Confused about coil wrap spacing/no spacing

[swhite]

I have been researching posts and videos to learn how to rebuild the coils on my Aspire Nautilus, Aspire bdc's and Evods heads. Problem is that some videos have shown that you need to leave a small space between each wrap (not touching) and others show pushing the coil together (touching) and actually heating it to keep it together as one solid piece of coil. I am just wondering what the proper way to recoil these heads is and why.

I will add that I have not rebuilt any coils at this point. I do hope to progress to RBA's so if you know why you would want coils touching or not touching on these too then I would appreciate info on that. It would help me to know why coils are done both ways.

Thanks

 

[mitch655]

The coils that are touching are micro coils usually around 10 wraps, the ones not touching are normal coils and are around 5 or 6 wraps. But make sure before you start building coils that you have A ohm tester to check them before using unless of course you have a battery that will do it for you.

 

[swhite]

Thanks mitch655. Thanks for the info. I have a multimeter and a vamo so I am set for ohm checking. My main confusion is concerning the reason you would choose one type of coil over the other. I just haven't found anything yet that explains the reason you would use a micro coil over a normal coil and to make things even more confusing I have seen videos that have used both for the same aspire bdc head which leave someone like me a bit confused. I just want to make sure I understand everything before I start trying it.

 

[jrs99]

Just because the coils are touching doesn't make it a micro coil. It's the inner diameter of the coil that makes it a micro or nano coil.
There's a very long thread that discusses micro coils and their benefits in the RBA forum.
For me, micro coils were a lot easier to make, they last a lot longer because their so solid and they vaporize the liquid extremely well.
Hope this helps

 

[State O' Flux]

I just haven't found anything yet that explains the reason you would use a micro coil over a normal coil

The primary advantage of a "compressed" coil (sorry, the term "micro" can mean too many things to provide accurate specificity. The term "micro" should mean only that the coil is sub 1.5mm ID) is that the coil surface area provides both a larger and more evenly distributed, heat consistent, form factor - vs. a spaced element coil.

With a compressed coil, be it micro or macro - you are concentrating the heat generated by the individual coils into a more cohesive, heat and, consequently, vapor generating "element".
Consider this analogy. Ten matches, lit and separated by 1 inch per match - generate the heating capability of 1 match per inch, over a space of 10 inches. Ten lit matches, all within one square inch... generate more even and concentrated heat, within the confines of 1 inch square. Which do you think would be more effective at juice vaporization? ;-)

 

[swhite]

Thanks for the responses. What you said, State O' Flux makes sense. I guess I need to do some reading in the RBA threads. Does it matter if you replace a coil that has separated coils with one that doesn't if you are looking for better performance? I guess I am just wondering if you need to replace a coil with an exact copy or not.

 

[State O' Flux]

Thanks for the responses. What you said, State O' Flux makes sense. I guess I need to do some reading in the RBA threads. Does it matter if you replace a coil that has separated coils with one that doesn't if you are looking for better performance? I guess I am just wondering if you need to replace a coil with an exact copy or not.

No... in fact, switching from an "open" to a compressed coil to improve performance - would be (probably) the number one reason to do so.
A coil is a coil is a etc etc. As long as it's insulated from it's surroundings, the wick is not a tight or restricted fit and the resistance is consistent and within your desired range - you have a winner... or at least something that works.

Here's a bit of information and links to help you along the way. If you need help with anything, you can PM myself, or those mentioned in the links as sources of assistance.

 

[swhite]

Thanks again for your help. I will get all this down eventually. Funny, I was an electronics tech for 20 years but did not do anything like building coils so it is a new learning experience. I guess I just have a need to understand the reason for doing something when other people might just be happy to know how to do it. You have helped a lot. I will head to the RBA threads to see what I can find and I will check out your information and links too.

 

[Bronsononson]

I find micro coils (compressed) coils great for many different applications. Ive rebuilt my protank mini several times and because I can have so many wraps in such a small space I get a great build everytime. Im also a fan of nano coils in my dual coil sub ohm set ups.





Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

 

[Jazzman]

If you're looking to recoil a Nautilus and want to keep the same ohm range, you pretty much have to do micro coil because there is not much room inside the head to space the coils. You would run into the polyfil around the side of the head. If you wanted to space the coils you would have to run less wraps on the coil wind up sub-ohming the head. Not sure if the head would take that or not, haven't heard of anyone trying that yet, but don't think I want to be the tester on that one. The stock head is a 9 wrap micro coil with an inside diameter of 1.5mm. So find a 1.5mm drill bit or tool and use that to wrap your coil. You should wind up with a 1.5~1.6ohm coil.

 

[ScottP]

I will also say that if you have an Android device, download the free app Vaper's Toolbox. It will help figuring out what wire to use, how many wraps, etc.

 

[VaporDragon]

State of fluxs analogy should sum it up pretty well. With the wraps touching each other you are going to be able to get more wraps in the same space. Thus, covering more surface area, vaporizing more juice. It also comes down to what type of wick you are using that will determine what type of coil you will want to use. Now you can most certainly use silica or ekowool in a micro coil, it's just harder to get it in there, like, a lot harder. Usually when you use silica or ekowool you will get the amount of wick that you need and then wrap your regular (non-touching) coil around that wick. It's extremely difficult to wrap a micro coil around silica if not impossible. So that causes you to make the micro coil first then "thread" the wick through the micro coil. With cotton you can make your micro coil, fire it and make sure it's working properly, then get your cotton and pull it through the coil. It's hard to wrap a regular (non-touching) coil around cotton due to it not being as rigid as silica wick. So if you want to wrap a regular (non-touching) coil around cotton you will need something to help keep the cotton rigid so a needle tip or something similar. I know you may not understand all of this being new and all but research, research, and then research some more. The only way you're actually going to know which coil you want to use is by building them both and trying them and deciding for yourself. A lot of people prefer micro coils with cotton for the ease of changing out the wick and being able to keep the same coil going for quite a long time. Some think the taste is cleaner with cotton (I'm one of them) and some prefer the taste from silica. Really, it's all personal preference. HTH

 

[retired1]

Moved to Clearomizers

 

[TJVJR]

Good information. I plan to do more research before moving into micro or touching coils but I have a quick question ; If I stay around 1.5 - 2ohm I can use cotton wicked micro or touching small coils with a KGO battery cant I ?

 

[VaporDragon]

Good information. I plan to do more research before moving into micro or touching coils but I have a quick question ; If I stay around 1.5 - 2ohm I can use cotton wicked micro or touching small coils with a KGO battery cant I ?

You sure can.

 

[State O' Flux]

A lot of people prefer micro coils with cotton for the ease of changing out the wick and being able to keep the same coil going for quite a long time.
Some think the taste is cleaner with cotton (I'm one of them) and some prefer the taste from silica. Really, it's all personal preference. HTH

I would agree completely with both statements above... I have coils that are months old, still well within 0.1Ω of their original resistance, where I simply change out the cotton every few days (very juice dependent here).

I have sterile cotton, German silica, ekowool, hemp fiber and bamboo yarn... and of those 5, only properly prepared cotton seems to offer near to complete "invisibility" to my tastes.
XC-116 ceramic rope and hard ceramic both offer a (lack of added) flavor, similar to cotton, if not sometimes marginally better, but at a higher cost and complexity.

Sometimes, I'll forget that silica, ekowool, hemp fiber and bamboo yarn offer unpleasant flavor additions (again, to me) and I'll try them again... then, after the first few draws, I say to myself - "self... why do I keep making that same mistake?"
And the answer is, probably because, being a bit of a pack rat, I just can't seem to convince myself of throwing the offensive wick materials away... that or, I'm crazy.

 

[Coelli]

I've recently switched to XC-116 ceramic wick and usually build microcoils with 30g on a jeweler's screwdriver to get between 1.1-1.3 The XC-116 is so indestructible that to clean my dripper now I slide the wick almost all the way through, torch the long side clean, then dry burn the coil, slide it through the other way, and torch the remaining dirty end clean. The diameter on my old coils was just a little too tight though, so I increased the diameter by a bit by wrapping with 28g on a bigger screwdriver. It's still compressed and it's about 7 wraps for 1.2, the wick slides freely but still makes contact, and I'm happy with it. I think I might be getting a better vape now that the wick isn't as compressed, even if the coil itself seems monstrous in comparison to what I was building before. I don't think I'll ever go for super-micro-nano-pico coils if it means I can't use the ceramic wick (nor do I sub-ohm). The compressed/micro coils are my sweet spot.

 

[Coelli]

I have sterile cotton, German silica, ekowool, hemp fiber and bamboo yarn... and of those 5, only properly prepared cotton seems to offer near to complete "invisibility" to my tastes.
XC-116 ceramic rope and hard ceramic both offer a (lack of added) flavor, similar to cotton, if not sometimes marginally better, but at a higher cost and complexity.

I think I'm done with cotton; I liked it more than silica, except for those first few hits, but I chain-vape on a dripper all day and found that I had to change the cotton too frequently. Yeah, it's quick, but man it gets gunky and if I didn't change it out it would start to irritate my lungs. I've never tried the German silica but have heard good things about it.

 

[State O' Flux]

I think I'm done with cotton; I liked it more than silica, except for those first few hits, but I chain-vape on a dripper all day and found that I had to change the cotton too frequently. Yeah, it's quick, but man it gets gunky and if I didn't change it out it would start to irritate my lungs. I've never tried the German silica but have heard good things about it.

If I wasn't so poor - living in a cardboard box under the freeway overpass as I do - I would use XC-116 with wild abandon - but... cotton is sooo much easier to steal from the local grocery.

 

[Coelli]

If I wasn't so poor - living in a cardboard box under the freeway overpass as I do - I would use XC-116 with wild abandon - but... cotton is sooo much easier to steal from the local grocery.

Haha yes, for sure, one thing cotton has going for it is it's CHEEEEAP!! I figure the cost of the XC-116 gets defrayed by the lack of fraying... It seems to last forever. And less risk of doing again what I did one night, which was get too lazy to get out of bed to re-wick when I was reading a good book; I kept vaping even though the cotton was screaming to be changed and my lungs were not happy the next morning. I haven't smoked a cigarette in almost 14 years so that was an oddly familiar yet unwelcome feeling.