Safety concerns, input appreciated

[arnorg88]

Hey guys, I'm pretty sure my question has been asked before, but all my searches turned up a mountain of threads so I hope you'll forgive me

I just made my first coil using 28AWG kanthal and silica ekowool for my EVOD. I'm pretty proud of the results, my vaping experience is better than the stock atty setup (even though info I read and watched since ordering the kanthal suggests I should've used 30 or 32 AWG). I used 6 wraps around 1mm ekowool + a thin wire I used for stability when wrapping the coil. What worries me is that the setup is heating up alot more than stock, three solid puffs and it gets hot. My electrical knowledge is rudimentary at best, so I wanted to be safe by asking if I might have done something wrong ? Can I put myself or my equipment at risk doing stuff like this or will it simply short out and not work ?

 

[Baditude]

Well, what is the resistance (ohm) of the coil that you made?

Please don't tell me that you don't have an Ohm meter to test the resistance, and you fired it anyway.

 

[SleeZy]

What battery are you using it on and what are the ohms of your new coil?

Edit:

Please don't tell me that you don't have an Ohm meter to test the resistance, and you fired it anyway.

This...
You need an ohm meter to test the coils resistance and check for shorts. And you need a good battery enough to handle the ohms. Never go under 1.5 for normal egos. Normal safety limits for those are 1.8 ohm.

 

[arnorg88]

Hmm, I actually do not have any means of measuring the Ohms, but instead trusted the guides I've found online (in hindsight, never a good thing to do). I've tried two batteries, one battery from a starter kit from Pink Mule for which I have no info and a Vision Spinner II at 3.3V. Have I done something horribly wrong ?

 

[Baditude]

What worries me is that the setup is heating up alot more than stock, three solid puffs and it gets hot. My electrical knowledge is rudimentary at best, so I wanted to be safe by asking if I might have done something wrong ? Can I put myself or my equipment at risk doing stuff like this or will it simply short out and not work ?

Yes, you have already put yourself at risk if you don't know the resistance of the coil you wrapped.

Coils draw so many amps from the battery. The lower in resistance you go, the higher the amp draw from the battery. If you exceed the amp limit of the battery, you can cause the battery to go into thermal runaway and possibly explode.

1.0 ohm = 4.2 amp draw
0.9 ohm = 4.6 amp draw
0.8 ohm = 5.2 amp draw
0.7 ohms = 6 amp draw
0.6 ohms = 7 amp draw
0.5 ohms = 8.4 amp draw
0.4 ohms = 10.5 amp draw
0.3 ohms = 14.0 amp draw
0.2 ohms = 21.0 amp draw
0.1 ohms = 42.0 amp draw
0.0 ohms is zero resistance and a dead short. This is what is feared in vaping. It is what causes a battery to go into thermal runaway.

Do not use that coil again. Get yourself an Ohm reader. And don't build any more coils without one.

 

[SleeZy]

I'm afraid I did. I suppose that's bad/dangerous ?

Well, you need to know the ohms of your new coil + if it's shorted or not. (If it would have showed 0 ohm its shorted.)
If you're using standard batteries you realy need to know the ohms for your coil. They're not made to go lower than 1.8 ohm.
So if you don't got an ohm meter or multimeter, go buy one before you continue to use your homemade coils.

Edit:
If you're using mechanical mod (which i highly doubt, since you're using evod) the post above is important.
Then we would need to know what batteries you're using.
But i assume that you're using ego batteries.

 

[gandymarsh]

You really need a way to test your coils and find out what the resistance is. An ohm meter or multimeter that will measure ohms. 6 wraps of 28ga around a 1mm wick sounds like sub ohm (under 1 ohm) to me. Here is a calculator that will give you a rough estimate of wraps and resistance. Coil wrapping | Steam Engine | free vaping calculators

 

[SleeZy]

Hmm, I actually do not have any means of measuring the Ohms, but instead trusted the guides I've found online (in hindsight, never a good thing to do). I've tried two batteries, one battery from a starter kit from Pink Mule for which I have no info and a Vision Spinner II at 3.3V. Have I done something horribly wrong ?

Not realy since you asked before something WENT wrong.
Don't use that coil anymore until you can messure it.

When you can messure it, try build 1.8 ohms or higher. Those batteries aren't made to be able to handle lower than 1.5 (safetylimit)
If you do, there's a possibility for the battery to explode, which you do not want.
Good thing you asked here.

 

[arnorg88]

Oh wow, thank you guys. I should've known better than to try something like this without being completely aware of what I'm doing. I'll put this coil away until I've acquired an Ohm meter and more information on how to do this properly. Again, thanks, you might have saved me from becoming a candidate for a Darwin award.

 

[Baditude]

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/batteries-chargers/584421-smoktech-omnitester-questions.html

 

[edde]

Thanks for the link.

 

[DingerCPA]

Oh wow, thank you guys. I should've known better than to try something like this without being completely aware of what I'm doing. I'll put this coil away until I've acquired an Ohm meter and more information on how to do this properly. Again, thanks, you might have saved me from becoming a candidate for a Darwin award.

So glad you aren't a Darwin Award recipient!

I've been building my EVOD heads for a couple months now, but I will NEVER fire one until I check ohms. I have a VV3 and and MVP2 with which I check my coils, and I won't fire anything under 1.5 ohms. You can "count" the number of wraps, but you can NEVER tell that something's not shorted until you test it.

O.k. Enough of the soapbox. Building coils is theraputic for me - I enjoy it. The other thing I might recommend is to use something like 30g or 32g wire. The thicker stuff just takes too long to properly heat up (think about the difference between a drinking straw (32g), a garden hose (30g) and a fire hose (26-28g)) You need some "resistance" to get the coil to heat, especially for an eGo-style device, since the battery can only deliver so much at any given time. I tried wrapping 28g around a restaurant toothpick (which is a bigger diameter than my go-to 1/16" drill bit), and couldn't get enough wraps that would still fit in my head and be above 1.3 ohms.

Please read up on safety - there are a great number of threads within this forum just for that. Be safe and enjoy the (Home-made coils are INFINITELY better than stock ones, IMO)

 

[SingedVapor]

I'm so glad you are ok. And a common misconception is that you can count wraps to determine ohms. In reality it has to do with the length of the wire used. That's what determines the ohms of the coil. But yes as soon as you get an ohm meter you'll be good to go, and when in doubt don't be afraid to ever ask questions. I'm sure most of the more experienced members would rather answer the same question over and over than see somebody here get hurt