How cost effective are custom coil builds?

[antoniy]

Hello everyone,

I can do my math about how mixing e-liquid will affect my vaping budget but that's not the case for custom coil builds. I was wondering if any of you can give me first hand information of how much (if any) cheaper the custom builds are and some example of your own experience might be great to help me imagine the numbers involved.

Thank you

 

[classwife]

Moved this to Coil Builds from Ask The Veterans

 

[TwistedThrottle]

I am curious, do you mean buying pre made coils or getting a spool of wire and creating your own? Probably the most expensive way to do coils is to buy pre made coils. If you are after inexpensive alternatives- buy a spool of wire and turn your own. I get wire from lightning vapes but there are others. Wire gage is personal preference, but I started out with 30awg, then 28 then 26. If I was to do it again, I would buy all 3 again as I use the smaller stuff to tootle puff with or twist it into bigger wire and then the bigger wire for bigger builds. If I were only to buy one size, it would be 28awg. It should cost less than ten bux for a 100' spool and most coils only use 6".

 

[sofarsogood]

Hello everyone,

I can do my math about how mixing e-liquid will affect my vaping budget but that's not the case for custom coil builds. I was wondering if any of you can give me first hand information of how much (if any) cheaper the custom builds are and some example of your own experience might be great to help me imagine the numbers involved.

Thank you

I'm going to guess you are taking about the cost of rebulding compared to coil heads. I rebuild and don't follow the cost of coil heads. What I build are 1.4 ohm single coils out of 28 guage stainless wire. I seem to want a fresh build every 2-4 weeks. I rewick 2-3 times a week because I find the best flavor and vapor quality comes from fresh wicks and clean wire. 100 feet of wire costs me $5 and will last for several years. A $10 bag of orgainic cotton squares will also last for some years. So the cost of materials for rebuilding the way I do it is essentially nothing. It's free. You will pay minimal dues learning to rebuild, getting faster at it, etc. But the benefit is not the money you save, it's being able to keep the build as fresh as you want and not being dependent on a vaping supply you don't control, an issue because of the FDA. As soon as I had my first build I lost all interest in coil heads. The same happened with e liquid starting from my first batch of DIY liquid.

The less I spent on coils and liquid the better they got. Go figure.

 

[antoniy]

Thank you @sofarsogood and @TwistedThrottle for the valuable information. Both of you guessed well and sorry I wasn't more clear. I'm exactly interested in building my own coils instead of buying coil heads.

My recent e-cig story is that I purchased Vaporesso Target Pro with their CCell coil tank. I experienced vaping in a new way because of it. My past experience from 2012 was with eGo sticks and it couldn't make me leave cigarettes. Or maybe it wasn't my time. But anyway. I saw the price of CCell coils for the Target will cost me around $25 for 5-pack which seamed to me like a considerable expense in the long term, so I decided to dive in all the things that can make this cheaper hobby and help me save tons of money as I'm leaving analog smoking.

What @sofarsogood say as an price to pay to build my own coils, I see it's the right step financially.

I was thinking of starting with RTA solution as it seams the most closer to the pre-build coils simplicity of operation and convenience and allow me to experiment and save money building my own coils. The other solutions like dripping or RDTA seams to be more involved, messy and generally for people that take the hobby to the next level. My research showed that Vaporesso Gemini RTA Tank might be a good option in that case. Can you guys share your opinion about it?

Thanks a lot of the good info, guys.

 

[sofarsogood]

Thank you @sofarsogood and @TwistedThrottle for the valuable information. Both of you guessed well and sorry I wasn't more clear. I'm exactly interested in building my own coils instead of buying coil heads.

My recent e-cig story is that I purchased Vaporesso Target Pro with their CCell coil tank. I experienced vaping in a new way because of it. My past experience from 2012 was with eGo sticks and it couldn't make me leave cigarettes. Or maybe it wasn't my time. But anyway. I saw the price of CCell coils for the Target will cost me around $25 for 5-pack which seamed to me like a considerable expense in the long term, so I decided to dive in all the things that can make this cheaper hobby and help me save tons of money as I'm leaving analog smoking.

What @sofarsogood say as an price to pay to build my own coils, I see it's the right step financially.

I was thinking of starting with RTA solution as it seams the most closer to the pre-build coils simplicity of operation and convenience and allow me to experiment and save money building my own coils. The other solutions like dripping or RDTA seams to be more involved, messy and generally for people that take the hobby to the next level. My research showed that Vaporesso Gemini RTA Tank might be a good option in that case. Can you guys share your opinion about it?

Thanks a lot of the good info, guys.

I use an SV rda clone from Fasttech exclusively ($7). I close the air supply with a slip ring for pocket carry. Dripping takes a few seconds may be once every couple of hours. For me the rda is more convenient than tanks because it's easier to rewick and rebuild.

 

[TwistedThrottle]

Thank you @sofarsogood and @TwistedThrottle for the valuable information. Both of you guessed well and sorry I wasn't more clear. I'm exactly interested in building my own coils instead of buying coil heads.

My recent e-cig story is that I purchased Vaporesso Target Pro with their CCell coil tank. I experienced vaping in a new way because of it. My past experience from 2012 was with eGo sticks and it couldn't make me leave cigarettes. Or maybe it wasn't my time. But anyway. I saw the price of CCell coils for the Target will cost me around $25 for 5-pack which seamed to me like a considerable expense in the long term, so I decided to dive in all the things that can make this cheaper hobby and help me save tons of money as I'm leaving analog smoking.

What @sofarsogood say as an price to pay to build my own coils, I see it's the right step financially.

I was thinking of starting with RTA solution as it seams the most closer to the pre-build coils simplicity of operation and convenience and allow me to experiment and save money building my own coils. The other solutions like dripping or RDTA seams to be more involved, messy and generally for people that take the hobby to the next level. My research showed that Vaporesso Gemini RTA Tank might be a good option in that case. Can you guys share your opinion about it?

Thanks a lot of the good info, guys.

I almost exclusively use mechanical squonkers like the Reo from reosmods . com which allows me to drip without dripping. I use a RDA with a hole in the middle of the deck allowing juice from the bottle hidden in the mod to feed the wick when the bottle is squeezed. This allows me to fill the 6ml or 8.5ml bottle in the morning and forget about dripping or running out of juice in a tiny tank and I still get the benefit of building my own coils. There are cheaper alternatives to trying squonking like the kanger dripbox which is regulated.

 

[Eskie]

I use RTAs because I vape quite a bit and dripping is just not realistic. A squonker would work for me, but I'm happy with my RTAs for now. So that gives you three opinions on how to approach it, hopefully showing you there is no one right way, it's whatever works for you.

I think an RTA is way easier than rebuilding coils, or using an RBA, for tanks that use factory coils. RTAs are designed for the user to make the coil, and have larger build decks that are not a teeny fiddly to work with as a small RBA. Maybe I just have big fingers.

Once you have a good RTA, the only expense is literally just wire and wick (other than your juice issues), which amounts to pennies. So RTA, RDA, Squonker, whatever you go with, building your own coils is way more cost effective, although you have to balance that against the time spent on building and rewicking, rather than just popping a fresh factory coil in.

 

[antoniy]

@Eskie thank you for that information. It's greatly appreciated.

I would like to ask you aside of my main question, if that's alright, how often do you guys have to rewick and rebuild? Also what wire type are you using?

 

[Eskie]

@Eskie thank you for that information. It's greatly appreciated.

I would like to ask you aside of my main question, if that's alright, how often do you guys have to rewick and rebuild? Also what wire type are you using?

I use SS wire. I have a pile of Kanthal I never bother with anymore. The advantage for SS in my use is it works fine in either power/wattage mode, or temp control. Kanthal is power mode only, and as I do like to use TC on some of my mods, having everything in SS makes it easier than keeping track of what wire is in which tank. For me, it's as easy to build with as Kanthal.

For wicking I use Japanese organic cotton pads. They work well and are inexpensive. Some folks like rayon, and there's a whole big thread devoted to that. I rewick when the flavor drops off, usually about once a week, some folks change more often. I lightly dry burn and clean off my coil with each wicking, and can get several weeks to a month out of a coil before they're too gunked up to clean.

 

[antoniy]

I use SS wire. I have a pile of Kanthal I never bother with anymore. The advantage for SS in my use is it works fine in either power/wattage mode, or temp control. Kanthal is power mode only, and as I do like to use TC on some of my mods, having everything in SS makes it easier than keeping track of what wire is in which tank. For me, it's as easy to build with as Kanthal.

SS is my target for a wire to buy exactly because I can use TC mode. There is a small concern I got though. I herd some folks talk about possible health issues with SS when overheating (not as much as Ni200 as I understand) but this aspect bugs me a bit. Especially the stage of building with dry firing the SS coils and cleaning them after some time. You mentioned you do "lightly dry burn". Can you please elaborate more on that and how you manage to safely do the build without overheating. Are the risks serious enough and the window for errors big enough to make me use Kanthal instead or am I just overthinking this?

Thanks a lot for the sharing your experience, @Eskie.

 

[zoiDman]

I have been using a Lot of these lately...

$2.20 Authentic MKWS 316 Stainless Steel Pre-Coiled Wires for RBA Atomizers (50-Pack) - 26 AWG / 0.4mm dia. / 0.32ohm at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

I change my Coil about every 5 days. So that is about 73 Coils per year. At 4.4 cents per Coil, that comes out to about $3.21 per Year.

At $3.21 per year, I consider them to be about Free.

 

[Eskie]

I lightly pulse my SS coils. I get them to glow, but not white hot. After that, I rinse them. They do not look brand new, but they will look far more "silvery" (sorry, can't think of the best description) than when dirty. They won't look as brand spanking new as Kanthal can look after a dry burn. After a few dry burns they may no longer look much better, at which point they're tossed and replaced. Of course, if the taste is still fair after a clean/rewick, it's time for new coils to go in.

And no, it's not like Ni, or even Ti, although in all three cases, you'd need to get the metal pretty hot to cause much of an issue. But the best practice is to try and avoid dry burning Ni and Ti, and you're good with SS if you don't make it white hot. There are some folks who say never to dry burn any coil, so for the sake of transparency, I'll put that out there. It is not, however, a commonly held opinion.

I have been using a Lot of these lately...

$2.20 Authentic MKWS 316 Stainless Steel Pre-Coiled Wires for RBA Atomizers (50-Pack) - 26 AWG / 0.4mm dia. / 0.32ohm at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

I change my Coil about every 5 days. So that is about 73 Coils per year. At 4.4 cents per Coil, that comes out to about $3.21 per Year.

At $3.21 per year, I consider them to be about Free.

You can go that way. It's certainly cheap enough. For me coiling the wire around a jig is the easiest part to the whole process, and I do use different size coils (ID and wraps) depending on the tank. In the US, I get my wire from Temco who make the industrial wire. Excellent 316L (other choices, as well as Kanthal, is available). Wire is always clean with no apparent residue, and a 100 foot roll is ~$5 with free shipping (gets even cheaper per foot with longer rolls, so a 250' roll might only be $6.50). Far cheaper than "vaping " wire, which is probably just their wire, or some Chinese steel maker's wire that's relabelled.

 

[zoiDman]

...

You can go that way. It's certainly cheap enough. For me coiling the wire around a jig is the easiest part to the whole process, and I do use different size coils (ID and wraps) depending on the tank. In the US, I get my wire from Temco who make the industrial wire. Excellent 316L (other choices, as well as Kanthal, is available). Wire is always clean with no apparent residue, and a 100 foot roll is ~$5 with free shipping (gets even cheaper per foot with longer rolls, so a 250' roll might only be $6.50). Far cheaper than "vaping " wire, which is probably just their wire, or some Chinese steel maker's wire that's relabelled.

I will wrap a Coil every Once and Awhile. Just because it always makes Me Smile to watch how well a Coil Master type tool will make a Coil. But being Inherently a Lazy Person, I tend to just Grab a Pre-Coiled Coil like the one I Linked to. I have a whole Box full of Different Ohms, Gauges and Wire Types.

I probably have over 1,000 Pre-Coiled Coils.

Any way you Slice it, for Single Wire Coils, the Cost of the Coils is Next to Nothing.

Same with the Cotton. I bought a Bag of Muji Puff Cotton for like 8 Bucks. I think there are 125 or 135 Pads in it? I'm about 1/3 of they way thru the Bag. And I think I bought it in late 2014.

LOL

 

[Eskie]

I will wrap a Coil every Once and Awhile. Just because it always makes Me Smile to watch how well a Coil Master type tool will make a Coil. But being Inherently a Lazy Person, I tend to just Grab a Pre-Coiled Coil like the one I Linked to. I have a whole Box full of Different Ohms and Wire Types.

I probably have over 1,000 Pre-Coiled Coils.

Any way you Slice it, for Single Wire Coils, the Cost of the Coils is Next to Nothing.

Same with the Cotton. I bought a Bag of Muji Puff Cotton for like 8 Bucks. I think there are 125 or 135 Pads in it? I'm about 1/3 of they way thru the Bag. And I think I bought it in late 2014.

LOL

Hey, I'm still lazy enough to sometimes appreciate tossing a decent factory coil in and just vaping. Does add up, but sometimes the convenience is worth it. Especially for travel. I'd rather pack a few blister packed coils in the bottom of my bag than worry about wicking (never mind coiling) when traveling.

Oh, and I have a ton of that cotton as well. Especially after I ordered another big bag of it because I forgot I had a big bag already stuffed in the back of a drawer.

 

[mcclintock]

I've yet to get an RTA working to my standards, always something usually a slight burning taste. So it's an RDA or sometimes rebuilt EVODs (prebuilt coils from before they learned to make it more difficult).

 

[Kickingthesticks]

Using the subtank mini it cost about 10 bucks for a 5 pack. for 10 bucks I can get a roll of wire and cotton. 1 coil head last me about a week so that's 5 weeks. it's been over 5 months and I'm still using the same roll of kanthal and pack of cotton lol. my builds are getting more fancy now and I've added lots of different gauge wires to my collection but it's still cheaper then buying replacement coils. I can't imagine the dudes who buy sub ohm coils are 3-5$ a pop.

 

[Zakillah]

If you buy smart, DIY coil suplies cost next to nothing.
Just stay away from "extra made for vaping" stuff. Clear sign its a ripoff.
Stuff like wire, cotton/rayon and batteries are best bought from stores which have nothing to do with vaping.

 

[TheBMP]

In 2015 i spent a good 60-80€ for coilheads for my aspire clearo and subtank mini. and i started vaping in summer.

2016 i started building in jan and been quite the active vaper this year. if i exclude the fancy wire (fused premade clapton wire) i ordered 2 days ago i spent maybe ..15ish€ .
A spool of 0.4mm SS wire for 5€, a spool of premade clapton wire for 5€, some meters of various other wires for 50cent to a € each and a bag of rayon that will last for 2-3 more years for 1€.

So with plenty of materials left this year i barely spent as much as one pack of premade coilheads costs.


Vaping really is damn cheap if you dont go crazy into the "OMG NEW HARDWARE WANTWANT" territory and are willing to mix&build your own stuff.

 

[ruet]

Hello everyone,

I can do my math about how mixing e-liquid will affect my vaping budget but that's not the case for custom coil builds. I was wondering if any of you can give me first hand information of how much (if any) cheaper the custom builds are and some example of your own experience might be great to help me imagine the numbers involved.

Thank you

About $7 a year for wire (you may go through more as you learn). Add $7-$20 for a device to assist you in building the coils.

ON EDIT: I didn't include wicking material because I have a box of rayon that will last me until the end of time. ...no joke.