Cant get my coils working

[hazarada]

Last week i got my order of 0.2mm kanthal A and 2mm silica wick. I was pleased with the quality since there appears to be no residual substances on either of them (did a dry burn with just a coil around the wick and aside from heat there was nothing that came off). Great i thought and make a coil using a paper clip, assembled the head, checked the ohms which turned out to be 1.8, put it in the tank and it vaped like a dream. Beginners luck? you bet

A week later I had a little mishap when filling the tank, somehow i managed to lodge the tip of the bottle in the head (dont ask) so that it touched the coil and screwed it up, im not sure what it did exactly but after that i started getting constant dry hits so i decided to just make a new head.

Today i've rebuilt around 7 heads, all of them suck. They got this metallic kind of taste, not sure how else to describe it. I tried winding the coil tight, loose, tried winding it on a bolt and threading the wick through it, tried high resistance, tried low resistance and finally tried giving it double legs... still i taste metal.

The best one i got was a high resistance, medium tightness, single legged coil. The ohms read 2.7 usually and it still has a slight metallic tinge to it but when i move the coil a bit with a pin the ohms rise to anywhere between 2.8-3.2 and the metal is gone, for a couple hits, and then it settles back at 2.7.

The only one that didnt have the metallic taste was a 1.8 ohm single legged coil that i wound really tight around the wick (without the pin) but that one didn't wick good at all and all it did was burn juice, i checked inside the head while it was running and noticed the legs were glowing red while the actual coil did nothing.

The last one i made was a 2.2 ohm double legged medium tightness coil, i coiled it with a paper clip taking extra care to make it as nice as possible and it looked really good. Perfectly spaced and aligned coil, i doubled back the legs and twisted them to hold together up to where the coil starts touching the wick. I made sure there was no touching between the coil and the rest of the head in any place there wasn't supposed to be. Really pleased with my handiwork i screwed it into the tank, primed it and took a hit... more metal than ever before, it was awful. (on a side note though the vapor production itself was really good, lol)

At this point i'm really fed up with this, whats going wrong? what makes it tastes like metal? Oh ya, the clearo in question is a vivi nova v3

 

[LazyBulldogge]

I don't know if it can cause a metallic taste, but from what I've read and seen, I decided to heat the Kanthal until it glows red, with a lighter, before winding the coil. And so far, no metallic taste on the first 2 coils I made. Just the "new coil" taste for a couple of hours, which I hope to get rid of, by heating the silica wick with the blue part of the flame from the lighter (haven't tested the coils where I did that yet).

 

[bckane]

dont know if this helps, but before I run my wick I heat my coil with a lighter. Let the coil get red hot.......then finish you rebuild

 

[hazarada]

I just made a coil and attached it to a 5v supply, then used pliers to move various bits and pieces close to it to see what makes the smell. The coil, wick, metal of the head and the silicone pieces made nothing at all, when i put a wick with juice near it though - instant recognition. Its not like the usual burny smell but still i think its the juice burning, why would this be happening?

 

[eHuman]

Metallic tastes = a short.
Harsh but non-metallic taste = poor wicking.
Resistance reading randomly increasing = one or both ends of your coil have a poor electrical connection.

 

[bsidb]

Your last coil, 2.2, double legged, maybe to much metel, I never double leg. Just a thought. Otherwise It sounde like it should have been

fine I use a slightly thicker spacer but I dont think that would mater as far as metel taste goes, one thought is after wrap a new coil i

slowly bring it up to temp starting at 3.5 bump it up a couple press till it crackles afew seconds bump it up etc. etc. not sure if that may

help with the taste but thats the only thing else I do

 

[hazarada]

ohoh! i got it, it was the juice. I took one head and dryburned it to hell, even after the wick and coil were clean and werent giving off anything anymore there was still some drops at the bottom of the head (where the legs come in) bubbling and giving off bad smell. I think those drops are the ones that burn even though rest of the head works fine. So i took it to the sink and washed it clean, dried it off and this time i didnt prime it but let it wick naturally and instant magic! works perfectly now.

EDIT: little followup - turns out the metallic taste when burning is specific to this flavouring (inawera milk chocolate), also it burns really easy. Since then i refined my head making process further by making a little jig to hold the wick while i spin the kanthal around it, i also modded one head to make the wick holes bigger so i could fit 3 2mm's in there and my oh my does it make a crapton of vapor