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Best site for ordering wire and are there differences?

ScReWbALL

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
I typically have ordered all of my wire through Temco Industrial due to their lower prices and since they sold that brand in the B & M shops around here, I figure the quality of their wire was good as well and I have loved their products. I've just discovered how much more I enjoy building with SS316L wire and went to Temcos website to order some, but they are backordered for 3 months on basically all of their wire, so, I checked out Kidney Puncher to satisfy my wire needs and the price jump is beyond belief! From Temco I can order 250 feet of 24ga SS316L for $8.82 a spool, but Kidney Puncher wants $42.95 for the exact same 250 ft spool of 24ga SS316L! Is there a difference in quality of wire that I'm not aware of and are there better sites to order building supplies such as wire from that don't gouge you at checkout? Any info would be appreciated!


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r055co

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I typically have ordered all of my wire through Temco Industrial due to their lower prices and since they sold that brand in the B & M shops around here, I figure the quality of their wire was good as well and I have loved their products. I've just discovered how much more I enjoy building with SS316L wire and went to Temcos website to order some, but they are backordered for 3 months on basically all of their wire, so, I checked out Kidney Puncher to satisfy my wire needs and the price jump is beyond belief! From Temco I can order 250 feet of 24ga SS316L for $8.82 a spool, but Kidney Puncher wants $42.95 for the exact same 250 ft spool of 24ga SS316L! Is there a difference in quality of wire that I'm not aware of and are there better sites to order building supplies such as wire from that don't gouge you at checkout? Any info would be appreciated!


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Atomizer Wick, check eBay they sell there also and it's actually cheaper than their website go figure.

It's 317L and I actually prefer it over 316L.

Smelted in Sweden and milled in the US, about the best quality you can get.

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ScReWbALL

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Thanks, haven't used eBay in quite a while, had to reactivate my old account, but managed to snag 500ft of it for $17.50, thanks!


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Mike H.

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Lightning vapes has pretty much the best prices on all the types of wire..the actual quality I cant tell you..Temco is where I bought my majority of kanthal however..Temco is free shipping but as mentioned are out of all the SS wire so I went with lightning vapes for it.
 

r055co

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Lightning vapes has pretty much the best prices on all the types of wire..the actual quality I cant tell you..Temco is where I bought my majority of kanthal however..Temco is free shipping but as mentioned are out of all the SS wire so I went with lightning vapes for it.
Not the same quality, might not be to bad but isn't as good as quality.

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ScReWbALL

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Lightning vapes has pretty much the best prices on all the types of wire..the actual quality I cant tell you..Temco is where I bought my majority of kanthal however..Temco is free shipping but as mentioned are out of all the SS wire so I went with lightning vapes for it.

Had to buy some of the lightning brand once from a B&M a long while back when I ran out and was desperate. It was 26ga NiChrome-80 and it was not good at all. Looked dirty, so I rinsed the wire beforehand and found that it only looked dirty, the reason it looked like that was due to many imperfections in the wire and varying thickness throughout the spool..may have been a bad batch or they could've gotten better since then, but I wouldn't know because I haven't touched that brand since.


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GKG2017

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First time buying wire. I just got some 24awg A1 Kanthal wire from lightning vapes. Much better quality than the same type wire I got from the coil master kit.
 

r055co

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Lightning Vapes isn't very good quality in my experience

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Whiskeywarrior

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Member For 3 Years
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I will be trying out coil society this weekend. I have heard nothing but good things about them. Prices aren't bad and on 3 of the 4 things I ordered they sent 25-75 extra feet of it.
 

whiteowl84

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LV wire is crap compared to what all is out there.
Between Coil Society and Temco you should be able to find what you need at a good price.
I've actually used Master of clouds and I'm really happy with it too but I can usually get what I need cheaper and made by Sandvik.

Either way the master of clouds, temco and coil society wire is all straight, smooth, clean and spooled well.

Out of all the wire I've used LV and KBee were the worst but KBee has really stepped their game up.
 

whiteowl84

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I'd like to add:
If you're only use for wire is making simple coils any of it will work. But if your a builder and a little extra color might make or break the look you were going for or if you're 3/4 of the way through a 42g staple stagger and the spool binds up on you...you're better of just using what's known to work instead of rolling the dice on every build.

LVs juice is crap too btw.
 

ScReWbALL

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
I'd like to add:
If you're only use for wire is making simple coils any of it will work. But if your a builder and a little extra color might make or break the look you were going for or if you're 3/4 of the way through a 42g staple stagger and the spool binds up on you...you're better of just using what's known to work instead of rolling the dice on every build.

LVs juice is crap too btw.

Lately I've been just using my X1 Tube Mech, so, have been keeping it simple with dual 2 or 3 strand parallel coils, but when I do run a regulated device I like to get a bit fancy and build dual alien coils and such for fun and on my series box I tend to favor a dual parallel Clapton...Nichrome 80 is my wire of choice except for the series box build where I'll use kanthal to bump the resistance up a bit since it's already a very hot vape with that build to begin with. Left my spool of 24ga nichrome at my gf's house and just stopped to pick some up and they were out but had Stainless and have really enjoyed how easy it is to work with and the quick ramp up time, allowing me to throw some more wraps in for more surface area without increasing ramp up time and my usual online shop is backordered to hell and back


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pulsevape

Diamond Contributor
Member For 4 Years
I recently bought some ss wire in odd gauges,but I had to send to the UK for it..Crazy wires...
 

mach1ne

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
KBee has really stepped their game up
yeah the first wire i got from them made my fingers black and occasionally had spooling issues. the 40 and 42 would roll off the spool broken...it was painful, but usable. i got another order and they have a new label, no blackfinger and so far not a hitch in the spooling. made some coils with the 42 a few days ago and it was flawless (so far).
 

r055co

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yeah the first wire i got from them made my fingers black and occasionally had spooling issues. the 40 and 42 would roll off the spool broken...it was painful, but usable. i got another order and they have a new label, no blackfinger and so far not a hitch in the spooling. made some coils with the 42 a few days ago and it was flawless (so far).
yep, KBee is crap. I thought initially it wasn't too bad when I first started to use it with S and used it for my practice wire. Got their Kanthal and when it turned my fingers black stopped using it.

KBee is shit wire
 

KingPin!

In my defence, I was left unsupervised ^^
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Uk wise got my wire from StealthVapes Very clean no probs so far with it and chuck in a free spool and some muji cotton with every order ...happy days
 

KingPin!

In my defence, I was left unsupervised ^^
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mach1ne

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I'm no expert coil builder lol some of the gang on here have real talent, still learning myself to be honest fused clapton is trickiest I've tried so far tougher than it looks! Page 3 on post below I posted my coil build

http://vapingunderground.com/threads/newbie-squonker-hopefully.300599/page-3
you dont have to be a pro to post in there at all. imo its the best source of info just about anywhere. all of us posted our first/worst builds in there and kept asking for help and trying new things until we got good. i cant speak for anyone else, but i love seeing peoples first builds and watching them grow from there.
 

KingPin!

In my defence, I was left unsupervised ^^
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VU Challenge Team
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you dont have to be a pro to post in there at all. imo its the best source of info just about anywhere. all of us posted our first/worst builds in there and kept asking for help and trying new things until we got good. i cant speak for anyone else, but i love seeing peoples first builds and watching them grow from there.

That's the coil porn section mate I'd be embarrassed to put any of my half assed efforts in there right now lol happily be an onlooker for now ;) although I'll certainly ask some questions thanks for the heads up
 

VapeVillian

Bronze Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Atomizer Wick, check eBay they sell there also and it's actually cheaper than their website go figure.

It's 317L and I actually prefer it over 316L.

Smelted in Sweden and milled in the US, about the best quality you can get.

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Hey @r055co,

How is their ribbon wire?

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BreSha6869

Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
I have a bunch of Kanthal, Nichrome, SS, Ni and Titanium and Clapton (kanthal) from Lightning Vapes and all of it has been great. I have Temco, UD, various crap wire/coils from FT, etc. and I really like what I have recieved from LV. Clean, consistent and Vapes/heats perfectly.

Having said that, all of my LV orders have been placed within the last year. Are they getting better recently or am I just lucky?
 

david.daoust

Unlisted Vendor
I can't speak to specific vendors, but working for a wire mill, I can say that there are massive differences in quality between wire manufacturers. Like posted above, melt from Sweden & then milled in the USA is a good start!
 

r055co

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Platinum Contributor
Member For 4 Years
I can't speak to specific vendors, but working for a wire mill, I can say that there are massive differences in quality between wire manufacturers. Like posted above, melt from Sweden & then milled in the USA is a good start!
Yeah I just roll my eyes when I hear "Wire is Wire" ..........

I avoid like the plague cheap wire out of China, for one most of it is filthy. You have no idea what else is milled in that factory, any lead? Then of course the smelting process, if the quality control is so bad that filth is on the wire what about the impurities that make it into the metal itself?

In a previous life I was a Jewelers Apprentice and I remember people coming in with gold they picked up traveling through the Middle East and Asia. They would brag about the "deal" they got, well the impurities in the gold was atrocious.

Wire isn't wire, where and how it is Smelted/Milled makes a HUGE difference.
 

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