Nickel TC builds

[Andrew Rogers]

I just built my first Nickel coil for TC vaping and honestly, I'm not so impressed. This particular build is on a SubTank Mini and it's 28g nickel wire with 8 wraps on a 3mm bit. It came out to .12 ohms and I'm playing with the temp settings but around 470 degrees seems to be the sweet spot for the juice I'm using. My dissatisfaction comes from the flavor and vapor production. As far as I can tell, I get much better flavor and vapor production from a .35-.45 ohm kanthal build. Anyone have suggestions?

 

[RandyF]

I have never been impressed with any 28g Ni build I have tried. I can build a .1Ω 28g and a .1Ω 26g and the 26g will give a MUCH better experience. Problem is, 26g coils are not suited for RTA's, which is why I gave up using nickel in RTA's a long time ago. If you want a good TC experience, pick up a Velocity (or another solid 2 post atty) and use 26g. That said though, if you want your nickel to perform like kanthal, you are going to be disappointed if you are accustomed to thick clouds. It is a bit of a give-and-take and something most have to get use to. It can be good, but it will be different.

I do not have one of the YiHi TC devices, I have an rDNa40, so I can only go down to .1Ω. If you have a TC device that can fire Ni down to .05Ω (or whatever YiHi or the others go down to), then you may be able to successfully use 26g in an RTA.

 

[Andrew Rogers]

I do have a few RDA's that I'm considering trying TC with. I have a Kennedy, Freakshow mini, and a dodge. It may be worth giving a shot with them.

 

[juicynoos]

If you use the Doge, you might try tightening the wire under the screws instead of through the holes to help with a decent position and less chance of deforming the nickel. Pretty decent result with 28 gauge and 12 wraps 2.4mm cotton bud stick!!!

 

[Ryedan]

I just built my first Nickel coil for TC vaping and honestly, I'm not so impressed. This particular build is on a SubTank Mini and it's 28g nickel wire with 8 wraps on a 3mm bit. It came out to .12 ohms and I'm playing with the temp settings but around 470 degrees seems to be the sweet spot for the juice I'm using. My dissatisfaction comes from the flavor and vapor production. As far as I can tell, I get much better flavor and vapor production from a .35-.45 ohm kanthal build. Anyone have suggestions?

How many watts are you set at? Is the TC kicking in?

 

[Andrew Rogers]

I actually just replaced the build with a kanthal wrap to get me through the day enjoyably. I'll have to give it another shot later, but the wattage was somewhere around 30.5 if I remember correctly. The TC was kicking in, yes

 

[Ryedan]

I actually just replaced the build with a kanthal wrap to get me through the day enjoyably. I'll have to give it another shot later, but the wattage was somewhere around 30.5 if I remember correctly. The TC was kicking in, yes

If the TC was kicking in it was reducing the power below the 30 watts you set which was why it didn't perform well for you. The reason TC was kicking in was because the wick was not right and couldn't move juice to the coil as fast as it was being vaporized. If you had not had TC switched on and tried to vape it at 30 watts it would probably have given you burnt hits.

I modeled your build in Steam Engine and at 30 watts I get a heat flux of 294 mW/mm² (miliwatts per square mm of wire surface area) which is a bit on the high side, but should be just fine. I've vaped as high as 400 mW/mm² and did not burn juice without TC on. If you would like to reduce the heat flux you can add a couple of wraps to the coil and increase the resistance a bit.

I would re-do the wicking, leave the temperature at 470 and start vaping at say 20 watts. Then increase the power in steps until TC starts kicking in. Back it down a bit and that will be the most power you can vape with that setup. You'll be power limited but the TC will kick in if anything goes wrong. I find this a more stable vape than if I set up so the power is temperature controlled.

 

[RandyF]

I actually just replaced the build with a kanthal wrap to get me through the day enjoyably. I'll have to give it another shot later, but the wattage was somewhere around 30.5 if I remember correctly. The TC was kicking in, yes

That is the problem I have found with 28g, it heats up too fast, so the devices reduce the power too soon. The, even slight, delay it takes to heat up the 26g seems to make a lot of difference, at least in my experience. Which is why, with all things being equal, a 26g will perform better than a 28g.

On my Velocity I can run 40 watts with a .1Ω coil, with a fairly tight airflow, and never hit TP until I need to drip.

 

[RandyF]

This is my 'goto' Ni build.....