noob questions on coil properties

[mach1ne]

im pretty new at all this. im comfortable now using wire wizard to figure out how to make what i want from the wire i have around, and physically making and installing coils. i just dont really know what effect all my possible choices will have on things like flavor, cloud production etc.

-inner diameter. does this effect anything other than the resistance of the coil and the amount of space it takes up? micro/macro/etc?

-number of wraps? same as above. so far i am only considering diameter and wraps as ways to tweak my resistance in wire wizard. how do they effect flavor and clouds?

-coil placement on deck in relation to air holes and posts. saw a reference to this regarding spitback recently. can it effect clouds and flavor or anything else? what is ideal for avoiding spitback?

-alignment. vertical/horizontal/angled?

-spaced vs contact coils?

-single wire/parallel/twisted/clapton/crazily named multi wire art coils? wire gauge?

-what about single coil vs dual coil (or quad)? more coils = what exactly? i have seen cloud chuckers and flavor chasers both swear by single and dual setups at different times.

-wicking. inside the coils or wrapped around? fill the empty space or no? does it make a difference or is it just a matter of whatever works to keep the coils wet?

i realize that the attachment has a lot to do with it as well, but the build itself is what i am focused on here. certain attachments are focused on clouds or flavor already, but i imagine they only really shine at their specialty when you are using a build tailored for whatever that happens to be.

if i missed any variables that are important to consider, please elaborate.

thanks for any info

 

[thermo289]

You are asking for a lot of info all at once, just read up on it. Or buy a lot of wire and build a new coil everyday. I'm doing a little of both I find myself making a new coil every other day. Because I spend most of my free time reading about building. I'll try to hit a few of the questions, but please take it with a grain of salt I'm still a bit noobish myself.

Starting from the top.

I don't really use ID, I like to think surface area. More you have more vapor made.

Wraps, I can't explain (sorry bud)

Coil placement, is all about air flow. To much direct air or to close to inlet can hinder the coils from warming as fast. Or if u want a less dense vape u might want this.

Alignment, I wanna say airflow and juice flow go hand in hand.

Spaced vs contact coils, I find spaced is giving me more dense vape. While contact is more flavor, and easy to make.

# of coils, if u want as much surface area as u can get. Build higher, make more. I have only played with 1 coil's and duel, for now I'm good.

Wicking, I find this hard to explain. Just try different thing's. If not look around more

I hope my little 2cents has helped

 

[Iliketurtles]

-inner diameter. does this effect anything other than the resistance of the coil and the amount of space it takes up? micro/macro/etc?
-number of wraps? same as above. so far i am only considering diameter and wraps as ways to tweak my resistance in wire wizard. how do they effect flavor and clouds?
-coil placement on deck in relation to air holes and posts. saw a reference to this regarding spitback recently. can it effect clouds and flavor or anything else? what is ideal for avoiding spitback?
-alignment. vertical/horizontal/angled?
-spaced vs contact coils?
-single wire/parallel/twisted/clapton/crazily named multi wire art coils? wire gauge?
-what about single coil vs dual coil (or quad)? more coils = what exactly? i have seen cloud chuckers and flavor chasers both swear by single and dual setups at different times.
-wicking. inside the coils or wrapped around? fill the empty space or no? does it make a difference or is it just a matter of whatever works to keep the coils wet?

Inner diameter affects how much wick you can fit in it, so it changes juice flow. It's very important as a small ID with a hot coil will be shit.

Number of wraps affects everything but you will be limited by build space anyway, more wraps is more wick to coil area so the more wick you heat the more vapour you can get but if you are gonna use a wide coil you will want a big ID as well to feed it.

Tight wound coils give more spitback than spaced coils because they heat faster and you get vapour pressure inside the tight coil which crackles and pops it's way out. Spacing coils as wide to the edge of the deck as you can keeps it away from the drip tip so you can reduce direct to mouth lava hits by keeping them wide out.

Alignment is usually a byproduct of buildspace, you might not be able to fit what you want into the deck one way but you can in another.

Number of coils increases your wick to heating element contact area, so more coils is more vapour + flavour but requires more power to run it. It will depend on chamber size and airflow though, a huge build in a kayfun for instance is garbage.

Wicking is more important than purdy coils. A well wicked rubbish coil will vape nice, a badly wicked work of art coil will dry hit, burn hit or spitback you into yuckland.

 

[thermo289]

There u go got a pro to get it down packed

 

[Iliketurtles]

ha ha there are way better builders than me on here but the important bit that is worth remembering is - a well wicked rubbish coil will vape nice. Wick well, work the rest out later

 

[DED420]

All of these factors play differently on Mech mods to Regulated Mods, so some of these are a little harder to answer definitively, just try to take what you can from it.

-inner diameter. does this effect anything other than the resistance of the coil and the amount of space it takes up? micro/macro/etc?

ID can affect a few things other than space/resistance.
A smaller ID coil will have a tendency to heat up faster due to radiant heat.
A smaller ID can also restrict juice flow, which can cause burning/dry hits.
For pre-made coil heads, a smaller ID will also restrict airflow.

-number of wraps? same as above. so far i am only considering diameter and wraps as ways to tweak my resistance in wire wizard. how do they effect flavor and clouds?

General rule of thumb is "More wraps = more mass = more heat = more flavor/vapor", but will also add to ramp-time, so more wraps can/may actually be detrimental to a Mech Mods performance, so you have to find a happy medium (Reggys can force more power to add heat, so it's not as important as it is to Mechs)

-coil placement on deck in relation to air holes and posts. saw a reference to this regarding spitback recently. can it effect clouds and flavor or anything else? what is ideal for avoiding spitback?

Each RDA is different, so finding where the coils should be positioned is trial and error.
Angle and placement won't affect flavor, just airflow and possible vapor production

-alignment. vertical/horizontal/angled?

Horizontal coils will have a higher tendency to spit juice up the Chuff/DT because juice can rests on the top of the coils after dripping, which will cause spitback once it's heated (will make the juice "POP").
Vertical Coils will prevent spitback (or at least shoot it out the AFC instead of the DT/Chuff) as the juice will run down the coils after dripping.

-spaced vs contact coils?

Spaced coils will provide more airflow to the wick, and provide a cooler vape.
Spaced coils will also heat up and cool down faster.
Contact coils will produce more heat, which will produce more vapor.

-single wire/parallel/twisted/clapton/crazily named multi wire art coils? wire gauge?

Wire gauge will affect resistance. Finer gauge wire has higher resistance than thicker gauge wire.
20-30 gauge is usually used for Core wire (main wire), and 30+ is usually used for "Heatsink" (outer wire).
it usually goes in order like this "Single/Dual < Parallel/Twisted < Clapton < Fused Clapton (all the other Exotic coils are more for CoilPorn than anything, they very often times underperform, or are underwhelming)

-what about single coil vs dual coil (or quad)? more coils = what exactly? i have seen cloud chuckers and flavor chasers both swear by single and dual setups at different times.

More coils = more mass = more heat = more flavor/vapor, but there's a catch, they require more power to function, and since the more coils you have will reduce resistance, it's often not favorable to run that many coils (and the same performance can be achieved with properly built single/dual coils anyways. If you can performance build on a single cell mech, you can performance build for anything)

-wicking. inside the coils or wrapped around? fill the empty space or no? does it make a difference or is it just a matter of whatever works to keep the coils wet?

Wicking differentiates with different builds, and different vaping styles.
Outer Wicks are used for Dragon coils and Stovetop coils (mainly coils that are to small ID to wick, or don't have any actual ID)
Inner wicks are used for all your standard coils, anything with an ID larger than 2.5mm should work fine, any smaller than that and it will likely restrict juice flow.
With wicks, often times less is more.
Packed too tight and the juice won't wick properly.
Packed too loose and it will underperform, not enough cotton contacting the coils.
Too much wick in the wells and the juice will take to long to re-saturate the wick, and will lead to dry hits.
Wicking is one of the hardest things to perfect. You can have amazing coils, and your vape can still be shit if it's not wicked properly.


This took a while to type out (at work), so some of these will probably be answered already, but that's alright, sometimes a second or third perspective can be helpful, so I hope this is!

 

[thermo289]

Wow thanks for the tips! I might need to cut out some of my wicking, based on that.

 

[DED420]

Wow thanks for the tips! I might need to cut out some of my wicking, based on that.

No Problemo

I've tossed enough wicks from dry-hitting before I realize that, probably re-wicked a good 2 dozen times before I finally learned my lesson lol

I used to get a dry-hit, look at the cotton, and the cotton in the coil was dry, but the cotton in the well was still saturated, so I realized I was restricting the cotton. Then I used less, not so tight in the coil, and it tasted better, but would still dry-hits after a few pulls. Same thing, dry in the coil, wet in the well. I'm sitting here thinking "WTF, like seriously, WTF?". Then I watched a few vids on YT about wicking (some helpful, some not so much), but I forever kept hearing "Less Is More", so I said fuck it, and tried just resting my wick ends in the well, just enough for them to fully touch the bottom, and wouldn't you know it, no more dry hits, even with Max VG juices.

Hopefully yours will perform even better now

 

[thermo289]

Makes sense, less to travel to coil. But what if ur running a solo coil and ur ramped up to cloud chase or just like dense hits? I hate the idea I'm going to spill my juice from my juice well.

I know now I can't wick lol but try to tell me what you would do on this

Please and thank you

 

[DED420]

I guess it depends. There's alot of factors here. With that deck, I would probably have the coil running between the posts, giving a smoother airflow, and allowing the wick to fill in both ends of the deck.

With the coils like that, myself, I would wick it normally, and just have half the well empty actually, and any juice that went into the well, would run toward the wick when I take a pull (screen facing me, so the juice would fall into the wick). If you hold yours the other way, that obviously won't work then. I haven't had any leaking issues doing this method, although I don't pocket carry my RX200 either. My dual coil setups are usually wicked similar to the first pic (but obviously doubled lol), my single coils would be done like the second pic (a little longer cotton). I would imagine it'll only leak if it's over-dripped, but I find that my juice well very rarely has juice just floating around in it.
I hope that made sense, and I hope it helped somewhat, give it a shot and see what you think, and if it's not your style, you can always go back to what works for you..

 

[thermo289]

So just the tip, I will try that. If I understand you I should put that between the posts like so?

 

[DED420]

Yeah, just the tails ends, resting in the well, not packed in, and you should be good.

Yeah, centering the coil will give you a much smoother draw, as airflow will hit both sides evenly, instead of just one, and will allow more room, making wicking easier, just fold down the ends into the well (offset for airflow, like picture below) and your good to go.

Something to keep in mind though, if your coils had a tendency to spit/pop before, you may notice it more with a centered coil, as it will go right up the chuff, instead of off the walls of the RDA. Most of my builds work perfectly fine, but I've had a few that just wouldn't work in this configuration. But seeing as how yours is a twisted and spaced coil, I wouldn't imagine it being an issue, just keep it in mind.

With the centered coil, you'll need the wick to rest off-set of each other, so you can have the AFC line up properly, and that's it

 

[thermo289]

I like it! Next build for sure.

 

[thermo289]

I changed it up much much better, I swear the flavor is even better.

 

[mach1ne]

wow i forgot about this thread. thanks for digging it back up @thermo289. yeah normally i would just read lots and practice, but im waiting for wire to arrive. the only stuff i can get locally is expensive 10 foot spools of 28 and 30 gauge kanthal, 24 gauge ss316l and expensive premade clapton wire from my local shop. was hoping with this thread to learn some stuff that didnt require lots of wire, as well as to help me not waste what little i have access to while i wait for my order.

@DED420 thanks for taking the time to answer every point man. congrats on hitting silver too much appreciated. you left me without further questions for now. impressive lol

 

[thermo289]

Was a slow day at work, just surfing seeing if I could pick up some tips. I saw ur post with no response figured it was gunna die.

 

[Iliketurtles]

Wick - thick enough to fill the coil long enough to reach the deck, don't block the airflow

 

[thermo289]

Was talking to on of my buddy's, said if u can't pick ur mod up by the Cotten u don't have enough in the coil

 

[thermo289]