Attaching nichrome wire to copper

[HockerMagnum]

I=E/R Current = Voltage/Resistance
Your rig:
Volts-3.7 over Resistance-1.7 ohms equals 2.176 amps. About 8 Watts.

Standard with 6 Volts:
It vapes like a 6 volt rig because 6 volts nearly doubles the current through the roughly 3 ohm coil of a stock atty.

Around 4 Watts for stock 801s.

 

[Carlos49]

I=E/R Current = Voltage/Resistance
Your rig:
Volts-3.7 over Resistance-1.7 ohms equals 2.176 amps. About 8 Watts.

Standard with 6 Volts:
It vapes like a 6 volt rig because 6 volts nearly doubles the current through the roughly 3 ohm coil of a stock atty.

Around 4 Watts for stock 801s.

OK maybe I'm missing something, sorry this is a new field for me, but I think your saying that the thicker NiCr wire puts out more resistance so it will be hotter. Right? Even at 3.7v?
So if I were to up the voltage it, probably, be better to go with a thinner wire.... maybe a 36ga. I'm guessing there is a fine line there for voltage and wire thickness before the wire would "blow" from the heat.
At first I was not very happy with the 32ga but it not bad at all since I've gotten used to it.
Thanks
Carlos

 

[h8isgr8]

Thicker wire = less resistance = more current flow for the same voltage.

Thicker wire will also take a little longer to heat up, and a little longer to cool down (neither of which is a good thing).

Wire thickness is a trade-off of reliability vs. performance. You really want the thinest wire possible that will still work reliably and not burn out all the time.

 

[HockerMagnum]

One other thing to consider is the area of wire exposed to fluid.
32ga is less than 0.87 ohms per inch and takes twice the current to produce the same heat as 36ga which is 2.09 ohms per inch.

More area in a smaller gauge wire coil makes the light weight batteries last longer. Doesn't make a lot of difference when the power is supplied by a 2 amp or better wall or car adapter or a honker of a battery mod.

 

[joedirt]

It is more complicated. The thicker wire is less resistance, and you need more surface area to equal the old_resistance / old_current. Or you can get more current because it is less resistance.

However, thinner wire gets hotter with less current. YOu can google it or check wikipedia for a fixed current in NiCr and the temp tables. *** However this assumes no air or heat loss from vaping a liquid sputtered onto the coil...

The main thing I've come to decide on is for a given battery, you can optimize what current you want to maximize its life (unless you get LiPo).. Then there is a given resistance that corresponds. People are.. well just stupid using 10W power resistors to generate wasted heat. It makes zero sense.

There is also a limit to how much you can heat up the atty before the solder joints go.

I'm not sure the thickness matters other then bouncing around in your pocket, or blowing compressed air into it. Your toaster works fine. It is possible that red-hot thin NiCr are breaking like a lightbulb filament... but I haven't seen enough post-mortums reports to justify this. I think the NiCr can burn just fine red hot. Now if you are jarring a hot atty, that is another matter..

A lot of atty have regular wire going all the way up to the wrapped coil. Some atty have longer NiCr leads back towards the battery side.

 

[Carlos49]

Thanks everyone for all the information... I'll try to get it to sink in..I see what your all saying now.
When I do my solder joint they are on the bottm side of the coil pot. It is a lot easier to solder and it seems to hold up better. I have found that the wire mesh will short out everything if it touches the NiCr so I just slid a piece of shrink tube to take care of the problem.
Again I want to say thanks for everyones help and patience.
Carlos