Silver wire for coils?

[surgecj7]

I have tried using my googlefoo and the search engine here on the site, but I connote find any definitive answers. Can one use silver wire for coils instead of Kanthal of NiChrome? I know some attys use a mixture of silver/kanthal, but I was wondering is just straight silver wire can be used.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[itskohler]

Im interested to know why you would wanna use silver wire.

 

[zmbgzus]

I would think that there is the possibility of silver getting expensive/damaged my repeat super heating. Perhaps check the melting point of kanthol vs silver?

 

[MikeMills]

I'm just gonna say no.

 

[doghair]

Since there is only a miniscule resistance to silver wire I believe the only time you would want to use it is on a non-resistance part of builds meaning the legs not the coils themselves. I just use kanthal, low cost, easy to find and work with, no drama.

 

[Susan~S]

I read about a member, Treehead, who is looking for ideas of what to do with some extra very pure silver wire he had left over from a project of his (he has made his own Sterling Silver PV). He might be a good person to ask as he has first hand knowledge of working with silver. Here's his thread: So I have some pure silver .

 

[rurwin]

No. It's about the worst idea you could have.

The whole point of the coil is to have a high resistance. When we talk about a low resistance coil, we are talking in relation to normal resistance, which might be one ohm. Even a 0.1 ohm coil is still high resistance relative to what you would get with copper wire or, god forbid, silver. If you made a copper coil like we make Kanthal ones, it would come out to about 0.01 ohms instead of 1 ohm. With silver it would be about 0.009 ohms.

If you took that and put it on a mech mod, you'd be looking at 1,369 watts. One and a third kilowatts. You'd be drawing 370 amps, so the chances are that the wire would vaporise before the battery did. If you were lucky, you'd only be inhaling gaseous copper and seriously injuring your lungs.

You could make the wire thin enough to have the same resistance as Kanthal. If my mental arithmetic is right, it would be about 0.02mm diameter, or about 50awg. It would be murder to work with and it would have such a small surface area that it would vape horribly.

 

[joesquid]

To shorten rurwins very well explained answer..... A silver coil would present an effective short circuit to DC. I guess on the plus side, it would heat up very quickly!

 

[benroy44]

can you say poof. no its not a good idea

 

[surgecj7]

Rurwin,

Thanks for that detailed answer! I am super new to rebuilds and was sitting at work last night pondering. This was one of the things I was pondering. Lol! Using search engines left my curiosity wanting, so I figured I'd ask here. Thanks for feeding my curiosity!!!

 

[Cloud Junky]

There would be no purpose... unless you are making battery bombs.

 

[Jimi D.]

This guy likes silver wire