So I built my first dual coil head..

[bloodless2010]

Okay so I wanted to get into rebuilding coil heads as I can't be bothered waiting for them to arrive.. Plus it's far cheaper and I can make loads with the amount of kanthal I have. I made a few single coils first of all to test it out, going pretty good, roughly 10/11 wraps of 30AWG Kanthal, getting around 2.2ohms~, So I decided to dual coil it, and as expected I got a 1.1ohm coil. But after wicking it and saturating it I'm getting a small burnt taste, I'm using a eleaf iStick 20w for this, so I should be able to vape it at its full capacity (my original priority for rebuilding coil heads) but I'm unsure why it's burning.. I tried it on the lowest it will let me, (8.2W/3V) and it's still tasting burnt a little bit.. why is this? The iStick has short protection so I don't think it could be that. I was very careful while building the coils and I'm wondering if there's some noobie mistake I could've made.

Edit: I just took a look inside the coil head and the wick doesn't look burnt at all (I'm using organic cotton btw)

 

[Vatic]

2 words. hot spots. before you wicked your coils did you make sure that they both light up at the same time and glow evenly from the inside out? Ceramic tweezers are awesome for tightening up coils. second make sure that your wicks are good and saturated before you try and hit it. nothing worse than a burnt or dry hit. when using a variable device always try hitting a new coil at low power and then ramp it up to your likings. its a bad practice to start out a new coil at top wattage if you don't absolutely have to....like mech users hope this helps.

 

[bloodless2010]

2 words. hot spots. before you wicked your coils did you make sure that they both light up at the same time and glow evenly from the inside out? Ceramic tweezers are awesome for tightening up coils. second make sure that your wicks are good and saturated before you try and hit it. nothing worse than a burnt or dry hit. when using a variable device always try hitting a new coil at low power and then ramp it up to your likings. its a bad practice to start out a new coil at top wattage if you don't absolutely have to....like mech users hope this helps.

Yeah I always try it on low then slowly increase.. I don't have any tweezers but I made sure the coils were tight before I put them in, I made sure they glow evenly. I really don't think there was a possibility for hot spots, if there were hotspots, wouldn't the rubber seal at by the center pin melt?

 

[3mg Meniere]

Yeah I always try it on low then slowly increase.. I don't have any tweezers but I made sure the coils were tight before I put them in, I made sure they glow evenly. I really don't think there was a possibility for hot spots, if there were hotspots, wouldn't the rubber seal at by the center pin melt?

No, it wouldn't usually melt. With break-in, hotspots might develop. Might be best to tear out the wicks, rinse, and check to make sure it still lights up as it is supposed to. I find that hotspots are my most frequent reason for rebuilding.

 

[Vatic]

Yeah I always try it on low then slowly increase.. I don't have any tweezers but I made sure the coils were tight before I put them in, I made sure they glow evenly. I really don't think there was a possibility for hot spots, if there were hotspots, wouldn't the rubber seal at by the center pin melt?

no, a hot spot is just a part of the coil that gets red hot first and the coil wont glow evenly from the inside out. they are also called hot legs because its usually a leg of the coil. make sure all the screws are tight, pull out your cotton because its most likely burnt and check the coils again. if they look good, rewick, make sure the cotton is not tight in your coils, you want to be able to move them back and forth inside the coil and the wet it generously and give it another go.

 

[GinnyTx]

pics or it didn't happen


what everyone else said and from my own experience..the iStick 30 is better for my Kayfun than the 20s (but I run about 15 watts with a 1.5 ohm one, dual it's .8 I think, I'm still learning too) ..it goes lower then 3.0vv, they do "blast" say way "harder" a hit than my vapor flask.

 

[Hans Wermhat]

Sounds like it may be a wicking problem. Make sure you have the proper amount of wicking matterial in your coils. Too much and there's no room for juice to soak in. Too little and it doesn't make contact with the entire surface of the coil. If your wicks are burnt and black, it's probably too much. If not, it's probably too little.

 

[WonderDude32]

When I first started building, wicking was the hardest part for me to get right. I was constantly using too much cotton and choking my juice which led to dry hits all the time. Whatever the issue is, keep trying and you'll get it right. This is not a task that anyone perfected in 2 tries.

 

[kkiet]

less is more when it comes to cotton

 

[Wolfenstark]

Less is more perhaps outside the coil , cotton snug in the coil has always given me less to zero problems compared to not enough inside the coil.

 

[dionysuskiss]

^^^^
what they all said. Plus, gently "strumming" your coil with a piece of metal (tweezers, screwdriver) also helps a lot with fixing hot spots.

 

[bloodless2010]

no, a hot spot is just a part of the coil that gets red hot first and the coil wont glow evenly from the inside out. they are also called hot legs because its usually a leg of the coil. make sure all the screws are tight, pull out your cotton because its most likely burnt and check the coils again. if they look good, rewick, make sure the cotton is not tight in your coils, you want to be able to move them back and forth inside the coil and the wet it generously and give it another go.

Cotton isn't burnt which I don't understand.

Sounds like it may be a wicking problem. Make sure you have the proper amount of wicking matterial in your coils. Too much and there's no room for juice to soak in. Too little and it doesn't make contact with the entire surface of the coil. If your wicks are burnt and black, it's probably too much. If not, it's probably too little.

Here's a picture of my coil/wick

Does that look too much to you? sorry for bad quality, couldn't really focus the camera and hold the coil.
The problem is you can't really see the bottom coil but I'm sure it glows evenly as I can tell by ambient glow below.

 

[Vatic]

for a kanger bottom coil style rebuild, that looks pretty good except I think you've got just a bit much cotton. That was a dual coil head and you rebuilt it with a single coil. can you slide the cotton back and forth in the coil? They are a bit more difficult to get rebuilt than the kanger single coils

 

[bloodless2010]

for a kanger bottom coil style rebuild, that looks pretty good except I think you've got just a bit much cotton. That was a dual coil head and you rebuilt it with a single coil. can you slide the cotton back and forth in the coil? They are a bit more difficult to get rebuilt than the kanger single coils

There is actually another coil below it I'll try rewicking it soon and report back

 

[Vatic]

There is actually another coil below it I'll try rewicking it soon and report back

That could very well be where your issue is, maybe the bottom coil is not being fed properly, is touching the top coil or the side or is having some problem. It is a complete PITA to rebuild those dual coils heads with dual coils. not worth the time IMO when its much easier to rebuild it with one single coil and have it hit great.

 

[bloodless2010]

That could very well be where your issue is, maybe the bottom coil is not being fed properly, is touching the top coil or the side or is having some problem. It is a complete PITA to rebuild those dual coils heads with dual coils. not worth the time IMO when its much easier to rebuild it with one single coil and have it hit great.

I didn't have too much trouble rebuilding it with two coils, just the coils touching could be a problem. I have plenty of cotton and kanthal so I guess this is going to be trial and error.

 

[Vatic]

I didn't have too much trouble rebuilding it with two coils, just the coils touching could be a problem. I have plenty of cotton and kanthal so I guess this is going to be trial and error.

Yea, it always is when your rebuilding or tinering....maybe
if you have some ko gen do, something you could try.....cutting a small square and sliding it in between the coils so as they don't accidently touch. I dunno. I tried to rebuild a dual coil head like that once. it ...... me off so afer about 45 minutes I just rebuilt it with a single coil and it worked sufficiently so that's how I've rebuilt them ever since. lol Much luck to you on this quest! Cheers!

 

[RipCigs]

Might be a dumb question but are you sure you aren't tasting the cotton? It usually takes a bit for the cotton taste to dissipate in my experience.
Hot legs give a distinct metallic taste to me, not quite the dry hit taste. And if the cotton wasn't even singed, i don't think it was dry. Plus it looks good on the pic, i'd use less though.
I've also rebuilt kangers coils and found them better as a single coil personal preference

Oh and another thing you might be tasting, when winding the coils some skin from your fingers tend to be left on them. If you didn't dry burn them, you will taste that until it burns out.

 

[Hans Wermhat]

skin from your fingers

EWWWW!!!
Never had that problem.

 

[RipCigs]

EWWWW!!!
Never had that problem.

Happens to me all the time when i wind a tight coil with 0.20mm kanthal