I've been vaping for about 4 years now, but mostly with ego style devices. In the past year, I've started using VV mods like the Volcano Lavatube v2 and the itaste MVP. After watching many videos on youtube, I decided I wanted to try mechanical mods. I picked up my gear online from various sites like MadVapes, Kidney Puncher and Discount Vapers and with some basic tools in hand, I began building my own coils with an Octopus RDA on a Magneto mod. I wanted to ease my way into rebuilding so I stuck with 1.2 to 1.4 ohm builds for the first couple of weeks. When I felt I could build some pretty decent coils, I started moving into sub ohms greater than 0.7. After about a week, I figured I was ready to try some dual coils. Of course, I made sure that I had all the right information about how to measure the resistance of dual coils and made sure the amp draw on my battery was sufficient. My first dual coil was a micro on a Scar RDA @ 0.7 ohms. It performed pretty well and so I proceeded to try different coils such as the dual nano dragon coil and twisted kanthal coils. I had made some coils even @ 0.5 with no issues. All worked great and performed like I had seen on the videos. I then decided to purchase a bigger RDA (the Helios) and try some really low ohm coils @ 0.3 to 0.2. This is where I made a big mistake. My first build on the Helios was a dual 0.6 ohm micro coil of twisted 28 ga. kanthal and it was just great. The vapor just awesome and this success gave me the illusion that I knew what I was doing. Wrong! My second build was a complete disaster. I was foolish enough to throw caution to the wind and build a 0.3 ohm quad micro coil. Before I put the cap on, I fired it a few times and watched the vapor just pour off the top. I was thinking that this was going to be a moment I'd never forget. I was right. As I took my first lung inhale with the 4 large air holes wide open, I immediately felt my throat being scalded by superheated vapor! I began coughing uncontrollably and felt myself blacking out as I gasped for air. I was able to get a breath in just in time to maintain consciousness but continued to cough in agony for the next few minutes. After I recovered, I realized what I had done wrong. With the air holes wide open I had sucked the superheated vapor at high speed, still crackling, directly down my wind pipe. I really wasn't prepared for the difference in temperature that such a low ohm build would produce. Also, due to the unique design of the Helios's center post, it has a reduced internal resistance compared to anything else I had used. Comparing it now, even to my Trident v2, it just sizzles way more at equal resistance coils. I also believe that the wide air chamber of the Helios allows the hot drops of vapor that fly off the coils to be directly inhaled instead of hitting the walls of the cap. What I had created was a perfect storm of scalding hot vapor with too much airflow. My throat hurt for a week and I had difficulty sleeping for about 3 days, but I know it could have been much worse. Talk about the ultimate throat-hit! It was a lesson well learned. Later, I looked online to see if anyone else had a similar experience, but I couldn't find any examples. Hopefully, someone will read this and luckily avoid my mistake.
Vape safe. Aloha.
Vape safe. Aloha.
