l
What guages? With claptons, the gauge combo is everything. A lot of the pre-made ones are garbage in this area. Something like 26/32 will take a pitiful amount of time to heat up. But something like 24/40 or 28/38 is lightning fast. The 28/38 especially has a very quick up and down. I pump 8 volts into those for a fast, warm vape. 15 seconds after a hit, the coils are cool enough to touch.
 

CashNVape

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
What guages? With claptons, the gauge combo is everything. A lot of the pre-made ones are garbage in this area. Something like 26/32 will take a pitiful amount of time to heat up. But something like 24/40 or 28/38 is lightning fast. The 28/38 especially has a very quick up and down. I pump 8 volts into those for a fast, warm vape. 15 seconds after a hit, the coils are cool enough to touch.
They are kanthal and 24/32, would you recommend something else in a different gauge...?

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robot zombie

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
They are kanthal and 24/32, would you recommend something else in a different gauge...?
Yeh. 24/32 is slooooow. For more warmth, thicker cores. Thinner cores are cooler. 24 or 26 with 38 or 40 outside over on the warm end. For something cooler, 28/36 is a good choice.

Generally, the outer gauge is most important. The thinner the outer, the less heat retention and the faster it heats up. Anything bigger than 36 on the outside tends to bog down the coil too much and holds onto way too much heat at the power levels needed to tame the ramp-up... ...ime, anyway. They're just too power-anemic.
 

HondaDavidson

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Are you sure you want to build low ohms....... don't really have a suggestion for you just an impression.
Sound too me like you are building too low with too heavy wires to get the vapor you wanted. .. I might try thinner wire and a bit higher ohm maybe with a little more or less wattage.

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SirRichardRear

AKA Anthony Vapes on Youtube
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My issue is small cool foot print in a big space. I think if getting a longer coil with same ohm reading in the same space will give me more vapor and flavor. Right now building 0.5 ohm coils in dual mode is giving me that lowdown reading BUT the space is not used in the rda. I've got down the wicking part quiet well never have issues with dry hits unless I'm hitting my rda with 90w and long lung hits to cloud my house lol the information above is helpful.

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easy way to put it is more surface area touching the cotton, the more vapor you will get
 

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