Argg, Hot Legs

[Silense]

Hello ECF,

Your noob RBA'er here asking yet another question, you guys always seem to help so I figured i'd ask. So have a RSST and have been getting decent and making SS wicks and wrapping coils but I keep having an ongoing issue. I keep getting hot legs and I dont know how to get rid of them. When there's juice on the wick all the coils glow evenly and looks good but the legs on them are always glowing and sometimes I cant taste it and other times I can and it's just frustrating. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I usaully do about a 2/3 wrap with 30 gauge to get 1.2 1.3 on my pro-vari. Whats the easiest way to prevent hot legs? I have tried "kinking" the legs which I heard can help, my legs seem to be the same length, my coil is wrapped tight, but not too tight. I am just perplexed. Any tricks, tips would be greatly appreciated... Thank you.

 

[Silense]

Bump for a noob.

 

[Thrasher]

kinda low for a vv coil.
but usually the hotlegs are a tension problem meaning the coil isnt the same tension from one screw all the way around the wick then to the other screw.

what kinda voltage are you trying to run it? im sure the provari wont let you go too high.

When there's juice on the wick all the coils glow evenly and looks good but the legs on them are always glowing

im not sure how you can see the coils glowing when theres juice on it, if thats the case it just too much voltage.

fire it and adjust the coils while its running and see if the legs stop glowing.

 

[Silense]

I take the cap off and tilt and look, its usaully only the bottom leg. Top seems to be alright. I run like 3.8-4.0 with 1.2. Depends on the juice, vape 50/50 24mg. I very well could be turned up too high, I don't really know what to vape at with 1.2-1.3 coils.

 

[UncleChuck]

I would throw a few more wraps on there and adjust your voltage accordingly; hot leg issues seem to get worse the less wraps there are.

I'd also work on making sure you don't have a short anywhere. There could be a slight one between the wick and coil somewhere causing too much uneven heat buildup. How are you doing your build? While the wick is still dry are you pulsing the power on and off to work out the shorts? Does the coil glow nice and evenly, starting from the middle outward? Or does one of the wraps heat up quickly before the rest?

And like Thrasher I'm a bit confused on how you are seeing the coils glow with juice on the wick. With a wet wick nothing should glow, not the legs or coils.

Also make sure that your legs are as equal to each other in length as possible. And that they are fairly tight as they leave the wick and meet up with the screw posts. If one is loose, it could be hovering above the wick not making proper contact, which wouldn't show up as a short, but would cause a hotspot on that leg since it's not getting enough juice.

I'd really suggest doing a rebuild. Add at least another wrap and do a 3/4. Before doing this dry your tank and deck off so there is no juice left. Install your wick and coil, and leave it dry. Fire the coil several times for a quick second and see if it lights up evenly.

If a certain wrap lights up much quicker, pulse the power a few more times and it should work the short out. If not, use a pin or something to nudge the coils around while you pulse the power on and off. The coils are extremely easy to manipulate while they are red hot, so it takes a very gentle touch. Once the coils are all glowing evenly when you press the button, and your resistance stays the same and doesn't jump around, then add your juice and make sure there are no glowing portions of coil or legs.

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

Try using more wraps. You want the coil to have substantially more wire than the legs.

Also ease off the pressure while wrapping.

 

[Thrasher]

whew! lol for a 1.2 i personally would be around 3.3 3.4v myself.

a good rule of thumb to find a zone to start in is R +2v = setting.

examples
1.8ohms +2 = 3.8 volts
1.2ohms +2 = 3.2volts

its not perfect but it always give you a quick idea of where you should be close too. then adjust to taste up or down from there.

I don't really know what to vape at with 1.2-1.3 coils.

no matter what device you should just turn down the voltage and go up slowly til it taste good, sounds like your just overdriving the coil.

 

[vapdivrr]

by tilting the juice away from the wick will show hot spots on the coil, but these hot legs can show whether there is juice in the tank or not. it is definatly a tension issue and the lower number of wraps the harder it is to get rid of them. I guess you are not doing the pulse method because you don't have a mechanical mod, so you must be oxidizing your wick before inserting? I would add 1 more wrap like others have said and just adjust the voltage accordingly. if you were vaping the 1.2 coil at 4 volts then you like about 13 watts, so if you add one more wrap just work out the voltage to get to the same wattage, 4 wraps with the 30g will be easier then the 3 wraps.

 

[BrandonSi]

As was mentioned, coils should not be glowing with liquid present. You may have a wicking problem if they glow during normal usage (and I would imagine it wouldn't taste that great, either).

Assuming by hot legs we're talking about the end points of the coil that connect to the +/- posts..

I kept running into this problem on my RSST with the bottom leg. What seems to work for me is to push the wire between the coil and the post (still talking at the bottom here) around the wick.. by push, I guess I mean nudge, so that if the end of the wire were not screwed down it would continue to wrap around the wick. Normally this small section of wire between the post and the wick runs straight, but for whatever reason on my setup, nudging it a bit so that it bends the smallest bit in the middle (towards the center area) helped resolve my hot leg on the bottom side. I also make sure the bottom leg is as flat to the deck as possible until it gets to the wick. Don't have the thing jumping from the bottom post to the wick at a 30-45 degree angle.

 

[Silense]

ya brandon I do that on my bottom leg, I noticed that it helps alot too. And thanks guys for all the input. I will hold off vaping at like such low ohms till I get my reo I have been dying for. I pulse as much as my mod will let me. It's just all this fine tweaking, ill get it some day lol.