Look at these pre-made clapton III coils from Wotofo. After dry firing prior to re-wicking, they have this reddish rusty look to them. I've noticed this on some other coils I have too. These are Clapton III (Space Fused Clapton) coils purchased from Eciggity. They are Kanthal wrapped in Kanthal. I don't think I dry fired them too aggressively. They are 0.24ohm in a dual coil setup, and I dry fired them at 40watts. I let them get orange but not like BRIGHT orange. Just wondering if anyone else has noticed this, and if I should continue to use them or not. Looks like straight up rust. They did not look like this a few minutes ago when I pulled the old wick off. These pictures below are well after it has cooled down. Thanks a lot in advance.
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Yeah I have no clue what it is either. I've tried scrubbing it and wiping it off, but nothing comes off. It's not really a residue, it's more like what the wire has become. I'm afraid to vape off it. Was just hoping someone else had seen this before and knew what it was, before I went tearing off the build I just put on there 2 days ago.
I have never seen kanthal turn that color in my 4 years of vaping, a little rust yes but nothing like that.
Would you continue to vape with them or toss em? Weird right? I'm beginning to wonder if I did dry fire them too much. I'm usually pretty cautious about just pulsing and not letting them get hotter than necessary. I wonder if it's the Kanthal leaching, but I'm not sure if that even happens with Kanthal, or at least not unless it gets really really hot. I don't know. It's concerning though, because I have seen this to a much lesser degree on some other Kanthal clapton coils that I have purchased pre-made, all by Wotofo, and all from Eciggity. Thanks for the reply @f1vefour . I'm hoping someone might weigh in who has seen this before and might know why this happened.
hi mate,
Welcomes...
You DO NOT want to vape them, or you would have already and NOT started this thread.
So bin them and make new ones.
Peace of mind and all that.
Glad to have you here... READ READ READ!!!
cheers
I
Welcomes...
You DO NOT want to vape them, or you would have already and NOT started this thread.
So bin them and make new ones.
Peace of mind and all that.
Glad to have you here... READ READ READ!!!
cheers
I
True. I've been reading quite a bit. I wanted to post the pictures, so that others could see what I am experiencing, and how pronounced the discoloration is. In the end I was hoping there might be an explanation for it that I haven't already read. I didn't see any posts about it recently, but there is a lot of conflicting information about "reddish coils" or "rusty coils" or "kanthal rusty coils." I've read everything from it being rust after introducing water during rinsing, oxidation of the kanthal, iron content of the Kanthal, leaving them sit for awhile with the coils and the cotton dry, or letting them sit awhile wet with ejuice. Not dry firing them enough, dry firing them too much, to the reddish/brown color being indicative of old age. I have seen a lot of posts on other forums where people say it's normal for Kanthal A-1 to rust at some point, but others say they have never seen rust on coils.
These coils are like 3 days old, and this was the third time dry firing them. Granted, I have probably vaped upwards of 30mL with them, and all of that was One Hit Wonder Muffin Man, but I wouldn't consider these coils old. Also, I don't rinse them so I haven't introduced any water.
I realize that this is probably one of those questions in vaping that has no easy explanation. I have no problem tossing them to be on the cautious side since they were only technically $0.33 a piece, but if this is going to happen every 3 days I might need to find a new coil.
Thanks for the 'glad to have you here.' It's good to be here.
From my genesis days..ugly is relative; if it tastes bad...Rebuild it.
I would give them a try;
Good flavour? good vapour?
Refill and go.
Cheers
I
I would give them a try;
Good flavour? good vapour?
Refill and go.
Cheers
I
Those Coils Don't Look Right. And I Can't Recall seeing a coil that looked like that before.
Don't think I would have any problems Tossing those Coils and that Wire.
Yeah I didn't even try them. The time before this that I rewicked this build, I noticed a tiny little reddish color on one of the wraps. I didn't think too much of it, rewicked and vaped it. Tasted fine. But now obviously it's almost the entire coil. It's looking like I'm just going to toss them.
Ok. It rusted literally before my eyes while dry firing. These coils tasted great and the clouds were really nice. Too bad.
Right? They definitely just don't look right. If it's oxidization, it happened right before my eyes. Glowed orange, and when it returned to cool, still looked like they were glowing. I'm going to toss them and clean the base and the rest of the RTA good. I'm going to email Eciggity with the pictures and see what they say. I have never had any straight Kanthal A-1 builds do this before. It's only with these clapton types that I'm seeing this. I really wonder if I'm doing something wrong, or if there's a method to keeping this from happening. Like not dry firing them at all or something, or very little. Anyways, thanks for your input @WharfRat1976 @zoiDman @Izan and @f1vefour
I don't know much about Kanthal, but the only thing I know that rusts that fast is high carbon steel. Bad batch of metal perhaps?
You should get your money back imo.
You should get your money back imo.
Ok. Yeah these are really bad looking, and it did happen really fast. I will try and get my money back based on principle. They were only $1.99 for 5 pre-made coils though, but still.
Yeah I'd lay money on Wotofo is using cheap crap wire manufactured in China. I make my own Clapton wire now and source my base wire from Crazy Wire over in the UK and from Kidney Puncher. This is after crap like this
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I'll keep keep Crazy Wire on my list of places to buy wire. Thanks. I pulled those 2 rusty coils out, and put a new pair of the same ones back in. Going to keep a close eye on them and see what happens. I don't think there's a future for those coils in my builds though.
Thanks for the input everyone.
This is why I build my own coils...I've never seen anything like that happen with kanthal. I mean even after weeks of use, nothing that rusty.
My advice would be to just buy some spools of kanthal or whatever kind of wire you want and spin your own Claptons. Way cheaper in the long run to buy $7-$15 spools of various gauges and lengths to make whatever kinda coils you want.
My advice would be to just buy some spools of kanthal or whatever kind of wire you want and spin your own Claptons. Way cheaper in the long run to buy $7-$15 spools of various gauges and lengths to make whatever kinda coils you want.
They're stunningly bad right? Makes you wonder, what kind of wire it really is. I always thought Kanthal was pretty resistant to rust and oxidation. I have never seen a coil that turned this bad in 4 years of vaping myself, and that seems to be what I'm getting from everyone that's scratching their heads with me over this on the forum. I am emailing Eciggity today. It could be an anomaly but I doubt it. Junk Wotofo coils like @r055co said no doubt.
EDIT: I'm definitely going to look into just making my own clapton coils from good wire. I've purchased some pre-made coils from CrazyTwists on ebay in the past, and his coils are top-notch. Expensive, but very happy with those.
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Personally I've only seen this happen to old kanthal builds. When I say old I mean like 5 months old. Part of the reason I switched to nichrome. Doesn't seem to happen, ever.
Stainless steel FTW
Kanthal will rust if left dry, but certainly it takes time and age since kanthal forms an alloy coating upon breaking in. Without a doubt something is wrong with the wire.
i have to say in all the time i have been building coils i have never had them look like that, and there are lazy times ill keep coils in for a few weeks, im thinking its just crappy wire, i would toss them and try some diff coils, GL and happy vaping!
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