New RTA & Heat

[LewisW295]

Hello all

So I purchased an rta today, specifically the Griffin by Geekvape and after several trial and errors I've managed to build a non-leaking .16 build. I have a few questions however.

1. One coil seems to be getting more heat than the other. Is this just due to a dodgy build?
2. My battery, an istick 80w, is getting incredibly warm and uncomfortable considering I never really had this issue with my Crown tank.
3. I seem to be getting less vapour and not that much flavour. Am I missing something?

Please keep in mind that I know very little about building my own decks so "toddler talk" please

Cheers

 

[DaveP]

Are your coils spaced or compressed? If they are compressed, then remove the wicks and fire them to a cherry red, then compress them with ceramic tweezers. Repeat until they fire and turn red evenly. You'll want to do a heat first and dunk the coils under a sink tap to clean them before doing the compression.

If they are spaced, then make sure they are equally spaced. What you want to see in a dry burn is equal heating and cooling. They should both heat to red at the same time when you hit the fire button (with no wick in the coil).

Balanced heating can be crucial to a good vape. You also want to make sure that your wicks are snug in the coils. A wick that's too small can lead to hot spots where the wick isn't touching the coil. A good rule of thumb is that a new wick should be tight enough that you have to twist it as you pull it through the coil. If you can just slide it through easily it's probably too small.

Cotton expands when juiced up. Rayon tends to shrink slightly when juiced. Size your wicks accordingly, but make sure the wick is snug in the coil.

 

[stols001]

Are you vaping at a similar resistance to your previous crown tank? If your wattage is different, your pico may heat up. Also, you have dual coils so possibly too much metal in your tank is leading to slow ramp up speed, and overheating the equipment. What type and gauge of wire are you using?

It's possible that one of your builds was a bit "wonky" leading your equipment to heat up inconsistently.

If this is your first RTA, I would respectfully suggest perhaps building on a single coil deck. I would suggest one of the engines, as they are well regarded and don't tend to leak while producing a very nice vape. They do offer one with a single build deck. You may not need the hassle of dual coils as you are learning and practicing your skills, they tend to be smaller decks as they have 4 posts, and it's just easier to build on something larger, where you can use a single coil. If you don't want to do that, I would suggest more experimentation with steam-engine.org to get to a good double build, and you may need to check your coils resistance individually before you mount them on your deck, if that is in any way possible.

I really think maybe a single coil deck is going to be better for you at first. Just my opinion, as always.

Best of luck,

Anna

 

[DaveP]

I agree with Stols001. Unless you vape at high wattage single coils are your best bet. Dual coils heat slower at low wattage and you might not get the temps you need for a good vape. A single 28 gauge coil with 2.5mm diameter would be about right.

The latest model GeekVape Griffin 25 comes with a single coil ceramic adapter to block off one side for a single coil build.
Griffin RTA Single Coil Build

 

[LewisW295]

Are your coils spaced or compressed? If they are compressed, then remove the wicks and fire them to a cherry red, then compress them with ceramic tweezers. Repeat until they fire and turn red evenly. You'll want to do a heat first and dunk the coils under a sink tap to clean them before doing the compression.

If they are spaced, then make sure they are equally spaced. What you want to see in a dry burn is equal heating and cooling. They should both heat to red at the same time when you hit the fire button (with no wick in the coil).

Balanced heating can be crucial to a good vape. You also want to make sure that your wicks are snug in the coils. A wick that's too small can lead to hot spots where the wick isn't touching the coil. A good rule of thumb is that a new wick should be tight enough that you have to twist it as you pull it through the coil. If you can just slide it through easily it's probably too small.

Cotton expands when juiced up. Rayon tends to shrink slightly when juiced. Size your wicks accordingly, but make sure the wick is snug in the coil.

My coils are compressed. I did dry heat them to ensure they were heating correctly and one did heat more quickly than the other. The wicking seems to be all correct as I've not had any leaks since doing my 2nd build (aside from forgetting to close off the JF whilst refilling earlier)

Are you vaping at a similar resistance to your previous crown tank? If your wattage is different, your pico may heat up. Also, you have dual coils so possibly too much metal in your tank is leading to slow ramp up speed, and overheating the equipment. What type and gauge of wire are you using?

It's possible that one of your builds was a bit "wonky" leading your equipment to heat up inconsistently.

If this is your first RTA, I would respectfully suggest perhaps building on a single coil deck. I would suggest one of the engines, as they are well regarded and don't tend to leak while producing a very nice vape. They do offer one with a single build deck. You may not need the hassle of dual coils as you are learning and practicing your skills, they tend to be smaller decks as they have 4 posts, and it's just easier to build on something larger, where you can use a single coil. If you don't want to do that, I would suggest more experimentation with steam-engine.org to get to a good double build, and you may need to check your coils resistance individually before you mount them on your deck, if that is in any way possible.

I really think maybe a single coil deck is going to be better for you at first. Just my opinion, as always.

Best of luck,

Anna

I think one of the coils does sit slightly off to one side but getting a single deck isn't exactly ideal as I'm vaping on a budget I want to get the RBA deck for the original Crown but can't seem to find it online (considering they do have a Crown 3 already). Flavour wise isn't an issue at all but my iStick is nearly 2 years old now so starting to think it's time for a new mod.

The resistance on my Crown was .25/.30 with pre-installed coils but my Griffin is .15/.16 and whilst I'm not getting massive clouds, I'm getting solid flavour at 70 watts.

 

[Letitia]

I want to get the RBA deck for the original Crown but can't seem to find it online

You do not want that rba head, miserable to build on. Until you get even heating on your coils you are not going to get good performance from your build. Did try strumming the coils to get them even?

 

[vapdivrr]

Could be the leads on one coil is slightly different to the other, but I would say to use perhaps 26g for your duals with a total resistance of like .3. With less mass you would need less wattage and probably a better overall vape for that mod

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[sonicbomb]

Assuming the coils are matched then one is not properly clamped down in the post. Loosen the post screw and tighten it back down. If they do not heat evenly then you will need to start again from scratch.
70 watts on a single battery mod is asking for poor performance and poor runtimes. No wonder your mod is getting hot, you are pushing it way too hard.

What is your build? 0.6 ohs is a very low resistance and I'm going to guess contains a lot of metal. You may want to choose a higher resistance coils/s using a thinner wire. More surface area, less mass, lower power requirement.

 

[LewisW295]

You do not want that rba head, miserable to build on. Until you get even heating on your coils you are not going to get good performance from your build. Did try strumming the coils to get them even?

Strumming the coils? That's a new phrase on me. If you refer to giving them a quick pinch with pliers after dry heating them, yes. If not then I'm clueless!

Could be the leads on one coil is slightly different to the other, but I would say to use perhaps 26g for your duals with a total resistance of like .3. With less mass you would need less wattage and probably a better overall vape for that mod

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

Would .3/.4 still give me a decent combination of cloud + flavour? I'm not trying to reach the bottom of Ohm. I was quite happy with the .3 that my Crown gave me as that produced decent cloud and flavour, albeit nowhere near the same flavour I'm currently getting.

Assuming the coils are matched then one is not properly clamped down in the post. Loosen the post screw and tighten it back down. If they do not heat evenly then you will need to start again from scratch.
70 watts on a single battery mod is asking for poor performance and poor runtimes. No wonder your mod is getting hot, you are pushing it way too hard.

What is your build? 0.6 ohs is a very low resistance and I'm going to guess contains a lot of metal. You may want to choose a higher resistance coils/s using a thinner wire. More surface area, less mass, lower power requirement.

Same amount of wraps, as close as can be to wire length (maybe .1mm at a push difference). The iStick I've got claims up to 80 watts but won't push harder than 65 - 70 watts as I don't want it to fail on me.

My build is dual coil coming in at .15 once installed. Vapes pretty good on its own but I don't have much more room for surface area.

 

[Ralph_K]

Strumming the coils? That's a new phrase on me. If you refer to giving them a quick pinch with pliers after dry heating them, yes. If not then I'm clueless!



Would .3/.4 still give me a decent combination of cloud + flavour? I'm not trying to reach the bottom of Ohm. I was quite happy with the .3 that my Crown gave me as that produced decent cloud and flavour, albeit nowhere near the same flavour I'm currently getting.



Same amount of wraps, as close as can be to wire length (maybe .1mm at a push difference). The iStick I've got claims up to 80 watts but won't push harder than 65 - 70 watts as I don't want it to fail on me.

My build is dual coil coming in at .15 once installed. Vapes pretty good on its own but I don't have much more room for surface area.

Strumming is raking ceramic tweezers across coil

 

[vapdivrr]

[QUOTE="LewisW295, post: 20548863, member: 259610"



Would .3/.4 still give me a decent combination of cloud + flavour? I'm not trying to reach the bottom of Ohm. I was quite happy with the .3 that my Crown gave me as that produced decent cloud and flavour, albeit nowhere near the same .[/QUOTE] absolutely it will..you don't need to build that low to get a great balance. Personally I think going that low is pointless, you just get to a point where all your doing is adding more power for no reason. Imo you can get just as good clouds and flavor with lower resistance and slightly thinner wire, especially with even thinner wire and parallel coils.



Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[sonicbomb]

When I asked what build I meant what guage of wire and how many wraps.

On a regulated mod you do not need to build low resistance coils, in fact higher resistance
lower mass coils are the way to go. The mod will deliver the power you select, the resistance of the coil has no bearing on this.

Your mod may be able to deliver 80 watts, but sustained use at this or close to this level is going to deplete the battery very quickly or at least deplete it to the point where the battery is unable to deliver that power. You said in your OP that the mod was getting very hot, this clearly shows you are asking more of it than it can provide. If you like to vape around 70 watts then a dual 18650 mod is going to do the job far more satisfactorily.

Have a read of these two articles.

Understanding the relationship between power and coil resistance | E-Cigarette Forum

https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/b...r-contact-coils-to-make-them-glow-evenly.7749

 

[Ralph_K]

I've been rotating between a Pyro 24 RTDA and a Kylin mini RTA been using 24ga kanthal. Made a new coil with Vandy Vape Juggernaut kanthal wire 4mm id 5 wraps for the Kylin came out to 0.54Ω. No ramp up time at 34w

 

[SteamHead]

It'd be helpful to know your build details: gauge, inner diameter, wraps. I'm betting your gauge is too heavy.

You also need to make sure all your leads are nice and tight.

 

[LewisW295]

When I asked what build I meant what guage of wire and how many wraps.

On a regulated mod you do not need to build low resistance coils, in fact higher resistance
lower mass coils are the way to go. The mod will deliver the power you select, the resistance of the coil has no bearing on this.

Your mod may be able to deliver 80 watts, but sustained use at this or close to this level is going to deplete the battery very quickly or at least deplete it to the point where the battery is unable to deliver that power. You said in your OP that the mod was getting very hot, this clearly shows you are asking more of it than it can provide. If you like to vape around 70 watts then a dual 18650 mod is going to do the job far more satisfactorily.

Have a read of these two articles.

Understanding the relationship between power and coil resistance | E-Cigarette Forum

https://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/b...r-contact-coils-to-make-them-glow-evenly.7749

I've actually gone out and bought myself a dual 18650 for my RTA and haven't touched it since I spent ages building it for the chamber to just be too tight to cap over the coils :S

I haven't got time to read them right now (01:37AM right now and bed is calling) but does strumming get the same effect as a quick squeeze with the needle nose pliers?

It'd be helpful to know your build details: gauge, inner diameter, wraps. I'm betting your gauge is too heavy.

You also need to make sure all your leads are nice and tight.

.20 AWG, 6 wraps (I think some refer to it as 6/7?) with a 2.5-3.0mm diameter (pinched a screwdriver from work). I think I need to have a read up on AWG and its effect. Any articles aside from the above for me in regards to this?

 

[Letitia]

does strumming get the same effect as a quick squeeze with the needle nose pliers?

Strumming helps smooth out hot spots, unless coil is spaced strumming and pinching go hand in hand.

 

[madstabber]

You should consider a single coil RTA. At least until you are building comfortably every time. Less to troubleshoot. Just my opinion

 

[LewisW295]

You should consider a single coil RTA. At least until you are building comfortably every time. Less to troubleshoot. Just my opinion

Any recommendations for a single coil RTA/RDA then?

 

[madstabber]

Any recommendations for a single coil RTA/RDA then?

I’ve been using the Asmodus Zesthia RTA which I have found to produce great flavor. Ones that I considered that have garnered praise from users are the Digiflavor Siren V2 or if you like a tight draw the Vandy Vape Beserker. Both tanks have made plenty of vapers on this forum happy. If you check the RTA section on this forum each of these tanks have threads dedicated to them which should provide plenty of information to help you choose. Good luck

 

[madstabber]

Any recommendations for a single coil RTA/RDA then?

Ijoy exo RTA comes with two decks. One single, one double so when your ready you can move to the double deck. Never used it but it was recommended to me by a fan. The Kylin mini is another single deck that looks like a winner and has fans. Just a couple more suggestions of single coil rta’s I’ve come across in my travels that have merit.