Rebuild Help & Advice

[Fwt Buckeye]

Hello ECF! I have tried to get into building coils for my IGO-L, Vivi's, & now protank the last few months and have some questions, and need some guidance on how to have better results.

I apologize for the long post, just nothing I have tried to this point has worked. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and answer my questions. I appreciate it!

I bought some 28g & 30g kanthal and have run into issues with trying to get the ohms to be high enough for my Sigeli Zmax and Ego's to actually energize the coil. Below is my experiences thus far, and I would really appreciate some direction from the more veteran rebuilders out there.

VIVI NOVA..I have tried putting several different coils in my vivi 2.5, and can't seem to get the coil to have enough resistance with the space allowed in the coil head. I figured I just need a little thicker wire to get the ohms up on the amount of wraps that could fit. I currently buy stock heads, and then replace the silica with cotton cheesecloth. Will higher gauge wire do the trick?

IGO-L...Got this thing because I read some great reviews, and wanted to explore rebuildables. It is very easy to build and get a new coil in place with enough wraps, but when I energize the coil, it seems like the coil takes longer than normal to get to the point to produce vapor. I currently have a coil running at 2.7 ohms, and have adjusted the voltage to get the TH and vapor that I'm looking for, but it's just not great and doesn't come near what a normal drip atomizer I have offers.

Protank...Got this tank recently and really like the clean taste it gives off. Instead of buying a new coil for it every few weeks, I tried to build my own coil. I used the 30g I have, and wrapped it around cheesecloth wick. Saw a video on rebuilding the protank heads, and subsituted the silica that the video showed with the cotton. I was able to get the resistance high enough (2.4 ohms) so that it would fire on either of my devices, but the base of the protank got hotter than hell after vaping for a few minutes in a row. I read somewhere that the excessive heat is due to the resistance wire, and that it's recommended to use non-resistance wire for these heads; the heat transfer wouldn't be any more than a stock head.

As you can see, I'm trying, just not having real strong success yet. Would non-resistance wire work better for my IGO and protank coils? If you use non resistant wire, does it have to be on a device that does not have low resistance protection, so it can actually energize when coil is below 1.2 ohms or could I use it on one of the devices I already have? Would thicker gauge kanthal fix the issues I'm having on all 3 of these heads? I've gotten pretty good at swapping out the silica for cheesecloth on the vivi, but still have to buy the heads, which defeats the purpose of rebuilding.

Thank you ECF!

 

[pechep]

I'm not a fan of coils that are above 1.8, as they do need to warm up longer.

Vivi nova- I like to use a small nail to form the coil and pretest the resistance before placing it into the head. Important tip is to keep the positive terminal AS FAR AWAY FROM THE WELL WALL AS YOU CAN. This can be done later by using the nail tool to adjust the position of the coil. Make sure to make and even coil, and since you are using a variable voltage I would recommend shooting for a 1.5-1.8 ohm wrap. Protip - 32 gauge is my favorite (wrapped almost 40 or so of these and have taught others).

IGO-L - I don't own this device however I do own a SmokTech RDA and have rebuild other RDA's. I would start out building with silica, although cotton/hempwick/other are a bit more advanced to start out on since the wicks tend to change over the duration of use. I have re-used silica wicks several times (blowtorching) only needed wire for a new wrap. Start using a nail to wrap your coils and pay attention to the direction of the wrap (CCW/CW) as this is important when making a dual coil. I tend to do a 3/2 wrap or 4/3 wrap with 28g-30g on a RBA like the IGO-L. Make sure the length of spare wire is minimized when mounting to the post, as they will be hotspots or become hotspots when the wire is insulated in sucrose and flavor remnants (same rule goes for vivi nova and steel mesh and all wire).

ProTank - I've only wrapped about 3 of these although they are verrrrrry similar to the vivi nova. I like to run them hotter (lower ohms) than vivi's since the juice flow is a bit more controllable. Once again try out 32 gauge or even smaller. I tend to experience the heat coming from the base when there is a short in the coil or there is a hot spot occurring, so try using the nail technique, and also check to see if the coil is insulated in flavor remnants.

I would recommend using a mechanical mod to learn on, and using a multimeter, and your IGO-L to learn on with silica wick (or whatev) and using your current wire. Focus on wire spacing (hence using a nail as a tool to get spacing even), the wick touching 100% of the wire (or as much as you can), and also test firing (harder in Kanger Protank). Practice IGO-L -> Vivi Nova -> Kanger Protank.

Let me know if this helps!

keep calm and keep vaping my friend!

 

[steved5600]

On the vivi i use 4 1 mm silica wicks use 32 gauge kanthal do 3 close coils a gap and then 3 close coils. Close does not mean touching just a wire size gap between them. The gap in the middle is about 2-3 wires widths wide. You have to have the gaps or you will be vaping coils. Found that out the hard way.

I have not done the Protank yet but know one who has and he does pretty much the same thing as far as wraps. He used the 2mm silica for the part that has the coils on it and did not use the 2-3 1mm wicks that were laying on top like the original. I think I will use 1 1mm wick on top but no more.

Oh almost forgot. I use a piece of ss wire that came out of a cheese cutter to clamp my wick to when I am wrapping. I hold it with a couple of alligator clips but you could use a small paper clip. You can use a small needle or a very small drill bit. I also tighten the coils up a bit after i remove the clamping wire/needle. Not real tight.

 

[Cheesed]

From personal experience with the iGo-L, use 3mm silica wick and 30g kanthal wire. Try out 3-4 wraps for a 3.7v mech device. Note that 3 wraps tends to put you at about .7-.9 ohm, so if you're not into sub ohm vaping make it 4 or even 5.

 

[Kanj.nguyen]

First and foremost, thicker wire does not give "higher ohms". It is the exact opposite. Resistance is proportional to wire length and inversely proportional to wire diameter (cross area, to be precise). Higher gauge wire means thinner wire. So 30 is thinner than 28, both kanthal. That should answer your Nova question.

As for the IGO-L, in my experience there are a few things that can create your situation:
- loose connection. The wire is not captured tightly enough on the two screws.
- too thick wire. Remember, thick wire means lower resistance and often means higher wattage, but that extra energy also has to go into heating up the extra weight brought about by the thicker wire. Try using 30 gauge kanthal.

Other than those there are others such as too small air hole, coil too loose/ too tight on the wick etc. there are many.

About the Protank, i rebuild mine and while the base gets warm, it is nowhere near even uncomfortable to the touch. I use no non-resistance wire. It looks like you are running too high a voltage, or maybe even have wicking issue (so the liquid is not cooling the coil down enough)

 

[Fwt Buckeye]

Great stuff! Thank you for all of the information. Going to keep at it and try each of these techniques. Vape on!