A7 rebuidable and metallic taste

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notawoman

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Hey, I just bought my first rebuildable an A7 atomizer

I've been trying to wrap coils for it as the stock one tastes metally too. I'm using 30 awg kanthal and burning anything that might be on it off. I've tried cotton and silicia wick so far but everytime I wrap a coil and vape from it, I get a gross metallic taste from it.

Am I just doing something wrong?
 

JCJohn23

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I had problems with mine too. Once i got it workin it was awesome. Is your coil going between the two posts right over the air hole? I built my first coil and it was not over the air hole and it was horrible. If air is not passing over the coil the juice can just sit on the wire and burn and taste gross. Also make sure the coil is not touching any of the metal anywhere or it will give off an awful taste too. I hope you get it workin because once it does it works great!
 
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notawoman

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I had problems with mine too. Once i got it workin it was awesome. Is your coil going between the two posts right over the air hole? I built my first coil and it was not over the air hole and it was horrible. If air is not passing over the coil the juice can just sit on the wire and burn and taste gross. Also make sure the coil is not touching any of the metal anywhere or it will give off an awful taste too. I hope you get it workin because once it does it works great!

Yeah, the middle of the coil is directly above the air hole. I'm guessing it's just me being new to coils and building bad ones.
 

notawoman

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So, I've wrapped quite a few coils now and I can't seem to make it go away. I've tried silica and cotton and both still give me this weird metallicy taste. The most recent coil is probably the nicest I've done, it was pretty even and when dry burnt the coils heated up evenly I'd say.

I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong or if it might be the atomizer. I might try to take some pictures of my coil tommorow.
 

dwcraig1

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I have been following this thread and am baffled, have you tried using nichrome or some other wire as these atomizers are about as easy as it gets.
The way that I make the coil for these is to first heat till red the wire to remove tension and wrap it on a shaft of appropriate size(I use a standard round tooth pick that I have made slightly smaller in diameter) and wrap it tight and close together then before you slid it off the tooth pick adjust the space between the coils to desired distance. Then prepare your wick end by rolling a small piece of the thinnest aluminum foil on the end like on the end of a shoe string(in my case I'm using 3mm silica), get it tight and very carefully put it inside the coil. It should be just a tad loose looking but pretty much a perfect fit. Slid the coil to center of wick, pull off foil and here it the final step and extremely important: grab a hold of both end of the wick where it come out of the coil and
UN-TWIST it.
mount coil, cut off excess wick,dry burn,assemble ,drip enjoy.
Here is a video link of Optimo making a wick and coil for a Phoenix, note how he un-twists the wick.
This is where I learned to do that but I prefer to wrap the wire on a small shaft instead but that fluffed up wick is most important to achieve maximum results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZamYZU_eTi0&list=UUeo6dDtiO7akV_l_5Bp8V-Q&index=23
 
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Kemosabe

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I've gotten the weird metallicy taste from non A-1 kanthal. Other grades of kanthal can taste different.

Question: does the a7 work on a vmod?

So, I've wrapped quite a few coils now and I can't seem to make it go away. I've tried silica and cotton and both still give me this weird metallicy taste. The most recent coil is probably the nicest I've done, it was pretty even and when dry burnt the coils heated up evenly I'd say.

I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong or if it might be the atomizer. I might try to take some pictures of my coil tommorow.
 

notawoman

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Are you torching the wire before you wrap the coil?

Yeah, I get it red hot throughout with a lighter

Try dripping some juice on the wick/coil with the top off and fire without drawing on it. I do this a couple times to season the coil. I use Nextel ceramic wick and it can taste a little "off" at first if I don't season it.

I don't think it's the wick, but I did try this already. It keeps happening with cotton and silicia.

I have been following this thread and am baffled, have you tried using nichrome or some other wire as these atomizers are about as easy as it gets.
The way that I make the coil for these is to first heat till red the wire to remove tension and wrap it on a shaft of appropriate size(I use a standard round tooth pick that I have made slightly smaller in diameter) and wrap it tight and close together then before you slid it off the tooth pick adjust the space between the coils to desired distance. Then prepare your wick end by rolling a small piece of the thinnest aluminum foil on the end like on the end of a shoe string(in my case I'm using 3mm silica), get it tight and very carefully put it inside the coil. It should be just a tad loose looking but pretty much a perfect fit. Slid the coil to center of wick, pull off foil and here it the final step and extremely important: grab a hold of both end of the wick where it come out of the coil and
UN-TWIST it.
mount coil, cut off excess wick,dry burn,assemble ,drip enjoy.
Here is a video link of Optimo making a wick and coil for a Phoenix, note how he un-twists the wick.
This is where I learned to do that but I prefer to wrap the wire on a small shaft instead but that fluffed up wick is most important to achieve maximum results.
Wrapping a good coil & using dual coils on the Phoenix Rebuildable Atomizer - YouTube

No, all I have is 30 awg a-1 kanthal wire. My coils aren't that bad, and I usually get around 2 ohms. I've been wrapping it around a needle and a paper clip with the wick or cotton. I'll try making a coil and threading, but I'm not sure if it will make a difference, I've made some really nice coils that ended up with the same result.

I've gotten the weird metallicy taste from non A-1 kanthal. Other grades of kanthal can taste different. I'm also baffeled

Question: does the a7 work on a vmod?

I'm not sure, It's a 510 with a air hole on the bottom
 

j4mmin42

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Ok, this isn't that complicated- metallic taste comes from having a short somewhere in your setup, usually. Are you absolutely sure that your coil leads are not getting red-hot when the thing has juice in it? Do a few-second wet burn and see if anything gets too hot. Also, make sure there's nothing silly happening, like loose connections or bits of metal that shouldn't be touching.

Good luck!
 

notawoman

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Ok, this isn't that complicated- metallic taste comes from having a short somewhere in your setup, usually. Are you absolutely sure that your coil leads are not getting red-hot when the thing has juice in it? Do a few-second wet burn and see if anything gets too hot. Also, make sure there's nothing silly happening, like loose connections or bits of metal that shouldn't be touching.

Good luck!

I was assuming that it was, but I do a dry burn and a wet burn. Oh well, I'll just keep trying.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I appreciate it.
 

notawoman

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Ok, this is my most recent coil. I wrapped it 30 awg kanthal around a drill bit and none of the coils are touching, I tried to make them as even as I could. Then I pushed some cotton through the coil and checked the ohms it came out at 2.8.

It's ok, but just like other coils it has a very hot harsh taste. Even at different voltages and closing up the air hole a bit It's about the same.
 

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JD1

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That's a great looking coil. It's impossible to tell for sure, but by looking right at the top of the coil in pic 4 it looks like the wick might be a little too loose in the coil.

I would suggest pulling that wick out and pulling a short cotton wick through that coil. Twist it enough to get it through, then untwist it and use a paper clip to poke it back toward the center of the coil from both ends. Drip on some juice and wait a bit for the cotton to swell, then see what it tastes like. If you're still getting a bad taste, I'd think it would have to be something with that atty although I'd can't imagine what it could be.
 

AZCraig

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It might be that you are sensitive to the high iron content in Kanthal (including the A-1 formulation)

If you look at:
Specs for Kanthal A-1

You can see that the "balance" (approx 70%) of the wire content is Iron

You might try something like Nichrome 80 which is "80% Nickel, 20% Chromium"

I'm out of Nichrome 80 at the moment, but when I get some, I'd be happy to send you (for free) a small amount to play with. Just send me a PM your info and I'll hook you up.


Craig
 

68injunhed

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Maybe it's just the angle of the pics, but there seems to be a lot of space between the coil and the posts. The "tails" reaching out from the wick to the posts could be causing your problem. When I wrap mine, my wick/coil is closer to parallel with the posts, resulting in almost zero wire not touching the wick, and nothing but goodness.

Google images returned this pic, which is an illustration of what I'm talking about.

http://s7.postimage.org/6a8i48hln/IMG_0073_1.jpg
 
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