Rust on coil - hazardous?
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Wow, thats very interesting I didn't know the chromium repairs itself when scratched
, apparently the chromium is like a rust "scab" itself that keeps the rustier metals from corroding faster, thanks for that input that's an interesting wiki, I didn't know that much about kanthal other than the metals involved. I've just been going by my experience (maybe it's because I twist my kanthal, not two wires, I twist one because I've found it loses it's yield strength and is much more a pleasure to work with and keeps it straight while I'm working, so maybe that extra stress is helping. I don't even dry burn mine, it stays in it's 100%VG bath it's whole life until I get bored lol, and I find rust every 2-3 days. I've heard many say it's not rust but it is, there's nothing in ejuice that looks like rust other than amber-brown nicotine, but that should be vaporized, and be very soft if deposited on the coils like that, not grainy. It could all be due to the different temps though, I'm usually at a minimum of 20 watts, and I prefer 25 to be honest.
I bought a forge off my buddy a few years ago, and ever since then I've become an official blacksmith, metal is truly an art. And I've made exhaust pipes for my truck using 26-30% chromium, because that's what "harsh environment" means to stainless steal like you quoted, not kanthal which reaches 2550F without juice (dry burning) or 554F submerged in juice (that's my guess going off boiling point of VG using physics, and vg needs to be vaporized so I wouldn't doubt if it was significantly higher than that, however if that were the maximum submerged in juice, it's still almost twice as under stress for what it's rated, which is 300F (about the temperature of exhaust pipe manifolds, which is what I forged) at >26%, so it's not totally unlikely that chromium got it's but kicked a little in 2 days, especially under 25 watts of current bombarding the atomic bonds, it's more to keep the wire looking good more than actually strengthen it, and usually once that chromium layer is gone, it's hurt time for the nickle.
And like I said it's in a wet environment too, that almost 1/3's it's half-life for a transition metal like ferrochromium. Coincidentally right below the wiki you quoted it states this too lol:
Corrosion resistance can be adversely affected if the component is used in a non-oxygenated environment, a typical example being underwater keel bolts buried in timber.
In other words, it's healing ability is only active when it's subjected to oxygen (hence a protective oxide), so it only repairs while being dry burned pretty much, and that doesn't help because it's under somewhere around 2500F! lol My kanthal is usually like crispy bacon by the time I'm done, I've literally had one so rusty it "crushed" when I went to pinch and roll it into a ball, I know what this guys talking about.
-I'm not sure why I've even seen people defending kanthal, I mean it's cheap and awesome who cares
, who are we competing with? ceramic? pffft. I think it all depends on how hot you vape, what juice you use (acidic especially, pg, or worse VG like me unfortunately), and whether you pre-oxidize, because pre-oxidizing can make it way more rust-resistant as you've experienced yourself, it pretty much makes that chromium "rust" layer thicker.
Yeah I mentioned "wet environment" because the point is, it's cutting off that valuable oxygen sypply reguardless of whether it's water or not. It's not really the water that corrodes metals, it the oxygen deprivation. It basically removes any possibility of an elemental band-aid if you understand that.
From Wikipedia on stainless steel:
"High oxidation resistance in air at ambient temperature is normally achieved with additions of a minimum of 13% (by weight) chromium, and up to 26% is used for harsh environments.[12] The chromium forms a passivation layer of chromium(III) oxide (Cr2O3) when exposed to oxygen. The layer is too thin to be visible, and the metal remains lustrous and smooth. The layer is impervious to water and air, protecting the metal beneath, and this layer quickly reforms when the surface is scratched."
Kanthal is 20 - 23% chromium. It's not 26%, but it's not going to rust easily.
Nichrome is 80% nickel and 20% chromium. It will rust a bit easier than Kanthal, but still not easily.
Yes juice is wet but it's not water and does not promote rust.
It is also not being heated anywhere near 1000 F if there is juice on it. Phase change of the juice keeps it way cooler than that.
I'm not saying it can't rust at all, but because of its chromium content it's going to rust slowly and it's pretty easy to avoid it happening. I have some Kanthal pieces here that I flamed and cut off after building my last couple of coils. No rust. One piece is a week old. One is a couple of weeks old. If they didn't have chrome in them they would be completely rust covered.
Of course it there is some chemical on the wire that promotes rust, that would change the whole picture.
Anyway, that's my opinion for what it's worth. Do with it what you will
Wow, thats very interesting I didn't know the chromium repairs itself when scratched
, apparently the chromium is like a rust "scab" itself that keeps the rustier metals from corroding faster, thanks for that input that's an interesting wiki, I didn't know that much about kanthal other than the metals involved. I've just been going by my experience (maybe it's because I twist my kanthal, not two wires, I twist one because I've found it loses it's yield strength and is much more a pleasure to work with and keeps it straight while I'm working, so maybe that extra stress is helping. I don't even dry burn mine, it stays in it's 100%VG bath it's whole life until I get bored lol, and I find rust every 2-3 days. I've heard many say it's not rust but it is, there's nothing in ejuice that looks like rust other than amber-brown nicotine, but that should be vaporized, and be very soft if deposited on the coils like that, not grainy. It could all be due to the different temps though, I'm usually at a minimum of 20 watts, and I prefer 25 to be honest. I bought a forge off my buddy a few years ago, and ever since then I've become an official blacksmith, metal is truly an art. And I've made exhaust pipes for my truck using 26-30% chromium, because that's what "harsh environment" means to stainless steal like you quoted, not kanthal which reaches 2550F without juice (dry burning) or 554F submerged in juice (that's my guess going off boiling point of VG using physics, and vg needs to be vaporized so I wouldn't doubt if it was significantly higher than that, however if that were the maximum submerged in juice, it's still almost twice as under stress for what it's rated, which is 300F (about the temperature of exhaust pipe manifolds, which is what I forged) at >26%, so it's not totally unlikely that chromium got it's but kicked a little in 2 days, especially under 25 watts of current bombarding the atomic bonds, it's more to keep the wire looking good more than actually strengthen it, and usually once that chromium layer is gone, it's hurt time for the nickle.
And like I said it's in a wet environment too, that almost 1/3's it's half-life for a transition metal like ferrochromium. Coincidentally right below the wiki you quoted it states this too lol:
Corrosion resistance can be adversely affected if the component is used in a non-oxygenated environment, a typical example being underwater keel bolts buried in timber.
In other words, it's healing ability is only active when it's subjected to oxygen (hence a protective oxide), so it only repairs while being dry burned pretty much, and that doesn't help because it's under somewhere around 2500F! lol My kanthal is usually like crispy bacon by the time I'm done, I've literally had one so rusty it "crushed" when I went to pinch and roll it into a ball, I know what this guys talking about.
-I'm not sure why I've even seen people defending kanthal, I mean it's cheap and awesome who cares
, who are we competing with? ceramic? pffft. I think it all depends on how hot you vape, what juice you use (acidic especially, pg, or worse VG like me unfortunately), and whether you pre-oxidize, because pre-oxidizing can make it way more rust-resistant as you've experienced yourself, it pretty much makes that chromium "rust" layer thicker.Yeah I mentioned "wet environment" because the point is, it's cutting off that valuable oxygen sypply reguardless of whether it's water or not. It's not really the water that corrodes metals, it the oxygen deprivation. It basically removes any possibility of an elemental band-aid if you understand that.
Does it look like this after dry-burning?
Here's what my rusty coil graveyard looks like lol.
View attachment 319134
Everyone freaks out when they hear rust lol, "I'm going to get lung tetanus!!!!! oh my siderosis
!!!!!" Welders like me know about it well, and it's nothing *rolleyes* it's basically like an iron allergy attack. You may be a little wheezy, but it's not because of anything scary, just some heavy metal in your lungs 
. I see ninny's all the time taking up valuable er space over this, because they hear rust=tetanus, but as I've said you can inhale a handful of rust and nothing will happen, nothing more than inhaling dust or sand etc.Put's hair on your chest!
Hmm, Mine don't seem to show rust after cleaning. maybe I do it different?
I break my units down and if they will go back into service
Wash
Blow off excess water
Pat dry with napkin
Attach to battery and dry burn
wet with e-liquid and assemble
All in about 3-4 minutes
If storing, after dry burning I coat in vg/assemble/store
Rust can also come from Minerals in water. Ever seen a rust trail on a piece of plastic? I have.
I break my units down and if they will go back into service
Wash
Blow off excess water
Pat dry with napkin
Attach to battery and dry burn
wet with e-liquid and assemble
All in about 3-4 minutes
If storing, after dry burning I coat in vg/assemble/store
Rust can also come from Minerals in water. Ever seen a rust trail on a piece of plastic? I have.
Hmm, Mine don't seem to show rust after cleaning. maybe I do it different?
I break my units down and if they will go back into service
Wash
Blow off excess water
Pat dry with napkin
Attach to battery and dry burn
wet with e-liquid and assemble
All in about 3-4 minutes
If storing, after dry burning I coat in vg/assemble/store
Rust can also come from Minerals in water. Ever seen a rust trail on a piece of plastic? I have.
Hmm, Mine don't seem to show rust after cleaning. maybe I do it different?
I break my units down and if they will go back into service
Wash
Blow off excess water
Pat dry with napkin
Attach to battery and dry burn
wet with e-liquid and assemble
All in about 3-4 minutes
If storing, after dry burning I coat in vg/assemble/store
Rust can also come from Minerals in water. Ever seen a rust trail on a piece of plastic? I have.
I'm so glad I live in alaska, our tap tastes better than bottled water. God I remember Georgia, Kentucky, New Mexico, and the worst of all New Yorks
ugh, if you boiled some water for you could see the whitish grey ring around the kettle/pot, you'd practically get a kidney stone if you didn't have a carbon filter. It's just sad that one of the worlds super-powers can't produce healthy water.I must be wierd, I hear everyone talking about taking super care of their coils but I just change wicks daily, and keep the coils for the vapocalypse (pretty much throw them away because I never use them again) but I get the "grass is greener" syndrome with every coil about every two days, basically I get bored and just build another. I mean for 15 bucks per 200ft, I'd even use kanthal to floss everyday lol.
My coils never rust, but I don't store them wet or let them air dry. I dry burn until they quit smoking, wash the particles of with water, then soak in vodka to displace the water and eliminate residual tastes/flavors, finally I do a quick burn just to dry them off. This leaves them clean, dry, and ready to rewick.
I did once "overclean" a batch of coil heads. Soaked them in vodka, rinsed them off, then put them in the ultrasonic cleaner with some baking soda for a couple of hours.
When I took them out, the coils were all completely covered in Extra Manhood Flavor. Needed some heads to rebuild anyways......
When I took them out, the coils were all completely covered in Extra Manhood Flavor. Needed some heads to rebuild anyways......
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Juruki, that is how my coil looks after a little over a month of use. How old is your coil? and what is your cleaning method?
its a little less than a month old. To clean it i just run it under warm water and scrub the coil with a piece of paper towel. Then dry burn till it stops smoking and dry burn a couple times more. Sometimes i scrape the coil a little with the sharp part of the scissors but it doesnt seem to help much.
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