thoughts on diy coil longevity please

[DonG]

It makes me happy that I have not used a Chinese atomizer/cartomizer in nearly 4 weeks. However regardless of wick material I can't get over a couple days use without cleaning or replacing the coil. Compared to near a week from a Boge 2.0ohm carto. DIY coils just seem to gunk up and loose performance faster.

Maybe the thicker wire gauge of DIY coils or the spacing of wraps further apart is giving too much cooling effect therefore increasing buildup?

I can build 10 coils for the price of one boge so cost is not the issue. More that I was hoping to reduce maintenance time by making my own too.

 

[meatsneakers]

What kind of juice, wick, wattage and what gauge/Ω of res wire?

I use 100% 24mg VG from MFS with a bit of menthol, stainless and cotton wick, 12w and 32g@1.9Ω nichrome and my coils last months. I only change them if they snap because I leaned on the switch or because I'm bored. I do a dry burn if vapor production starts dropping off, but that is rare.

It is probably your wick/juice combo but maybe we can help figure things out.

 

[BJ43]

3 days of vaping 5ml/day VG, tobacco/menthol/ 0nic. 32awg, 2.6 ohms, 5/5.5V, SS wick.
I wash and dry burn every two or three days, coil last a few weeks and wicks a few months.

 

[BJ43]

After washing and dry burning.

 

[urquidezj]

I've had coil setups last me a full month and I only change em because I want a different ohm. Longest I did run one till it fell apart was close to two, I dry burn it clean every three day and use mostly low vg juices. Odysseus has had its coil for three weeks dry burns every three tankfulls.

 

[DonG]

Thanks guys. Guess the option of renewing coils just has me spoiled.

BJ...... great pix. Even after the dry burn pic that coil looks to be much thicker than the original kanthal wire. That is the point when I find there to be too much insulation and choose to just rewrap the coil to keep top performance. I am not experiencing burnt or broken coils. Just find that the clean and dryburn only gives maybe 70% of the performance of a fresh coil.

For the effort and cost I prefer to just make a new one. Guess I was just stretching things to get a week out of the juice boge cartos. My DIY atties when fresh far outperform China stuff so guess I am just getting spoiled.

Ms.........I generally vape a 70/30pg blend. 24mg. Wicks stainless or silicia. 2-2.4 ohm at either 3.7 or 5v. Respectively.

 

[DonG]

Love stainless but it is still giving me fits! Get it right and there is nothing better. The other half of the time results in constant fiddling and lackluster performance. Silica is the goto wick and working. With both cotton and hemp hoping to come across a better compromise.

 

[meatsneakers]

I also had issues with just SS - it doesn't wick as well as silica/cotton and it also shorts. What I do now is wrap cotton wick with one layer of stainless. This gives me the longevity of stainless with the wicking properties of cotton. It's much easier to keep it from shorting when it's only a thin layer of SS instead of the whole wick being stainless. I'm not sure why that is but I've struggled with full SS wicks and could never get them to work for me, so maybe try giving the combo a shot.

 

[BJ43]

Thanks guys. Guess the option of renewing coils just has me spoiled.

BJ...... great pix. Even after the dry burn pic that coil looks to be much thicker than the original kanthal wire. That is the point when I find there to be too much insulation and choose to just rewrap the coil to keep top performance. I am not experiencing burnt or broken coils. Just find that the clean and dryburn only gives maybe 70% of the performance of a fresh coil.

For the effort and cost I prefer to just make a new one. Guess I was just stretching things to get a week out of the juice boge cartos. My DIY atties when fresh far outperform China stuff so guess I am just getting spoiled.

Ms.........I generally vape a 70/30pg blend. 24mg. Wicks stainless or silicia. 2-2.4 ohm at either 3.7 or 5v. Respectively.

I agree that there is nothing better than a new coil, the second pic actually had been vaping for an hour after dry burn so it had some buildup already. When I dry burn and get white ash, I wash and scrub a second time under the faucet and the kanthal is silver colored again and basically new again. I find that menthol flavor is the first to go as the coil gets dirty and since I vape 0 nic, menthol is my fake TH, so I clean often.