Resistance Wire - Kanthal/Nichrome

[xpen]

Curiously enough I've always found kanthal to be more stable - length, less movement after repeated warm/cold cycles - than nichrome on my dripping rba's

You're absolutely right about slower kanthal's responsiveness, no clues as to the cause for that. Perhaps due to smaller wire section at the same ohms?

What I do not agree about is battery drain at higher voltages... With a given resistance, the higher the voltage the lower needed amperage for getting the same wattage, -> less battery drain. Have a look here, if you want, for a detailed example.

I definitely recommend people to use nichrome wire when building attys with silica wicks. I don't know what it is about kanthal but it is not as responsive as Nichrome. If you have two coils with the same resistance but one is Kanthal and the other is Nichrome, the nichrome coil will glow much faster at the same voltage. Because of this you get much less gunk build up on the silica with nichrome.....and in the long run you will have much cleaner vape. Also, to make up for the lack of responsiveness on the kanthal you either have to take longer drags or up the voltage, either way you will drain your batteries fast.

Now for genesis style attys with SS mesh wick, I have been using Kanthal. It is easier to make coils and to adjust the coils so they are firing perfect. You get a very clean vape. However, if you want to always have that perfect vape you have to adjust the coils daily if you are a heavy vapor. You will definitely have to use high wattage, so you will drain your batteries very fast. The other day I took out my ego-c with me to a card game. I vaped that thing all night long with my lava tube at 3.7v and I didn't go through one batttery. I would have gone through two batteries for sure with my DUD.

Since I am sick of always adjusting my coils, recently I started to use nichrome on the DUD. You really can't adjust the coils like you can with Kanthal wire. The way I wrap the coils is to wrap them tight and make the lead to the positive post as short as possible and as tight as possible. I make it even tighter by adjusting the top coil downward. As long as you don't have a hotspot you will be good. With the Nichrome coil I take shorter drags and use less voltage. My batteries last longer. You will produce tons of vapor with plenty of flavor. Even though the flavor is pretty damn good with nichrome it isn't as good to me as a perfectly adjusted kanthal coil. However, with nichrome you don't have to adjust the wires everyday to get a good vape.

 

[Kemosabe]

Sounds very interesting to me, as I happen to live in Italy, but so far couldn't find it over here...

this is all i know about it

 

[Crack3dOne]

I've got some on the way! Should be here today I think.

 

[xpen]

this is all i know about it

Thank you. I've quickly glanced at the video but couldn't find any precise references in it. Will listen to it more attentively later on.

 

[xpen]

I've got some on the way! Should be here today I think.

May I ask you from where? And if from Italy, where/who precisely? And what resistance/mt (or /feet)? I know, too many qestions...

Thank you in advance!

 

[Crack3dOne]

eBay

Ribbon 020X 004" 10' 5X 1mm 3M Heating Flat Wire | eBay

width & thickness : 0.020x0.004 in, (0.50x0.10 mm *¹)
resistance : 9.09 Ohm/ft, (29.8 Ohm/m *¹)

Seems to be approx. to the resistance of 30awg

 

[xpen]

eBay

Ribbon 020X 004" 10' 5X 1mm 3M Heating Flat Wire | eBay

width & thickness : 0.020x0.004 in, (0.50x0.10 mm *¹)
resistance : 9.09 Ohm/ft, (29.8 Ohm/m *¹)

Thank you!

 

[Koman]

this is all i know about it

Great video. Thanks!

 

[JuniorNA]

Quick question For you guys. I have a vision eternity and I was playing around a bit testing resistance. I had 5 wraps around 3mm cotton yarn and I ended up with 3.5 ohm. So the way we look at it is - shorter wire - less resistance right ? So I did 4 wraps instead of 5 and my ohm reading didn't change. Tested on provari and a Meter - 32 gauge Nichrome. What did I do wrong here ! I thought more wraps means more resistance since the coil is longer from point a to point b. I used the same wick so it's not like the wick sized changed when I went with 1 less coil ?

Granted my pitch was all banged up cause it was my first time but they werent touching at all




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[wolcen]

Quick question For you guys. I have a vision eternity and I was playing around a bit testing resistance. I had 5 wraps around 3mm cotton yarn and I ended up with 3.5 ohm. So the way we look at it is - shorter wire - less resistance right ? So I did 4 wraps instead of 5 and my ohm reading didn't change. Tested on provari and a Meter - 32 gauge Nichrome. What did I do wrong here ! I thought more wraps means more resistance since the coil is longer from point a to point b. I used the same wick so it's not like the wick sized changed when I went with 1 less coil ?

Granted my pitch was all banged up cause it was my first time but they werent touching at all

Yes, less distance equates with less resistance. Your last statement is perhaps key: If you were to take something wrapped at minimal pitch around an object, where your minimum diameter is fixed (static) - the overall circumference of more oblong oval would be greater than that of a more circular one.

As this is around yarn, I assume you pared that with something that would hold the yarn's straight while wrapping and then removed that, correct? I've personally had more consistent results by wrapping the coil around something else then feeding wicks through - I'd give that a shot too if you haven't yet. But I digress...

Not sure if you still have both coils handy, but you are sure they were both 4/5 or both 5/6 coils too? I'm assuming you remember the higher of the two, but if you haven't made it a point to do so, it could be easy to get them mixed up.

 

[JuniorNA]

Yes, less distance equates with less resistance. Your last statement is perhaps key: If you were to take something wrapped at minimal pitch around an object, where your minimum diameter is fixed (static) - the overall circumference of more oblong oval would be greater than that of a more circular one.

As this is around yarn, I assume you pared that with something that would hold the yarn's straight while wrapping and then removed that, correct? I've personally had more consistent results by wrapping the coil around something else then feeding wicks through - I'd give that a shot too if you haven't yet. But I digress...

Not sure if you still have both coils handy, but you are sure they were both 4/5 or both 5/6 coils too? I'm assuming you remember the higher of the two, but if you haven't made it a point to do so, it could be easy to get them mixed up.

Hey wolcan -

Makes sense since my wraps could have been oblong on 1 and different on the other - - but I figured an entire wrap shorter would still qualify as shorter distance

The first wrap was 5/6 and 2nd wrap was 4/5 and I used a bobby pin on the wick to keep it nice and tight

By 5/6 and 4/5 you mean 4 full wraps plus the halves at the end ? If so then yes 5:6 first then 4:5

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[wolcen]

...Makes sense since my wraps could have been oblong on 1 and different on the other - - but I figured an entire wrap shorter would still qualify as shorter distance

The first wrap was 5/6 and 2nd wrap was 4/5 and I used a bobby pin on the wick to keep it nice and tight

You would think a full wrap would make enough distance but then a bobby pin isn't all that large. I guess you wouldn't know unless you stretched it out and add the length of your leads. In addition, resistance could certainly be introduced elsewhere - e.g. try checking your leads with a multimeter directly at the posts to ensure you know the measurement of the coil alone.

Digressing again: making the coil tight on the cotton is exactly where I seemed to have difficulty - on the lose side when dry works better for me as it expands when wet, but if that works for you, by all means stick with it.

By 5/6 and 4/5 you mean 4 full wraps plus the halves at the end ? If so then yes 5:6 first then 4:5

Basically, yes, viewed from one side, the coil "passes by" one more time than it does than when viewed from the opposite side.

 

[JuniorNA]

Good idea. I'll check the resistance at the post and perhaps the one less wrap was not enough distance to lower the resistance. Or maybe I can use something a littl larger than a pin. When I look at these oem vivi nova heads. - wow that's a perfect wrap. Is that done by a machine or do someone manually do that in china ? Mine will never look as good as oem.




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[wolcen]

Good idea. I'll check the resistance at the post and perhaps the one less wrap was not enough distance to lower the resistance. Or maybe I can use something a littl larger than a pin. When I look at these oem vivi nova heads. - wow that's a perfect wrap. Is that done by a machine or do someone manually do that in china ? Mine will never look as good as oem.

Not sure how they do it, but wrapping a coil with the aid of threads of a small screw makes them come out pretty darn perfect looking too

 

[JuniorNA]

i ordered a vulcan and some 325 SS mesh and 32 gauge Kanthal, so i'll be doing some tests with the screw method.

 

[Koman]

Sounds like a good idea.

 

[Michael James]

Which one has a faster response time to heat up? I'm assuming the thinner the wire with more resistance?

 

[JC Okie]

This was a mistake....was trying to post the kanthal/nicrome chart in another thread. Sorry!!

 

[JuniorNA]

Yeah If you think of wire gauge as a water hose. Thicker hose has less resistance/more surface area - thinner hose would create water pressure


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[shane450]

that helps thanks