nichrome vs kanthal

[pheonixxx1987]

Since I started drip vaping I've used about every gauge of kanthal out there. I thought I was happy with my builds. My go to has always been a double or triple 24g parallel depending on what mod and rda I'm using. Well, about a month ago a friend ordered some nichrome from lightningvapes. Gave me a piece of some heavy gauge wires and asked me to see what I could do with it. ...... I'll never go back to kanthal. No more complicated builds. I made 2, 5 wrap macro coils from 18 gauge (yea...that heavy wire) nichrome, placed them in my mutation x on a duel 18650 unregulated mod. It's insane. Massive clouds and decent flavor. So easy and quick to build with so much vapor production. Any reasons why this wire isn't talked about more? Anything I need to be aware of?

Oh yea.... no ramp up time. Which amazes me seeing as it 18 gauge.

 

[K_Tech]

Umm, you do realize that you're running under 0.1 ohms, right, and that's sort of like a direct short?

 

[pheonixxx1987]

Ohm meter showed 0.18. On 2 vtc4's. While I'm not going to recommend it to anyone I have no issues with anything getting hot, my heat sensitive fuse hasn't blown, batteries don't get hot. I was nervous myself so I kinda did some failsafe reinforcement work on my mod and a lot of testing. A month of using it and no problems

 

[pheonixxx1987]

Ok, I got home from worked and got my multimeter out my shop. I was reading some ohm charts and I see your point. That build should be lower than my eleaf ohm meter showed. My multimeter shows 0.19. So the eleaf is a little off but the other direction lol. The only thing I can figure is the fact that the leads are abnormally long since I have the coils at a 45 degree angle to match the air holes on the mutation x.

Would someone more knowledgeable than myself verify that 0.19 ohms on dual 18650 vtc4's is ok? If I'm wrong just let me know.

 

[rodeo302]

That's a safe build those batteries can go down to .15 i believe that fuse was a good idea though.

 

[Sgt.Rock]

Been building with Kanthal for the past six or seven months and built a 24 ga Nichrome .8 ohm coil today just for grins.

Damn it heats up quick. Heats up faster than a very similar .8 ohm 26 ga Kanthal coil in the same atty and really puts out the vapor.

Any downsides to Nichrome over Kanthal?

 

[rodeo302]

I have found nichrome to be very brittle when heating and pinching.

 

[K_Tech]

Any downsides to Nichrome over Kanthal?

I can't confirm, but I've read about other members being able to "taste" the difference.

 

[440BB]

I've found that a new nichrome coil gives a slightly off flavor for the first ml or so, then settles in and tastes the same for my flavors. Like many vaping preferences, what one of us tastes may not be noticeable to another vaper.

 

[Sgt.Rock]

Ok.. here's what I noticed. Since I vape unflavored almost exclusively maybe that has something to do with it but yes I notice more of a metallic taste from NiChrome. I swapped back to Kanthal and it was completely gone.

I did vape about 4 or 5 mls on the Nichrome and still had that taste.

Not done experimenting yet though!

I have two identical RSBTs here and I guess I'll have to break down and set them up as close as possible to each other with the two different wires and do a side-by-side. Hard to get them exact of course because of the resistance difference but I think I can find a happy medium and see what's what.

Maybe later this week I'll do that just for grins.

 

[pheonixxx1987]

0 gauge tongue ring and 4 lip rings... kinda don't notice any metal taste ever lol. I ordered some 24 gauge nichrome today. Gonna try a parallel build

 

[Sgt.Rock]

Played around a bit more and cranked up another NiCr build. Single coil in my RSBT tank...twisted 28 NiCr at .8

Only difference is that I torched it cherry red before installing for about twice as long as I do my Kanthal coils figuring that it can't hurt to try...

Seems that did the trick. No metallic taste and this is day two. At first I thought I detected it but it was probably my brain saying 'yep there it is' ~lol~

 

[Art Mustel]

I only use kanthal but I've read somewhere that Nichrome maximum operating heat and melting point are lower than Kanthal (documented) and also that Nichrome gives a better flavor on silica wicks (undocumented). I have not found anything else that could be considered dangerous about it, however there are strong warnings against the use of G Plat wire because its manganese content. The above is only what I've found doing a not very extensive research about those three kind of resistance wires, not in any way my opinion.

 

[VapnWitch]

I can't confirm, but I've read about other members being able to "taste" the difference.

That's why I went back to kanthal after trying nichrome a few times. It made all my juices taste disgusting and the flavor never went away.