iAtty... Kanthal, Nichrome or Silver & Recommended Gauge or AWG range???

[MrKrinkle]

I am curious about resistance wire for the coil as well as no-resistance wire for the iAtty... Any experience you have or noticed from the different resistance heating element wire alloy types... What gauge wire you may have used successfully??? I know stock wire is 34 awg or gauge which translates to 0.16mm as Imeo recommends... but does it really make a difference or is close enough good enough??? for example 32 awg wire is 0.20mm would it make a difference in performance or not enough to tell??? and basically the same question for the Alloy used Kanthal, Nichrome or Silver??? and what makes a non resistance wire non-resistance wire what type of metal is recommended and what AWG is recommended or should you try to use the same diameter as the resistance wire??? Thanks for reading and any insight will be greatly appreciated... Thank you in advance for your support...

[MrKrinkle]

anyone anyone Bueller anyone???

[silentt]

There are numerous threads with the info

[MrKrinkle]

There are numerous threads with the info

Could you point me in the right direction from what I have found at least in the mod section of the forum its still mostly experimental and all Im really looking for is a suggested gauge range...

The most cut and dry info I have come across yet is as follows:

Small diameters, typically 34 gauge to 40 gauge are used for igniters because a low voltage and current will cause a short piece of these sizes to get so hot they will vaporize and in the process ignite a pyrogen which will ignite a model rocket motor or an ejection charge. It is also used to ignite other things such as smoke or flash powder in magic acts.

Heater elements use a variety of gauges but will often be in the range of 26 to 32 gauge. Electric heater or heating elements are coiled. Coiling will increase the temperature over straight lengths of the same size and length due to the heating affect of neighboring coils.

[fright88]

I can't comment on different wires as I ordered the stock wires from the website Imeo linked in the main iAtty thread and I have enough to last a good long while but I can say the stock wires are great.

As I understand it, a general rule larger dia wire of the same material will have better conductivity and therefore be less resistant than it's smaller dia counterpart. Because of this I have been thinking about ordering some larger dia Nicrome for my resistance wire so I can get an extra wrap on my wick for better contact space.

The stock NR wire was .236 mm dia Nickel wire the website imeo origionally posted no longer has it in stock but the .2mm wire will give 2.54 ohms per meter and the .274 mm does 1.36 ohms per meter. Metals with better conductivity should be less resistive which is why many people are leaning towards Silver NR wire.

[imeothanasis]

Mr., I will tell you some things about wires. With a fat resistance wire you have to make more threads around the wick to reach the same amount of resistance. But the fatter wick doesnt go so hot. Its wrong that some people think that more threads around the wick make rebuiltable atomizers to vape better because more wire touch the wick. Of course thats not a lie because the more wire touch the wick the better but the less heat that a fat wire produce can stop smoke at all if its toom fat. Imagine that heat has to split in every point of wire. So a fat wire that has to be long too to reach the same amount of resistance that we can have with a thinner wire (and shorter too of course) maybe cant heat at all the liquid.

The conclusion is that you have to chose the right wire for you or to twist a thin wire to make it fatter. So a thin wire can do more things than a fat wire

[MrKrinkle]

Mr., I will tell you some things about wires. With a fat resistance wire you have to make more threads around the wick to reach the same amount of resistance. But the fatter wick doesnt go so hot. Its wrong that some people think that more threads around the wick make rebuiltable atomizers to vape better because more wire touch the wick. Of course thats not a lie because the more wire touch the wick the better but the less heat that a fat wire produce can stop smoke at all if its toom fat. Imagine that heat has to split in every point of wire. So a fat wire that has to be long too to reach the same amount of resistance that we can have with a thinner wire (and shorter too of course) maybe cant heat at all the liquid.

The conclusion is that you have to chose the right wire for you or to twist a thin wire to make it fatter. So a thin wire can do more things than a fat wire

I understand and Thank You Imeo but will there be that big of a difference between using say a 34 gauge 0.16mm wire to a slightly thicker 32 gauge wire that is 0.20mm in diameter... from my findings the 32 gauge is the smallest diameter wire commonly used in heating elements which is basically what we are making and thinner wire 34 to 40 gauge or smaller is usually used for igniters for example in model rockets...

[gratefulbuddy]

1 inch of 34awg nichrome 60 would be ~1.4Ω
1 inch of 32awg nichrome 60 would be ~0.8Ω

Seems 32awg would be better for having more coils and still keeping a lr setup. 34awg would be better for higher ohm coils but still get a good number of wraps to get the most coil-juice contact.

EDIT: grammar

[MrKrinkle]

1 inch of 34awg nichrome 60 would be ~1.4Ω
1 inch of 32awg nichrome 60 would be ~0.8Ω

Seems 32awg would be better for having more coils and still keeping a lr setup. 34awg would be better for higher ohm coils but still get a good number of wraps to get the most coil-juice contact.

EDIT: grammar

now is there a difference between Nichrome 60 or Nichrome 80 or a reason one is more preferred than the other???

Also does anyone have a stateside supplier they recommend for silver non-resistance wire other than COV... thus far I have only found silver wire in its smallest 30 gauge and also should I use hard or soft sterling silver wire???

[Rick.45cal]

I got mine off of ebay MrKrinkle. I chose soft wire (30 awg) and it works fantastically.