Shorting in Rebuilt Dual Coil 'Replaceable' Coil Heads

[jackson32503]

I have been rebuilding the coil heads for my iClear30s and my Dual Coil Vision Vivi Novas.

Last night, I decided to rebuild one of my iClear30s with 2 cotton 'U' wicks and 32awg microcoils.

I finished the build, assembled the atomizer, and tested its resistance. 1.8 ohms. (I was actually shooting for 2.1 ohms...but 1.8 was acceptable.)

I filled the tank with juice & retested.... Still 1.8 ohms. Great! I'm happy and ready to fire it. Suddenly it is reading 0.6 ohms and won't fire at all on my SVD.

I've had the same problem with several NEW iClear30 heads, and a good soak in rubbing alcohol fixed it...after air drying.

I tested reassembled then tested it. 1.7 ohms. I refilled it and retested it. 0.6 ohms.

What in the world is going on here?!?

 

[jackson32503]

Okay...so I'm putting some of this together...I think. I THINK the wires are ending-up shorting against each other as they decend through the core of the head.

In the heads from the factory, there are tiny lengths of some sort of plastic (?) insulator tubing placed directly on the descending resistance wire. this prevents portions of the wires from shorting against each other. (4 bare descending wires in such a tiny shaft just begs to have shorts.)

Any idea what this tubing would be called, and where I can get it? I'm thinking that using longer sections of this nay reduce or eliminate the occurance of these shorts.

This insulating tubing is found in both of the types of dual-coil heads I am having these shorts occur in.

Thanks again for your help!

 

[t8kiteasy]

Okay...so I'm putting some of this together...I think. I THINK the wires are ending-up shorting against each other as they decend through the core of the head.

In the heads from the factory, there are tiny lengths of some sort of plastic (?) insulator tubing placed directly on the descending resistance wire. this prevents portions of the wires from shorting against each other. (4 bare descending wires in such a tiny shaft just begs to have shorts.)

Any idea what this tubing would be called, and where I can get it? I'm thinking that using longer sections of this nay reduce or eliminate the occurance of these shorts.

This insulating tubing is found in both of the types of dual-coil heads I am having these shorts occur in.

Thanks again for your help!

I have had the same problem with rebuilding my iclear 16's too.I added a longer section of non res. wire and shortened the length of the wire coming off the coil,so it could not come in contact with the base.I cut the length to 3-4mm of wire coming off the coil leaving me just enough room to wrap the non res. to it.The entire length of wire going down thru the base is non res. wire,and this caused the same problem,thought i had a winner with this,but nope.

 

[jackson32503]

I have had the same problem with rebuilding my iclear 16's too.I added a longer section of non res. wire and shortened the length of the wire coming off the coil,so it could not come in contact with the base.I cut the length to 3-4mm of wire coming off the coil leaving me just enough room to wrap the non res. to it.The entire length of wire going down thru the base is non res. wire,and this caused the same problem,thought i had a winner with this,but nope.

These are proving really tricky, and the replacement head are inexpensive. My first attempt at rebuilding the iClear30 head was undertaken at the same time I rebuilt a Vision Dual Coil Vivi Nova head...and was mostly to see IF I COULD. The Vision head worked (despite the resistance being a little lower than I was trying for).

I quickly decided these were NOT worth the difficulty to rebuild...just buy and swap.

I'm back at it, with increased persistance, because I SERIOUSLY want to try a couple of alternative wicks (e.g.: lose-wrapped cotton, stainless mesh) in my iClear30s.

After quite a few attempts in vain, wasting a fair amount of my 32awg Kanthal, and being thoroughly tempted to just smash the darn things with a hammer (I really am quite a patient person most of the time), I am fairly convinced the key to these is going to be simple, all-resistance wire construction, and insulating each 'riser' independently, for as much of its length as possible. I just need to identify and acquire an apropriate means of insulating, so I can test my hypothesis.

Any suggestions regarding an apropriate means of insulating the Kanthal risers?

Anybody with A LOT of rebuilding experience want a fresh challenge? So far, the iClear30 is THE MOST CHALLENGING rebuild I've encountered, due to several factors. (I'm assuming the iClear16 is very similar.) Let's collectively figure out how to break this mustang!

 

[t8kiteasy]

I'm working one of my iclear 16's right now if i get any success i will post back either way.Give me about 30-45 minutes.

 

[t8kiteasy]

O.k failed again,this build metered out at .1 ohms so something is off/wrong in the build.

 

[jackson32503]

Well, still no luck with the iClear30 head rebuilds...but I think I found the missing ingredient....

It seems that the insulating tubing the manufacturers are using is likely PTFE (A.K.A. 'Teflon') tubing. I found a few manufacturers with minimum orders of 1000' (roughly $250) in 30 or 32 AWG. Also found a listing on ebay (10' for about $12.50), but that has an OD of almost 1mm, based on the pic, which seems roughly double the size of the 30 or 32 AWG.

I guess I'll be doing some more hunting, to see if I can find a practical source for the 'right' size.