Kanthal voltage question

[Sm0keydaBear]

Hi all, another newbie question here. Did a quick search and didn't see anything about this so I figured I'd ask...

Ok so I think we've seen the vaping voltage charts, here's what it looks like if you haven't.

Now if you look at the upper ends of where the light green (just right) cells are, it says somewhere around 4 volts to 7-8 volts is a good range. Now my question kind of comes from this... Does anyone know if there is a vape that is too hot? A little background info from where I got this question...

A little while back I was searching up ideas of the vape tongue and how I might get rid of it. Then I came across a thought in my mind that maybe vapers tongue comes from vapes being too hot. As I'm typing this, I've got a little bit of that vapers tongue on me and my mouth feels a bit tingly. Am I using too high voltages on my vapes?

I've been sticking around the 4-5 volts on my builds and I'm starting to think that maybe the vapes are a bit too hot. Kanthal or nichrome, the vapor that I get while using 4-5 volts seems to be a little too hot to vape. I'm having a hard time understanding how this chart relates to your average every day vaper.

So if I had one question I'd like answered, I'd ask "How much voltage might be too hot to vape?" Thoughts anyone?

 

[InTheShade]

That chart is really out of date now. It was helpful back in the day of lower powered devices and single coils. I wouldn't pay it much mind now to be honest. As an example, occasionally I use a 1.2ohm coil at around 40 watts which is a shade under 7 volts and I wouldn't describe it as hot in any way. I certainly haven't noticed it causing any issues.

These days people are vaping at higher and higher wattages and although anecdotal, I've not seen an increase in the reports (or posts) about vapor's tongue. So I am not sure about your theory that a hot vape can cause it.

I dunno what causes VT - I do know I've been vaping for more than 2 years and I still get a few days every now and then where I can't really taste my e-liquid. I just sip more iced water with lemon than usual and it goes away eventually.

I forgot to add that to answer your question directly about how much voltage might be too much - the answer is when your vape doesn't taste good to you. There isn't a 'more correct' answer than that.

 

[Sm0keydaBear]

At the moment I am vaping at 3.48 volts on a .81 ohm dual micro coil. I get a good flavor and a good temperature vape, not too hot and I can taste the flavor again. Anywhere around 4 volts and it seems to affect my throat too harshly and I get no taste. This is all with Kanthal A1 30 gauge wire. Before this build, I was getting decent flavor with Ni200 .09 ohm dual coil vertical build. I'm getting more wire (hopefully tomorrow) and will be doing more testing on different builds to see what works best.

 

[shannon walker]

At the moment I am vaping at 3.48 volts on a .81 ohm dual micro coil. I get a good flavor and a good temperature vape, not too hot and I can taste the flavor again. Anywhere around 4 volts and it seems to affect my throat too harshly and I get no taste. This is all with Kanthal A1 30 gauge wire. Before this build, I was getting decent flavor with Ni200 .09 ohm dual coil vertical build. I'm getting more wire (hopefully tomorrow) and will be doing more testing on different builds to see what works best.

In my opinion I think voltage doesn't matter so much and like the answer given above when it tastes bad. But also it depends what your vaping on a tank will be more restrictive than say a subtank or an rda with big airflow and having not enough airflow will cause it to get hotter faster. For example if u have the exact same .5 ohm coil in an rba with huge airflow and one in say a subtank mini and another in a rebuildable coil for the ego one. You can push more voltage in the rda and subtank than in the ego one head because more airflow = cooler vape. Just my thoughts on this. What tank or rda are u using

 

[Sm0keydaBear]

In my opinion I think voltage doesn't matter so much and like the answer given above when it tastes bad. But also it depends what your vaping on a tank will be more restrictive than say a subtank or an rda with big airflow and having not enough airflow will cause it to get hotter faster. For example if u have the exact same .5 ohm coil in an rba with huge airflow and one in say a subtank mini and another in a rebuildable coil for the ego one. You can push more voltage in the rda and subtank than in the ego one head because more airflow = cooler vape. Just my thoughts on this. What tank or rda are u using

Right now I'm waiting on a goblin clone to come in the mail because I have this suspicion with the Tobeco Orchid V3 that I'm using that the top cap is too restrictive. It is flat at the top then just a hole to the mouthpiece area. However, the flavor itself I can still taste, just not as much as say my nimbus clone RDA. Pretty sure the only thing preventing full on flavor hit is the restrictive top cap. I always see blacker juice in the top corners of the top cap.

Anyways, that's not so much the question I have except the question of finding the best point of voltage to ohms for my mods. I'm trying to get the correct sweet spots for the mod and I just can't seem to find it. I've done already in the last week over 10 builds on the Tobeco Orchids deck to find what works best. At this point, Ni200 and TC mode is a sure-fire way to get it good, then I ran out of Ni200. So now back to kanthal and nichrome for now to find what works best.

From this last week my results showed that 3.5 volt kanthal burns at an even rate and keeps the vapor in just the right temperature range for the throat. Lots of people will say voltage doesn't matter, but it does matter in the fact that all these regulated devices, finding the right voltage/wattage is essential to getting a good vape.

With that chart, I found 4 volts to 8 volts works perfectly fine, except if you go longer than the standard lung hit, the vapor tends to get very very hot. As a mean voltage of what I found works, provided your device can handle it, 3.5 volts works the best all around for most regulated devices. With mechanical devices, the standard 3.7 is good, however every fresh battery for any mech mod would always push 4.2 volts so regulating that isn't possible. The only regulation in any mech mod is the amount of current it can output at any ohm range.

 

[dhood]

If you're working with sub-ohm building, that chart means nothing. It was a good index 2-3 years ago but no longer applies to today's technology. I use a kayfun v4 with a 2.1 ohm build. I like the flavor on this right at 15.5 watts. That works out to 5.8 volts. By this chart, I should be running at 7.5 watts to get a proper vape experience. And at 7.5 watts, there is no vapor production whatsoever unless I press the button and wait two full seconds for the coil to start hissing.

 

[Sm0keydaBear]

I'm honestly not quite sure. I know that kanthal like to ramp up unless given somewhere in the 5-7 volt range or even 8. That way you can control the ascent of heat and descent to make sure that it doesn't take too long to get you that vapor. Depends a lot on lung hitter or mouth to lung hitter as well. I am the second in that list, so achieving a standard vape that doesn't get too hot and I can use the whole 10 second timer on my regulated device however, 3.5-4 volts seems to be the maximum that I want to go. On my RDA I have a clapton 30 gauge on 30 gauge 1.2 ohm 5/6 wraps running on 6.92 volts. This definitely isn't for anything longer than 1 second as I quickly fire the device and then let go in order to get a decent mouth hit.

 

[MattyTny]

When you're looking at resistance compared to voltage you have to take into consideration the coil properties of your build. You can make a build that runs warm and smooth at 4.2volts and a build that requires at least 5.0volts to really get going. This of course depends on the atomizer used.

 

[Sm0keydaBear]

When you're looking at resistance compared to voltage you have to take into consideration the coil properties of your build. You can make a build that runs warm and smooth at 4.2volts and a build that requires at least 5.0volts to really get going. This of course depends on the atomizer used.

Well I have an iStick TC40w and pushing any coil that is below the 1 ohm range that isn't Ni200 or nichrome, becomes very difficult for the mod. It will heat up very slow even at the maximum 40w and cool down very slow as well. Steam-engine states that the sweet spot is somewhere around 1-1.1 ohms and that seems to be the case. On the builds that I've been making, when they start getting into low ohms I seem to lose flavor and extra heat is transferred to the mod itself. For the correct vape though, voltage seems to really be key here. If I can fire a coil up to 5 or 6 volts, then I can be sure that the vape quality will be good (usually).

 

[K_Tech]

As others have said before, that chart was a lot more useful "back in the day". Coils wrapped with thinner wire (30, 32 gauge), moderate wicking, and tighter draws. Some folks still prefer their vape that way (I'm still an occasional cartotank user).

Nowadays with a good majority of gear being developed for airier draws, thicker gage wire, and organic wicking material, you'd have a hard time staying in the green zone and getting a decent vape.

As to "too hot", that's a matter of opinion. Like with a thermostat in the house, everyone's got a different comfort range.

 

[edyle]

Hi all, another newbie question here. Did a quick search and didn't see anything about this so I figured I'd ask...

Ok so I think we've seen the vaping voltage charts, here's what it looks like if you haven't.

Now if you look at the upper ends of where the light green (just right) cells are, it says somewhere around 4 volts to 7-8 volts is a good range. Now my question kind of comes from this... Does anyone know if there is a vape that is too hot? A little background info from where I got this question...

A little while back I was searching up ideas of the vape tongue and how I might get rid of it. Then I came across a thought in my mind that maybe vapers tongue comes from vapes being too hot. As I'm typing this, I've got a little bit of that vapers tongue on me and my mouth feels a bit tingly. Am I using too high voltages on my vapes?

I've been sticking around the 4-5 volts on my builds and I'm starting to think that maybe the vapes are a bit too hot. Kanthal or nichrome, the vapor that I get while using 4-5 volts seems to be a little too hot to vape. I'm having a hard time understanding how this chart relates to your average every day vaper.

So if I had one question I'd like answered, I'd ask "How much voltage might be too hot to vape?" Thoughts anyone?

That chart really applies to 32 gauge kanthal.

Use steam engine calculator for other gauges.
http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp?r=2&hfnw=6&awg=32

 

[InTheShade]

When you're looking at resistance compared to voltage you have to take into consideration the coil properties of your build. You can make a build that runs warm and smooth at 4.2volts and a build that requires at least 5.0volts to really get going. This of course depends on the atomizer used.

Great point. I've been messing around a lot with the 'heat flux' value on http://www.steam-engine.org/coil.asp Has a pretty good conditional formatting icon next to the value where it shows if the vape will be cool, medium or hot.

Of course a lot of this depends on airflow and wicking, but it's a great tool to mess around with and try out new builds looking for a vape you might prefer.

 

[MattyTny]

Well I have an iStick TC40w and pushing any coil that is below the 1 ohm range that isn't Ni200 or nichrome, becomes very difficult for the mod. It will heat up very slow even at the maximum 40w and cool down very slow as well. Steam-engine states that the sweet spot is somewhere around 1-1.1 ohms and that seems to be the case. On the builds that I've been making, when they start getting into low ohms I seem to lose flavor and extra heat is transferred to the mod itself. For the correct vape though, voltage seems to really be key here. If I can fire a coil up to 5 or 6 volts, then I can be sure that the vape quality will be good (usually).

I don't have any experience with the iStick40, but I have the Sigelei mini 30 usually housing either a LG HE4 or Samsung 25r. This device also has a high "sweet spot" according to Steam Engine, 1.53ohms. I find that I am still able to use a lower resistance and get really good battery life out of it. I have a 0.7ohm dual coil using 27 gauge kanthal, I vape it at around 4.2 volts and I can easily get by with all day use. The 27 gauge is a great wire for subohm, but not so subohm. It heats pretty quickly and wraps easily. I can also bring it up to max settings without any issues, but I personally like it around 4.2volts, which comes out to about 25 watts. Great heat time with nice vapor and warmth. Nothing too crazy though.

It may just be that you haven't yet found all the possibilities of what coils work best for that specific device. I'm sure after some time you will figure out more coils that suit your needs for it, but as long as you have something working well now that's great.

 

[Sm0keydaBear]

I don't have any experience with the iStick40, but I have the Sigelei mini 30 usually housing either a LG HE4 or Samsung 25r. This device also has a high "sweet spot" according to Steam Engine, 1.53ohms. I find that I am still able to use a lower resistance and get really good battery life out of it. I have a 0.7ohm dual coil using 27 gauge kanthal, I vape it at around 4.2 volts and I can easily get by with all day use. The 27 gauge is a great wire for subohm, but not so subohm. It heats pretty quickly and wraps easily. I can also bring it up to max settings without any issues, but I personally like it around 4.2volts, which comes out to about 25 watts. Great heat time with nice vapor and warmth. Nothing too crazy though.

It may just be that you haven't yet found all the possibilities of what coils work best for that specific device. I'm sure after some time you will figure out more coils that suit your needs for it, but as long as you have something working well now that's great.

I've been trying to really understand the steam-machine however the wraps always confuses me. It always tells me to add wraps to get higher ohms? If it weren't for that, I'd be using it every time I make a build.

Beyond that, from what I understand a lot of wattage is needed in order to heat the coils I want to use. I'm really starting to make the bigger fatter coils that have really low ohms and need to be able to get more wattage. I ordered a 100w mod and am currently awaiting it to arrive, but when it gets here, I will have some really nice fat coils made for it already. As far as I'm concerned though, the steam-engine mod range function is really great.

 

[MattyTny]

I've been trying to really understand the steam-machine however the wraps always confuses me. It always tells me to add wraps to get higher ohms? If it weren't for that, I'd be using it every time I make a build.

Beyond that, from what I understand a lot of wattage is needed in order to heat the coils I want to use. I'm really starting to make the bigger fatter coils that have really low ohms and need to be able to get more wattage. I ordered a 100w mod and am currently awaiting it to arrive, but when it gets here, I will have some really nice fat coils made for it already. As far as I'm concerned though, the steam-engine mod range function is really great.

There's a lot of information on the coil wrapping page and it takes a bit to get a hang of. The variables you want to be playing with are:
Type of wire, gauge and coil setup
Resistance
Inner Diameter
Heatflux
You usually don't need to mess with leg length, unless you have wire legs that are very far out from the 5mm default.

If you find that you have too many wraps for a higher resistance set up then you can use a higher gauge wire and use less wraps. Sometimes too much wire mass can work against you and take too long to heat and really drain your device. You can also change the coil diameter if you feel you like the resistance you are at, but your coil is too long or too short. Just changing the diameter will not effect surface area (under advanced), but will effect the number of wraps. You then want to calculate the wattage of the potential build with the resistance and voltage you're going to use it at and plug that into heat flux. The heat flux icon is an estimate of how much heat that potential build will put out. I'd also look at the coil dimensions in advanced to get an idea the potential coil's size, surface area and width mainly.

I know it sounds really basic and I'm sure you already know most of it, but after a while you'll find that the coil wrapping page is a great tool and can save you a lot of time.