Average Life of a Rebuilt Coil?

[JoshUng]

So I just started rebuilding, and I was wondering how long a rebuilt coil should last.

When I got my dripper, the B&M built the first coil for me. It was pretty low resistance. Within a week, the resistance went way up, like over 4 Ohms. I assume the resistance will gradually increase as the coil ages?

Assuming that is correct, how long does a coil normally last? How much depends on the build? This particular build was 5 wraps of 25 guage kanthal, wrapped around 5/64th drill bit. Dual coil?

I rebuilt it, no problem, so if its normal that it would need to be rebuilt within a week or so, that's fine. But if they should last much longer, I'm wondering what might cause it to go so quickly.

 

[zahzoo]

I think the primary element to coil life really comes down to the juice you are using...

Dark colored or really sweet juices gunk up a coil rather quickly. Some coffee flavors can bring a good coil to it's knees in less than a day.

Light colored juices tend to go longer and have less buildup on them and can go weeks.

I'm a little surprised to hear of your resistance going up that measurably... most times I might notice the ohm reading going up maybe .1 or so... but taste and flavor production usually suck if I let one go that long without a cleaning and dry burn. You may want to check all your connections on that.

 

[JoshUng]

I think the primary element to coil life really comes down to the juice you are using...

Dark colored or really sweet juices gunk up a coil rather quickly. Some coffee flavors can bring a good coil to it's knees in less than a day.

Light colored juices tend to go longer and have less buildup on them and can go weeks.

I'm a little surprised to hear of your resistance going up that measurably... most times I might notice the ohm reading going up maybe .1 or so... but taste and flavor production usually suck if I let one go that long without a cleaning and dry burn. You may want to check all your connections on that.

Thank you, it is also definitely possible my my ohm meter wasn't reading it correctly. The vape itself didn't feel that much different from beginning to end, and I assume that much of a change in resistance would be noticeable, even to somebody as new as I am to this. It didn't take any longer to heat up, or less vape production. If anything, it was "quieter", not as much crackling.

I guess what I was looking for was as long as the replies aren't "new coil within a week, something is seriously wrong!" then I'm okay.

Part of the reason I ask was I overheard a guy at a B&M saying a coil could last for 8 months. Don't know if I misheard him, he misspoke, or he was seriously inflating the lifespan.

 

[revco]

I think it depends. But first, my guess is that your up in resistance really isn't related to the coil, but rather something that changed like the distance or possibly damage to the coil. I personally don't find that resistance changes much over time on any of my gear and when it does, it's because something went awry.

On my standard Kanger coils, I can get anywhere from a few days use (dark, gnarly juices which I don't typically run) to around a month or so before they start to show signs of deterioration. For these reasons, my Kanger setup is mostly juices that are compatible and can give long life on those coils. On these, the most common reason of failure, though, is not the coil...but rather the wick...it tends to burn out, get gunky, whatever. I could theoretically dry-burn and replace the wick, but I find this to be unnecessary as I'll just sit down every so often and whip out a dozen+ fresh coils...it's not worth the time to maintain them to me.

For my RDA's/RBA's, I pretty much exclusively run twisted Kanthal anymore. I've got one daily coil that has been going for over two months now and probably "should" be replaced, but I'm trying to see how long I can squeak out of it for reference. With just regular coils (not twisted), I find I get around 2-4 weeks of use before it's time to replace as they tend to fall apart. I feel the extra effort in creating a twisted kanthal makes the coil last much longer and heat up a little better. I can run the thickest, darkest, coil-gunking juices and it's just a matter of a quick dry burn and wick replacement, super easy on an RDA.

Hope that helps and happy vaping!

 

[BigCatDaddy]

They shouldn't go that quick at all. Sounds like you maybe had a short. What Ω did you build at this time?? Just curious...

 

[JoshUng]

They shouldn't go that quick at all. Sounds like you maybe had a short. What Ω did you build at this time?? Just curious...

The built that went quickly was .5 Ohms, which was built by the store, though mine is right around the same spot.

A 4 Ohm resistance would definitely feel different though, right? The only difference I did notice was that it didn't crackle as much, taste, vapor production, time to heat up all stayed the same. I do kind of have a crappy ohm meter.

 

[tj99959]

I don't sub ohm or use dual coils.

That said and out of the way, there is no reason that a coil shouldn't last a month or more.

 

[WetWorksDesigns]

This is the beauty of this forum... I was about to ask the same thing (search for it), and someone already did! Thanks for asking JoshUng

 

[JoshUng]

I don't sub ohm or use dual coils.

That said and out of the way, there is no reason that a coil shouldn't last a month or more.

I'm not too particular on the resistance or coils, that's what they built for me, and when I rebuilt, I just tried to duplicate it. When I google how to build coils, it seems the low resistance ones are all I see. Any good recommendations for built coils between 1 -2 ohms?

Also, I don't really understand the difference between single and dual coils (well, besides the obvious).

 

[joecil]

One other note here on coils ohm's changing. I've found when they go up .1 or so it is crud on the coil, hence clean it and re-wick. Now if it jumps up much more or fluctuates check the screws holding down you coil as odds are they have come a little loose.

 

[Ryedan]

The built that went quickly was .5 Ohms, which was built by the store, though mine is right around the same spot.

A 4 Ohm resistance would definitely feel different though, right? The only difference I did notice was that it didn't crackle as much, taste, vapor production, time to heat up all stayed the same. I do kind of have a crappy ohm meter.

Yes, at 4 ohms that setup would not have made any vapor. Less crackle will happen as the coil gunks up from use. Taste and vapor production go down too.

I typically take out the cotton, dry burn the gunk off the coils and re-wick pretty much daily if it's my main vape device. A lot depends on the juice. Some gunk real quick and others 'burn' a lot cleaner. My favorite juice is quite gunky. Sometimes I'll put the old wick back in if it looks good to me, but only once. Cotton is so cheap, IMO it's not worth saving on and having a non-prime vape for a while.

I've had dual micro coils at 0.5 - 0.6 ohms last me six weeks. Eventually the Kanthal changes, it becomes brittle and breaks. If I like the coil as it's setup I leave it in there until it breaks which almost always happens when I'm cleaning it.

 

[revco]

I'm not too particular on the resistance or coils, that's what they built for me, and when I rebuilt, I just tried to duplicate it. When I google how to build coils, it seems the low resistance ones are all I see. Any good recommendations for built coils between 1 -2 ohms?

Also, I don't really understand the difference between single and dual coils (well, besides the obvious).

Well, I'll start with the easy one. Dual coil is two coils, single is, well, one. LOL. All kidding aside, here's what happens. With two coils, you effectively divide the resistance by 2...so to get to a 1 ohm total dual-coil, you'd wrap two 2-ohm coils. On my dual coil setups, I'm regularly trying to hit 1.6-1.8 ohms so when the resistance is halved, it gets me where I want to be. The point of it all is that two wicks and two coils running simultaneously gets you more vapor because there's more juice contact with both coils. That's the theory. In practice, however, one can build a pretty wicked single coil that will be more than enough for most people. There is such a thing as "cloud chasing," which I find to be a bit ridiculous, but basically it's people who are for some reason fascinated by giant vapor clouds and want to see how much they can get. Some may even find they prefer dual coil setups, but I'm one of the people who got into single coils, pursued dual+ coils heavily and ultimately went back to single coils for ease of use.

As for your first question, there's absolutely nothing wrong with wrapping 1-2 ohm coils. I've done it, probably most of us have done it. For me, it's sometimes out of necessity...I have a couple of mods that won't accept anything under 1.2 ohm, so those get something in the 1.5 range. My mechs on the other hand will accept whatever I put on it (that's battery safe, anyway) and thus I can run lower in some setups. For most of us experienced wrappers, we find that somewhere just below sub-ohm is the sweet spot. (I usually go for .8 ohm.) Reason being, the higher the resistance, the faster and hotter your coil will get. With lesser resistance, you get a slower burn with more vapor production...and in most people's perception, it's a slightly better vape. Don't get me wrong, it all vapes...but don't let anyone tell you that there's only one way to roll because it's simply not true.

 

[Ryedan]

Here's a good online coil wrapping calculator. It does dual coils too. Works very well if you enter the data it needs accurately.

 

[herb]

For me , i change coils pretty frequently actually , far more often than i need to but they are so simple and Kanthal so cheap that i actually enjoy rigging up new coils , flavor is always amazing on a brand new one if you do it right .

 

[brickfollett]

haha yeah a 4 ohm coil probably wouldn't even be hot enough to burn my hand on a dry burn on my mech. Well maybe it would, but it woudn't do a whole heck of a lot. mine are .39 ohms and the ohms don't spike like that. That high of a spike means something else is up

 

[dice57]

A coil build will typically last longer than your desire to try a new build. We are talking months worth of coil life with proper re-wicking and dry burning the coil. A wick will last days to weeks.

I have one build that is like 6 months old, and still vaping strong, going to switch it up though, have some new wire I want to try.

Most likely the reason your ohm's have gone up is a loose connection or a popped coil. Resistance will drift up a tad over time, but more like 0.05-0.2 ohms, not a drift of 1, 2, or 3 ohms, that's an indicator of something is wrong. Check the build, conections, and coil wraps, make sure there is no touching angainst the sides, or breaks in the coil, screws tight, that sort of thing.