Is it normal for SS wire to turn brown?

[Kickingthesticks]

After I let it dry off yes

I wonder if its something in the water, chlorine or fluoride

After the rinse try slowly burning it and get that water to evaporate. See if that makes a difference. I think when we vape the material slightly changes causing minor rust if the water is not evaporated right away. I'm probably wrong but just a theory. And clapton coils will never have that fresh clean look after dry burning.

 

[Andromendous]

After the rinse try slowly burning it and get that water to evaporate. See if that makes a difference. I think when we vape the material slightly changes causing minor rust if the water is not evaporated right away. I'm probably wrong but just a theory. And clapton coils will never have that fresh clean look after dry burning.

Interesting theory, just out of curiosity I opened up my kayfun 5 which has a Nichrome80 clapton in it. It looks the same as the SS coils. Hm......

 

[Ryedan]

When I try and research this, the info I find definitely does not reassure me. I am not qualified to translate any of this to our use of stainless, hopefully one day I can find someone who is.

I found this helpful answer from a tutor on JustAnswer.com

Stainless Steel - Heat Treatment

It would seem to me that 'quenching' has the capability to change a metal's properties, whether that is good or bad or pertains to us at all I do not know. I do not know the temperature capabilities of a dry coil.

Heat treatment of metals does not change the chemical composition in a significant way, specially the way we do it with vaping wire. It's much more about changes to the metal's crystalline structure.

One thing I do avoid is to make the wire really hot when I dry burn, I stop at a slight glow and hold it there for a while. I believe this limits chemical change on the wire surface.

Works for me, but YMMV as always.

 

[Ryedan]

After you rinse do you burn it again to get excess water off?

I do. It's not necessary though, it's just my preference. Either way works fine and will make no difference to the way it vapes.

 

[Boompumper]

The 'carmelized sweetener' theory is easy enough to test....try quenching an unused coil.

 

[Andromendous]

The 'carmelized sweetener' theory is easy enough to test....try quenching an unused coil.

what do you mean by "quenching"?

Also, like i said, I use NO sweetener in my juices.

EDIT: I take that back, I use very little in 2 of them. and its only 0.5% stevia, but thats only recently, It has been doing this for a long time.

 

[Andromendous]

Here is a brand new coil. All I did was work out the hot spots as usual, wicked it and only dripped a few times on it. Mostly no flavor and one time with some ry4 double @ 0.5%

 

[Boompumper]

what do you mean by "quenching"?

I probably should not have used that term, but what I mean is 'heating up the coil and quickly washing it with water'.

If you put an unused coil through whatever process you used to clean the coil in the original post and it still turns brown, it's obviously not e-liquid leftovers.

I'm pretty sure the brown is oxidation, from what I have read, oxidation causes all the pretty colors as well.

I like stainless, I think it tastes better than Kanthal. I hate to see people using disposable coils, so wasteful, it reminds me of Keurig k-cups. If ever given the opportunity to convert someone to rebuildables I would, and it would be easier to do so if I could confidently tell them they can safely clean and reuse coils.

 

[Andromendous]

Could anyone post a pic of their SS coil? Im just curious what it looks like.

 

[VHRB2014]

Here you go. This is after a couple pulses to dry burn it and nothing more. More often then not I don`t even rinse them, just dry burn and rewick. Maybe there is something in your water that is coating them?

BOL.

 

[Andromendous]

Here you go. This is after a couple pulses to dry burn it and nothing more. More often then not I don`t even rinse them, just dry burn and rewick. Maybe there is something in your water that is coating them?

View attachment 658271


BOL.

hm. Interesting.

I went ahead and pulled the wicks. Dry burned a few times, instantly noticed the color change back to a silverish grey. Ran the coils under hot water while they were still glowing. And they looked good. Dry burned again to get the water off. It looked good. Set it down for a min and came back. And their brown again. but not as bad.

 

[Asbestos4004]

what do you mean by "quenching"?

Also, like i said, I use NO sweetener in my juices.

EDIT: I take that back, I use very little in 2 of them. and its only 0.5% stevia, but thats only recently, It has been doing this for a long time.

"add no sweetener" and "my juice contains NO sweetener" are 2 very different things. Many flavorings have sweeteners built in to them. Your coils look good to me. Those instagram coil porn pics rarely get vaped like our stuff. Yours look like vapers coils...

 

[Eskie]

Could anyone post a pic of their SS coil? Im just curious what it looks like.

Here's a photo of a fresh 316L fused Clapton after lighting it up to a dull orange just to work out any hot spots and make sure it was heating up properly.

The colors on this one turned out nicer than usual. No difference in vaping, but I'm still a sucker for pretty.

 

[Asbestos4004]

Here's mine after 3 months of heavy use. If yours look any different, you're not as good at vaping as me.

 

[Imfallen_Angel]

View attachment 658321
Here's mine after 3 months of heavy use. If yours look any different, you're not as good at vaping as me.

Yeah, but you're spaying a coating of metallic chrome paint on it, how can we compete?

 

[Asbestos4004]

Yeah, but you're spaying a coating of metallic chrome paint on it, how can we compete?

safer than flavoring...

oops, wrong thread....

 

[zoiDman]

"add no sweetener" and "my juice contains NO sweetener" are 2 very different things. Many flavorings have sweeteners built in to them. Your coils look good to me. Those instagram coil porn pics rarely get vaped like our stuff. Yours look like vapers coils...

Also worth Noting that some Flavorings are going to Gunk Up a coil Faster than others.

I use a multi-flavor TastyFinger DIY Clone to flavor wicks and then run Unflavored in RTA Tanks and in Squonk Bottles. I get pretty good Coil Life out of it.

For a change of pace, I substituted one of flavorings in the TastyFinger mix, Pralines and Cream, with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream using the Same amount of Sweetener (Sucralose) and other Flavorings.

Removing the Pralines and Cream and using Vanilla Bean Ice Cream more than Doubles my Coil Life.

So Not to say that a Sweetener doesn't play a Role in Coil Gunking. It does. But some Flavorings can also Play a Significant Role also.