Question on 22g kanthal build on Griffin 25

[OlderNDirt]

My order of goodies arrived today including a Griffin 25, 521 Tab, and some 22g kanthal. So figured I'd try it all out at the same time. So using the 22g, 3.0 ID, 9 wraps, it came in at .28Ω on a dual coil build, just under my targeted 0.3Ω. Pulsing to pinch the coils, it seemed to heat rather slowly, but figured that was in the operation of the 521 Tab. But it seemed to produce a lot of heat throughout the deck and base. Yeah, it would have been wiser to stay with a familiar build to start, but I am at this point now, ready to wick. I intend to run this on a Sig and Fuchai 213 or Lavabox DNA200. This brings me to these questions:

1. Does it look like this build should run reasonably well in this set-up and, if so, what would be a good starting point for wattage?

2. Is the heat factor when pulsing or dry burning something I should be concerned about as far as damage to the build deck or even transferring down into a mod and/or 521 Tab?

3. Might I be better served removing one coil and putting in the airflow plug for a single coil build/vape?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

 

[Taowulf]

1. It prob will work fine, and yes, it will take longer for those thick coils to heat up. Ramp up time become an issue when you move to the larger gauges, but they should make some nice vapor for you when get them warmed up. Expect a light first hit when they are cool, but if you hit it again, it will be a lot better. Same thing as "fancier" coils like Claptons and the like. I have dual fused Claptons in my Griffin right now, they come in at around .2Ω and heat is never a factor for me at all, so the tank will take the abuse just fine. (so that is #2) Well, it should. Just FYI, I run mine at 90W, but that is my comfort level. Start around 50-60W and adjust from there. Don't judge the performance by the first fire though, warm them up by taking a few hits in the first minute to give them a chance to warm up. If the vape is not what you are looking for, start moving up by 5-10w at a time.

3. Single coil, dual coil...it is a matter of personal preference. If you are comfortable around .3Ω, it is just avout finding the wattage you like.

 

[sonicbomb]

22G is very heavy wire. Your coils contain a lot metal and as a result will require a lot of power to heat up. This is why they are taking so long to heat up, they will also take a long time to cool down hence why your setup is getting hot.

I assume you are going to run the tank on a regulated device, in which case coil resistance is unimportant so forget about target resistances and concentrate on surface area. 22G is usually used on mechanical devices to achieve very low resistances not required with regulated devices. You may have been better off building with a lighter guage like 24G or better still 26G.

In the meantime try building a smaller coil using less wraps and a smaller internal diameter. This will have less mass and will ramp and down faster and require less wattage. In terms of what wattage to use, that's personal preference but the general advice is to start low and increase it till it vapes to your liking.

Try using steam-engine to model your builds.

 

[OlderNDirt]

Thanks for the advice and suggestions!

I did wick it up to give it a try, started out at 50 watts and got nothing. I kept upping it 5 - 10 watts for successive hits and didn't start working decent until I got up to 90 watts. But by then was getting a lot of juice in the drip tip and it started leaking pretty bad. Either I did a poor wicking job on my first try (most likely) or I wasn't able to get the heat up quick enough to vaporize the juice. But based on my trial and your info, it's probably time to chalk this one up to experience and start over with lighter wire.

Oh, and yes, I do use steam engine. Being my first use of 22g, most anything I plugged in reduced the ohms and I wasn't comfortable going much lower then 0.3Ω. Maybe down the road somewhere.

Thanks again!

 

[sonicbomb]

My personal favorite in an RDA on a regulated device is dual 26G 2.5mm ID around 0.7/8 ohms at around 70 watts. This provides a good balance of surface area and ramp up/down. As I said. as long as the resistance of the coil is within the operating parameters of the mod, it's really not a problem even at low resistances as the coil is not dictating the current flow.

Wicking and coil placement in relation to the airflow are very important factors too. Practice and experimentation are the key.

 

[OlderNDirt]

Thanks for all the help!

At @sonicbomb advice, I did a 26g at 2.5 that came out at 0.4Ω, wicked it up, and gave that a go. Worked pretty good until the flood gates opened, juice everywhere! This is not my first RTA and I have never had this big of a problem. So took everything apart (but kept my build) and watched a couple videos and after close inspection, found that the top glass o-ring was totally missing. Dang! I been doing this too long to be making mistakes like that! But not a bad trade-off to having a good first build/wicking working. But now that it is working, must say it is a very nice vape and I am looking forward to trying a Clapton build on it.

Thanks again for the help!