Experiment: Does Kanthal A1 Wire Rust?

I'm just curious if Kanthal A1 (FeCrAl) wire rusts because I have seen some evidence with older factory coils that it might, but I'm not sure.

The wire I'm using is 26 AWG KA1 from TemCo and China-sourced 26 AWG KA1 that I bought from fasttech a couple years ago. The coils that are being used in this experiment have never been used/dry burned. If this experiment shows no rust, I'll do another experiment where the coils are dry-burned before submerged.

What I have prepared is 10 cups:

-2 with distilled water - one with 26g FT KA1 & one with 26g TemCo KA1 wire
-2 with RY4 E-liquid (50/50 @12mg, Heartlandvapes HY4) - same as above
-2 with PG - same as above
-2 with distilled water w/table salt - same as above
-2 with VG - same as above

Now I'll put them away in a cupboard for a while and check them once in a while to add more distilled water when needed.


Nothing major to report (1 day lol) but I'm posting becuase I just checked the samples out of curiosity and both the coils in the salted DW samples appear to either have bubbles or deposits forming on them (but I'm leaning towards bubbles). I dodn't want to disturb them at this point - I'm leaving them be.

None of the coils in the other sample look like this.

I decided to take a close look today to check for any signs of rust and to add water to the DW and salted DW samples (due to evaporation). No rust detected on any of the samples that I can tell (using eyes and a magnifier - not touching until later). Also, the bubbles that formed on the coils in the salted DW samples have now disappeared.


Still no rust visible. I just checked on the samples to see if the DW samples needed any DW added to them and there is no visible rust on any of the coils in any of the samples. At the end of the month I will remove the coils and wipe them with a white tissue to see if I can detect any rust on the tissue. If no rust is detected I'll redo this experiment using coils that are dry burned before putting them in the sample solutions.


Just checked and didn't see any rust but I didn't do a super close inspection yet.Next phase with glowed coils will happen as soon as I get the ambition