When building a coil, is it important that each wrap is touching the one adjacent to it?
I know aesthetically its good, but does this have an impact on flavor or vapor production? Touching wraps would share heat better with their neighbor decreasing ramp up time. But would small gaps between each one also help allow air to access the center of the coil better?
Opinions please.
I mostly use contact coils with 27 gauge Kanthal at around 35 watts or 24 gauge Kanthal at around 60 watts, always wicked with rayon these days. In these setups it makes no noticeable difference to me if a coil or three out of say five are obviously not touching, or they are all touching. When I look at the coils under a magnifier when I fire them there is vapor coming out from between the coils, even when they look really tightly compressed. I believe they are never so tight that they seal between them, or the center coils would overheat.
The wire does not actually touch, or the whole coil would short. What I believe happens is the wire quickly develops a thin oxidation layer on the surface and this insulates it from itself.
I have also used intentionally spaced coils in the past and they perform very well also. I should really try spaced coils in my current gear to compare the performance, but I like what I have now so much there isn't any incentive for me to experiment. It's also easier to keep a contact coil in contact than it is to keep spaced coils reasonably evenly spaced over many wick changes.
I must also say that I've made and vaped some pretty lousy looking coils and they most times did very well for me, but as always, YMMV
