Thanks guys!! This is a great place to get info. I will stick with the reg. coil wire. Thanks again and God bless.
Coil Wire
- Thread starter bluemax
- Start date
- th_trl_thread_readers 0
- Status
If this is truly stainless steel wire I cannot see how you got to 1.7 ohms. It should be a dead short. Just luck is all that kept you from venting a battery in your face. Please read and understand the correct materials and practices for building coils before you attempt any further builds. I would hate to log on and read the post where you were blinded by a venting battery. Please understand I am not fussing at you in the slightest, I would just like to see you remain safe and vaping with us for a long time. If you need a source for Kanthal wire try Amazon or Ebay. Both have several reputable vendors offering Kanthal at reasonable prices. I personally use Lightning Vapes, about $8.00 per 100 ft.
Hypatia,
On one hand I agree with you, kind of. Stainless Steels can contain many different elements (chromium, molybdenum, aluminum, nickel, lead, and of course, iron and carbon). Choosing a stainless wire with high amounts of either lead or aluminum would be worrisome, and I have no idea about the safety of molybdenum.
However, we don't panic when folks use SS mesh for their wicks, and in practical use, I believe that at least some of the time parts of these wicks get very hot. There are many here who like to experiment, and this has pushed the technology forward. Nichrome and Kanthal might work, but are they the ideal choices for coil material? After all, coils do degrade with usage, and there's a possibility nichrome might winds up emitting 10X as much chromium during it's lifetime as a SS coil would? I don't know. But I don't know that nichrome is safer than SS, either. If stainless turns out to be a healthier choice, wouldn't that be worth finding out? And if it's more dangerous, shouldn't we be yelling at everybody using SS mesh for wicks?
Nichrome and Kanthal are OK for coils, but they're not perfect. Perhaps a coil (or something not a coil!) made from a thin strip of SS Mesh would be even better? A wick and heating element all combined in one? Or maybe we'll combine the two, and some manufacturer will start making kanthal mesh for this purpose?
I just think this is the kind of idea that is worth pursuing, with caution and research. If you look at what this forum was as little as 2 years ago, it was one of the main centers for innovation of e-cigarette ideas and products. And I don't think we can be so afraid of anything new that we stomp out any attempts at innovation in the process. I hope everyone on this forum knows full well that everything here (vaping, liquids, batteries, inhalation techniques, etc. etc. etc.) CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH.
As far as the danger of SS wire goes, it's still wire. Inhalation of various metals might be an extremely serious concern. But the fact that "jewelry wire wasn't made to conduct electricity" isn't really a valid argument. If a coil breaks while you're vaping on it, so what? Nichrome coils break all the time. I don't think an SS coil is likely to vaporize into hot metal mist any more than any other coil; if it is discovered that it can, I'm sure that will get figured out. Perhaps SS coils will go the way of Blue Foam, perhaps they'll be the only thing we use a couple years from now. I'm interested to find out!
I've greatly increased my odds of living longer by vaping instead of smoking. I could still get run over by a bus tomorrow. Perhaps some risks are worth taking.
Stainless is only about 1.5 times as conductive as nichrome, so a finer stainless wire could easily compare to a slightly larger-diameter nichrome wire. This is one reason you can wrap a coil around SS mesh and not totally short the coil out.
Conductive Materials or Metal Conductivity - TIBTECH innovations -
Stainless steel and Kanthal aren't very different in makeup but Kanthal has aluminum in it and is much more conductive of electricity. Stainless steel is a poor conductor.
Stainless steel and Kanthal aren't very different in makeup but Kanthal has aluminum in it and is much more conductive of electricity. Stainless steel is a poor conductor.
After reading the rest of these comments I did some research and I was wrong. While I would have assumed stainless steel wire would be a dead short it appears it has roughly half the resistance of comparable gauge Kanthal A-1. 11.4 ohms per ft.for SS 34 ga. vs. 21.1 ohms per ft. for Kanthal A-1 34 ga. As for the makeup of the wire in original post that is anybody's guess but the particular wire I researched does have enough resistance to get the quoted resistance on a coil approx .08in in dia. As to the safety of using said wire for coils for health reasons that is for others much smarter than myself to decide. I will consider myself schooled on this subject. Nice to know I'm still not to old to learn something.
Kas.
Yes! This was a surprise to me as well (Figured it out a while back when trying to figure out why an SS mesh wick didn't short out a coil wrapped around it). One of the reasons I really like ECF is that I'm always learning something I thought I already knew.
yes it turned red, and the vape was good even though the reading was 1.7 ohms. I thought I might try a few more wraps to bring my resistance up to get to a sweet spot of 7wts I will still stick with the regular wire though.
Last edited:
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
