A month of rebuilding but...

[ricobrody91turtlepower]

hello everyone. I have been into rebuildables for about a month now and I cannot seem to get the dense vapor one should get from building your own coils. I use from 28, 30, and 32 gauge kanthal. I build silica wrapped wicks and i do micro coils. Ohms range from .5 to .9 and i still cannot get the vapor.. i get more vapor from my aspire bdc and my protank 2. i made sure my coils aren't touching metal, that they are evenly spaced, that the airholes line up with coils, my battery is freshly charged (vtc5 sony), and that the coils burn from inside towards the outside. to me i believe that the coils are not as intense as it should be, in the sense of heat level. i watch youtube videos constantly and do exactly as the experienced people be do. i do not do any complex builds like diamond coils or twisting my kanthal, just plain and simple coil builds so i shouldn't find anything wrong with them, other than that my coils do not "pop" as hard as i see others. i do not get a lot or even dense vapor, help me please. has anyone has this problem? i really enjoy building coils but this is pretty frustrating. the mechanical mod im using is smoktech magneto, nimbus clone, and a steam turbine. any help advice will do thank you.

 

[UncleChuck]

Have you gone through and made sure all the contacts, threads, etc on the mod are clean and free of dirt and corrosion? Dirty threads or contacts can cause a bit of voltage drop that will give you a bit weaker vape, just something to double check.

On the Nimbus, are you using the stock airholes? Because they are very tiny and will hinder vapor production quite a bit. Drill the holes out and vapor production will shoot up, assuming you have enough power running through your coil.

Running compressed/touching coils will give a bit better vapor production than spaced ones.

Any pics of your coil builds so we can double check to make sure there are no obvious issues? There are a lot of variables involved getting rbas running great but these questions should get us started.

 

[Keymaster4225]

In addition to what UncleChuck said, try using organic cotton for the wick.

 

[emus]

Running compressed/touching coils will give a bit better vapor production than spaced ones.

Spacers chuck the vapor in my builds.
I run em both ways.

Perhaps my air flow over coil differs from yours.

 

[gpjoe]

Also, make sure that you are not flooding your coil. If you drip too much juice into the atomizer, to a level that the coil is starting to be submerged in the juice, the vapor will drop off significantly. When I over-drip (too much juice) I tilt the mod/atomizer in a way that allows the juice to pool away from the coil and vapor production increases. I take a few hits like this till the juice level goes down a bit.

 

[UncleChuck]

Spacers chuck the vapor in my builds.
I run em both ways.

Perhaps my air flow over coil differs from yours.

Probably a lot of variables involved, for me compressed coils seem to always heat quicker and produce more dense vapor with the builds I've done for the most part, and most people seem to prefer this style these days so I'm surely not alone.

Although there are some situations where I've experienced spaced coils giving better performance. Like when running too much power for the wire gauge, a compressed coil has the heat too concentrated on one section of wick, and vapor production suffers. But when spread out the heat is less concentrated and performs better.

Like running .4 ohm with a single strand of 28g wire, it will probably perform better with spaced coils compared to compressed coils, because the wire will get so hot you need a lot of wick to disperse the heat. Compressing the coil will only concentrate the heat further.

I guess it just depends on how you build your coils. If you build on the upper end of the power-to-coil surface area ratio spaced coils are better, if you build on the lower end compressed coils are better.

 

[emus]

Probably a lot of variables involved, ...

One thing I'm not keen on w/ tight coils is they sometimes blow dragon breath out the sides.

Dragon breath does not seem to produce silky smooth TH; I am still experimenting.

You have experienced this unplanned dragon breath also, right?

 

[Flt Simulation]

Well, you have made great low ohm coils ... so why not enough vapor

How many volts / watts are you feeding your .5 - .9 ohm coil?
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EDIT: I see that your using a mechanical mod with no voltage adjustment, so you must be giving your coil about 3.7 volts once everything stabilizes?

That's at least 15 watts with a .9 ohm coil ... That's pretty hot and should make lots of vapor as long as your coils are getting juice.

You are using a single coil ... right?

...... I'm stumped!

 

[BobC]

If you want help, it's best to post a pic or two of your setup, this way they can be critiqued, also state your juice mix

 

[Kevin33]

Emus, I do spacer coils as well, each coil being about 1 mm apart. My favorite juice is H1N1, and while a 0.8 micro coil chuck out a ton of vapor, it makes it so I can't taste the complexities of the juice. For me, it makes it super sweet and caramely.

Spaced out and 1.2 ohm is what works for me, especially with this juice. I should not that I take pretty slow puffs though, and I am noobish.

 

[emus]

Emus, I do spacer coils as well, each coil being about 1 mm apart. My favorite juice is H1N1, and while a 0.8 micro coil chuck out a ton of vapor, it makes it so I can't taste the complexities of the juice. For me, it makes it super sweet and caramely.

Spaced out and 1.2 ohm is what works for me, especially with this juice. I should not that I take pretty slow puffs though, and I am noobish.

I like a narrow width coil but I also like small spaces between coil wraps. 1 mm spaces must be a pretty wide coil. I want 100% of air feed to touch coil. Probably not possible today but topper efficiency will likely improve w/ time. KFL style seems pretty efficient and I have fun tuning side air flow toppers to match my aqua (kfl style) vapor quality.

Anyways, I'm still testing tight coils vs spacer coils; jury still out.

 

[coalyard]

My personal experience with a Smok Scar. I am a newbie with RDA's as well. I have built many successful PT2's, and decided to get into dripping. My .02 worth...

Stock coils in the Scar were meh. I got rid of them quickly, and did a 1ohm 30ga dual coil build, wicked with organic cotton. With some fiddling with voltage settings, it was better. Then I fooled with the height of the coils above the air holes on the deck, and better still. Tried wicking with a bit less cotton, and it also improved.

My last build today was (2) 32ga coils at 1.5ohm, again with organic cotton. I placed the coils a little less than 1/16" above the air holes in the deck. Better still, in fact, pretty damn good. Then I drilled out the air holes in the build deck and cap to 1/16". Built the same 32ga coils, set up the same way. Oh my!! What a difference! Lots of flavor, tons of vapor. Just what I was expecting from an RDA.

I guess I am saying, it takes some tinkering to get it just right...Coils, wicking, coil height, air delivery, etc. It was half the fun for me.

 

[Danderdude]

OP, try just plain cottonball wicks, and put the coil as close to the airhole as you can without shorting it. This ought to help.

Also, know that most of the people making Youtube videos are using 100% VG juices, which will produce more visible vapor. I run a 50/50 blend so while coil performance is the same, visible vapor production is diminished. On the upside, longer coil life, less viscous juice, and more flavor.