i recently bought a vivi nova tank and im very interested in the idea of rebuilding the heads instead of buying new ones. a few of my main questions are where can i buy the materials online, are there any saftey tips when recoiling a head, what do you prefer cotton or silica, how to change the oms when recoiling. any and all other information is welcomed im trying to learn about rebuilding heads. also if anybody knows where i can buy the wick and the kanthal A-1 32awg in small quantity because i dont know if i will love rebuilding heads im new at this and ready to experiment.
rebuilding vivi nova heads?
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Get a multimeter/ohm meter. Madvapes has an ohm meter with 510 connection for 20 bucks. Kanthal A1 I got off ebay for about 10 bucks for 100 feet. There's a whole thread discussion about wick material somewhere in the forum. I use 100% cotton yarn I got from walmart.
To change the resistance (ohm rating), you simply reduce/add the number of times you wrap the kanthal wire on the wick. Watch the videos on youtube! The main thing to watch for is that the wire needs to be close enough, so they fit the Vivi Nova heads, but they can't touch each other, because that'll create a short.
To change the resistance (ohm rating), you simply reduce/add the number of times you wrap the kanthal wire on the wick. Watch the videos on youtube! The main thing to watch for is that the wire needs to be close enough, so they fit the Vivi Nova heads, but they can't touch each other, because that'll create a short.
Fist i have not gotten my wicks yet. I do have the good Kanthal A-1 Wire, 32 Gauge. I have some silica and cotton wicks on order.
TO control the ohms you just wrap less or more windings. Here is a calculator to calc how many inches or cm you need to make a certain resistance.View attachment 141315
Don't change the values in the red cells. It's in XL
You can use unprimed cotton wick if you boil it first. You just wrap it so many times and test the leads where they will make contact and you will know about where to go. It's not going to be an exact science as it will change because of the loss where the wire meets the contact points. It may change a little after use.
I know this because I use to be an Electronics tech. For every contact you get a little loss.
You just need some basic tools.
A paper clip or a needle
Wick
Resistance wire kanthal is best Niacrome is lower in resistance so unless your making a big coil it makes no sense to use that.
Tweezers or needle nose pliers
Snips or scissors.
And a little patients.
TO control the ohms you just wrap less or more windings. Here is a calculator to calc how many inches or cm you need to make a certain resistance.View attachment 141315
Don't change the values in the red cells. It's in XL
You can use unprimed cotton wick if you boil it first. You just wrap it so many times and test the leads where they will make contact and you will know about where to go. It's not going to be an exact science as it will change because of the loss where the wire meets the contact points. It may change a little after use.
I know this because I use to be an Electronics tech. For every contact you get a little loss.
You just need some basic tools.
A paper clip or a needle
Wick
Resistance wire kanthal is best Niacrome is lower in resistance so unless your making a big coil it makes no sense to use that.
Tweezers or needle nose pliers
Snips or scissors.
And a little patients.
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So again I'm new at this is it absolutely required I get a multimeter/ohm meter. And what is the exact purpose of a multimeter/ohm meter. And if it helps I'm using a ego-t 2 650 mah passthough.
Oh they are correct you'll need a Multimeter. For ohms you don't need a very expensive one. But some good leads will help. The kind that has a tiny clip as an option.
The ohm meter I mentioned. While this is a different atomizer, I use it basically the same way when rebuilding Vivi Nova heads. It's a nice device to check for the resistance of the coil you just built and potential shorts. For example, with the picture, I know from experience, that the coil pictured should meter around 2.1-2.2ohm, so if I see the number being say 0.9 or something similarly low, I know that the wires are shorting somewhere, and if the numbers are ridiculously high, then I know that there's a problem with connection to the terminal.
I hate dealing in absolutes, especially when telling people what they should/should not get, but a digital multimeter/ohm meter is something that I'd rather have than not have when playing with electricity and high powered lithium batteries.
Is that the one you recommended from madvapes? And is all this recoiling worth it or should I just buy replaceable heads? Do you save money recoiling?
The ohm meter I mentioned. While this is a different atomizer, I use it basically the same way when rebuilding Vivi Nova heads. It's a nice device to check for the resistance of the coil you just built and potential shorts. For example, with the picture, I know from experience, that the coil pictured should meter around 2.1-2.2ohm, so if I see the number being say 0.9 or something similarly low, I know that the wires are shorting somewhere, and if the numbers are ridiculously high, then I know that there's a problem with connection to the terminal.
I hate dealing in absolutes, especially when telling people what they should/should not get, but a digital multimeter/ohm meter is something that I'd rather have than not have when playing with electricity and high powered lithium batteries.
Now what would this be used for the same function as the oms meter? Or what
Yeah that's the ohm meter I got from madvapes. It's a little expensive for what it does, 20 dollars just to measure resistance, but it does come with a 510 connection which is pretty convenient. I also have a cheapie digital multimeter I picked up from harbor freight, but that one is not as straight forward as the madvapes one. With a digital multimeter, I had to touch the leads together, get a read (that's the internal resistance of the lead/meter), then touch the middle of the post with the red lead, and the body for the black lead, get a read, subtract the internal resistance, and that's your atomizer resistance.
Regarding if it's worth doing, each Vivi Nova head is 2.50-3 dollars. The ball of yarn + roll of kanthal in the first picture cost 13 dollars for me. The second picture was to show how much I use each rebuild. 100 feet = 1200 inches, and I use roughly 3-4 inches per build, so that's easily 300 rebuilds at a minimum (you'll run out of kanthal waaaaaaaaay before you run out of yarn). Factor in the time (it does get easier and faster every time, simply from muscle memory) and frustration you might run into (only the first couple times really), and only you can tell if it's worth doing. There is some value to convenience of just screwing a new premade heads on whenever you need to, instead of messing around with DIY. For me, I like that I can rebuild my coil every day for a year for 13 dollars + whatever other initial investment that I put in (meter, tools), and that I'm not dependent on some website's stock level for the premade heads, or have to wait/pay for shipping just for atomizer heads.
While it can be done without a meter, you are better off to have one. Besides the number of wraps your ohms will depend on the wire, 32 is standard but not the only one you can use, the higher the gage of wire, the more resistance with fewer wraps. I use 33 gage for both my genny and my vivi nova, not because it is better, but because 32 is often out of stock.
Thanks man for putting it in prospective can you give me the URL to the website with the kanthal wire?
Just to add what NancyR said, thinner wire (higher #AWG) = more resistance, thicker wire (lower #AWG) = less resistance, more wraps = higher resistance, less wraps = lower resistance.
Edit for clarity: 33 gauge wire with 5 wrap, is gonna have more resistance than 32 gauge with 5 wrap. 33 gauge with 4 wrap vs 32 gauge with 5 wrap? I don't know, that's why I have a meter
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Should I use low resistance or high resistance? What's the difference between the two?
Another here new to rebuilding and following along. If you have a provari and build the coil like in the videos can you test it on the provari itself or do you need the multimeter also? I don't want to ruin anything on my first attempt. Thanks
That depends largely on your battery. You said you use a couple ego-T 650mAh, from what I understand they run somewhere between 3.4v-3.7v. I'd say try to shoot for 1.8-2 ohms or so.
It's not an exact science for me, I do it mainly by taste. Going back to the picture, I had a ~2.2 ohm coil (5 wrap with 32gauge wire), if I don't like how it vapes, I'd probably remake the coil with less wrap if I want it to run warmer, or add a wrap if I want it to run cooler. This all change if you have a variable voltage battery (information overload, I know, sorry). With a variable voltage device, I don't tear out the coil, I simply adjust the voltage up or down.
Edit: Forgot to put in, I just got my kanthal on ebay.
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If you have a ProVari, you can skip the meters. The ProVari has short protection, and built in ohm meter.
Last bit of info where can I get the 32 gauge kanthal wire? Url's would be nice.
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