Clapton or twisted Kanthal?

[bingotj1]

Which is better? I have some Clapton wire and my friend made some twisted kanthal.
I'm looking for something that makes a bigger cloud.

 

[93gc40]

More powerfull mod......

 

[Tagi]

IMHO Both just make a spitty coil

 

[LottaT]

Can I jump into your thread and ask a question? Reading your question reminded me... With twisted kanthal, you do mean two wires twisted together, right? I guess that is a bit different than the Clapton wire which has an inner wire with an outer wire "coiled" around it. But when you take a single wire and twist it only to straighten it, that does not change the properties of the wire in any way, does it?

I just tried making my very first coils the other day, have not gotten to installing any of them yet. But since I'm building 2 3.2 Ohm coils with 32gauge wire, it sure was fiddly for a newbie. I have some 26 gauge also, and think I may just try making some new ones using that instead first, even if it'll be a lot of rounds. Hope they don't end out too wide, LOL... Using premade ones at the moment, but since I was an idiot and forgot when I ordered, I ordered 1.6 Ohm ones, reads 0.85 (won't make that mistake again!). It was better for me than even lower, but I prefer higher resistance, seems to suit me better...

Thanks a lot!

 

[tedigram]

Can I jump into your thread and ask a question? Reading your question reminded me... With twisted kanthal, you do mean two wires twisted together, right? I guess that is a bit different than the Clapton wire which has an inner wire with an outer wire "coiled" around it. But when you take a single wire and twist it only to straighten it, that does not change the properties of the wire in any way, does it?

I just tried making my very first coils the other day, have not gotten to installing any of them yet. But since I'm building 2 3.2 Ohm coils with 32gauge wire, it sure was fiddly for a newbie. I have some 26 gauge also, and think I may just try making some new ones using that instead first, even if it'll be a lot of rounds. Hope they don't end out too wide, LOL... Using premade ones at the moment, but since I was an idiot and forgot when I ordered, I ordered 1.6 Ohm ones, reads 0.85 (won't make that mistake again!). It was better for me than even lower, but I prefer higher resistance, seems to suit me better...

Thanks a lot!

With twisted wire you're taking two pieces of metal that have the same resistance, then putting them into such close contact that they can start to act as a single path for the electrical flow, effectively halving the total resistance. Think of it like doubling the width of a highway. With clapton, another principle comes into play, which is that electricity takes the path of least resistance as long as it has enough capacity. Since the inner core of the clapton is usually so much larger than the wrap, the resistance of the wrap barely factors in, because the current is always going to choose the larger wire, and has plenty of "highway" to do so. The wrap of clapton glows because it's picking up the actual heat of the glowing inner core, not because the current is heating it itself.

As far as twisting a single strand to straighten it, no that shouldn't impact the resistance, unless you got so wild with it that you actually made the wire thinner in some places, or overstressed it or something.

 

[LottaT]

Thanks a lot, tedigram, very informative answer and so wonderfully explained, so an extra thanks for that (that sure is a challenge when you're new at this, lots of vape lingo going around, LOL, but I am getting better, slowly learning a new language)!

 

[93gc40]

With twisted wire you're taking two pieces of metal that have the same resistance, then putting them into such close contact that they can start to act as a single path for the electrical flow, effectively halving the total resistance. Think of it like doubling the width of a highway. With clapton, another principle comes into play, which is that electricity takes the path of least resistance as long as it has enough capacity. Since the inner core of the clapton is usually so much larger than the wrap, the resistance of the wrap barely factors in, because the current is always going to choose the larger wire, and has plenty of "highway" to do so. The wrap of clapton glows because it's picking up the actual heat of the glowing inner core, not because the current is heating it itself.

As far as twisting a single strand to straighten it, no that shouldn't impact the resistance, unless you got so wild with it that you actually made the wire thinner in some places, or overstressed it or something.

You don't have to use 2 wires of the same resistance when twisting wire...... I often mix it up. My favorites are 2x32, 3x32, 2x31, 31/32, 2x30 or (2x32)x31. Instead of 27awg, 28awg or 29awg builds. But then I build mostly at 1ohm to 1.5ohm, on rare occasions down to .6 or .7ohm

 

[tedigram]

You don't have to use 2 wires of the same resistance when twisting wire...... I often mix it up. My favorites are 2x32, 3x32, 2x31, 31/32, 2x30 or (2x32)x31. Instead of 27awg, 28awg or 29awg builds. But then I build mostly at 1ohm to 1.5ohm, on rare occasions down to .6 or .7ohm

I was explaining the basic concept, and the principle still applies to your situation. You're using wires similar enough in resistance to twist together. The same principles apply. If you went and twisted 22AWG with 32AWG, the 32 basically wouldn't exist when it came to determining the resistance. At that point you would not be making a truly twisted wire in the sense that we mean it, you would be making a sort of proto-clapton. Or in any case not something that would behave like a like-to-like twisted wire.

 

[XXZOMBIEPEPPERXX]

Ive been using triple strand twisted 28g and really like it. I have 32g coming in the mail and will be building my first attempt at a Clapton coil 32 wrapped around 28, I hope the Clapton is good ive been hearing good stuff about these coils....

 

[novaracer69]

I have had better luck with higher gauge wrap wires 36g to 40g. Now I like 24g nicrome 80 fused wrapped in 40g nicrome 80 for clouds.

 

[Verb]

For me: Naked> Clapton> Twisted

 

[Cloudd]

IMO Clapton for flavour and long hits, unless you're on VW/VV mods. Twisted for direct flavour and clouds.

I did a 30(26O ) clapton before and the vapour don't really get out of the coils much, it overheats when I was trying to get more clouds, but for 26 twisted, that thing is simple and straight up.

You don't have to use 2 wires of the same resistance when twisting wire...... I often mix it up. My favorites are 2x32, 3x32, 2x31, 31/32, 2x30 or (2x32)x31. Instead of 27awg, 28awg or 29awg builds. But then I build mostly at 1ohm to 1.5ohm, on rare occasions down to .6 or .7ohm

+1 for that, tried 28 and 26 twisted, and it still beats the ordinary 26 dual twisted.

My favourite is still the two stage heater: 30g two strands twisted, paralleled with sngle stand 28g, micro coil.

 

[MMW]

Double and triple parallel works well with 28,30, and 32. Lots of surface area to be had.